Hurricane Rita

Hey Cruisers,

So it looks like Hurricane Rina is causing some havoc for Cancun this week. Cruisers and tourists alike have been evacuated from Cancun. Already eight ships from Carnival cruise lines have been diverted to other ports and Celebrity cruise lines announced that they would be sending one of their ships to another location. We're still awaiting announcements from Norwegian and Royal Caribbean to see if their two ships will be diverted or not.

Hurricane Rina is already a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds at 75mph. Rina is moving at 6mph and is literally slamming right into the heart of the Yucatan peninsula. Rina has already forced tourists on the mainland to flee to safety as well as many flights scheduled to Cancun have been canceled. Cancun seems to be taking it rather seriously as alcohol sales were banned last night and you can't even drive into Cancun if you wanted as the roads have been closed off.

Is cruising slowing down?

For ten years now the cruise industry has been exponentially growing with no end in sight. But the winter of 2012 could change all of that. Port Everglades is expecting only 3.64 million passengers to walk through its' terminals this season, slightly down from 3.66 million last year. And although that doesn't seem like that much, it could be the signal of a change of winds for the cruising industry.

A major part of this is that this season, there will only 45 ships docking in Port Everglades this season, which is down from last year's total of 55. Cruise lines aren't building new ships, but cruise lines are spreading out their current fleets to newer ports, meaning there is less ships at any given area.

Most say though that this is just temporary and that the cruising industry will continue to grow at a healthy rate. What do you think?

Link to article: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/travel/port-everglades-to-see-fewer-cruise-ships-this-1930416.html