Freedom of the Seas drydock

[SherriZ366]

Marine Traffic has her averaging just under 17 knots since she left PC. At that speed she'll be back several hours late next Sunday.:(

That's what I'm worried about. FR used to get into Port C around 4:30/5:00 AM before the propulsion problems. Late arrival could lead to problematic embarkations.

[Ocean Boy]

Can you please send copious amounts of it to North Ga? Thanks :)

 

Would you settle for a sail-a-way present over Port Canaveral?:eek::eek:

[John&LaLa]

Can you please send copious amounts of it to North Ga? Thanks :)

 

Please disregard that request until next week

[Ocean Boy]

I know. It was quite humorous. Like talking to all those in attendance with Robinson Crusoe.

 

"Bueller...Bueller...anyone...anyone..."

 

 

 

 

Hello! My name is Kevin.

 

I love that movie.

[Cavy92]

Please disregard that request until next week

 

 

TV said last night the N GA could get some snow end of next week. Luckily I am southwest of ATL.

 

 

Hello! My name is Kevin.

[jules815]

The only thing falling here is snow.... and the temperature.:rolleyes:

 

Here in Chicago as well. :( 34 more days!

[Cavy92]

I love that movie.

 

 

Go read the FOS Feb 15, 2015 thread and you will be laughing.

Poor Toronto Robyn...

 

Or as they say in Cozumel, "pobre cita!"

 

 

 

 

Hello! My name is Kevin.

[ckrobyn]

Go read the FOS Feb 15, 2015 thread and you will be laughing.

Poor Toronto Robyn...

 

Or as they say in Cozumel, "pobre cita!"

 

 

 

 

Hello! My name is Kevin.

 

Nah, I have quite enjoyed the one sided conversations :rolleyes: LOL

[Cavy92]

Nah, I have quite enjoyed the one sided conversations :rolleyes: LOL

 

 

U sit in front of your iPad with the camera on talking to yourself? With the weather in Toronto, I wouldn't blame you.

 

Looks like upper 60's/lower 70's for departure day.

 

 

Hello! My name is Kevin.

[ckrobyn]

U sit in front of your iPad with the camera on talking to yourself? With the weather in Toronto, I wouldn't blame you.

 

Looks like upper 60's/lower 70's for departure day.

 

 

Hello! My name is Kevin.

 

Talking to myself yes, because ghosties like yourself prefer your invisible status. Camera? Definitely not, I am not that vain ;) Weather in Toronto? I'm Canadian and very used to snow, although I'll never stop griping about it :o

[Cavy92]

Talking to myself yes, because ghosties like yourself prefer your invisible status. Camera? Definitely not, I am not that vain ;) Weather in Toronto? I'm Canadian and very used to snow, although I'll never stop griping about it :o

 

 

Look at the "Ghostie" thread and see what I posted. Came out of the shadows.

 

 

Hello! My name is Kevin.

[John&LaLa]

That's what I'm worried about. FR used to get into Port C around 4:30/5:00 AM before the propulsion problems. Late arrival could lead to problematic embarkations.

 

Last time I saw her arrive it was closer to 5:45. That was in October

[SherriZ366]

As others have mentioned, we are on the western route and Coco Cay was on the original itinerary. I love both Labadee and Coco Cay, so I'm happy with either.

 

Don't go flooding RCI with phone call questions about whats going on. Anyone you get on the phone, probably won't know. I personally think the Captain and Chief Engineer were very honest and open today. I will let you know if I find out any additional info. They have not changed any ports or times as of this afternoon. I'll let you know if we're going to be late getting back to Port Canaveral. I booked an 1100 flight, based on my self disembarkation in August.

 

I don't think they knew the problem until investigating it this week. The ship is perfectly safe and had no problems maneuvering at Port Canaveral.

 

The WiFi onboard is really poor compared to my last trip on Freedom.

Thanks for the update. Who is the Captain and who is the Chief Engineer?

[SherriZ366]

The ship can easily make it from Cozumel to Port Canaveral with a full day at sea.

Are you saying that they can make this run to Port C in a timely manner at 18 knots or lower? I am going to be watching Marine Traffic to see when FR gets into Port C on Sunday.

[SherriZ366]

Last time I saw her arrive it was closer to 5:45. That was in October

The 4:30/5 AM arrivals were well before last October (like from 2009 until 2012 or 2013). Our May cruise was late leaving Port C last May because they were fixing one of Azipods or Fixapods. These problems have been plaguing FR for quite awhile.

[SherriZ366]

I also would not care if our 2-22-2015 cruise skipped Coco Cay because of the problems so that we could still make St. Thomas. We have sailed the Eastern Itinerary on FR out of Port C many times and the only thing I don't like about it is the late arrival into St. Thomas -- noon. There are 6 ships in for our day there.

