be for them to disembark. even under the best of circumstances, which obviously, this is not. so, we ve been told that the entire process of getting everyone off the ship could take four to five hours. greta: well, it certainly looks exciting, it s a huge ship and to remind our viewers, 900 feet long, 14 stories tall and come into a port it s never docked in before. and got a bunch, 4,200 people on there, passenger and crew. obviously very excited about finally getting to shore, but not under their own power. nicole, thank you and a news conference is expected within two minutes, we are going to take you there live, but first, family members anxious to see their relatives get off that ship. vivian tilley s sister is on the cruise ship and joins is by phone. vivian, have you had a chance to speak to your sister? i just did a few minutes ago before they docked. she had to turn off her phone though to keep her reception for when she gets off.
because she s had it? no, a little bit of both, i would say. and she just doesn t want to deal with any more delays and she just wants to be free with her husband and be able to get back on their own time. greta: well, you know, it s interesting, you know, the different reactions of the different people of this, you know, this some sort of, you know, handled it better and some were terrified and i know that some people thought at some point besides your sister, they thought that the ship was tipping. yes, yes, yes, and tactful as a matter of fact, the sad part about it when i tried to get her to get into a hotel today, the only route was for her to get on the coach bus and go into new orleans. and she did not want to do that. and that was the only thing that was available through the family hot line. greta: well, vivian, maybe when she gets her feet on the ground and gets off that ship she ll have a rethink all of that and may find a different way home that might be easier on
alabama with the latest. reporter: hi, greta, it looks like we re approaching the moment that everybody was waiting for. originally the ship was due in in the early afternoon and now it looks like it s going to arrive sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 central time. he so, quite possibly within this hour, we re going to see the ship dock here at the alabama cruise terminal where i am right now. once it docks, once it s finally tied up, 15 minutes to 30 minutes will go by before the first passenger gets off. and officials tell us it could take four to five hours for all 3,000 plus passengers to disembark from the ship because of those power issues. there s only one elevator that s operational. here at the passenger cruise terminal there are blankets, food, drinks, cell phones inside the passenger terminal. to keep people comfortable as they await their buses. some 100 buses have been chartered to take the passengers, some of them back to their original ports in galveston and ho
0 towards mobile bay, but it delayed it by about an hour. so, really, a difficult and cumbersome process with many bumps along the way, greta. all right, no power on this ship and these people want to i mean, they re exhausted and they ve been living in hell for five days. their families waiting four or five hours to get off that ship for many of them. tell me, obviously, any idea how many floors there are of cabins? a lots of people have to do a lot of walking in one direction. yeah, and in fact. my producer just handed me a note the ship is about one mile out and in fact, if you re at the top of the terminal you can actually get a glimpse of the ship, an indication that this is the beginning of the end. but greta to give you an idea of the conditions on board this ship, we ve seen photographs from the deck where people were had actually set up tents because when the power went out without the air conditioning, it was very uncomfortable in the lower arrival. do you see any gathe