Royal misses PUerto Madryn

[Astro Flyer]

12 minutes ago, Ep010835 said:

 

The Captain’s answer is among the most classic responses I’ve ever heard. 

 

Absolutely superb!!

 

He may have a second career awaiting him writing screenplays.  

Captain Ed Perrin was a very personable & superb Master of the Ship for many years with Princess & we had the pleasure of sailing with him a couple of times.  Unfortunately he left Princess in 2017 & is now a VP for marine operations at Virgin Voyages.

Edited February 25, 2019 by Astro Flyer

[satxdiver]

Several years ago we did the Santiago to BA cruise and had to miss Ushuaia due to possible wind while in port.  Cruise ships by their bulky design are highly susceptible to wind.  A cruise before we were to arrive in Ushuaia had arrived in the morning and when it came time to leave the wind pushed them against the pier such that even with tugs they were not able to get free.  So we sailed on and luckily we were able to tender in the Falklands were several cruises before ours was not able to tender.  

 

We had a similar problem in Key West where the wind was due to increase and it would have pushed the ship up against the pier and not able to leave until the next day.  We did not make that port either.  The Captain did keep the ship offshore for several hours to see if conditions would improve but they did not and we sailed onward.  

 

The captain of any vessel is the commander and we all have to obey his decisions.  This includes airplanes as well as ships.  He is a professional and we all hope competent.    

[Ep010835]

20 minutes ago, satxdiver said:

The captain of any vessel is the commander and we all have to obey his decisions.  This includes airplanes as well as ships.  He is a professional and we all hope competent.    

 

I don’t know much about maritime law but do have a passing acquaintance with aviation rules. 

To the extent both address command responsibilities, the similarities are apparent. 

 

§ 91.3 Responsibility and authority of the pilot in command.

(a) The pilot in command of an  aircraft is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to, the operation of that aircraft.

[RDC1]

On 2/25/2019 at 9:53 AM, frugaltravel said:

Funny to hear both sides.  The side of the passengers on their vacation taking time to b!tch on CC about things.  The side of posters who believe the captain can do no wrong.  I wonder if those posters would have had the same attitude about their captain if they were on the Costa Concordia.

 

considering that the captain has made a decision not to port for safety reasons due to weather whereas the Captain of the Corncordia put his ship on an unsafe route to show off, not a valid comparison.

[Georgie562]

I’m glad of the captains decision. I want the captain, the crew and Royal Princess in one piece for our April 27 cruise !!!

[caribill]

9 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

OP, keep in mind that Royal Princess is a very large ship that has a very large surface area on each side that is subject to wind coming from either direction.  This can have a "sail-effect" which makes it difficult to safely dock a vessel.  Also, this is the first time that a Princess ship this large, with her current Captain, has visited this port.  The Captain's decision to cancel your port stop is disappointing, but safety for the guests, the crew, and the ship itself is more important than your disappointment.

 

And the next class of ships will be even larger.

 

[ABoatNerd]

frugaltravel, well said!

 

Docile consumers are a corporations best friends, they are called "obedient consumers".

 

Captains of vessels, trains, planes etc are no different than any other service provider. They have a job to do and they are in the customer service business.

 

Providing informative, timely and well explained information to customers on situation and options is the minimum that management/staff is accountable for whether you are on a plane, ship, restaurant.

 

Poor management practices were more possible in the past, but with social and technical information available to customers, those days off talking down/ignoring/lying to customers is less prevalent - including on cruise ships.

 

 

 

 

[Colo Cruiser]

7 hours ago, caribill said:

 

And the next class of ships will be even larger.

 

Which ones are those?

[Kiwi_cruiser]

23 hours ago, Judymbn said:

I am on board and am not believing the line we are told.  We have a balcony cabin - the waters are flat with very little wind.

Port Stanley was always going to be a maybe as this will be a tender port - which means it will have to be perfectly calm waters.

