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Galveston weather concerns

NouCruzer

By NouCruzer,
in Royal Caribbean International

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lbjen

lbjen

Posted
Posted

For the 9/3 cruise, Galveston itself is fine but has become a shelter for the many people who are being evacuated in the area, especially since I-45 is still under water in several areas. I think you may have problems with hotel rooms and maybe even rental cars. I hope none of the stranded cruisers are now having to also deal with being evacuated, to add insult to injury.

 

The storm itself remains very difficult to predict, so it's hard to say if there will still be bad weather in the area. But we are having problems now with reservoirs becoming overfull and entire neighborhoods being flooded out to avoid dams breaking. Its not uncommon here for areas to still flood days after a storm because of water upstream having nowhere else to go. That is how it goes in Houston unfortunately. I also want to add that it has not stopped raining the entire day today and probably will continue for the next two days.

 

I would say keep watching, if it looks like they really should cancel then try to force RC's hand on letting you cancel before you get on a plane. If that doesn't happen, at least stay close to the airport and get the most insurance you can possibly get on any rental cars.

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Cuizer2

Cuizer2

Posted
Posted
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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Plane, train, or bus, followed by a taxi or a limo. If there are two drivers, then a renal car would also work.

 

And don't say how are they going to get passed the flooded streets, because we all know the streets are flooded and clearly things will have to wait until the roads have been cleared.

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mrh1282

mrh1282

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.

 

 

 

I feel your pain. I called RC on Thursday and asked for refund and they told me no because the cruise is still going to happen no matter what. I flew out to a disaster zone. We have had to change 3 different hotels and all RC can do is offer 25% off next cruise which to me is a joke. I also didn't get insurance and feeling like they haven't done enough. I could have been home.

 

 

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Cuizer2

Cuizer2

Posted
Posted
Will RCI be able to return to normal operations in Galveston anytime soon? I have a Dec cruise, and beyond needing to look into whether the hotel I booked just flooded am wondering if Houston will be able to handle cruises over the next few months.

 

You will know more in ten days. Then make your decision to cancel or make final payment.

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Cruzin-K

Cruzin-K

Posted
Posted
Highly unlikely the next sailing goes on time. Like the Texans winning the Super Bowl unlikely.

 

Bwahahaha!

 

...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.

 

Great post, and welcome to Cruise Critic. Stick around if you cruise often (or even if you don't). When we're not jumping down each others throats about shoulda coulda woulda situations, there are some great things to learn on here.

 

A friend of mine is currently stuck in a hotel by Hobby airport after being told by RCI to come on down, the cruise will sail on Monday. Her cousins drove over from Louisiana, so now all four of them are stranded here. Their hotel is dry, but they have no way out because of the flooded roads. They don't have food, but a restaurant next door to the hotel fed the hotel "residents" last night, which was nice of them to do. She's taking the situation a lot better than I am, and I'm not the one who missed out on my vacation only to be stranded in a flood zone :mad:

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spleenstomper

spleenstomper

Posted
Posted

It's not over. From the 7 pm update.

"RAINFALL: Harvey is expected to produce additional rainfall

accumulations of 10 to 20 inches through Thursday over parts of the

upper Texas coast into southwestern Louisiana. Isolated storm

totals may reach 50 inches over the upper Texas coast, including the

Houston/Galveston metropolitan area. These rains are currently

producing catastrophic and life-threatening flooding over large

portions of southeastern Texas. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TRAVEL IN THE

AFFECTED AREA IF YOU ARE IN A SAFE PLACE. DO NOT DRIVE INTO FLOODED

ROADWAYS. Please see warnings and products issued by your local

National Weather Service office for additional information on this

life-threatening situation.

Meanwhile, I'm in central Louisiana and I'm not concerned yet, but I am keeping a watchful eye out on the forecasts for us. It has been steady rain here-- ground soggy and the low areas around me are starting to fill with water.

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Daiho

Daiho

Posted
Posted

I told myself that I was only going to post that one thing to Barry and nothing more because of the ugly tenor of this discussion but I will repeat my thought as to what RCI should do.

 

I expect the 9/3 cruise won't happen. I would give it a 90/10 chance. In that case RCI will get no revenue from that cruise. If today they had contacted everyone on the cruise and told them their plan to cruise out of Miami due to the issues in Houston, my bet is that 90% of the people flying for the cruise would change their plans and go to Miami. Obviously I don't know that and it could be much lower. Let's say they gave everyone until Wednesday to let them know their plans: yes, no, maybe... Then on Thursday they could start selling last minute cruise deals to fill the ship. There are retirees and others in Florida who are always looking for last minute cruise deals.

 

I have no doubt they could fill the ship. Many of those would be at cut rate prices, but still they would have the ship filled and some revenue from the fare, from the drinks, from the excursions... It would be better than the nothing they are going to get now and it would relieve the stress everyone currently scheduled for that ship is going through now.

 

End that cruise on Saturday morning. Of course they would have to give everyone something for the shortened cruise and maybe even more for the changed city. But I am sure most people would be relieved to fly into Miami rather than a flood ravaged Houston, not to mention the stress of the unknown as to whether it will go or won't go...

 

Saturday afternoon, move the ship from Miami to Galveston for the next cruise to leave on Sunday. I'm not sure that timing works, so maybe they would have to cut that one by a day too. Or, maybe make the previous a bit shorter. I don't know.

 

Sure they would lose a lot of revenue on that cruise due to the incentives to those inconvenienced and the cut rate sales to fill it, but it would be better than the complete cancel they are going to have otherwise.

