Hurricane Milton's wrath has changed so many cruise ship itineraries, even as the storm approaches landfall in Florida.
Cruise ships have been altering their plans for a few days now, but because of the storm's enormous size and changing forecasts, more changes are still occurring.
Forecasters say Hurricane Milton will make landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast late Wednesday as a Category 3 storm.
The storm is expected to cross central Florida while heading toward the Atlantic Ocean.
Royal Caribbean already modified the itineraries for 8 of its cruise ships, and one ship has had to change their plans twice to avoid the hurricane.
Harmony of the Seas, which is one of the biggest cruise ships in the world, departed Galveston, Texas on October 6 and had to skip a port call in Honduras. They replaced it with a stop in Costa Maya, Mexico.
Yesterday, passengers were informed that plan had to change again because the widening storm meant a visit to Costa Maya would be impossible.
"To maintain a safe distance from the storm, and its widespread impacts, we've decided to adjust our heading and find smoother seas before resuming our original course towards Cozumel, Mexico," a letter distributed to passengers read.
Instead, Harmony will skip Costa Maya and remain at sea. That means just one port visit in total for the entire cruise.
Royal Caribbean will do everything it can to avoid the impact of a tropical system to their passengers, crew, and ship.
While under no obligation to do so, Royal Caribbean also provided passengers extra onboard credit worth one day's value of their original cruise fare price.
Harmony's change is emblematic of what's happening to many other ships as they change course to avoid Hurricane Milton.
More ships avoiding Hurricane Milton
Even the world's biggest cruise ship has had to change its plans because of the storm. Here's what's changed so far:
Icon of the Seas will skip a visit to Royal Caribbean's private island on Friday and instead stay out to sea.
However, Icon will stay docked in port longer in St. Thomas and St. Kitts until sunset.
Adventure of the Seas originally was to spend Wednesday at Sea and visit CocoCay on Thursday. Instead, the ship will visit Turks & Caicos on Wednesday and have a sea day on Thursday.
Mariner of the Seas dropped a visit to Cozumel, Mexico on Tuesday and remained at sea instead.
Symphony of the Seas re-arranged their itinerary. It was supposed to visit Port Canaveral, Florida, Nassau, Bahamas and Perfect Day at CocoCay. Insted, Symphony will go to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic and Royal Caribbean's private destination of Labadee.
Wonder of the Seas skipped a visit to Roatan, Honduras and Costa Maya, Mexico. Instead, Wonder will visit Cozumel on Day 6 and Falmouth, Jamaica.
Utopia of the Seas swapped it's schedule to visit Perfect Day at CocoCay on Tuesday and then wait to visit Nassau until Thursday.
Grandeur of the Seas went from a cruise to Mexico to a cruise that just visited The Bahamas. Instead of visiting Costa Maya and Cozumel, the ship is visiting Nassau as the only port destination.
Independence of the Seas will skip a scheduled stop in Cozumel and instead go to Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic.
More changes possible after the storm passes
Even as Hurricane Milton is on the brink of making landfall and cruise ships are well out of the path, there are question marks that remain for what will happen in the coming days.
The hurricane will cut across Central Florida, and that means its rain and winds will affect four of the major cruise ports in Florida in one way or another: Tampa, Port Canaveral, Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale) and PortMiami.
The U.S. Coast Guard is responsible for managing access to any cruise port in Florida, and they control if ships of any size can enter the port. This depends on the weather conditions.
Once the storm passes and a port is closed, the Coast Guard will conduct an inspection of the waters to verify it's safe to reopen to ships. That could take a few hours or days, depending on the damage.
Port Tampa Bay and Port Canaveral are already closed, and that has a potential impact to a few ships.
Adventure of the Seas and Utopia of the Seas are both scheduled to return to Port Canaveral on Friday to conclude a sailing and start the next one. No word yet on any changes to either ship's plans.
Guests on Adventure of the Seas received a letter in their cabins the ship will have a slightly delayed scheduled arrival of 8AM on Friday (delayed from 6AM) into Port Canaveral.
We were suppose to have a sea day on Wednesday and be at CocoCay on Thursday, but that's been cancelled with a new stop at Turks & Caicos on Wednesday (tomorrow) and a sea day on Thursday with a slightly delayed scheduled arrival of 8AM on Friday (delayed from 6AM) into Port Canaveral (assuming the port is open).
Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale) and PortMiami remain open for the time being.
