A day after Hurricane Ian hit the Florida coast as a Category 4 hurricane, three home ports for cruise ships in the state – Port Tampa Bay, Jacksonville’s JAXPort and Port Canaveral – remained closed to maritime traffic. .
The closures have forced five shipping lines to cancel sailings out of three ports scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
At the same time, two of Florida’s three largest ports – PortMiami and Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades – are back up and running with cruise lines expected to resume normally over the next few days.
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The three ports closed are the closest cruise ports to the trail of Hurricane Ian, which swept Florida from west to east on Wednesday and Thursday.
The storm made landfall Wednesday south of Port Tampa Bay, the closest cruise port to where the storm came ashore with winds of about 150 mph. The storm weakened significantly as it moved across the state to the vicinity of Port Canaveral.
Now much reduced, it is now moving north across the Atlantic on a route that will take it east of Jacksonville.
None of the three ports were directly in the path of Hurricane Ian, which caused severe destruction and loss of life in parts of Southwest Florida.
When will the three closed ports reopen – and how do they perform during the storm? Here’s a port-by-port look at what we know right now and what you can expect if you schedule a cruise from one of the ports in the coming days.
Port Canaveral
The world’s second-largest cruise port has been closed since 12 a.m. Wednesday and likely won’t reopen to cruise ships until Saturday.
Port Canaveral did not immediately respond to questions from TPG about its status. However, in a tweet on Thursday, Royal Caribbean meteorologist James Van Fleet said the port had told the company it planned to survey the Port Canaveral channel for obstructions on Friday.
Assuming all is in order, the two Royal Caribbean ships stranded at sea due to port closures – the Mariner of the Seas with 3,344 passengers and the Independence of the Seas with 3,858 passengers – should be able to turn around. back to Port Canaveral on Saturday. Van Fleet recommends in the morning to drop off passengers.
Mariner of the Seas was scheduled to return to Port Canaveral for discharge on Thursday, and Independence of the Seas was scheduled to return to port on Friday.
Cruises on both ships scheduled to begin at Port Canaveral on Thursday and Friday, have been cancelled.
Departure from Port Canaveral on Thursdays and Fridays as scheduled by Disney Cruise Line’s Disney Wish; Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Liberty; MSC Cruises ‘MSC Divina; and Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Getaway have also been cancelled.
Further cruises leaving Port Canaveral remain scheduled to depart from the port late on Saturday. These include rides in Disney’s Disney Fantasy; and the Freedom and Mardi Gras Carnival.
Ten major cruise ships operate regularly out of Port Canaveral at this time of year.
JAXPort
Jacksonville’s cruise port has been closed to maritime traffic as of 12 p.m. EDT Wednesday, and no date or time has yet been set for when it will reopen.
“Once the storm passes, the Coast Guard will determine when it’s safe to reopen,” a port representative told TPG on Thursday afternoon in response to questions sent via Twitter.
As is the case with other closed ports in Florida, JAXPort cannot begin the port reopening process until the US Coast Guard has lifted the Zulu Port Status declaration for the port.
Under the Conditions of the Port of Zulu, a port must be closed to all vehicular traffic unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port’s Coast Guard.
A JAXPort representative told TPG: “We have port assessment teams on standby to assess any damage and reopen the port as quickly as possible after the Coast Guard lifts Zulu’s conditions. “Once Zulu is lifted, safely reopening the cruise terminal is a priority.”
Carnival, the only line to operate sailings out of JAXPort, canceled Thursday’s departure of a ship it has stationed at the port, the Carnival Elation with 2,052 passengers.
Carnival Elation departs from JAXPort every Thursday and Sunday. The ship’s Sunday departure is still scheduled for now.
Port Tampa . Bay
Port Tampa Bay – the main port of the Tampa area – has been closed to maritime traffic as of 8 a.m. EDT Tuesday and no date has yet been set for when it will reopen.
In a tweet Thursday afternoon, the port said the US Coast Guard was working with a team of severe weather advisors in the port for a detailed assessment of the port, waterways and creeks.
In a later tweet, the port said its current priorities were “safety of life, protection of the environment and return of cargo and yacht operations.”
With only one cruise ship, Carnival Paradise, which carries 2,052 passengers, regularly departs from the city at this time of year.
Carnival canceled Thursday’s departure of Carnival Paradise from Port Tampa Bay, at sea by the time Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida. The ship is currently on its way back to the Tampa area from Cozumel, Mexico, but Carnival has not said when it might arrive.
Carnival Paradise’s next voyage out of Port Tampa Bay, scheduled for Sunday, remains scheduled for now.
Port Tampa Bay did not immediately respond to questions about its status from TPG.
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