Queen Elizabeth Position

[bluemarble]

14 hours ago, Austcruiser84 said:

I'm surprised the Phillipines government is allowing these ships in their waters after banning vessels some weeks ago. I guess these count as repatriations with so many crew from that nation. ...

 

Looking at Sun Princess' past track, it looks like she came to a stop within Manila Bay for a couple hours during the morning and has now sailed on west outside Manila Bay where she has been sailing slowly with "Waiting for orders" as her destination.

 

Sea Princess is further to the west of Manila Bay and does not appear to have entered the bay yet. She's also sailing slowing there waiting for her next move.

 

Will continue to keep an eye on QE, currently about 600 NM southeast of Manila (as the crow flies) sailing at 12 knots.

[bluemarble]

I see Artania has left Fremantle within the past hour. Next destination Benoa, Indonesia. I have been reading she will then be heading to the Philippines before returning to Germany. One less foreign-flagged cruise ship left in Australia.

 

QE is now sailing among the islands of the Philippines at 12 knots with what I estimate to be about 225 NM miles sailing distance left to reach Manila Bay.

[bluemarble]

QE isn't heading directly to Manila Bay. She's southwest of Manila and still heading west. Looks to me like she might be planning to join Sea Princess, Sun Princess, and Pacific Explorer who are essentially idling in the South China Sea about 80-90 NM west of Manila.

[sfred]

Spot on, bluemarble.  Copied below is AIS as at 8.00p AEST Sunday evening.  Pacific Explorer is at upper left heading 351, then from left to right below are Sea Princess heading 001, QE heading 093, and then Sun Princess heading 353.  All circling at steerageway outside of Manila Bay.

 

 

Edited April 19, 2020 by sfred

[Yorky67]

Fascinating thank you. 

[bluemarble]

Sea Princess and Sun Princess altered course toward Manila a couple hours ago. For awhile it looked like QE might be following them in, but now it appears QE is still maneuvering out to sea.

Edited April 20, 2020 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

Looks like QE has broken out of her circular (or perhaps more accurately rectangular) holding pattern off shore and is now on her way to Manila, increasing her speed to almost 17 knots at the moment.

[sogne]

QE has been anchored in Manila Bay for 24 hours  now has bunker tanker alongside

[sfred]

Manila anchorage has quite the collection of cruise ships.  The blue dots clockwise from lower left are Voyager of the Seas, Sun Princess, QE, Pacific Explorer, and Sea Princess.  Must be an impressive sight.  I looked around for a live webcam of Manila Bay, but no luck.   All five ships are pointing roughly northward at anchor, so QE's live bowcam on the sticky page shows just empty water.  Pacific Explorer is astern of QE, but unfortunately her bowcam appears to be out of service.

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by sfred

[sfred]

Here is the Sea Princess bowcam, showing Sun Princess ahead and to starboard.  QE's cam is empty harbour.  Pacific Explorer would show QE, but appears to be out of service with last image from 12 Feb.  Looks like a sunny calm morning in Manila.

 

[sfred]

The bowcam shots I pasted in this morning look like they may be automatically refreshing as time progresses.  The Sea Princess image no longer shows Sun Princess off the starboard bow, and the GMT time at the top has updated.  I thought I was just pasting in a static graphic image.  Apologies.  Although we can apparently now watch the current bowcams when we refresh this Cruise Critic thread. 

[bluemarble]

Quite the collection of cruise ships assembled in Manila Bay. This morning Pacific Dawn, Sapphire Princess, and Majestic Princess joined the group including Queen Elizabeth. Add two more cruise ships and it could start looking like a bowling alley.

 

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

Earlier today Carnival Spirit joined the group of cruise ships with Queen Elizabeth in the Manila Bay anchorage. That makes nine cruise ships anchored there now.

 

[DaisyDancer]

Taken from onboard the QE in Manila Bay.

 

[bluemarble]

QE is on the move. She started leaving the Manila Anchorage within the past hour. Not sure if she is leaving for good or just heading out to sea for a "housekeeping" voyage as Sea Princess apparently was doing yesterday. Her destination reported by AIS is Manila, so she may be back tomorrow. Voyager of the Seas is also heading out to sea, having left Manila Anchorage a few hours ago while Spectrum of the Seas was arriving.

