Galveston weather concerns

[Cotswold Eagle]

Carnival have now cancelled their 31/8 departure from Galveston. They still intend to have their three ships heading back to Galveston after stops in NOLA, in the hope that the port opens late this week.

 

I expect more people will disembark in NOLA compared to the weekend, when Carnival was also optimistic about a Sunday window to get in to Galveston. And, like the poor folk on Liberty in Miami, they have had more time to decide and make arrangements.

 

 

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[CRUISEFAN0001]

Just being real about the conditions in Galveston and Houston- if I were booked on a cruise out of that area anytime in the next month...and had insurance...I'd be rebooking right now...

 

If without insurance, I'd be called my air, hotel and cruise line to talk cancel and options.

 

Just one opinion- but is becoming very clear the recovery for this weather-devastated region will likely take many weeks or longer to return to a viable travel zone.

 

The bigger picture is that millions of people will have months and months of recovery work ahead - and the weather event is far from over and getting worse in some areas even today.

 

It's all extremely sad - our hearts go out to the victims of this weather tragedy, and it puts the frantic scrambles for cruise scenarios a far distant second in priority. That's not to minimize the economic effect on people with cruises, which is bad...but it pales in comparison to what the people of the area will have to endure over the next year.

[Cindy]

For those of you who aren't in the area, I'm going to share a picture that helps explain why we really don't know how long it's going to take for the water to recede and freeways/airports to open. I live near I-10 & the Sam Houston Toll Road in west Houston. This picture of the Sam Houston was taken yesterday afternoon at the Memorial Drive overpass over the freeway.[emoji22]

 

I didn't take this...I found it on my neighborhood Facebook group page. I wish I had taken it, because that would mean I have a way to get to my grocery store, my gym, my hairdresser, my local hang-outs, etc. That picture was taken a mile from my house, but you can't get there from here.[emoji15]

 

 

 

 

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[tamtot]

Just mind blowing. I cannot even imagine.

[Milwaukee Eight]

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.

 

 

Why not? That was my point. If the roads are not passable into Galveston.

 

 

 

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[Aquahound]

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"

 

Cindy posted an image of RCI's posts earlier in this thread. Not that I don't trust some people on this board (Cindy has always been great), but I almost had to see it to believe it. It blows my mind that someone representing RCI would say something so idiotic.

[perditax]

(Why on earth is imgur banned? Why do I still ask these questions?)

[bigque]

Just being real about the conditions in Galveston and Houston- if I were booked on a cruise out of that area anytime in the next month...and had insurance...I'd be rebooking right now...

 

If without insurance, I'd be called my air, hotel and cruise line to talk cancel and options.

 

Just one opinion- but is becoming very clear the recovery for this weather-devastated region will likely take many weeks or longer to return to a viable travel zone.

 

The bigger picture is that millions of people will have months and months of recovery work ahead - and the weather event is far from over and getting worse in some areas even today.

 

It's all extremely sad - our hearts go out to the victims of this weather tragedy, and it puts the frantic scrambles for cruise scenarios a far distant second in priority. That's not to minimize the economic effect on people with cruises, which is bad...but it pales in comparison to what the people of the area will have to endure over the next year.

 

[tankerat]

Many people coming from San Antonio and from points West of Houston use the Sam Houston Tollway to get to Galveston. We always have. Looking at that picture a few posts up pretty much confirms for me that most anyone heading to Galveston over the next few days isn't going to get there and when the folks on Liberty get back from Miami to "debark" they are not going to be able to get very far either in their cars or trying to use taxis, buses, etc. If any airports are even open then, getting to them will be very unlikely. Like I said, we are booked for the October 1 LOS sailing and are uncertain at this point if it will happen.

 

The next few sailings look very unlikely at this point.

 

RCL will eventually wake up and realize that the Houston supporting infrastructure and road system will not magically become viable again anytime soon just because Harvey finally dissipates.

 

Being the slow learners they at RCL are, those folks coming back on LOS from Miami may be the guinea pigs that help RCL learn something, and those "guests" may also eventually get off the ship somewhere else, which would be wise. If they have a car in the Galveston Port parking lots, it is likely OK, which is a lot better than in 2008 when storm surge from Hurricane Ike destroyed every single car in those lots.

 

So, if this delay happens, Galveston Police will guard those cars and many may have to return to retrieve their cars at some unknown future time.

Edited August 29, 2017 by tankerat
minor corrections

[baileybrad]

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.

First let me say that what you are dealing with should have never happened and it is a shame that it did and is still ongoing. RCL failed your family in every way. I would still love to hear the farcical spin from the RCL individuals that were sitting in Miami doing a financial analysis on how they were going to make their quarterly numbers.

 

It is humorous that a few of the apologists are still posting in this thread but have now become all about the victims of the flooding. You think! What is happening in Texas is beyond comprehension. Heart breaking doesn't even begin to describe it. Brutal beyond belief.

 

As it continues to rain and the flooding just gets even worst, the decisions that RCL made that did not take into account the safety of their customers looks worse and worse.

 

Hopefully, you will be able to return safely home in due time. RCL should be made to pay for all of your expenses for sending you into harms way but, of course, that won't happen.

[Biker19]

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.

It's almost two full days to get from Galveston to Miami.

[baileybrad]

But I have seen no posts indicating Royal will reimburse expenses for those who flew to Houston and went to Galveston under the threat of losing 100% of their fare if they did not show up.

 

The choice they had was to either lose 100% of their fare or travel to an area under watch for a severe tropical storm. Since Royal said confidently that the cruise would take place, the choice to make was greatly influenced by Royal.

