Hurricane Maria

[uglybutgoodbakery]

Anyone else see Anderson cooper's interview with the San Juan mayor? All the footage they showed, so much damage and flooding. How will they accommodate the guests on Wednesday? The streets are flooded and an absolute mess. The mayor said the airport is damaged and still not open. They are aiming to get it open tomorrow. It boggles my mind how a cruise will take off from there on Wednesday.

 

 

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Just saw it. Really want to cancel our 12/16 AOS cruise because of it.

[beachnative]

Anyone else see Anderson cooper's interview with the San Juan mayor? All the footage they showed, so much damage and flooding. How will they accommodate the guests on Wednesday? The streets are flooded and an absolute mess. The mayor said the airport is damaged and still not open. They are aiming to get it open tomorrow. It boggles my mind how a cruise will take off from there on Wednesday.

 

Hopefully, you realize that the news media will show you the absolute worst storm damage because it gets you to view their channel. If you research St. Martin (devastated) and find a video of Front Street or Key West (devastated) Duval Street as well as other places you will discover that there are "devastated" areas that have been cleaned up and are in relatively good shape. Some hotels in San Juan are operating with generators and are open for business as well as bars in Key West eager for people to come in. Yes, there is extensive damage but some areas recover quickly.

[Coopdog08]

Where did you hear there was "horrid devastation" on St Croix? Just read a post where someone reposted a letter from realtors on St Croix saying they did not get as much damage as other islands. Also, the chan ge from St thomas to St Croix for Adventure was announced before maria

That was st Kitts with the realtor letter. Maria eye came close to st Croix and they received significant damage.

[uglybutgoodbakery]

Hopefully, you realize that the news media will show you the absolute worst storm damage because it gets you to view their channel. If you research St. Martin (devastated) and find a video of Front Street or Key West (devastated) Duval Street as well as other places you will discover that there are "devastated" areas that have been cleaned up and are in relatively good shape. Some hotels in San Juan are operating with generators and are open for business as well as bars in Key West eager for people to come in. Yes, there is extensive damage but some areas recover quickly.

 

My son's friend returned home last week from a family vacation in St Martin. They were trapped there for 4 days and literally had to be rescued and airlifted out by the National Guard. They walked 15 miles thru devastation to the center of the French side just to get fresh water and to escape. The father is a no shrinking violet, was in the navy for years. He said it was "horrific" damage. But, if you want to believe it's just for the tv ratings, then ok.

[Coopdog08]

My son's friend returned home last week from a family vacation in St Martin. They were trapped there for 4 days and literally had to be rescued and airlifted out by the National Guard. They walked 15 miles thru devastation to the center of the French side just to get fresh water and to escape. The father is a no shrinking violet, was in the navy for years. He said it was "horrific" damage. But, if you want to believe it's just for the tv ratings, then ok.

Irritates me when I see people saying the recovery will be quick, they need tourism, they have been thru this before, etc....those people are living in our world, not the life of these people who live on islands. We have insurance, we having a savings account, we have a 401k to draw from if needed. People on these islands don't have that. Less than half the people in PR have insurance, even less have flood insurance. The same can be said for all these islands. People also don't realize when we have major outages there are thousands of people pulled in from multiple states to assist. That won't happen in the islands, they will be using the same man power as before and who knows what equipment and resources they have to use that were not damaged. On top of this people don't understand that there is little to no economy in St Maarten, Dominica as there are few places left to spend your money. It really is a dire situation on those two islands.

[let's go cruising]

Well, I thought Maria's eye wall went right over St. Croix as a 4 or 5. Whoever said we are getting confused is correct in my case. I really like to read the breakdowns. One reason is that someone with access to information sorts it out. Another reason is that I can see that there ARE places still liveable. And that's really nice.

 

Renee

[Coopdog08]

Well' date=' I thought Maria's eye wall went right over St. Croix as a 4 or 5. Whoever said we are getting confused is correct in my case. I really like to read the breakdowns. One reason is that someone with access to information sorts it out. Another reason is that I can see that there ARE places still liveable. And that's really nice.

 

Renee[/quote']

Northern part of Maria eye skirted just off the island. The RFQ is typically the most brutal part of the storm and this is what St Croix took.

[Dan-P]

Our updated itinerary and a bit of information:

 

 

Dan.

[Morecruisesplz]

Our updated itinerary and a bit of information:

 

 

Dan.

We didn't get one, Dan. Can you make a copy and bring it by our cabin?

