Galveston weather concerns

[Cotswold Eagle]

Right. And those of us who have dangling flight reservation, hotel, rental car, shuttle, and other arrangements are left hanging. Carnival allowed their customers the option of trying to stay with an abbreviated cruise or cancel and make other plans. It is more than PR if you have skin in the game.

 

 

 

Goodness me. You did see where I said "their cancellation policy is to be applauded"?

 

 

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[cruiselvr04]

The news networks are saying " 20 k people on cruise ships stranded at sea". Liberty isn't even due back till tomorrow. Sish!

I realize the flooding may be worse to come but they make it sound like people are in dire straits on the ocean.

[tankerat]

Good question. We try to cruise the last week of August each year for our anniversary. We on board last year and looking at this year with the Next Cruise lady. This particular sailing was a really good deal at the time. We did not know anything about Galveston logistics at the time but thought it would be a nice change of venue. By the time I figured out the airfare, hotel, transportation, etc. we could not re-book without losing a lot of our perks. I did the best I could with the logistics, of course not knowing that the gulf would have it's worst hurricane in many years. In other words, I plead ignorance.

 

We prefer to drive to Port Canaveral and we should have done that again. Lesson learned.

 

Having done over 40 cruises, many exotic, we have also now done too many out of Galveston with the last one being on October 1 if it happens :)

 

That will be our last cruise out of Galveston and we may not even get off the ship in the ports. Yes, we can leave the house in San Antonio and sometimes be on the ship by noon. No airfare needed..cheap parking. We have often done back to backs when the consecutive itineraries were different.

But we are tired of the ports that can be reached from Galveston. We will now only cruise from other departure ports unless new options open from Galveston.

 

The cruise lines need to offer longer cruises from Galveston such as partial Panama Canal, long cruises down to South America, perhaps longer cruises to the deep Southern Caribbean. As long as they can fill ships every 7 days I guess they have no incentive for much variety in their offerings.

[YlangYlangF9PB3E]

I agree that it was handled horribly. But my experience with RCI is that horrible handling of anything is the status quo. I'm sure that there will be cheerleaders who try to convince you otherwise, I've never been able to figure out how people can continue to support an organization which has proven over and over that they obviously do not care at all about retaining customer loyalty.

Because some of the people who continue to support RCI work for them in one form or other?? That's always been my iimpression.

[BecciBoo]

 

Looks good to me

[CRUISEFAN0001]

Because some of the people who continue to support RCI work for them in one form or other?? That's always been my iimpression.

What's much more amazing is how people book a cruise in the middle of hurricane season...and then when one shows up...they're all upset at the airlines and cruise companies.

 

The PASSENGERS took that risk of booking during this highly-risky time period. While some cruises remain...many cruise ships are deployed elsewhere around the world for that same reason. The airlines and cruise companies do their best to adjust to the bad conditions. POOR CHOICES are the fault of the people making the choices.

[Milwaukee Eight]

Not true! West End, which is not behind Seawall has power outages. We are midtown and have had no issues. Centerpoint coverage is huge. Issues are on mainland. The few transformers that blew in town were repaired immediately. Windy and raining but no different than any rainstorm.

 

 

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Not to mention Galveston is 150 miles from what was the eye of the storm.

 

 

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[Galveston Cruiser]

 

Looks good to me

 

 

 

A tad windy with rain, cooler too!

Enjoying coffee on back porch

 

 

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[Aquahound]

Because some of the people who continue to support RCI work for them in one form or other?? That's always been my iimpression.

 

Or on the other hand, you have people who cruised RCI one time, 12 years ago, who know nothing about their current operations and for some weird reason, salivate at the chance to trash talk them.

 

Me? I prefer to yield to the feelings of those who are actually affected by this.

[ducklite]

What's much more amazing is how people book a cruise in the middle of hurricane season...and then when one shows up...they're all upset at the airlines and cruise companies.

 

The PASSENGERS took that risk of booking during this highly-risky time period. While some cruises remain...many cruise ships are deployed elsewhere around the world for that same reason. The airlines and cruise companies do their best to adjust to the bad conditions. POOR CHOICES are the fault of the people making the choices.

 

I'm not seeing people complaining about the storm but rather RCI's management of disruption and poor communication which has at times contradicted what government entities have officially stated.

[BecciBoo]

Not true! West End, which is not behind Seawall has power outages. We are midtown and have had no issues. Centerpoint coverage is huge. Issues are on mainland. The few transformers that blew in town were repaired immediately. Windy and raining but no different than any rainstorm.

 

 

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They forget that rain is pretty common in Galveston(its the coast people, rains once a day in the afternoon usually)....its been raining to some degree almost every time we've sailed! 3 times dense fog, we've never missed a cruise yet and I would say a good 3/4 of ours have been out of Galv. We'll continue to sail from home. Itinerary is not a problem with us, we consider the western Carib our vacation home.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

I'm not seeing people complaining about the storm but rather RCI's management of disruption and poor communication which has at times contradicted what government entities have officially stated.

There are other threads that have such postings.

 

You can find threads and posts complaining about their terrible experiences virtually every time there is a hurricane. Airlines are blamed, cruise lines are blamed...the weatherman is blamed...almost never does anyone admit to making a risk-filled poor choice.

 

Anyone can call the cruiseline when these happens and get up to date answers to their questions (they add call capacity). We have 2 friends who sailed on different cruises and had NO PROBLEM get status information from Royal Caribbean. And of course neither will ever sail in the Caribbean between June 1 - Nov 1. They both learned the hard way, and are not shy to admit it.

