Hurricane Maria

RCL has a terrible IT dept, always glitches. If you click on the yellow bar it takes you to a 2 day old update. We're on the Harmony this Saturday and if you go to My Cruise it still shows the old itinerary. It it wasn't for Schplinky's link (which I couldn't fine the normal way) I'd have no idea that our eastern cruise has been totally changed, every POC different. Oh wait, just got email.

New update posted.

Do you know, I just re-read the memo from RCL and I think if I were on the next sailing, I'd cancel. It all hinges on the one word, "anticipate." in the following sentence. They are not promising they will be going (which they cannot do until the pier is checked out).

<<Due to the uncertainty of the timing of the port re-opening in San Juan, we anticipate our new departure date will be Wednesday, September 27, sailing a 3-night itinerary to Antigua and St. Kitts.>>

Do you know, I just re-read the memo from RCL and I think if I were on the next sailing, I'd cancel. It all hinges on the one word, "anticipate." in the following sentence. They are not promising they will be going (which they cannot do until the pier is checked out).

 

<<Due to the uncertainty of the timing of the port re-opening in San Juan, we anticipate our new departure date will be Wednesday, September 27, sailing a 3-night itinerary to Antigua and St. Kitts.>>

Bad word to use..to anticipate is to expect...

Do you know, I just re-read the memo from RCL and I think if I were on the next sailing, I'd cancel. It all hinges on the one word, "anticipate." in the following sentence. They are not promising they will be going (which they cannot do until the pier is checked out).

 

<<Due to the uncertainty of the timing of the port re-opening in San Juan, we anticipate our new departure date will be Wednesday, September 27, sailing a 3-night itinerary to Antigua and St. Kitts.>>

Doesn't matter if the pier is checked out and the airport is still closed. The two go hand in hand.

Personally, I would not want to cruise out of San Juan for at least 6 months. JMOHO.

On the Cruise Critic site regarding changes to itineraries I found this:

"Adventure of the Seas: The ship's September 30 cruise will swap St. Kitts for St. Maarten, the October 7 cruise will replace St. Maarten with St. Croix, and the October 14 cruise will go to St. Croix instead of St. Thomas."

Is this NEW information? I was under the impression that St. Croix was devastated by Hurricane Maria.

Renee

Impressions from the news media are not always correct. Look at Key West. Most of the US thought Key West was wiped out but that is not the case. Apparently some Keys closer to the mainland were hammered but Key West is up and running now. Probably begging for cruisers since many travelers are not making the Keys trip.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

... Is this NEW information? I was under the impression that St. Croix was devastated by Hurricane Maria.

 

Renee

I don't know if it's new info, but I did see a report that indicated St. Croix was not as badly damaged as had been expected.

Impressions from the news media are not always correct. Look at Key West. Most of the US thought Key West was wiped out but that is not the case. Apparently some Keys closer to the mainland were hammered but Key West is up and running now. Probably begging for cruisers since many travelers are not making the Keys trip.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Not so sure this was media.. I think it's people not understanding. Everything I heard from media stated big pine, marathon, etc. Many considered key west all of the keys or a much bigger portion. Key west was spared the brunt and that was evident from the day after. You still see people on this forum who don't understand key west is small and think it is in bad shape.

On the Cruise Critic site regarding changes to itineraries I found this:

 

"Adventure of the Seas: The ship's September 30 cruise will swap St. Kitts for St. Maarten' date=' the October 7 cruise will replace St. Maarten with St. Croix, and the October 14 cruise will go to St. Croix instead of St. Thomas."

 

 

Is this NEW information? [b']I was under the impression that St. Croix was devastated by Hurricane Maria.

[/b]

Renee

You're right! Horrid devastation there!

Unfortunately, no cruise ships will be going to St. Croix in at the very least the next several of months. :(

FredMDCruisers and Dan-P - Many thanks for the updates. Because of you we knew before RCCL agents did and had to school them (ha). We were also able to rebook flights while there are seats. What ports did you actually visit during this "experience". I'm making up some buttons for the Hurricane Maria Cruise - if you're staying on I'll bring them to the Concierge/Diamond Lounge.

I sent the Concierge a note asking if he can work with Guest Services to allow us to board in Port Everglades - a longshot but doable. We saw it done during our evacuation cruise.

For an end date - 24,25 or 27th?????

We cruise on the Allure leaving October 1st. Royal still shows us as having San Juan as a port. I really don't see that as happening. I wish they would be proactive and add a new port now instead of waiting until the last minute when all the shore excursions will be full from other ships. As it is if they just add another sea day we will in essence have only one and half ports for a seven day cruise as our Nassau stop is only 7:00 a.m till 1:00. Too early and short to do much. I didn't plan on a seven day cruise with mostly sea days. I feel terrible for the people suffering devastation from the hurricanes but Royal needs to be realistic and admit that San Juan won't be ready to host ships for a while. Even if the port were open there would be little to do or see.

