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The Biggest Travel Villain of 2011 Is...

It's that time of the year again, the time when the year just plain ends. Alas, we can't just let 2011 go that easily, especially since travelers spent it both up in the air and up in arms over a crazy range of topics, encompassing everything from nudie scans to tarmac delays. Needless to say, we're ready for 2012, but first we're taking a brief look back at the best of 2011 with the Jaunted Travel Awards,—or as we fondly refer to them—The Jauntys.

Do you think we're going to say "TSA" for this year's biggest travel villain? Truthfully, we were tempted but they won the title in 2010 and it's time to move on. For 2011, the single biggest villain keeping travelers from where they wanted to go were...natural disasters.

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Weather / Cancun Travel / Travel Alerts / Hurricanes / Mexico Travel / Riviera Maya Travel / → All Tags

Hurricane Rina Heads for Cancun, Cuba

Update 10/27: Good news! Hurricane Rina should be downgraded to a Tropical Storm and will likely only make it as far as Cuba. Nonetheless, the projected path continues to change. Follow updates here.

Just in case you don't instinctively flip to the Weather Channel during TV commercial breaks, we should tell you that this weekend is probably not the best time to be vacationing in Cancun, the rest of the Riviera Maya, and even in the Florida Keys as Hurricane Rina bears down on the vacation destinations.

As a result of the impending arrival of 80-40mph winds and potentially damaging Category 2 hurricane, cruise ships in the area have shifted their routes and airlines are offering rebooking for those traveling into the storm. An example is JetBlue, who have the alert clearly stated at the top of their website, and the full rebooking details here.

The worst of the storm is due to land on Cozumel and Cancun tomorrow, while it'll take until the weekend to dampen the Florida Keys* (see update above). Thankfully it's only a Category 2 (for now), so tourists already enjoying the sun and who don't mind weather disruptions, shouldn't be worried for their lives. The real threat is to those still planning on travel during the storm days, as they'll likely just end up sleeping on airport floors.

[Photo: Weather Channel]

Hurricanes / Hurricane Irene / JetBlue / Airplanes / Weather Travel / JFK / Airplane News / Airline News / → All Tags

When a Hurricane Threatens, Airplanes Go Into Hiding

In just a few hours, New York City's airports should be back up and functioning somewhat normally after a weekend of shut down due to the threat posed by Hurricane Irene. Thankfully the airports are still around at all, since New York did not get as hard as everyone expected, even though JFK lies way out in the mandatory evacuation zone.

In order to get flights heading out on schedule, airlines must fling their planes back to the airports in the first place. You see, when a severe storm approaches such as a hurricane, an effort is made to clear the airport of planes and put them into "hiding" at other airports as much as possible. Nobody wants to see an overturned or damaged multi-million dollar flying machine after some wind and rain.

During Irene, one of the airlines most transparent about their emergency procedures was JetBlue. Not only are they being proactive about rebooking customers on Twitter (just have a look at their feed), but their COO Rob Maruster shared this pic of a deserted Terminal 5 at JFK with storm clouds overhead.

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Louisiana Travel / Museum Travel / Weather Travel / Hurricanes / → All Tags

The National Hurricane Museum is Looking Pretty Good on Paper

Hopefully you got enough hurricane action this week to hold you over for a long time, but if not there’s always the National Hurricane Museum and Science Center. Here you can relive some of Mother Nature’s fury through interactive exhibits all while remaining safe and sound—and dry!

The only issue is that the place isn’t open yet, as they’re still trying to raise enough funding to debut the place in Lake Charles, Louisiana. There’s a vote this fall for residents to give their blessing to build the place on the downtown lakefront, but in the interim they’d love a donation or two.

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Is Your Weekend in the Projected Path of Hurricane Earl?

The weather is still dry here in New York City, even though weathermen promised that the wrath of Hurricane Earl would be felt in high winds and heavy rain by now. Earl, however, seems a bit late to our Labor Day long weekend and we hope he doesn't come to the picnic at all.

According to the Weather Channel, the hurricane has decreased to a Category 2-level storm, but that doesn't mean that it'll end up being just a nice summer rainstorm by the time it hits Cape Cod Saturday. Luckily for everyone, Earl has kept far enough off the coast to only generate wind, rain and waves and none of the scary stuff that makes you fear your house could fall around you. Peak winds are 105 mph, but that's offshore.

The estimated hurricane path for the weekend has a fraction of that wind speed hitting the east coast above Long Island, until the bulk of the beast enters right into Canada's Bay of Fundy, between the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, bringing only 65 mph winds with it at that point. Earl has already done his damage to North Carolina and the Outer Banks, causing storm surge waves to wreck piers and flood roads.

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Hurricane Earl Sets Its Sights on the Outer Banks, Jersey Shore and NYC

Now that Hurricane Danielle is out of the picture and out of the way of ruining vacations of people in Bermuda, we're tracking the progression of the next big Atlantic storm, one which could possibly do much, much more damage and throw the best-laid summer plans off track. It's Hurricane Earl, and he's coming for more than just the Bahamas; Earl is on course to hit the east coast over this upcoming weekend.