 

The most important thing is that people on the ships are safe...which nearly everyone agrees is paramount. But rest assured...the blame game is a frequently-repeated event with every major storm when it comes to cruises.

[Paulxyz2004]

Because some of the people who continue to support RCI work for them in one form or other?? That's always been my iimpression.

 

Interesting observation. My impression has always been that some of the people continue to bash RCI work for other cruiselines.

[Big_G]

Because some of the people who continue to support RCI work for them in one form or other?? That's always been my iimpression.

 

Just for some perspective, you're quoting a notorious Royal hater that's only been on one Royal cruise.

[BecciBoo]

Because some of the people who continue to support RCI work for them in one form or other?? That's always been my iimpression.

 

Horse hockey

 

[EBFURR]

What's much more amazing is how people book a cruise in the middle of hurricane season...and then when one shows up...they're all upset at the airlines and cruise companies.

 

The PASSENGERS took that risk of booking during this highly-risky time period. While some cruises remain...many cruise ships are deployed elsewhere around the world for that same reason. The airlines and cruise companies do their best to adjust to the bad conditions. POOR CHOICES are the fault of the people making the choices.

 

We have cruised this time of year for 23 years as have a lot of other people. The only two times in all those years we had weather issues were not in August but on June 4 sailings coincidentally. Does that make anyone who cruises from June to September an idiot?

 

I am sure that none of us are as smart as you though. We do appreciate your pointing out our stupidity for us. Especially since you have absolutely nothing at stake here.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

Interesting observation. My impression has always been that some of the people continue to bash RCI work for other cruiselines.

Bingo.

Horse hockey

 

Bingo #2

[BarryH]

Not to mention Galveston is 150 miles from what was the eye of the storm.

 

There are two of these threads. The other is in the CCL forum. There are posters in both attacking people who don't go along with the "total destruction" and "trapped at sea for days" theories. Looking at the Galveston webcams there are cars on the road and all the street lights are working.

 

That same group of people is arm chair quarterbacking and second guessing how RCI and CCL are managing a difficult situation. Between the two cruise lines you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in capital (the ships) and thousands of lives (us passengers) at risk based on the decisions they make or don't make.

 

Between trusting laypeople relying on second and third hand information and their hypothises or the cruise lines I pick the latter. And I'm on the Liberty right now and obviously have skin in the game.

[Big_G]

There are other threads that have such postings.

 

 

In all fairness it doesn't help that one cruiseline has laid out a plan of action and the other is taking a wait and see approach. Who knows which is right but it leaves the wait see passengers on edge.

[BecciBoo]

I'm not afraid o' no hurricanes. We sail in September frequently, have only had the one time affect us negatively and as mentioned before, made the cruise and had a blast. That hurricane was Ike, which caused us consternation with our flights into the Cape to catch Mariner....but we just did a little creative thinking and left a day early. No problem.

 

The Galveston area looks like they may miss most of this except rain. RCCL is going to be looking good if the port opens tomorrow and Liberty comes in, even if late.

 

They predicted all sorts of Chaos here in San Antonio area and so far we have 1/2 inch of rain in the gauge and a few gusts.:o

[Cuizer2]

Liberty isn't going to NO.

 

Is it going to YES?

 

No one said Liberty was going to New Orleans. There is speculation that it could go to New Orleans.

[EBFURR]

 

Looks good to me

 

You know I was trying to be positive, but wonder what that is going to look like after another 24 hours of rain. I am still trying to juggle flights, hotel, etc "just in case" but truthfully had they offered the chance to re-book or cancel with refund I would have done it. If I knew I was getting compensation I could have tried to book something else for now instead of weeks from now. I also know from experience that there are often tornado spin offs from the feeder bands which is already happening in the Houston area. May or may not affect us, but all things considered I am not thrilled about the prospect of flying into that area later today. Some sort of resolution one way or the other would be welcomed. I will still toast you with the boat drink if I make it that far. :)

[CRUISEFAN0001]

We have cruised this time of year for 23 years as have a lot of other people. The only two times in all those years we had weather issues were not in August but on June 4 sailings coincidentally. Does that make anyone who cruises from June to September an idiot?

 

I am sure that none of us are as smart as you though. We do appreciate your pointing out our stupidity for us. Especially since you have absolutely nothing at stake here.

No one said that. What was said is that anyone who cruises during that time period and thinks that nothing will ever happen on their scheduled cruises as a result of severe weather-related problems (ignoring the risks)is indeed lacking intelligence. That was the point...wrongly mis-stated within your retort.

 

It's a well known fact that the June 1- Nov 1 timeframe is called "hurricane season" in the Caribbean for a reason. Living in the region, cruising in the region, or any other such activities in the region during that timeframe come with real risk. The dysfunction comes from people who seem to be amazed or throttle blame to others when it happens.

 

We all have empathy for anyone going through those experiences...but the fact is that they are a result of conscious bad choices which many others would not make based upon historical facts.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

In all fairness it doesn't help that one cruiseline has laid out a plan of action and the other is taking a wait and see approach. Who knows which is right but it leaves the wait see passengers on edge.

A valid point. But I would hardly characterize have a ship safely positioned offshore somewhere away from the storm as a reason to be "on edge".

[BecciBoo]

I fully sympathize with you EBfurr, but we are sitting here in Spring Branch discussing the situation and honestly, we'd be getting in the car tomorrow at 6:00am and on the way to Galv. Of course your situation flying in is not so simple, but I believe if there were anyway to get there we would try. Just our take on it.

 

I agree RCCL has dropped the ball for its passengers, but it is obvious they are betting on the port opening tomorrow or they would not have waited so late to decide. This would in no way deter us from cruising RCCL in future even if we were directly involved with Harvey.