Silhouette mechanical problem ? (Several Threads Merged)

We are about to embark on The Silhouette next week and there is a current post stating that passengers were notified that the ship is traveling at a slower speed and that the length of times in certain ports have been shortened on their cruise. One poster surmises that the 4 hour delay they experienced on their June 10 th cruise sailing into Venice was due to this mechanical reason. We have not been notified of this problem nor have we been told of any changes in arrival times or changes of ports by Celebrity ( though I see on the website that we are no longer going to Chania). If there is a mechanical problem causing shorter port visits or delayed arrivals, why haven't all passengers been informed? We are also sailing into Venice where it overnights at the end of our cruise and looking forward to a full day in port. We have not been told yet that the ship will be delayed in arriving...crossing our fingers,now!

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We were on the June 10th sailing and there was definitely an issue with something mechanical, stories varied depending who you asked:rolleyes:

We didn't miss any ports and none of the port times were changed from the original itinerary however when we embarked there was a note in the cabin advising of the later arrival in Venice, our final port. We were supposed to dock at 9am but were advised we'd actually dock at noon. At noon we were still traversing the Grand Canal and didn't actually dock until closer to 1pm. Passengers were able to disembark by 1:30.

Too bad you're missing Chania...we had no idea what to expect there and were pleasantly surprised by the size of the island and the beauty. Had a fantastic lunch at a restaurant by the harbour and it was one of the ports we both agreed we'd love to return to. Are you having a sea day instead? or have they added a different port?

Good luck and enjoy...other than the mechanical issue the Silhouette is a beautiful ship and you'll have a great time.

We go in August and have received revised times (later) for some of our ports, I have just assumed they are re-scheduling slightly as our final arrival back in Venice shows the same time.

We go in August and have received revised times (later) for some of our ports, I have just assumed they are re-scheduling slightly as our final arrival back in Venice shows the same time.

We are sailing out of Venice on 17th August and we have also recieved revised later arrival times for all of the the ports, this far in advance of our cruise departure date we are very surprised that they cannot fix any mechanacal faults

by then !!.

Chris & Pete

Port calls and time in them is always subject to change at any time, they do notify as a courtesy often times, but don't have to do so regardless of the reason for the changes. Im certain all will be told once on board what the actual schedule will be.

If you skip a port entirely, you would be entitled to get the port fees (a small amount) refunded to your account which happens automatically, but they don't have to offer anything else, nor an explanation under the terms of the cruise contract. Certain European customers who booked under their home countries contract may be entitled to further compensation if a port is skipped entirely and not substituted however. But this is not a protection afforded to those who booked under the USA contract.

Guests who have booked their own excursions and not thru the ship, many people worry about losing their money etc. Bear in mind that the excursion companies deal with ship delays all the time. The good ones will adjust their tours accordingly and refund your money automatically if they are delayed or canceled. They rely on good word of mouth to make their living, so providing these services in the event of delays out of your control are important to them, at least the good ones. They realize if thy don't refund you, you will be all over trip advisor and yelp telling people to avoid them, ands they will see their business fail quickly.

My daughter is on the 27th July cruise and has had an email to say they are arriving in Santorini and Kotor one hour later than planned, they also leave an hour later so there is no reduction in time in port.

When can the issue be repaired?

When can the issue be repaired?

We don't even know the nature of the issue at hand. Sillie is not scheduled for Drydock until May 2016 in the event it's a dry dock required repair.

The other thread on this says that there have been notifications on cruses out into October of this year of delays.

DW and I are on the Aug 17 sailing but have not received any notifications of changes.....I guess I will call CC today to see i they have the info on the changes

As posted on a similar thread:

As far as delays in Venice the following may have something to do with it:

"When a cruise ship passes by, enroute to the dock, it’s like Godzilla coming into town. Standing on the upper deck and looking down 13 – 18 floors is weird. Almost like you are peeking it their homes. The wake caused by these monster ships send wave ripples to the edge of the buildings and up the canals. Imagine 12 ships and the damage they can do to the brick supports down next to the water.,,

Cruise ship traffic in front of St Mark’s Square is down 20% and large vessels will be permanently banned starting November 2014."

Maybe they are now required to enter and leave any area within a good distance of Venice at NO-WAKE speed, which for a cruise ship is practically zero. ???????

Sounds like any cruise with Venice being a port of call, origin or destination will be affected by something...?????

As to a passenger ship sailing with any sort of KNOWN mechanical problems I would think RCCL would be exposing themselves up to a giant legal problem if anything major happened due to their delay in making proper repairs.

OMO

bosco

New times Dubrovnik arrival now 13.00 Kusadasi now 10.30 Corfu now 13.30 not really much difference had they not sent an e-mail I probably would not have even noticed. A hour earlier departing from Mykonos but the same time arrival. Overall I think we lose out on about 2 and a half hours of time in the various Ports.

We once sailed on a Princess ship which had the same issue that they had to shorten port times because of propulsion problems. In this case they had to replace a propeller and it had to be done in dry dock. The ship continued to sail its itineraries until they could get a dry dock space.

Port times scheduled for Venice take in consideration the "no wake".

.

I was on the June 22 cruise out of Venice. We received notification the first night of some minor modifications to the schedule. They shortened our time in Dubrovnik by two hours (first stop). They also shortened our time in Rome by 1 hour. Those were all the changes. During the longest segment Dubrovnik to Rome, we were sailing at a pretty good clip. Sometimes schedules can be impacted if multiple cruise ships are trying to access the same port at the same time.

Sorry for those with altered schedules..Wonder why don't they let folks know the reason? Sounds like it is not a safety issue...but someone should tell!

Happy we did our cruises in Europe when fewer and smaller ships were out there trying to access ports. Century was not our fav ship but so perfect for Europe.

