Grand Princess Crew Rescue Two Divers off Wilson's Prom

[possum52]

Two People Rescued off Wilson's Prom

 

The Grand Princess was a couple of hours late into Melbourne this mornng - a rescue of two divers whose boat ran into trouble and  a medical emergency with a helicopter evacuation.

[cheznandy]

Sarah mentioned the evacuation in another post, guess she wont mind being late doing a B2B. Grand has been busy!

[arxcards]

I hope the divers are well. I wonder if they asked them to inspect the hull before they let them aboard.

[cruiser3775]

Noticed on the ABC news report of the rescue that they didn't think it was important enough to mention the actual name of the ship that went out of their way to do the rescue.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We copped to run-on effect from it - a totally shambolic embarkation. No attempt to board people by arrival group but they did at least have an Elite queue once you reached the cruise terminal. 

 

Still, kudos to Grand for the rescue. Princess is very good like that. Some years ago when we were on Sun Princess she went out of her way in Vanuatu to do a rescue overnight.

[icat2000]

We have had two major incidents in the past 24 hours

 

1. Was the helicopter evacuation of a very ill passenger - this took three hours to do.

2. Was the overnight rescue of two fisherman (their boat had sank and the coast guard asked the ship to pick them up as we were the closest. This took about hour and half and happened about 1 am in the morning.

 

Props to the Princess crew on board as both had their challenging aspects. New captain for this cruise. 

 

The two incidents delayed Grand Princess arrival and departures from the ship was delayed by two hours. Lesson here is not to book tight flights after cruise because Pete and I didn't disembark until 1 pm off the ship (we were one of the last groups). We went out through customs check and then back up the escalator to wait in the holding area while the ship was cleared by Customs. We were the first to board. Headed straight to the dining room for lunch.

 

Heading off to Philip Island next stop. 

Edited March 21, 2023 by icat2000

[arxcards]

5 hours ago, icat2000 said:

We have had two major incidents in the past 24 hours

 

1. Was the helicopter evacuation of a very ill passenger - this took three hours to do.

2. Was the overnight rescue of two fisherman (their boat had sank and the coast guard asked the ship to pick them up as we were the closest. This took about hour and half and happened about 1 am in the morning.

 

Props to the Princess crew on board as both had their challenging aspects. New captain for this cruise. 

 

The two incidents delayed Grand Princess arrival and departures from the ship was delayed by two hours. Lesson here is not to book tight flights after cruise because Pete and I didn't disembark until 1 pm off the ship (we were one of the last groups). We went out through customs check and then back up the escalator to wait in the holding area while the ship was cleared by Customs. We were the first to board. Headed straight to the dining room for lunch.

 

Heading off to Philip Island next stop. 

Enjoy your day in Cowes, a rather rare occurrence for cruise ships..

[yarramar]

9 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Still, kudos to Grand for the rescue. Princess is very good like that. Some years ago when we were on Sun Princess she went out of her way in Vanuatu to do a rescue overnight.

Article 98 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (LOSC) mandates that every state require its ships “to render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost”

[OzKiwiJJ]

8 hours ago, icat2000 said:

We have had two major incidents in the past 24 hours

 

1. Was the helicopter evacuation of a very ill passenger - this took three hours to do.

2. Was the overnight rescue of two fisherman (their boat had sank and the coast guard asked the ship to pick them up as we were the closest. This took about hour and half and happened about 1 am in the morning.

 

Props to the Princess crew on board as both had their challenging aspects. New captain for this cruise. 

 

The two incidents delayed Grand Princess arrival and departures from the ship was delayed by two hours. Lesson here is not to book tight flights after cruise because Pete and I didn't disembark until 1 pm off the ship (we were one of the last groups). We went out through customs check and then back up the escalator to wait in the holding area while the ship was cleared by Customs. We were the first to board. Headed straight to the dining room for lunch.

 

Heading off to Philip Island next stop. 

If they didn't clear the ship until after 1pm then I think we were lucky to get onboard by 4pm. 

 

It was hard to tell exactly from where we were in the queue but I think they may not have even been allowing incoming passengers through the gates at Station Pier until around 3pm, which was a real pain when it started raining. Once the queue started moving it moved quickly and check-in was very efficient.

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 hours ago, arxcards said:

Enjoy your day in Cowes, a rather rare occurrence for cruise ships..

The tenders go to Rhyll. I'm not sure if they'll have shuttle buses to Cowes. I hope they will as there isn't much at Rhyll.

[arxcards]

4 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The tenders go to Rhyll. I'm not sure if they'll have shuttle buses to Cowes. I hope they will as there isn't much at Rhyll.

Seems a shame. We tendered to the jetty in Cowes from Diamond Princess, but that was a bit over 10 years ago. Yes, I would hope there is a shuttle of sorts.

[possum52]

3 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

If they didn't clear the ship until after 1pm then I think we were lucky to get onboard by 4pm. 

 

It was hard to tell exactly from where we were in the queue but I think they may not have even been allowing incoming passengers through the gates at Station Pier until around 3pm, which was a real pain when it started raining. Once the queue started moving it moved quickly and check-in was very efficient.

Have a wonderful cruise Julie. We were meeting Rob's brother and sister in law for lunch after they disembarked the Grand. We had booked for 12pm. We arrived a few minutes early and I checked my phone, there were a flurry of messages from them which arrived while we were driving and they had just disembarked. We were able to change our booking to 1pm but it was after that when they arrived. They commented they were glad they didn't have to fly home, people were scrambling to re book flights.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, possum52 said:

Have a wonderful cruise Julie. We were meeting Rob's brother and sister in law for lunch after they disembarked the Grand. We had booked for 12pm. We arrived a few minutes early and I checked my phone, there were a flurry of messages from them which arrived while we were driving and they had just disembarked. We were able to change our booking to 1pm but it was after that when they arrived. They commented they were glad they didn't have to fly home, people were scrambling to re book flights.

