The Rainiest Months to Cruise: A Port-by-Port Weather Breakdown
Cruise fares swing by season, and so does your chance of a washed-out port day. We analyzed historical climate data for major cruise ports to find the driest and wettest months to sail each region.
Key findings
- The Caribbean is about 2.9× rainier in September than in the driest stretch: an average of 14.5 rainy days versus 5.
- Cozumel goes from 4 rainy days in March to 16 in September, and September is also peak hurricane season.
- Ketchikan is the rainiest cruise port we measured (~18.1 rainy days/month), while Skagway, often a stop on the same Alaska itinerary, gets only ~10.4.
Caribbean cruise ports: average rainy days by month
| Port | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cozumel | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 16 | 13 | 7 | 6 |
| Nassau | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 11 | 7 | 5 |
| St. Maarten / St. Martin | 9 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 13 | 10 | 9 |
| Grand Cayman | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 7 | 5 |
| Average | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7.8 | 11 | 11.5 | 13 | 14.5 | 12 | 7.8 | 6.3 |
September's rain lines up with peak hurricane season. Book late winter through spring for the driest Caribbean sailing.
Alaska cruise ports: how wet, really?
| Port | Annual avg rainy days/mo | Peak season (Jun–Aug) |
|---|---|---|
| Ketchikanrainiest | 18.1 | 16.7 |
| Juneau | 17.3 | 15.3 |
| Skagwaydriest | 10.4 | 11 |
Every Alaska itinerary is rainy, but the spread is real. If a dry-ish day matters, plan your big excursion for the Skagway stop. June is typically the driest month of the Alaska cruise season.
Mediterranean: the crowd-vs-weather trade
Santorini sees near-zero rain in July and August, though that is also peak heat and peak crowds. The shoulder months are the smart pick: May and September stay warm and dry with far thinner crowds.
The Travel Forecast Score
Every cruise gets a Travel Forecast Score: one easy number, from 0 to 100, that tells you how good the weather looks for that trip. The higher the number, the better the weather. The sun fills in as the score rises:
Five things go into the score for each port you visit:
- Rain — how likely it is to rain. This one counts the most.
- Warmth — how comfortable the temperature feels, including humidity. Muggy heat scores lower than dry heat at the same temperature, because it actually feels hotter than the thermometer says.
- Sunshine — how much sun you can expect.
- Wind — mainly matters at ports where a small tender boat ferries passengers ashore. Stronger wind can delay or cancel that, so a breezy forecast pulls the score down a bit.
- Storm-season risk— during hurricane season in the Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, and Hawaii, we lower the score for the affected months and ports. Storm season means a real chance of itinerary changes even on a day that otherwise looks warm and dry, so the score reflects that risk, not just the day's temperature and rain chance.
We do that for every port on your cruise and average them into the one score you see. Closer to your sailing date the score uses the live forecast; further out, it uses what the weather (and storm risk) is usually like at that time of year.
Bands: 90+ Excellent · 80–89 Great · 70–79 Good · 60–69 Fair · under 60 Mixed.
Methodology
Figures are historical climate averages (typical rainy days per month) for each port, compiled by Travel Forecast from public climate records. A “rainy day” is a day with measurable precipitation. Caribbean averages are the mean across our curated Caribbean and Bahamas ports. Full month-by-month data, temperatures, and a live 15-day forecast for every port are on the destinations pages.
Published 2026-06-07 · Travel Forecast · Cite with a link to this page.