Is Freeport open

[CrickieD]

Hey,

We have a cruise booked for this weekend that stops in Freeport.  I can not find anything that says the port has re-opened for passenger ships.  Shocked RCCL has not updated our itinerary or cancelled our excursion.  Has any one been on a Carnival Cruise that has been diverted?  I know they stop in Freeport frequently.  

[CILCIANRQTS]

Not for a long, long time...

 

 

[CruisinCrow]

On 9/16/2019 at 5:26 PM, CrickieD said:

Hey,

We have a cruise booked for this weekend that stops in Freeport.  I can not find anything that says the port has re-opened for passenger ships.  Shocked RCCL has not updated our itinerary or cancelled our excursion.  Has any one been on a Carnival Cruise that has been diverted?  I know they stop in Freeport frequently.  

 

I'm not sure about Carnival but I think Royal Caribbean has been stopping at Freeport to drop off supplies like generators and then staying at sea.  I don't think Freeport will be open for cruisers for a long time.

[Drock20J]

4 hours ago, CruisinCrow said:

I'm not sure about Carnival but I think Royal Caribbean has been stopping at Freeport to drop off supplies like generators and then staying at sea.  I don't think Freeport will be open for cruisers for a long time.

That is correct, ships like the Navigator and Mariner make daily stops at Freeport, but just to drop off supplies. No passengers are allowed off the ship.

[Tapi]

On 9/18/2019 at 10:31 AM, CruisinCrow said:

 I don't think Freeport will be open for cruisers for a long time.

That’s why I thought too, but Bahamas Paradise Cruise Lines is returning to Freeport beginning on September 27th aboard the Grand Celebration. According to the article that I read, they will be offering beach excursions as well as volunteering opportunities for cruise passengers wishing to assist with recovery efforts. 

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/4509/

[CruisinCrow]

16 minutes ago, Tapi said:

That’s why I thought too, but Bahamas Paradise Cruise Lines is returning to Freeport beginning on September 27th aboard the Grand Celebration. According to the article that I read, they will be offering beach excursions as well as volunteering opportunities for cruise passengers wishing to assist with recovery efforts. 

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/4509/

 

That's good news.  I hope those cruises will bring in some much needed money and help.

 

We sailed by Grand Bahama on the way back from Nassau a little over a week ago and we were surprised how many lights we saw on the island.  Maybe the west end of the island didn't get hit quite as hard.  

[Tapi]

1 hour ago, CruisinCrow said:

We sailed by Grand Bahama on the way back from Nassau a little over a week ago and we were surprised how many lights we saw on the island.  Maybe the west end of the island didn't get hit quite as hard.  

I know that the devastation in Freeport is very real, and that recovery will take a long time, but if there’s something that I learned with past hurricanes is that the media will downplay recovery efforts and any progress, and sadly they will make an already grim story sound even more grim in order to sensationalize a story. 

 

I’m from Puerto Rico, and when hurricane Maria hit in 2017 the media made it sound like the entire island was still 100% in the dark with zero recovery progress months later, while in reality recovery and rebuilding efforts were well underway, electricity had been restored to major urban areas and many tourist areas were ready to receive visitors. I visited the island one month after the hurricane hit, and while the destruction was evident in many areas, the recovery was also evident as well and many places looked like they were back to normal, with cruise ships returning a few weeks later, yet that’s not what the media was reporting. 

 

Im guessing that Freeport/Grand Bahama will follow a similar path. They will probably concentrate efforts in tourist areas in order to welcome back visitors and boost much needed tourism dollars as soon as possible, while other parts of the island will take much longer to recover. 

Edited September 25, 2019 by Tapi