Aloha:

Just curious if anyone has any information about our first stop on the PARTY cruise.

It seems like Key West took a very hard hit from Hurricane Wilma.

Do you think RSSC will substitute a new port for Key West? I'm just wondering if two short months from now they will be ready for visitors?

Any inside information from the ladies at B&K would be appreciated.

Mahalo and have a great day!

Island girl, I just watched the street sweeper go by on the Live Duval street cam. It looks like the Mallory square cam is down and that is the cam that points at the cruise ships. Judging from the Duval cam, it looks pretty cleaned up already.

Click here for Key West webcams.

The Ocean Key pier cam doesn't look so good. PArt of the pier seems to be missing. Ouch

Anthony

Thanks Karen --

Wow, it's amazing, as you said, it looks like they've got it pretty cleaned up already.

You are always so helpful. Thanks again!!

I have been wondering this too.
Heck I am wondering about the condition of Holiday Inn Express in Fort Lauderdale.

We, in Ft.Lauderdale, had power go out on Mon. a.m. It caught me sitting on the throne at 7 a.m. of all places !! All of Broward and Dade counties are out of power for at least a week, maybe more. Port Everglades is closed until ???
Most phones are down, and many homes have no water. There are lines 1 and 2 miles long for those few Home Depots and Publix stores that open. Gas lines are 3 hr. waits when a rare station opens.
In our condo area of 8,000 units, 75% of the huge trees are uprooted, many blocking roads. An hour ago they started work in our area. But with little food and nothing to do after dark at 7p.m.life is boring, especially since there is curfew in both counties from 7 to 7 until further notice.
Our children live in a town 30 miles West and they have power, so we checked in !!The 110 miles an hour winds were incredible. Our lake had waves and whitecaps !! We don't know if national news showed the full impact since it is the first time that we have watched and read 3 days of newspapers. Yes , the port in Miami is also closed !!

Neville, it's good to hear from you! Sorry for your non electric lives, I know what a pain in the butt that can be :(

Hi Neville & Hannah! Glad you were able to make your way to your children's house. Hope Pompano Beach gets back in working order in the not-too-distant future. Cheers, Anne

Good to hear from you Neville and that you and Hannah are ok. My folks got their oower back in West Palm this morning after being without it for 48 hours.

Nancy

So glad to see you are okay, Neville and Hannah! I've been watching any news I could see on the Ft. Lauderdale area, since we had an office and condo there for several years in the 80's. I hope things get back together for you very soon.

Our January cruise on Navigator was supposed to overnight in Cozumel after stopping in Key West. I know we have plenty of time, but we are also stopping in most of the other ports that have been suggested as alternates over at CC, so for now we'll wait.

Neville good to hear from you. It was nice meeting you and Hannah for dinner in Vegas.I am sorry to hear that you were hit by Wilma. This hurricaine season has really been something.Living in earthquake territory might not be so bad after all.

Mark and I live in western Palm Beach County, and our phone service -- and hence, DSL, just came back up; however, still no power. (I am able to post as we are running on generator.) FPL has informed that the last date for power to be restored for both Palm Beach and Broward counties is 11/22 with areas continuing to come back online as they complete repairs. (However, no "specific" target dates given yet as to when particular areas will be restored.) Gas situation has been bad but hopefully will ease up as gas stations get their power back; there is plenty of gasoline but stations have been unable to pump due to lack of power. Gas is a precious commodity so the generators will run...

We're also scheduled to stop in Key West on our 12/5 Voyager "Chocolate" Cruise, and my guess is that things will be fine!

