Grand injured

[Cruzin-K]

From memory, he was originally flying to San Francisco on Wednesday, so guessing he would have joined there and started work whilst the ship sailed to Portland. Sorry, I get a little confused with where he's going and where the ships will be, I just make sure I pay lots of attention to his arrival date, time and terminal at London Heathrow so I can be there to get him when he comes home! :o

 

I will keep my fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly and that he's home in time for Christmas. :)

[diane.in.ny]

Hey....good to hear from you again!!

And yes... I learned about doing this on these boards. When not sailing out of SF, I use this trick. It has been a lifesaver because otherwise, my DH just doesn't want to go.

First class is the best but this is so much cheaper and it makes flying so tolerable. :D

 

What trick?

 

My DH also gives me a hard time about the flights. We've been doing business class with miles but that is getting harder to do now with less availability or horrible routing.

[Murphey]

My husband left the UK this morning to go and meet the ship for dry dock. In a purely selfish way, the issue with the platform gave us an extra few days together as he was meant to leave on Wednesday after only returning from another ship last Saturday. However, now he has the same amount of work to do in less time, so it's going to be busy busy for him!

 

He was meant to be returning on the 20th, but I think now it might be the 23rd. He's been doing this work around 9 years, and this will the closest to Christmas day that he's come home, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed it all goes to plan! I know he will work day and night to get done on time if he can :)

 

We welcome your husband to Portland. He just missed a pretty good ice storm and had it been yesterday or the day before, he wouldn't have made it. We are supposed to have some dry days later in the week. Not sure how the hull painting will go with our Oregon rains...

[Aim1]

Thank you, he's worked there before and speaks very positively about the small amount of the area he actually sees...mostly he's on the inside of a ship obviously!

 

He's worried about the weather though, he was told to wrap up warm but it's still going to be very cold on the ship during the nighttime!

[Cruise Raider]

What trick?

 

My DH also gives me a hard time about the flights. We've been doing business class with miles but that is getting harder to do now with less availability or horrible routing.

 

Sorry about that. I was responding to another post and didn't explain it in this post.

I buy the middle seat ... that's the trick. I do sometimes buy the first class seats but when it adds $2000 more to the price of my cruise, I will opt for purchasing 3 of the much lesser priced economy class seats instead of 2 business or first class seats ... but usually only when on longer flights.

If the difference is negligible between 3 economy seats vs 2 first class seats, I usually get the 2 first class seats but if I save several hundred dollars, I just but the entire row on one side of the plane in economy class. It makes a HUGE difference. As I mentioned in the original post on this, we are normal sized but this option is required for passengers of size and offered for anyone else willing to pay the fare. This only works on airlines that have assigned seats and have used it on United, Delta and Jet Blue. We now don't fly across country in economy without having those 3 seats (for the two of us). We've just spent too much time squished into that middle seat or sitting next to someone with tons of perfume or who is coughing and sneezing. Just not worth it for us anymore. I usually find airfare for under $150 one way, sometimes even under $100, so it is a very small price to pay to make for a very enjoyable, instead of dreaded, cross country flight.

[Contractor99]

They have extended the dry dock two additional calendar days, which now gives them the full amount of time originally scheduled. It had 8 days in drydock before, and it still has 8 days now.

 

Well, it is not that simple. The plan was to get the most contractors onboard in SFO and load a good amount of tools and material.

So some works would have started right there - and less goods (tools and material) would have needed to be loaded in Portland.

 

Now cranes will be first occupied with all the shore connections to be put in place and then ALL material and tools need to be loaded. So people cannot start working on the 12th either and many will wait for a good time to the 13th or longer to get all tools and material onboard.

 

Unless the new parts are located, at least ashore, no demolition should take place.

 

Besides that 8 days in Dry Dock are already short..

[need2cruisesoon]

Well, it is not that simple. The plan was to get the most contractors onboard in SFO and load a good amount of tools and material.

 

Besides that 8 days in Dry Dock are already short..

 

I was on that ship in October, it needs at least 30 days of dry dock to get it up to a mid 2000 ship.

Edited December 11, 2016 by need2cruisesoon

[chengkp75]

Well, it is not that simple. The plan was to get the most contractors onboard in SFO and load a good amount of tools and material.

So some works would have started right there - and less goods (tools and material) would have needed to be loaded in Portland.

