Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Port of Galveston back open by Oct 1st.

adamscot

By adamscot,
in Gulf Coast Departures

Recommended Posts

jhale

jhale

Posted
Posted

Personally I think even if they rush the terminal repairs to completion they should'nt reopen it until the island as a whole is in better shape. In respect to the people that live there and will still be sorting out their lives, I just think keeping unnecessary people off the island would be best. The last thing they need is people trying to sight-see the damage. Of course this is a double-edge sword as the locals NEED things to reopen and for people to come spend money there to help recovery financially.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
zantedeschia

zantedeschia

Posted
Posted
Ooooookay. Whatever makes your skirt tail fly. BTW, try to find a mention of NO or LA in my post. I was very specifically talking about the MS coast that took a 30 foot storm surge, but was lost in the shadow of NO who had relatively little actual hurricane damage.

I was speaking in more general terms. I was quite inconvienced by Rita which barely touched us. The entire City of Houston shut down for 3 days. My post office for the first time in my memory, locked the doors to the lobby. Schools shut down for an entire week. All the highways were clogged at a standstill for a couple days. Massive overreaction.

 

At least after Ike, people in Houston started opening back up as soon as they got power/water. Galveston will recover, I was there when they rebuilt after Alicia (and sort of there after Carla, tho topical news didn't interest me as much back then). I don't know, I remember someone on a forum saying New Orleans wouldn't be rebuilt and would cease to exist after Katrina. I think my point is because of Katrina, people are having this massive panic attack. Makes me wonder how the people in Florida deal with getting pounded by hurricanes nearly every year. Seems like Floridians are a bit more pragmatic about it, less panic stricken.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
islandchicklet

islandchicklet

Posted
Posted

I personally think, like it matters:D, that there needs to be a date given far enough in the future to let both Galveston residents heal and give some security to cruisers in knowing where they will be and when they will be there.

 

Many people are talking about booking hotels in both areas to have a place to stay. These hotel rooms do not need to be held like this - there are people without homes right now and they need to be able to secure a hotel when they need one. I understand that getting Carnival back to Galveston is important economically but it shouldn't be more important than the people of the island trying to get their lives back together without the added stress of too many people on a damaged island.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dawyv

dawyv

Posted
Posted
I was in Galveston's port today to survey damaged cargo. I would not bet on any cruise ship sailing from Galveston until after the first of the year. Bayport may have stole the show by default. Bayport will keep some of the sailings from now on, maybe all of them. Hide and watch.

 

I have to respectfully disagree. According to my very back of the envelope calculations, Bayport is approximately 25 miles from the eastern edge of Galveston Island (i.e. Ra Apffel Park). At 21 knots (at or just under Conquest's cruising speed, according to various sources), it would take an hour to cover that ground. I have no idea what that means in terms of fuel consumption, but it can't be good for consumption. That also adds an extra hour onto the beginning and ends of each voyage, on top of navigating the ever-popular Houston Ship Channel and possible delays with that. It's also an extra hour where people can't be boozing (for cheap; i.e. with alcohol on which Carnival doesn't pay Texas tax) and gambling it up.

 

All told, from my vantage point (granted, my "nautical experience" is either on a cruise ship or noodling around in a "lake") sailing from Galveston once the port is ready to go is in Carnival's best interests. They can start raking in the dough sooner AND the passengers come to the terminal (since the cruise begins much closer to the gulf) as opposed to the reverse.

 

Granted, cruising from Bayport does seem closer than Galveston. I'll find out this Monday. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
buckanear

buckanear

Posted
Posted

I don't know about Carnival's terminal (terminal 1), but RCI's terminal (terminal 2) suffered only minor damage that is supposed to be finished WELL in advance of the return of our ship.

 

I have been driving back and forth to the island the last few days from Austin, and each day the island is more and more up and running. Although the island will bare the scars on the hurricane for a long time, recovery is happening faster everyday. I can also tell you that there has already been "lookey loo's" flooding the island as well. People want to come and see the destruction, but don't want to help.

