I am in the process of booking a cruise for a couple for their honeymoon. I just phoned one of the cruise lines who informed me that their ships are not sailing to Aruba because there was significant damage done to the island last year. He said they are in the process of rebuilding, but the ships have been cancelled there. Can you tell me more about the significant damage he was speaking of and the targeted timeframe that things will be up and running. There wedding is in July 06. Thankx much.

KC
I don't know who you spoke to at what cruise line but they were not correct. My husband and I were in Aruba this past Nov and there WAS NOT any damage that we observed at all!!!!! In addition there were cruise ships in port almost every day that we were there!!! Someone gave you misinformation. There is no "hurricane damage" in Aruba at all!!!!!! There is lots of building going on in Aruba but it is not rebuilding, just general land development.

Dear KC:
Not sure where you got the information from but Aruba is alive and extremely well. We were just there from 1/1/06-1/8/06. There were tons of cruise ships going in and out. We saw Princess and Carnival. What one were you thinking of taking??

Sounds like bologna to me. For one thing, Aruba is out of the hurricane belt, so unlikely to suffer any effects from that. They got more rain than usual last year because of the hurricanes and tropical storms, though. I was just there in December (and August), and the cruise ships were coming in normally. Perhaps you are thinking about Grand Cayman who really got pummeled two years ago.

There was no damage in Aruba from the 2005 hurricanes. Aruba is not in the hurricane belt. What cruise line?

Just came back from Aruba on 1/12 and am returning on 2/5..Didn't see any hurricane damage there as Aruba is not in the hurricane belt..There were plenty of cruise ships in the week we were there and not one of them had any problem docking. The island is still up and running...perhaps this person has it confused with the Cayman Islands which did get damage.

First let me say, there was no damage to the port of Aruba from any hurricane and as a matter of fact there were more cruise ships visiting the island this past autumn because they couldn't go to Cancun. Everything in Aruba is fine.

The person you spoke to was obviously confused. Aruba has not suffered any consequences from hurricanes last year. As a matter of fact, Aruba is not even within the hurricane belt and never had a hurricane in history !!

The only thing that comes to mind back in Oct. when we were there we had about 3 days of very heavy surf (yes even in Arbua) it was explained that there were some pretty bad storms off the coast and the winds had changed direction. It had brought tons of seaweed up onto the beaches it was a mess. The resorts actually brought bulldozers in to clean up. Could not go in the water the surf was so bad. I don't think the effects would be that great to cancell ships. In fact the ships were still coming in.

I was just told by my wedding coordinator that Baby Beach was ruined by the hurricane season. Maybe just that part of the island was damaged.