Hurricane Season Cruising: What to Know Before You Go
Summer activities are winding down. Kids are back in school. The unrelenting heat of summer has started to fade. Sounds like the perfect time to book a Caribbean cruise. Then you turn on the weather report only to learn that Mother Nature is sending a wallop of a storm right where you planned to sail.
This story is retold every year, mostly from August through October. Although the six-month Caribbean hurricane season officially begins June 1 and ends November 30, the peak of activity usually falls toward the beginning of September — at the exact time the cruise lines lower their rates. It’s a heady combination to consider.
There are also the odds to consider. Hurricanes and tropical storms tend to affect theBahamas, Bermuda, the eastern Caribbean, the East Coast of the U.S. and even Canada a bit earlier — between August and mid-September. Mexico and the western Caribbean seem to be a magnet for storms a bit later in the summer, from mid-August through October. Rarely does the Caribbean or U.S. get hit with a hurricane in early June or late November, but it can happen.
If you hope to avoid rough weather and save a little money, plan a cruise to the southern Caribbean. For years, islands in the southernmost Caribbean (Aruba,Bonaire, Curacao, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago) promoted themselves as being out of the hurricane zone. Historically, that is correct. Although there’s no 100 percent guarantee, this area could be your best bet to avoid a hurricane. But you still have to cruise to get there.
