Tropical Storm Chantal, the third named storm of the 2013 Hurricane Season, is starting to dissipate, but not before it caused travel disruptions including flight cancellations and cruise ship itinerary changes.
Vacations in the Caribbean have been put on hold due to Tropical Storm Chantal. The storm forced American Airlines and GOL Transportes Aereos to cancel 20 flights for trips from Miami International Airport to Dominican Republic and Haiti. Several other airlines also cancelled flight to Hispaniola, Policy Mic reports.
However there is some relief. According to the National Weather Service, Tropical Storm dissipated into remnants by Wednesday afternoon and all storm warnings and watches were cancelled. American Airlines spokesperson Dori Alvarez said that the airline was likely to resume a normal flight schedule by Thursday as long as weather conditions remain good.
Cruises were also impacted. It is rare for a cruise to be cancelled due to a storm. Instead, they move out of the storm's way, which is what three Carnival cruise ships were forced to do this week.
Carnival Freedom, which is on a six-night cruise that left from Fort Lauderdale on July 7, is set to sail to Cozumel on July 11, instead of the originally planned stop in Ocho Rios, a Carnival Cruise Lines spokesperson said.
Before that, two other cruises had to change their plans. The 2,974-passenger Carnival Liberty was forced to skip a stop in St. Thomas on Tuesday as the storm was approaching. Instead, the ship went straight to San Juan, Puerto Rico, which was scheduled for Wednesday, USA Today reports.
The ship, which left from Miami on Saturday, is on a seven-night Eastern Caribbean voyage. It will had to make a stop in Grand Turk on Wednesday, which was originally scheduled for Thursday and will add a stop to Nassau, Bahamas on Friday.
The 2,758-passenger Carnival Victory also had to alter its schedule. The ship skipped a day at sea and made a stop in Nassau, Bahamas instead. It wasn't supposed to stop in Nassau until Friday. The ship is also switched around the dates for stops in Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay, Bahamas on Wednesday and Thursday. The Carnival Victory, also based out of Miami, is on a five-night Bahamas cruise. It left Florida on Monday.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
