Anyone heard of this, recently out of LA

[polmcs]

We’re on the Vancouver to San Pedro Star coastal that departs on Nov 1 and arrives on the 4th. We got a mail a few weeks ago to say that the departure time had been moved up by an hour and the arrival time was moved from 6AM to 8:30AM. I’m guessing that there is no slack in the voyage for the captain to “put his foot down” whilst at sea to make up for the lost time on the approach to San Pedro. 

[MixerDave]

My 12/4 cruise should not be affected - The Star is due to arrive in San Pedro at 06:15 on 12/4 from Hawaii.

[Bollycats]

13 hours ago, scottca075 said:

 

It depends on where the ship is coming from. If it is coming from the north, that is where the delays kick in; not so much coming from the south (Mexican Riviera, Panama Canal, etc) or west (Hawaii).

Why is that? I'm on a cruise that will return from Mexico. I can't change my return flight to a later one so I've been worried I'll get the dreaded email.

[frugaltravel]

57 minutes ago, Bollycats said:

Why is that? I'm on a cruise that will return from Mexico. I can't change my return flight to a later one so I've been worried I'll get the dreaded email.

If you read all the replies in this thread you will have your answer 😀

[Bollycats]

1 hour ago, frugaltravel said:

If you read all the replies in this thread you will have your answer 😀

I've read the entire thread. I understand why the ships have to slow down when approaching the port, I just don't understand why the arrival times are changing for cruises coming from the North and not the South or West.

[frugaltravel]

11 minutes ago, Bollycats said:

I've read the entire thread. I understand why the ships have to slow down when approaching the port, I just don't understand why the arrival times are changing for cruises coming from the North and not the South or West.

Reread posts 14 and 22 😀

[satxdiver]

1 hour ago, Bollycats said:

I've read the entire thread. I understand why the ships have to slow down when approaching the port, I just don't understand why the arrival times are changing for cruises coming from the North and not the South or West.

 

Ships coming from other ports may not be affected by the slower speed near port and able to make up for it.  However the one from Vancouver already had little wiggle room to compensate.  They probably were counting on the ship running at 20 or so knots under the original plan and now would have to run at top speed to make the schedule.  This is very hard on the ship and can lead to failures.  With the new requirements the ship simply cannot make up the loss of time and will arrive late.  

[Bollycats]

1 hour ago, satxdiver said:

 

Ships coming from other ports may not be affected by the slower speed near port and able to make up for it.  However the one from Vancouver already had little wiggle room to compensate.  They probably were counting on the ship running at 20 or so knots under the original plan and now would have to run at top speed to make the schedule.  This is very hard on the ship and can lead to failures.  With the new requirements the ship simply cannot make up the loss of time and will arrive late.  

Thanks, that makes sense. My last stop is Ensenada so I guess because it's so close to San Pedro it can still make it in time. 

[4cats4me]

5 hours ago, Bollycats said:

Why is that? I'm on a cruise that will return from Mexico. I can't change my return flight to a later one so I've been worried I'll get the dreaded email.

 

We arrived from Mexico two days ago on time.   No problems whatsoever.  

[polmcs]

3 hours ago, 4cats4me said:

 

We arrived from Mexico two days ago on time.   No problems whatsoever.  

I’m also on the Royal out of San Pedro down to Mexico and haven’t received any notifications of any schedule change (so far 😉 ). 

[Lido deck main]

We are on the Star next week, we are Vancouver to L.A, San Diego, Santa Barbara and San Francisco back to Vancouver, out of those four port stops we are losing 9.5 hours of port time from the time posted when we first booked as we have been advised the ship will be going slower in those areas, 10 knots, rather than 20 knots.  Our port arrival time was to be 7:00 am L.A. now it is 9:30am.  We are either arriving later or leaving earlier in each of our port stops. This is to protect the marine life.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

4 hours ago, Bollycats said:

Thanks, that makes sense. My last stop is Ensenada so I guess because it's so close to San Pedro it can still make it in time. 

 

That would be the reason. It is just a couple hundred miles from Ensenada to San Pedro vs the 1,000 or more miles down the West Coast.

[MsSoCalCruiser]

On 10/15/2019 at 2:16 AM, scottca075 said:

 

It is the entire California coast. See this article.

 

PS, the Channel Islands themselves in the U.S. run from San Clemente Island off San Diego, to San Miguel off Santa Barbara. CI National Park is just the northern islands and doesn't include the southern islands.

Thank you!

[aprilsp88]

On 10/15/2019 at 4:29 PM, scottca075 said:

 

It depends on where the ship is coming from. If it is coming from the north, that is where the delays kick in; not so much coming from the south (Mexican Riviera, Panama Canal, etc) or west (Hawaii).

