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Repairing the Oosterdam

bigred12

By bigred12,
in Holland America Line

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duck tune

duck tune

Posted
Posted

I recall reading in a thread that someone who had a dining room table assigned starboard aft noticed extra vibration at dinner but none of the recent reviews have mentioned anything. I wrote in a different thread that I had hoped that if the problem won't be totally corrected in the near future that passengers should be notified in advance. We received our documents for the 12/16 sailing of the Oosterdam on Tuesday and nothing was included regarding the current situation but we have a few weeks before the cruise so we hope for the best.

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bepsf

bepsf

Posted
Posted

This is the current schedule per the HAL site:

 

* ****** 0 San Diego, California ** *5:00 pm

* *1 *At Sea ** **

* *2 Cabo San Lucas, Mexico 1 *8:00 am *6:00 pm

* *3 Mazatlan, Mexico *************** 8:00 am *6:00 pm

* *4 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 2 *8:00 am *10:00 pm

* *5 *At Sea ** **

* *6 *At Sea ** **

* *7 San Diego, California ******* 7:00 am

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LAFFNVEGAS "Live from...." Rare

LAFFNVEGAS

Posted
Posted

Brian, that is the schedule that is the normal one that I have done on our last two times on the Oosterdam. The newest one with the shortened ports was arriving in Cabo around Noon and leaving PV at 8 PM At least that is what I think they have said.

To me it really is not that big of a deal but if this was your first time to these ports and you had made plans I can see where it could cause a problem. I want to say that both times when we were in PV we pulled up Anchor early because every one was already on board.

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bepsf

bepsf

Posted
Posted
Brian, that is the schedule that is the normal one that I have done on our last two times on the Oosterdam. The newest one with the shortened ports was arriving in Cabo around Noon and leaving PV at 8 PM At least that is what I think they have said.

 

 

Ahh, My Bad - would have thought that the folks in Seattle would have revised the schedule appropriately...

:o

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jellens

jellens

Posted
Posted

As we have a cruise on the Oosterdam on Dec. 2, I am most interested in any information anyone has on the current state of the ships propulsion system.

 

I, too, believe that ANYthing can happen ANYtime and there is not much you can do about it; but, it is always nice to have a heads up when possible.

:D

Thanks and happy cruising.

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Copper10-8 "Live from...." Rare

Copper10-8

Posted
Posted
Do you think they will give some compensation for our change in schedule? I am scheduled for the Thanksgiving cruise, leaving in 2 weeks.

 

Thanks

 

$25 shipboard credit:) - and free water skiing lessons behind the boat since she's going slower ;)

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rocosd

rocosd

Posted
Posted

We returned Saturday, 11/4 from the Oosterdam JAZZ charter to the Mexican Riveria. Soon after boarding, in his welcome-aboard address, the Captain (not Deering by request of the JAZZ charter founders) he announced that our speed would be reduced and the only change would be that we would cut off TWO hours from our departure in PV (from 10p.m. to 8 p.m. which only seemed to affect the partying crew members).

 

The weather was absolutely perfect with calm waters, sparkling totally clear skies and a high temperature in each port of 90 degrees.

 

Our stateroom was an 8th floor aft cabin right in the middle of the wake. My husband pointed out to me that only 1/2 of the wake was there, obviously the "missing" axipod. Did I care? Hell no!

 

I believe that you are all throwing yourselves into a tizzy over a problem that does not exist. As you have seen since the original problem in October, the ship CAN PERFORM and does with only one azipod. We were in each port the exact time promised, including San Diego.

 

When HAL officials say that the problem is "fixed", they mean that it performs with only one azipod to all passengers expectations. Do you really care if it runs a few knots slower---as long as it gets where it says it will go---at the times promised??? I suggest you all worry if you have been good enough to have Santa stop at YOUR house and QUIT worrying about whether your ship will sail with you on it!!!!

 

Would you have anything to worry about if you had not read it here?

Sometimes, "a little knowledge is a DANGEROUS thing!"

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Moonlight Beach

Moonlight Beach

Posted
Posted
We returned Saturday, 11/4 from the Oosterdam JAZZ charter to the Mexican Riveria. Soon after boarding, in his welcome-aboard address, the Captain..announced...the only change would be that we would cut off TWO hours from our departure in PV (from 10p.m. to 8 p.m. which only seemed to affect the partying crew members).

 

...We were in each port the exact time promised, including San Diego...

 

...Sometimes, "a little knowledge is a DANGEROUS thing!"

 

What time did you get into Cabo?

