I love cruising, particularly during the off-season when rates are lower and ships are less crowded. Hurricane season in the Caribbean runs from June to November, peaking from late August to the end of September, but that doesn’t stop me from booking cruises in the summer. One of my favorite times to cruise is during the latter part of hurricane season, after children return to school and before the Thanksgiving holiday. The weather isn't actually as bad as you might think and there are a lot of benefits.
Cruise prices are lower during hurricane season.
Cruise prices drop several times per year, including during hurricane season. The off-season for cruising the Caribbean begins after Labor Day on the first Monday in September and ends just before Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November. Family travel drops off during these months as children are back in school.
The beginning of hurricane season (June through August) coincides with summer holidays for children, making it one of the peak seasons for cruising. Prices also spike during holidays, including Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and spring break.
I love to book fall cruises because I can save some serious cash, particularly when I can be flexible about departure dates and ports. Plus, cruise lines often offer incentives like free drink packages and shipboard credit. Sometimes, I've booked cruises at the last minute to add to my savings, but this can be risky if you have your heart set on sailing to certain destinations and the cruise fills up or you can't be flexible with departure dates.
Cruise ships are less crowded.
While cruise lines make every effort to fill their ships to capacity, this is especially challenging during low season. I've sailed on 10 cruises in September, October, and November and each was not at capacity. Why does this matter? Ships sailing at partial capacity mean you get all the fun with fewer passengers on board. This usually means you get better and more attentive service, shorter lines for main dining, nightly shows, and tenders, and a quieter ship overall.
Sailing in the off-season means I rarely have issues booking things that often sell out, like excursions, thermal spa passes, and premium, adults-only areas like Princess Cruises' The Sanctuary. I also find it easier to get a prime spot on the pool deck.
The weather is typically good.
The tropics are known for their high temperatures, humidity, and heavy rainfall, but most islands in the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean offer fun in the sun year-round. Anguilla has the lowest rainfall, averaging 40 days per year, while Trinidad has 225 rainy days yearly.
Even if it rains when you're in port, the showers typically last a few minutes, making them a refreshing way to cool off after a long beach day. I've been on ships that have been rerouted to avoid hurricanes at sea, and while the waves are a bit choppier, stabilizers on mega cruise ships ensure the ride is mostly smooth with periods of rockiness, which helps lull me to sleep.
The odds of a hurricane striking during your trip are slim.
I don't worry about a hurricane striking during my cruise because the odds are so low.
"Typically, for someone visiting the tropics during June through November, the chance to experience (or even be threatened by) a hurricane is very small," according to Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorology Laboratory, A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research lab. "So the chances to get impacted by a hurricane are quite small for relatively short trips."
On average, there are 10.1 named storms (5.9 become hurricanes and 2.5 reach major hurricane status of Category 3 or above on the Saffir-Simpson scale).
Each destination carries more or less risk. Aruba, Bonaire, Cartagena, Colombia, Curaçao, Limón, Costa Rica, Colón, Panama, and Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago offer less risk of a hurricane strike. Hurricanes seldom hit these destinations and, if they do, your ship will bypass them and either remain at sea or stop at other destinations.
There's a chance you get extra cruise days at no extra cost.
When a hurricane threatens your disembarkation port, your cruise may be delayed in returning if the port temporarily closes or the storm lands before the ship can get back to port. When a port closes, you may be rerouted to another nearby port or remain at sea for an extra day or two. In rare cases, your cruise may be cut short and arrive a day earlier.
Your itinerary may change.
Cruise ships are not obligated to sail to every stop on the itinerary and changes are common. When a hurricane is forecast to hit your embarkation port, your cruise may suddenly depart a day earlier, so the ship can be at sea during the storm, or a day or more later, when weather conditions improve. This is why it's always recommended that you arrive at your embarkation port at least one day prior to sailing. Your cruise may be canceled depending on when the hurricane arrives and if the port closes.
If the weather is predicted to impact one of your ports of call, the ship may bypass that destination and go to another port or remain at sea. Depending on your mindset, this change in itinerary could be considered bad or good.
It's not just hurricanes that can interfere with scheduled ports of call. When I sailed on a Norwegian Cruise Line cruise from New York City to Bermuda, our stop at Norfolk, Virginia, was canceled due to rain storms in the area. We got an extra sea day and sailed directly to Bermuda. I enjoyed this cruise so much that I booked another one a year later.
While standing in line to check in, I was handed a letter informing me that the Norwegian Getaway would no longer sail to Bermuda. Instead, we would make an obligatory international stop in Nassau, Bahamas. Our late-night, four-hour stop left little time to explore the Bahamian capital, so I stayed on the ship. Rather than sit at sea or sail elsewhere, our ship, registered in the Bahamas, was not permitted to sail directly from one U.S. port to another under The Jones Act.
If you’re really worried or have bad luck, you can buy travel insurance.
I recommend travel insurance for every trip, not just for cruising during hurricane season. The money you save on cruise fare can be put toward a policy that protects your travel investment and covers any illness or injury you or your travel companions may face during your travels. Like the weather, travel and your health are unpredictable, so it literally pays to be prepared and protected.
In the last four years, I have filed three travel insurance claims on three cruises: two for travel delays or interruptions due to traveling companions' illnesses and one for my own illnesses.
Hurricane season impacts other destinations too.
The North Atlantic Ocean, which includes the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, isn't the only place to take advantage of steep savings on sailings during hurricane season.
Cruises along the California coast, Western Canadian coast, and Hawaii seldom see hurricanes make landfall during their hurricane season, which runs from May 15 to November 30. These powerful storms are even less likely to hit the Middle East. It's not uncommon for typhoons to make landfall during the Western Pacific's typhoon season from June to December, but it's unlikely to significantly impact your cruise's ports of call in Asia and Australia.