With the Turks and Caicos islands currently under a Hurricane warning, many cruise lines have altered their itineraries away from the Bahamas and the northbound path of the storm. Next up, North Carolina's Outer Banks will be bracing for the onslaught of 120mph winds and more, if Earl keeps it up. Following that, we can expect the Hurricane to hit the Jersey Shore and New York City early Saturday and Cape Code, MA slightly after, when the winds die down to less insane levels of somewhere around 60-70mph. Even though that's still plenty insane.

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The Atlantic Ocean's First Hurricane of the Season Heads for Bermuda

Somewhere off the coast of Bermuda right now, the winds are ripping and the waves are threatening. Hurricane Danielle is churning out in the Atlantic Ocean, and as the first hurricane of the Atlantic storm season and the fourth named storm overall, she won't be the last hurricane to hit the news.

The real question is if Danielle's 130mph winds will hurt tourism to Bermuda. Luckily, it looks the island famous for its pink sands will remain just out of Danielle's reach as the hurricane bypasses it on the east. There will be some weather consequences however, and flights to Bermuda this weekend could encounter some turbulence.

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Hurricane Ida Is In Your Caribbean, Messing With Your Cruises

You know the cruising season has begun when the hurricanes and tropical storms lay into the Caribbean; it's just a hazard of the peak season. Still, this week we've been watching the progress of Hurricane Ida, which began way down in Central America and worked its way due north, eroding beaches in Cozumel and Grand Cayman before just not being downgraded back to Tropical Storm in advance of landfall in Mississippi.

Most affected by the storm were two inaugural sailings of Carnival ships, the Fantasy and Triumph from new home ports of Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, respectively. According to CruiseCritic, each voyage is now delayed by a day, turning a 6-nighter into 5 and Triumph's 4-nighter into 3 with no port calls; it's now a "cruise to nowhere."

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Hurricane Rick Swatting Cruise Ships Out Of The Way En Route To Baja

If there is something we know about traveling during the late summer thru early fall, it's to buy trip insurance. We're sure some cruisers and Baja vacationers will be finding out the importance of such policies as Hurricane Rick hits Baja Mexico and diverts ships away from holiday ports in order to avoid the 100 mph winds.

Although Rick has already crested in strength and now it peters down to a category 3 hurricane, let us remember that having a category anything storm crash your beach holiday is never positive. Judging the infographic above, Rick is zeroing in on Mexico like a frat boy with fantasies of cheap Patron. With the storm due off the coast from late today through early tomorrow, cruise ships are skipping visits to Mazatlan and possibly even Cabo San Lucas, adding insult to injury for the city that counts on these near-daily cruise ship calls.

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Hurricane Bill Huffs And Puffs, But Doesn't Blow Much Down

We were finishing off some time on the Outer Banks of North Carolina when Hurricane Bill decided to blow by the beaches these last few days. Although it definitely stirred things up and limited our sun intake over the weekend, we didn’t see any direct damage overall. However, we did notice some lifeguards downing a couple cheeseburgers now that the no swimming flags were doing their jobs for them.

A trip into the waves on Thursday evening off Cape Hatteras resulted in an immediate face plant into the sand. Friday brought out the riptide warnings and the surfers, and by Saturday we knew better than to venture out into the water. We didn't have our tape measures with us, but we'd say the waves approached ten feet. Instead we spent most of the afternoon on the land, perusing shops perfectly suited for grandparents.

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A Serious Storm Is A-Brewin' Off The Hawaiian Islands

If you’re hanging out in Hawaii this week, please make sure your tropical umbrella drink is securely placed in a cup holder. Paradise is going to be a little stormy over the next few days as Tropical Storm Felicia nears the Aloha State. The storm was hurricane strength over the weekend, but it has slowly lost its mojo. Still, a tropical storm is serious, so visitors should still be cautious heading out into the surf and keep watch for rip currents.

Despite some beaches being closed on the Big Island, we’re thinking that passionate surfers aren’t going to heed these warnings. After all, the bigger the storm, the bigger the waves.

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Paloma Threatening The Caribbean, Airlines On The Ball

And you thought hurricane season was over! Nope, it technically runs until the end of November, which is why we shouldn't be too surprised to see Paloma threatening Cuba. The island has already endured direct hits from Ike and Gustav this year, and Paloma may be just as strong when it makes landfall.

The storm is already drenching the Cayman Islands, and it's forecast to reach the Bahamas by Monday. Paloma is headed northeast, so it most likely won't be hitting the United States.

Airlines, which this hurricane season were admirably quick to make special arrangements when hurricanes threatened, are again on the ball. American has a special webpage up about the storm's impact. US Airways has a similar page, as does Continental.

Related Stories:
· Hurricane Paloma Powers Up [AFP, via Google]
· Hurricanes of 2008 coverage [Jaunted]