Queen Elizabeth Position

[DaveB42]

Found this on CrackBook earlier today.

 

I think the Captain is getting bored.

 

[bluemarble]

Thanks, DaveB42. I could tell something odd was going on with QE's track while watching her on marinetraffic. But there weren't enough data points shown in her past track there, especially as she went in and out of terrestrial AIS range, to make out the precise pattern. Now all is revealed.

 

That's a more elaborate example reminiscent of the star pattern track made by the cruise ship "The World" last month after she departed Fremantle, along with the many other cruise ships, including QE, departing Australia at that time. Here's the track I recorded from "The World" last month.

 

 

And here's a link to a story from PerthNow about that track made by "The World".

 

The World cruise ship explains star-shaped navigation course off WA’s Mid West

 

I seem to recall seeing other reports like this recently where cruise ships were spelling out messages with their tracks, but I can't find the details now. Plenty of reports to be found about cruise ships spelling out messages such as "We will be back" and "Clap 4 Carers" with the patterns of their cabins lights.

Edited May 10, 2020 by bluemarble

[Ray66]

QE past track

[bluemarble]

QE is back at Manila Anchorage. I think the same 22 cruise ships that were at or near Manila three days ago are either at the anchorage or out to sea to the west of Manila today. Here's the view from QE's webcam.

 

 

Amsterdam will be arriving in the vicinity of Manila tomorrow, May 12th. Caledonian Sky, the last foreign-flagged cruise ship to depart Australia (on April 28th), should be arriving from Darwin sometime on May 13th.

Edited May 11, 2020 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

Here's what it looks like in Manila Bay this morning. The number of cruise ships keeps growing. There are now these 22 cruise ships at Manila Anchorage with Pacific Aria out to sea and Caledonian Sky due to arrive tomorrow.

 

[bluemarble]

Pacific Aria made it back to Manila Anchorage yesterday afternoon, so we now have all 23 cruise ships in the area anchored in the bay. Here's what it looked like at around midnight local time.

 

 

Caledonian Sky is on the way with about half a day to go to increase the count to 24 cruise ships at Manila.

 

Here's a Reuters article from yesterday with an interesting take on the situation. QE is mentioned in the article.

'We feel like guests': Manila cruise flotilla offers crew confinement in comfort

Edited May 12, 2020 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

Caledonian Sky arrived around 2:00pm local time (past my bedtime in the US) and several ships began departing for sea a couple hours later (still reporting Manila for their destinations). Since I wasn't able to get a screen shot as it happened, here is a recreation of what it should have looked like around mid-afternoon, showing 24 cruise ships in Manila Anchorage. Just thought it would be interesting to document this largest assembly so far of cruise ships there.

 

 

The next cruise ships due to arrive at Manila are a few days off yet. Those are Ovation of the Seas (due May 19 from Shanghai), Noordam (due May 23 from Los Angeles), Westerdam (due May 23 from San Diego), and Pacific Princess (due May 23 from Honolulu).

Edited May 13, 2020 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

Sorry, I mis-typed in my last post about ships yet to arrive. It's Quantum of the Seas that's due May 19 from Shanghai. Ovation of the Seas arrived at Manila a week ago as can be seen on the port diagrams above.

[bluemarble]

After examining the past tracks of the cruise ships from earlier today, it looks like several of them had moved closer to shore during the morning/early afternoon for a few hours at the time that Caledonian Sky arrived about 2:00pm. Just to be as accurate as possible, I believe this is a better rendition of how all 24 cruise ships looked in Manila Bay mid-afternoon of May 13 local time.

 

[sfred]

Thanks Bluemarble.  Just curious, does your AIS source display all the ships' names in the selected view, or did you manually add them into the graphic before posting to CC?  The source I use, marinetraffic.com, requires you to hover your cursor over each ship icon to display a popup box with the name/speed/heading/destination, and the box then disappears if you move off.. 

[bluemarble]

39 minutes ago, sfred said:

Thanks Bluemarble.  Just curious, does your AIS source display all the ships' names in the selected view, or did you manually add them into the graphic before posting to CC?  The source I use, marinetraffic.com, requires you to hover your cursor over each ship icon to display a popup box with the name/speed/heading/destination, and the box then disappears if you move off.. 

