Three Carnival Cruise Ships have been rented by the Federal Govt

[VolcanoJen]

They will house up to 7,000 evacuees for up to 6 months, according to Allison Stewart on MSNBC.

The ships are the Ecstasy, Holiday and Sensation. The Ecstasy and Sensation were built in the mid-90s, I believe, and they're very nice ships to this day. The Sensation was based out of New Orleans until last week. :-( The Holiday is much older.

Link:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168407,00.html

Also see this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4605896

[Midlodemocrat]

1. Damn. There goes my vacation

:sarcasm:, but expect to see something similar on freakrepublic soon.

[OhioChick]

2. This is good news, however

shouldn't this have been in the works early in the week.......if not before??

[Missy M]

3. I am not so sure about this being right....

that many people will be in close quarters for a long period of time when I am sure there is plenty of housing in this country for everyone who lost their homes. It almost seems as if they will become citizens without a country.

[goclark]

6. Yes, sorta like a slave ship from America

Maybe they plan to take my Brothers and Sisters back to Africa.

I;m sure they will not allow them to cruise for 6 months. They will be mighty sea sick. : (

[Missy M]

8. With the bush administration nothing would surprise me!!

[VolcanoJen]

9. Supposedly, the ships are for housing the sick and elderly.

I've been on quite a few cruises, and the quarters are actually quite comfortable.

The ships have toilets, showers, public rooms, dining rooms, and a nice area on deck to get some sun/vitamin D.

I think it's an excellent idea.

[Missy M]

10. I'm sorry but that is even worse, I can't imagine the sick and elderly..

having to live on cruise ships for many months to come. It is quite different than taking a one week cruise to the islands for your vacation.

[VolcanoJen]

14. Well, they really do need to be evacuated quite immediately.

I don't think there's much time to build/find condos or empty, sprawling hospitals to house them in.

They'll be comfortable on the ships for at least a month.

After that, we'll see...

[Missy M]

15. I agree if it is for a month that wouldn't be bad but much past that

I think problems might occur. You are so right about after that, we'll see... will they become the forgotten people?

[VolcanoJen]

18. They'll never be forgotten, as long as intrepid, compassionate DUers...

... stay on the case. :-)

[goclark]

17. Maybe I'm the wrong person to ask

Ships make me sick.

I would not want to be sick before I got on.

Why can't they find firm ground for the sick and needy?

[VolcanoJen]

19. The ships will be moored; they're not actually going to sail.

They're completely stable when docked.

Sensation and Ecstasy will remain docked in Galveston, while Holiday docks in Mobile (Holiday's home base, anyway).

[goclark]

20. That helps a lot but I still don't trust them nt

[TankLV]

22. It's the fact that the ship is ON the water in constant motion even when

docked that does it - it has nothing to do with it "under steam".

I was sick before the ship even left port 8 hours later!

[donsu]

4. they will probably be for private corp. workers

nt

[dogday]

5. Will they get they whole nine yards of cruising?

I hope so, I hope they get to cruise around in style...

[VolcanoJen]

7. From one of the cruise boards I frequent....

... apparently, Sensation and Ecstasy will stay moored in Galveston, while Holiday will dock in Mobile.

I don't think there will be much cruising. :-(

I do hope that some of the staff on these ships is retained; it would be a shame if they found themselves unemployed, too.

I'm sure they'll need much, much more medical staff, though.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

11. Exactly what Stephanie Tubbs Jones recommended yesterday! It is

an excellent idea!

[sattahipdeep]

12. His buddy own the line? n/t

[Cleita]

13. Even the shabbiest of ships has to be better than what they have

now. What bothers me is that they could have done this before Katrina hit and moved those people out of the path of the hurricane. This should have been on the evacuation plans from the beginning so that the ships would have been ready to go there in time.

[godai]

16. Likely for Halliburton/ oil company employees only (eom)

[BeFree]

24. Yep, these ships are for the occupation forces, not the victims

The rooms will be given to the generals, halliburton, and other big shots. Probably they're rounding up the city's best prostitutes and giving them rooms, too.

These ships ain't for the victims, people. Unless you happen to be a big time puke who's house or office was demolished, you are nothing but a number and being sent to who knows where.

Gawd is this all so sickening. I see that some optimists here are saying this event will be the turning point for America, let's hope they are correct.

BTW: Welcome to DU, godai

[TankLV]

21. Why "rented"? They should commandeer them.

They have a little used (by this criminal administration) law that covers this.

Repuke asswipes all.

Profiteering on the backs of a tragedy.

[Catherine Vincent]

23. That's a good idea.

I was on the Ecstasy in June of this year, a fairly large ship with hundreds of cabins. They'll have pools, workout facilities and spacious dining rooms.

p.s. I was on their new Conquest ship (out of NOLA) a couple of years ago and hated that they didn't bring it to Galveston. Well now it's relocated to Galveston. It's too bad a catastrophic event brought it here.:-(