Liberty of the seas delay departing

[cougar310]

Just heard from a friend on this ship, Liberty of the Seas, that it is delayed one day outside galveston because of fog.   Anyone experienced this kind of delay, either parting or entering?  If you are at the gate and the ship never comes in, does Royal Carribbean make arrangements for the waiting customers or are you on your own?  If you bought a 7 day drink package, do you get a refund for 1 day less?  My friend said his drink card just got deactivated for the extra day, so any new purchases are billed.  We will be boarding this ship next sunday and wondering if this delay affects next weeks sailings also /.

[Matt]

I encountered it on Navigator of the Seas when she sailed from Galveston, back in 2014. I shared what it was like here: http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2014/02/09/navigator-of-the-seas-live-blog-day-1-embarkation-day

 

In our case, the ship made it in late (we boarded around 6pm). RC did provide everyone with an onboard credit to offset the cost of lunch.  I was just happy to get onboard the ship.  Despite the fact we spent the first night in Galveston, we were able to leave port the next morning and still make our scheduled stops.

[Galveston Steve]

Great question, but fortunately I have not experienced that situation.  Just to clarify, Liberty of the Seas did not experience a delay today. They arrived in port several hours early this morning and sailed only about 30 minutes late this afternoon.  The other four cruise ships sailing from Galveston this weekend were all delayed between 18-32 hours due to fog (Disney Wonder, Carnival Valor, Carnival Freedom, Carnival Breeze were all delayed).

[sulross]

This is to confirm what Galveston Steve mentioned.  The Liberty arrived in Galveston at 3:30 this morning, new passengers started getting on ship around 11:00 and were sailing out about 4:15, so all good.  Watched on cruise camera and talked to passengers on ship.  The three Carnival ships had the main problems, but working them out. 

[UkuleleCruiser]

Just heard from a friend on this ship, Liberty of the Seas, that it is delayed one day outside galveston because of fog.   Anyone experienced this kind of delay, either parting or entering?  If you are at the gate and the ship never comes in, does Royal Carribbean make arrangements for the waiting customers or are you on your own?  If you bought a 7 day drink package, do you get a refund for 1 day less?  My friend said his drink card just got deactivated for the extra day, so any new purchases are billed.  We will be boarding this ship next sunday and wondering if this delay affects next weeks sailings also /.

We were on the Liberty sailing 12/26/16, and it was delayed arriving due to fog. We didn't board until almost 4 pm. I didn't hear what happened with people who had the drink package, but every person did receive a $20 credit. This was to offset the cost of eating an extra meal in Galveston. 

 

The departure was further delayed because after we all boarded, the fog closed the port again. We didn't leave until noon the following day.

 

The bigger problem largely had nothing to do with Royal Caribbean: Port of Galveston is just not equipped to handle 3,600 people showing up at exactly the same time, which is what happened. It was a complete mob scene. In addition, the port should have had a way to deal with baggage throughout the day so people who were there prior to 3:30 or so won't glued to the pavement with their bags. We should have been able to drop them off and wander around Galveston. We couldn't use the $20 credit to buy lunch because we had no way to stow our baggage. 

 

Finally, Royal Caribbean's computer crashed, and they tried to do manual boarding to get things started. This was also a mess, because the port staff (Not Royal Caribbean staff) didn't really understand what to do, and tried to send people on to the ship without their sailpass cards...

 

That didn't really answer your question, but perhaps you will hear from someone who has a drink package...

[DocLC]

We were on the Liberty sailing 12/26/16, and it was delayed arriving due to fog. We didn't board until almost 4 pm. I didn't hear what happened with people who had the drink package, but every person did receive a $20 credit. This was to offset the cost of eating an extra meal in Galveston.

 

The departure was further delayed because after we all boarded, the fog closed the port again. We didn't leave until noon the following day.

 

The bigger problem largely had nothing to do with Royal Caribbean: Port of Galveston is just not equipped to handle 3,600 people showing up at exactly the same time, which is what happened. It was a complete mob scene. In addition, the port should have had a way to deal with baggage throughout the day so people who were there prior to 3:30 or so won't glued to the pavement with their bags. We should have been able to drop them off and wander around Galveston. We couldn't use the $20 credit to buy lunch because we had no way to stow our baggage.

 

Finally, Royal Caribbean's computer crashed, and they tried to do manual boarding to get things started. This was also a mess, because the port staff (Not Royal Caribbean staff) didn't really understand what to do, and tried to send people on to the ship without their sailpass cards...

 

That didn't really answer your question, but perhaps you will hear from someone who has a drink package...

I hope you documented this in the post cruise survey. And while the pier staff are not Royal employees, they still represent Royal. Hopefully with enough feedback Risk can remedy how they handle this (e.g., luggage storage, shuttle bus into Galveston, etc.)

[HAK1906]

I am on this cruise and as mentioned not delayed. I did appreciate the heads up email 24 hours prior to let people know of the possibility. I was on shore in Grand Cayman yesterday (side bar- first time there and was very surprised how much we liked it there) and spoke to carnival folks who's ship was delayed. They said that they would be getting a credit.