 

I guess you did not go up to deck 16 when we where heading in to the bay?, as if you did you would have felt how windy it was!!, I had a hard time staying still on the open deck!

 

 

23 hours ago, Judymbn said:

I am on board and am not believing the line we are told.  We have a balcony cabin - the waters are flat with very little wind.

Port Stanley was always going to be a maybe as this will be a tender port - which means it will have to be perfectly calm waters.

We have been late into every port and have had 2 excursions cancelled.  Puerto Madryn was not advertised as being weather dependant.  On the Sea Princess in the North Atlantic we had much heavier weather with no loss of time or ports.

 

When you go cruising all ports, especially around here are all weather dependant.

[SeaDog-46]

There is another thing none of you have considered or maybe do not know about.

Remember the war - The Falklands War.  Princess & P&O cruise ships are discriminated against by Argentine authorities because the ships are registered in UK of offshore UK - more so in the outports than in BA.  Any excuse to disrupt those vessels will be taken.  So much so that P&O no longer call at Argentine ports. 

At Ushuaia if the port is crowded Princess ships have to tender.  Look for the anti British notices in Ushuaia.

There is one on the dock gate & another in a shop window. 

[thinfool]

The Royal is a very large ship.  It is also the first of a new line of vessels for Princess.  IMO, they are very cautious because of this.

We missed Bar Harbor Maine on the Royal last fall due to wind and water....as we sailed away a much smaller Oceana ship pulled in, dropped anchor and prepared to tender passengers ashore.  Go figure.

[TheRabbit]

On 2/24/2019 at 5:56 PM, Ep010835 said:

 

The Captain’s answer is among the most classic responses I’ve ever heard. 

 

Absolutely superb!!

 

He may have a second career awaiting him writing screenplays.  

The winds that day were at 60 MPH broad side, and the channel had 2 90 degree turns with rocks on the inside of the last turn as the ship went from going into the wind to broadside. Part of the decision was the tug operators saying they could not guarantee keeping the ship off the rocks. So here is a decision made unanimously by the Pilot, tug operators, and the captain and this passenger knew better.

[RDC1]

On 2/25/2019 at 10:34 AM, satxdiver said:

Several years ago we did the Santiago to BA cruise and had to miss Ushuaia due to possible wind while in port.  Cruise ships by their bulky design are highly susceptible to wind.  A cruise before we were to arrive in Ushuaia had arrived in the morning and when it came time to leave the wind pushed them against the pier such that even with tugs they were not able to get free.  So we sailed on and luckily we were able to tender in the Falklands were several cruises before ours was not able to tender.  

 

We had a similar problem in Key West where the wind was due to increase and it would have pushed the ship up against the pier and not able to leave until the next day.  We did not make that port either.  The Captain did keep the ship offshore for several hours to see if conditions would improve but they did not and we sailed onward.  

 

The captain of any vessel is the commander and we all have to obey his decisions.  This includes airplanes as well as ships.  He is a professional and we all hope competent.    

we were on a cruise in Ushuaia where the wind prevented us from leaving port for several hours. the side thrusters were not strong enough.

[caribill]

23 hours ago, caribill said:

 

And the next class of ships will be even larger.

 

 

15 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Which ones are those?

 

https://www.princess.com/news/news_releases/2018/07/Princess-Cruises-to-Build-Two-Next-Generation-LNG-Cruise-Ships.html

approximately 4,300 guests (lower berths)

[jwattle]

On 2/25/2019 at 6:13 AM, ABoatNerd said:

frugaltravel, well said!

 

Docile consumers are a corporations best friends, they are called "obedient consumers".

 

Captains of vessels, trains, planes etc are no different than any other service provider. They have a job to do and they are in the customer service business.

 

Providing informative, timely and well explained information to customers on situation and options is the minimum that management/staff is accountable for whether you are on a plane, ship, restaurant.

 

Poor management practices were more possible in the past, but with social and technical information available to customers, those days off talking down/ignoring/lying to customers is less prevalent - including on cruise ships.

