Is my cruise vacation safe? A port strike is affecting 36 ports, but the Longshoremen group isn't striking against cruise lines or military operations

Long lines of container ships queued up outside major U.S. ports on Thursday as the biggest dockworker strike in nearly half a century entered its third day preventing unloading and threatening shortages of everything from bananas to auto parts.

Holiday shoppers should get ahead on their purchases before the supply chain disruptions tied to the port strike begin to hinder business operations, an expert says.