When Hurricane Irma struck last September, 16 of Carnival's cruise ships were sailing the Caribbean. The Carnival team scrambled to reroute ships, rebook passengers embarking or debarking, and set up new port calls out of harm's way.
Next time a storm threatens, the task will be easier, thanks to a new, state-of-the-art fleet operations centre that tracks weather, ship location, engine performance, fuel supplies, safety systems and dozens of other data points from all 26 ships in the Carnival fleet, plus outside sources such as the US Coast Guard and the US National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration.