Carnival Liberty Evacuation

Paul - What reason are they giving for preventing those passengers who are not flying out today from leaving the ship? I would be getting annoyed if they had stranded me next to a beautiful island, but wouldn't let me get off to enjoy it. Are there any activities taking place? I guess that would be pointless if the Funtimes hasn't been distributed to let people know about the activities. I hope they aren't trying to recoup some of their losses by forcing people to stay on board to drink and gamble.

 

Thanks for your factual and level headed reporting.

The reason guests were not being allowed to go ashore is because those flying home today were not informed until this past half hour. Carnival did not want someone to go ashore if the are scheduled to leave today. As far as activities, in lieu of the printed Fun Times, the cruise director has been making periodic announcements stating where activities are taking place and the times of the activities. We were told that the Fun Times are completed, but we personally cannot locate one.

Guests that received the letters stating they are flying out today are asked to pack their luggage, place it outside their cabin and then follow the instructions for disembarkment.

 

Guests who did not receive the letter will be able to go ashore in St Thomas now. All guests must be back on board by 7:00 pm.

Hi Pauleydm :)

That's terrific!

I hope you will be taking a much needed break and going ashore as well????

I wish I could buy you a drink. Your updates have been fantastic!

Have a wonderful day Pauley!!

:)

Is there any word yet on how guests are being routed home? Are they flying people to one location and then putting them on commercial flights from there? Or are the chartered flights making different stops to help people get to their home city?

Paul - What reason are they giving for preventing those passengers who are not flying out today from leaving the ship? I would be getting annoyed if they had stranded me next to a beautiful island, but wouldn't let me get off to enjoy it. Are there any activities taking place? I guess that would be pointless if the Funtimes hasn't been distributed to let people know about the activities. I hope they aren't trying to recoup some of their losses by forcing people to stay on board to drink and gamble.

 

Thanks for your factual and level headed reporting.

Forcing drinking and gambling? That's insulting.:mad:

Curious on how they decided who was flying home and when?

Also are they putting those who were supposed to fly on original debarkation in a hotel with food vouchers till their normal flight time?

Is there any word yet on how guests are being routed home? Are they flying people to one location and then putting them on commercial flights from there? Or are the chartered flights making different stops to help people get to their home city?

Everyone flying out today is flying to San Juan. No word on flights tomorrow and Friday.

if I had to guess, I suspect Carnival is flying everyone to San Juan in time to join their planned flights home on Sunday. That's a short flight and much easier to coordinate than getting people back to the US mainland.

Is there any word yet on how guests are being routed home? Are they flying people to one location and then putting them on commercial flights from there? Or are the chartered flights making different stops to help people get to their home city?

The letter we received last night stated that Carnival is using chartered flights because of the lack of space on commercial flights. I do not know if the chartered flights are from St Thomas to San Juan and then Carnival is arranging commercial flights out of San Juan. No one in our group is flying out today and I have not been able to speak to anyone who did receive the letter today. I do not want to speculate the procedure. As soon as we get our letter, I will let everyone know. We were told last night that all guests will know what day they will be leaving St Thomas. The cruise director is announcing the disembarkation procedure as I type this. It is being done by zones, and zone 1 was just called to proceed to deck 0.

The cruise director is now reading a list of cabins that still have not placed their luggage outside their cabin for pickup. The cabins are from all areas of the ship and not concentrated to one particular deck.

The letter we received last night stated that Carnival is using chartered flights because of the lack of space on commercial flights. I do not know if the chartered flights are from St Thomas to San Juan and then Carnival is arranging commercial flights out of San Juan. No one in our group is flying out today and I have not been able to speak to anyone who did receive the letter today. I do not want to speculate the procedure. As soon as we get our letter, I will let everyone know. We were told last night that all guests will know what day they will be leaving St Thomas. The cruise director is announcing the disembarkation procedure as I type this. It is being done by zones, and zone 1 was just called to proceed to deck 0.

John Heald made a facebook post detailing the 6 flights today (carrying a total of 770 pax), and they're all STT-SJU. It really does make much more logistical sense for Carnival to send everyone back to San Juan before Sunday morning than it does to charter flights to cities all over the US.