We are booked on the Voyager Nov. 21st cruise(10 of us). We are suppposed to visit Key West 2 days, Cozumel 2 days and Grand Cayman. we are scheduled to leave from Ft. Lauderdale. We are all booked at the Marriott Marina November 20th. I am assuming that everything will be a go even if we have to tender in. We just received our cruise documents and there were no changes of embarkation port. Think I will call the Marriott and make sure they are a-ok. Hopefully we will be notified if there are changes to our embarkation port or itinerary. It may be too early to tell and also Radisson offices are in Ft. Lauderdale so they may be suffering from loss of power also.
Adelle

Fri. morning. No office to go to. No golf courses open. Gyms are closed. I am down to re-reading Oliver Twist ! Miami port and Port Everglades has opened just for cruise ships, although a couple have docked in Miami and passengers bussed to Ft.Laud. airport which has just opened. Most of Broward Cty.has no power. We are still at Weston which has power.
Life is boring for most people with no power and little gas. Most offices are still closed. The high rises have few windows intact. No transportation. The curfew has been raised from 7 to 11 p.m. but who wants to drive in dark streets with no traffic lights. And those few restaurants with staff and generators have line ups from 4 p.m.
We live where the eye passed directly over - Pompano Bch. Pres. Bush was there yesterday and hugged a few ladies and more or less said "tut tut" and left with promises. Just like the horses I bought for the manure. I lost money. Can't live on promises. Any way, we cruise on Dec.17th.
Bette, I still think that Hurricanes are the lesser evil than earthquakes. Wish we were having dinner with you in Vegas, tonight. Stay well. And happy cruising to all you sailors at sea.

The excursion web site is open for Voyager
"PARTY" in case anyones wants to sign up for tours.

Does anyone actually know why GCM was replaced by Key West initially? Are they using Key West as
a alternate embarcation port? This might indicate how important stopping there will be for them.

Also, the dress code for 12/31 remains undesignated [is that a word?] ...any clues?

Paula JK
What I have read is that RSSC changed because there would be 8 ships in port at the same time if
we stopped at GCM

Wow, Neville, I'm glad to hear you are okay! I didn't know it was so bad out there -- to tell the truth, this storm doesn't seem to be getting much press out here in CA, at least not a lot in Ventura County. There have been a couple of items in the newspaper (where I get most of my news), but they've been on like page 7! Based on the lack of breathless media reports, I kind of got the idea that things were getting cleaned up and returned to normal much quicker.

I'm sure your upcoming cruise is going to be a welcome respite.

LeeAnne, I agree with you that the damage in FLA has not been well publicized. I know several people in the area and they have pretty bad damage. Neville, glad you are okay and hope life returns to normal for you as soon as possible.

Thank you, all.We expect to get power within the next week. There are still 2 hr, lineups for gas !! I am surprised that there is very little on National news. Just today, it was announced that 800 homes were uninhabitable and families were to leave ! S.Florida is in a crisis. We wish it was Dec.17th.

Aloha Neviboy!

I'm so happy for you both that you have your wonderful cruise to look forward to.

After the elation of having survived the hurricane the harsh reality of the long lines and long recovery set in.

Most folks have nothing to look forward to except the power coming back on!

Hope things are well with you both and we are sending prayers and aloha for a speedy recovery to you and everyone in Florida.

Hang in there and be patient with each other and everyone else.

I'm thinking of you Neviboy...2 years ago we had a hurricane here at the Beach, forget her name but not the misery we endured...9 days w/out power, buying a $4000 generator, yard full of broken limbs and trash, loss of shrubs and plants when the sea water crept closer & closer.

Heads up...this too shall pass

I guess that we should be thankful. My next door neighbour returned from a week cruise to find that his convertible had a huge tree across it.
He and his wife have a great sense of humour (Brits). He said
We should have gone RSSC not Carnival !!
Only joking. Maybe tomorrow we will have power .

We heard from our travel agent that Radisson is not changing itineraries because of Hurricane Wilma, so Key West, Cozumel and Grand Cayman are still on for us over Thanksgiving.

Adelle

I just spoke to friends who have just arrived in Key West a couple of days ago. Everything is up and running, pretty well cleaned up, but he said the vegetation is all rather brown and dismal. I'm sure that by end December, it will have put out new chutes and will be all green again. They by-passed their place in Boca, because their particular area still did not have power.