 

Now cranes will be first occupied with all the shore connections to be put in place and then ALL material and tools need to be loaded. So people cannot start working on the 12th either and many will wait for a good time to the 13th or longer to get all tools and material onboard.

 

Unless the new parts are located, at least ashore, no demolition should take place.

 

Besides that 8 days in Dry Dock are already short..

 

99% of materials would have been staged to Portland over the last couple of weeks. Princess will have had a logistics team set up in Vigor for weeks, receiving this material, so both the shipyard and the contractors will know what has arrived, and what is enroute. Because of the problems with protecting decks and insufficient securing means, typically only some garbage dumpsters and perhaps the containers for the guys refinishing the wood decks would be loaded on in SF, while the contractors would likely all board there. This is because of SF's better air connections (most of these contractors are foreign), and in addition to demolition this gives them time to scope the job on the jobsite.

 

Crane time in drydock is always a delicate ballet, with the shipyard having first dibs on the cranes to get their jobs done on priority, and the ship getting what is left over. However, crane coordination is a major topic in the daily morning meeting of all departments and the yard, and material is only loaded onboard on an as needed basis.

 

Typically, the only work done on the trip to the yard is demo, and this will start without any materials onboard.

 

As another poster noted, the weather doesn't look too good, and 8 days will be tight just to get the anti-fouling paint done below the waterline, so the white topsides may suffer. When I was at Vigor, all the ships have to be tarped completely during blasting and painting, so this can help with the rain, but high humidity can cause havoc with painting, especially on the bottom, where very often a completely different "ecosystem" exists than what is experienced on the sides of the ship.

[Murphey]

Chief: How will below freezing temps affect the work, because we are definitely going to see that this week.

[chengkp75]

Chief: How will below freezing temps affect the work, because we are definitely going to see that this week.

 

It sure doesn't help, not only for painting, but the "outside machinists" who do the mechanical repairs (props, rudders, stabilizers, thrusters) will be working slower, as they have to bundle up. And cruise ship's crew are typically not prepared for cold weather work. Walmart will see a lot of business.

 

Shipyards in northern climates figure on cold temperatures in their work estimates, especially those with floating docks, as these can become real wind tunnels. As long as there's not any condensation forming on the hull from the cold outside and warm inside, they can paint most times.

[dmwnc1959]

This screenshot from Marine Traffic taken at 2:54am Portland time...

 

 

 

3:01am

 

Edited December 12, 2016 by dmwnc1959

[dznymom]

We've been following her progress and the view from the bow cam right now is pretty cool as she looks to be set to enter the dry dock. I would post the picture if I knew how, but alas, I am technically challenged.

 

http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/

[chengkp75]

We've been following her progress and the view from the bow cam right now is pretty cool as she looks to be set to enter the dry dock. I would post the picture if I knew how, but alas, I am technically challenged.

 

http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/

 

With sunrise still about two hours away there, this "O-dark-thirty" hold position outside the dock seems about right (marinetraffic shows her currently a hundred meters or so off). They'll bring her in and tie her up and start the positioning, and start pumping up the dock until the ship is nearly on the blocks, but the diver really needs daylight to confirm the ship is in position.

[Modocpoint]

Traffic will be heavy this am in Portland, glad ice storm is over so ship yard employees can get to work safely! Looks like several dry days ahead, we are 300 miles south in southern or at 4150 ft and it spitting snow here. We are going on the grand for our second cruise to Hawaii on the 9th of January, hope all goes well with the refit. Worked 40 years in Portland before retiring and moving here.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[tamsno]

With sunrise still about two hours away there, this "O-dark-thirty" hold position outside the dock seems about right (marinetraffic shows her currently a hundred meters or so off). They'll bring her in and tie her up and start the positioning, and start pumping up the dock until the ship is nearly on the blocks, but the diver really needs daylight to confirm the ship is in position.

 

 

Thanks so much for sharing your vast knowledge of ships and shipping and your expert analysis.

[Colo Cruiser]

Wow, whats the distance from the entrance to the river to the dry dock?

[dznymom]

With sunrise still about two hours away there, this "O-dark-thirty" hold position outside the dock seems about right (marinetraffic shows her currently a hundred meters or so off). They'll bring her in and tie her up and start the positioning, and start pumping up the dock until the ship is nearly on the blocks, but the diver really needs daylight to confirm the ship is in position.