Why coming from the north introduces delay? I thought if there are sea days before reaching LA,  ships could adjust the speed thus avoid the delay.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

7 hours ago, aprilsp88 said:

Why coming from the north introduces delay? I thought if there are sea days before reaching LA,  ships could adjust the speed thus avoid the delay.

 

There are new polices in place about the max speed you can travel off the coast, 10 knots per hour, down from an  average of 20 knots, which cruise ships did. It is to stop the killing primarily of whales, but other marine mammals as well.

 

So between San Pedro and say Crescent City (900-1000 miles) slowing down to 10 kn for that distance has a big impact. Coming from the south or west, they aren't in the zone very long, not enough to impact arrival times, and thus the next departure time.

Edited October 17, 2019 by scottca075

[lx200gps]

Does anyone know whether Princess will automatically update all the Personalizer itineraries for the affected cruises, even as far out as next year and/or inform people far in advance? We are booked on the Royal next September from Vancouver one way down to LA, which is a trip I would imagine would be heavily affected by this and have not received any Emails regarding such a change in schedule. As at today, there is no change to the Personalizer details for this trip, plenty of long stops in the various ports and arrival into San Pedro at 6:15AM. I would love to know whether this trip is affected BEFORE committing to hard to change airline flights.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

15 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

Does anyone know whether Princess will automatically update all the Personalizer itineraries for the affected cruises, even as far out as next year and/or inform people far in advance? We are booked on the Royal next September from Vancouver one way down to LA, which is a trip I would imagine would be heavily affected by this and have not received any Emails regarding such a change in schedule. As at today, there is no change to the Personalizer details for this trip, plenty of long stops in the various ports and arrival into San Pedro at 6:15AM. I would love to know whether this trip is affected BEFORE committing to hard to change airline flights.

 

I would think contacting your travel agent or Princess directly would be the answer.

[polmcs]

On 10/17/2019 at 7:11 AM, lx200gps said:

Does anyone know whether Princess will automatically update all the Personalizer itineraries for the affected cruises, even as far out as next year and/or inform people far in advance? We are booked on the Royal next September from Vancouver one way down to LA, which is a trip I would imagine would be heavily affected by this and have not received any Emails regarding such a change in schedule. As at today, there is no change to the Personalizer details for this trip, plenty of long stops in the various ports and arrival into San Pedro at 6:15AM. I would love to know whether this trip is affected BEFORE committing to hard to change airline flights.

The speed restrictions add 3.5 hrs to the Vancouver to LA journey if done as a single non stop leg. If on a multi stop cruise, if the last port of call before LA wasn’t too far away, it might be that the ship only needed to make 10 knots or less on the last night to make an on time arrival and perhaps is not affected by the new speed limits. Worst case is that it perhaps has to depart the last port of call, by an hour or so.

[chengkp75]

On 10/15/2019 at 9:16 AM, scottca075 said:

 

It is the entire California coast. See this article.

 

PS, the Channel Islands themselves in the U.S. run from San Clemente Island off San Diego, to San Miguel off Santa Barbara. CI National Park is just the northern islands and doesn't include the southern islands.

 

On 10/16/2019 at 5:10 PM, satxdiver said:

 

Ships coming from other ports may not be affected by the slower speed near port and able to make up for it.  However the one from Vancouver already had little wiggle room to compensate.  They probably were counting on the ship running at 20 or so knots under the original plan and now would have to run at top speed to make the schedule.  This is very hard on the ship and can lead to failures.  With the new requirements the ship simply cannot make up the loss of time and will arrive late.  

 

On 10/17/2019 at 12:30 PM, scottca075 said:

 

There are new polices in place about the max speed you can travel off the coast, 10 knots per hour, down from an  average of 20 knots, which cruise ships did. It is to stop the killing primarily of whales, but other marine mammals as well.

 

So between San Pedro and say Crescent City (900-1000 miles) slowing down to 10 kn for that distance has a big impact. Coming from the south or west, they aren't in the zone very long, not enough to impact arrival times, and thus the next departure time.

The voluntary speed restriction zones only apply within the limits of the various marine sanctuaries along the coast of California.  These only extend about 40-50 nm offshore, so any ship transiting straight from Seattle or Canada to LA could stand offshore of these zones and not have to slow down until reaching the Channel Islands area arriving into LA.  If they call at SF, then they would need to transit into/out of the Farrallones/Cordell Bank sanctuaries, but again, most of the transit would be outside the zones.  The speed restriction would not apply for the whole coast from San Pedro to Crescent City.

