everybody this is Bruce here to my youtube channel
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video hi everybody its Bruce here with traveling with Bruce how you doing today
it's mid October 2017 it's been three weeks since the passing hurricane Irma
and hurricane Maria through the Caribbean and I wanted to update you all
on on where the cruise ship business stands at the moment we know about the
destruction of a number of Caribbean islands Dominica comes to mind
independent nation badly badly hit 90% of the structures damaged tens of
thousands of homeless people I think the country's population is 5060 thousand
and thirty forty thousand homeless it's a mess and it's gonna be a long slog
back Dominica unfortunately is not on the radar for a return cruise anytime
soon we don't know until maybe the new year 2018 if Dominica can can in effect
receive a cruise ship for visitors st. mark 10 or 10 also badly hit with Irma
and then a follow up with some more damage with Maria however the end of
November they're talking six weeks from now to start receiving cruise ships for
the first time Royal Caribbean I believe is already announced that they intend to
start revisiting the island at that time so between now and then I am going to
imagine that a lot of the let's say beachfront area that the cruise ship
tourists frequent will be cleaned up and there'll be some restoration done there
I'm sure it's a it's an absolute 24/7 scenario to to you know get up and
running and try to get some income coming cash flow coming into San Martin
for tourists I don't know what to tell you I don't know how how it's gonna work
out if you're a tourist and you get off the ship
in st. Maarten you may be really walking around looking at a lot of devastation
that you know a block or two off the meet beaten path exists and I don't know
if you want to see it or not or if you can't avoid to see it it'll be
interesting to see what what tourists say the next Island I want to talk about
is st. Thomas US Virgin Islands a ton of money and a ton of help has come into a
st. Thomas the National Guard FEMA they have really put the boots on the ground
there the talk is end of November for cruise ships same thing like like st.
Maarten and both st. Martin and and st. Thomas usually handle one and a half
million cruise ship passengers a year so this winter maybe it'll be half as
much we'll have to see I can imagine that you know December and January might
be light and then maybe February March April will be you know more back to
normal I don't know the condition of st. Thomas's attraction so for instance the
cable car ride I've done the video on that it's a beautiful view from up there
I don't know if it's up and running and or will be parts and and and how damaged
it was I don't know the structure on the top of the so-called house or the
building on the top of the right where they had the gazebo up there and they
had the bar and they had the tables the chairs you know has that been how badly
was that damaged and restored where is it in its restoration I don't know so
st. Thomas same thing is st. Martin they might be open for business but I don't
know if they can handle much and the vegetation was all destroyed and so
we're looking at like you know you're coming to an island where the week after
the hurricane passed it looked like it was the dead of winter without the snow
just you know sticks trees that were bushes that were fully you know covered
in leaves and flowers are just brown sticks are these plants dead are they
coming back will they come back I don't know so it'll be very interesting to see
the status of st. Thomas's st. Martin as we go forward
Puerto Rico man when is it end Puerto Rico is is sort of
a double sided coin in a way the port of Puerto Rico is functioning we've all
heard the stories about how container ships have been able to come into Puerto
Rico but they're having trouble getting like they get their containers off the
ships but then the containers don't get to the survivors with the goods inside
you know because of the bottlenecks but the cruise ship but business cruise
ships can can visit Puerto Rico right now I think Carnival has a cruise ship
coming in and off Kim coming in and out of San Juan Puerto Rico every week right
now so San Juan is technically open for business
but again the onshore experience may not be what you might enjoy you have to keep
in mind that if you get off a cruise ship in San Juan Puerto Rico say Thomas
or st. Maarten even if it's you know January February your daytime highs are
in the 80s and the humidity is quite up there quite high and if you're not used
to that kind of heat it could be a bit overwhelming and Puerto Rico you know
San Juan Puerto Rico is a lovely place to visit and it's great to go into a
local Starbucks for a coffee maybe or going to a you know shop selling
t-shirts or hats or whatever the souvenir items are but you get inside
the store it's air-conditioned and it's climate control it's wonderful right now
that's not gonna be the case a lot of these stores might be opened and they
may have fans they may not even have that it could be you know a bit
uncomfortable the Starbucks is I don't know if the Starbucks stores are open
and if they are whether they're functioning at full capacity or not I
sure hope they are I know they're racing to get things up and running I would
imagine that between now and the end of the year a lot of let's say San Juan
Puerto Rico that we would visit especially old town will look like it's
up and running and everything seems okay we would never think of taking a
two-hour bus tour into the interior of Puerto Rico from a cruise ship
maybe people today may want to see it you know seeing considering what we've
seen on the news but boy I wouldn't think it's a would be a pleasant
experience and I'm sorry for that boy I sure hope things get better in San Juan
Puerto Rico anyway there's a brief recap of some of the stops that have been you
know greatly affected the Bahamas are up and running the Caymans are fine the
Jamaica ports are fine Cuba apparently is up and running Havana they say
they're not been going no problem Mexico was unaffected so a lot of the Caribbean
ports are unaffected you'll have to look for cruise deals online see what the
pricing is and what they're about a number of cruise lines will continue to
update passengers on changes if a cruise was designed to go to st. Martin st.
Thomas and other ports they may or may not still be doing that even through
December and January so not every cruise is back to normal it might be a handful
and we'll see how the schedule goes but anyway that's a brief update today on
the cruise ship situation in the Caribbean it as you can see it can
fluctuate if another hurricane comes up late in the season hopefully not you
know there may be changes yet again the beauty of booking a cruise however
is if you're booked to depart on a cruise from say Fort Lauderdale the odds
are pretty good that it will leave Fort Lauderdale when it's supposed to unless
of course the hurricane makes a beeline for Florida obviously then all bets are
off but if a hurricane is not scheduled for Florida you will get on the cruise
on time and you may or may not go to the ports a call that you were hoping to get
to but you will get to ports of call and that's the beauty of a cruise ship it
can outrun any hurricane with their radar systems and guidance systems and
the head office watching off or all the weather and that type of thing
you're not going to ever run into a situation where you're in a hurricane
and our cruise ship don't even think that's a possibility
so cruising is is a safe way to go and this winter there'll be a number of
wonderful cruises in the Caribbean that will be taking place the question is
exactly where will the cruise ships head for and by next year yeah by next summer
and fall of all of these Caribbean that were hit badly will likely be back
up and running and will accept the cruise ships no problem
and these these Island attractions will be back up and running - so the rebuild
is on and the recovery is on and hopefully cross our fingers things will
be back to normal shortly all right this is Bruce with
traveling with Bruce thanks for watching today if you liked the video give me a
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I'll get back to you thanks for watching we'll see you next time on traveling
with Bruce bye bye