[Morecruisesplz]

FredMDCruisers and Dan-P - Many thanks for the updates. Because of you we knew before RCCL agents did and had to school them (ha). We were also able to rebook flights while there are seats. What ports did you actually visit during this "experience". I'm making up some buttons for the Hurricane Maria Cruise - if you're staying on I'll bring them to the Concierge/Diamond Lounge.

I sent the Concierge a note asking if he can work with Guest Services to allow us to board in Port Everglades - a longshot but doable. We saw it done during our evacuation cruise.

For an end date - 24,25 or 27th?????

Thank you. We both were trying to help get you news asap. We did an overnight in Aruba, today in Bonaire and St Croix in place of St Marteen. Oddly, there has been no mention of refunding any port charges. Maybe RCCL is out of money! :D

[Dan-P]

On the Captain's video update, he said there are about 500 Puerto Ricans onboard who are being encouraged to stay onboard to be taken back to Puerto Rico on Wednesday.

 

He also said they will be loading about 100 pallets of supplies to take to Puerto Rico.

 

Dan.

[dagunny]

Dan and Fred - if you send me snail mail addresses I'll send you some items made with the logo.

pinman at sign cimorelli dot com

Nice souvenir from the ordeal. Might be after I get off the next one but I'll send them.

[Dan-P]

Thank you. We both were trying to help get you news asap. We did an overnight in Aruba, today in Bonaire and St Croix in place of St Marteen. Oddly, there has been no mention of refunding any port charges. Maybe RCCL is out of money! :D

I checked our accounts on the stateroom TV, and saw port fee refunds listed. Wasn't a large amount, like $16.xx each, but was something!

 

Dan.

[Morecruisesplz]

Thanks for the offer! We are not doing a B2B (unfortunately) and will be getting off Sunday in Ft. Lauderdale. The only problem I could see with boarding in Ft. Lauderdale is that not all guests will be disembarking. Any Puerto Rico residents that want to stay onboard until the ship makes it back to Puerto Rico, are currently being given that choice. At this point they expect that to be Wednesday morning.

 

Ports we visited: St Croix, Aruba (overnight) and Bonaire. We also briefly stopped in St. Kitts to onload supplies that had been diverted from St. Maarten.

 

Captain announced this evening that while in Ft. Lauderdale, they will be taking on humanitarian aid supplies to take to San Juan.

 

Just as a heads up, the Diamond Concierge Leroy and the Suite Concierge Sucel (female) are both extremely busy helping folks with flight/hotel/misc travel arrangements with the change in our return port. May take a bit for them to respond.

 

Dan.

Sunday? Why not stay on Monday and ear and drink for 1/2 price. Don't tell me you have a job. :D

[Getting out there]

Is RC helping with changed plane reservations cost? I would imagine last min. flights will be expensive and lose what spent on hotel and plane in PR.

[uglybutgoodbakery]

Irritates me when I see people saying the recovery will be quick, they need tourism, they have been thru this before, etc....those people are living in our world, not the life of these people who live on islands. We have insurance, we having a savings account, we have a 401k to draw from if needed. People on these islands don't have that. Less than half the people in PR have insurance, even less have flood insurance. The same can be said for all these islands. People also don't realize when we have major outages there are thousands of people pulled in from multiple states to assist. That won't happen in the islands, they will be using the same man power as before and who knows what equipment and resources they have to use that were not damaged. On top of this people don't understand that there is little to no economy in St Maarten, Dominica as there are few places left to spend your money. It really is a dire situation on those two islands.

 

Some people want to pretend everything is fine, convince themselves that this isn't really happening. Maybe they think fairies are going to show up and magically fix everything for the tourists. This is an epic catastrophe for the Caribbean and its people.

 

 

My favorite is the people who want to cruise to the devastated islands to volunteer for a day, like having a bunch of tourists milling around for 6 hour stretches is going to help :rolleyes:

[Dan-P]

Sunday? Why not stay on Monday and ear and drink for 1/2 price. Don't tell me you have a job. :D

We both really like Ft Lauderdale. We are getting off Sun, spending the night in Ft Lauderdale and heading to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. Still flying home Monday as we originally were if we had stayed in PR post cruise.

 

And for the record, we are Diamond, in a suite, and have the drink package - so no half price here. All kinds of free. LOL. 😉

 

Dan.

[ckrobyn]

.

