Where is Liberty and How are Things On board?

[tugboat]

Planes fly into airports everyday from all over the world. I don't think anyone thinks they will be operating as many flights next week as they were 3 weeks ago, as the demand to get to Houston is going to be a lot lower (possibly) based on how many events (football games that have been cancelled already or conventions). I doubt a company based there is going to have all its reps fly in for a business meeting for a while. That said, if the roads are open, and materials (fuel, etc.) arrive the airlines will operate at whatever level is necessary to fly full planes.

 

The experience at the airport may be different, as some shops or restaurants may not be open initially. Some services usually offered may not be offered or may be limited, but the airlines will be operating as normal as they can. My guess on flights being cancelled has to do with demand for tickets and not the inability of SWA to get a plane or crew to Houston. The "ramp" up is going on right now. That is why they are opening the airports at a time in the future. The obvious limiting factors are employees getting to the airport to handle bags and load passengers, fueling planes, or if there is structural damage to terminal buildings, runways or other infrastructure. None of the latter has been reported and I am guessing the former is not going to be too big a problem, but that is the one nobody knows until they see who shows up for work.

 

JC

 

 

 

Well said

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[NantahalaCruiser]

Unlikely if the 2200 reported to have disembarked in Miami figure mentioned by the Captain is to be believed.

2200 is over 2000 :cool:

[caribill]

A Cruise Critic article

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=8034&et_cid=2983843&et_rid=16931133&et_referrer=Contest_NCL_2013

[lajbec]

2200 is over 2000 :cool:

Thanks Nantahala! I wasn't going to point that out but we NC folks have to stick together..[emoji4]

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Forums mobile app

[xpcdoojk]

Thanks Nantahala! I wasn't going to point that out but we NC folks have to stick together..[emoji4]

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Forums mobile app

 

I went to grad school at UNC and I have floated the Nantahala, and we are visiting the NC mountains mid next month....

 

JC

[cruising twosome]

Port of Galveston is now open per their FB page!

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Port of Galveston is now open per their FB page!

 

with conditions.....

 

August 30, 2017

PORT CONDITION: Recovery

The Captain of the Port has opened the Port of Galveston (Galveston ship channel) and surrounding area to all inbound/outbound vessels with a draft of 33ft or less in daylight only. All vessel traffic will be coordinated with the USCG and the Vessel Traffic Systems.

[Biker19]

2200 is over 2000 :cool:

Assuming the ship was at capacity (about 3800) and 2200 disembarked in Miami, that leaves about 1600 going to Galveston now.

 

Biker, whose wording in the previous post may have confused some.

[Cruiselyne]

I really don't understand all the blame on the cruiselines. Read your contract!!! Weather is not under the control of any cruiselines. Every one of us takes the risk this can happen when we cruiseduring hurricane season. I leave from Florida in 3 weeks and I know there is a real possibility a hurricane could impact us. Will I be disappointed....absolutely. Will I blame rccl?.....NO. Start giving the cruiselines a break. Do you really think they aren't doing everything they can to make it work according to schedule? Seriously, so many of you write like rccl is intentionally trying to personally ruin your action. It is a risk YOU bought into when booking. Sit back, rekax, take things as they come and enjoy what vacation you can enjoy. You are still infinitely better off than the thousands who have lost everything in the last two days.

 

Amen to that. (y)

[tugboat]

Houston Airports are up and Running Yipee

The only Problem is they flew all the planes out of town prior to the Storm.

 

Until they get crews back in place and planes there will not be any flights out of Houston.

 

They flew most of the planes from Houston to San Antonio and Dallas to store.

 

Most likely it will be Saturday (as reported earlier) before planes start flying again.

[dcrow72]

Royal Caribbean claims there will be a Liberty cruise on Sunday.

 

 

they are absolutely insisting there will be a cruise. I wish they would just cancel and then there would be no decisions to make or money to lose.

[xpcdoojk]

they are absolutely insisting there will be a cruise. I wish they would just cancel and then there would be no decisions to make or money to lose.

