When I touched down in Fort Lauderdale last Friday evening, I expected there to be clear skies and smooth sailing.  Little did I know what was in store.  Early on in our cruise the cruise director (John Heald) dubbed our sailing the “Magical Mystery Cruise”, a very fitting name.  Once we boarded the ship it was clear to most of us that the weather was definitely going to be a factor, which is to be expected sailing during the peak of hurricane season.   It was announced that we would not be going to Puerto Rico for our first stop but would instead be heading to Nassau which was originally scheduled to be the last stop on our voyage.  We were also told the rest of the ports would be announced “at a later time”.

So, there we were on a cruise ship with multiple pockets of tropical activity determining what our fate would be.  Did that deter the 3600 passengers from having a good time, of course not.  The truth is you don’t plan a cruise that time of you unless you are a bit of a gambler, so instead of worrying about where we were heading, we nearly universally embraced this unique cruising adventure.

Nassau went off without a hitch and upon boarding the ship that evening, we would finally find out which ports we would visit for the rest of the itinerary.  The announcement was made, we would be visiting  Jamaica, Cozumel and Grand Caymen (not a bad consolation prize).  The masses were happy and their was much celebrating to be done.  However, at some point later in the day I was in  my room flipping through the television stations when I noticed the ship was heading in the wrong direction.  At this point I was starting to have doubts as to whether or not the Captain knew what he was doing, panic started to set in.  Luckily, I had my rum runner flask handy to sooth my nerves.

Not even two drinks into my therapy session John Heald makes another announcement.  Tropical storm Ana (the one that kept us from going to Puerto Rico was breaking up and Hurricane Bill (a tropical storm at the time) had taken a turn to the North.  This meant we could resume our regularly scheduled itinerary (sort of).  So instead of re-routing to a Western Caribbean itinerary we would be heading back East  to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and Tortola (we lost Antigua).  Once again the masses were happy and there was much celebrating to be done.

While I would be lying if I said that all were fine with the changes I didn’t notice any widespread disgruntlement, which in these situations is always a big win.  Of course some people who booked based on Antigua being part of the cruise were disappointed (one group in particular who were planning to visit family).  Others, who really latched on to the idea of heading west also seemed a bit letdown when we resumed our original itinerary, but again the disappointment was not widespread.  Although to some the changes may have been a bit of an annoyance when push came to shove, I guess most cruisers subscribe to the same line of thinking as myself, its not where you are but who you are with.