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Galveston weather concerns

NouCruzer

By NouCruzer,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Milwaukee Eight

Milwaukee Eight

Posted
Posted
You're right. The inconvenience I'm suffering is all a figment of my imagination. Ironically RCI was more sensitive to the plight of those onboard as a result of their actions than many in this thread.

 

 

 

Walk a mile in my shoes and see if your so incredlious..

 

 

 

I didn't say that. Just trying to determine how Royal caused it?

 

If I was from the SE TX area, I would have wanted to be home. If you docked Sunday in Miami, how would you have gotten back to Galveston to pick up your car? Not sure what BR means?

 

I guess most depends on what area you live in.

 

 

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Host CJSKIDS "Live from...." Rare

Host CJSKIDS

Posted
Posted
I first posted on here days ago, as my large family group was trying to decide if we would keep our flights from Portland, OR and Seattle, WA on Saturday morning. We had over $14,000 tied up to Royal Caribbean for the cruise, plus about $3500 in airfare. No trip insurance. Fast forward to now, 5 of the group got stuck in Los Angeles when their flight was canceled from there to IAH. Two got canceled from the get go and luckily never got on an airplane. My family of 4, consisting of my husband, myself and two young daughters, have been stranded in a hotel near IAH since 9pm Saturday night. By the time RC had said they would not board until Monday, our flight was already in route to Salt Lake City. No change in status when our flight boarded in SLC headed to IAH Saturday evening. Shortly after we landed RC was still saying Monday boarding. Sunday morning, around 9:30am, is the first time RC offered a voucher if you couldn't make it. By that time we already knew Houston was in trouble and we tried to get out. But all car rental places were shut by the time we tried to get one to drive to Dallas to go home. Soon after that the roads flooded and we could not have driven even if we had a car. We are grateful we have a dry, safe place to sleep. I have contacted the various companies we had things booked with and gotten most, but not all our money back for canceled hotels, shuttles, rental cars, excursions, etc. But our travel expenses starting Sunday, when we should have been on the ship, obviously grows every day with food and hotel. We were charged money to originally rebook one of our flights due to a fare change. We have now rebooked 3 times, as it is unlikely the airport will be open before Friday at the earliest. My husband is out of his vacation time. We are out the money spent to have someone take care of our dog at home. We are out our airfare to get somewhere for another vacation in the future. But the money is just one part of this. The mental and emotional toll this is taking on my family is really challenging. I am not a drama queen. I am not a shrinking violet. I am not a "fly by the seat of your pants" type person. I am an 11 year stage IV cancer survivor. I got married and had two beautiful kids after being told I had a less than 15% chance of living past a year of diagnosis. I bought a house two years ago with my husband, only to find out the sellers lied on the disclosure. Which lead to a year long lawsuit to seek compensation to do repairs on the house. I never give up. If we didn't get on our plane Saturday we risked losing all our money. We figured if the flights were going, and RC was saying they were docking, we would be okay despite the news so we risked it. I now get to live with the guilt of putting my family at risk and hopefully get home sometime before school starts for the kids next week. We are lucky though- our home is still intact in Oregon, and for now our hotel is dry and safe. This has just been a horrible situation all around since last Thursday. This was our first experience with RC. It is also our last.

 

Sorry for what you have gone through. Hopefully you can get out soon and get home.

 

This post should be the push that many need when thinking "I don't need travel insurance".

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time4u2go

time4u2go

Posted
Posted
I didn't say that. Just trying to determine how Royal caused it?

 

If I was from the SE TX area, I would have wanted to be home. If you docked Sunday in Miami, how would you have gotten back to Galveston to pick up your car? Not sure what BR means?

 

I guess most depends on what area you live in.

 

 

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By delaying their decision to not go to Galveston.

 

BR stands for Baton Rouge.

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caribill

caribill

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Posted

 

FWIW, Galveston was only under a hurricane watch, not a warning, so the two companies that have specific hurricane "coverage" would not have covered cancelation due to Hurricane Harvey. Trip delay, yes. Interruption, probably. But not cancelation by the pax.

 

/

 

Actually, Galveston was never under a hurricane watch. It was under a tropical storm watch or warning, I do not remember which.

