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All Things Travel: Hurricane Sandy

BOSTON (CBS) – Travel plans at Logan Airport and Black Falcon Cruise Terminal were starting to change on Sunday afternoon.

With the big storm Sandy on the horizon and rain starting to fall, a major shift in the itinerary for the Royal Caribbean "Jewel of The Seas" was in the planning stage for the 2,500 passengers and 860 crew members.

Bob Weiss

The ship will ride out Sandy docked at the Boston cruise terminal.

Instead of sailing south into the storm, the ship will be tied up at the cruise terminal through Tuesday.  The route of the ship will change. Passengers will most likely receive some sort of credit on board. While in port, the ship's casino will remain closed.

The departure of "Jewel of The Seas" caps a record year for Massport that runs the cruise terminal as well as the Boston airport.

This year nearly 350,0000 cruise passengers sailed in and out of BostonHarbor compared to 310,000 passengers in 2011. Hundreds of people taking the cruise stayed in Boston for a day or more before boarding the ship.

This season 60 percent of  cruise passengers began and ended their trips at The Port of Boston. For the first time, Carnival Cruise Line used Boston for a departure point to ports in Canada. Carnival has already announced a similar schedule in 2013. Other major cruise lines serving Boston are Holland America and NCL.

The trade association, Cruise Line International Association, estimated that cruise spending generated $438 million of business and helped generate 7,500 jobs in 2011. That figure will be at least 10 percent higher this year.

Next year 115 ship calls have been scheduled to date. Royal Caribbean will replace "The Jewel" with the "Brilliance of The Seas" and both Carnival and Holland America will add more Canada and New England cruises.

Meanwhile, it was the usual busy Sunday afternoon at Logan Airport. JetBlue and US Airways had a few cancellations to northeast airports with many more cancellations expected to be announced this evening as Sandy approached.

Logan Airport is also on schedule to handle a record number of passengers totaling over 29 million this year.

All Things Travel Reports can be heard on WBZ News radio

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