If a port stop is cancelled

Norwegian star cancelled Dubrovnik this morning stating bad weather and Gruz port being closed , thats what passengers were told and the ship sailed off.

I’ve been on vessel finder and Gruz webcams and seen that a Costa cruise ship docked at 8am this morning and the weather looks perfectly calm.

Does this strike anyone as rather odd?

Dubrovnik will be one of the highlights of my cruise and I would be gutted to miss it.

Norwegian star cancelled Dubrovnik this morning stating bad weather and Gruz port being closed , thats what passengers were told and the ship sailed off.

I’ve been on vessel finder and Gruz webcams and seen that a Costa cruise ship docked at 8am this morning and the weather looks perfectly calm.

Does this strike anyone as rather odd?

Dubrovnik will be one of the highlights of my cruise and I would be gutted to miss it.

what may look perfectly fine to you and how the captain and engineers see it can be two different stories. The decision made to cancel a port is not taken lightly but is for everyone's safety. Of course it can be disappointing. It happened to us coming across the northern Atlantic many years ago. It has happened other times as well, but we take it in stride and trust the decision the captain makes.

Norwegian star cancelled Dubrovnik this morning stating bad weather and Gruz port being closed , thats what passengers were told and the ship sailed off.

I’ve been on vessel finder and Gruz webcams and seen that a Costa cruise ship docked at 8am this morning and the weather looks perfectly calm.

Does this strike anyone as rather odd?

Dubrovnik will be one of the highlights of my cruise and I would be gutted to miss it.

The safety of the passengers is of the utmost importance. If the captain decides that it is unsafe to dock, then it is not yours to question. There are a lot of factors that someone looking at a webcam has no insight into. Other captains may not be as concerned like another Costa ship called the Concordia.

Or more recently a poor decision to try docking by the captain of the Celebrity Infinity.

Unfortunately, these things happen. Ships miss ports occasionally and often it isn’t easy to see the logic behind it.

I have missed three ports in total in all my cruises. One was Stockholm a couple of years ago because of high winds. Instead we had a day at sea (and arrived at the next port early). The weather was beautiful, and it was natural to question the reason, but I have a friend who was in Stockholm, and we were going to meet. He said that it was indeed very windy there.

Basically, if a port is very important then don’t rely on a cruise to get there.

Having said that, we have missed more things on land based holidays due to weather or illness than we have missed cruise ports. We have also had a couple of days when we arrived in port fine, but the weather (principally rain) was so bad that we changed our plans anyway. You are travelling and things happen.

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My first NCL cruise on the Gem many years ago had bad weather in Dubrovnik. We were supposed to tender but it was too rough. They ended up docking at another location and busing us in. Worked out great....except for the bad weather.

this was on the weather channel today

Potential disruption due to wind for South Dalmatia Region

Dubrovnik will be one of the highlights of my cruise and I would be gutted to miss it.

A rule for cruising: if missing a port will make or break your cruise and cause angst, drama, and mental upset, take a land vacation to the port.

My only real issue is that passengers were told the port was closed, it obviously wasn’t if another ship was able to dock.

I've been listening to the noise on the Dubrovnik webcam... love the sound of the surf, but, I can understand with the wind being from the NW even if it was/is only 12 MPH it could easily cause a problem for the Star docking.

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/hrvatska/dubrovacko-neretvanska/dubrovnik/gruz-dubrovnik.html

My only real issue is that passengers were told the port was closed, it obviously wasn’t if another ship was able to dock.

Well, it's the Captain's decision so no matter what he says, the port is closed as far as you and others are concerned.

It's unfortunate, I agree, but nothing you can do so... roll with it. It happened to us on our British Isles cruise in 2015 at Falmouth.

Hope you have a great cruise overall.

The reasons for the cancellation of the Star call at Dubrovnik were a bit more complex than the OP was able to see from a distance without all of the information to hand. It was a very difficult call.

Last night there was a very severe electric storm around the ship and there were a fair few nasty squalls about for most of the night. The weather was certainly very unreliable. The Star arrived off Dubrovnik in good time for an early 7.00 am dock to give everyone time to get their excursions done but according to the message from the captain at about 7am the port was closed due to Northerly winds in excess of 90 kph at the time. There was no indication when or if things would calm down enough to tie-up safely. The options were to hang about for a while in the area hoping for the best or give up and set sail for Venice. The planned stop was already tight to allow for the various trips and any delayed departure to give enough time to do everything planned could have jeopardised the disembarkation in Venice tomorrow.

