navigating the oil spill and arriving New Orleans

[steve4031]

In reading another thread, I noticed that at times the Triumph left New Orleans 5 hours late, but ran on time for the rest of the trip. It was explained that there was a need to go through the oil spill area during day light.

 

Now if the outbound Triumph has to go through in day light, I would assume it would have to do this coming into New Orleans. Several trip reports indicated that the Triumph usually enters the Mississippi about midnight on its way back to New Orleans. So what happens on the inbound trip. Does the Triumph run fast from its previous port to make it through the oil in day light, and then sit in New Orleans?

 

It appears that the ship has about 5 hours worth of padding in its schedule. So maybe that is possible.

 

This is hardly life and death, I am just curious.

 

Thanks

[exempt]

In each of my sailings from NO (latest Dec. '09), we have always enterred the river during dinner the night before. If you watch the NO port cam you will notice the ship usually arrives in the very early morning. Given the 8-9 hour trip up river you can do the math to estimate when the ship enters SW pass.

[Traveler353]

Several people have reported that in the last few weeks Triumph has been leaving later and entering the river earlier. These posters have actualy been on the ship, not third hand reports.

[MrsLeo]

Several people have reported that in the last few weeks Triumph has been leaving later and entering the river earlier. These posters have actualy been on the ship, not third hand reports.

 

On one sailing they left at 9:00 p.m., aside from that one time, the ship has been leaving close to the scheduled time.

[Traveler353]

on one sailing they left at 9:00 p.m., aside from that one time, the ship has been leaving close to the scheduled time.

ok.

[exempt]

I concur with MrsLeo. The ship departed around 9pm a couple of weeks ago. All other departures have been on schedule. The ship always docks early in NO. This morning's docking was one of the latest I've seen. She docked at almost 5:30am.

S to SE winds push the oil closer to SW pass (the only deep vessel outlet). We will have to see what time she departs this today. The winds predicted for Friday are WSW which should help greatly minimize the oil near SW pass and a good sign for those sailing next weekend.

[firefly333]

In reading another thread, I noticed that at times the Triumph left New Orleans 5 hours late, but ran on time for the rest of the trip. It was explained that there was a need to go through the oil spill area during day light.

 

Now if the outbound Triumph has to go through in day light, I would assume it would have to do this coming into New Orleans. Several trip reports indicated that the Triumph usually enters the Mississippi about midnight on its way back to New Orleans. So what happens on the inbound trip. Does the Triumph run fast from its previous port to make it through the oil in day light, and then sit in New Orleans?

 

It appears that the ship has about 5 hours worth of padding in its schedule. So maybe that is possible.

 

This is hardly life and death, I am just curious.

 

Thanks

 

We were into the Mississippi maybe slightly after dark but I think we had already passed the oil spill. We were passing the last of the oil rigs about 6 pm that I saw. Luckily it gets dark late this time of year.

 

It takes about 8 hours to get up or down the Mississippi. If you arrive by 5 am on time, you would have had to enter the Mississippi no later than 9 pm.

 

I was surprised we were into the Mississippi so early, but people said you have to be in order to get into New Orleans on time.

[firefly333]

Here is a post from the cruise after ours.

 

I was on the ship May 15-22. We left a little late and sailed out at night, but coming home we entered the Mississippi during early dinner. We were back in NO by 12:30AM from what I heard. I remember waking up at 4:30am and we were in port. Here's pictures of the oil.

Sharon

 

[Grits53]

FYI, we had an aft wrap on our last Triumph cruise (5/8/10), so we spent a lot of time on the balcony. We noticed several times that the ship was cruising at a very slow speed. Therefore, we can deduce that if needed, they can pick up the speed and not have port arrival times affected if embarkation times change. :)

[EaglesRock]

Several trip reports indicated that the Triumph usually enters the Mississippi about midnight on its way back to New Orleans.

I think you're misreading those trip reports. The Triumph (or whatever ship is doing that particular itinerary) usually EXITS the river between 11pm and midnight when it departs from New Orleans. It normally ENTERS the river on its return to New Orleans between 5pm and 6pm. I've cruised Carnival out of New Orleans five times in the last three years and there has still been some daylight when we entered Southwest pass on the way back, especially during daylight savings time. I've also cruised on RCI and NCL out of New Orleans in previous years and the river entry/exit timing has been the same.

[steve4031]

This trip really interests me, so I was curious. One dat I'm gonna do it. Lol