 

The one thing I don't agree on is Carnival going out of Bayport. With so many people displaced (I have no place to go once school starts in a 10 days and have to leave Austin) we really can't have people staying in hotels that evacuees need to live in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
redfish

redfish

Posted
Posted
I was in Galveston's port today to survey damaged cargo. I would not bet on any cruise ship sailing from Galveston until after the first of the year. Bayport may have stole the show by default. Bayport will keep some of the sailings from now on, maybe all of them. Hide and watch.

 

 

We went to Galveston today to have lunch and show support for the businesses that are opening up. It was very sad to go threw town especially the strand. For those of you that have been there before you would not believe it.

 

Back to the reason for this post. While eating lunch we sat next to the Public Relations Manager for the Port of Galveston. She said they are shooting for Oct 15 to be able to bring Carnival ships back. They have committed to stay with the Port of Galveston as has RCCL. This afternoon Carnival had a ship docking at the Cruise terminal to house a lot of the emergency responders. She said that the terminals were not damaged real bad, one was worse than the other but workers were everywhere as we went by. The port is already open for some ships which is a good sign. She gave us her card and cell number to keep in touch, she had been working every day since the Hurricane and seemed to enjoy talking to someone other than news media and so many that depend on that port.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mndity

mndity

Posted
Posted

Not to forget the massive problems with everyday services in the Gulf region right now.......... but how go cruisers get from Houston to Galveston?? And how much does it cost? Our group is considering cruising out of Galveston in April 09...........

Link to comment
Share on other sites
redfish

redfish

Posted
Posted
Not to forget the massive problems with everyday services in the Gulf region right now.......... but how go cruisers get from Houston to Galveston?? And how much does it cost? Our group is considering cruising out of Galveston in April 09...........

 

If you are flying in, shuttles run from both Airports. Talk to your cruise line, RCCL offers a shuttle from the airport. There are also Limousine shuttles that specialize in Airport to cruise line. You can google limo services in Houston and contact them.

By April you should have no problem in Galveston, both Houston Airports are up and running now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pboedeker

pboedeker

Posted
Posted

Toured both terminals today to get an idea of what our construction company needs to do to assist in getting the terminals ready for ships. Pier 2 (Carnival) is gearing up for cruise ships Oct. 26 (or so the deadline is for us!). Terminal 1 had a large "log" rip through the back wall (metal building) and did quite a bit of damage to the area where passengers check in. This will be repaired in plenty of time for the VOS. Our company is responsible for door and frame repairs. One door survived!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
waiting4acruise

waiting4acruise

Posted
Posted
Toured both terminals today to get an idea of what our construction company needs to do to assist in getting the terminals ready for ships. Pier 2 (Carnival) is gearing up for cruise ships Oct. 26 (or so the deadline is for us!). Terminal 1 had a large "log" rip through the back wall (metal building) and did quite a bit of damage to the area where passengers check in. This will be repaired in plenty of time for the VOS. Our company is responsible for door and frame repairs. One door survived!

Carnival used Terminal 1

Link to comment
Share on other sites
browneyes7

browneyes7

Posted
Posted
Just today Gaido's opened back up in Galveston (limited menu) but it looked really crowded. A Cajun place is opened too. There is atleast one gas station opened and 2 grocery stores. The hospital only is treating minor emergencies. I agree that it wont be that long before the island is fully operational. And let me add that a big part of that quick recovery is due to the fantastic utility and recovery companies piling in from all over the USA and Canada!!! A huge THANK YOU!!! goes out to those guys!

 

This is SO true. We were on the Holiday when the storm hit Texas. We did a back-to-back. As we were driving home to Texas on Sept. 18, we saw many, many Alabama Electric Company trucks headed to Texas to help restore the power in Houston, Galveston, and the surrounding areas. We owe them so much gratitude for being there in our time of need.

 

Thank you, Alabama!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Capt. Mike

Capt. Mike

Posted
Posted
We went to Galveston today to have lunch and show support for the businesses that are opening up. It was very sad to go threw town especially the strand. For those of you that have been there before you would not believe it.

 

Back to the reason for this post. While eating lunch we sat next to the Public Relations Manager for the Port of Galveston. She said they are shooting for Oct 15 to be able to bring Carnival ships back. They have committed to stay with the Port of Galveston as has RCCL. This afternoon Carnival had a ship docking at the Cruise terminal to house a lot of the emergency responders. She said that the terminals were not damaged real bad, one was worse than the other but workers were everywhere as we went by. The port is already open for some ships which is a good sign. She gave us her card and cell number to keep in touch, she had been working every day since the Hurricane and seemed to enjoy talking to someone other than news media and so many that depend on that port.