The Costa Delizioza was over an hour behind the Star and it looked like it had to to hang about for over another hour outside the port and then made it's way into dock by about 10am and it looked as though it may have needed help from a tug to get docked. It left for Venice at 1435 and it is now making 20 knots to make it by 7:30 tomorrow.

Had the Star captain decided to hold fast on the off chance of a clearance and assuming he then decided he could make it in when the port opened after all and also allowed both big ships to dock at the same time (unlikely) there would only have been about three hours left for the excursions without a lot of unpalettable issues. He would then have been left with either a logical nightmare with the excursion teams, dissapointed passengers who had no time to get into and out of Dubrovnik or stay late and have to race back to Venice after an overstay to make the stop worthwhile and if no clearance came, cope with all three! Never mind all the safety issues to consider.

Captain's decision - our safety - no contest - good call.

This episode goes to show how complicated things can end up when the weather decides to get nasty and unreliable with a cruise ship.

My only real issue is that passengers were told the port was closed, it obviously wasn’t if another ship was able to dock.

It is a decision of the Captain, usually for safety. The only thing you can do is get the port charges back.

The reasons for the cancellation of the Star call at Dubrovnik were a bit more complex than the OP was able to see from a distance without all of the information to hand. It was a very difficult call.

 

Last night there was a very severe electric storm around the ship and there were a fair few nasty squalls about for most of the night. The weather was certainly very unreliable. The Star arrived off Dubrovnik in good time for an early 7.00 am dock to give everyone time to get their excursions done but according to the message from the captain at about 7am the port was closed due to Northerly winds in excess of 90 kph at the time. There was no indication when or if things would calm down enough to tie-up safely. The options were to hang about for a while in the area hoping for the best or give up and set sail for Venice. The planned stop was already tight to allow for the various trips and any delayed departure to give enough time to do everything planned could have jeopardised the disembarkation in Venice tomorrow.

 

The Costa Delizioza was over an hour behind the Star and it looked like it had to to hang about for over another hour outside the port and then made it's way into dock by about 10am and it looked as though it may have needed help from a tug to get docked. It left for Venice at 1435 and it is now making 20 knots to make it by 7:30 tomorrow.

 

Had the Star captain decided to hold fast on the off chance of a clearance and assuming he then decided he could make it in when the port opened after all and also allowed both big ships to dock at the same time (unlikely) there would only have been about three hours left for the excursions without a lot of unpalettable issues. He would then have been left with either a logical nightmare with the excursion teams, dissapointed passengers who had no time to get into and out of Dubrovnik or stay late and have to race back to Venice after an overstay to make the stop worthwhile and if no clearance came, cope with all three! Never mind all the safety issues to consider.

 

Captain's decision - our safety - no contest - good call.

 

This episode goes to show how complicated things can end up when the weather decides to get nasty and unreliable with a cruise ship.

What a brilliantly concise and explanatory post. Explains exactly to the OP the considerations of the Captain, whose primary consideration is safety of passengers, crew and ship.

Well said Sir, or Ma'am [emoji122]

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I'm a bit of a lurker, well a total lurker, who can't help but comment on this post ...

 

What a brilliantly concise and explanatory post. Explains exactly to the OP the considerations of the Captain, whose primary consideration is safety of passengers, crew and ship.

 

Well said Sir, or Ma'am [emoji122]

 

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Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the forum.

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I'm wondering too if having to find tugs from both availability and cost were a factor.

I know once leaving Dover it was very windy. Only one tug and had to wait for second. Obviously leaving port is one thing but opting to miss going into a port are a bit different.

My only real issue is that passengers were told the port was closed, it obviously wasn’t if another ship was able to dock.

It is very possible that the port closed after the other ship docked.

It is very possible that the port closed after the other ship docked.

It was the other way round. The port was closed overnight with northerly winds over 60 mph and so the Star couldn't get in when it got there and there was no forecast at that time if or when it would re-open. Bear in mind there is no protection to that dock from the North. The Costa ship schedule was later and when they got there, the weather was improving so they waited unil it was calm enough attempt docking. The whole Costa schedule was later than the Star and so the late departure from Dubrovnik did not cause them any major issue as it happened.