 

This thread has been truly fascinating and I have throughly enjoyed learning from you! Watching the day break in Portland has also been fun, as the Grand has made her way into the dock.

 

I would have loved to see her progress up the river in daylight, so I am hoping the trip back to San Fransisco is during the day. Retirement has it's privileges :)

 

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so much interesting information on this thread.

[hawkeyetlse]

Wow, whats the distance from the entrance to the river to the dry dock?

The answer can be estimated from this earlier message :):

I think the ships can do about 12 knots up the river, maybe more on the lower, less on the upper, but averaging 12 knots, I think its about 5-6 hours to Portland from the Bar.

[chengkp75]

The answer can be estimated from this earlier message :):

 

I underestimated it a little (been a few years since I've been to Portland, that Portland anyway). It's about 100-120 nm from the Columbia River Bar to Portland. I did some estimating on the chart, didn't follow the river completely. :D

[sfdragonboy]

Hi All. Semi cruise newbie here. For my first cruise, we did the SF to Alaska cruise a few years back on our anniversary. It was fun, so we decided to go South this time, to Mexico from SF.

 

So, with the development of the shortened itinerary, is anyone else considering cancelling out? Yes, it is late in the day to cancel out on a vacation but I am not too happy with the choice of ports eliminated. Puerta Vallarta I kind of really wanted. And as I understand it, Ensenada is nothing, so essentially we are giving up something like 1.5 ports then. Since I booked through Costco, I called them and Princess and their respective suggestion was to not cancel based on the things they are giving back but what do you guys think (esp those who are actually going too)?

 

I am leaning on going and just making the best of it but if I can find a last minute week in Hawaii I might do that instead and cruise next time to Mexico.

 

I would love to hear what the seasoned cruisers think of the credits offered.

 

Thank you!

[beg3yrs]

Hi All. Semi cruise newbie here. For my first cruise, we did the SF to Alaska cruise a few years back on our anniversary. It was fun, so we decided to go South this time, to Mexico from SF.

 

So, with the development of the shortened itinerary, is anyone else considering cancelling out? Yes, it is late in the day to cancel out on a vacation but I am not too happy with the choice of ports eliminated. Puerta Vallarta I kind of really wanted. And as I understand it, Ensenada is nothing, so essentially we are giving up something like 1.5 ports then. Since I booked through Costco, I called them and Princess and their respective suggestion was to not cancel based on the things they are giving back but what do you guys think (esp those who are actually going too)?

 

I am leaning on going and just making the best of it but if I can find a last minute week in Hawaii I might do that instead and cruise next time to Mexico.

 

I would love to hear what the seasoned cruisers think of the credits offered.

 

Thank you!

 

Ports are never guaranteed anyway as all sorts of things can happen to keep you out. Weather is likely to be the #1 cause.

 

I'd personally keep plans the same. It's a pain to change at the last minute and yes, the give backs you're getting make the cruise very reasonable.

[gwade]

My first question was why send the ship all the way to Portland in the winter for a dry dock, when there is a perfectly good dry dock in south beach SF?

[shredie]

My first question was why send the ship all the way to Portland in the winter for a dry dock, when there is a perfectly good dry dock in south beach SF?

 

Scheduling?

[Colo Cruiser]

Scheduling?

 

 

As well as the winning bid for the contract?

[rwstout]

I was very upset when I heard of the problems and the delay but Princess made it up to us. With that said by biggest reason I was upset because of all the time and money I had put into this trip and that I would be spending 2 days less with my family. There are 8 of use on this trip. Myself my Husband and two kids 19 son and daughter 15 in a min suite, Grandma and Grandpa in a window and my oldest son and his wife. Most of use are coming from California but my oldest son is coming all the way from Okinawa Japan. He is in the USMC and I have not seen him in well over a year and have not had him with me for Christmas for 4 years. This delay would have made it so I had two less days with my son. But Princess has made it so that wont happen. My sons flight could not be changed (and I did not book it though princess) so princess put us all up in a hotel for the 20th and 21st. Plus all the other compensation they have given. I have to say I think they have done a great job and even gone a little above and beyond. I just want to say this because Princess has taken care of the people and I believe have gone above and beyond for me and my family. It will be a good holiday. So I am not missing this trip

.

Edited December 12, 2016 by rwstout