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Marina having trouble finding a port

Clutj

By Clutj,
in Oceania Cruises

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Dp42wl

Dp42wl

Posted
Posted
On 3/22/2020 at 12:25 PM, Paulchili said:

Why?

They certainly won't be busy cruising anytime soon.

D

 

On 3/22/2020 at 12:25 PM, Paulchili said:

Why?

They certainly won't be busy cruising anytime soon.

Dry Dock was planned for Upgrade 

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Pet

Pet

Posted
Posted

Although there is nothing amusing about this whole situation, I was somewhat bemused that my TA though it was important enough to telephone over the weekend to ask for my car registration number in order to reserve parking at Southampton in August. The balance for the cruise is not due for another 3 weeks (which I will probably have to cancel anyway) and I thought TAs were worked off their feet on far more important issues - or was it just a surtitle way of saying they wanted the money soon. 

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RJB

RJB

Posted
Posted
35 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

Docked in Miami. You can see her on portmiamiwebcam.com

Looks like she is about ready to let us board.  Wish.     Glad they all made it back safe and sound. 

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cindygad

cindygad

Posted
Posted

Goodmorning, My husband and I was on the Marina. We are home and safe. We were treated by professional hard working staff. Kudos to them for keeping the ship so clean and passengers well. To my knowledge no one had the virus. We actually felt very safe and in a protected bubble on the ship. I was quite anxious to get off and enter back into the world.

 

Life went on without any issues on the ship. They kept on serving us with a smile and had wide selection of food. I do not know how they did that with 8 extra days at sea! Total of 11 sea days before we got off. It was unsettling to be refused to enter ports. Going through the canal and to Miami was a wise choice.

 

This was our first Oceania Cruise out of 32 cruises. This will not be our last.

 

Pray for the crew for many can not go home as their ports are closed to entry

 

We are self isolating even though we feel fine. Lets all work together to get through this and make our world stronger.

 

All our best

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bob brown

bob brown

Posted
Posted

I can totally emphasize with the passenger's on the Marina, and all the other's that were caught up in this pandemic...

 

My wife and I flew from Miami to Santiago, Chile on 27 February, spent a night there, and boarded a charter flight the next morning to Punta Arena's.  After a bus tour of the area, we board the Hurtigurten "Roald Amundsen" for a 16 night Antarctic cruise, which was fabulous...the scenery, the 'zodiac' landings, the wildlife, the state-of-the-art hybrid powered expedition ship, and its wonderful crew and expedition team.

 

One of our stops was at Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where we shared the port (we were docked, they tendered), with the ill-fated HAL Zaandam (still in the news).   All seemed fine at that point, but we watched ongoing world developments on CNN and CBS news, which worsened daily.   When we got back to Punta Arenas, the Chilean authorities refused to let us disembark, even though our ship remained (AFAIK), virus free.   We remained at anchor, while the Hurtigruten home office in Norway worked with the embassy's of all our home countries....mainly Australia, US, Germany, UK, France, Canada, and a few others, as well as with Chile and other South American ports to try to get us home.

 

Finally, they sent an off-shore supply ship alongside us, to replenish our fuel and provision's for further travel to ?

Word finally came to us from our wonderful crew, that they made arrangements to return to Stanley, where they would have charter flights to get us all to some port where we could fly home from.   One complication, was that we had to remain "quarantined" for 14 days from our last contact with 'the world', to prove we were still virus-free.   They made extraordinary steps, to insure the provisioning did not compromise us in any way, and video'd the whole operation, with the worker's wearing gloves, masks, and protective suits.

 

When we were finally ready to go, we did so without risking taking a pilot, so we were not allowed to take the short route back out the Magellen Strait eastward thru narrow channels.  We had to go the long way....westward out the Strait, and then down around Cape Horn and the "Shakey Drakey" Drake Passage with strong gale-force winds, and 8 meter waves.  We finally made it  back to the shelter of the Falkland Island fjords, and did 'scenic cruising' there while anxiously awaiting docking in Stanley on the 25th of March.  Meanwhile, we were enjoying the great Hurtigruten hospitality, at their expense for the extra 9 or 10 days.