[lx200gps]

17 hours ago, polmcs said:

The speed restrictions add 3.5 hrs to the Vancouver to LA journey if done as a single non stop leg. If on a multi stop cruise, if the last port of call before LA wasn’t too far away, it might be that the ship only needed to make 10 knots or less on the last night to make an on time arrival and perhaps is not affected by the new speed limits. Worst case is that it perhaps has to depart the last port of call, by an hour or so.

That's probably the case here. Our specific itinerary, about 11 months away, is Vancouver - Victoria - Astoria - San Francisco - Santa Barbara - San Pedro. The stated departure out of Santa Barbara is listed as 6PM and the stated arrival time into SP is still 6:15AM, so I assume they still have plenty of time to "steam" slowly the short distance down the coast obeying the speed limits and arrive into SP for the regular early arrival. It was a bit worrying to me reading the comments about relatively late arrival changes, as our airline tickets, always on FF points, are usually hard to change. Based on this discussion, I think we're OK and our specific itinerary shouldn't be affected by the new restrictions.

[polmcs]

Santa Barbara to San Pedro is less than 100 nautical miles. Given that you have 12hrs and 15 mins, based on your departure and arrival times, the ship only has to average a smidge over 8 knots, so the speed restrictions should not come into play here, unless the captain opts to take the “scenic” route. 😉

 

 

[KeepCalmBearOn]

7 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

The voluntary speed restriction zones only apply within the limits of the various marine sanctuaries along the coast of California.  These only extend about 40-50 nm offshore, so any ship transiting straight from Seattle or Canada to LA could stand offshore of these zones and not have to slow down until reaching the Channel Islands area arriving into LA.  If they call at SF, then they would need to transit into/out of the Farrallones/Cordell Bank sanctuaries, but again, most of the transit would be outside the zones.  The speed restriction would not apply for the whole coast from San Pedro to Crescent City.

 

Are there ships that transit from Vancouver or Seattle to LA without stopping? Other than repositioning cruises, I don't think so.

 

Most of the CA Coast cruises make stops at places like Catalina, Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Francisco and Los Angeles (if starting from SD).

[chengkp75]

2 hours ago, scottca075 said:

 

Are there ships that transit from Vancouver or Seattle to LA without stopping? Other than repositioning cruises, I don't think so.

 

Most of the CA Coast cruises make stops at places like Catalina, Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Francisco and Los Angeles (if starting from SD).

Even with port calls, you don't sail along the coast inside the sanctuaries, you merely cross them when transiting into/out of the ports.  The longest is the Farrallons, as the area goes out about 30 miles outside of the islands.  Otherwise, it is 30-40 miles from shore.  If you have 1000 miles along the coast, and say 240 miles into/out of port (3 port calls), to stay within the sanctuaries and have to sail at half speed in order to save say half the distance into/out of port would waste more time and fuel than going outside 40 miles for transit.  1000 miles along coast at 20 knots is 50 hours, plus 240 miles transit at 10 knots is another 24 hours, for a total time of 74 hours underway.  If you were to stay within 20 miles of the coast, so the 1000 miles is done at 10 knots, that is 100 hours, plus 120 miles transit (half of the previous 240), is another 12 hours, for a total of 112 hours, or 51% longer.  You take the shortest possible safe route through the speed restriction zone, and then turn along the coast and speed up outside of the zones.  

[toescat]

Yes, we had a ship come into port at 1:00pm when it was scheduled to arrive at 6:am.  We did not board until 4 and were not able to go to our cabin until 7:00PM.  There was a really bad storm and they had to cut their engines to half speed.  That night the sea's were really bad and there was crew member who went overboard (committed suicide) so we circled most of the next day.  We were very late arriving at our first port and we were all given a $250 credit on our shipboard account.  My attitude is I am on a ship and I don't care if we stop, I could go on a cruise to nowhere.  Because of the search for the crew member no one complained about the delays.  Surprised at that.  That was on the Disney Wonder.

[jerwick]

On 10/15/2019 at 6:16 PM, satxdiver said:

The Star is coming from Vancouver on a 3 day repositioning to San Pedro.  By road it is a 1300 mile trip so the route by sea is near the same or about 1130 nautical miles.  It would take about 54 hours running 21 knots to cover that distance.  The time from departing Vancouver to arriving on time in San Pedro would give them 64 hours to make the trip.  This is all assuming the ship can leave the dock in Vancouver and arrive in San Pedro at 21 knots which of course is not practical.  I would therefore suggest that there was no spare time and with the new slower speed into San Pedro the ship will be late in arriving in San Pedro. 

 

We will be boarding the Star on November 4th for a nice cruise to HI.  

We were on a 4 day repo at the end of September this year  Vancouver to San Perdro.  Ship arrived in time.  We were off by 7:30am and in a cab by 7:45.