Sailing into a hurricane

[YoungFamilyExplorers]

Sorry for the repeated posts. I posted something similar in the roll call section....

 

We're about to leave for our sailing on Navigator for a 3 night to Ensenada tomorrow. It now looks like Hurricane Hilary is going to be directly in our pathway.

 

We're still a bit new to sailing and have never had this experience before. Any ideas how Royal will handle this situation? I'm thinking that at the very least that Ensenada will likely not happen. Or will they cancel it altogether? I know that I'm asking people to predict the future, but I didn't know if anyone has gone though a similar incident before....

[smokeybandit]

Highly unlikely it'd be canceled. At worst you'll lose Ensenada and just hang out a bit further west and end up with a cruise to nowhere. You may be a bit bumpy getting back into LA on Monday. With that in mind you may get back into port Sunday night instead of Monday morning.

[YoungFamilyExplorers]

2 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Highly unlikely it'd be canceled. At worst you'll lose Ensenada and just hang out a bit further west and end up with a cruise to nowhere. You may be a bit bumpy getting back into LA on Monday. With that in mind you may get back into port Sunday night instead of Monday morning.

Thanks for the reply. Does Royal prorate a cruise that is shorter than was scheduled?

[smokeybandit]

Just now, YoungFamilyExplorers said:

Thanks for the reply. Does Royal prorate a cruise that is shorter than was scheduled?

The cruise wouldn't be any shorter. Just they may dock in LA a few hours earlier. You'd still disembark as normal on Monday.

[CruiseMsclDad]

Unfortunately we have a couple of times,  when sailing out of Boston or NYC, been diverted up north, always ended up in St. Johns, New Brunswick. Nice enough town but you know, not Bermuda. Less on learned, we no longer sail from up North during hurricane season. When sailing down South, and have been diverted, it was fine either more sea days or a surprise port!  So it was fine, part of the adventure!

[Ryan79]

Also, this storm will not be a hurricane by the time it reaches anywhere close to Ensenada. 

[CTieu]

Found this Hurricane Hilary Poses Serious Concern for Cruises (cruisehive.com)

 

[Ampurp85]

We lost a port last year when I sailed Nav out of LA because of a hurricane. The ship will likely just try to outrun the storm if it becomes one. 

[Matt]

Something to remember about any hurricane is the news media is routinely wrong in forecasts.  Storms change path all the time, so don’t assume anything is 100% for what may happen. 

[smokeybandit]

2 hours ago, CTieu said:

Found this Hurricane Hilary Poses Serious Concern for Cruises (cruisehive.com)

 

That site has a lot of good articles, but any time weather is involved, they're way over the top. Do they really think a cruise ship would intentionally sail into heavy waves from a hurricane?

[Eggbert]

We sailed out of New Jersey right after Sandy - they were checking people in by hand. If anyone is prone to seasickness make sure you have a patch, band, or pills because there are going to be big swells continuing well away from the hurricane's path.

[Cactus527]

31 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

That site has a lot of good articles, but any time weather is involved, they're way over the top. Do they really think a cruise ship would intentionally sail into heavy waves from a hurricane?

 

[Pattycruise]

I agree with Eggbert, bring along some motion sickness remedies,  I hear Guest services gives out the motion sickness pills.  Ginger is good for motion sickness/I always bring that onboard.  you can find green apples onboard though someone recently told me any apple would work as it is the pectin that calms the stomach, 

[YoungFamilyExplorers]

As of now we haven’t heard anything and are preparing to board in about an hour and a half. I’ll keep y’all updated on this unexpected change!

[OCSC Mike]

37 minutes ago, YoungFamilyExplorers said:

As of now we haven’t heard anything and are preparing to board in about an hour and a half. I’ll keep y’all updated on this unexpected change!

Enjoy your cruise and don't sweat the storm!

[stevo69]

boarding in about 3 hours, hoping the ship will stay around catalina island for a day or two, we don't mind.

[stevo69]

boarding in about 3 hours, hoping the ship will stay around catalina island for a day or two, we don't mind.

[YoungFamilyExplorers]

For those who are interested the word is that they are planning on changing the order of our sailing. 
 

day 2 will be in Ensenada for a very long port day instead of our day at sea

day 3 will be at sea instead of a port day at Ensenada. I suspect we will be going far west to avoid the storm

 

thanks to all who replied!

[steverk]

In my experience,  tropicaltidbits.com is the best site for tracking storms. Spaghettimodels.com is good too.

[YoungFamilyExplorers]

[smokeybandit]

So they hired a new chief met?

[cdixon22]

Has anyone experienced an extra day at sea because the port was closed and they could not return?  Did you get extra C & A points for that extra day?

[smokeybandit]

31 minutes ago, cdixon22 said:

Has anyone experienced an extra day at sea because the port was closed and they could not return?  Did you get extra C & A points for that extra day?

You would get credit for it and typically any packages you have would extend for the extra day, too

[Florz]

RC doesn't have a chief meteorologist.

[Matt]

7 hours ago, Florz said:

RC doesn't have a chief meteorologist.

They did get rid of JVF, but they had a job posting shortly thereafter for a new Chief Meteorologist https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2023/05/23/royal-caribbean-posts-job-opening-new-chief-meteorologist

So it's possible they hired one.

[Matt]

I found him. Meet Craig Setzer

 

[smokeybandit]

Kind of disappointing he isn't tweeting any cruise-specific info like JVF did.

[WAAAYTOOO]

6 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Kind of disappointing he isn't tweeting any cruise-specific info like JVF did.

...especially with a hurricane raging in the Pacific !

[smokeybandit]

The forecast speed of the storm once it makes landfall has sped up. The Monday turn for Navigator shouldn't have any issues.

[YoungFamilyExplorers]

This has been a very interesting cruise so far. There have been three “alpha” calls since 4am. One resulted in a medical evacuation via USCG helicopter. 
 

We were literally offshore from Ensenada just circling in the water when they decided to evacuate this individual. We veered north back to the border and a USCG helicopter was able to land and bring aboard the individual to take them to a hospital in San Diego. Now we’re back on track heading south again toward Ensenada to make our port time at 7pm. 
 

I’m assuming that this is more of a formality since we’re required to make an international stop and are trying to get out of Mexico ahead of the storm. 

[smokeybandit]

5 minutes ago, YoungFamilyExplorers said:

I’m assuming that this is more of a formality since we’re required to make an international stop and are trying to get out of Mexico ahead of the storm. 

Yes and no. They'll try real hard to get you your port stop. But in weather situations like this, they'd be given a waiver for the port stop requirement.

[YoungFamilyExplorers]

Well the cruise is now over. 
 

After making a very late port at Ensenada on Day 2 of the cruise, we headed northward and spent our day at sea in the Santa Barbara Channel. 
 

This was much farther north than we initially expected to be heading, but Captain James announced that it was outside of the area affected by the storm. We spent the day circling the waters in the channel and the water was very calm. 
 

At night we headed back to the Port of Los Angeles and definitely sailed through a part of the storm causing it to be pretty rocky. We got back to port safely though. 
 

thanks for all who responded!