Costa Europa / Thompson Dream accident

[davecttr]

Oops, sorry

Perhaps the 30 day period includes time spent in Sharm

[Cymro1953]

I doubt it very much. Especially if the Egyptians move as fast as they did when we were out there. Slow and stop.

I've done my research and have got several holiday ideas lined up for same dates in case it's cancelled.

 

Berwyn

[barnowl1950]

Thank you Barnowl. It's not been a good week for cruise news at all.

 

I hope you had a good cruise though, despite the weather.

 

Berwyn

 

Thanks Cymro1953 yes on the whole we did, the entertainment, food and crew were excellent and the ship absolutely immaculate throughout. We had been looking forward to Petra for 15 months (booked Nov 08 just to cheer me up a bit 2 days after my lovely Labrador died aged 15 1/2)..... so were disappointed of course but it couldn't be helped, and will teach me not to take things for granted I suppose. Did go ashore at Aqaba in the afternoon and enjoyed a pleasant stroll around the shops, the local people there were so polite, we never got pestered to buy things like you do in Egypt. Also did Wadi Rum where we had some rain so ran into the Bedouin tent for shelter but the tent leaked and in the end the trip was cut short a little. Went to Cairo museum and Pyramids the museum wasn't at all crowded which was nice and the temperature outside was a pleasant 23/24c so was comfortable inside too. Also all the flights seemed to leave Sharm airport on time, ours arrived back at Birmingham half an hour early last night at 9pm we had no bother at all leaving Egypt, but on arriving some luggage started coming out on the carousel then it suddenly stopped for about 30 or 40 minutes, don't think there were enough staff to cope with it all. Anyway back to reality, will stay in touch and thanks to everyone for your best wishes before I went away,

 

 

Carole.

 

p.s came home to some news of a friend who suffered a bad stroke just when we started to sail from Sharm to Aqaba so we're off to the hospital later.

[Cymro1953]

Hi Carole,

We heard about no Petra from mrs.c's hubby who did a quick "live from" on the ship.

It's hard when you lose the pets, we've had 2 dogs go both at Christmas each time. We 've still got the daughter of our 2nd dog and she's 14 at present.

 

Berwyn

[barnowl1950]

Hi Carole,

We heard about no Petra from mrs.c's hubby who did a quick "live from" on the ship.

It's hard when you lose the pets, we've had 2 dogs go both at Christmas each time. We 've still got the daughter of our 2nd dog and she's 14 at present.

 

Berwyn

 

Sounds silly now but I had no idea I would book a cruise that day, had just finished work in the afternoon and felt upset in the town centre, then found myself heading towards Thomsons (as you do) and came out half an hour later with tickets for Red Sea Magic, promenade deck and free A/I too, making sure I would not be going to work on my 60th. Hubby was pleased when he arrived home from work later :)

[barnowl1950]

Hi Dave... we sailed ashore in lifeboats yesterday at 1.15pm (11.15am here) there were a group of men wearing yellow jackets standing around by the Costa Europa/Dream (ascessing the situation I suppose) but saw no sign of repairs being carried out at the time i'm afraid, so that's all i can say really, perhaps others who returned a bit later may know more. Wish I could have given more hopeful news.

 

Carole.

 

Just a thought everyone, but is it possible they could have finished patching it up before we arrived at sharm the other day only i never saw a hole in the ship as we sailed past in the lifeboat but didn't know what to look for anyway, as we heard most of the details of the accident after arriving home yesterday the news on Celebration t.v focused mostly on Chilian earthquake, just trying to help a bit more.

 

Carole

[Cymro1953]

Hi Carole,

Thank you for the extra info. From the pictures the hole is no more than head height above the dockside and apparently about 7 foot long.

So unless they landed you close to the right bit of the Europa it might be hard to see.

It never seemed to make the TV news. Pics were in all the online versions of newspapers.

 

Even if they have put a temporary patch on her if they don't move her soon there will be no way they will get her back to Sicily for 30 days repairs and then handover to Thomson's on the correct date.

