Cruise ships are continuing to scatter as Hurricane Sandy, the 18th named storm of the 2012 Hurricane season makes its way up north. The storm is forcing several cruise ships to change their itineraries as they try to avoid the dangers of Sandy.
As of Friday morning, Sandy was located near the northwest Bahamas. The Category 1 hurricane has maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and it was moving slowly in the northwest direction at 6 mph. The National Hurricane Center predicts that Sandy, also dubbed "Frankenstorm," will continue to head north, impacting the entire east coast along the way.
The storm already hit Jamaica, Cuba and parts of the Bahamas, causing destruction and even death. There are already 29 reported deaths due to Sandy.
In order to avoid the dangers of the storm, several cruise ships are heading back north to get ahead of it while others are moving out of the way. Many ships already changes their itineraries earlier this week and now there are even more changes as Sandy's path becomes more clear.
Several Carnival cruise ships have been impacted. Carnival Miracle, which left from New York, will skip Friday's stop in Grand Turk after skipping Thursday's stop in St. Thomas so that it can head back north before Sandy hits. Carnival Pride, from Baltimore, Carnival Glory, based out of Norfolk, VA, and Carnival Fantasy, from Charleston, SC are also all heading back north.
Carnival Pride and Carnival Glory, which were supposed to dock in Freeport in the Bahamas, will go to Port Canaveral, Fla. on Friday. The Carnival Fantasy skipped Freeport on Thursday and had a day at sea instead.
Many Norwegian Cruise Line ships are also affected by Sandy. The Norwegian Gem and the Norwegian Jewel, both based in New York, are starting to make their way back up north. The Norwegian Gem is skipping a stop in Samana, Dominican Republic on Friday and the Jewel will stop in Norfolk instead of Charleston on Friday. The Norwegian Sky is headed back to Miami, later than planned, and will start it's next trip tonight, behind schedule.
The Caribbean Princess will not stop in Bermuda on Oct. 29 as planned. The ship is looking for another port to stop at in the North instead. The Island Princess, which left Port Everglades on October 23 for an 11-night Panama Cancal cruise, had to reverse its itinerary and skipped George Town in the Cayman Islands to spend a day at sea.
Port Everglades October 23 on an 11-night Panama Canal sailing
Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas and Monarch of the Seas will skip their weekend pot of CocoCay.
Several other ships had to change their itineraries earlier this week. To see these changes, check out our previous report.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
