FOS Missed Port -- What Happens?

[CruiserTK]

My D and SIL are on the FOS this week. They missed CocoCay yesterday due to the waves and having to tender. She is hoping that they will get to St. Thomas earlier than scheduled tomorrow (11 a.m.), and can therefore have more time on the island. What do you think are the chances of this happening?

[reallyitsmema]

It is possible that they could arrive early, they will find out on the ship. Noone here can predict what they will do.

 

We missed Coco Cay on a short cruise and just had an extra sea day. We ended up sailing south to get around a big storm so that the captain could get us in calmer waters. I know sometimes they go to a different port if they can find one that has room.

 

Time will tell.

[CruisinManiac]

Port arrivals are timed and ships have to have permission to dock earlier than scheduled. A ship must arrive and be met by a pilot in waters outside the port area. The pilot then guides the ship to docking. If no pilot (not to mention a docking crew and customs clearing crew) is available, arriving early would be impossible. :rolleyes: It's probably easier for the ship to keep it's scheduled arrival time in St. Thomas. ;)

[Queen of Oakville]

I just got back from the Carnival Dream and we missed our port in Roatan due to winds. I could not understand why we couldn't just float at sea and then dock later in the day when the winds die down (maybe it costs more?).

 

Either way, we circled for about an hour along with an RC ship, and then left. We arrived at our next port in Belize the next day, exactly as scheduled.

[madforcruising]

My D and SIL are on the FOS this week. They missed CocoCay yesterday due to the waves and having to tender. She is hoping that they will get to St. Thomas earlier than scheduled tomorrow (11 a.m.), and can therefore have more time on the island. What do you think are the chances of this happening?

 

Probably they´d already know if they were to get there early.

 

While nothing is impossible it´s rather unlikely they would get there early, as it takes a lot of logistics and cost to change a port schedule.

However I´ve missed a number of ports on my cruises and on single occasions they altered other port stops, but then this was usually not after missing a single port, but mostly after like already two or three missed ports.

[springtxbill]

A lot of the ports unload cargo for the islands during the night before the cruise ships come in. They have to leave the dock before the cruise ship can comein. It is doubtful they will get in early.:)

[TravelerThom]

My D and SIL are on the FOS this week. They missed CocoCay yesterday due to the waves and having to tender. She is hoping that they will get to St. Thomas earlier than scheduled tomorrow (11 a.m.), and can therefore have more time on the island. What do you think are the chances of this happening?

I was on the 31 Jan FoS. We got to CocoCay and they tendered to shore for about one hour, before the rain got so bad that many areas were flooding. Everyone was back on the ship at about 11am and we set off for St.T. We arrived in St.T and were allowed to disembark starting at about 8am [versus the original 11am schedule]. Departure from St.T was per the original schedule. So it is entirely possible [i might say likely] that they will be in St.T early [but I'm not in command of the ship].

 

Thom

[ginger2000]

My D and SIL are on the FOS this week. They missed CocoCay yesterday due to the waves and having to tender. She is hoping that they will get to St. Thomas earlier than scheduled tomorrow (11 a.m.), and can therefore have more time on the island. What do you think are the chances of this happening?

 

 

Last month we missed Grand Cayman due to high winds and were unable to tender in. We arrived in Cozumel a little bit earlier but had to be back on the ship earlier too. I guess it depends on the port and how long you are allowed to be docked there. We did get back about $25 pp for missing Grand Cayman as RC did not have to pay.

[Havingfun2010]

Anything is possible, however, a ship just can't always "park". It needs much help and the port authority may not allow it.

 

However, 2 years ago, my 7 day cruise, ran into a hurricane, and the captain made the announcement on the first morning, that it the entire trip, will now go in reverse order, but be almost exactly the same. Some of the times were changed and some of the ports were overcrowded (Gand Cayman had 7 ships), but we did not miss a stop. They had reworked, and reissued excursion tickets and everything.

[TravelerThom]

Anything is possible, however, a ship just can't always "park". It needs much help and the port authority may not allow it....

The Port Authority certainly controls authorization to dock [or even anchor in the harbor], but if FoS was scheduled to arrive at 11am it is highly unlikely that anyone else would be docked at the assigned location earlier that same day. Longer time in port equals more dollars in the pockets of locals, so the Port Authority would be under pressure both by the cruise line and by local merchants to allow early docking. With the advent of bow thrusters and stern thrusters [or azipods] a ship needs much less help to dock than it used to. There is a need in most ports for pilots and dockhands to handle ropes, but it has been years since I have been on a ship that actually used a tug [in some ports they are present - the port might say it is a safety measure, but pretty much it is a make work project]. The biggest driver against early docking would probably be that the cruise line might have to pay the dockhands overtime, but in the scheme of billion dollar ships that is relatively minor.

 

Thom