Before Hurricane Irene Hits, Cruise Ship Scrambles To Leave New York Harbor

For Sandra and Eddie Castle, no hurricane was going to keep them from their cruise vacation.

"We just want to get on board, and get away from this storm," Sandra Castle said as she and her husband towed their bags toward the massive Princess Cruises ship docked the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal early Saturday afternoon.

On the terminal all around the boat, which was originally due to sail out around 5 pm, last-minute preparations were underway to get the boat ready two hours early. Dark clouds from the front edge of Hurricane Irene periodically dumped rain down on the final stragglers streaming out of coach buses and into the terminal.

Starting around 5 in the morning, dockworkers had to maneuver some the baggage and supplies of 3,000 or so people from the last trip off the boat and then replace them with supplies and luggage for 3,000 new travelers. Cruise-line officials at the dock said abut 900 people out of 3500 had cancelled their reservations for the Saturday afternoon departure.

"We did this work in half the time," Chris Marsala, a stevedore, said as he rested on a folding chair near the boat, snacking on potato chips. "We all worked shifts, everybody chipped in, doing two jobs at a time, three jobs for some."

"And what time is it now, 12:30?" Al Arcamona, the head foreman, asked. "Usually we aren't finished with this until 3:00, 3:30. This boat is going off on time."

One marine official overseeing the embarkation, who declined to give his name, told The Huffington Post that the boat, which was due to sail north toward Halifax, and away from the arriving storm, was unlikely to have much trouble getting out to sea and making its northward turn toward Halifax ahead of the storm.

Across New York Harbor, the Coast Guard has declared that any ship over 500 tons -- including all cruise ships -- had to be out to sea by nightfall. The Princess Cruises ship would get out, the marine official at the docks estimated, but he said there some concerns for another cruise ship docked along the Manhattan coastline. "I don't know what's going to happen to them," he said. In the distance, across the choppy seas of the Lower Harbor, a third cruise ship at Bayonne could be seen frantically loading for a late afternoon departure.

Another official with the terminal, who also didn't give his name, was more circumspect. "We're supposed to get off on time," he said, as he hurried by clutching a walkie talkie. "I guess we'll see."

Officials with the Port Authority, which oversees the cruise terminals, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, the dock workers continued to hastily get baggage screened and on-board, so the boat could push back early.

"Look around," Victoria Di Santo, a boarding agent with InterCruises, the company that manages embarkation, said as she pointed to the nearly empty dock. "Usually at this time, we're jam-packed."

For the Castles, who flew in from Manchester, England, Friday for the cruise, this vacation was going to happen. "I know it's supposed to be the biggest storm in 70 years," Eddie said." But all we need is for the hurricane to turn a little to the left, and everybody will be happy." And if it doesn't? "We all get wet!"

Comments

[tcny]

01:49 AM on 08/28/2011

According to a news report earlier this evening, that cruise ship docked at Manhattan was given permission to ride out the storm in port (with passengers on board), which apparently has never been done before.

I wonder who will be responsible for any damage to the pier facilities that occurs from this massive ship being tossed around by the storm.

[Gary Titone]

07:12 PM on 08/27/2011

My family had to cancel not only due to the state of emergency and but also due to an extreme family medical emergency that we informed Princess on several days ago. The hospital where y father-in-law had his operation yesterday evening was evacuated. He literally was transferred to another hospital while Princess expected us to embark early when literally there was no way to get there. Princess Cruises has clearly shown they do not care about the safety of their paid consumers. While local government for the first time ever have mandated evacuations Princess Cruises continue to heed to their spin doctored daily public relations articles to suit the needs of protecting their gate receipts. It is clear that this is a disaster where government agencies have mandated evacuation in the exact zone where the Brooklyn Red Hook port is. The ship arrived there today for debarkation. When it arrived the port area was already under emergency evacuation orders mandated by the government. Princess is doing nothing to offer any financial consideration to those who could not make it due to the declared disaster. For those that do not have insurance it is a very unfortunate situation. What is clear is that the US federal and local governments care enough to mandate evacuations in the same exact region and zone where the ship arrived and was set to embark for today. All city buses and subways were closed long before embarkation.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

09:38 PM on 08/27/2011

If you aren't smart enough to buy trip insurance that is your problem. A cruise ship is a city in a hull. They had to disembark the leaving passengers, take off hundreds of tons of trash (in addition to luggage), then load hundreds of tons of food, fresh water, fuel, and other supplies. What were they supposed to do? Teleport? They did an incredible job under the situation. And I will bet that Princess had every charter bus they could get their hands on lined up to take the passengers to the airports and to bring in the embarking passengers.

[hyaofcr]

06:06 PM on 08/27/2011

Bon Voyage!

[strangegal]

03:13 PM on 08/27/2011

"Inconvenience & decadence"
claims a character in
prolific relentless playwright larry myers'
"hurricane irene visits new york"

myers has a theater think tank at saval space
in manhattan
his group is rwm playwritghts lab
he runs an international playwriting center