A late-season cyclone, Cyclone Cook, has disrupted cruises from Australia and New Zealand.
According to Cruise Critic, Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas cancelled Monday’s call at the Isles of Pines in New Caledonia Monday, instead spending the day at sea. The ship had been sailing on a 13-night South Pacific and Fiji itinerary that departed Sydney April 6. The rest of the cruise is set to proceed as scheduled.
Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Spirit was forced to cancel both of the ports on its scheduled seven-night Pacific Islands itinerary, which departed Sydney on April 7. The ship replaced a scheduled call at Noumea with a sea day, while Tuesday’s call at the Isle of Pines was dropped in favor of a call at Moreton Island off the coast of Queensland.
The storm hit the South Pacific island of Vanuatu over the weekend, according to Radio New Zealand.
The storm then hit New Caledonia early Tuesday morning, the New Zealand Herald reports, as a category 3 storm, injuring four and leaving thousands without power. According to the latest forecasts the storm is set to move over the eastern parts of New Zealand late this week, including a direct track over the East Cape.
Cyclone Debbie
The move comes one month after another strong storm, Cyclone Debbie, hit Australia, causing damage to several popular resorts.
The storm prompted the Daydream Island Resort and Spa in The Whitsundays to close for more than a year, myGC reports. The resort is currently set to reopen in mid-2018 after the storm damage prompted resort officials to bring forward a previously scheduled $50 million redevelopment project.
Carnival Australia Executive Chairman Ann Sherry pledged that cruise tourism would play a “significant part” in Queensland’s economic recovery following Cyclone Debbie, according to a statement from the line. Sherry made the comments during an inspection of areas affected by last month’s storm.