Carnival Cruise Line ship pivots to avoid Hurricane Barbara
As the first hurricane of the season formed, Carnival Cruise Line made a smart change to keep passengers both safe and happy.
The 2025 hurricane season is getting off to a busy start, but not where you’d probably expect.
Although the National Hurricane Center is not yet reporting any tropical disturbances in the Atlantic, the eastern Pacific is already on its third named storm.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line gives hurricane season update for cruisers
The Pacific hurricane season starts slightly earlier than the Atlantic one, but the first named storm usually doesn’t come until around June 10. This year, three storms formed prior to that date, including the season’s first hurricane.
Hurricane Barbara became the first hurricane of the 2025 eastern Pacific hurricane season on June 9, with Tropical Storm Cosme following right behind it and expected to intensify.
Most Pacific storms track away from land and move westward out to sea, but so far this season, storms seem to be sticking a little closer to land than usual.
Because of this, Carnival Cruise Line, which sails regular Mexican Riviera cruises from Long Beach, Calif., is making some proactive changes.
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Carnival Cruise Line makes proactive changes to avoid hurricane impacts
Although passengers often hear most often about weather-related itinerary changes for Caribbean cruises, Carnival’s Fleet Operations Center and its captains are always on top of the weather in any region where the cruise line’s ships are sailing.
“We give due care and attention and we'll always keep everybody safe whether you're sailing from Miami, Port Canaveral, or indeed Long Beach, or anywhere else that we cruise from,” Carnival Cruise Line Brand Ambassador John Heald recently shared in a video he posted on his Facebook page.
Related: New travel alert issued for Carnival, Royal Caribbean cruise port
To provide an example of how Carnival prioritizes both passenger safety and satisfaction, Heald explained to his followers how the cruise line and Carnival Panorama’s Captain Carlo made proactive changes to the ship’s June 7-15 Mexican Riviera cruise itinerary.
In his video, Heald read a message that Captain Carlo provided to Carnival Panorama passengers on June 8.
“In partnership with our Fleet Operations Center in Miami, we are actively monitoring Tropical Storm Barbara and other tropical systems which have developed in the Pacific. Given the current track of both storms we must modify our itinerary to remain a safe distance away,” Captain Carlo explained to passengers.
Carnival Panorama passengers get best-case scenario hurricane itinerary change
Although modified itineraries can often mean missed ports of call and passenger disappointment, this shouldn’t be the case for this sailing. The captain planned to reverse the order of the four ports on the cruise itinerary to avoid poor weather while also taking passengers to all the ports they hoped to visit.
“I am happy, however, to let you know that at this time we are planning to visit all of the original ports with Cabo on Monday, La Paz on Tuesday, Mazatlan Wednesday, and Puerto Vallarta Thursday, and we will continue to monitor weather forecasts and provide updates,” Captain Carlo told passengers.
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John Heald explained to his followers that this was a best-case scenario when it comes to a hurricane season itinerary change.
“In this case, the captain with the Fleet Operations Center was enabled to juggle the ports around and do a reverse itinerary giving everybody the itinerary they wanted, but most importantly, keeping everybody safe. And that will ultimately be what we try and do. Not always going to be possible to give the same ports, but we will certainly always try,” Heald explained.
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