We were on the June 10th sailing and there was definitely an issue with something mechanical, stories varied depending who you asked:rolleyes:

 

We didn't miss any ports and none of the port times were changed from the original itinerary however when we embarked there was a note in the cabin advising of the later arrival in Venice, our final port. We were supposed to dock at 9am but were advised we'd actually dock at noon. At noon we were still traversing the Grand Canal and didn't actually dock until closer to 1pm. Passengers were able to disembark by 1:30.

 

Too bad you're missing Chania...we had no idea what to expect there and were pleasantly surprised by the size of the island and the beauty. Had a fantastic lunch at a restaurant by the harbour and it was one of the ports we both agreed we'd love to return to. Are you having a sea day instead? or have they added a different port?

 

Good luck and enjoy...other than the mechanical issue the Silhouette is a beautiful ship and you'll have a great time.

They substituted Katakalon, Greece for Chania...so we'll need to do some research on which highlights to see. Just hope that we are not delayed in arriving in Venice on the 26th as we have permission to debark that day in order to make our travel connections.

I feel like I remember one of the giant Allure or Oasis ships at Royal Caribbean having some sort of issue that caused it to go slower than intended for an extended time until it came to a maintenance window. Anyone recall that? For those ships with their itineraries, it wasn't so critical as slower speeds could still get them from place to place with only minor adjustments to arrival and/or departure.

Possibly a propeller got a ding in it from something and at high speeds causes a shake, maybe a rope is entwined in one not allowing to to move. soooo many possible issues that could be the cause.

One thing for sure, if it were not safe, they would not continue. It's doubtful theres any chance of loss of life related to a ships propulsion issues. Missed ports, and a slower go at it yes, but noting that would concern lives.

I think that they are adjusting schedules into October tells us it has to be something that must be done with the ship out of wear, and not just waiting on some sort of spare part or upgrade to come through.

Hi all,

Celebrity Silhouette is currently experiencing a slight restriction on its top speed, which has required us to make modifications to nine upcoming sailings.

It is important for us to assure our guests that this small restriction on the ship’s top speed does not impact, in any way, the maneuverability of the ship or the safety of our guests and crew.

Celebrity will contact travel partners and guests should additional modifications need to be made to future itineraries. We apologize for any inconvenience these changes may cause to our guests.

I feel like I remember one of the giant Allure or Oasis ships at Royal Caribbean having some sort of issue that caused it to go slower than intended for an extended time until it came to a maintenance window. Anyone recall that? For those ships with their itineraries, it wasn't so critical as slower speeds could still get them from place to place with only minor adjustments to arrival and/or departure.

 

Possibly a propeller got a ding in it from something and at high speeds causes a shake, maybe a rope is entwined in one not allowing to to move. soooo many possible issues that could be the cause.

 

One thing for sure, if it were not safe, they would not continue. It's doubtful theres any chance of loss of life related to a ships propulsion issues. Missed ports, and a slower go at it yes, but noting that would concern lives.

 

I think that they are adjusting schedules into October tells us it has to be something that must be done with the ship out of wear, and not just waiting on some sort of spare part or upgrade to come through.

It was the Allure and RCI had to pull her out of service earlier this year for an unscheduled repair in Freeport. They could not wait until her dry dock next year.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5616

Celebrity Silhouette is currently experiencing a slight restriction on its top speed, which has required us to make modifications to nine upcoming sailings.

 

It is important for us to assure our guests that this small restriction on the ship’s top speed does not impact, in any way, the maneuverability of the ship or the safety of our guests and crew.

 

Celebrity will contact travel partners and guests should additional modifications need to be made to future itineraries. We apologize for any inconvenience these changes may cause to our guests.

I hope Celebrity eventually provides an estimated time frame for the repair.

DW and I are on the Aug 17 sailing but have not received any notifications of changes.....I guess I will call CC today to see i they have the info on the changes

FYI Celebrity Silhouette - I just received a text message and phone call from celebrity regarding our arrival in Venice on the 22nd of September instead of getting in at 10 a.m. We will not arrive until 12 noon this is provided for your information. Has anyone else receive this text or phone call?

I have posted this on the Sep 12, 2014 Roll Call, too.

As to a passenger ship sailing with any sort of KNOWN mechanical problems I would think RCCL would be exposing themselves up to a giant legal problem if anything major happened due to their delay in making proper repairs.

We sailed in Reflection on consecutive cruises during the inaugural season with a known problem.. all the way across the Atlantic. The story kept on changing as we sailed below anticipated speeds, missed a port but arrived back in Florida.

It was the Allure and RCI had to pull her out of service earlier this year for an unscheduled repair in Freeport. They could not wait until her dry dock next year.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5616

Thanks for this! Any idea when the propulsion problems started with that ship? The article is dated November 15, 2013, and said it went to be fixed Feb 23, 2014, so that's 3 months it ran slower than normal already...

We are going to speculate that it sounds like the Silhouette is having problems with one of its 2 Azipods. Problems with this type of propulsion system is certainly not unknown in the cruise industry, and problems with the electric motors (which are actually located within the pod) or props cannot be repaired until a drydock. The other possibility is that Celebrity decided to simply slow down their ships to save fuel (and big money) but if this were the case they would be doing it for more then one ship.

Hank

Thanks for this! Any idea when the propulsion problems started with that ship? The article is dated November 15, 2013, and said it went to be fixed Feb 23, 2014, so that's 3 months it ran slower than normal already...

Mid October of last year.

It was the Allure and RCI had to pull her out of service earlier this year for an unscheduled repair in Freeport. They could not wait until her dry dock next year.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5616

I would like to know also when they are scheduling the repair. We are on her Nov 16th . Her first sailing out of FLL after her TA. Do you think they would schedule repair before TA or wait to get her to freeport ??