 

Umm, they have a perfectly functioning cruises ship, sitting in Galveston (come Friday) it is going to do something the next 7 days it might as well cruise. The ship is not (significantly) touched by the storm... why would they ignore that asset?????:confused: There will be people who do whatever it takes to go on their cruise. Why would we denigrate their vacation. They may have waited all year, and the ship is sailing and they want their vacation. Why is that wrong? Why should the cruise line say, there is suffering you can't take your vacation, even though we are happily ready to take them? They are helping people in the places that they will visit. They will help the people of Houston, as they will gain tax revenues and fees to get to the harbor.

 

I don't get why people want the world to just stop. It never stops. RCI is a cruise line that sails it ships everyday. That is what they do. Don't trash them because they do what they do. People take vacations. That is what they do. Don't trash people because they take vacations.

 

I assume every person who posts here is someone who loves to take vacations, why would you trash others taking vacations? That is perverse and sick to me.

 

JMHO and YMMV

 

JC

[tugboat]

they are absolutely insisting there will be a cruise. I wish they would just cancel and then there would be no decisions to make or money to lose.

 

 

 

If this is upsetting to you don't go,stay home

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[kilpa482]

airlines don't exactly work like that...not that simple...already people are having flights cancelled for this weekend into and out of houston...even if operations are back it will take days to get the planes in position again...so yes some flights may operate but anyone with such flights better keep in close touch with the airlines as to the status. no airline wanted to have planes anywhere near Texas this past week...

 

I agree, I would guess its going to be at least a week before airline schedules are back to anything that resembles normal.

[xpcdoojk]

I agree, I would guess its going to be at least a week before airline schedules are back to anything that resembles normal.

 

Airline schedules, are based on demand for flights, my guess is that the demand for flights to Houston are going to be really low compared to last year. It has nothing to do with logistics, it has everything to do with demand.

 

Flights to Houston will only return to something resembling normal when Houston is something resembling normal. The flights are a sign of the activity in Houston, they don't exist on their own.

 

As I said before the airlines will fly when they can have full planes. If flights are half empty they will cancel lots of those and combine them to make full flights. That is what the airlines have learned to do in order to make a profit.

 

I remember back in the day when I paid a lot to fly flights that were half full. I haven't been blessed with one of those for 20 years......

 

JC

[Galveston Cruiser]

they are absolutely insisting there will be a cruise. I wish they would just cancel and then there would be no decisions to make or money to lose.

 

Why?

She is arriving Friday and passengers have the option to stay on board until Sunday or disembark.

Life goes on as do cruises:)

[allieoops12]

If you booked through MyVegas, check your email. MyVegas events have been cancelled.

[kilpa482]

Planes fly into airports everyday from all over the world. I don't think anyone thinks they will be operating as many flights next week as they were 3 weeks ago, as the demand to get to Houston is going to be a lot lower (possibly) based on how many events (football games that have been cancelled already or conventions). I doubt a company based there is going to have all its reps fly in for a business meeting for a while. That said, if the roads are open, and materials (fuel, etc.) arrive the airlines will operate at whatever level is necessary to fly full planes.

 

The experience at the airport may be different, as some shops or restaurants may not be open initially. Some services usually offered may not be offered or may be limited, but the airlines will be operating as normal as they can. My guess on flights being cancelled has to do with demand for tickets and not the inability of SWA to get a plane or crew to Houston. The "ramp" up is going on right now. That is why they are opening the airports at a time in the future. The obvious limiting factors are employees getting to the airport to handle bags and load passengers, fueling planes, or if there is structural damage to terminal buildings, runways or other infrastructure. None of the latter has been reported and I am guessing the former is not going to be too big a problem, but that is the one nobody knows until they see who shows up for work.

 

JC

 

I think we will also see delay programs from the FAA into the area over the coming days, more so for IAH

[George C]

Do we know how many passengers are still on board? They would have some interesting stories a vacation they will not forget

[Rasvar]

Don't forget, Houston is a major hub. So a lot of the traffic into and out of Houston isn't destined to stay in Houston. It's just passing through. I have probably been to Houston airports two dozen times and never had Houston as my destination. So in order to get travelers to other places, the airlines need to restore this service as soon as they can.

[caribill]

 

As I said before the airlines will fly when they can have full planes. If flights are half empty they will cancel lots of those and combine them to make full flights. That is what the airlines have learned to do in order to make a profit.

