Iona-Ventura Lisbon missed port?

[davecttr]

3 hours ago, crompton21 said:

You may already be aware of this one, if you are not do a google search on the 2019 Viking Sky incident.  Similar in the sense that the difficulties were caused by inbuilt safety systems causing unforeseen consequences.

I asked on the general question board and this reply from a retired cruise ship chief engineer is interesting. He is a fount of knowledge of the technical stuff

 

[Clodia]

Lisbon is affected by the strike on the next cruise. I board Iona on Saturday and have just had an email from P and O cancelling Cadiz, reducing the call at Lisbon to a day instead of 2, lengthening the Madeira call and changing the date , and including La Coruna. Don't really mind as I've been to all the ports before, but the itinerary change now means 4 straight days at sea before we arrive at the Canaries. I can see that causing some complaints, especially if, as often in November, the seas are rough.

[Tezzy126]

32 minutes ago, Clodia said:

Lisbon is affected by the strike on the next cruise. I board Iona on Saturday and have just had an email from P and O cancelling Cadiz, reducing the call at Lisbon to a day instead of 2, lengthening the Madeira call and changing the date , and including La Coruna. Don't really mind as I've been to all the ports before, but the itinerary change now means 4 straight days at sea before we arrive at the Canaries. I can see that causing some complaints, especially if, as often in November, the seas are rough.

 

I came on to say the same thing as we are also boarding Iona on Saturday. To be honest I am disappointed as it's our first cruise to the canary islands and will now take longer to get there, but I understand that itineraries can change last minute and thats the risk you take booking a cruise. More concerned for the kids having no wifi for 4 whole days as they were annoyed about 3 days...might have to shell out for the wifi package.

[Clodia]

2 hours ago, Tezzy126 said:

 

I came on to say the same thing as we are also boarding Iona on Saturday. To be honest I am disappointed as it's our first cruise to the canary islands and will now take longer to get there, but I understand that itineraries can change last minute and thats the risk you take booking a cruise. More concerned for the kids having no wifi for 4 whole days as they were annoyed about 3 days...might have to shell out for the wifi package.

Yes I might succumb to a 24 hour purchase during those 4 sea days.

[Dermotsgirl]

13 hours ago, molecrochip said:

I don’t know!

 

Elsewhere there is talk that the ship took a significant lurch to one side. My presumption is that the ship listed beyond its normal operating angle. Such a list may risk exposing the propulsion system and causing damage when it then re-enters the water. Also, you don’t want engines pushing the ship in the direction of the list, making it worse. Therefore I’m guessing some kind of fail safe system here.

 

The ship uses Siemens SISHIP SiPODs for the ship's propulsion and power distribution systems which I have no specific knowledge off.

I’ve been following this on a Saga group elsewhere.

 

One group member explained this in a very similar way - she had been on a previous Saga cruise and a captain spoke about this particular system 

[davecttr]

1 hour ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I’ve been following this on a Saga group elsewhere.

 

One group member explained this in a very similar way - she had been on a previous Saga cruise and a captain spoke about this particular system 

Check here on the Saga forum for the most plausible reason

 

[sogne]

22 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Would you be able to explain what this automatic propulsion safety system is that Saga have mentioned please?  Do P&O ships have these or are they only on certain ships as requested at build?  Reading of the difficulties the Saga ship has been in (including being at a full stop for many hours) as a result of the operation of hers I'd like to know what process the activation goes through to cause such abrupt activation, do the crew actually have anything to do with this or does some sort of AI just take over without warning?  A Google search indicates I'm not alone in wondering what they are talking about with many mystified.  Of course I suppose it could just be a PR spin but would be a rather strange thing to do!

 

 

 

Viking sky sensors in fuel tanks activated low oil pressure when ship rolled or pitched after they were exposed due to movement. Engines automatically  shut down.

[davecttr]

1 hour ago, sogne said:

Viking sky sensors in fuel tanks activated low oil pressure when ship rolled or pitched after they were exposed due to movement. Engines automatically  shut down.

... and there are reports that the sensors were exposed because the oil level was lower than normal which led to it sloshing around in the tank - allegedly

[sogne]

Oil levels now kept higher and lower sensors fitted

[JeanieC,Aston]

Hi

I was on Marella Voyager last month And after pulling away from the quay in Gibraltar the ship was plunged into total darkness,engines stopped and we were drifting 150m from the quay.

Emergency lighting came on and with the drummer from the band making the beat the whole of the Squid & Anchor pub went into a good old sing song.

 

This was 21:00,,,Captain dropped anchor and x3 tugs came out pretty swiftly to stop any drift towards the quay,,,,,it was a fuel to generator problem,,,we sat there until repaired until 01:30.

Then the Harbour Master wouldn’t let us sail until the repair was inspected and a certificate issued by a Marine Surveyor,,we moved to an anchorage in the bay and waited for surveyor to travel overnight,,,,he arrived at 13:00 next day inspected,signed the certificate and we sailed at 14:00 straight to an unplanned overnight in Malaga missing Cadiz.

 

Fun at the time but not so funny if we would have been miles out at sea.or even in the Bay of Gibraltar with the huge number of ships at anchor.

Edited November 9, 2023 by JeanieC,Aston

[keeven2]

If missing port due to weather conditions, is it covered by travel insurance which covers cruise? We skipped Porto last month due to strong wind. I did not buy cruise insurance this time so I didn't ask for a statement from the ship.

[yorkshirephil]

19 minutes ago, keeven2 said:

If missing port due to weather conditions, is it covered by travel insurance which covers cruise? We skipped Porto last month due to strong wind. I did not buy cruise insurance this time so I didn't ask for a statement from the ship.

Usually yes, however some insurance companies may try and wriggle out of it. Nationwide flexplus customers with the extra cover are being payed out when we missed Gib a few weeks ago on Aurora. We didn't need to ask, a letter was delivered to our cabin.

[pete14]

53 minutes ago, keeven2 said:

If missing port due to weather conditions, is it covered by travel insurance which covers cruise? We skipped Porto last month due to strong wind. I did not buy cruise insurance this time so I didn't ask for a statement from the ship.

If you did not buy the extra cruise cover on insurance to cover instances like missed ports, I think it is unlikely that you will be covered for this. If the policy says it comes with cruise cover as standard, that may mean the policy applies to cruises the same as other holidays and so will not cover missed ports. We fell foul of this with Aviva a few years ago so we now make sure we pay the supplement for cruise cover which includes missed ports.