 

The cruise ship you referred to is an old gambling ship, the Imperial something. It is not a Carnival vessel. It a piece of crap being used for workers. The parking lots still have close to 200 cars that have not been claimed or towed all totaled, I counted them today. The shuttle buses were all flooded and no chance they will ever run again. The strand is now full of sheetrock and trash as businesses try to rebuild. Not one traffic light in Galveston works. No power, no anything, the last place any cruiser would want to be for many months to come. I stand by my projection, Jan 1, 2009 if they are lucky.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
futaba951

futaba951

Posted
Posted
The cruise ship you referred to is an old gambling ship, the Imperial something. It is not a Carnival vessel. It a piece of crap being used for workers. The parking lots still have close to 200 cars that have not been claimed or towed all totaled, I counted them today. The shuttle buses were all flooded and no chance they will ever run again. The strand is now full of sheetrock and trash as businesses try to rebuild. Not one traffic light in Galveston works. No power, no anything, the last place any cruiser would want to be for many months to come. I stand by my projection, Jan 1, 2009 if they are lucky.

 

I will agree with you. In fact I'll go one further and project that it will be months into 2009 before cruise ships return. I saw the devastation and rebuilding in MS firsthand after Katrina and while MS had more extensive damage than Galveston, I believe, I know that it is a slow go getting cleaned up and back running again. There are hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of debris to be hauled off and that takes months to accomplish. Even here in Mobile, where we had relatively little damage from Katrina, we had FEMA contractors running around picking up curbside debris for 4 months after the storm. Carnival will not rush back to Galveston until the infrastructure is there to handle CRUISERS, not just cruise ships. As long as they can sail from nearby Bayport, they will not rush a return.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ginag

ginag

Posted
Posted
The cruise ship you referred to is an old gambling ship, the Imperial something. It is not a Carnival vessel. It a piece of crap being used for workers. The parking lots still have close to 200 cars that have not been claimed or towed all totaled, I counted them today. The shuttle buses were all flooded and no chance they will ever run again. The strand is now full of sheetrock and trash as businesses try to rebuild. Not one traffic light in Galveston works. No power, no anything, the last place any cruiser would want to be for many months to come. I stand by my projection, Jan 1, 2009 if they are lucky.

 

Oh ye of little faith! :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pboedeker

pboedeker

Posted
Posted
The cruise ship you referred to is an old gambling ship, the Imperial something. It is not a Carnival vessel. It a piece of crap being used for workers. The parking lots still have close to 200 cars that have not been claimed or towed all totaled, I counted them today. The shuttle buses were all flooded and no chance they will ever run again. The strand is now full of sheetrock and trash as businesses try to rebuild. Not one traffic light in Galveston works. No power, no anything, the last place any cruiser would want to be for many months to come. I stand by my projection, Jan 1, 2009 if they are lucky.

 

Not sure what your source is but power has been restored to many of the Seawall businesses. There are more stoplight still hanging in Galveston than in our local area? Our flooded vehicle has been towed as of yesterday and lunch at The Spot was delicious!

 

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=8be3c46e4acc448a

 

Slideshow from Sept. 20th: http://www.galveston.com/slideshow_sanluishotel/frameset.html

 

Strand Photos Sept. 23rd: http://www.galveston.com/slideshow_092308/frameset.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites
buckanear

buckanear

Posted
Posted
Not one traffic light in Galveston works. No power, no anything,

 

There were a few streetlights working (directing traffic) on Friday, with more up and coming.

 

More and more places are getting power (the newspaper said 50+%). My apartment had electricity last Wednesday and it's 2 blocks from the seawall.

 

VOS is still planning on an on-time arrival in Galveston in December and the city will do everything in it's power to keep that revenue and to bring back Carnival ASAP.

 

I'm going back tomorrow to sign my lease on my place while my apartment is being renovated. I'll be sure to get some more pictures.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail Beyond the Ordinary with Oceania Cruises
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: The Widest View in the Whole Wide World
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...