Grand captain change

[Starlaker]

Does anyone know why we changed Captains in Honolulu on the

Nov 25 round trip to Hawaii from San Francisco? We are on board now and there was no explanation to the change, just lots of rumors.

[-Lew-]

 

Does anyone know why we changed Captains in Honolulu on the

Nov 25 round trip to Hawaii from San Francisco? We are on board now and there was no explanation to the change, just lots of rumors.

Captains are rotated in and out all the time. Yes, sometimes it happens mid-cruise.

 

Lew

[bhopal21]

Agreed. We have had a change of captains in the middle of a cruise on more than one occasion.

 

Mike:)

[windsor26]

They do not need to give you a reason they do what they are scheduled to do On the 76 day cruise around the Pacific we had 6 captains

[RickEk]

Agreed. We have had a change of captains in the middle of a cruise on more than one occasion.

 

Mike:)

 

Yes, generally the new captain will join the ship at the start of a cruise and the old captain will leave midway through so it is less disruptive... happens all the time.

[Coral]

We had 3 Captains on a 16 night cruise. And they switched off periodically as one Captain "had business in Bermuda" so he was gone for a few days so he was Captain for a few days and then gone and then Captain again later. We also had the Commodore on that sailing. We felt special to have 3 Captains :)

Edited December 6, 2013 by Coral

[Kamloops50]

On one the Captain's contract ended in Juneau Alaska . The same Captain had his contract end in Punteranas Costa Rica. You figure.

[Pam in CA]

Yes, generally the new captain will join the ship at the start of a cruise and the old captain will leave midway through so it is less disruptive... happens all the time.

I agree. Captains come and go all the time for a variety of reasons. Some of which I've heard over the years:

 

-- contract up

-- baby due

-- vacation

-- one Captain is on the ship in a region and another Captain takes over before or after repositioning.

 

Regardless of the reason, it happens all the time. No need to announce the reason or consult us beforehand. :)

[Tarpeian Rock]

Timing still seems strange. We were on the Grand in early October for a Hawaiian Circle, and the captain changed partway through that cruise, so if he changed again last month, that would have meant our "new" captain was on board for only 4 or 5 weeks?

[bhopal21]

Timing still seems strange. We were on the Grand in early October for a Hawaiian Circle, and the captain changed partway through that cruise, so if he changed again last month, that would have meant our "new" captain was on board for only 4 or 5 weeks?

 

It happens even shorter than that.

 

On The Golden once the captain embarked with us and then left the ship after the first week to be replaced by another.

 

Mike:)

[trbarton]

Does anyone know why we changed Captains in Honolulu on the

Nov 25 round trip to Hawaii from San Francisco? We are on board now and there was no explanation to the change, just lots of rumors.

 

Do you know who the current captain is? I'm on the December 20th cruise and my information shows that the captain for our cruise is Justin Lawes.

 

Thanks!

 

Tom:)

[Wehwalt]

Timing still seems strange. We were on the Grand in early October for a Hawaiian Circle, and the captain changed partway through that cruise, so if he changed again last month, that would have meant our "new" captain was on board for only 4 or 5 weeks?

 

Last year on the Pacific Princess, we had three captains in thirty days. As one switch followed two substituted ports (Naples for Sorrento, Genoa for Portofino), we joked that that was the reason.

[Nancyquilts]

Do you know who the current captain is? I'm on the December 20th cruise and my information shows that the captain for our cruise is Justin Lawes.

 

Justin Lawes is our current captain - we had him in September, and find him to be very personable and easy to understand - I think I remember he's from Wales.

[Starlaker]

Yes, Justin Lawes is the current captain. He stopped by the Platinum/ elite lounge last night and chatted with us for a bit. Very personable. For those who said that they didn't need to give us a reason, I never meant to imply that they did. I was just curious and wanted to lay a certain rumor to rest.

[duck addict]

And Justin is scheduled to be our captain 1/19 to 2/3/2014 (or at least that is what the email said)

[Pam in CA]

Timing still seems strange. We were on the Grand in early October for a Hawaiian Circle, and the captain changed partway through that cruise, so if he changed again last month, that would have meant our "new" captain was on board for only 4 or 5 weeks?

Not strange at all. Captain Draper left the Royal for a few weeks to be with his wife for the birth of their baby. Princess isn't heartless and forces Captains to remain onboard for life or special events. Just read John Heald's blog: he comes and goes all the time even though he's Carnival's Senior CD.

[caber]

We had 3 captains on a 14 night repositioning cruise a few years ago.

[Shogun]

Hi Caber

 

Not just three in 14 days, they swapped around so much we had

 

3 different captains in 6 days, but needing to play a round of golf

 

was a good reason.

 

yours Shogun

[simbasmom]

Besides everything else mentioned here, perhaps there was a scheduled captain's change between cruises, but the "oncoming" captain missed his airplane connections so he missed being at the ship at the scheduled time (San Francisco?) Rather than wait until the next cruise and pay the oncoming captain to sit in the San Fransicisco hotel until the next cruise, Princess may have paid to get him to Honolulu. Remember, the outgoing captain was probably looking forward to leaving and anxious for his replacement to show up. I speak from experience I've seen. Our son once planned to join a ship in Vancouver, missed his connection, so Princess arranged to get him to Juneau to join mid-cruise.

[Coral]

Hi Caber

 

Not just three in 14 days, they swapped around so much we had

 

3 different captains in 6 days, but needing to play a round of golf

 

was a good reason.

 

yours Shogun

 

I liked the excuse of "Business in Bermuda" - I think that was Captain Proctor's reason for being gone for a few days :)

[Tarpeian Rock]

Not strange at all. Captain Draper left the Royal for a few weeks to be with his wife for the birth of their baby. Princess isn't heartless and forces Captains to remain onboard for life or special events. Just read John Heald's blog: he comes and goes all the time even though he's Carnival's Senior CD.

 

 

That's a really nice story. I would have thought that a "life at sea" meant sacrificing things like that. Lord knows, few American businesses give fathers time off for such things.

[Coral]

That's a really nice story. I would have thought that a "life at sea" meant sacrificing things like that. Lord knows, few American businesses give fathers time off for such things.

 

I believe most Captains work 4 months on and then a break. Knowing the baby is coming, it would not be difficult to schedule around.

[caribill]

That's a really nice story. I would have thought that a "life at sea" meant sacrificing things like that. Lord knows, few American businesses give fathers time off for such things.

 

Upper management gets benefits on land as well as at sea that those lower on the totem pole do not get.

[bjkTX]

If Justin Lawes is the "new" captain he just took a short break because he was the captain when we were on the Grand the end of September.

[Shogun]

Hi All

Reasons for changes to Captains

 

Princess calls meetings of Captains so only away a few days

 

Training often away for one or two weeks

 

Providing cover for other Captains

 

Family issues

 

Holidays

 

Yours Shogun

 

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