Silver Wind visit to Tower Bridge Cancelled for Sunday 11 August, 2019

[Perfectionistcruiser]

Due to the adverse weather Silver Wind will not make it to Tower Bridge , likely to Tilbury..

 

All ship visits cancelled.

[les37b]

Had a call earlier from Frank to let me know (appreciated). Things are still going ahead for my visit..... just got an expensive Taxi journey instead of a 15 min train journey. Cant be helped. Just feel sorry for the guests missing the highlight of their arrival and then departure.

 

We had very high winds yesterday, but its actually OK right now... but no idea for tomorrow what it will be! Hope not too windy as the Dartford bridge could close. Dont think thats likely though.

[Daveywavey70]

I Hope it doesn't spoil your day Les, Have a wonderful time.

[les37b]

26 minutes ago, Daveywavey70 said:

I Hope it doesn't spoil your day Les, Have a wonderful time.

 

We will be fine and at the end of the day for our group, its not really a big deal. True, I wouldn't have chosen to visit Tilbury but it is what it is and we'll all be fine. Hope it doesn't through too much of a dampener for those disembarking and embarking. I know this is a logistical nightmare for SS.Trying to arrange busses from Tower Bridge to Tilbury right now for a Sunday morning shuttle.

 

Most of our party are taken care of for transport for tomorrow..... and I'll book an XL uber in the morning for 6. I'll worry about getting home when the time comes!

 

It's actually quite calm here at the moment - so not sure if winds are picking up or bad for the departure in 24 hours, but the decision wouldn't have been taken lightly. My guess is the port of London made the call, though Frank said it was the captain.

[Observer]

It's probably better from Silversea's perspective -- and that of the disembarking guests who are catching flights, etc. -- to play it safe and use Tilbury rather than roll the dice, plan on Tower Bridge, and find early Sunday morning that they can't make it.  If this were not a turnaround day the gamble might be reasonable.  In this circumstance, I think SS made the difficult but correct decision.

[les37b]

6 hours ago, Observer said:

It's probably better from Silversea's perspective -- and that of the disembarking guests who are catching flights, etc. -- to play it safe and use Tilbury rather than roll the dice, plan on Tower Bridge, and find early Sunday morning that they can't make it.  If this were not a turnaround day the gamble might be reasonable.  In this circumstance, I think SS made the difficult but correct decision.

 

Absolutely. It's terribly disappointing for everyone arriving or departing but if you read 

the weather forecast and news, you will see how bad it had been, with ferries at Dover stranded at sea for 5 hours. The link mentions a festival at Winchester called Boomtown that my son is attending where tents have been blown away.... Not heard from him, so fingers crossed.

 

As the crow flies, we are probably 12 miles from Tower Bridge and 18 from Tilbury .On Friday evening we had severe winds and I did actually think to myself at the time I hope it'll be ok. The winds had died down last night and it's certainly a calm and pleasant day this morning so far, but decisions have been made based on the facts known and forecasts. I know I've left my house and driven to watch the Wind sail under Dartford Bridge and arrived to find very high winds, but seemed fine at home, so the estuary probably acts as a funnel and always much worse.

 

Thanks for the well wishes Daveywavy... I've no doubt it will be wonderful. The view of and from a "large ship" in the London pool is lost and the enjoyable boarding process gone, but not much else will change.

 

I can't imagine how I'd feel if this happened for our cruise arrival next year. Devastated is possibly too dramatic, but it wouldn't be far short.

 

Just hope this disappointment doesn't spoil and cause too much inconvenience for guests leaving and arriving today. I really feel for you. Hope people understand this decision would not have been taken lightly and was with everybody's safety the priority.

[les37b]

Oh dear!

 

What this is turning out to be a nightmare with taxis. Most had lifts and we were booking an Uber for 6... Nothing found.... So decided to get 2 taxis. We let one go with 4 friends in and booked one for us two.

 

It was on it's way and then cancelled. And then. Finally got another 20 mins later...... Ciunted down to 6 minutes and then went up to 15 and then to 20.... We had bags of time or so we thought.

 

Everyone has arrived and were still at home!

 

Finally on our way..   And then the driver who arrived in the wrong direction and instead of turning round (like instructions said) went straight on going for the next junction down on the m25

 

 

We should still arrive by 10.45 so not a catastrophe.

 

I expect all my friends are waiting in the car park... Hopefully they allowed them on though.

[les37b]

 

Hey they were waiting.. Champagne in hand and almost a had of honour.

 

Great time... And at least the girls looked great.

 

 

 

[Silver Spectre]

Glad you made it Les

[jpalbny]

Enjoy the Wind, Les! Glad you made it. The Cloud is getting knocked around by wind here in the Westfjiords of Iceland, so you're not alone.

[les37b]

Back home now. I spoke with a couple who there as we waited for a cab and they said last night was really rough. There is no way this part of the cruise would be cancelled without reason... so posting after saying where I live last night seemed ok, it was necessary to state that. I never doubted t it to be honest.

 

Hope everyone on board has a great cruise going forward. I was a little disappointed a couple of the ladies had one glass too many before we left.... it won't happen again.

 

Anyway... Brimary and everyone on board, I hope you all have a great cruise and the start you had from Tilbury didn't dampen the outlook and spoil things too much.

 

I had a great time despite this and would certainly like to thank Silversea for making it possible.

 

 

Cheers Frank.... really appreciated. ;-We all had a great time. 

 

 

 

 

[brimary]

Thanks les37b for your good wishes for our cruise on the Wind.We always take local taxi from Yorkshire to Tower Bridge.Got to know on arrival at Tower Bridge for arranged early embark at 10.30am our taxi driver who we utilise for all our Tower Bridge cruises said fine he would drop us at Tilbury and go back to Yorkshire the quiet way at no extra cost apart from a gratuity for our appreciation.We embarked at Tilbury and had Avery quiet few hours prior to the bulk of passengers embarking somewhat later than usual.We are heading for Cork after a surprisingly good weather day in Fowey.

The Best Chef on Silversea is back from a short break,and our waitress on our 37 day cruise in May /June who we knew would be on had our table with our favourite red and white wine already in place.It is those touches of class that sets Silversea apart from all the rest,but we like others on this Board are wary of the future with RCI .which will make us appreciate the excellent staff and quality of food and service on this cruise more than ever.

[Observer]

1 hour ago, brimary said:

we like others on this Board are wary of the future with RCI 

 

Such concerns are entirely reasonable.  However, there may be advantages to the RCCL majority holding in Silversea.  It's difficult to avoid the thought that the thorough (and very exciting!) promised redo of Shadow is made possible in part by RCCL's deep pockets.

[Stumblefoot]

On 8/13/2019 at 11:38 AM, Observer said:

It's difficult to avoid the thought that the thorough (and very exciting!) promised redo of Shadow is made possible in part by RCCL's deep pockets.

That’s exactly what it is to the tune of several million additional dollars versus what was originally planned.