Maasdam E-Carribbean arrival issue ?'s

[Charlie2na]

While planning my Veendam western carribbean last winter, I noticed that Maasdam , quite often had trouble getting back to Norfolk on time, sometimes 6-8 hrs late! Anyone know if the problem has been solved? Those kind of delays can foul up some airline connections!

[wwinfl91]

The Veendam is probably going to have the same problem the Maasdam had if it is trying to go as far as the Maasdam tried to do out of Norfork. This class of HAL ships has a top spped of 20 knots while some of the newer ships have speeds up to 24 knots. From what I read on the boards the problem the Maasdam was having was hit would hit rough seas in the Atlantic either on its way south or on its way coming back North and wouldn't be able to do it's maximum speed, 20 knots. That meant it would get into ports late or even at times it would miss stops altogther. Most of the cruise lines have the timing for Caribbean cruises that leave from Florida set up so they have some leaway if they have problems. Trying to make the run from Norfork all the way into the Eastern Caribbean was probably trying to do too much with not a fast enough ship.

Anyway that's my opinion and I'm sticking by it until proven wrong which might be by the next poster.

Have a GREAT next cruise.

[Esme]

Yes, they changed the itinerary so they would have 2 sea days after the last port to return to Norfolk on schedule.

Looking at some of the schedules for future cruises they are only in San Juan Puerto Rico from 7am until 1pm and then have actually 2 1/2 days at sea.

Check out the new itineraries either in a brochure or HAL's web site.

[Charlie2na]

Thanks all. This info helps... although only 1/2 a day in San Juan is a bit of bad news.Have family in Puerto Rico, and had originally planned to do a 7 day cruise from there, but the airfare is so high that we could do a 10 day out of Norfolk for the same price! Lets see.... 4 hr flight vs 1 3/4 hrs ... 3 days with inlaws and a 7 day cruise on celebrity........ or 10 nites on Maasdam.... ...hmmmm..... a no brainer!

[Orcrone]

Charlie,

I live local to Norfolk, and since I'm booked on the Maasdam I would check the local webcam each time it was in port. After the itinerary change it always returned and left on time.

Marc

[Charlie2na]

Thanks Marc ... do you have the link to the Norfolk tower cam?

[Orcrone]

Charlie,

This is the link http://www.wvec.com/cams/norfolk.html

For some reason I'm just getting a blue screen now.

BTW, does anyone know how to give a link an alias so I could have just displayed "norfolk tower cam" instead of the web page address?

[Charlie2na]

Thanks Orcrone, just a blue screen for me too!

[Orcrone]

I just checked the Norfolk webcam. It states that it's down for repairs. So hopefully they'll have it up and running soon (or at least by the time the Maasdam returns to Norfolk).:D

[Orcrone]

I found this webcam on a different TV station. http://www.wtkr.com/Global/story.asp?S=143757&nav=J7JwDVen

Shows the pier from a different direction. I believe it's the 7 Seas Navigator that's there right now (11:40 AM, Tuesday).

BTW, anyone know how to post an alias for the web address to make it more readable?