gone_cruisin

Did I miss something? All because the OP said he requested a Friday flight, it does not mean he would be staying on the ship until then. Carnival may very well put those guest in a hotel and sail back to SJ earlier with no one on board.

You are correct! I reread Pauley's post and it sounds like they are disembarking everyone today.

Understand, I assume you looked at other options (not San Juan)? Not sure where you are coming from....

Yes. All carnival cruises that week have been removed from the website. Not sure if they miraculously sold everything out or if carnival is holding them back on purpose.

I've called already and inquired if they are offering anyone the ability to change itineraries without penalty or fees and was told no.

Where the cruise departs from has no bearing on us....we can make it work. We just need the $5000 carnival has tied up on the Liberty to be released.

Do you have insurance?

Yes. But we would prefer taking any other cruise that same week. Our parents don't have the flexibility to take another cruise this year. So for us, it's looking more and more like we will be taking the refund and staying at home.

I am just suggesting that those upcoming cruisers who don't have trip insurance, but have non-refundable airfare look into booking a refundable hotel/resort stay in San Juan so their vacations are not completely ruined. More than likely Liberty is going to stay docked in St. Thomas with the passengers who aren't flying out till Friday aboard. Not to mention the fact that it still has not been cleared by the USCG. Will Carnival have people in St. Thomas working on repairing the ship while it sits there? Possibly, but at this point no one even knows what the true damage is, and while we all know it is better to be safe than sorry, if there was any possible way they could get that ship back to San Juan with passengers aboard they would have. I hope they do get everything back in working order in time for the next sailing, just being a realist.

That idea may work for most people. If that's what people would prefer, then I too recommend getting hotels lined up now. We, however, do not want to spend a week in San Juan.

It doesn't sound like they are doing NOTHING about working on the problem at the present time...they wouldn't have considered sailing to San Juan if the ship wasn't sea worthy.

Clearly whatever fix they tried in St. Thomas did not cut the mustard for the Coast Guard. So more repairs are necessary. Everyone is throwing around theories about mechanics/parts being flown in. No one has that info.

What I do know is that this is a multi-million machine that is extremely complex. Any time a component like a engine fails, it is never a quick fix.

You know this for a fact? I would be surprised to find the reason for them not telling people who might be making final flight arrangements for a cruise that their cruise is cancelled because they do not know what they will be offering them

Then be surprised.

Surely you are not suggesting they are being dishonest.... There is no reason to be, once they know what is going to happen, they will inform those who are affected.

 

Really? That's what you read from my statement.

They are aware that 13th cruise is not going to happen. What their reason for waiting to tell us....is anyone's guess. Trying to figure out a compensation package?

I empathize with you, totally, but it seems, as of right now that Carnival doesn't KNOW what Sunday will bring. Unless the damage was so great that the boat can't get back to San Juan and replacement parts aren't available immediately that would be the only reason the cruise would be cancelled. "Fixing" things, as long as you have the necessary techs and parts isn't a "big" deal. The Triumph couldn't sail the weeks after its fire because generators aren't off the rack items (it takes weeks for a generator manufacturer to build one) and the "hotel" part of the ship sustained some heavy damage because of the lack of hotel generator power. Sounds like this is a wholly different issue.

One thing to consider per Pauleys info.....carnival plans to keep the ship in St. Thomas at least until Friday night,as they will be still offloading passengers that day. If this ship needs repair, one day is not going to cut it. They should, at the VERY least, be honest with the 13th passengers and modify or cancel their cruise.

I hope the people booked on the next sailing are looking at alternate arrangements. I hope they sail as planned, but looking less and less likely. And the notice that the sailing is cancelled probably won't come till late in the game.

Until Carnival makes the announcement, there really are no other arrangements. We have several thousands of dollars tied up in this cruise and cannot just book something else.

Gone_Cruisin...if you are on our cruise (9/20) Someone already checked and the only other cruise during that week is the Jewel of the Sea. And it's already sold out. So if our cruise gets cancelled for some reason, it's pretty much a Puerto Rico vacation for us...

We're not going to do anything out of San Juan - looking at anything out of mainland Florida. In particular the Sunshine. Wish they would let us know now.

