Gene Sloan, USA TODAY 10:01 p.m. EDT October 1, 2015
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Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center expect that Hurricane Joaquin will strengthen to a Category 4 storm by early Friday morning.
A growing Hurricane Joaquin has forced cruise ships carrying more than 25,000 vacationers to alter course as it barrels across the Bahamas.
Cruise giant Carnival said two of its ships, the 2,124-passenger Carnival Pride and 2,974-passenger Carnival Valor, skipped calls scheduled for Thursday in Half Moon Cay, Bahamas and Grand Turk, respectively. Both of the vessels remained at sea as they moved to avoid the Category 4 storm.
Two more Carnival ships, the 2.974-passenger Carnival Conquest and 2,052-passenger Carnival Sensation, will skip calls scheduled for Friday in Grand Turk and Nassau, Bahamas, respectively. The Conquest will remain at sea while the Sensation heads to Freeport, Bahamas.
Also changing course is Norwegian Cruise Line’s 4,000-passenger Norwegian Getaway, which will forgo a port call planned for Nassau on Friday to avoid the storm, instead remaining at sea.
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Joaquin also is affecting several ships from Disney Cruise Line. The 1,754-passenger Disney Magic has been re-routed to the Western Caribbean instead of the Bahamas. The ship will visit Key West, Fla. and Cozumel, Mexico on Thursday and Friday, respectively, instead of Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island in the Bahamas, and Nassau. The 2,500-passenger Disney Dream will skip a call in Nassau scheduled for Friday, while the 2,500-passenger Disney Fantasy will drop a call at Castaway Cay.
Princess Cruises’ 3,600-passenger Royal Princess missed a call Wednesday at the line’s private island in the Bahamas, Princess Cays, due to the storm and will miss a second call at the island scheduled for Friday.
Also operating ships calling in the Bahamas this week is Royal Caribbean. Spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez on Thursday told USA TODAY the line was monitoring the situation but had made no changes to itineraries.
As of 8:00 PM ET Thursday, Joaquin was about 75 miles south of San Salvador, Bahamas and moving to the west-southwest at five miles per hour. The hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour, up significantly from Wednesday.
Calling Joaquin an ‘extremely dangerous’ storm, the National Hurricane Center said the hurricane could strengthen over the next 24 hours as it lingers in the Bahamas. The Center forecasts the storm eventually will turn northward towards the East Coast of the United States, where it could make landfall.
For a deck-by-deck tour of the biggest of the ships affected by the storm, Norwegian Getaway, click through the carousel below.
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