 

 

 

 

There is a difference between service issues and safety issues. The Captain is responsible for all souls onboard. Bar, entertainment staff, etc., are responsible for the service part of the equation. If the early trivia session is cancelled, they owe you a good explanation. If the Captain says that weather, wind, seas, etc., make it unsafe to dock, he owes you nothing further by way of explanation. He is qualified to make that call; not the balcony quarterbacks who think they know better.

[vickie_bernie]

Thankfully we made it into stanley today.  Beautiful day. Hundreds of penguins were seen on the port side at Gypsy cove from the ship as we sailed in.  Then again as we anchored tons of penguins could be seen in the water from deck 7 outside.  I have never seen so many surrounding the ship.  Was a great site for those that could not get off the ship due to tendering and mobility issues.  

 

On our way to the horn... 

[cruzsnooze]

I just got off the Azamara Pursuit Sunday from the same itinerary. The winds were so severe we couldn't get off the ship in Ushuaia and we missed our shore excursions. Port Stanley was cancelled and we went to Port Madryn instead and saw a large Penquin colony which had 4-6 week old chicks.  This area of the world has unpredictable weather.  The flights are long so I don't plan to go back there again. My next 4 cruises are with Princess in regions with more amicable weather.

[TheRabbit]

10 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

I just got off the Azamara Pursuit Sunday from the same itinerary. The winds were so severe we couldn't get off the ship in Ushuaia and we missed our shore excursions. Port Stanley was cancelled and we went to Port Madryn instead and saw a large Penquin colony which had 4-6 week old chicks.  This area of the world has unpredictable weather.  The flights are long so I don't plan to go back there again. My next 4 cruises are with Princess in regions with more amicable weather.

Only 1 in 2 ships make it into Stanley. We left Ushuaia 4 hours late due to high winds and no tugs. Take what you can get.

[SeaDog-46]

Rabbit - I don't know where you got that information from for Stanley - because I had searched for it before my 2017 repositioning on Zaandam from BA to YVR & found nothing.

At Stanley on our bus for the Bluff Cove tour the lady giving us information on Falklands said - Zaandam had made 13 arrivals during the 2016/17 season & landed the passengers each time.

[TheRabbit]

7 minutes ago, SeaDog-46 said:

Rabbit - I don't know where you got that information from for Stanley - because I had searched for it before my 2017 repositioning on Zaandam from BA to YVR & found nothing.

At Stanley on our bus for the Bluff Cove tour the lady giving us information on Falklands said - Zaandam had made 13 arrivals during the 2016/17 season & landed the passengers each time.

 

I was going by what our tour guide there told us. Never looked it up. My fault if it is incorrect. She indicated half the ships don't come in or don't run tenders. 

Edited February 28, 2019 by TheRabbit

[RDC1]

On 2/28/2019 at 11:01 AM, SeaDog-46 said:

Rabbit - I don't know where you got that information from for Stanley - because I had searched for it before my 2017 repositioning on Zaandam from BA to YVR & found nothing.

At Stanley on our bus for the Bluff Cove tour the lady giving us information on Falklands said - Zaandam had made 13 arrivals during the 2016/17 season & landed the passengers each time.

during my last cruise that included port Stanley both the CD and the Captain had mentioned that it was a frequently cancelled stop due to weather and that our cruise was very fortunate with the weather.

[geoherb]

Our Royal trans-Atlantic last fall had major changes in its itinerary due to the remnants of Hurricane Florence. I was thankful the captain steered us away from rough and possibly dangerous seas, even if I was disappointed to miss going to Norway.

[hobbyfarmer2]

At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I am reminded of an old naval saying that goes something like this;

 

How can you recognize the lifeboat officer on a lifeboat after an emergency?

It's the person with the gun.

[paul929207]

We got a $15 obc for the port charges for Puerto madryn 

[dickinson]

3 hours ago, paul929207 said:

We got a $15 obc for the port charges for Puerto madryn 

 

Paul.... hope you are having a great cruise!