Things I Don't Know but Wonder.........???

[sail7seas]

Is it possible that Zuiderdam could be getting really low on fuel? How much 'spare' do you think they load when they load the tanks? Do they always 'fill to the brim'?

 

I am sure they can manage with food.....stores may start to get low depending if today was supposed to be a 'load week' . I'm sure they can feed everyone but the variety and quantity may start to diminish?

 

Hope folks with necessary Medications brought extras with them. Good lesson for all of us. Never travel with just enough!!

 

What about pax who have very low limits on their credit cards and their credit is about used up? Many will be facing cancellation fees to change their air tickets. They may have to buy new tickets all together and argue for credits on the unused flight at a later time. I imagine at least a few people are starting to worry about funds.

[elmorejj]

Sail, I`ve been thinking the same thing. After travelling around the world for years, both in the Military and more so since we retired, one thing we have learned, always be prepared for the inevitable. We always travel with a weeks extra meds plus a prescription. We take a supply of snacks...mainly because my hubby is diabetic, and last but not least...we always use AMEX...unlimited credit. I feel for any newbies on board, who never think of these kind of emergencies......jean :cool:

[cruisinjudy]

Sail, excellent questions. I was wondering abut some of those things, but I hadn't thought about fuel.

As to food, we were on Amtrak once when there was a track outage, and we sat on the track for hours and hours in the middle of nowhere in Montana I think or one of those northern states. They did bring in another engineer, but the rest of the crew just sort of went off duty and there was almost no food left onboard. At least on the cruise the crew was going to be working anyway, but they could certainly be running low on food and drink before Monday.

[Margie_Lady]

Remember that a ship can always sail to another port away from the storm if it needs to replenish fuel or supplies in an emergency. Fresh fruit, veggies, etc may be a little limp soon.

[sail7seas]

A ship such as Zuideredam cannot simply show up at a port and expect to be docked and serviced. Granting of permission by Harbor Master (Captain of the Port of whatever his title), agreement to fees and charges, available docking space, availability of fuel/supplies they need/want........ I am sure there are procedures and it can be accomplished. I think would be an interesting questions to ask a Captain if we are fortunate to be invited to his table soon. :)

[jhannah]

Good questions, Sail. Most of us generally take little thought as to the logistics of "turning" a cruise ship. Last I heard, the Zuiderdam was southwest of Key West in calm waters. Not many places to go for fuel from that point than New Orleans or Galveston. (I doubt they'd try Cuba!!!)

[Krazy Kruizers]

In 2002 we boarded the Amsterdam in Seattle for a 21 day cruise. We got caught in the lonshoremen strike along the entire west coast. No supplies were put on the ship in Seattle - no food or fuel. HAL had hoped that by the time we got to San Fancisco the strike would be over and we would get supplies - no such luck. And when we got to LA - strike still was not over.

The supplies that we had on board had to last till we got to Ft Lauderdale. We were refueled somewhere in Central America - can't remember where.

Alcohol ran out - the only thing you could buy in the boutiques was a cheap brand of rum. Many of the bars ran out of certain items. Wines - by the last week of the cruise, we were handed a list of what wines were left and given 10% off.

Menu only had 5 entress listed for last several days - for example - veal on pasta - and strange looking vegetables. But we survived - no one went hungry and very few complained. Breakfast and Lunch in the Lido had fewer and fewer offerings.

And of course we also had the first outbreak of the Norvo Virus to contend with as well.

 

[gliles]

I wondered about that too but I bet they over stock the food. Now the fuel, it is very expensive to haul around excess fuel I would imagine, I know it is for an aircraft.

 

 

No offense KK but I found this one line alone funny, taken out of context of course:

 

Menu only had 5 entress listed for last several days...

Now that is roughing it! :D

[Krazy Kruizers]

No offense - I only mentioned that because I figured someone might wonder if there were a lot of choices of entrees and 5 seemed great to us.

And you know something else - I don't remember the waitstaff telling anyone that they were limited to just 1 entree. :D

[elmorejj]

Another thought to ponder, with all of S.Fla just about shut down, how will the ship be replenished? I`m sure lots of the provision trucks come in from farther up north......jean :cool:

[Cruisindad]

I don't know about the Zuiderdam or other ships, but this topic came up on my Norway cruise several years ago during a bridge tour. We were told that particular ship carried enough exra fuel that they could basically make the entire trip twice.

[Roadwork]

I read that Disney went to Galveston to restock on food. I didn't see anything about any other cruise line that has a ship waiting to get back into Florida.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Didn't RCI and Carnival have ships on cruises this past week out of Miami?

