Carnival Glory was delayed by approximately five hours on its return to New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 31, 2022. This not only impacts cruisers debarking the vessel, but also embarkation for the ship’s next sailing.
Debarking passengers are being offered limited reimbursements for airline change fees. Few details are available about the cause of the delay, but there could be several factors.
Five Hour Delay
Guests expecting to board Carnival Glory on Sunday began receiving email and text notifications late Saturday afternoon announcing the possibility of delayed embarkation. At first, the notifications only notified passengers about the delay and advised them to stay alert for additional information to come by 8 a.m. Sunday morning.
These initial notifications did ask that guests not proceed to the cruise terminal until they had received further information about embarkation times.
The morning notification, which guests began to receive shortly before 8 a.m., detailed that embarkation would be delayed by five hours. To accommodate that delay, guests were asked to shift their arrival appointments by five hours and not arrive at the terminal until their new embarkation time. Guests arriving too early have been turned away and advised to return at the proper time.
All guests are required to be onboard the ship no later than 8 p.m.
No details have been released about whether or not guests may receive any compensation about the delay as their cruise begins. These types of delays do happen occasionally, but will not dramatically impact the cruise ship’s schedule as it departs for the next sailing.
The Conquest-class Carnival Glory is currently offering 7-night roundtrip sailings from New Orleans. Both Eastern Caribbean and Western Caribbean itineraries are offered, though more of the sailings – approximately 80% – are Western Caribbean schedules. Different sailings offer different ports of call, including Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Roatan, and Belize.
The ship has a guest capacity of 2,980 passengers at double occupancy, and up to 3,806 guests when fully booked.
Debarking Passengers
Guests onboard Carnival Glory were notified of the delay for their Sunday debarkation via letters delivered to their staterooms, as well as public address announcements made by the ship’s captain, Domenico Calise.
The letter, which was delivered on Sunday morning, reads, “We are now expecting to dock in New Orleans at 12:30 PM. We sincerely apologize for this unexpected delay.”
Guests are being offered up to $200 USD reimbursement per person for independent, non-refundable air change fees, with appropriate documentation. Guests were also advised to be mindful of debarkation processing time and travel time to the airport when rebooking flights.
“Thank you for your understanding,” the letter concluded. “We wish you a safe journey home.”
No details were provided about why the ship was so significantly delayed, but strong storms or thick fog in the region could have played a role in the ship’s schedule, as cruise ships must be very careful when navigating their entrance into the Mississippi River as they approach the Port of New Orleans.
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Rumors circulating onboard also hint that a broken propeller may be the reason for the delay, or there may have been minor cleanup issues at the river mouth that delayed the ship. No confirmation has been made for either of these theories.
Services onboard the vessel are not affected, and all hotel and passenger operations remain active.