 

It must have taken a good while to tender you all ashore and luggage too.

 

I hope your friend who had the stroke is coming along OK.

 

Berwyn

[davecttr]

Just a thought, steel plates are not the sort of thing you would expect to find at Sharm port. Maybe they have to fabricate the patch elsewhere and get it shipped in by sea or use flat plates and have some very big hammers!.

[Cymro1953]

Just a thought, steel plates are not the sort of thing you would expect to find at Sharm port. Maybe they have to fabricate the patch elsewhere and get it shipped in by sea or use flat plates and have some very big hammers!.

 

Hi Dave,

I was thinking, it's going to get close to the cut off point soon where there's no way she'll be handed over to Thomson's on time for the April cruises.

Someone at Thomson's should make the decision to abandon them and sort us out.

Otherwise between the 2 cruises they'll have 3000 angry customers looking for a last minute holiday.

 

Berwyn

[jojo67]

Hi Dave... we sailed ashore in lifeboats yesterday at 1.15pm (11.15am here) there were a group of men wearing yellow jackets standing around by the Costa Europa/Dream (ascessing the situation I suppose) but saw no sign of repairs being carried out at the time i'm afraid, so that's all i can say really, perhaps others who returned a bit later may know more. Wish I could have given more hopeful news.

 

Carole.

 

Carole,

 

I've probably missed something obvious but why did you need to sail ashore in the lifeboats :confused:

[barnowl1950]

Hi Berwyn I think the Dublin flight left the ship first at 5.am, was woken at 3.40am by lady thoughtfully yelling loudly outside cabin on deck 6 "come on, come on" and "be careful with the suitcase please" :rolleyes: :) and noise of lifeboats..... then rest of us left at intervals from around lunchtime 2 or 3 flights at a time, all very well organized with no trouble identifying luggage ashore, each flight had a coloured card attached, ours was pink.

 

Thanks for your kind words about our friend, it's the first time he's had a stroke ... can't move his left arm and leg at all, could'nt speak very well all week but that improved yesterday, can't swallow either and has been sick a lot too he's 64 it's a clot on the brain, can't believe that it happened the moment we began to sail the first night. I think he'll be on the mend but could be a long job.

 

Carole

[barnowl1950]

Hi Jo ....could be the Costa Europa/Dream was stuck where the Celebration normally docks :)

 

Hubby has just handed me the letter we received on the Celebration the night before, headed Departure Information For Thursday - it goes "Due to the berthing position in the port of Sharm El Sheikh on Thursday, a tender service will be in operation to transfer all guests from the ship to the shore".

 

Carole :)

[Cymro1953]

Thanks for your kind words about our friend, it's the first time he's had a stroke ... can't move his left arm and leg at all, could'nt speak very well all week but that improved yesterday, can't swallow either and has been sick a lot too he's 64 it's a clot on the brain, can't believe that it happened the moment we began to sail the first night. I think he'll be on the mend but could be a long job.

 

Carole

 

Hi Carole,

Hopefully the fact his speech is improving is a good sign. I have nursed them from those who when better you wouldn't know they'd had one, to others like my mother who never regained conciousness.

Thank you for all the info from Sharm. it will come in handy when I ring Thomson's helpline again next week.

 

Berwyn

[barnowl1950]

Hi again Berwyn, thanks for that... hope the situation with Europa/Dream becomes clearer for you and everyone else in the next few days, will keep my fingers crossed.

 

Carole.

[jojo67]

Hi Jo ....could be the Costa Europa/Dream was stuck where the Celebration normally docks :)

 

Hubby has just handed me the letter we received on the Celebration the night before, headed Departure Information For Thursday - it goes "Due to the berthing position in the port of Sharm El Sheikh on Thursday, a tender service will be in operation to transfer all guests from the ship to the shore".

