A storm system sweeping across Virginia has delayed the departure of a Carnival Cruise Line ship on Sunday.
Carnival Sunshine’s scheduled departure from Norfolk’s cruise port has been postponed after arriving in the port on Sunday following an 8-day Eastern Caribbean voyage. The 3,000-passenger ship was originally slated to depart on a 6-day Bahamas itinerary on Sunday afternoon.
Carnival Cruise Line has announced that the departure has been rescheduled for 7:00 a.m. Monday. This adjustment is a direct result of a cold front currently moving across the area, bringing with it adverse weather conditions that have already impacted a large portion of the United States.
“We are monitoring a cold front which is impacting the Norfolk area,” stated Caro Ferrer, senior manager of communications for Carnival Cruise Line. “The storm is now producing strong winds and rain that require us to delay our departure.”
The decision to delay the departure was made to ensure the safety of passengers and crew. While the debarkation of previous passengers and the boarding of new passengers proceeded as scheduled on Sunday, the storm forced the cruise line to change the departure timing.
Carnival Removes a Port from Sunshine’s Schedule
According to Carnival, one of the planned stops in the Bahamas will be canceled. While Ferrer confirmed the itinerary alteration, the specific port of call to be removed has not yet been disclosed officially.
Three ports of call had been on Sunshine’s itinerary for this 6-day voyage which included Nassau, Bimini, and Freeport. With Nassau’s visit scheduled for Tuesday, combined with some reports from announcements on board the ship, it’s likely that it will be the port that is skipped. In this case the ship would head straight to Bimini for its Wednesday visit.
The ship is scheduled to arrive back in Norfolk on March 22 when an 8-day sailing will begin on the vessel.
At the time of this writing, Norfolk is experiencing winds of 20mph with some gusts up to 34mph, according to Wind Alert.
Itineraries for cruise ships are always subject to change due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances as the safety of passengers comes first.
Carnival Sunshine has only been sailing out of Norfolk as a homeport since last month. The ship has recently been repositioned from Charleston, after the cruise line’s contract expired with the South Carolina port.