 

Last Jan., they sailed the itinerary backwards and we got into St. Thomas at 7 AM and were downtown shopping well before 9 AM. A big improvement even with lots of ships in port.

[orville99]

Don't think so. First of all it was scheduled like this long before dry dock! and next Western Caribbean cruise will call at Labadee!

 

It has to do that Celebrity Silhouette is calling at Labadee today.Both FOS and LOS have been in Labadee on the same day, so that is a non-issue

 

Sorry to disagree, but this route was quickly coddled together after the fixipod went kaput, because it cut ~200NM off of the route and allowed them to still do their three high revenue ports more or less as scheduled. While I hate to admit that RCL ever thinks ahead or plans anything, in this instance their decision to keep the shortened and modified route after the dry dock, was either dumb luck, or a rare stroke of prescience on their part.

 

IMO, if they had reverted to their normal Western route (on 2/1 instead of holding of until the 2/15 sailing), they would have ended up modifying it to this one once the trouble re-surfaced.

[John&LaLa]

The 4:30/5 AM arrivals were well before last October (like from 2009 until 2012 or 2013). Our May cruise was late leaving Port C last May because they were fixing one of Azipods or Fixapods. These problems have been plaguing FR for quite awhile.

 

Maybe, I know you follow ship movements, but the Carnival and Disney ship came in with her. None before 5:30

[meyer_22]

I also would not care if our 2-22-2015 cruise skipped Coco Cay because of the problems so that we could still make St. Thomas. We have sailed the Eastern Itinerary on FR out of Port C many times and the only thing I don't like about it is the late arrival into St. Thomas -- noon. There are 6 ships in for our day there.

 

Last Jan., they sailed the itinerary backwards and we got into St. Thomas at 7 AM and were downtown shopping well before 9 AM. A big improvement even with lots of ships in port.

 

We are also on the 2/22/15 cruise! Frankly I love sea days so if we miss Coco Cay I'm not going to be too busted up about it. Crap happens, no matter what Ill be on my favorite ship and I wont be working! I will be eating, drinking, and enjoying my time!

[Topo Gigio]

Sorry to disagree, but this route was quickly coddled together after the fixipod went kaput, because it cut ~200NM off of the route and allowed them to still do their three high revenue ports more or less as scheduled. While I hate to admit that RCL ever thinks ahead or plans anything, in this instance their decision to keep the shortened and modified route after the dry dock, was either dumb luck, or a rare stroke of prescience on their part.

 

IMO, if they had reverted to their normal Western route (on 2/1 instead of holding of until the 2/15 sailing), they would have ended up modifying it to this one once the trouble re-surfaced.

 

It was more like a Celebrity & Royal Caribbean ship! I know that Labadee often gets 2 ships, but have never seen 2 from each line in Labadee at the same time (day)

Edited February 4, 2015 by Topo Gigio

[counsdr]

Barclee, thanks for reporting in here!

Enjoy the rest of your cruise!!!

[chengkp75]

Wow, I stop following this thread for two days, and boom.

 

Lets look at this situation from a marine engineer's perspective.

 

First, to say that RCI hurried the repair to the fixipod caused the new problem is purely speculative. Unless you happen to know that the pod was not completed until just before flooding the dock, I would say that "rushing" was not the problem. Generally, the limiting factor on drydock length is the time needed to clean, scrape, prime, paint, and allow the bottom paint to cure before you immerse it in water. Most times underwater mechanical work is scheduled and completed a couple of days before the end of a drydocking, to allow the paint crew to paint the things like pods that have had machinists crawling all over them for the majority of the docking.

 

Since there was a repair to the propulsion system, the classification society and flag state would require a sea trial, and this was obviously accomplished with the pod working as designed. This was of course always in the schedule, so the 2 night cruise did not affect a sea trial.

 

Going back to Freeport instead of doing the two day cruise just wouldn't work. Opening a pod to repair will require at least 7 days (including docking, pumping the dock, repairs, pumping dock, undocking) as was shown for the Allure (10 days if I remember, to do her pods, though that required the cofferdams in the dock). Even just removing the propeller from the pod requires oxy-acetylene cutting of the rope guard, and rewelding the guard back in place when done.

 

It sounds like, to me (professional guessing) that some insulation on the wires for the pod's motor was damaged during the repair. Sometimes this is not obvious, and can take a few days of operation (current flowing through the wire) before there is an alarm on the insulation. From the info that Barklee posted, this sounds just about exactly what happened. Some time on the first revenue cruise (maybe 75 hours after leaving the yard), the problem cropped up.

