Hurricane Sandy forces more cruise ships to re-route

Hurricane Sandy is forcing more cruise ships to shift course as it barrels toward the East Coast of the USA.

Industry giant Carnival says the New York-based Carnival Miracle is skipping today's call in Grand Turk as it races home ahead of the storm. The ship also skipped a call Thursday in St. Thomas.

Also steaming northward ahead of the storm are the Baltimore-based Carnival Pride, Norfolk, Va.-based Carnival Glory and Charleston, S.C.-based Carnival Fantasy.

Both the Carnival Pride and Carnival Glory will stop today in Port Canaveral, Fla. instead of Freeport, Bahamas. The Carnival Fantasy spent Thursday at sea instead of stopping at Freeport.

Two other New York-based ships, Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Jewel and Norwegian Gem, also are heading northward ahead of the storm. The Norwegian Jewel will call in Norfolk today instead of the more southerly Charleston, while the Norwegian Gem is skipping a call today in Samana, Dominican Republic as it heads northward.

Another Norwegian ship, the Miami-based Norwegian Sky, will arrive home today slightly later than scheduled, and it's next voyage will begin tonight slightly behind scheduled.

The changes are just the latest for cruise ships sailing to the Caribbean and the Bahamas this week. More than half a dozen other vessels including the Norwegian Pearl, Norwegian Jewel, Disney Dream, Disney Fantasy, Carnival Valor, Carnival Fascination and Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas also dropped or switched port calls over the past four days as Sandy moved northward from Jamaica to the Bahamas.

As of 8 am ET, Sandy was about 15 miles east of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas and heading to the northwest at about 10 miles per hour. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour.

The National Hurricane Center expects Sandy to move northward toward the East Coast of the USA over the next few days.