San Juan dismantling structure that caused 'Dream' problems

[jleq]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/1...co_sculpture_1

[F22Smitty]

That would be this thingy.

[DryCreek]

Did anyone catch this note from the article?

"It was designed and paid for in part by Royal Caribbean "

A little inter-line rivalry maybe?

[Changes_In_Lattitudes]

I was wondering why I didn't see any ships on it when in port last winter.

[lissa42886]

Hmmm it will be interesting to see the port once its gone having seen it w. it there. but i really dont understand how a sculpture on land prevents the ship from docking,.. it dont recall it protruding over the water..

[SCUBA Mark]

Originally Posted by lissa42886

Hmmm it will be interesting to see the port once its gone having seen it w. it there. but i really dont understand how a sculpture on land prevents the ship from docking,.. it dont recall it protruding over the water..

It interfered with the Dream lifeboats that stuck out over the side of the ship.

We were on that cruise. The Captain tried to dock in three different places before calling it a day.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Originally Posted by lissa42886

Hmmm it will be interesting to see the port once its gone having seen it w. it there. but i really dont understand how a sculpture on land prevents the ship from docking,.. it dont recall it protruding over the water..

We were on the Dream sailing in question. Evidently the Dream lifeboats project out somewhat, and one risked being punctured if we docked there. We successfully docked there this summer on the Solstice. It would not have bothered me if we didn't, as San Juan is not on my "return to" list!





Tom

[salty dingo]

Note to self: never be one of the first to sail on a new class of ship!

[jessemon]

Was on the cruise of the Dream when this happened....
Captain did the right thing and now SJ is doing the right thing....
Also the wing thing was hideous and has been for years....
Looked like something you would off load garbage onto from the ship into a big dumpster at the bottom of it.....LOL.....

[DGP1111]

Originally Posted by SCUBA Mark

We were on that cruise . . .

Originally Posted by Tom-n-Cheryl

We were on the Dream sailing in question . . .

Originally Posted by jessemon

Was on the cruise of the Dream when this happened . . .

'twas a sincere pleasure to have been onboard with you all.

Please refresh my memory on something:
I seem to recall that there was no threatened mutiny at any time because of this incident of missing that scheduled port.
I also don't seem to remember any of the bloggers having to quell the masses, or stepping in to assist the crew with crowd control and behavior modification. Whew!!

I seem to recall that John and Todd got on the tube and just told it like it was (simply admitting to some bad pre-planning), and that was that until reaching Grand Turk earlier than scheduled the next day.

That was a fun nine days, and a thrill to visit a few brand new ports of call.

[salty dingo]

Originally Posted by DGP1111

I seem to recall that there was no threatened mutiny at any time because of this incident of missing that scheduled port.

Probably because it was not the low season and filled with pinhead bus riders!

[mississauga]

I was on the Dec. 3/09 cruise too.

That pier is not the usual pier for Carnival ships to dock at. A Costa ship was already docked ( pier 4 ?) where Carnival usually docks. IMHO, if Carnival had scheduled the docking better, we could have docked there with the Dream's unusual design. Since San Juan was a one time stop, there was probably no forethought to its docking.

We personally were not upset that we missed San Juan as we were there just 6 weeks before on the Liberty. Others were though but like Don said, no mutiny ( lol ) and most were pretty understanding.

[richstowe]

Originally Posted by salty dingo

Probably because it was not the low season and filled with pinhead bus riders!

Wow! That certainly is a tough statement. Are you saying the better the deal the lower
the quality of the cruiser? (really just asking - not making a statement)

[trudle]

We were on that cruise and didn't hear but one thing. A family was going to San Juan for a family reunion. So I am sure they were upset. I was sad that we missed that port but there will be other times, I am sure. The Cruise was great and we had a wonderful time.

[MagicMike]

Sone of the latest ships have lifeboats that hang over the sides instead of where they usually are over the outdoor promenade deck. This creates more space inside the ship for cabins and venues. The Epic is like this also. When the Epic docked in NY in July, they had to sit out in the middle of the Hudson River while they dropped all the lifeboats into the water, as they would have hit the terminal building when it pulled up alongside. The procedure was repeated when we departed, causing about an hours delay in departure.

[JPH814]

I saw this post and compared it to the other posts about missing a port due to weather. I was a staunch supporter of Carnival on the other issue since weather is clearly out of Carnival's controll.

On this one, I am not sure I would have been satisfied with Carnival's compensation of refunding the port fees. This was something Carnival should have and could have anticipated. They knew how big their ship is. They knew the dimensions of the berth. It is not like this ugly thing was placed there without Carnival's knowledge or after their cruise had begun. I think Carnival is really neglegent in not realizing this in advance.

As a person who selects a cruise primarily for the itinerary, I would have expected more of a compensation. I think 1/7th of the cruise fare reimbursed (assuming it was a 7 day cruise) would have been fair. Then let the lawyers figuire out if Carnival gets reimbursed by the port of San Juan (or even by Royal Caribbean).

And if I were Carnival, I would have figured out who in my company was responsible for overseeing this issue and probably fired them

[mississauga]

Originally Posted by JPH814

I saw this post and compared it to the other posts about missing a port due to weather. I was a staunch supporter of Carnival on the other issue since weather is clearly out of Carnival's controll.

On this one, I am not sure I would have been satisfied with Carnival's compensation of refunding the port fees. This was something Carnival should have and could have anticipated. They knew how big their ship is. They knew the dimensions of the berth. It is not like this ugly thing was placed there without Carnival's knowledge or after their cruise had begun. I think Carnival is really neglegent in not realizing this in advance.

As a person who selects a cruise primarily for the itinerary, I would have expected more of a compensation. I think 1/7th of the cruise fare reimbursed (assuming it was a 7 day cruise) would have been fair. Then let the lawyers figuire out if Carnival gets reimbursed by the port of San Juan (or even by Royal Caribbean).

And if I were Carnival, I would have figured out who in my company was responsible for overseeing this issue and probably fired them

This was a one time stop for the Carnival Dream. It was a 9 day cruise and since that cruise, San Juan has not been a port on the Dream's itineraries. Yes, someone didn't do their homework but I truly believe that they anticipated docking in Carnival's usual dock ( which does not have that structure ). I can't say how much notice Carnival had from the port authorities that the Dream had been assigned to that dock ( pier ).

Maybe if it was a scheduled stop on the Dream's Eastern itinerary, more planning/homework would have been done.

I personally thought they could have asked the Costa ship to move to the dock with the structure and allow the Dream to dock in their place. It would have not been such a sacrifice to ask the passengers from Costa to re-board from the new pier as it was just a short walk from where they got off earlier. However, I don't know the politics of such a move. Maybe it's more involved than I as a layman can understand.

[w8ing2cruz]

Okay - don't mean to be 'selfish' here but we'll be in San Juan on October 20th on Carnival Liberty - will this project prevent us from docking where we normally would? Just trying to have all my ducks in a row.

[golfgod003]

It shouldn't affect your cruise - San Juan has other docks available.

[mississauga]

Originally Posted by w8ing2cruz

Okay - don't mean to be 'selfish' here but we'll be in San Juan on October 20th on Carnival Liberty - will this project prevent us from docking where we normally would? Just trying to have all my ducks in a row.

Liberty is usually scheduled to dock at a different pier so you should be good. The only time Carnival has had trouble docking was last year on the Dream.