I just checked Carnival's web site and it shows the next cruise for Liberty I 9/20. Is this correct?

Are you trying to do a mock booking? Then yes.....the next one up for sale is 9/20. 9/13 is not showing for sale anymore.

I still wouldn't make a decision solely on this thread. There has been information from some passengers on-board that was shown to be wrong.

 

Since the OP who seems to be the most reliable source on this thread has stated that they will receive an update around 4 pm, there doesn't seem to be any good reason for everyone to stop discussing other things during that time. I'm sure if you read around that time you will get an update if the OP is able to provide one.

Well until you are put into this situation you should not say what each of us should or should not do.

The longer carnival waits to pass the info on, the more the other ships start filling up.

I was just informed that the US Coast Guard is here and inspecting the engine room. At this point, we are waiting for clearance to sail. As stated earlier, all guests must be back on the ship at 4:00 pm. We will receive an official update at that time.

Positive thoughts!

Who knows what compensation may or may not eventually be required based on what ends up happening. But for now, for all we know the ship is fine and they are just awaiting all the necessary inspections to verify that is the case before they can sail on to Barbados. There may not be any mechanical problem with the ship at all, but they just have to inspect it to be sure..

This is a little more than just an inspection. "Deeper technical assessment" is a lot more complex than just looking at the parts to make sure it's functioning. (This coming from someone that works in the airline industry and can spot key words to signal problems").

To me, this means they haven't identified what caused the fire and cannot depart until the identify and rectify.

Which will create a conundrum for those that embarked last week and are looking to debark. They may be getting an extended vacation.

They're probably making arrangements now to get those passengers back to Barbados by Wednesday.

Being stuck in St. Thomas is not the worst thing that could happen.

Agreed! The worst thing that can happen is you never make it on your cruise at all because it cancels! [emoji24]

That's an option,but carnival will probably offer a much better compensation package if they have to cancel the remainder of the cruise.

 

Invoking the VG excludes the pax from an compensation outside that guarantee.

My bf and I discussed this exact thing last night. We agree, financially we would fare better to stay on board and wait it out.

But some people just don't have the patience to do that. So I was throwing that option out there for them.

Not sure what for :). They are back on the ship, safe. They will have to port in Barbados to embark / debark passengers. Any other changes will see their port fees returned.

 

I would not personally expect / demand anything more.

I'm wondering if the Barbados pick up is still going to happen? At this point, they are going to be 2 days behind. So the Barbados passengers will have a 5 day cruise?

I'm betting this will be Carnivals first cancel.

Carnival sells this itinerary from two different departure points. Most popular is the 7 day cruise from San Juan. For our European friends, they offer a 7 day cruise departure out of Barbados. Yes, both on the Liberty.

That's not reassuring for future cruisers

So I guess we all learn from this emergency situation:

1-Have an extra dose of meds on you

2- a little bit of cash or credit card

Photo of passport or passport number

A phone charger

Ok. I'll now carry a fanny pack. Hope all are comfortable at Marriott and Liberty will sail soon. Glad no one was injured.

Or have your significant other carry stuff in a beach bag.

So I'm confused, maybe I missed something but if it was just a fire why are the passengers not allowed back on board? Passengers were on board the Triumph and Splendor for days without evacuation, why can't passengers get back on the ship and relax in their staterooms?

 

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Are you referring to the ones where the fire happened at sea? Kinda hard to just evacuate everyone into the lifeboats and wait out the investigation. Probably safer on the ship than in the lifeboats floating.

We will know no more soon (hopefully).

It can help expedite the replacement of a lost or stolen passport. A copy does seem to be considered evidence of citizenship by the State Department. But I agree, you can't travel with a copy. A copy of a passport is even worth less in the US and its possessions. At least outside the US, you can use it at a consulate or embassy to make replacement of your passport quicker.

I agree. How many of us know our passport number by heart? If you showed up at the U.S. embassy, would you have the info necessary for them to locate you (especially if you have a common name)?

Crew is going back on the ship now...

That's a hopeful sign

Pic quality was too bad, so I deleted it