LadyFureya

First night, the cruise compass WILL say no shorts in the dining room for men, and exactly 50% of men will be wearing shorts in the dining room. Most of them are cargo shorts with polo shirts. Nobody will say a thing

Formal night last night, I didn't see any shorts. Maybe 5% of men were wearing jeans.

My book, a drink, and laying in the breeze enjoying both without dealing with the poolside crowds

I-45 Report from today after getting off Liberty of the Seas:

 

Its actually hard to tell a hurricane/flooding occurred in Houston or Galveston County except for long lines around storage facilities. All the gasoline stations in Galveston on Harborside had gas w/o lines. Seemed like a majority of gas stations all the way up to the Dallas southern suburbs had gasoline at least near I-45. If you are still considering heading out for a cruise this weekend I think its a GO!

Good to hear, thanks for the update! Sounds like they're keeping the stations on the main roads stocked for the holiday weekend. Most of the stations near me in DFW northern suburbs are still empty, but we're gonna head on out tomorrow!

 

My apologies LadyF for doubting you!:confused: Lesson learned...don't let the tank get lower than 1/2.

 

Hey it's all good! Just trying to help out. I had no idea that other areas outside of DFW were going to be affected. This week has just been a rollercoaster of emotions regarding everything going on and whether or not we're going to be making it to this cruise! I haven't even started packing yet since it's been so uncertain all along!

This morning everyone on social media (immediately after filling their OWN tanks up) are yelling at each other about filling up and how we're all causing our own problems. People tend to look out for themselves first....that's just human nature!

I had a Grand Suite on the Allure which was an outward facing balcony. Great room, but once I hung out in the boardwalk balcony room with some friends, I was SUPER jealous! Also the Central Park balcony rooms were excellent as well. You're going to love your balcony! I found that when the ship was moving, I spent no time on my balcony but theirs was still usable during that time. If you lucked out, some of the rooms have oversized balconys compared to others, based on where they are positioned in the ship, but these usually get reserved first by those who know.

Cocktail dresses are just fine for formal night. You can get away with a maxi dress and accessories pretty easily too. I wouldn't stress about it. There WILL be people dressed to the nines and with tuxedos, but this is getting rarer and rarer.

Yeah there's definitely no shortage, that's the wrong word, but it's a bottleneck being exacerbated by the news, social media, people panicking, and the holiday weekend.

We will all have plenty of gas to get us where we need to go eventually..but travelling by car this weekend will probably be affected in some areas.

Thankfully I don't drive an ICE.

No problem for us, we usually drive our Prius to and back from Galveston with no gas needed until we get back to Schulenburg.

 

And as far as "panic refueling"?? I call it being prepared for a gas shortage and I would be doing the exact same thing. We filled our cars here in the San Antonio area Wednesday just because of that...however, no sign of gas shortage here that I know of.

When cops are breaking up FIGHTS at gas stations, that indicates that people are panicking. I'm not suggesting that they shouldn't be refueling, but there is definitely creeping panic setting in over here.

What happened here where I live after Rita is people from down south in the disaster area were out of gas, so people with giant fuel tanks in the back of their pick up trucks (I don't know what you call it but it wasn't canisters... like a giant metal tank with pumps) came up the highway until they found available gas, and then would buy $500.00 and more of gas at a time to bring back and sell.

 

This drained our gas two hours away.

Yeah that's what I'm worried about now. I don't know if Houston gas stations are operational or on the verge of running out. Dallas people are still going about their normal business but since they are all topping off today...they're draining our supply and restocking the supply isn't supposed to happen until Tuesday (that's what many stations are saying in my area). As people continue to panic and stock up...and as people take weekend road trips, everything in the area will be depleted this weekend and some travellers could get stranded.

A police officer friend of mine says they've been responding to fights at gas stations all morning...

My mother in law was supposed to drive down from Oklahoma to see us today and I've advised that she don't come, for fear that she could get stranded if she runs out of gas.

With the weather and road conditions improving, hopefully the stations will refuel soon. We filled up our rental car at Willowbrook Costco yesterday; nothing close to IAH/us.

The stations that are out in Dallas have been telling people that they will get their next shipment on Tuesday.

FYI - A LOT of gas stations in the DFW area are completely out of gas. Lines to fill up in the area are down the block. People have been panic refueling which only further exacerbates the problem.

So there's a new obstacle that will affect some people getting to the port this weekend. No idea what the situation is on the stretches of highways between the major cities.

if there are no flights to Houston by one of the major air carriers (and I assume others) I am curious how can they sail? Do cruise lines still sell the air/sea package and have control of the air? Will they then have to refund these bookings?

A lot of people drive to the port, so they'll have passengers. I'm expecting the ship won't be as full as they were expecting, given all the chaos. Some people probably also used their travel insurance to cancel.

Carnival has announced they ARE planning to sail on September 2nd. Given that they've been a little bit more on top of things than Royal has, I'd assume that if they're going on Saturday, then the Royal sailing on September 3rd sailing is definitely not being cancelled.

Source on Carnival: https://www.carnival.com/travel-alerts.aspx

Folks are still really hyper focused on I45...ignoring the possibility that travelers may need to fill up for gas, stop for some food, pull off of the main drag for a variety of reasons (like a flat tire or a big wreck on the road)

FYI all the way up in Dallas, we've already seen some gas stations out of unleaded (because of the oil refinery shut down). Not all, by any stretch of the imagination, but enough that our employer suggested we might want to top off whenever we have the opportunity this week.