 

There is a setting to turn on the display of ships' names. For marinetraffic.com from a web browser, that's found under the Layers settings along the left side of the page. There you should see a check box to enable "Show vessel names".

 

At the zoom level I've been using though, that doesn't show all the vessel names if ships are close enough together that the names would overlap. In that case, I have been editing the screen captures to add missing vessel names. That's what I was alluding to in an earlier post when I mentioned "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."

 

If a ship name is not directly to the right of the vessel dot on an image I've posted (e.g. offset above or below the center line of the vessel dot), that's a good clue that I manually added that vessel name to the image. I zoom in far enough within marinetraffic for the name to appear, capture the name there, and then paste it onto the zoomed-out screen capture that I end up posting.

[sfred]

Cool, thanks very much.  I hadn't seen that button in the layers settings.  And the hover popup box is still available to see speed and heading of an individual ship if desired.

[rafinmd]

I'm a bit surprised QE is still at anchor.  Typhoon VongFong is apparently approaching Manila Harbor and most of the ships are heading out to open sea.

 

Roy

[bluemarble]

QE is heading out to sea. Only Royal Princess, Pacific Explorer, and Caledonain Sky remain at the anchorage at the time of this posting.

 

Edit: And now Pacific Explorer appears to be underway as well.

Edited May 15, 2020 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

QE has returned to Manila Anchorage this evening. In the event, all of the 24 cruise ships except Caledonian Sky left Manila Bay presumably as a precaution for Typhoon VongFong. As of now, 17 cruise ships are in the anchorage while the other seven are still out to sea to the west of Manila.

 

Concerning the new cruise ships scheduled to arrive at Manila, Quantum of the Seas is about 25 hours from Manila Bay at her current speed. Noordam is on track to arrive at Manila on May 23rd. Pacific Princess may arrive prior to the May 23rd date reported by AIS (at her current position and speed, I estimate she could be arriving as early as May 21st). Westerdam is now reporting Singapore as her destination instead on Manila.

[bluemarble]

With the arrival of Quantum of the Seas this morning, there are now 25 cruise ships at Manila. Twenty-four of them (including QE) are anchored at Manila Anchorage. Explorer Dream (highlighted in the upper right) is docked at pier 15 in Manila South Harbor.

 

 

Manila Bay has to be just about the largest cruise ship parking lot anywhere at the moment.

Edited May 18, 2020 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

Same 25 cruise ships at Manila this morning (24 in the anchorage and Explorer Dream docked in Manila South Harbor). QE moved to a new position to the east of the anchorage yesterday afternoon.

 

 

I've been seeing quite a bit of activity with at least five different QE tenders moving between the ship and pier 15 this morning.

Edited May 19, 2020 by bluemarble

[DaisyDancer]

Some photos from Manila Bay. QE's Filipino crew are finally being allowed to disembark and go home.

[Host Hattie]

Beautiful photographs, that's great news, it must be such a relief after all this time.

[bluemarble]

For those that may be interested, here's an update on which cruise ships are at Manila or appear to be on their way there, after my last post from three days ago.

 

QE returned to Manila anchorage yesterday afternoon after going out to sea for operational reasons.

 

Of the 25 cruise ships that were at Manila on Tuesday, 24 of them are still there (or heading back to the bay). Ovation of the Seas is the one cruise ship that has departed Manila, on her way to Singapore according to her destination reported by AIS.

 

Three other cruise ships are in the vicinity of Manila. Pacific Princess shows Manila for her destination while Westerdam is reporting Singapore and Maasdam is reporting Labuan for their destinations. All three of those ships appear to be just drifting to the west of Manila though, as if they might be intending a stop at Manila.

 

Two other cruise ships are on their way to Manila. Diamond Princess is within half a day, while Noordam is about a day and a half away.

Edited May 22, 2020 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

For those keeping score, I think we may have reached the maximum number of cruise ships we're going to see at any one time in and around Manila at 28.