 

Carole :)

 

:o I did wonder! Assumed that Sharm would have more than the one berth though. Glad to read that your friend is recovering too.

[barnowl1950]

Thanks for that Jo.....and I agree with you completely, I was just guessing really as I couldn't think of another reason why we had to leave the ship that way, never been on a proper cruise before (only a Nile cruise) and it was a bit of a mystery to us, no trouble though :)

[Cymro1953]

On Google Earth the satellite pic shows 2 piers sticking out that could take 4 ships and a long concrete looking area on the east side with a ship tied up there.

 

Berwyn

[barnowl1950]

Just had a look at that Berwyn and got hubby to come over...he thinks that's the Europa as it was on the corner (never noticed that myself but he's more observant than me) he reckons it is still leaning to one side but it appears more up-right to me.

[Cymro1953]

I'm not sure how old the photos are they use for the maps. If we look at our house you can see a motorhome in the drive and we sold it over 2 years ago.

 

Berwyn

[barnowl1950]

I've noticed a post about the Europa/Dream on the other site and they've basically said the same as me.

[Cymro1953]

No it's definitely not the Costa Europa. The position of the ship is wrong as you said, and she's the wrong shape.

[davecttr]

The cruise ships use the large concrete area on the east side of the harbour and at 1700 feet long it can accomodate two ships of Europas size

 

Europa at Sharm in January from Thomsons Celebration

[perthorchid]

this is sheer guess work on my part as i am nowhere near as good as you lot but is there a site anywhere. like the sharm port authority which would list which ships were presently in their area. they must be paying fees and therefore registered within the dock.

 

I know (or maybe i just think) that you used to be able to see which ships were coming and going from Leith dock in edinburgh. It was in the local paper.

 

If she has not moved from sharm yet, i am getting very worried. Also what are thomson doing>>>> They have no update on their info page and no hint if we are sailing on 22nd april at all. A probability would be good and an idea of what is on offer if we dont. They are still selling the 22nd 5 nighter on their site

[kruzseeka]

this is sheer guess work on my part as i am nowhere near as good as you lot but is there a site anywhere. like the sharm port authority which would list which ships were presently in their area. they must be paying fees and therefore registered within the dock.

 

I know (or maybe i just think) that you used to be able to see which ships were coming and going from Leith dock in edinburgh. It was in the local paper.

 

If she has not moved from sharm yet, i am getting very worried. Also what are thomson doing>>>> They have no update on their info page and no hint if we are sailing on 22nd april at all. A probability would be good and an idea of what is on offer if we dont. They are still selling the 22nd 5 nighter on their site

 

Good suggestion about the port authority perthorchid - I'll have a go at that in a minute (although I wouldn't be too optimistic about them being on the ball and up-to-date at Sharm if the airport's anything to go by:rolleyes: !). The sites I know which show the timetable for ship visits frequently don't list any of the Thomson ships. I often check to see how many other ships are likely to be in port when we are visiting and we're not even being down to be there and when we do arrive at ports the info isn't always accurate (not counting our non-existence on the list!).

 

I've looked for Costa Europa on the live tracking site sveral times (I think Berwyn's been looking too) and the latest entry was for 19/02/10 somewhere near Dubai I think - so that's not been up-dated for weeks.

 

I can apreciate how important it is for you all to be getting some information - you are hanging on not knowing whether you're going on holiday or not at the moment. Best of luck to you all - I hope things are already moving in terms of repair and that it gets sorted quickly -and that you get some information soon (hopefully positive news). :)

[kruzseeka]

This is the only site I could find - seems quite good but with no info that I could find on ships currently berthed there. There is a news link blamimg the Capt for the disaster. The links are below:

 

http://www.mts.gov.eg/shipreport/dvm.aspx?portid=SHR

 

http://www.mts.gov.eg/news/index_details.aspx?news_id=8411&category_id=4&y=4

 

I'm having trouble getting them to load on 'Preview' - hope it's ok for you but if not, google the site address.

 

All the best to you all. :)