Caribbean360: Ernesto creates winners and losers for Caribbean ports

Ernesto creates winners and losers for Caribbean ports
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Chris Hoyos on 06/08/2012 10:19:00
 
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Monday, August 6, 2012 – As Tropical Storm Ernesto
continues to churn northward through the Caribbean some ports of call for cruise
liners are getting additional business while others are seeing theirs sail away.
According to the USA TODAY, the strengthening tropical storm has forced nearly
half a dozen cruise ships heading to the western Caribbean to alter course.
Jamaica is one of the chief countries to benefit from the re-routing. As its
days of being lashed by Ernesto’s heavy winds and rains are now over the
2.974-passenger Carnival Freedom, which departed Fort Lauderdale, Florida
yesterday (August 5), will visit the popular resort town of Ocho Rios on
Wednesday instead of Grand Cayman. A pushed-back call in Grand Cayman is now
tentative, the line says.
Montego Bay, Jamaica, will also have its cruise arrival numbers boosted as the
2,124-passenger Carnival Legend, which also departed Tampa, Florida, yesterday
will dock there instead and skip scheduled calls in Belize and Mahogany Bay,
Honduras.
The National Hurricane Centre says the storm is likely to strengthen over the
next 36 to 48 hours as it approaches the coast of Belize.
The Disney Cruise Line's 2,500-passenger Disney Fantasy is sailing to the
Eastern Caribbean instead of the Western Caribbean.
A fourth Carnival ship, the 2,758-passenger Carnival Triumph, is reversing the
order of two calls in Progreso and Cozumel, Mexico scheduled for today (August
6) and Tuesday.
A hurricane watch has been issued for the east coast of Mexico's Yucatan
Peninsula from Chetumal northward to Punta Gruesa.
Ernesto is currently east of Roatan, Honduras and moving to the west at about 12
miles per hour. The storm has maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour.
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