 

 

Currently it is under a tropical storm warning.

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time4u2go

time4u2go

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How long was that, one day. They tried to get into Galveston, as did CCL. How does one expect to get to Galveston from Baton Rouge?

 

 

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If they had decided on Friday, they could have been in Miami on Sunday. As it is, they will arrive in Miami on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. So it's 3 days.

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Milwaukee Eight

Milwaukee Eight

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If they had decided on Friday, they could have been in Miami on Sunday. As it is, they will arrive in Miami on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. So it's 3 days.

 

 

 

They were not due to arrive until Sunday. Friday was still two days away.

 

Just the same , how would one get back into the port to pick up their car?

 

 

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ONECRUISER

ONECRUISER

Posted
Posted
Actually, Galveston was never under a hurricane watch. It was under a tropical storm watch or warning, I do not remember which.

 

 

Currently it is under a tropical storm warning.

This whole weather event is unprecedented. It's what you call a once in 500 yr storm. Was never predicted to be strong and was changed/ungraded so fast. I pray in ends soon. My family is in area, have taken in several families and have been out in their boat doing their part last couple days.

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jenny.hinninger

jenny.hinninger

Posted
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Currently on board and they are having shows. Tonight was In the Air, which they had last week. There was also a movie on the pool deck, trivia and lots of other stuff. Menus are restarted, they are the same as last week. We are expected to be in Miami before 2pm tomorrow, and they are offering a hop on/hop off bus tour excursion starting at 2pm for $24/person.

 

 

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Daiho

Daiho

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I was on Liberty a few weeks ago and on Thursday when it was painfully obvious what was going to happen I googled to see what RCI was doing about the upcoming cruise. I have been following this discussion since and have been not only horrified with how RCI has handled it but that some are defending them. I created an account not to add my thoughts to the discussion but really just to give a thought to Barry.

 

I do agree that this was a service failure on the part of RCI. More than a service failure, a disregard to the customer. It was a blind attempt to salvage revenue from this week's cruise. They should have handled it very differently and this has inconvenienced you. You are right to be upset about it and I am glad you reached out to them about it and that they called you.

 

But I have to say that while they failed you, what they did to the people on the next cruise didn't just inconvenience them, it put them in danger. On Friday they should have been telling people not to come into southeast Texas. While I would criticize them for not doing this, I will forgive them that. But for two more days they continued to tell people to come for their cruise. They were telling 4,500 people to come into a disaster area (OK, some are from the area and there already). Then on Sunday they were still saying this. And the way they treated people who were trying to cancel, I want to say it borders on criminal, but it doesn't. It seems like it should.

 

There are people here saying that they said not to come to the port. For me that is an hour to airport, getting there one to two hours early, five hours of flying and then an hour from the airport to the port. That is a nine hour journey. They clearly were not saying to stay home when they said don't come to the port. They were saying to fly to Houston, check into a hotel and then don't come to the port (the actual spot where you board the ship) until we tell you to. That is irresponsible.

 

Time will tell, but I think it is very obvious that no one will be able to get into Houston or from Houston to Galveston for a cruise on Sunday. The correct thing for them to do is the end the stress for those people now. They should leave the ship in Miami and let people who can switch their plans take the cruise out of Miami and refund those who can't. That would be the right thing to do. Even if the flood waters recede by Sunday, which is a big if, they shouldn't be having people fly into a devastated area and then across that area to Galveston for what should be a relaxing vacation. It is just wrong.

 

So, while I don't want to minimize what you went through Barry, it was bad, the really, really bad issue is what they did to the people on the next cruise and even the next. I hope if you meet with them tomorrow that you tell them this. Read the topic about someones (sorry I don't remember the name) experience. They need that thrown in their face.

 

I understand that you may want to keep the focus on your own experience and that you might not be comfortable talking about someone else's issue, but I hope that you will.

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caribill

caribill

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Posted

 

Shortly after (but unrelated) I got a call from RCI's executive offices. Without saying so they acknowledged things could have been handled better. They said my communication made them reflect and was used internally as a reference because of some of the points I made. It's easy sometimes in business to dehumanize a major problem; I've done it myself. Hopefully that reflection will help others if a situation like this reoccurs.

