Galveston Port closed?

[mamiamjo]

Ecstasy appears to be on her way in this morning. Good luck to all who are sailing today, and be sure to bring her back on time Monday morning for me! :D

 

May I ask how you can tell if the ship is moving or not?

[cjt3]

May I ask how you can tell if the ship is moving or not?

 

I looked at marinetraffic dot com this morning and it showed that she was moving at around 10 knots. It looks like I spoke too soon, though, since she seems to have gone only a few miles toward the channel and is now stopped. The web cam doesn't look too bad, though, so hopefully this is only a minor delay this morning.

[TSUmom]

I was one of the people stuck on the ship and I agree that the communication could have been WAY BETTER. I ended up missing TWO flights out of houston because of this (one being my original flight that I had booked for Saturday) and when asked if Carnival could help me book a flight through them they just simply said there would be nothing they could do to help. I get it that it was the weather but we learned the port had been closed for at least a DAY before we arrived there. Instead of announcing when the next BINGO round would be held maybe they should have given everyone a courtesy heads up so we would be able to get a head start in looking into other arrangements if need be instead of being left to figure everything out at the LAST MINUTE when flight prices SKY ROCKET. I called carnival to inquire about compensation for my flight home due to this since I learned they were helping other people to which the costumer service rep told me there was nothing they could do and when I asked to speak to a manager I was told no as well. Like I said I understand that the fog couldn't have been prevented but I feel that due to the lack of cummunication, which caused me a ton of stress and money that I really didn't have to spend last minute like that, Carnival should have at least treated me with a little more courtesy instead of just being outright nasty and thinking I am just asking for a hand out which was REALLY insulting. It wasn't like I was asking for a FULL REFUND of the cruise, although I should have considering the "all you can eat food" was horrible, how many times can you really eat chicken fingers and burgers, the only thing that was worth anything was our cleaning service which we tipped generously. I just wanted to have them help me any way they could as a matter of good faith, like the post before said it builds costumer loyalty, but I didn't get anything close to that so this will be my last carnival cruise. I want to write a letter to corporate reagrding the treament and lack of communication I recieved on this ship. Does anyone know of an address or name for me? I can probabaly just find it online.

 

I could think of worse places to be stuck, like an airport. You complained about the food but at least you were not paying for it and you did not go hungry. I too was "stuck" on the Ecstasy last week and in my opinion they did the best they could given the situation. The Port Authority closed the port not the cruiseline. I understand your being upset on missing flights but once again how can you blame the cruiseline for that. I do sympathize with you on the situation.

[2addicted2xmas]

I agree there are much worse places to be " stuck". Plus anyone who can only find chicken fingers and Burgers on a ship with so many options is not very open to change. We too got stuck waiting to board in Galveston a few years ago, but when we finally got on board the ships staff was wonderful. Even though they had very little prep time in between passengers. I think I felt worse for them than for us. None of us can control mother nature!

[JRock59]

May I ask how you can tell if the ship is moving or not?

 

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?zoom=10&mmsi=353479000&centerx=-94.72714&centery=29.34599

[LaurieHoffman]

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?zoom=10&mmsi=353479000&centerx=-94.72714&centery=29.34599

 

looking at the ship now it looks like she is docked in Galveston.... am I reading this correctly? If so, great news for those getting off and hopefully those getting on today...

[JRock59]

looking at the ship now it looks like she is docked in Galveston.... am I reading this correctly? If so, great news for those getting off and hopefully those getting on today...

 

 

Yes the Ecstasy is now docked in Galveston! :D http://www.galveston.com/cruisecam/

[Golfing Dan]

We are back. At 1010am we are still onboard. We expect to start debarkation soon. Really happy that they next pax will only be slightly delayed. Also, Carnival listened and sent emails to the upcoming passengers to let them know of a possible fog delay and tolf them where to go to get updated information. This is great. Please note that did not receive any such notice. Great to hear that Carnival is communicating in this manner.

[reggierail]

[GreenZolie]

We are back. At 1010am we are still onboard. We expect to start debarkation soon. Really happy that they next pax will only be slightly delayed. Also, Carnival listened and sent emails to the upcoming passengers to let them know of a possible fog delay and tolf them where to go to get updated information. This is great. Please note that did not receive any such notice. Great to hear that Carnival is communicating in this manner.