 

We watched dismaying reports all this time, of more and more seaports and airports closing to all traffic, and we were warned, that all plans were 'in flux', and uncertain.   Finally, they announced that Stanley would let us dock under strict control, and that they had arranged for us to disembark on two chartered flights...half on the 25th, and the rest on the 26th, determined by home destination.   

 

We left on the 25th.   Five chartered buses, departed with us at 30 minute intervals, starting at 0515.   We drove for almost an hour to the British Forces base at Mount Pleasant.  A truck took all of our checked baggage.  We checked in and were cleared by UK passport control.   Our flight on a Latam A-321 was packed...one empty seat.  Barely could fit all the checked and carryon bags.   We took off at about 1300, and landed at Santiago at 1645.   The airport was surreal... there were cots and blankets scattered all over the boarding lounges, with families camped out.   Some unfortunate folks going to the Philipines were told they might not get out until May!  I was surprised that although we filled out Chilean health affidavits on the ship, they were never collected, nor were our temperatures taken...no screening whatsoever, other than our passports.

 

The departure board was covered with "canceled" remarks on most flights.  Our Latam scheduled flight to Miami, at 2320, was ominously "check at 2120" under remarks.    We did see Delta and Air Canada flights leaving, so we kept hopeful that ours would, too.  So we settled in, got some food, and anxiously awaited '2120'.   Thankfully, it finally changed to 'on time', with our assigned gate.   We breathed a sigh of relief.  We finally boarded a nice B-787-9 "Dreamliner", (my first on that type), and the flight was only about one third full, so we had 2 of 3 seats to ourselves.  Other's had a whole row, and stretched out across them.  Reminded me of catching the 'red-eye', in the old days of flying.

 

We were so thankful when we were finally off the ground, and even more so, eight hours later when we touched down at Miami.   No health screening there, either.   Just passports.   We picked up our bags, and made it over to the Tri-Rail station, and caught a fairly empty train up to West Palm Beach.  My wife's son picked us up, and we drove to his house in Wellington, where we had left our car.   We greeted his family (from a distance), and drove back home to Okeechobee, where we will self-quarantine for 'the duration'.

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cbb

cbb

Posted
Posted

Oh my goodness Bob.  Even though I knew some of this I didn't know all.  Thank you so much and welcome home.  Give my sweetie a big hug.  TA and doggies will help with that 'duration.'  

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njhorseman

njhorseman

Posted
Posted
45 minutes ago, bob brown said:

I can totally emphasize with the passenger's on the Marina, and all the other's that were caught up in this pandemic...

 

My wife and I flew from Miami to Santiago, Chile on 27 February, spent a night there, and boarded a charter flight the next morning to Punta Arena's.  After a bus tour of the area, we board the Hurtigurten "Roald Amundsen" for a 16 night Antarctic cruise, which was fabulous...the scenery, the 'zodiac' landings, the wildlife, the state-of-the-art hybrid powered expedition ship, and its wonderful crew and expedition team.

 

One of our stops was at Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where we shared the port (we were docked, they tendered), with the ill-fated HAL Zaandam (still in the news).   All seemed fine at that point, but we watched ongoing world developments on CNN and CBS news, which worsened daily.   When we got back to Punta Arenas, the Chilean authorities refused to let us disembark, even though our ship remained (AFAIK), virus free.   We remained at anchor, while the Hurtigruten home office in Norway worked with the embassy's of all our home countries....mainly Australia, US, Germany, UK, France, Canada, and a few others, as well as with Chile and other South American ports to try to get us home.

 

Finally, they sent an off-shore supply ship alongside us, to replenish our fuel and provision's for further travel to ?

Word finally came to us from our wonderful crew, that they made arrangements to return to Stanley, where they would have charter flights to get us all to some port where we could fly home from.   One complication, was that we had to remain "quarantined" for 14 days from our last contact with 'the world', to prove we were still virus-free.   They made extraordinary steps, to insure the provisioning did not compromise us in any way, and video'd the whole operation, with the worker's wearing gloves, masks, and protective suits.

