Galveston weather concerns

Best wishes to Galveston/Houston residents and cruise passengers this weekend as now TS Harvey looks to be rapidly intensifying and is expected to reach the coast as a major hurricane. Adding insult to injury, the storm is forecast to stall just inland and linger at least through Tuesday. Not sure how RCI will plan for this potentially dangerous and unusual situation. Any idea where incoming Liberty might be diverted; Tampa?

From the NHS:

1. Harvey has intensified quickly this morning, and is now forecast to be a major hurricane at landfall, bringing life-threatening storm surge, rainfall, and wind hazards to portions of the Texas coast. Preparations to protect life and property should be completed by tonight, as tropical-storm-force winds will first arrive in the hurricane and storm surge warning areas on Friday.

2. A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for much of the Texas coast. Life-threatening storm surge flooding could reach heights of 6 to 10 feet above ground level at the coast between the north entrance of the Padre Island National Seashore and Sargent. For a depiction of areas at risk, see the Storm Surge Watch/Warning Graphic at hurricanes.gov.

3. Life-threatening flooding is expected across much of the Texas coast from heavy rainfall of 12 to 20 inches, with isolated amounts as high as 30 inches, from Friday through early next week. Please refer to products from your local National Weather Service office and the NOAA Weather Prediction Center for more information on the flooding hazard.

Wow, just this morning they were saying it would only be a Cat 1 at landfall, now they're predicting Cat 3. Best wishes to all who will be affected by this storm.

lots of rain and very high winds coming to the texas coast.be safe.

Latest track forecast http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/152721.shtml?cone#contents

Could it even go back to the sea and regain strength?

Sure glad it is not hitting Florida.

Any idea where incoming Liberty might be diverted; Tampa?

Interesting. I've experienced route changes due to storms, but not paid much attention when a ship is unable to return to its home port. Does the cruise line assist with expenses to get travelers from the alternate port to home? Presumably the home airport could also be affected, so it could potentially take a number of days to be able to return home. Of course, the outgoing cruise from the same port would also be affected. Surely the passengers on the next cruise don't all fly to the alternate city to get on the ship, right? What a mess for the cruise line.

Interesting. I've experienced route changes due to storms, but not paid much attention when a ship is unable to return to its home port. Does the cruise line assist with expenses to get travelers from the alternate port to home? Presumably the home airport could also be affected, so it could potentially take a number of days to be able to return home. Of course, the outgoing cruise from the same port would also be affected. Surely the passengers on the next cruise don't all fly to the alternate city to get on the ship, right? What a mess for the cruise line.

I know when Ike hit Galveston in 2008, Carnival ended up dropping the passengers off in New Orleans and provided buses to take the passengers back to Galveston. Unfortunately when the passengers got back they realized their cars were either destroyed or washed away. My friend was one of them. His car was actually gone as the cruise parking lot was completely destroyed.

Galveston is right at the edge of the warning zone. Hopefully they're able to skirt the storm and face no worse than choppy seas. My first (and only so far) cruise was in the Caribbean and we were chased by not one, but two hurricanes. It was crazy, and we lost half of the port calls. I learned why the cruise was so cheap those weeks...

We are on Liberty now and are trying to figure out what to do. Has anyone had any experience getting off the ship early? I know there are laws that make that difficult but we could potentially take a flight out of Cozumel tomorrow and skip out on the last sea day.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The hard part might be just getting to Galveston! 15+ inches of rain around Houston will cause lots of trouble with road flooding and so on.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/152721.shtml?rainqpf#contents

Hurricane Harvey Tropical Cyclone UpdateNWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL AL0920171200 PM CDT Thu Aug 24 2017...HARVEY STRENGTHENS TO A HURRICANE WITH 80-MPH WINDS...Data from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicatethat Harvey has intensified to a hurricane, with maximum sustainedwinds of 80 mph (130 km/h).A Special Advisory will be issued by 1 PM CDT (1800 UTC) in lieuof the intermediate advisory to update the intensity forecast.SUMMARY OF 1200 PM CDT...1700 UTC...INFORMATION----------------------------------------------LOCATION...24.3N 93.5WABOUT 340 MI...550 KM SE OF CORPUS CHRISTI TEXASABOUT 335 MI...540 KM SSE OF PORT OCONNOR TEXASMAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...80 MPH...130 KM/HPRESENT MOVEMENT...NNW OR 335 DEGREES AT 10 MPH...17 KM/HMINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...981 MB...28.97 INCHES$$Forecaster Berg/Brennan

We are on Liberty now and are trying to figure out what to do. Has anyone had any experience getting off the ship early? I know there are laws that make that difficult but we could potentially take a flight out of Cozumel tomorrow and skip out on the last sea day.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The hard part might be just getting to Galveston! 15+ inches of rain around Houston will cause lots of trouble with road flooding and so on.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/152721.shtml?rainqpf#contents

I would assume he wants to fly directly to NYC since he is from the Bronx. It is unlikely he drove that far. He would avoid TX all together.

But, he could have a rental at the port. That would be a problem!

The hard part might be just getting to Galveston! 15+ inches of rain around Houston will cause lots of trouble with road flooding and so on.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/152721.shtml?rainqpf#contents

Yes, pretty much this. Houston has major flooding problems just with regular storms let along a Hurricane that's expected to stall in the area for 3 days.

We are on Liberty now and are trying to figure out what to do. Has anyone had any experience getting off the ship early? I know there are laws that make that difficult but we could potentially take a flight out of Cozumel tomorrow and skip out on the last sea day.

I believe the cruise line wants notice of a partial cruise at least a week in advance. Bit late for that. But they can't keep you hostage either so... I wouldn't just up and disappear either. I imagine they might tell you "No", but again, they can't keep you hostage without a PR nightmare.

