NY Man Says Cruise Wanted to Dock in the Middle of Hurricane Harvey

A Staten Island family was among hundreds stuck at sea in the Caribbean unable to dock over the weekend because of Hurricane Harvey.

Nick Goffredo says all that was keeping Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas cruise liner from stranding hundreds of passengers in Galveston, Texas, was the fact that the Coast Guard wouldn't grant an exception for the ship to dock there.

"For three days, they told us we were going to Galveston, in spite of what we all saw on CNN and the devastation in Southern Texas," Goffredo tells 710WOR New York's "Len Berman and Todd Schnitt in the Morning." 

"We were told that we were being left at the Port of Galveston and in that state; the captain came on and said it to the whole ship, wrote a letter. They were just primarily concerned with getting the next cruise on and leaving us at the port with no way to get anywhere else in the state."

Had the cruise liner gotten its way, Goffredo says his family would have been stranded in hurricane-devastated southern Texas in a shelter with no means of getting to the airport during the state of emergency. 

He adds that most of the ship's passengers are Texans, desperate to get back to their homes. So that might have been part of the reason Royal Caribbean was so resolved to get back to Galveston.

"I know, next to the people of Houston and Texas and what they're going through, it's pretty trite, but just the feeling of being left abandoned...that was their plan. There was no contingency plan."

Goffredo says two other cruise ships following the same itinerary as their own stayed in Cozumel, Mexico, for a few more days instead of going into the storm. 

"I was concerned for the safety and the life of my family," he says. "For three days they told us that was their plan."

He says the ship is now scheduled to dock on Tuesday afternoon in Miami, Florida.

Photos: Courtesy Nick Goffredo