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Copper10-8 "Live from...." Rare

Copper10-8

Posted
Posted
gee, maybe I should ask them to hang me upside down from the railing and shoot tequila shots into my mouth while trolling a marlin jig? that might be lucky?! :eek: :D

 

Sounds like you've been to Pappa's & Beer a couple of times and competed for bumper stickers:eek:

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Aloha_Jackie

Aloha_Jackie

Posted
Posted
Sounds like you've been to Pappa's & Beer a couple of times and competed for bumper stickers:eek:

 

no, not me - just an innocent bystander....DH has the tank top from giggling marlin - home of the skip and go naked - something like that...we may have to trot on over there and get an updated one - and see who is being hung upside down,

 

I must tell you, I have never been so proud as the day I wore the horns home from El Squid Roe....made entirely from brown paper towels, yes the coup de gras! :):cool:

 

Cabo ought to be something and we'll be there on the 20th - supposed to be a full moon....scary! :eek:

 

11 more days!!!!

 

thanks GrandmaBev for the updates

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navybankerteacher

navybankerteacher

Posted
Posted

I was on the Oct 7 sailing when the azipod went out (electrical fire). We returned to San Diego a day early - having been significantly slowed and missing PV stop due to drag of dead screw (propellor). Divers removed the screw night of Oct 13, so ship could make better speed and sail as scheduled on Oct 14-- but repairs to azipod (visualize a huge out-drive fastened to bottom of ship) can only be done in dry dock. How many dry docks of the necessary size do you think there are on the west coast? You cant just pull a 1000 foot ship into any neighborhood shipyard like pulling your car into a Valvoline oil change bay -- they are booked well in advance. Additionally, Home Depot does not carry spare azipods - most probably a special order for major parts had to be placed. Also, thousands of passengers were already booked for scheduled sailings -- HAL could neither ditch the passengers nor get immediate access to a dry dock. I understand an April dry docking is scheduled -- possibly impacting the last day of one cruise and the first of the next.

 

It is unfortunate that HAL is not more forthcoming about modifications to scheduled in-port times -- but you should remember that part of the magic of travel by sea involves the uncertainty that the sea imposes on us - even in the twenty-first century.

 

My only remaining concern lies in the recognition that something that happens once can happen again. With the port azipod non-functional, it would be really interesting if a similar event were to occur to the starboard azipod: what image does the phrase "dead in the water" conjure in your mind? I know the odds of a recurrence are very slim - and I would make the same decision if I were running HAL -- but I would imagine that the captain is requiring very close monitoring of conditions whenever he takes her to sea.

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SHayesShip

SHayesShip

Posted
Posted

Friends of mine just called me this morning just off the shore from Puerto Vallarta. These were the scheduled hours for this week's jazz cruise. Cabo 12 noon to 6 pm. MZT 9am to 6pm and PV 10am to 10pm. They are running an average of 19 knots.

This appears to be a little different even from last week!

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fcorey

fcorey

Posted
Posted
I was on the Oct 7 sailing when the azipod went out (electrical fire). We returned to San Diego a day early - having been significantly slowed and missing PV stop due to drag of dead screw (propellor). Divers removed the screw night of Oct 13, so ship could make better speed and sail as scheduled on Oct 14-- but repairs to azipod (visualize a huge out-drive fastened to bottom of ship) can only be done in dry dock. How many dry docks of the necessary size do you think there are on the west coast? You cant just pull a 1000 foot ship into any neighborhood shipyard like pulling your car into a Valvoline oil change bay -- they are booked well in advance. Additionally, Home Depot does not carry spare azipods - most probably a special order for major parts had to be placed. Also, thousands of passengers were already booked for scheduled sailings -- HAL could neither ditch the passengers nor get immediate access to a dry dock. I understand an April dry docking is scheduled -- possibly impacting the last day of one cruise and the first of the next

 

I was also on that cruise and agree with most of what you have said here. There are 7 dry dock facilities on the west coast. However repairing an azimuthing pod does not necessarily mean removing it from the ship. There are several components that are small enough to be removed through the access hatch into the hull. That is what they have been trying to do. The windings having sustained such serious damage it is unclear if they can do the repair while underway. However if they cannot a 200 ton pod is not a shelf item and would need time to be built. As for the other pod failing, generally speaking azipod drives are reliable and I would not be too worried about that happening.

The failure was likely the result of faulty work during the drydock, however I am concerned that the heat buildup in the pod was not checked prior to it just failing. As of today I was not able to find anything listing the April drydock other than posts here on Cruisecritic

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Tinknock50

Tinknock50

Posted
Posted
Friends of mine just called me this morning just off the shore from Puerto Vallarta. These were the scheduled hours for this week's jazz cruise. Cabo 12 noon to 6 pm. MZT 9am to 6pm and PV 10am to 10pm. They are running an average of 19 knots.

This appears to be a little different even from last week!

 

Steve,

Interesting about the port times. The last couple of cruises has been PV 8am to 7pm. So it looks like they are changing the times again somewhat.

 

I was going to book the 8am zipline in PV with the ship as on the HAL website. I wonder how HAL will adjust for that.

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