Thanks, Leigh.

 

Luckily they had already decided embarkation wasn't going to start until 2:30pm for that cruise - we had Group A at that time - but a lot of the people near us in the queue didn't even know what Arrival Groups were.

 

However one couple near us was complaining loudly that they weren't enforcing the times - their time was 3:30pm and we joined the queue at 2:10pm so they were there over an hour early! Go figure! 🤔🙄🤣

[possum52]

38 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Thanks, Leigh.

 

Luckily they had already decided embarkation wasn't going to start until 2:30pm for that cruise - we had Group A at that time - but a lot of the people near us in the queue didn't even know what Arrival Groups were.

 

However one couple near us was complaining loudly that they weren't enforcing the times - their time was 3:30pm and we joined the queue at 2:10pm so they were there over an hour early! Go figure! 🤔🙄🤣

People don't fully read their documentation! Were they allowing vehicles in to drop off outside the terminal Julie?

[MicCanberra]

Nothing against Princess for the emergencies, but port staff and Princess need to handle the embarkation process better, if they want people to adhere to boarding times and it not to be a free for all, then the times (with the modified delays) need to be enforced.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, possum52 said:

People don't fully read their documentation! Were they allowing vehicles in to drop off outside the terminal Julie?

No, and by the time the queue started moving it had snaked back through the carpark to the pier gates.

 

When we arrived there was a truck loadin luggage but when Rolf went over to check they said they weren't taking any more and anyway it was only for special people - which presumably meant those with mobility issues. We had to maneuver our bags along the footpath the whole length of the carpark. Luckily most of it was smooth but there were a couple of tricky spots. Then it started raining so we had to deal with umbrellas as well.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

Nothing against Princess for the emergencies, but port staff and Princess need to handle the embarkation process better, if they want people to adhere to boarding times and it not to be a free for all, then the times (with the modified delays) need to be enforced.

I think it's mostly the port staff at Melbourne. I  Sydney Carnival used to stick to fixed time slots long before Covid, and when we embarked the Round Australia cruise last year in Sydney the OPT had group lanes set up (like Carnival used to do) but were letting Elites, Platinums and Suites through.

 

One thing Princess did very well was handing out free bottles of water as people arrived near the terminal. Much appreciated!

[Normanville]

We were in the first group off Grand yesterday with a flight booked through Ezair at 12:10. Before we got off we were notified by SMS and email that they had changed us to 1:10, so no worries for us ,thankyou Princess. Princess was offering a free days WIFI for anyone wanting to book new flights. Think we will stay booking flights through Princess.

Our embarkation was shambolic. First because of the late arrival of the Grand after a rough crossing and the fact P&O was boarding at the same time. Second, Boarding times were ignored because the App had wiped off most boarding passes and people didn't realize until they opened their passes. There was a mad rush to redo information. Some people were in the Que for 3 hours+. Our original pass was for 12:30 and our second, which I had to redo 2 days before was for 2:30 but because of that and the fact we were staying in a hotel we got there about 12 anyway as we had no where else to go. At that time the que was already out to the main road and everyone had to tow luggage. We got onboard at 3:00. I found no fault of Princess. There was no hope of putting people into boarding times, as all were in the same line.

The only problem was no communication about late boarding, and no water offered and seemed to be a lack of help for disabled. We saw the line starting to form when we were leaving so a lot of people were still arriving for a early boarding,

An eventful trip and loved to be back sailing.

Juls

[icat2000]

Well the incidents keep happening. This morning there was a flood in the Spa. We directly below the spa and the cabin attendant was banging on our door this morning asking if we had any leaks. No. leaks so far. So we get up walk down the all and there are tons of crew with towel mopping up. 

[NSWP]

Julie and Sarah, your early impressions of ye olde Grand Prince are…?

[JeffroK]

The Grand is making a habit of this, on the Christmas/New Year cruise we circled (a figure 8 ) to investigate an abandoned yacht which later washed ashore on Great Barron Island.

[JeffroK]

My impression, she is old, top of the line when she first sailed everything has moved on. You compare er with newer ships and things are a bit smaller or older fashioned.

[icat2000]

Nicer than the Golden Princess. I find the ship is okay for an older ship. Nothing to complain about. Crew are nice and friendly.

 

Different vibe this cruise to last cruise. Also 1000 Elites on Board this cruise compared to last cruise 200 Elites. Lots of Americans onboard and staying on board for the repositioning cruise.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I agree - nicer than Golden and Ruby but not as nice as Diamond. 

 

The bathroom/closet area is a bit different to the other Grand Class ships we've been on - instead of a long hanging space down one side, cupboard at the end and bathroom entrance on the other side, on Grand the hanging space is much smaller as the bathroom is across the back of that area. 

 

The airconditioning is great. It's actually effective and I'm able to get our cabin cold enough at night to sleep without using my fan. Plus it gives me the white noise effect when on full cold whereas on other ships I can barely hear it at night.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We just did one of the best Princess shore excursions ever - A Taste of Port Lincoln. We started by a detailed drive though the marina learning about the local fishing industry, then went up to the lookout. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating at that point so visibility was poor. Our final stop was at Boston Bay Winery where we shown how to cut up a whole kingfish and what each part of it was good for by Chef Tony, who is a hilarious raconteur as well. We had very generous serves of all their wines to taste (so generous they had to pour most of us back on the bus) and enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch.