Several cruises departing ports in Houston and Galveston have been delayed after a barge carrying almost one million gallons of bunker fuel oil collided with a bulk carrier ship in Galveston Bay, near Texas City, Tex., on Saturday.
A ruptured tank on the barge spilled around 168,000 gallons of oil into the water, according to a release from the United States Coast Guard, which is working to contain and clean up the area.
In the meantime, passage through ship channels in the region has been halted, leaving thousands of cruise passengers stuck in port and commercial vessels queuing up in long lines to exit the Gulf of Mexico.
Three cruise ships — the Carnival Magic, the Carnival Triumph and Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas — were led from the gulf through the spill and back to their ports on Sunday and Monday morning, in order to allow passengers to disembark.
But it is still uncertain when any future voyages, including that of Princess Cruises' Caribbean Princess, which has been waiting in Houston with 3,354 passengers aboard since Saturday, would be allowed to depart.
The Coast Guard said it was working to allow partial traffic through the area to resume.
"We're very sorry that this unfortunate incident has affected our passengers' vacation plans, and we are currently looking at various itinerary scenarios based on a number of possible departure times," Princess Cruises said in a statement on Sunday.
Princess also noted that there was no official estimate of when that ship, scheduled for a seven-day cruise to Cozumel in Mexico, Roatan in Honduras, and Belize City in Belize, might be able to leave.
"We will keep our passengers updated just as soon as we have anything concrete to share. In the meantime, they are on board the ship, which is operating a full entertainment, activity and dining schedule," the statement said.
Carnival Magic's next voyage, originally scheduled to depart from Galveston on Sunday, is now expected to leave some time Monday afternoon, the company said in an email. The seven-day cruise will be shortened by one day, and guests who choose to sail will receive a prorated refund equal to one day of their cruise fare.
The Carnival Triumph is being held at a cargo pier until the Magic departs, at which point it will shift to the passenger pier and commence debarkation.
Triumph's next voyage, a five-day cruise to Mexico, is scheduled to depart late on Monday and operate according to its regularly scheduled itinerary.
Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas has already boarded passengers for its next voyage, which it expects will depart Galveston some time Monday afternoon as well, Cynthia Martinez, the director of the company's global corporate communications, said in an email. If there are further delays to the seven-night voyage, guests will be compensated, she said, but the nature of the compensation will depend on how their cruise is affected.
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