Royal Caribbean shares an urgent Hurricane Milton warning
The cruise line has not canceled any cruises yet, but has made some itinerary changes.
While Royal Caribbean Chief Meteorologist Craig Setzer's core job helps the cruise line make decisions for its ships, he also has a greater responsibility to humanity. Meteorologists would maybe not be doctors but in a time of dangerous storms, they do have an obligation to keep people safe.
And, in some unspecified time in the future, while people don't prefer to see their cruise canceled or miss it attributable to commute problems, protecting human life becomes the bigger issue.
Related: Carnival and Royal Caribbean share Hurricane Milton updates
It truly is why Setzer used his X, the former Twitter, page, on the morning of Oct. 7 to induce people within the trail of the storm to make safe choices while they still can.
"Peak storm surge forecast for Milton as Storm Surge Watches issued for an unlimited element of the Florida west coast including Tampa Bay. 8-12 feet is higher than some of essentially the most recent very high values in and around Tampa Bay. Rule 1 with hurricane prep, flee the water, hide from the wind," he wrote. "The colour coding of storm surge map corresponds to heights. To help illustrate this, NHC has a storm surge pole near their front door. Some years ago I got a picture there with it."
Register for the Come Cruise With Me newsletter to keep away from wasting cash in your next (or your first) cruise. Image source: Craig Setzer
Port Tampa shall be hit the toughest
Setzer urged people within the trail of the storm to be proactive when it comes ensuring they stay safe.
"As I often say, your hurricane plan be in accordance with a timeline. And also you're going to deserve to have all outside activities completed before the onset of tropical storm conditions. For the west coast of Florida, this suggests by sunrise Wednesday. But since it be often hazardous to work in darkness, are attempting and have the entirety wrapped up by sunset Tuesday," he wrote.
Port Tampa Bay, which serves as a house port for Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, and Margaritaville at Sea, has issued its own guidance.
"At 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6, the U.S. Coast Guard set Port Condition X-RAY, which suggests the chance of gale force winds may maybe impact our maritime operations within forty eight hours. Inbound and outbound vessel traffic to our port remains open and landside operations will continue provided that safely conceivable," it posted on its websites.
Port officials made it clear that Hurricane Milton will impact more than one cruises.
"The storm will impact our cruise time table for Port Tampa Bay. While it might probably be easy to manage to have gotten any questions a couple of selected sailing, we recommend you contact your cruise line right away as all changes to itineraries shall be communicated by your cruise line. The shopper service lines for cruise lines sailing from Port Tampa Bay this week are:"
- Carnival Cruise Line: 1-800-764-7419
- Margaritaville at Sea: 1-800-814-7100
- Royal Caribbean International: 1-800-256-6649
MAS has already moved Islander's sailing up a day to Oct. 7 so it'd be out at sea when the storm hits.
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Royal Caribbean makes port changes
Royal Caribbean has been sending emails to passengers and commute agents about ship-specific itinerary changes. Here's the e-mail that went out to people sailing on Utopia of the Seas out of Port Canaveral leaving Monday, Oct. 7.
Dear Guest,
Along with our Chief Meteorologist, Craig Setzer, we're closely monitoring Tropical Storm Milton, expected to become a convincing hurricane since it crosses the Gulf of Mexico, reaching the west coast of Florida on Wednesday. That lets you soundly steer away from the storm, and its widespread impacts, along with the Captain, now we have decided to swap the days we will talk over with Nassau, Bahamas and Perfect Day at CocoCay.
We're terribly sorry for the last-minute change by reason of the weather - your safety is our top priority. Please know, being onboard is one amongst the safest places because our ship can quickly move out of how wherein of any inclement weather. Be at liberty to make use of this information for insurance purposes.
It truly is a reasonably minor change and Royal Caribbean has not commented on sailings arriving and leaving from Florida ports beyond similar letters.
Unfortunately, it's since the cruise line wouldn't have the needed information to make the needed decisions. Storm paths can change and an improbable deal of of Royal Caribbean's choices shall be dictated by port closures.
ALSO READ: Top commute agents share easy tips on the right kind way to get the suitable price in your cruise
As of Monday, Oct. 7 at 9 a.m., all of Florida's airports remained open.
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