Hurricane Helene was upgraded to a Category 3 storm Thursday as it barreled towards landfall in northwestern Florida, and the storm system has disrupted both land and cruise travel in the area.
Tampa, Tallahassee and Clearwater, Fla., airports were closed Thursday, according to the Associated Press. According to FlightAware, as of Thursday evening 18% of flights into and 15% of outbound flights at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport were delayed.
Operational updates at Orlando theme parks
Most of Walt Disney World continued to operate as usual Thursday, but the theme park said that its Typhoon Lagoon water park would be closed, as well as miniature golf courses. The Mickey Not So Scary Halloween Party was canceled; Disney said guest tickets would be refunded.
At Universal Studios Orlando,Halloween Horror Nights was canceled and Volcano Bay was closed. The Universal CityWalk planned to close early, at 8 p.m.
Cruise lines make changes
Cruise lines began altering sailings due to Helene.
Carnival Cruise Line said that the ports of Tampa, Jacksonville and Port Canaveral were closed and that the Carnival Paradise and Carnival Elation, which were scheduled to return to Tampa and Jacksonville, respectively, would stay out to sea. The line said both vessels were a safe distance from the storm but that they could not return to port until the ports reopened and a post-storm assessment had been conducted. "We are tentatively anticipating sometime Friday, Sept. 27, possibly Saturday, Sept. 28" for the ships to return to their homeports, Carnival said.
The line urged passengers on the Sept. 26 departures of the Elation and Paradise to sign up for text alerts about their voyages by texting CCL1 for the Elation and CCL2 for the Paradise to 278743.
It updated its sailing information for the Carnival Glory,
which was scheduled to return to Port Canaveral on Friday, Sept. 27 morning. It
said it expected the ship would return "sometime" on Friday and that
passengers scheduled to depart on the Friday cruise should text CCL3
to 278743 for updates.
Carnival also said PortMiami was open but that local pilots were not being allowed to operate until Friday morning. This impacted the departure of the Carnival Sunrise; Carnival said the ship was embarking but would remain docked in Miami until conditions improved Friday.
The closure of Port Canaveral also forced MSC Cruises' MSC Seashore to delay its return to port. The Seashore's Thursday departure was rescheduled to Friday.
At Royal Caribbean International, several ships bound for the Western Caribbean replaced calls to Cozumel and Costa Maya with calls in the Bahamas and the Eastern Caribbean.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holding brands Norwegian Cruise Line, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Oceania Cruises said none of their itineraries were impacted by Helene.
Resorts in Cozumel and Cancun were pelted with rain, high waves and strong winds on Wednesday, the AP reported.
This is a developing story. It was last updated Sept. 26 at 5:40 p.m.