Everyone flying out today is flying to San Juan. No word on flights tomorrow and Friday.

 

if I had to guess, I suspect Carnival is flying everyone to San Juan in time to join their planned flights home on Sunday. That's a short flight and much easier to coordinate than getting people back to the US mainland.

True, but Carnival said the guests were "being flown home from St. Thomas". The way I read it seemed to imply that they were flying them home, not to San Juan. I thought maybe they'd fly them to Miami and then on to their final destination. Seems like they should provide some type of lodging credit if they are making them wait 4-5 days to catch their original flights home. Considering it's already almost 2:00pm and they haven't left the ship yet that there options for actually getting a connecting flight in San Juan tonight might be slim.

True, but Carnival said the guests were "being flown home from St. Thomas". The way I read it seemed to imply that they were flying them home, not to San Juan. I thought maybe they'd fly them to Miami and then on to their final destination. Seems like they should provide some type of lodging credit if they are making them wait 4-5 days to catch their original flights home. Considering it's already almost 2:00pm and they haven't left the ship yet that there options for actually getting a connecting flight in San Juan tonight might be slim.

They'd definitely have to pick up costs of lodging if they are flying people to San Juan to wait for flights or other onward travel on Sunday.

Several years ago, we boarded the Paradise in Miami and left the dock, heading out of the channel to the ocean. As we got past the bouys, the ship turned north, instead of south towards Key West. After an hour or so, the Cruise Director informed us that there was a mechanical problem with the ship and that we would be returning to port. He told everyone on the ship to carry on as normal, have dinner and enjoy the onboard activities. An announcement would be made as soon as Carnival knew what the problem was.

During the "Welcome Aboard" show, the CD interupted the show to tell us that one of the Azipods (steering motor) had started to leak as we left the dock. He informed us that divers had inspected underneath the ship after returning to the dock and determined that the ship had to be taken to drydock in Norfolk, VA for repairs. Therefore, our cruise was canceled. You cannot imagine the immediate uproar over this, and passengers began demanding action right then. It wasn't until the following morning that we were told was to take place.

Carnival refunded our cruise, gave us a FREE cruise to use in the future, reimbursed us for every expense that we had receipts for (flight fares, hotel reservation, cab fare, meals, etc) prior to getting on the ship and allowed us to stay on the ship until they could get everyone rescheduled to fly home. We stayed on the ship Saturday through Monday evening, when we were able to get our flight home. Carnival shuttled passengers back and forth from the ship to the airport too.

Although our vacation, that we had waited over a year to take, was not what we had expected, we understood that mechanical breakdowns happen. Not only on ships, but on anything mechanical. I spent 44 years of my life as an industrial maintenance mechanic and have seen machine breakdown on a daily basis. On a ship that runs 7 days a week for 52 weeks a year, it is really astonishing that more problems don't occur. But when they do, just like in a factory, downtime causes major problems. In the case of the Azipod issue on our cruise, it took 3 weeks for the problem to be repaired. So a quick fix here on the Liberty is quite unlikely, but I hope and pray that it can be. It may be as simple as recharging the suppressor system. But if a motor was destroyed or wiring damaged in the engine room, it could result in a long repair time. Let's hope not.

Carnival went beyond what we expected them to do for us when our cruise was canceled. And it looks like they are doing everything possible to ensure that passengers get home safely and in a timely manner in this case. Thank God this incident didn't happen when the ship was out to sea! Think about having to be stranded in cramped quarters aboard those small lifeboats for days! Without food, water and a place to sleep!

Jordannaire

Was this 1999? W had our cruise cancelled on the paradise for an issue. We were scheduled to go in August. We got a refund and a large discount on our next cruise.

Forcing drinking and gambling? That's insulting.:mad:

I didn't mean they were forcing people to drink and gamble. My concern is they were forcing people to stay on board hoping that those people would then want to drink and gamble.

Zones 2, 3 and 4 are being called. Guests who have a positive balance on their Sail and Sign card are being advised that they do not need to go to guest relations. Carnival will send a check within the next 7 days.