Travel is still discouraged on all the roads in question, even if it is possible.

Port of Galveston communication has been stellar. All the cruise lines could learn a lesson from them.

 

Still haven't gotten a single email from RCI about this weekends cruise..

Literally seconds after I posted that:

ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING TRAVELS

Update from Royal Caribbean: Your Liberty of the Seas sailing on 09/03 is currently scheduled to sail as planned. We continue to meet regularly with the Port of Galveston on their reopening, and will send you daily updates at approximately 1 pm EDT. For additional information please visit royalcaribbean.com. We look forward to welcoming you onboard soon.

Port of Galveston communication has been stellar. All the cruise lines could learn a lesson from them.

Still haven't gotten a single email from RCI about this weekends cruise..

Seconding the 150 Central Park suggestion. That was far superior in terms of what you'd want for a special meal.

Chop's comes in second place. Good food and service, nothing incredibly memorable though.

We were disappointed in Giovanni's and don't plan to go back.

Haven't taken the lessons, only tried the Flowrider twice with some folks in my group.

Keep in mind how often you or your kids plan to use the Flowrider. For most people...they came and tried it out and then never went back. Obviously wouldn't be worth the $70 per person lesson for that. But if you're planning on doing it every day, then I would say it's worth it. The people who go once and try it..they all fall immediately and look like idiots.

You also have to stand around waiting in line to use the thing...which is going to be crowded sometimes. It's least busy on the first day and on port days. So if you're planning on staying on the ship instead of going on excursions...I'd do it. If not...I don't think you'll get your moneys worth.

"Fake News" is not a thing. That's something an idiot made up to create distrust in the media that he didn't want you to hear.

Is media sensationalized for views? Of course it is. Because people don't ******g watch it if it isn't. Is the flooding as bad as they are showing? Yes. Is it in all areas of Houston? No, and no station (from Fox to CNN, no matter what side you listen to) has ever claimed it to be. Of COURSE they're only going to put the rivers of water on TV...they're not going to focus on dry streets with undamaged property because THAT ISN'T NEWS.

PLENTY of areas in Houston are just fine. No one has ever claimed that wasn't the case. The reason we know that things look a little better today? THE NEWS.

Another thread said Carnival has just canceled this weekend's Galveston cruises. [i expect that is true and sources confirming will soon be available.]

So far I've only seen confirmed news about the Thursday sailing (31st). No news yet about the September 2nd one.

If they act similarly to how they did for the August 31st sailing, we'll find out tomorrow about the September 2nd one and Thursday about the September 3rd one. And Royal, well if they follow their current behavior, they'll be telling people to come to port all the way through Sunday morning before cancelling their September 3rd sailing > <

I never thought I would see the day when I would use the words "only" and "6 1/2 inches" in the same sentence! [emoji15]

You naughty minx!

The Columbia Lakes levee just breached. Brazoria county is telling everyone to evacuate immediately. FYI, Brazoria is the county next to Galveston county, just South on the coast. Mandatory evac for everyone.

I don't know if the levee breach affects Galveston county directly, but it does definitively close off one more route of approaching or leaving Galveston from the South.

https://**********/a/rPm5J

http://*******.com/ycry2udq

This is truly inexcusable. They actually told people to go take photos of the flooding to prove that they couldn't make it. Just don't get "too close"

Well links don't work for me, that's imgur and tiny URL ** if anyone wants to look.

I do hope that Royal makes the right (whatever that ends up being) and TIMELY call for the Sep 3rd sailing. We are supposed to be on the LOS Sep 10th cruise, and I wonder how this is all going to play out. My heart goes out to those dealing with all of this right now.

I'm expecting them to make a very, very last minute call on that one, unfortunately :( I'm on that one and we were planning on driving down. I'm expecting the port to be open but the road conditions will be too bad for travel.

I certainly hope they don't go ahead and leave as scheduled if travel makes it so bad for a significant number of passengers to make it to the port, just because the port is open.

I wouldn't worry about it at all, tbh. If you're worried that your kid will be antsy before dinner, get him a snack at the windjammer when you get on board. The dining room folks are prepared for children and will be able to handle your request quickly.

Third time on RC and my husband and I have been diving for 3 years now. My upcoming cruise, I'm trying to pick which ports that we want to dive in when I noticed that one port has a weight limit listed.

Now for horseback riding adventures, I understand. But I really don't understand why there would be a weight limit on a scuba dive trip. The weight limit is 250 and my husband is 260-265ish. He's a great swimmer, has dove plenty of times, wears a size XL shirt so should have no issue fitting into normal equipment... I really don't understand the problem. You have to be certified to go, which he is.

There's a big confirmation checkbox when I try to book the trip "Does this guest weigh under 250 lbs?" which leads me to believe they're somewhat serious about it.

Anyone have experience with this for a scuba excursion? The other two ports do not have weight limits so I guess we could just dive on those, but I'd read that Honduras is one of the best dive locations. Maybe I could book the excursion for myself and he could tag along..and pay when he gets there if they say OK? Thoughts?