 

When we were finally ready to go, we did so without risking taking a pilot, so we were not allowed to take the short route back out the Magellen Strait eastward thru narrow channels.  We had to go the long way....westward out the Strait, and then down around Cape Horn and the "Shakey Drakey" Drake Passage with strong gale-force winds, and 8 meter waves.  We finally made it  back to the shelter of the Falkland Island fjords, and did 'scenic cruising' there while anxiously awaiting docking in Stanley on the 25th of March.  Meanwhile, we were enjoying the great Hurtigruten hospitality, at their expense for the extra 9 or 10 days.

 

We watched dismaying reports all this time, of more and more seaports and airports closing to all traffic, and we were warned, that all plans were 'in flux', and uncertain.   Finally, they announced that Stanley would let us dock under strict control, and that they had arranged for us to disembark on two chartered flights...half on the 25th, and the rest on the 26th, determined by home destination.   

 

We left on the 25th.   Five chartered buses, departed with us at 30 minute intervals, starting at 0515.   We drove for almost an hour to the British Forces base at Mount Pleasant.  A truck took all of our checked baggage.  We checked in and were cleared by UK passport control.   Our flight on a Latam A-321 was packed...one empty seat.  Barely could fit all the checked and carryon bags.   We took off at about 1300, and landed at Santiago at 1645.   The airport was surreal... there were cots and blankets scattered all over the boarding lounges, with families camped out.   Some unfortunate folks going to the Philipines were told they might not get out until May!  I was surprised that although we filled out Chilean health affidavits on the ship, they were never collected, nor were our temperatures taken...no screening whatsoever, other than our passports.

 

The departure board was covered with "canceled" remarks on most flights.  Our Latam scheduled flight to Miami, at 2320, was ominously "check at 2120" under remarks.    We did see Delta and Air Canada flights leaving, so we kept hopeful that ours would, too.  So we settled in, got some food, and anxiously awaited '2120'.   Thankfully, it finally changed to 'on time', with our assigned gate.   We breathed a sigh of relief.  We finally boarded a nice B-787-9 "Dreamliner", (my first on that type), and the flight was only about one third full, so we had 2 of 3 seats to ourselves.  Other's had a whole row, and stretched out across them.  Reminded me of catching the 'red-eye', in the old days of flying.

 

We were so thankful when we were finally off the ground, and even more so, eight hours later when we touched down at Miami.   No health screening there, either.   Just passports.   We picked up our bags, and made it over to the Tri-Rail station, and caught a fairly empty train up to West Palm Beach.  My wife's son picked us up, and we drove to his house in Wellington, where we had left our car.   We greeted his family (from a distance), and drove back home to Okeechobee, where we will self-quarantine for 'the duration'.

Bob:

Just a wee bit more of an adventure than we all had on our January NCL cruise...:classic_smile:

 

Glad to hear you and Betsy are doing well.

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bob brown

bob brown

Posted
Posted

In our case, "Plan B" would have been to stay aboard, go around Cape Horn (again), and stop at Valparaiso to refuel and reprovision.   Then head to San Diego for all except Canadian's, who would stay aboard to Vancouver, where the ship will hopefully return to its summer Alaskan schedule.

If the Zaandam can't transit the Canal, that will be their likely option...

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Roger88

Roger88

Posted
Posted

This cruise is not the only one experiencing these problems. There are so many people on so many cruises. All these problems with refunds and being unable to get back home safe, and what do I see here? People discussing shoes 🙂 Anyway, hope you guys are doing alright. 

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YoHoHo

YoHoHo

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, CintiPam said:

Is there no empathy among bureaucrats?

Associated Press:

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government said Wednesday it would continue to receive cruise ships “for humanitarian reasons,” but that passengers would be "individually fumigated" before being taken to airports for return flights to their home countries.

 

I hate to picture the "individually fumigated" process.

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