Hurricane Matthew Changes Plans For Baltimore Cruise Liner
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A tropical beach getaway quickly turned into a dreaded detour. Carnival Pride passengers were told just hours before departure their seven-day-trip to paradise was being rerouted because of Hurricane Matthew.
"Supposed to go to Grand Turks, their private island, and Freeport, and we ended up going to New York," said passenger Kathy Lebon.
Carnival Cruise told WJZ "Given the unpredictability of tropical weather systems, and with our guests and crew safety as our foremost priority, we are taking a prudent course of action to keep the ship out of harm's way and provide our guests with a safe and enjoyable vacation experience."
Passengers were given the option to cancel and receive a full refund, but for some guests it was too late to end the trip altogether, so they took the alternate route to New York.
"We had planned our trip for over a year, everyone was excited and looking forward to being on the beach," said passenger Jenny Holle.
Passengers returned back to the Port of Baltimore Sunday, not from the trip they had envisioned, but overall happy they avoided Matthew's deadly wrath.
"Been on a couple cruises, the ship was really rocky, and this wasn't bad at all, it was in calm seas instead of being in a hurricane," said passenger Ron Miller.
"in spite of everything, we had a good time, the crew was great," said Kathy Lebon.
Guests were given 250 dollars to spend on board and half-off any future Carnival cruise.
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