Royal Caribbean has changed the itineraries of four cruise ships in preparation for Hurricane Rafael. The intensifying storm is predicted to make landfall later this week as a Category 2.
As of Wednesday morning, Rafael was a Category 2 storm with winds of 110 mph – just 1 mph away from Category 3 status – and 130 miles from Cuba.
Models currently show Hurricane Rafael hitting Western Cuba later tonight, with high winds of over 100 miles an hour.
The hurricane is expected to continue to move toward the Gulf of Mexico and weaken before reaching the United States on Saturday or Sunday.
So far, four ships in the fleet have been affected by the storm: Radiance of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas, Vision of the Seas, and Brilliance of the Seas.
Radiance of the Seas left the port of Tampa on November 2nd, with a scheduled 7-day cruise visiting Bimini, Freeport, and Perfect Day at CocoCay.
Passengers onboard received a notice of the change.
The email read: "Along with our Chief Meteorologist, Craig Setzer, we've been monitoring inclement weather along our intended path due to a developing storm system forecasted to bring increasingly strong winds across the sea, impacting our planned ports and potentially making them unsafe to visit."
To avoid the hurricane's path, the Radiance-Class vessel will steer into the Western Caribbean instead, visiting Mexico and Honduras.
"As a result, we'll be unable to visit the planned ports of call on our itinerary. To provide you with the most enjoyable sailing experience, we'll now visit some of our popular Western Caribbean destinations - Cozumel, Mexico; Roatan, Honduras; Belize City, Belize and Costa Maya Mexico!"
Radiance of the Seas will return to Tampa on Saturday, November 9th, as scheduled.
Vision of the Seas is also skipping stops in the Bahamas. The Vision-Class vessel sailed out of Baltimore, Maryland on October 31st.
Her 9-day sailing was scheduled to visit Bermuda, Nassau, and Perfect Day at CocoCay.
Now, Vision of the Seas will remain in Bermuda for longer, avoiding the Bahamas altogether.
Port Canaveral has always been added to her itinerary as a new port of call.
Freedom of the Seas also changed her itinerary, but the sailing won't change any ports. Instead, two port days will be swapped.
The Freedom-Class vessel departed on a 6-night cruise out of Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, November 3rd.
The original sailing called for Freedom to visit Grand Cayman; Falmouth, Jamacia, and Labadee, Haiti.
Freedom will now call upon Labadee first to divert the ship away from Hurricane Rafael, then Falmouth and Grand Cayman.
Brilliance of the Seas left the port of New Orleans on November 2nd, departing on a 7-day sailing.
Her original itinerary included stops at Cozumel, Mexico; Costa Maya, Mexico; and Grand Cayman.
The Radiance-Class ship was scheduled to stop in George Town, Cayman Islands today, November 6th, but will now visit Belize City instead.
"We're terribly sorry for the last-minute change caused by the weather - your safety is our top priority," Royal Caribbean said in a letter to guests.
Royal Caribbean's meteorologists are still monitoring the storm
Guest and crew safety are top priority for Royal Caribbean. The cruise line employs a chief meteorologist, Craig Setzer, who monitors hurricanes and other weather events.
Setzer recently posted his own thoughts on Hurricane Rafel to X.
On Saturday morning, Setzer wrote: "While uncertainty about exact details remain (how strong, exactly where), combining weather systems over the next several days will impact Florida, The Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, & Caymans with exceptionally windy and stormy periods this week."
"The message from the Euro model is for near tropical storm winds (green area) & higher gusts with passing squalls likely."
"Focus might be on hurricane development potential (which is low at this time), but longer duration tropical storm-like impacts are possible over South Florida/Keys & The Bahamas by early this week, even without a named storm."
Now that the storm has developed into a Hurricane, Setzer has made more updates to his X page.
"Wow," he posted, "Hurricane Rafael's eye coming into view of Key West radar, which is seeing it 240 miles away at a radar beam altitude of 40,000 feet."
"From the radar (and now recon) perspective, there appears to be a double eyewall structure. Maybe, just maybe if an eyewall replacement cycle can happen as the storm is approaching and making landfall in Cuba, the intensity will drop a bit...let's hope this happens."
