Engineroom Snipe

You are correct. The only statement from Carnival is that they will transfer the current cruisers who will debark in Norfolk to Baltimore in an estimate 4 hour bus ride. Norfolk is the new temporary home port instead of Baltimore for the immediate future. Nothing was mentioned about busing any future guest TO Norfolk from Baltimore.

Royal has not declared using Norfolk as an alternate port for any of the Vision cruises both current or future. Norfolk has been only designated by Carnival as a temporary docking port in lieu of Baltimore.

Royal has not made a decision on any port yet for the current Vision cruise or the two cruises in April, 2023, before dry dock. The Norfolk discussion is for the Carnival cruise line which is included in a Royal discussion because they are both affected by the Baltimore Bridge Disaster.

Literary, "An all hands on deck" call. "Adapt or become extinct." Do not get caught with your feet stuck in the tar pits. Keep moving.

I am an old "grumpo". Age just tended to refine my rough edges. 🤣

My point being: Does anyone really think that a Carnival or Royal executive wanted to wake up to this catastrophe this morning? This situation is truly extraordinary. I buy trip insurance for the extraordinary. This unique situation might cause me to miss my flight and would be covered under that insurance. This unique situation might cause me to have to wait one or two days in a hotel waiting for the next available seat on a plane going home. Maybe I need to contract a ride for my family independently, covered. If Carnival or Royal offers me a future cruise credit or an additional cruise credit for making me go to a different port, that is my decision. At least they are trying some type of accommodation and not just saying "Tough luck, you are on your own, not our fault that a random freighter destroyed a bridge that we had no control over." Your want your cruise, bend like a willow and compromise. The only other alternative is to take a full refund and "Go Your Own Way" (Rumours , Fleetwood Mac, 1977).

This is one of those times of being "Between a rock and a hard place." What ever the bus ride is, I am not driving. I am not being left in the wilderness trying to figure out how I am getting to my car. If the bus ride takes seven hours, I can sleep, wake up, and drive home after a cruise vacation. Except for chartering a helicopter to the Baltimore port, what more can be expected from Carnival? Call my lawyer about it? Ridiculous as the cruise line has nothing to do with the accident and is trying their best to make me whole. This is reasonable under the extraordinary circumstances of the situation that has reared its ugly head.

I do not need to call Royal about what they might do. Just throw it out on CC and I have all of the possibilities. Just have to wait for Royal's official decisions. Patience is a virtue which I have been forced to learn.

As @gumshoe958 stated: "might need to compromise" during this unique situation. Everyone must make their own decisions and yours might be based on parking fees. I get it because Bayonne is not my favorite cruise parking terminal if you are not in their covered garage parking. For most of the year, it is reserved for handicap parking. You are then left to the great outdoors. It is a "Wild World" (Cat Stevens, 1970) out there. 😬

Good point. Another option, do the hotel and park near the terminal and shuttle to the terminal. The hotel has a vested interest in keeping your car safe for future visits.

Plausible rebuttal. Keep the thought process going. Heck, Royal should pay us for our analysis. I always hate far offsite parking. So much can happen to your car in eight to nine days. Arriving at your car that has been vandalized or worst, stolen, is a real downer after a vacation.

Still a toss-up. You and I are staring at our crystal balls only to find they are bowling balls. I still think Royal wants to maximize the revenue if possible. I will buy you a drink if I am wrong. You present a good case for cancellation and I have the money for your drink put aside. I am not so sure about reading everything right.

After looking at April 2024 compared to May 2024, I think the two first cruises before the dry dock can be accommodated. I have to admit, the three ships during May will really be a squeeze for a fourth ship, the Vision. Get the shoe horn out. I think the parking will be a problem with four ships let alone the dock scheduling.

In my opinion as I stated before, Royal is trying to safely get the current cruise completed with as little interruption to the passenger experience as possible. They will directly bus to Baltimore from Bayonne. I agree that trying to get to the airport or train stations will add hours to this effort from people getting off of the bus, waiting for plains or trains. and getting on another bus in Baltimore. The next two cruises will be out of Bayonne and Royal has some time to take a breath and contemplate what ever comes. My two cents minus one cent only leaves me with one common cent (but maybe no common sense). 😁

On top of this time delay, even after the debris is removed, an agency like the Civil Corp of Engineers will be needed to survey and certify that the channel is clear for shipping traffic. No insurance agency will provide protection against such unknowns. I know about bottom side-scan sonar channel scanning. That is what a mine hunter does. We would look for "debris" that was explosive embedded in the shipping channels. Most modern mines are not the "spiked" monstrosities your see in World War II movies. They are more like refrigerators that only have one side exposed to the water buried in the sediment. In this case, a few submerged steel beam parts could reek havoc with the propeller or rudder. Not enough to sink the vessel or hurt its structural integrity but maybe enough to lose navigational ability. Similar to what happened in this case.

As Tom Petty would sing, "The waiting is the hardest part..." Whatever our outcome, we will cruise again. There are families who have lost loved ones. They will need answers and some wounds will take a long time to heal and accept. I love cruising but everyone on this site would have preferred to lose a cruise if it could bring back the workers who are injured or killed.

If Bayonne has docking available with parking then there should be no problem for Royal. The main difficulty will be passengers who are not driving to change their flights to Newark. Royal is very conscious about their revenue stream and corporate might not want to abandon sixteen nights of cruising cabin revenue, onboard spending, and shore excursions. The Vision has been sailing at total capacity for months which is about a bit over 2,400 passengers. That is quite a bit of revenue lost. @Ourusualbeach made some good logical arguments earlier about why the next two cruises should be canceled before dry dock. I think the Vision will go for Bayonne for two cruises, go to dry dock, while Royal regroups.

Baltimore handles over 500,000 cruise passengers a year. I do not think they want to permanently lose that revenue and the cruise lines do not want to lose a home port forever.

Around 40 buses could do it. Start the wagon train...... Rollin' rollin' rollin' Rollin' rollin' rollin' Rollin' rollin' rollin' Rollin' rollin' rollin' Theme from Rawhide

Like the airlines, I forgot about rail holiday travel. I wonder how many buses they could find in such a short time. That is a more limiting factor in my mind. Keep thinking because Royal has got to pull a rabbit out of its hat. I agree that Bayonne is becoming the logical choice for debarkation of the existing passengers. How do we efficiently get 2,400 passengers from the Port of Bayonne to the Port of Baltimore? Million dollar question. Since Bayonne does have parking capacity and has had Vision sized vessels dock during weekdays, they could salvage the last two cruises from there.

Probably one of the most practical solutions presented. Shuttle buses from Bayonne to railway and Baltimore railway shuttle buses to the port where the cars are or to airports. I think you have a winner.

@chengkp75 stated that there was not enough clearance. I do not know what the Vision Class clearance is but I will defer to his expertise.

Completely forgot that Carnival is involved too.

Very logical conclusion which might not be avoidable. For the sake of those on the two trips that might be canceled, I hope Royal makes the decision as soon as possible to keep cruisers from stressing about the unknown that they cannot control.

Port options and alternatives are getting pretty slim pickings if Norfolk is out of play. Philadelphia is out of play. Baltimore is obviously out of play with no idea when it will be available again. Bayonne looks like the lone possibility if the scheduling allows it.