[Austcruiser84]

4 hours ago, bluemarble said:

QE is on the move. She started leaving the Manila Anchorage within the past hour. Not sure if she is leaving for good or just heading out to sea for a "housekeeping" voyage as Sea Princess apparently was doing yesterday. Her destination reported by AIS is Manila, so she may be back tomorrow. Voyager of the Seas is also heading out to sea, having left Manila Anchorage a few hours ago while Spectrum of the Seas was arriving.

 

They must be hoping the government will let them disembark non essential crew who are locals. Looks doubtful. 

[bluemarble]

QE does appear to be on her way back to Manila, on track for the ETA of 10:00 this morning as reported by AIS.

 

I have been reading various reports about the requirement for crew from the Philippines to go through a 14-day quarantine before being allowed to disembark. Early reports indicated previous days at sea before arriving in the Philippines might count. But then I've been reading that the quarantine must be done under Philippine supervision. So, that's my theory as to what's going on with QE and other cruise ships currently anchored in Manila Bay.

 

Here's a quote from yesterday's Miami Herald concerning Carnival's efforts to repatriate crew.

"In Manila Bay alone, Carnival ships are anchored with thousands of Filipino crew members aboard waiting to complete a government-mandated 14-day quarantine before they can disembark."

 

As a side note, QE is no longer listed on the Southampton VTS Cruise Ship Schedule (after having been previously listed for a June 5th arrival).

Edited April 25, 2020 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

There are now twelve cruise ships anchored in Manila Bay. Two cruise ships that were in Manila Bay previously are back out to sea and have been sailing around west of Manila. Pacific Explorer says she will be returning to Manila tomorrow while Spectrum of the Seas only says TBA for her destination.

 

Assuming QE is waiting out a 14 day quarantine period, I figure she has completed 10 of those 14 days.

 

[bluemarble]

Another day, another cruise ship joining QE in Manila Bay for a total of thirteen now. Actually two new cruise ships arrived today (Explorer Dream and Costa neoRomantica) while Artania has departed for Bremerhaven. There are so many cruise ships, I had to do some creative editing of this screen capture to get the label for Pacific Dawn to show up at this scale. Sun Princess appears to be on her way back in to Manila Bay while Carnival Spirit is out to sea until at least tomorrow.

 

 

Edit: No sooner did I post this than QE has started to head on out of Manila Bay. Will keep an eye on her as usual.

Edited May 3, 2020 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

Three days since my last post and there are more cruise ships to report in Manila. Golden Princess is a new arrival. This morning there are 14 cruise ships at Manila Anchorage including Queen Elizabeth. One ship, Costa neoRomantica, is docked at pier 15 in South Manila Harbor (as highlighted in the upper right of this screen shot). One ship, Sapphire Princess, is out to sea. It looks like Ruby Princess may be arriving in the vicinity tomorrow evening.

 

[bluemarble]

Ruby Princess and Ovation of the Seas have joined QE at Manila Anchorage this morning. It looks like tomorrow could be another big day for cruise ship arrivals. I'm seeing indications that five more new cruise ships are already in the vicinity of Manila or will be by tomorrow (Carnival Splendor, Carnival Panorama, Eurodam, Royal Princess, and Celebrity Solstice). Manila is looking a lot like some areas of the Caribbean at the moment in terms of the number of cruise ships in one location.

[orvil]

Here is a link to an article in the Manilla Times.  It looks like QE is offloading personnel.  

 

https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/05/06/business/maritime-business/more-cruise-ships-park-at-manila-bay/722951/

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by orvil

[bluemarble]

Here's what it looked like in Manila Bay around noon today (May 8th) local time. There are now 19 cruise ships in Manila Anchorage with the arrival of Celebrity Solstice, Eurodam, and Royal Princess today. Carnival Splendor and Carnival Panorama are currently at sea to the west of Manila, along with Pacific Explorer.

 

 

Spectrum of the Seas departed Manila yesterday and is now about 350 NM to the southwest headed for destination "TBA".

Edited May 8, 2020 by bluemarble

[Guest SilverHengroen]

Good to know the Filipino compliment of crew have been allowed to disembark and return to their families as well as ongoing efforts to repatriate crew from the world over (confirmed by Simon Palethorpe’s latest video update). 

[bluemarble]

QE is on the move again. AIS is reporting her destination as Manila Anchorage with an ETA of 10:00 on May 11, so it looks like she may not yet be departing Manila for good. Will keep an eye on her though.