With the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicting about as many named storms and hurricanes as last year, cruise lines are ramping up their efforts to stay ahead of the curve and be ready to re-route or cancel.
Last year, the 7th-most active season on record, saw 17 named storms, with ten becoming hurricanes, six of them major. The succession of storms not only slammed many areas of the U.S., they also heavily impacted Caribbean and other ports-of-call, and in some cases interrupted cruises.
While no one can be sure of storm schedules in advance, companies are making contingency plans for handling emergencies, and in some cases hiring weather specialists of their own to help track events.
Carnival, parent of nine cruise brands, has created a Fleet Operations Center at its Miami headquarters, staffed by specialists and using a program called Neptune that allows Carnival to watch everything from radar images, stability conditions, the Safety Management and Command System, and webcams from each ship to GPS locations. It also monitors weather feeds from multiple sources.
Royal Caribbean, another of the Big Three cruise companies, has set up its own center, with an added extra: It's hired James Van Fleet as its Chief Meteorologist, a first for cruise lines.
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