Did anyone ever find out why Elation left port so late on Sunday?

[Sophie]

Still curious about that late departure on Sunday. http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif Anyone ever find out what happened?

Sophie

[marshabear]

i think someone said they were waiting on a late flight with ALOT of people on it who were sailing this ship....

Marsha

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[almitra]

Man, I had no idea...just lotsa speculation. Thanks!


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[dan40]

Maybe they had to untangle that long, long, long extension cord before they left? http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
Dan

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Till 9/5 Paradise Panama Canal

[CruisinTXGal]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dan40:
Maybe they had to untangle that long, long, long extension cord before they left? http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
Dan

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How late did they leave? We just got off last Sunday.

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Elation 3/28/04

[Sophie]

They left about 8:30 that night.

Sophie

[tpear3]

I heard there was a problem with Continental's computers. Don't know if it is true...

NCL Sea - 10/00
CCL Inspiration - 11/01

12/19/04 Elation cruise
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[IrishKathy]

Hi All

My husband and I were on the Elation 3/28 to 4/4. We were in the group that had flights before 1:40 PM so were instructed to meet in Duke's Piano Bar where we would be the first group escorted off the ship at approximately 8:30 AM to our waiting transportation to Hobby or IAH.

We had the orange tags and were supposed to be called for immigration at 7:00 AM. No one was called until about 8:00 AM and the line in and through the Cole Porter Lounge was unreal. (As an aside, I don't understand why every passenger arriving in Galveston has to go through immigration on the ship rather than the way disembarkation is handled in Miami, Los Angeles, etc. - Oh Well). After finally making it through the line we proceeded to Duke's and around 9:15 AM were led off the ship to the busses.

Now it got interesting. We sat for over an hour with no one knowing what was going on. Finally the head man at Galveston Limo Service said that either Customs or Immigration had shut down the ship!!! I am guessing that at most there were 150 of us that got off in that first AND ONLY group. That means that 2200 people couldn't get off the ship and that 2300 more were trying to get on. After a calm mini-revolt, Galveston Limo Service put us all on one bus and dropped the first group at Hobby and then continued on to IAH. (Originally there was a bus for each airport.)

The couple in front of us on the bus were flying out of IAH for Des Moines, Iowa at 1:00 PM. They had already been told that there was no way the bus would get them there in time for that flight. We arrived at Hobby at approx 11:40 AM. The couple called Continental and found that all flights for Sunday AND Monday were fully booked. What a way to end the cruise.

I have been checking this board for the past couple of days to see if anyone who was stuck on the ship knows what happened. Both my husband and I caught colds and have been sick which is why I haven't done a mini-review yet. It is one thing to read the boards and another to try and prepare a review when your head feels like a bag of cotton balls.

I am just wondering what could cause Immigration and/or Customs to close down an entire ship for a time. Any thoughts?

But, to finish, that is why it was so late getting out of Galveston Sunday night.

Kathy

Elation - March 2004
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<param name="font" value="lcdb0">
<param name="year" value=2004>
<param name="month" value=3>
<param name="day" value=28>
<param name="hour" value=16>
</applet>

[CruisinTXGal]

That is odd, because we were in the green tag group which were about the 4th or 5th group to be called and we had no problems disembarking. I know we certainly weren't in the first 150. The line for immigration was hellacious, but as soon as we got through it we got right off the ship. I hope someone who was stuck will chime in and let us know what happened. I didn't even know anything was amiss until now and I was there.

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Elation, here we come again! 10/17/04

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Elation 3/28/04

[Sophie]

I hate to speculate but...Could it have been some kind of security problem? You never know, with terrorism these days. http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif

Sophie

[cruiserlarry]

I'm wondering if cruise insurance would cover the flight that the couple going to Iowa missed. Presuming that they had cruise insurance and booked the air on thier own.

And was it just Galveston Limo that was held up, or were the taxi's and other transportation companies held up also.

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Carnival Elation, here we come....


Elation 11 Apr 04
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[CruisinTXGal]

Wow cruiserlarry, only 3 more days for you! You are going to have such a good time. The Elation rocks! http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

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Elation 3/28/04

[LizzieTish]

Kathy,
We were in that huge line with you. It was hard to believe that many people had early flights, wasn't it? Our limo was late getting there and I know we saw more than just that first group off the ship before 10 am. Next time I think I would just book the 6pm flight and take our time getting off instead of standing in those lines for so long. The other people didn't seem to be far behind us.

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Elation

[airdale]

I am glad we are driving down to Galveston. If the lines are to long, I guess we could "force" ourselves to eat lunch aboard that day before leaving the ship.

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Until the Elation

[SeaDays]

Tpear3 speculated that Continental's computers were down. I can confirm that this happened, since we were traveling from Newark to Dallas on Sunday (unfortunately, not for a cruise - that's later this month). Our pilot informed us that Continental's system was down across the country, and that they relied on it to calculate weight-and-balance, takeoff speed, etc.. We were delayed, but for only a short period.

I can't positively link this situation with the Elation's late departure, but Continental is the dominent carrier in Houston.

[drew0tonna]

I was also on the 3/28 Elation sailing. Are you sure you folks were on there? I didn't see you http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

I also had orange tags but was in now hurry to leave the ship (why end your vacation before you have to!). I stayed on board until about 11AM and saw no delays in disembarkation. Continental, which I also flew, was another story. Almost every flight out of IAH was delayed, some for 3-4 hours. I got the same computer story, related to daylight savings time switch.

Great cruise! It was my 7th, and I'd love to do it again.

PS Don't use Extreme Elegance Limo, they gave my limo to someone else and made me wait 3 hours for a replacement.

[a-tx-brit]

See my review...weapons found in luggage!