It’s going to be another tough travel day in Florida and the Caribbean, as airports and beach towns close and cruise lines scurry to avoid Tropical-Storm-soon-to-be-Hurricane Nicole.
American Airlines yesterday issued a travel alert for 20 airports in the eastern Caribbean and Florida and allowed customers to rebook without change fees.
In Florida, where Nicole is expected to make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, both Orlando International and Orlando Sanford International Airports will close at 4 pm. Melbourne Orlando International Airport will close at 2 p.m. and Daytona Beach International Airport will close from 12:30 p.m. Wednesday until 4 a.m. Friday.
Officials have ordered mandatory beachside evacuations for Volusia County, which includes Daytona Beach and Palm Beach County, and suspended Sunrail service.
Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon will close Wednesday for the day, but its other parks will remain open. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will be closed Wednesday and Thursday.
At sea, a number of cruise itineraries have been affected, including Carnival Liberty, which skipped a planned visit to Nassau in the Bahamas and will stop in Cozumel rather than private island Princess Cays. Carnival Elation also switched from Princess Cays, to Freeport.
Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas skipped scheduled stops at Port Canaveral, Nassau, and CocoCay, stopping instead at Labadee, Haiti. Liberty of the Seas bypassed Nassau and CocoCay in favor of Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, and Independence of the Seas went to Falmouth, Jamaica. Independence of the Seas skipped CocoCay.