 

How did you find out they sent emails to upcoming passengers? I think that is awesome. What would be even better would be a recorded message to our cell phones. There are computer programs that can send those every hour on the hour. Airlines use such a program. It has been very nice to get those messages when our planes have been delayed.

 

Glad the new passengers aren't delayed like we were!

[Raven Days]

I will be posting my review and my experience's in Galveston at the Terminal and later at the Convention Center and back at the terminal on a different thread, however I wanted to weigh in one last time on this one.

 

I feel that the offer we received from Carnival was very fair. I was sincerely disappointed that I didnt get to visit Progesso, since I booked this specifically for this reason. I know lots of folks were upset that we didnt go to Cozumel too. I think under the circumstances Carnival came through as far as the compensation. I have a different view point about the communications aspect of my two days in Galveston in relation to Carnival. I opted to stay on the ship and do the 3 day cruise to no where, since any cruise is better then NO cruise at all and I had after all waited 2 days to board so I might as well have a grand time anyways! Illiana had a wonderful time and really enjoyed Camp Carnival.

 

I will be sailing again on Carnival. Soon. Hey, I have a 50% discount I have to use!

[Golfing Dan]

I spoke to Captain Tine on the Ecstasy on Thursday at about 800am. We were talking outside the bridge. He advised that they tried to get the ship back to port on Wednesday at 3pm, but the port remain closed. This would have caused us to return to port 15 hours earlier then scheduled. This would of caused us to lose another afternoon and night in the casino. Please also note that coming back early also caused us to lose a day of sun on Wednesday. While in the gulf we had warm sun. When circling outside Galveston we had fog and cold. The Captain let me know that the pilot was coming out to the ship, but that the fog was worse than that morning then it was on Saturday. He went back to the bridge to talk to the port. He indicated that we were at anchor and he expected to remain at anchor. 5 minutes later the anchor was coming up and the pilot was boarding. We were coming to port in a massively dense fog. Visibility was near zero for portions of that channel. The fog cleared at port. I still cannot believe that they brought that ship to port in those conditions.

 

My Summary of my TWO CENTS worth.

 

Carnival cannot control fog.

Carnival can control how they communicate with their customers.

The Ship was Fun. The wait was not Fun.

This was my 7th Carnival cruise.

I feel as if we were fairly compensated by Carnival.

I will use my 50% voucher on the Triumph after she arrives in October, 2011.

I will continue to travel with Carnival.

I will hope that Carnival learns from this and develops a better COMMUNICATION plan for keeping their customers informed in a timely manner.

[Raven Days]

I spoke to Captain Tine on the Ecstasy on Thursday at about 800am. We were talking outside the bridge. He advised that they tried to get the ship back to port on Wednesday at 3pm, but the port remain closed. This would have caused us to return to port 15 hours earlier then scheduled. This would of caused us to lose another afternoon and night in the casino. Please also note that coming back early also caused us to lose a day of sun on Wednesday. While in the gulf we had warm sun. When circling outside Galveston we had fog and cold. The Captain let me know that the pilot was coming out to the ship, but that the fog was worse than that morning then it was on Saturday. He went back to the bridge to talk to the port. He indicated that we were at anchor and he expected to remain at anchor. 5 minutes later the anchor was coming up and the pilot was boarding. We were coming to port in a massively dense fog. Visibility was near zero for portions of that channel. The fog cleared at port. I still cannot believe that they brought that ship to port in those conditions.

 

My Summary of my TWO CENTS worth.

 

Carnival cannot control fog.

Carnival can control how they communicate with their customers.

The Ship was Fun. The wait was not Fun.

This was my 7th Carnival cruise.

I feel as if we were fairly compensated by Carnival.

I will use my 50% voucher on the Triumph after she arrives in October, 2011.

I will continue to travel with Carnival.

I will hope that Carnival learns from this and develops a better COMMUNICATION plan for keeping their customers informed in a timely manner.

 

I am looking at the same thing. I am going to take my daughter and both kids this time. Illiana's 5th birthday is October 12 and I think I will book the 10/10 cruise. This was my 4th cruise and I still loved it. Illiana had a blast and loved Camp Carnival.