 

 

Well, the reoccurring situation is for this weekend's scheduled sailing in six days. We will have to see how RCI handles it for those booked on that sailing.

 

Currently the projected storm track has it leaving the Houston area by late Wednesday afternoon. If that is accurate, one could guess that the Port of Galveston will be open for business by sometime Thursday.

 

Will both Houston airports be open by the weekend? Probably.

 

Will airlines resume their normal schedules by the weekend? Could be.

 

Will roads between IAH and HOU to Galveston be open all the way? Likely, but no guarantee.

 

Will the critical resources in the Houston area be devoted to coping with the many still flooded areas and the tens of thousands of people who have had to flee their homes or will enough resources be available to assist with people wanting to get from the airports to the cruise docks? Anyone's guess.

 

 

So there is a good chance the port will be open to allow the Sunday cruise to take place.

 

The chances of everything else falling in place is anyone's educated guess.

 

 

I am sure posters to this thread will keep us informed on how RCI handles this.

 

(Of course, CCL has the same situation to handle for its cruises scheduled from Galveston this weekend.)

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caribill

caribill

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Posted
Furthermore the Port of Galveston had already held a news conference and a Port Spokesman had already stated that the Port was closed and would be closed at least through Tuesday. Was that too complex for RCL?? Apparently..as they conjured up the Magic Window that was never going to happen.

 

l.

 

One local Houston TV station has shown their ideal projected future storm path. Of course this showed the storm moving to the East and out of the Houston area faster than the actual models used by the weather service.

 

They called their projected future path a "wishcast." RCI also had their own "wishcast."

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Milwaukee Eight

Milwaukee Eight

Posted
Posted
I was on Liberty a few weeks ago and on Thursday when it was painfully obvious what was going to happen I googled to see what RCI was doing about the upcoming cruise. I have been following this discussion since and have been not only horrified with how RCI has handled it but that some are defending them. I created an account not to add my thoughts to the discussion but really just to give a thought to Barry.

 

I do agree that this was a service failure on the part of RCI. More than a service failure, a disregard to the customer. It was a blind attempt to salvage revenue from this week's cruise. They should have handled it very differently and this has inconvenienced you. You are right to be upset about it and I am glad you reached out to them about it and that they called you.

 

But I have to say that while they failed you, what they did to the people on the next cruise didn't just inconvenience them, it put them in danger. On Friday they should have been telling people not to come into southeast Texas. While I would criticize them for not doing this, I will forgive them that. But for two more days they continued to tell people to come for their cruise. They were telling 4,500 people to come into a disaster area (OK, some are from the area and there already). Then on Sunday they were still saying this. And the way they treated people who were trying to cancel, I want to say it borders on criminal, but it doesn't. It seems like it should.

 

There are people here saying that they said not to come to the port. For me that is an hour to airport, getting there one to two hours early, five hours of flying and then an hour from the airport to the port. That is a nine hour journey. They clearly were not saying to stay home when they said don't come to the port. They were saying to fly to Houston, check into a hotel and then don't come to the port (the actual spot where you board the ship) until we tell you to. That is irresponsible.

 

Time will tell, but I think it is very obvious that no one will be able to get into Houston or from Houston to Galveston for a cruise on Sunday. The correct thing for them to do is the end the stress for those people now. They should leave the ship in Miami and let people who can switch their plans take the cruise out of Miami and refund those who can't. That would be the right thing to do. Even if the flood waters recede by Sunday, which is a big if, they shouldn't be having people fly into a devastated area and then across that area to Galveston for what should be a relaxing vacation. It is just wrong.

 

So, while I don't want to minimize what you went through Barry, it was bad, the really, really bad issue is what they did to the people on the next cruise and even the next. I hope if you meet with them tomorrow that you tell them this. Read the topic about someones (sorry I don't remember the name) experience. They need that thrown in their face.

 

I understand that you may want to keep the focus on your own experience and that you might not be comfortable talking about someone else's issue, but I hope that you will.

 

 

 

Agreed. +1

 

 

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