Star arrived on schedule in Venice at around 7:00 and the ship was cleared of passengers on time by 9:30 as the Costa was just starting their disembarking, more or less in line with it's timetable. It was just that there was not enough slack in the Star schedule to allow it to wait around in case the weather cleared and then leave Dubrovnik late given the then possibility of lots of missed flights if it was late into Venice this morning.

Its possible the the dock the costa ship used was easy to access under the weather conditions as it didnt have to manoeuvrer around other vessels - most of the time its the side winds when spinning or slipping the ships into docks that are the issue and as the port fills the accuracy of this becomes higher and higher.

My only real issue is that passengers were told the port was closed, it obviously wasn’t if another ship was able to dock.

Did it occur to you they may have docked prior to the closing of the port. I have seen this happen more than once. This is like saying, I know the airport is open cause my friend just got off a plane there 3 hours ago. They do not just make these stories up. Believe me, as years go by you will not be bothered because you missed a port or two. It is the overall experience that makes for a good vacation, not one port.

Did it occur to you they may have docked prior to the closing of the port.

Good point, but in this case the Costa ship still had something like 15 miles or so to run to Dubrovnik on time when the Star got there and the Captain had to make the call to hang about outside the closed port and wait and see if it got better or quit and head straight to Venice. By the time the Costa ship had covered those miles it looks like the weather had begun easing off, so with a little further waiting outside the port it was looking that it might be possible to dock, so their captain did just that. Timing was everything. That later Costa schedule meant it was able to take advantage of easing conditions that were not even forecast an hour earlier when the Star arrived on scene.

Good point, but in this case the Costa ship still had something like 15 miles or so to run to Dubrovnik on time when the Star got there and the Captain had to make the call to hang about outside the closed port and wait and see if it got better or quit and head straight to Venice. By the time the Costa ship had covered those miles it looks like the weather had begun easing off, so with a little further waiting outside the port it was looking that it might be possible to dock, so their captain did just that. Timing was everything. That later Costa schedule meant it was able to take advantage of easing conditions that were not even forecast an hour earlier when the Star arrived on scene.

The reasons for the cancellation of the Star call at Dubrovnik were a bit more complex than the OP was able to see from a distance without all of the information to hand. It was a very difficult call.

 

Last night there was a very severe electric storm around the ship and there were a fair few nasty squalls about for most of the night. The weather was certainly very unreliable. The Star arrived off Dubrovnik in good time for an early 7.00 am dock to give everyone time to get their excursions done but according to the message from the captain at about 7am the port was closed due to Northerly winds in excess of 90 kph at the time. There was no indication when or if things would calm down enough to tie-up safely. The options were to hang about for a while in the area hoping for the best or give up and set sail for Venice. The planned stop was already tight to allow for the various trips and any delayed departure to give enough time to do everything planned could have jeopardised the disembarkation in Venice tomorrow.

 

The Costa Delizioza was over an hour behind the Star and it looked like it had to to hang about for over another hour outside the port and then made it's way into dock by about 10am and it looked as though it may have needed help from a tug to get docked. It left for Venice at 1435 and it is now making 20 knots to make it by 7:30 tomorrow.

 

Had the Star captain decided to hold fast on the off chance of a clearance and assuming he then decided he could make it in when the port opened after all and also allowed both big ships to dock at the same time (unlikely) there would only have been about three hours left for the excursions without a lot of unpalettable issues. He would then have been left with either a logical nightmare with the excursion teams, dissapointed passengers who had no time to get into and out of Dubrovnik or stay late and have to race back to Venice after an overstay to make the stop worthwhile and if no clearance came, cope with all three! Never mind all the safety issues to consider.

 

Captain's decision - our safety - no contest - good call.

 

This episode goes to show how complicated things can end up when the weather decides to get nasty and unreliable with a cruise ship.

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Just to add - we were on this cruise. This was the first port we’ve had cancelled in 14 cruises so we consider ourselves fairly lucky. My son saw the electric storm going on over night and based on the whitecaps as far as we could see for several hours even after we left, we never questioned the decision. Just wanted to add that our final bill had $7 per person refunded for port charges for Dubrovnik, as well as $6 per person for a port charge adjustment for an earlier port.

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