New update. The 12:00 letter that informs those who will depart today has been delayed. Because of this, we are still not able to disembark in St Thomas.

Hang in there. I know it's a drag waiting around to see what's going to happen today. We were on the dream when it was stuck in St. Maarten and the worst part was everyday waiting to see when we were getting on a plane. If we knew right away it would have been better as we could have enjoyed ourselves and gone to the pool or beach. Hopefully Carnival gets it together so you can at least enjoy a few hours in St. Thomas today. I sure hope they let you know your travel arrangements asap so you can relax and enjoy whatever time you have left in St. Thomas.

Great memories and stories!

The reason guests were not being allowed to go ashore is because those flying home today were not informed until this past half hour. Carnival did not want someone to go ashore if the are scheduled to leave today. As far as activities, in lieu of the printed Fun Times, the cruise director has been making periodic announcements stating where activities are taking place and the times of the activities. We were told that the Fun Times are completed, but we personally cannot locate one.

I misunderstood. I thought that passengers had indicated to Carnival which day they wanted to leave. I didn't realize there were people on board who didn't know whether or not they were scheduled to leave today. I understand them not letting passengers off then. That uncertainty of not knowing when you were expected to leave would make it difficult to fully enjoy the day.

Hang in there. I know it's a drag waiting around to see what's going to happen today. We were on the dream when it was stuck in St. Maarten and the worst part was everyday waiting to see when we were getting on a plane. If we knew right away it would have been better as we could have enjoyed ourselves and gone to the pool or beach. Hopefully Carnival gets it together so you can at least enjoy a few hours in St. Thomas today. I sure hope they let you know your travel arrangements asap so you can relax and enjoy whatever time you have left in St. Thomas.

 

Great memories and stories!

Based on conversations I have had with other passengers, the unknown is a source of frustration. Hopefully all guests will know today when they will depart St Thomas as stated in the letter we recieved last night.

I misunderstood. I thought that passengers had indicated to Carnival which day they wanted to leave. I didn't realize there were people on board who didn't know whether or not they were scheduled to leave today. I understand them not letting passengers off then. That uncertainty of not knowing when you were expected to leave would make it difficult to fully enjoy the day.

Even though we had the option to request modified travel plans on the form we were asked to fill out last night, there is no guarantee those requests will be accommodated. All guests were asked to go to their cabin after the last set of letters were delivered to see if that cabin would disembark today. I do hope that moving forward, all guests will know which day they will disembark before the end of the day as stated in the letter we received last night.

Agreed, Carnival needs to make it their goal to let everyone know by tonight when they're leaving. It's cruel to do otherwise. If you know you're not leaving until Friday, you can enjoy tomorrow in Saint Thomas.

Zones 5, 6 and 7 have been called.

I wonder who they chartered those through, most of the mainline 757's have added more seats so they hold 180 seats or more so that points to these being a private charter operation (part 135 full time).

If so these should be comfortable flights, and it looks like they are doing two trips each plane.

It appears Carnival is getting better at dealing with this disasters, but they are still falling short on the communication factor.

When cruise passengers have to read from social media, the flight schedule....something's not right.

I know there are lessons to be learned from each disaster, I would hope the next big lesson is to beef up the communication team.

24 hour communication/representatives made available thru Twitter, FB and any other media outlet (no it's not manned 24 hours right now)

I wonder who they chartered those through, most of the mainline 757's have added more seats so they hold 180 seats or more so that points to these being a private charter operation (part 135 full time).

If so these should be comfortable flights, and it looks like they are doing two trips each plane.

With the combination of 757-200, 737-800, and MD-83, I have to guess they're AA planes. They have a decent sized hub in SJU, so it makes sense.

They're likely not seating anybody in First Class, which would account for the fewer number of seats than expected. If they use the F cabin they'd need an extra flight attendant.

I wonder who they chartered those through, most of the mainline 757's have added more seats so they hold 180 seats or more so that points to these being a private charter operation (part 135 full time).

If so these should be comfortable flights, and it looks like they are doing two trips each plane.

Most likely Delta. They run a large charter operation (they were used by Carnival for both the Dream and the Triumph incidents). And those plane types are all in their fleet.