[Lois R]

Roadwork, Century is also waiting to get back into FLL, along with Zuiderdam.

 

I popped over to the X Board...seems she will be docking tomorrow too. They just cannot get back into the port today.

 

Yes, KK...Port of Miami had ships out too......(I think)

[ocngypz]

Ships such as Zuiderdam refuel every two weeks. If they were scheduled for refueling this weekend, they could have made arrangements to take on fuel earlier at another port.

 

Low limits on cc? Well.. there's always cash on hand, the atm machine or a personal check or debit card. Then ... there's always just putting the card away.

 

Reprovisioning is the biggest problem. Yes, you do run out of items. I've had it happen numerous times... and not even storm related. Fleet ops.. along with purchasing have to make sure vendors will be able to provide the needed stores at either alternate ports... or...they have to make sure their vendors will have sufficient trucks... and FUEL to reprovision the ship properly once she docks in Port Everglades. When winds are above 40 mph, fuel trucks stay off the roads. Combine that with the fact we are very low on fuel here in south Florida....and a good portion of the east coast of FL is without power, it makes that "decision tree" branch out even further.

 

Since about 10 yesterday morning..even we on the west coast of FL have had nothing but rain.. and 30+ mph winds. Winds increased last night around 1 am... and they still are blowing. There's been a confirmed report of a tornado in Highlands County (central FL in the citrus belt).

 

It's not over yet:-(

[sail7seas]

Good points.

 

However, HAL does not have ATM machines on their ships.

No cashing of personal checks permitted.

 

 

The ship has been at sea....no ports since the announcements were made.

[Vicar]

Last cruise we were on , we sat on our balcony watching the stevedores loading the provisions on the ship before sail a way. Pallets and Pallets of food, sugar, coffee, everything and we were thinking then , how do they know how much to order. You have a couple thousand people eating and drinking all week, some people have one cup of coffee a day some have ten some use no sugar, some use 3 sugars per cup, Some people have three entrees and 2 appetizers a night and so on. How the heck do they do it , because on every cruise we have been on they have never run out of a thing (That we noticed any way)

 

Lets just hope they have at least a few extra days food and drink supply to get the pax on Z through this.

 

I mean who wouldn't love to have their cruise extended a few extra days, but certainly not this way.

[sail7seas]

Vicar.......Your questions are excellent.

We are very good friends with an Executive Chef and we have been to his office in the galley (totally glass booth office which gives him a total view of this kichen). He showed us the stack that comprised his order form. It had to be 350+ pages and for each 'supply load', he spends hours completing what he wants delivered.

 

HAL has over 130 years of history and through the years, they have learned what they need :)

 

Actually, each thing is carefully analyzed as to prior demand/usage. If the last time they served escargot, they served 623 portions of it; the time before they served 628 portions and the time before that 620....they have a fair idea they will serve around 625 portions the next cruise (assuming close to the same number of pax aboard) and they will need all of the ingredients to prepare that dish.

 

Same holds for gallons of milk; eggs; coffee; hamburgers.......

 

In this day and age of computers, the project is somewhat easier but still a massive job to complete those order forms.

[tomc]

They use the "Essex Solution" when food runs low.

[sail7seas]

Tom......

 

Please excuse my ignorance, lack of knowledge, stupidity.....but what is that?

[Krazy Kruizers]

Remember our cruise was 21 days long and the Amsterdam had just completed a 7 day Alaskan cruise.

So she went 28 days before food supplies were loaded onto her - that's a long time and many mouths to feed.

Only some items were completely gone before we got to Ft Lauderdale.

[tomc]

s7s...

 

Ever read about the whaling ship Essex? Got cut in half by a whale and the crew ended up in a dory. Out of desperation, due to lack of food ... well ... not all returned.

[sail7seas]

KK....Imo the only way that could be the case is that they had already started to load stores for your cruise at the loading they did for the previous cruise/cruises.

 

They knew they would need so much for the 21 dayers that they did not wait for a single load on the turn around day when you boarded.

 

Obviously, a well experienced company such as HAL knows exactly how TO DO IT RIGHT and that is why they were able to work around the 'roadblock' they encountered. Proper prior planning made for good results in the face of obstacles.

 

That IMO is one of the many things that makes cruising with HAL better than sailing with some other Lesser cruise companies.

 

 

JMHO, of course. :)

[sail7seas]

Thanks, Tom.........

 

I must admit I am sorry I asked. :(

[tomc]

I figured everybody knew about that and I could just sort of telegraph it.