You'd of course need a passport to even board the plane, let alone get through US Immigration.

The 'laws' that are an issue is more along the lines of you can't get on from one US port, and get off (permanently) from a different US port without a $300 fine (to the cruise line). You wouldn't be leaving from a US port though.

Interesting. I've experienced route changes due to storms, but not paid much attention when a ship is unable to return to its home port. Does the cruise line assist with expenses to get travelers from the alternate port to home? Presumably the home airport could also be affected, so it could potentially take a number of days to be able to return home. Of course, the outgoing cruise from the same port would also be affected. Surely the passengers on the next cruise don't all fly to the alternate city to get on the ship, right? What a mess for the cruise line.

We were on Mariner in 2004 when Hurricaine Jean hit Florida. We were due back in to Port Canaveral. We ended up staying at see a couple of extra days. Then we ended up in Miami because after the storm surge Port Canaveral was no longer deep enough for us to get in. Voyager Class was the largest at that time.

We were given free phone calls from the ship and notes from the Captain explaining our delay to give to school and employers ;) Everytime the captain announced a longer delay passengers cheered. Most people took it all in stride (until they started running out of certain beers) We had our 6 month old with us and fortunaltely I am an over packer. Had plenty of diapers and a Chef came to our table in the Dining Room and said they would start pureeing veggies if I needed food for the baby. It was great hearing the Cruise Director making announcements asking if anyone had extra diapers in various sizes.

We are on Liberty now and are trying to figure out what to do.

As per the post above, maybe your best bet is to buy an extra drink card or two in anticipation of another day or two at sea :) while RCI assesses damage. It's likely that the next cruise will be more significantly affected than yours, unless you cannot return to Galveston port. Rain and flooding look to be the bigger concern for the Galveston/Houston area. Getting to the airport might be more difficult than getting into port.

They probably waited as long as they could, but then eventually decided to eat the cost. The cruise line gets charged $300 per passenger that disembarks from a different port than they embarked from. Unless of course it's a US flagged vessel, but next to none are.

Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886

Quite an old law, but still on the books.

I will be watching this closely to see what happens. My wife and I and our three little ones are scheduled to on Liberty of the Seas on the Sept. 3rd sailing. We fly in the day before. I hope this somehow weakens or goes more southwest, or something.

Good luck to everyone on board and everyone scheduled to get on board next week. I hope it all works out!

Port of Galveston is closed as of this afternoon. The storm surge is expected tonight/tomorrow morning but it is the rain that is still unknown.

The port of Galveston is now closed to inbound vessels.

We are on Liberty now and are trying to figure out what to do. Has anyone had any experience getting off the ship early? I know there are laws that make that difficult but we could potentially take a flight out of Cozumel tomorrow and skip out on the last sea day.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As long as you are on the ship why don't you ask at Guest Services what they are going to do. I would guess that they have plans in place for such happenings.

J.

We are driving 7 hours to get the port at Galveston for the Liberty cruise on Sunday. At this point, we are just watching closely and will make the decision tomorrow whether to slowly head south. I'm thinking we won't be departing on Sunday so have no plans on driving into Houston to become part of the problem of drivers getting stranded on flooded roads. We can enjoy ourselves north of the coast, and if the Liberty is cleared to sail on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, we will be there (if roads allow) and enjoy our shortened cruise. Bummer is we were supposed to be doing a back to back on this one but needed to cancel the first half due to work changes. We would have been one of the passengers possibly "stranded" at sea awaiting our safe delivery to the port .....and it wouldn't have mattered because we wouldn't be getting of until the 3rd anyway! Wishing safe travels to all, no matter where you are, on sea or on land.

Two weeks before the Navigator left Galveston, we had a tropical storm hit Galveston the day before the cruise. The Navigator was able to dock, but driving on the hotel's bus to the port, there was water deep enough on the roads to touch under a car. There was torrential rain as we boarded. First time I had a raincoat on for the welcome aboard picture! :) They closed the port after we boarded and we finally left at 11:00 the next day. Our route was reversed so we would have sun at the ports.

I believe the cruise line wants notice of a partial cruise at least a week in advance. Bit late for that. But they can't keep you hostage either so... I wouldn't just up and disappear either. I imagine they might tell you "No", but again, they can't keep you hostage without a PR nightmare.

 

 

 

 

 

You'd of course need a passport to even board the plane, let alone get through US Immigration.

 

 

 

The 'laws' that are an issue is more along the lines of you can't get on from one US port, and get off (permanently) from a different US port without a $300 fine (to the cruise line). You wouldn't be leaving from a US port though.

You can disembark early...I've done it for a family emergency. If anyone wanted to do that, they should notify guest services A.S.A.P.

They probably waited as long as they could, but then eventually decided to eat the cost. The cruise line gets charged $300 per passenger that disembarks from a different port than they embarked from. Unless of course it's a US flagged vessel, but next to none are.

 

Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886

 

Quite an old law, but still on the books.

There is only a fine if you embark at one US port and disembark in another without visiting a distant foreign country. You can embark in a US port and disembark in a foreign port without restrictions. Repositioning cruises and Alaska cruises do it all the time.

About an hour ago, Houston ISD announced they would not have school on Monday. That is a huge number of students, teachers, etc. I'm in central Texas ... this time yesterday, they were saying it might turn into a tropical storm. Today's it's estimated to be a Category 3 at landfall.

I hope everyone's travel goes okay and everyone is safe, but the next few days are going to be changing minute to minute, seems like.

Port of Galveston just issued an update on Liberty https://m.facebook.com/theportofgalveston/posts/10155779475364301