The specter of Hurricane Rina and the fact that she’s disrupted more than a few cruise-ship schedules this week is a reminder about the approaching end of Hurricane Season.
Excepts…there’s still a month to go.
As Hurricane Seasons go, this one has seemed rather tame. Nobody even showed up until Irene, and that was the third week of August. She was a Category 3, but nobody paid her 
much attention because she didn’t cause much disruption, nor damage.
The arrival of Rina, which hasn’t reached Cat 3 status, caught everyone’s attention in the cruise business. As she peaked at Cat 2 while for the Yucatan Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico, a dozen ships changed direction, eight of them Carnival, and popular ports like Belize and Cozumel welcomed fewer visitors.
When the threat of hurricanes all began (June 1), predictions from NOAA (National Hurricane Center) were that there would be six to 10 hurricanes, three to six of them Cat 3 or higher. This was considered an “above-normal” prognosis.
Guess what?
With a month to go, there have been six hurricanes, three of them Cat 3 or higher — Irene, Katia, Ophelia. Maybe it hasn’t been so tame after all.
DAILY DEAL:
Norwegian Epic
7 nights
March 3, 2012
Miami return (St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Nassau)
Inside $719
www.ncl.com