Disney Fantasy cancels call to BVI due to Tropical Storm Dorian

Disney Fantasy cruise ship has cancelled its August 27 call to the territory because of Tropical Storm Dorian.

Assistant Operations Manager of the BVI Ports Authority (BVIPA) Joel Jones made the announcement on Monday, stating that the cruise vessel was the only ship scheduled to visit the territory this week.

“We didn’t get any further cancellations. Only that one cancellation came in so far … We don’t dictate the cancellations. The cruise lines do an assessment and if they figure it’s too much risk, then they will send the cancellation,” Jones explained in an interview with BVI News.

He, however, said there is still a possibility the cruise ship will reschedule that call to the BVI once the weather system has passed.

“They might [reschedule] but we’ll have to wait for confirmation from them. That’s what they probably will do because they will have to cancel a whole bunch of islands. So they are probably rerouting and maybe on their way back will notify us. And once we have space, we will approve the berth,” Jones added.

He said the BVIPA made an early public announcement of the ship’s cancellation because it wanted to reduce the impact the cruise vessel’s absence will have on local businesses who were anticipating its arrival.

“Once we warn everyone in time, there shouldn’t be a huge impact for them because then they wouldn’t have workers out there who come to work and open up their business for that day. So that’s why we warned them that there will be no cruise ship so everybody can rearrange themselves.”

Current forecast for Dorian and BVI

The Department of Disaster Management (DDM) said the BVI could begin experiencing wind gusts as early as Tuesday evening, August 27.

Though Tropical Storm Dorian is forecast to potentially be near hurricane strength by Tuesday or Wednesday, the weather system is not expected to make a direct impact with the British Virgin Islands.

At 5 o’clock Monday morning, August 26, the centre of the storm was located near latitude 11.9 degrees North and longitude 56.4 degrees West. Dorian was moving in a westerly direction near 14 miles per hour. Its maximum sustained winds are said to have increased to near 60 miles per hour with higher gusts.

“A turn toward the west-northwest is expected later today, with this motion continuing through Tuesday night. On the forecast track, the centre of Dorian is expected to be near the Windward Islands late today and tonight and move into the eastern Caribbean Sea on Tuesday,” the DDM said.