On Oosterdam now, have cancelled or changed 3 out of 4 ports

[Modern_Viking]

14 hours ago, sprockie said:

Exactly our thinking.  San Juan has absolutely no appeal to me.  We've been here several times too many.  Here we are on the ship.  Might as well be at sea.  I sure wish it was an option to circle back to HMC and catch it on the way back but that is never done.  I don't know why.  We've missed HMC a few times and GT once before, but never this kind of a mess.

Do other lines miss ports often or is this a smaller ship HAL thing?

From my observations, it is not the size of the ship that matters.  What definitely matters is the strength and direction of wind, the port layout, the port facilities, and perhaps the strength of the thrusters on the ship (and maybe if it has azipods or the like). 

 

On one 9 night HAL Caribbean cruise, we missed 2 out of the 6 planned ports.  We missed Half Moon Cay and Grand Turk. (Sound familiar?)  For the first, high winds and choppy seas prevented safe tendering.  As for the second, Grand Turk is a rather flat island that provides a minimal wind break.  We had a strong crosswind when approaching the pier via the narrow channel.  When we approached, based on the crab angle needed to keep the ship (ms Maasdam) from drifting, we couldn't fit along side the pier in the available space.  If the captain had continued the attempt, the bow would have been in the pier and the stern on the reef.  We turned, hovered for about an hour, then left for a day at sea.  The captain later said there was no tug service available there, and if there had been, we might have had a chance to make it in.  Maybe.  I don't remember him commenting on thrusters, but if the Maasdam had stronger bow thrusters and asipods, that might also have helped a little.  Still the funnel especially (and the superstructure in general) was acting as a big sail, catching the wind and blowing us away from the pier.

 

During the same cruise, we made it into San Juan seemingly with no problem.  That harbor is well sheltered by mountains that block the wind.  Thus, there didn't seem to be a problem with docking. 

 

We also made it to St. Kitts (barely, per a brief conversation I had with the Captain in the Lido that afternoon).  Evidently he needed one or two (I forget) tugs and the full power of the ship to get to and stay alongside the pier.  There, there was plenty of room to maneuver, and drifting a bit would not have put us on a reef, so a much safer place to be and thus OK to be a bit more adventurous trying to come alongside.  Later in the day an MSC ship docked on the other side of the pier.  They made it, but seemed to have great difficulty.  That ship lost lots of paint (seemingly down to bare metal) on the hull where it scraped up against the pier while trying to position itself.  I didn't see any significant dents in the hull, but lots of missing paint.  Their wake also caused problems for us (the captain came on the PA to apologize for the vibration from running the bow and stern thrusters to keep us in place while the other ship's wake pushed us away from the pier).

 

That trip we also made it to St. Thomas (specifically Crown Bay, another well sheltered pier) and Sint Maarten.

 

Te seas where certain choppy the whole time, but not all that rough.  But there was a strong wind the entire time, and that seemed to be the problem.  Heck, even in Port Everglades we needed two tugs to pry us away from pier 19 due to the wind out of the north. 

 

I don't think a bigger ship would have been any better.  A bigger ship might have been worse, in fact (more sail area to catch more wind and less room to maneuver due to being longer and wider).  Truly huge bow thrusters might have helped, but I don't know if such things exist on cruise ships. 

 

Some friends on that same cruise stayed on for the next 7 days (for back-to-back sailings).  They said during the following week the weather improved, the wind calmed, and they made all 4 planned ports. 

[BJzink]

20 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

Winds seem to be even more of a factor than weather or seas (actually all one and the same) - that is where the interesting stories get told. What high winds can do to essentially a hollow box floating on the water.

Just finished a S.A/Antarctic cruise 2 weeks ago - missed Ushuia because of high winds that prevented the ship to "hug" the dock and there was not a tugboat to assist it.  We did have a tug in Punta Arenas and it was by the ship the entire time we were in port.  

Disappointing, but I'd rather be safe.  I was on 3 Caribbean cruises scheduled for Grand Cayman before I actually got there - high swells.