 

 

That rarely happens anymore in the short term. It did happen this year for some foreign airlines when the U.S. banned most electronic devices from being in the cabin for direct flights to the USA and demand for the flights almost disappeared.

 

But domestic airlines will keep present schedules even if there is a temporary low demand. There may be low demand on a day for a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Houston, but that plane may be scheduled to then fly from Houston to Denver and be fully booked. The airlines cannot cancel some flights to a city without worrying how to deploy the aircraft (and crew) for its other routes that day.

 

I remember a few years ago taking a United flight. It's first segment was from CLE to CRW and it arrived at CRW with zero passengers. I was then one of three passengers on the next segment from CRW to ORD. Now that was low demand and the flight still occurred.

 

I then flew a flight on a 747 from ORD to NRT. It had about 30 passengers. They had to get the plane to NRT because its next flight (out of NRT) was fully booked.

 

There was another time I was one of less then ten passengers on a DC-10 flying from FLL to MIA. They really needed to get that plane to MIA for its next flight.

[sjalex20]

Someone asked about people onboard upgrading rooms. A couple of people that stayed on Liberty in my FB group for this cruise just posted that they moved to a grand suite and another moved to a JS free of charge today. Good for them!!

[OSUZorba]

I guess there will be no fresh strawberries or bread or milk unless frozen on the 9/3 cruise. ( if that even happens) Future provisions most likely will have to be supplied elsewhere.

No different than a 11 night cruise or TA. We can easily get milk that lasts two weeks here.

[OSUZorba]

That rarely happens anymore in the short term. It did happen this year for some foreign airlines when the U.S. banned most electronic devices from being in the cabin for direct flights to the USA and demand for the flights almost disappeared.

 

But domestic airlines will keep present schedules even if there is a temporary low demand. There may be low demand on a day for a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Houston, but that plane may be scheduled to then fly from Houston to Denver and be fully booked. The airlines cannot cancel some flights to a city without worrying how to deploy the aircraft (and crew) for its other routes that day.

 

I remember a few years ago taking a United flight. It's first segment was from CLE to CRW and it arrived at CRW with zero passengers. I was then one of three passengers on the next segment from CRW to ORD. Now that was low demand and the flight still occurred.

 

I then flew a flight on a 747 from ORD to NRT. It had about 30 passengers. They had to get the plane to NRT because its next flight (out of NRT) was fully booked.

 

There was another time I was one of less then ten passengers on a DC-10 flying from FLL to MIA. They really needed to get that plane to MIA for its next flight.

 

This is true. I worked at an airline for years. The only time we would cancel lightly booked flights was when there was a major event removing a lot of equipment from service, such as a hail storm, or once in a great while you just had a lot of busted planes. They would typically try to cancel aircraft on out and back routes, like DFW-OKC-DFW. But planes that were on the congo-line like ORD-DFW-DEN were almost always spared. Outside of major events, directly effecting equipment, flights were not cancelled. Don't forget airlines get graded on cancelled flights and have to report all cancels to the DOT. At my airline the dollar value placed on just one spot cancel could buy a very nice BMW.

 

Due to Southwest's routing structure and their limited reservation system, it is very hard for them to selectively cancel flights due to load (at least that is my understanding of their system).

[purduemom1]

Airline schedules, are based on demand for flights, my guess is that the demand for flights to Houston are going to be really low compared to last year. It has nothing to do with logistics, it has everything to do with demand.

 

Flights to Houston will only return to something resembling normal when Houston is something resembling normal. The flights are a sign of the activity in Houston, they don't exist on their own.

 

As I said before the airlines will fly when they can have full planes. If flights are half empty they will cancel lots of those and combine them to make full flights. That is what the airlines have learned to do in order to make a profit.

 

I remember back in the day when I paid a lot to fly flights that were half full. I haven't been blessed with one of those for 20 years......

 

JC

Just to clarify so nobody worries that their flight will be cancelled if it isn't full. My understanding is that airlines don't cancel flights if they are not full. Doing so would wreck havoc on their entire schedule because planes and crew would not be where they need to be. However, if a an airline finds that flights to and from a particular airport consistently fly less than full then they will adjust their schedules or change equipment going forward but that is different than cancelling a flight because it is not full. I believe that would be an adjustment not a cancellation. Semantics yes, but some people panic when they hear the word cancellation.