Travel Perspectives
Tryin’ to Reason with Hurricane Season is scheduled is not likely. Of course, if it is impacting your vacation….it is a major storm!
Cruise Line Responses The great thing about a ship is that it can sail much faster than a hurricane and the Caribbean is a big sea. A storm that is impacting the Bahamas will have no impact on Grand Cayman or Cozumel. The normal response of the cruise line is to change the itinerary to avoid a storm.
Passenger Preparations
Most people don’t like to be put in situations that they don’t have much control over. Having a hurricane impacting your travel is one of those situations where you don’t have control. The cruise lines and the airlines are trying to balance the needs of all their passengers and are often scrambling to do their best in an ever-changing situation. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to put yourself in the best possible position. s a travel specialist with over 40 cruises under my belt, one question comes up just about every fall, “Should I book a cruise duing hurricane season?” With compliments to Jimmy Buffett, should any of us try to reason with hurricane season? I know, rational thinking sounds like the correct approach, but if I am thinking about my family having to deal with a hurricane, emotional reactions and avoiding epic natural disasters are the order of the day! As with many things in life that are scary, the more you know about hurricanes, the more you can make informed travel decisions and keep anxiety levels at manageable levels.
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When is Hurricane Season? Since most people are thinking about storms that impact the United States, I will focus on hurricanes that form in the Atlantic and impact the United States. Yes, we do have some storms in the Pacific that impact Mexico but these storms don’t tend to have the same impact as Atlantic storms. The Atlantic season is roughly from June 1st to November 30th. Yes, you can have storms early and late in the season but the distribution of storms is concentrated in the months of August, September and October. The National Hurricane Center has some great tools for educating yourself on hurricanes. They breakdown all kinds of storms including Tropical Depressions, Tropical Storms, Minor Hurricanes and Major Hurricanes. When you start talking about storms that actually hit the United States, the odds of a hurricane occurring on the week your cruise
• Decide how much risk you can tolerate. If you are a person that has no interest in even thinking about dealing with a storm, pick itineraries that are outside the hurricane season. • Work with a travel professional. Wouldn’t it be great to have one person that you can count on to help you navigate flight changes, or hotel needs or discussions with the cruise lines. A travel professional can be making arrangements for you when you can’t make them for yourself. • Purchase Travel Protection and know what your plan covers. This is a must. Most people only think about Travel Protection being important if they have to cancel a trip for illness or a death in the family. Most good policies will also cover trip interruption or trip delays. Discuss these benefits with your travel professional. • Consider “Cancel For Any Reason” Travel Protection. Classic Travel Protection has very specific language about what the policy will and will not cover. With Cancel For Any Reason Coverage, you can decide this is not a trip for you and you will have coverage. Work with your Travel Professional to understand what the limits of your coverage is.
Expect the Unexpected I tell all my clients that the first thing they should pack for their trip is a good amount of patience. Life happens and every good plan tends to run into trouble now and then. Work with a professional, know your own risk tolerance, purchase travel protection just in case and odds are, you will make a life time of memories.
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CRUISES | DESTINATIONS | RESORTS Timothy Martin (503) 259-2280 • Beaverton, OR www.beavertonvacations.com