 

If the Chief is pretty confident about fixing the pod internally (to the point that he would say so to a passenger, which could come back and bite him badly if the company didn't feel the same), I'd go along with him. The motor in the pods is a 10,000v motor, and any cabling or wiring needed to repair, along with terminals, lugs, and all the "hardware" of the job, is not what is normally stocked onboard. It may take a couple weeks to get the materials to catch up with the ship, and then as noted, you can only work on the pod when in port, so this slows the repair drastically since you have to start work, and then before getting underway, you have to secure everything and clean up so that the freewheeling shaft doesn't tear up anything. Then next port, you unsecure things again and start working. You lose about 50% of the available repair time having to open and close stuff every day.

 

As someone said, the fixipod affects speed but not steering or maneuverability since it does not rotate and therefore is not part of steering.

 

I will keep subscribed here for the next few weeks or until the pod is repaired, just to answer anything anyone wants to know.

[torpeedo]

I also would not care if our 2-22-2015 cruise skipped Coco Cay because of the problems so that we could still make St. Thomas. We have sailed the Eastern Itinerary on FR out of Port C many times and the only thing I don't like about it is the late arrival into St. Thomas -- noon. There are 6 ships in for our day there.

 

Last Jan., they sailed the itinerary backwards and we got into St. Thomas at 7 AM and were downtown shopping well before 9 AM. A big improvement even with lots of ships in port.

 

We'll this news doesn't make me happy at all. We were on the fated Dec 7th cruise Where all ports were either reduced or missed due to propulsion problems or medical emergency. P S Don't expect any future cruise credit. We didn't receive even a refund for the port charges for ports we didn't reach. Explanation, too bad for you! So, now we are booked for Feb 15 and the same thing is going on? Really? If I provided bad service like this I would be fired! I do not accept any excuses for not repairing these engines properly. All RCI cares about is getting it out to sea asap so you can pay them full price for reduced service. If you have booked a cabana, just FYI we paid $250 for our cabanas in Labadee, in Dec and arrived at the cabana at 11am, captain blew the whistle at 2pm to get back to the ship..no explanation.. Still the full price for half time.

[counsdr]

Thank you CHENGKP75!!!!!! We can always count on you for a professional explanation of the problems!

Cheryl

[Canadian Cruiser98]

Wow, I stop following this thread for two days, and boom.

 

 

 

Lets look at this situation from a marine engineer's perspective.

 

 

 

First, to say that RCI hurried the repair to the fixipod caused the new problem is purely speculative. Unless you happen to know that the pod was not completed until just before flooding the dock, I would say that "rushing" was not the problem. Generally, the limiting factor on drydock length is the time needed to clean, scrape, prime, paint, and allow the bottom paint to cure before you immerse it in water. Most times underwater mechanical work is scheduled and completed a couple of days before the end of a drydocking, to allow the paint crew to paint the things like pods that have had machinists crawling all over them for the majority of the docking.

 

 

 

Since there was a repair to the propulsion system, the classification society and flag state would require a sea trial, and this was obviously accomplished with the pod working as designed. This was of course always in the schedule, so the 2 night cruise did not affect a sea trial.

 

 

 

Going back to Freeport instead of doing the two day cruise just wouldn't work. Opening a pod to repair will require at least 7 days (including docking, pumping the dock, repairs, pumping dock, undocking) as was shown for the Allure (10 days if I remember, to do her pods, though that required the cofferdams in the dock). Even just removing the propeller from the pod requires oxy-acetylene cutting of the rope guard, and rewelding the guard back in place when done.

 

 

 

It sounds like, to me (professional guessing) that some insulation on the wires for the pod's motor was damaged during the repair. Sometimes this is not obvious, and can take a few days of operation (current flowing through the wire) before there is an alarm on the insulation. From the info that Barklee posted, this sounds just about exactly what happened. Some time on the first revenue cruise (maybe 75 hours after leaving the yard), the problem cropped up.

 

 

 

If the Chief is pretty confident about fixing the pod internally (to the point that he would say so to a passenger, which could come back and bite him badly if the company didn't feel the same), I'd go along with him. The motor in the pods is a 10,000v motor, and any cabling or wiring needed to repair, along with terminals, lugs, and all the "hardware" of the job, is not what is normally stocked onboard. It may take a couple weeks to get the materials to catch up with the ship, and then as noted, you can only work on the pod when in port, so this slows the repair drastically since you have to start work, and then before getting underway, you have to secure everything and clean up so that the freewheeling shaft doesn't tear up anything. Then next port, you unsecure things again and start working. You lose about 50% of the available repair time having to open and close stuff every day.

 

 

 

As someone said, the fixipod affects speed but not steering or maneuverability since it does not rotate and therefore is not part of steering.

 

 

 

I will keep subscribed here for the next few weeks or until the pod is repaired, just to answer anything anyone wants to know.

 

 

So from what you're saying it sounds as though you think it'll take longer than 30 days to fix the issue. Do you think this estimate is accurate? We are on the Mar 1 cruise, so we're very nervous and even 30 days would be cutting it quite close...

 

 

 

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