Many years ago, I was on a cruise that had to be diverted from a port of call due to a potential hurricane. Instead of stopping at St. Martin, the ship docked overnight in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where we had been scheduled to only spend a few hours the following day. To compensate, the cruise line arranged for buses and cabs to various shows, casinos and bars (I went to a show and while waiting for the doors to open, sat down at a slot machine at the adjacent casino, threw a quarter in and promptly won $50) for the night we were in town. Judging by the hangovers the next morning I'd say most of use were happy.
Yet, even though the captain had saved his ship and passengers from bad weather, there were still passengers upset we were missing St. Martin. You see St. Martin was (and is I guess) well known for it's nude beaches and people had brought film to photograph the scenery.They really flipped when the storm only sideswiped St. Matin and, the weather was going to be half decent the day we were supposed to arrive (forget that the hurricane was still between us and the island). While we were waiting on line to get our tickets for one of the San Juan shows, they were really letting the cruise director have it when one older woman said something like "I'm sure all the women are going to stop cleaning up from the storm, run to the beach and takeoff their tops just because we're sailing into port." That pretty much ended the mutiny and the woman got her tickets for one of the shows.
I was reminded of this when I read an article about passengers upset because their cruise was detoured thanks to Tropical Storm Hanna.They were aghast that the captain, doing his best to avoid running into a storm, forced the ship to make less than perfect stops. Yeah, it sucks that the ship made stops in untourist friendly areas, but I think they'd have been even more upset to find themselves barfing all over the midnight buffet when the ship hit rough waters. Here's a suggestion, if you want to make sure your cruise ship doesn't get detoured by a hurricane, don't cruise during hurricane season.
Other than that, unless you have a direct line to God and can get him to change the weather, tough. Weather happens. It is part of life. The captain is not going to harm his multi million dollar ship so you can see topless women on the beach.When life hands you lemons, make lemonade ... or head to the casino and try your luck.
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