Your posts on this matter have been spot on. If you notice several of the posters who blindly defend RCL do not speak to the most important fact in this unfortunate event in how it impacted 08/27 cruisers. That fact being that RCL's Miami geniuses put their heads in the sand and put out the company line during a critical period when their customers needed to start moving to the port area. Instead, they should have stepped up and taken a safety first approach. Instead, they failed miserably.

 

Just think what the PR hit that RCL would have taken if they could have bullied the port authorities in Galveston and "dumped" all those passengers at the dock.

 

To watch how the spinners change the discourse about what RCL did or did not do would be really funny if not for the fact that this disaster ongoing in Texas will impact the everyday lives of real people for years.

[put me on a ship]

How about this for a PR move - RCI sails Liberty back to Galveston (with provisions loaded in Miami) and turns into a shelter until the 9/10 sailing.

 

I was going to say that also. It's what they should do.

[TC1957]

How is this different than what Carnival was telling their Valor and Freedom passengers on Thursday? Absolutely, Breeze Pax had more time than LOTS Pax, but part of Carnival's thinking there might have had something to do with how many ships could port in Galveston (3) on Sunday if the Saturday ships got pushed to Sunday.

 

The way things worked out in may look like Carnival's intent was to provide more lead time to Breeze Pax out of Safety concerns, but it seems highly likely that both lines were thinking the big problems were going to be Saturday and that Freedom, Valor and LOTs would port Sunday with Breeze pushed to Monday due to port constraints. So Carnival thought Friday that all three of its ships would be running shortened itineraries this week and that's why they allowed customers to cancel sooner as that's the customary thing to do when itineraries are shortened. I don't think either company thought that this storm would be what it became - at least a week long emergency. On Friday, I think both lines expected this to be over by Sunday and that we're going to be three ships there, two of them leaving on shortened itineraries, one leaving as scheduled.

 

 

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I have an employee on the Carnival ship that was to dock on Saturday. On Friday I signed up for text alerts as if we were on the cruise that would depart next so I could have some idea of what was happening. I can absolutely assure you the text updates received by me clearly stated that we WERE NOT to proceed to the port until notified.

[Cuizer2]

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

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic. Posting on Cruise Critic is like eating potato chips - you can not eat/post just once.

[Cuizer2]

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Another post that says nothing. If I try that I get a warning that my post is too short.

[BecciBoo]

Tug (Curtis) lives in Katy near Cindy and he posted this yesterday morning: Then this morning, water is receding, wish we could see a follow up of Cindy's pic. Tug said his forecast is no rain for the next 5 days so that is good news.

 

 

 

[Cuizer2]

We are booked on LOS October 1 sailing and at this point I'm not even fully confident that one will happen.

 

I hope it does your cruise does go forward, because if it does not, it means things in Houston are in really bad shape.

[Cuizer2]

Just being real about the conditions in Galveston and Houston- if I were booked on a cruise out of that area anytime in the next month...and had insurance...I'd be rebooking right now...

 

If without insurance, I'd be called my air, hotel and cruise line to talk cancel and options.

 

 

Until you know what the cruise lines are going to do, your advise could just get people into more trouble.

 

Carnival may more the ships to New Orleans on a temporary basis. Royal Caribbean may move the Liberty OTS to Miami temporally. If the cruise lines do this, then most likely the cruise lines will cover the cost of changing the flights. But if the cruise is going forward from another post, the insurance will not reimburse you for the cruise fare unless you can show that you are unable to get to the new port.

 

If you don't have cancel for any reason insurance, then your insurance may also cover the cost of changing the flight.

 

If you have cancel for any reason insurance through the cruise line, all you will get is a credit toward another cruise.

 

If you have cancel for any reason insurance from an insurance company, there is a 25% deductible.

 

So you should not take any action until you know what the cruise line is going to do. I do not believe that they will just have their ships bobbing around in the ocean until the port of Galveston is up and running again.

 

If room at the new port is tight, then they might move the Saturday to Saturday cruises to Friday to Friday and the Sunday to Sunday cruises to Monday to Monday.

[Cuizer2]

Why not? That was my point. If the roads are not passable into Galveston.

 

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As I said, we already know about the flooded roads and know that Galveston will not be up and running until the roads are drivable. So, they stay home or in a hotel until the roads are drivable and then they can get their cars.

 

 

I landed at one airport and took a taxi to where my car was. These things can be done. They just have to wait until the roads are open - and all of us already know that. So there is no need for you to keep pointing it out.

[Scottee25]

Tug (Curtis) lives in Katy near Cindy and he posted this yesterday morning: Then this morning, water is receding, wish we could see a follow up of Cindy's pic. Tug said his forecast is no rain for the next 5 days so that is good news.

 

Unfortunately we have rain in the forecast for Houston until Thursday and then starting again on Sunday. With the need to release more water from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs, it's going to add more water to Buffalo Bayou. Thankfully, water levels are decreasing in a lot of areas. US59 near me was completely underwater on Sunday. Now it appears to have drained. Once the Brazos River crests, it will get back in Richmond and Rosenberg.

[Hunwolf]

Cindy posted an image of RCI's posts earlier in this thread. Not that I don't trust some people on this board (Cindy has always been great), but I almost had to see it to believe it. It blows my mind that someone representing RCI would say something so idiotic.

 

Yup. There is nothing than can excuse something so tone deaf and insensitive.

 

Asking a customer to send photos of flooding, weather reports, or road reports. Do they not have access to social media, TV, etc at RCI corporate? Whatever they are paying their met department is too much.

[LadyFureya]

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.

Edited August 29, 2017 by LadyFureya

[Hunwolf]

The deformation bands are setting up right over Galveston island right now. They are getting pounded.

[perditax]

https://twitter.com/SteveKopack/status/902540199959429120