Expect the Unexpected

It's been an eventful forty-eight hours for many Caribbean-bound cruisers, courtesy of Hurricane Alex - the first named hurricane of the 2010 season.

First, there were the cancelled port calls: Oasis of the Seas scrapped plans to call at the Mexican port of Costa Maya on June 30th due to high seas and wind.  Yesterday, Carnival Dream was also prevented from calling at Costa Maya for the same reasons.  The popular port serves as a gateway to the historic ruins of Chichen Itza, and is completely exposed to the open sea, leaving it at the mercy of any approaching weather systems.

Carnival Ecstasy's passengers also found themselves with a change of plans: instead of returning to Galveston, Texas yesterday, high seas prevented local pilots from boarding, which resulted in the ship being unable to dock - meaning passengers expecting to fly home were left with an unexpected bonus day aboard ship, while guests ready to board for a four-day Caribbean jaunt were left stuck in Galveston.  It is expected that Carnival Ecstasy will try again today to dock in Galveston and disembark her passengers.

With the start of the 2010 hurricane season upon us, there are a few important lessons that Hurricane Alex so timely reminded us of:

1.  Don't Book a Cruise for a Particular Port.  Sure, everyone wants to visit all the ports on their itinerary - but unexpected weather systems can often wreak havoc with the best-laid plans, particularly in unprotected ports like Costa Maya or ones that require the use of tenders to ferry passengers ashore.  In 2000, we missed a scheduled port call in Santorini, Greece due to one of the worst storms in twenty years.  In 2008, we were aboard Queen Mary 2 when she was delayed leaving New York by Hurricane Kyle.  The result?  Instead of spending a day at sea, we spent a day anchored off Staten Island - within sight of the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal where we had boarded the day before. 

2.  Purchase Trip Cancellation / Interruption Insurance.  In the case of Carnival Ecstasy, any passenger with scheduled flights would have missed them.  Trip Cancellation/Interruption insurance would provide the means to pay for any flight change fees or differences in price that would result from having to re-schedule flights, and would also cover expenses for those passengers who arrived in Galveston expecting to board a cruise ship but instead scurried around trying to secure hotel rooms for the evening.

The moral of the story?  Expect the unexpected, roll with the punches, and you're sure to have an enjoyable cruise - regardless of the weather.