Carnival Cruise Line confirmed that five of its vessels had to change their itineraries due to Hurricane Melissa.
According to the company’s website weather updates, the Carnival Celebration, the Carnival Dream, the Carnival Liberty, the Carnival Sunrise and the Carnival Vista were affected by the Category 5 storm.
“Our Fleet Operations Center in Miami is closely monitoring forecasts for Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean and we are keeping our partner islands, in potential harm’s way, in our thoughts,” the company stated.
Given the storm’s forecasted path over the next few days, the company revised a series of itineraries that were set to visit Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the Cayman Islands and Turks & Caicos.
Impacted vessels include the Carnival Celebration, which had scheduled visits to Grand Turk and Amber Cove cancelled and replaced with a stop in Cozumel, Mexico.
The Carnival Liberty had to cancel visits to Grand Cayman and Montego Bay, replacing them with stops in Mahogany Bay in Honduras and Belize City in Belize.
Originally set to sail to Grand Turk and Amber Cove, respectively, the Carnival Sunrise and the Carnival Vista will instead sail to Nassau in the Bahamas.
Cruise Industry News, the Carnival Dream also saw a visit to Montego Bay cancelled due to Melissa.
“Safety is our priority, and we continue to track conditions carefully, factoring in guidance from the National Hurricane Center, U.S. Coast Guard, and local port authorities to provide timely updates,” Carnival added.
The company said that guests on upcoming sailings are encouraged to opt in for sailing alerts and monitor their emails for potential updates.
Other cruise lines also confirmed itinerary changes, including MSC Cruises, which rerouted the MSC World America to the Western Caribbean earlier this week.
Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Disney and Norwegian also have vessels affected by Melissa recently.