The Flagg Agency

UPDATE 8 a.m. 9/8/11

Hurricane Katia is heading out to sea and as of this moment does not look like it will affect any cruises this weekend. It may be a bit more choppy for this taking New England/Canada cruises, but there are no schedule changes to report. We will continue to monitor this storm and will post any changes should there be any. Otherwise this is the last update on the impact of Katia on cruises.

We are coming into the peak of the 2011 hurricane season as Hurricane Irene has been taking a path through Puerto Rico and through the islands of the Bahamas. Now it appears that the outer banks of North Carolina and New York City are facing a direct hit. Every cruise line with a ship in the Caribbean has been affected. Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Line were the first lines to announce changes and updates, now Celebrity and Holland America have issued changes as well.

Tropical Storm Irene as of 5pm 8-28-11

UPDATE 7 p.m. EDT 8/28/11

You should expect that many of the private islands in the Bahamas to have suffered some damage because of the storm. I will try to keep you updated as I hear of any updates, but like I have said before you need to be flexible when you cruise during hurricane season.

• Royal Caribbean’s CocoCay will be closed to port calls for the next few cruises
• Norwegian Cruise Line’s Great Stirrup Cay may have suffered some damage but I have not seen an official report as of yet.

Sometimes we get an email or a phone call from someone who has booked their cruise with someone else and now has more questions. When they are calling us, they are not getting the answers they need from the place they booked. When it comes to the cruise portion of their trip, we honestly have to refer all questions back to agent with whom they originally booked. We cannot make changes to a reservation either booked direct with the cruise line or with another agency. (By the way, Travelocity, Expedia, etc. are all travel agencies.)

While speaking in Attkinson, IL, President Obama was taking part in a Q&A session. As part of his answer to one particular question, the president made the following statement )at about 44:33 on the video):

…when was the last time somebody went to a bank teller instead of using the ATM, or used a travel agent instead of just going online?  A lot of jobs that used to be out there requiring people now have become automated. (This is viewed in the video above which goes on for about 30 seconds)