 

 

My favorite is the people who want to cruise to the devastated islands to volunteer for a day, like having a bunch of tourists milling around for 6 hour stretches is going to help :rolleyes:

 

What am I missing here? Since when it is a bad thing for people to volunteer their time to help others in need? :confused:

[Dan-P]

Is RC helping with changed plane reservations cost? I would imagine last min. flights will be expensive and lose what spent on hotel and plane in PR.

They are working with the airlines directly to get fees waived, but announced they will look at it on a case by case basis and help where appropriate.

 

For what it's worth, our flights home were $106 cheaper from Ft Lauderdale than they were from Puerto Rico when we called and made the changes today.

 

Dan.

[mlmbar]

That was st Kitts with the realtor letter. Maria eye came close to st Croix and they received significant damage.

I just reread the letter and it is St Croix

Originally posted by lauraodonnell86 [/url]This was a post this morning from a real estate company that my husband and I follow in St. Croix.

 

Posting from the states on behalf of Farchette & Hanley: For all those concerned about Kerri and Chris Hanley... all is well! Spoke with them Wednesday night and they are only having connectivity issues following Hurricane Maria.

Overall, St. Croix luckily weathered well. Not nearly the catastrophic level of damage sustained on St. John and areas of St. Thomas from Hurricane Irma.

Here is the initial damage report they have seen or received info about on St. Croix, as many roads are currently impassable with down trees or power lines. We will update as we receive more info:

- Significant debris in streets of Christiansted and Frederiksted, no collapsed buildings

- Federal courthouse has significant roof damage

- Hospital has water damage but no roof damage

- Sunny isle is okay, maybe a couple of stores blown in with roll down shutters

- School is intact

- Major grocery stores seem okay

- Airport capable of receiving relief flights ASAP if allowed

- Gallows Bay: multiple roofs missing on businesses

- East End roof damage on 1 out of every 20-30 homes. Some roads impassible due to power lines. Very limited cell / internet.

[mjgep0316]

I just reread the letter and it is St Croix

 

 

 

Here's an update direct from the USVI offices this evening...https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1411135399000694&id=606668529447389

 

 

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[perditax]

Some people want to pretend everything is fine, convince themselves that this isn't really happening. Maybe they think fairies are going to show up and magically fix everything for the tourists. This is an epic catastrophe for the Caribbean and its people.

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite is the people who want to cruise to the devastated islands to volunteer for a day, like having a bunch of tourists milling around for 6 hour stretches is going to help :rolleyes:

 

 

What do you doom-and-gloom folks suggest then?

 

I'm semi-skilled labor--I could help recover, repair and reconnect all sorts of electronics/PC/network equipment. If someone gave me the opportunity to do that while I was in port, I'd jump all over it. Maybe it makes me naive, not sure. But surely any help isn't a bad thing. Especially if you've got a few people coordinating to make sure the effort is more than "milling around".

[Dan-P]

Dan and Fred - if you send me snail mail addresses I'll send you some items made with the logo.

pinman at sign cimorelli dot com

Nice souvenir from the ordeal. Might be after I get off the next one but I'll send them.

That's so cool of you. Email inbound shortly.

 

Dan.

[mjgep0316]

Here's an update direct from the USVI offices this evening...https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1411135399000694&id=606668529447389

 

 

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Not sure if the above link worked...if not maybe this will help...

 

 

 

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[Coopdog08]

I just reread the letter and it is St Croix

Originally posted by lauraodonnell86 This was a post this morning from a real estate company that my husband and I follow in St. Croix.

 

Posting from the states on behalf of Farchette & Hanley: For all those concerned about Kerri and Chris Hanley... all is well! Spoke with them Wednesday night and they are only having connectivity issues following Hurricane Maria.

Overall, St. Croix luckily weathered well. Not nearly the catastrophic level of damage sustained on St. John and areas of St. Thomas from Hurricane Irma.

Here is the initial damage report they have seen or received info about on St. Croix, as many roads are currently impassable with down trees or power lines. We will update as we receive more info:

- Significant debris in streets of Christiansted and Frederiksted, no collapsed buildings

- Federal courthouse has significant roof damage

- Hospital has water damage but no roof damage

- Sunny isle is okay, maybe a couple of stores blown in with roll down shutters

- GoodHope CountryDay School is intact

- Major grocery stores seem okay

- Airport capable of receiving relief flights ASAP if allowed

- Gallows Bay: multiple roofs missing on businesses

- East End roof damage on 1 out of every 20-30 homes. Some roads impassible due to power lines. Very limited cell / internet.

I apologize. Would appear the realtor didn't have all the proper info when posting as the Facebook post paints a more serious situation.