 

Diamond Princess arrived around noon yesterday joining the other three cruise ships to the west of Manila (Pacific Princess, Maasdam and Westerdam). So, yesterday afternoon we had 24 cruise ships (including QE) within Manila Bay and four new cruise ships in a holding pattern about 90 NM west of Manila for a total of 28 cruise ships.

 

Now this morning, Noordam has arrived to make it five cruise ships in that holding pattern to the west of Manila. But Carnival Splendor departed Manila for Singapore last evening. So, today the total remains 28 cruise ships in the vicinity of Manila. I'm not seeing indications of other cruise ships reporting Manila as their destination at the moment.

 

One caveat for today's count. I can't tell for sure what Eurodam is up to. She's out to sea and reporting that she'll be back to Manila at 16:00 tomorrow. But she's sailed pretty far west as if she just might be leaving Manila for good. Time will tell.

Edited May 23, 2020 by bluemarble

[sfred]

FYI, on Friday 22 May Australia Border Force extended the current shutdown of cruise ships in Australia waters by a further three months, to 17 September.  The ban applies to any ship carrying more than 100 passengers.

 

Cunard had previously cancelled QE voyages through 8 September.  Currently, based only on a quick look at QE voyages for sale on the Cunard website (and with all the caveats that apply as a result), she does not appear to be back in Australia until mid-November (voyage Q030 arriving Darwin on 15 Nov). 

[david,Mississauga]

The voyage starting 8 Sept. is still showing on the on-line Alaska 2020 brochure. It is the end of the planned Alaska season and is intended to depart Vancouver on the 8th arriving in Tokyo 28 nights later (voyage Q027A). It is no surprise that with the Alaska season cancelled, no such voyage is available for booking. I wonder where the QE will actually be on the 8th.

[sfred]

10 hours ago, david,Mississauga said:

 I wonder where the QE will actually be on the 8th.

 

That's a really good question David.  I doubt the bookmakers in Vegas are taking bets or putting odds on this item of nautical speculation.  But for us here on Cruise Critic, stranded ashore but eager to be back aboard QE or her sisters, it is an interesting topic to gaze into a cloudy crystal ball.  While acknowledging all the uncertainties of travel restrictions, onboard social distancing complications, second wave infections, willingness of people to board cruise ships, etc. etc. etc., what is your best guess prediction of QE's location on 8 September?

 

1.  Right where she is now, Manila anchorage?

2.  Tokyo, or somewhere else in Japan?  She is currently scheduled to do some Japan voyages in October.

3.  Portland, or other UK anchorage lay-up?

4.  Australia?  Very unlikley now that Border Force has extended the ship ban through 17 Sep.

5.  New Zealand?

6.  Canada/Alaska?  Canadian restrictions currently go through 1 July, but could be extended.  Weather starts to be a factor for any voyages beyond mid-Sep.

7.  Southampton?  Maybe UK and Europe open for travel sooner than elsewhere?  But presumably QM2 and QV would be able to address any demand that would exist.

 

My guess....   The pessimist in me would say to bet on #1, but the optimist would say #2.

[AussieVoyager]

On 5/23/2020 at 9:51 AM, sfred said:

FYI, on Friday 22 May Australia Border Force extended the current shutdown of cruise ships in Australia waters by a further three months, to 17 September.  The ban applies to any ship carrying more than 100 passengers.

 

Cunard had previously cancelled QE voyages through 8 September.  Currently, based only on a quick look at QE voyages for sale on the Cunard website (and with all the caveats that apply as a result), she does not appear to be back in Australia until mid-November (voyage Q030 arriving Darwin on 15 Nov). 

This voyage arrives in Darwin, as you note, on 15 November  - from Japan via Singapore.  It then continues down the east coast of Australia, commencing the Australia / New Zealand season.  I'm booked to depart Melbourne in late November on a voyage that doesn't depart Australian waters.

 

The one thing I'm wondering, with Australian restrictions, is whether passengers from Japan / Singapore will be permitted to be on board when QE arrives in Australia, or whether they will all have to disembark before the ship arrives in Australia (and she sails in without overseas passengers to commence the Australian season).  A possibility does anyone think?