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Aggiebuttercup

Aggiebuttercup

Posted
Posted
Will RCI be able to return to normal operations in Galveston anytime soon? I have a Dec cruise, and beyond needing to look into whether the hotel I booked just flooded am wondering if Houston will be able to handle cruises over the next few months.

 

Galveston Island and the port haven't been damaged. Once Harvey has finally gone somewhere else, the port will reopen.

 

Other than that, the big issue is that the highways are flooded and the airports are closed, so people can't get to the port. The airports will reopen when the winds die down (once Harvey leaves) and the water recedes from the runways. At least one highway is badly damaged in one spot, but it's fixable. The others probably don't have a lot of damage (they're designed to flood).

 

We just have to wait and see when the waters recede. That will definitely be a matter of days or weeks, not months. Provided we don't get another hurricane or other storm that parks over the region, a December cruise should be just fine.

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Deptacon

Deptacon

Posted
Posted
Advice please..

 

We are scheduled on Royal Caribbean this Sunday out of Galveston. I was just contacted by Southwest Airlines wanting me to change my flights to either Dallas or San Antonio. They are not I repeat not saying that the Houston airport will not be open on Saturday they are just saying that due to flight delays it would be easier. I'm not opposed to driving the extra amount of time to get there I just want somebody who's there to tell me if it's even going to be possible to Galveston? I know nobody knows for sure, just looking for some guidance pleases Royal Caribbean has pretty much told me unless I do everything I can to try to get there I'll get no refund if the ship does not sail.

 

 

 

I question if the Sunday Sailing will actually happen.... take the flight change. Hobby is not opening anytime soon this week and when it does travel in around Houston is going to rough for at least a week or 2

 

 

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nealstuber

nealstuber

Posted
Posted
I'd be home yesterday or today if we diverted to Miami instead of making a futile attempt at docking in Galveston. I would have flown back for four or five days at home. It doesn't make sense for two. I'm traveling with my 75 year old in-laws which also makes logistics more complicated.

 

 

 

I have dogs that will have been boarded for 13 days now. I could have gotten them today or yesterday and made the BR>Galveston>BR trip to get my car in a day on Saturday or Sunday.

 

 

 

It breaks my heart when I talk to those onboard worried about their flooded homes or children left in the care of others. Those people would have flown to an airport as close to their homes as possible yesterday or today also.

 

 

 

Our Galveston docking escapade took those options away or made them far less beneficial. Those were options CCL passengers were given that we weren't regardless of where we docked

 

 

 

The hypothetical being banted about here is much simpler than the reality those of us impacted are dealing with. I was called insensitive and told I lacked empathy earlier in this thread. Some posts on here make me look like Glenda the Good Witch.

 

 

 

Look, I know you're in it and I'm not... But you express anger at hypotheticals when the first sentence of your post has the word "if" in it.

 

I can't remember the name of the Clint Eastwood movie where he was grazed in the temple by a bullet but some other actor said "one inch to your left and you'd be dead" and Clint replied "Yeah and one inch to the right and it would have missed me completely."

 

Not trying to make light of your situation, this bullet could have hit us down by South Padre and it did not.... it went one inch to the right. While in retrospect the decision to try and make Galveston on Sunday or Monday may seem futile, at the time both CCL and RCCL were on the same page in that respect. The differences being RCCL's Liberty does not have NOLA or Mobile as an option and currently has dibs to one pier for their one ship where CCL has dibs for one, an option for two but has to make it work for 3 ships.

 

So let's give both lines a little credit for working well together, behind the scenes, for trying to put together a plan that made the most sense for all with the information they had at the time.

 

 

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nealstuber

nealstuber

Posted
Posted
Look, I know you're in it and I'm not... But you express anger at hypotheticals when the first sentence of your post has the word "if" in it.

 

I can't remember the name of the Clint Eastwood movie where he was grazed in the temple by a bullet but some other actor said "one inch to your left and you'd be dead" and Clint replied "Yeah and one inch to the right and it would have missed me completely."

 

Not trying to make light of your situation, this bullet could have hit us down by South Padre and it did not.... it went one inch to the right. While in retrospect the decision to try and make Galveston on Sunday or Monday may seem futile, at the time both CCL and RCCL were on the same page in that respect. The differences being RCCL's Liberty does not have NOLA or Mobile as an option and currently has dibs to one pier for their one ship in Galveston where CCL has dibs for one, an option for two but has to make it work for 3 ships.

 

So let's give both lines a little credit for working well together, behind the scenes, for trying to put together a plan that made the most sense for all with the information they had at the time.

 

 

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caribill

caribill

Posted
Posted

About Houston airports reopening:

 

The airports are not only shut down because Tropical Storm Harvey continues to dump unprecedented amounts of rainfall on Houston and there's water on the runways. Houston Airport Systems (HAS) also has to consider whether passengers and employees can reach the airports safely. Employees include airport employees, airline employees, TSA employees, customs employees and more.

 

 

“There is a whole list of boxes that need to be checked ‘yes,’ and we will only open up when we can check all the boxes,” spokesman Bill Begley said.

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tankerat

tankerat

Posted
Posted

Flooding is now expected to peak Wednesday or Thursday in Houston--as long as you see all that red & yellow right over Houston when you log on to AccuWeather Houston radar, then the hope for receding water levels is slim. Locations that have remained untouched by flood waters still have 2-3 more days to get past before the full extent of this flood is known. Furthermore, water is now being released from the dams on 2 reservoirs into Buffalo Bayou to avoid potential dam breach & that won't help downstream. --

When LOS gets back to Galveston for debarkation it will be interesting to see if enough roads/airports will be open to allow safe debarkation.

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