RCCL site has updated the yellow bar including the following:

Additionally, we are happy to announce that we received confirmation that we can return to Key West starting this weekend with our call on Sunday, September 24th. With both Havana and Key West ready, and excited to welcome us, we are now able to offer the Royal Caribbean vacation guests are looking forward to

FredMDCruisers and Dan-P - Many thanks for the updates. Because of you we knew before RCCL agents did and had to school them (ha). We were also able to rebook flights while there are seats. What ports did you actually visit during this "experience". I'm making up some buttons for the Hurricane Maria Cruise - if you're staying on I'll bring them to the Concierge/Diamond Lounge.

I sent the Concierge a note asking if he can work with Guest Services to allow us to board in Port Everglades - a longshot but doable. We saw it done during our evacuation cruise.

For an end date - 24,25 or 27th?????

Thanks for the offer! We are not doing a B2B (unfortunately) and will be getting off Sunday in Ft. Lauderdale. The only problem I could see with boarding in Ft. Lauderdale is that not all guests will be disembarking. Any Puerto Rico residents that want to stay onboard until the ship makes it back to Puerto Rico, are currently being given that choice. At this point they expect that to be Wednesday morning.

Ports we visited: St Croix, Aruba (overnight) and Bonaire. We also briefly stopped in St. Kitts to onload supplies that had been diverted from St. Maarten.

Captain announced this evening that while in Ft. Lauderdale, they will be taking on humanitarian aid supplies to take to San Juan.

Just as a heads up, the Diamond Concierge Leroy and the Suite Concierge Sucel (female) are both extremely busy helping folks with flight/hotel/misc travel arrangements with the change in our return port. May take a bit for them to respond.

Dan.

FredMDCruisers and Dan-P - Many thanks for the updates. Because of you we knew before RCCL agents did and had to school them (ha). We were also able to rebook flights while there are seats. What ports did you actually visit during this "experience". I'm making up some buttons for the Hurricane Maria Cruise - if you're staying on I'll bring them to the Concierge/Diamond Lounge.

I sent the Concierge a note asking if he can work with Guest Services to allow us to board in Port Everglades - a longshot but doable. We saw it done during our evacuation cruise.

For an end date - 24,25 or 27th?????

I'm thinking this for a design - just need the ports and dates.

http://www.cimorelli.com/cruise-pins/maria-cruise-button.jpg

I'm thinking this for a design - just need the ports and dates.

http://www.cimorelli.com/cruise-pins/maria-cruise-button.jpg

That's pretty cool!

End date will vary. For us, Sunday the 24th. For others, they will stay onboard until Monday the 25th. And, for any Puerto Ricans, they will currently be onboard until Wednesday 27th if they chose.

Dan.

Did you reach all the ports or do i need to remove any?

Sent from my SM-G935T using Forums mobile app

Did you reach all the ports or do i need to remove any?

 

Sent from my SM-G935T using Forums mobile app

You got them.

Our cruise was supposed to be: St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados. We only made St. Kitts from our original itinerary, but we weren't allowed to disembark. Just onboarded supplies.

We actually did: St. Croix (full day), St. Kitts (supplies), Aruba (overnight) and Bonaire (full day).

Dan.

Doesn't matter if the pier is checked out and the airport is still closed. The two go hand in hand.

Interesting, the airport is scheduled to open tomorrow (Friday) to commercial air traffic, according to the website.

Interesting' date=' the airport is scheduled to open tomorrow (Friday) to commercial air traffic, according to the website.[/quote']

 

 

 

Actually I keep hearing that, but the Feds say it's closed until 09/30 with the exception of military and Hurricane relief. All subject to change of course.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I can get to FL easy enough, but I don't want a shortened cruise. I'd be fine with a refund. No future cruise credit crap!

I'll find a cruise to go on this weekend

FYI NCL has 199 this weekend and next

You're right! Horrid devastation there!

Unfortunately, no cruise ships will be going to St. Croix in at the very least the next several of months. :(

Where did you hear there was "horrid devastation" on St Croix? Just read a post where someone reposted a letter from realtors on St Croix saying they did not get as much damage as other islands. Also, the chan ge from St thomas to St Croix for Adventure was announced before maria

Where did you hear there was "horrid devastation" on St Croix? Just read a post where someone reposted a letter from realtors on St Croix saying they did not get as much damage as other islands. Also, the chan ge from St thomas to St Croix for Adventure was announced before maria

This isn't about St Croix specifically, just a few general observations:

1) EVERYONE (all news media outlets, forum posters, local government officials, etc) have been using the words "devastation" and "destroyed" a lot and to me these words have very specific meanings. When they say "Island X is completely devastated/completely destroyed", I picture a situation where there are no structures left standing. However, that rarely seems to be the case. I hesitate to say it hasn't been as bad as I expected, because it's still *bad*, I think people have just been using a lot of hyperbole.

2) There are so MANY areas of damage in this terrible season that I'm willing to cut people a lot of slack for losing track of which island/country/city/state has received how much damage. For example, in another thread today a poster was surprised an upcoming cruise was stopping at Key West, because he'd heard that Key West had been -- you guessed it -- "destroyed".

Anyone else see Anderson cooper's interview with the San Juan mayor? All the footage they showed, so much damage and flooding. How will they accommodate the guests on Wednesday? The streets are flooded and an absolute mess. The mayor said the airport is damaged and still not open. They are aiming to get it open tomorrow. It boggles my mind how a cruise will take off from there on Wednesday.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums