We are waiting on the storm as I write this from Ft. Lauderdale. She should be able to communicate with you as soon as she gets close or tomorrow (Saturday). An option for you/her would be to travel to and from Ft. Myers which is only a 1.5 hour drive West of here. We have actually flown into Ft. Myers in the past and rented a car one way when we couldn't get into Ft. Lauderdale.

Best of luck with this.

John

Hi Dave,

The cruise line must be planning for the disposition of the passengers. Cannot imagine them docking in a devastated area. (Not like they'll be able to pick up the next wave of passengers, restock and head back out. The Caribbean is likely reeling from their own damage and not welcoming cruise visitors.

I would suggest the cruise ship might consider diverting to Port Tampa, but it is likely too tall to get under the Skyway Bridge (genius planning).

Check with the cruise line and see what they recommend. Otherwise, she should try to get off before the final leg of the cruise or plan to deal with the unexpected upon arrival in Florida. Might not be that bad, but again, I cannot imagine them dropping all the passengers in a disaster area and ignoring them.

Good luck,

Jon

Update from a private weather service I subscribe to. Crown Weather Service http://crownweather.com/

"Hurricane Matthew:
8 am EDT/7 am CDT Statistics:
Location: 24.6 North Latitude, 77.5 West Longitude or about 30 miles to the south-southeast of Nassau.
Maximum Winds: 125 mph.
Minimum Central Pressure: 940 Millibars or 27.76 Inches.
Forward Movement: Northwest at a forward speed of 12 mph.
We are looking at the potential for one of those “worst case scenarios" as Matthew is quickly intensifying this morning with reconnaissance aircraft finding steadily lowering barometric pressures with each new pass through the eye of the hurricane. The last reconnaissance flight pass through Matthew’s eye found a central pressure of 940 millibars which is a 4 millibar decrease in less than 2 hours time. Matthew has nearly ideal environmental conditions to continue to strengthen today as it moves across the northwestern Bahamas and towards eastern Florida later today and tonight. I think that Matthew will quickly become a Category 4 hurricane within the next couple of hours and it is very possible that Matthew could become a Category 5 hurricane at some point today. The only factor that may stop it from attaining Category 5 strength is a eyewall replacement cycle.
We cannot stress enough how severe this hurricane is as Matthew is likely to be the strongest hurricane to impact the state of Florida since Andrew in 1992. The damage that Matthew will do today across the northwestern Bahamas, including Andros Island, Bimini and Nassau, is likely to be widespread and catastrophic. In addition, Matthew is likely to bring widespread and catastrophic damage tonight through Friday to the East Coast of Florida from Boca Raton northward to possibly as far north as Daytona Beach, St. Augustine and Jacksonville."

FWIW, just heard, on Fox, that Cruise Ships are being re-routed.

Padraig

Have been or are now ? It's been over the lanes for a while and almost at FL.

This is where it is 15min ago or so. Some parts Fl already starting to get winds and waves and surge

Just heard it between 12:15 and 12:30. I assume it is for ships scheduled to arrive later this week.

Padraig

her boat is actually the first scheduled to come in at its designated time on Saturday

This got me thinking last night after reading this, what do they ships do when there is a hurricane? I know they are huge(been on one) but can they handle the waves and wind of a hurricane? Its not like they move all that fast. I'm honestly kind of shocked they left port knowing they would be going into the potential path of a hurricane.

i think a lot of their departure was based on technology and timing of available information on where it was going. i would think they could make good assessments, i have been watching real time maps and schedules and it looks like they are on top of it. The grouping i saw around the next few days is either cancelled if leaving or diverted if returning within that window of high potential. Stephs boat i don't believe ever even saw inclement weather of any kind, that tells me they are well ahead of it. The boat they are on (Oasis of the Sea) i think is the largest cruise ship in the fleet.

list of itineraries/ships affected

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=7255

port closures

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=7265

They will not bring into a port that has had the infrastructure compromised.
There was a similar situation a couple of years back where they diverted from New Orleans to Mobile because of a storm.