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Dream - Cancelling stop in San Juan

Tom-n-Cheryl

By Tom-n-Cheryl,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Chacooe

Chacooe

Posted
Posted
San Juan isn't a normal stop for Carnival Dream so this is a non-issue except for the people currently on the ship.

 

I guess we can rule out San Juan being a home port for Carnival Magic. :cool:

 

Don't even count on the Carnival Magic even coming to the US, Carnival is going to keep her in Europe to start back up the European cruises. Think about it, what better way to get people on board then to start again with a brand new ship.

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Sargent_Schultz

Sargent_Schultz

Posted
Posted
Don't even count on the Carnival Magic even coming to the US, Carnival is going to keep her in Europe to start back up the European cruises. Think about it, what better way to get people on board then to start again with a brand new ship.

 

Unless they add a retractable roof somehow, I don't see Magic staying in Europe year round and certainly not the Med or Baltics - too cold.

 

One of the Conquest class ships would be better suited for that.

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gtalum

gtalum

Posted
Posted
Don't even count on the Carnival Magic even coming to the US, Carnival is going to keep her in Europe to start back up the European cruises. Think about it, what better way to get people on board then to start again with a brand new ship.

 

Magic may very well be put into service on European cruises, but if so it will only be in the summers.

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DGP1111

DGP1111

Posted
Posted
Unless they add a retractable roof somehow, I don't see Magic staying in Europe year round and certainly not the Med or Baltics - too cold.

 

Seems the retracting roof is a no-go, but we heard this morning in one of the bloggers sessions that Carnival Magic will not be an exact carbon copy of the design of Carnival Dream. I guess some things have been learned from these past few months at sea.

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kkorman

kkorman

Posted
Posted
On it's first revenue sailing, Oasis had close to 4900 passengers. 100% capacity (at double occupancy) is 5400 so it was pretty close.

 

RCCL has a history of underselling the first few sailings of a new ship so the crew can get accustomed to the routines, traffic patterns, etc.

 

Prices will continue to be high through Summer 2010 then will come down dramatically.

 

make that fall... my cruise is almost double what i paid for it in Sept (with many categories showing not available. Crazy. October is looking the same way.

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CorvetteLady

CorvetteLady

Posted
Posted
WOW!!!

 

I guess, if I can't say anything nice... I won't say anything at all... I'll just ask the question that seems to have been asked over and over again...

 

How can Carnival not know how big the ship is or what size the pier/port is???

 

:confused:

 

I was on the Dream and have not read the entire thread so just in case no one else has said it I will. The problem was with the supports holding up the canopy on the dock. They would have ripped into the lifeboats. There is a simulator that the Captain uses to practice docking, the canopy was not on the simulator. A mistake was made and they told us that, we got a $20 OBC. I know that some people were disappointed, I talked to a few, but it happens. We got to Grand Turk 4 hours early and we had a great relaxing day at sea. Ship happens.

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LHP

LHP

Posted
Posted
Then why were the engineers looking at how it can be removed?:confused:

 

Why go through the effort if it was a one time thing?

 

The article about that has been removed from this thread because of copyright.

 

Steve

 

Because it is also stopping the Oasis and other large ships from docking there.

 

 

Due to her size....the Oasis is limited where she can go. They certainly don't want to let a piece of artwork eliminate a port for her.......

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happy cruzin

happy cruzin

Posted
Posted
Seems the retracting roof is a no-go, but we heard this morning in one of the bloggers sessions that Carnival Magic will not be an exact carbon copy of the design of Carnival Dream. I guess some things have been learned from these past few months at sea.

 

Hopefully they will fix the aft wrap situation on the Magic :rolleyes:......

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cruisin' dad

cruisin' dad

Posted
Posted

I was on the Costa Atlantica when the Dream tried to dock in San Juan and in port with them in Grand Turk the next day. I had a chance to talk to some people from the Dream and if they had arrived in S.J. before us they would have been able to dock on the side of the pier we were moored at. Unfortunately we had already tied off, the gang planks had been dropped and people had started leaving the ship. If you look at the design of the ship you can see how far out the lifeboats are compared to the C.A., which is the same ship design as Carnival's Spirit class of ships.

1651307258_CostaAtlanticaDec09096.jpg.40beeeb6edc3331f428449d97e2c8b0f.jpg

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steveaaaaa

steveaaaaa

Posted
Posted
Because it is also stopping the Oasis and other large ships from docking there.

 

 

Due to her size....the Oasis is limited where she can go. They certainly don't want to let a piece of artwork eliminate a port for her.......

 

I do realize that.I was responding to this post http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=22292359&postcount=204 that was saying the whole issue is/was a dead horse,which I know is not.

 

Steve

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estofon

estofon

Posted
Posted

I was on the Costa Atlantica, which was docked next to the Dream in Grand Turk. I am so sorry that the Dream could not dock in Old San Juan. Frankly, I was dumbfounded when I saw the Dream head back to sea after being so close to the pier!!!! By the way, San Juan is not equipped for tendering. The only other pier that could have handled the Dream is the Pan American pier used by Royal Caribbean, which is in Isla Grande, Santurce.

Luis

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Nunu

Nunu

Posted
Posted
I was on the Costa Atlantica, which was docked next to the Dream in Grand Turk. I am so sorry that the Dream could not dock in Old San Juan. Frankly, I was dumbfounded when I saw the Dream head back to sea after being so close to the pier!!!! By the way, San Juan is not equipped for tendering. The only other pier that could have handled the Dream is the Pan American pier used by Royal Caribbean, which is in Isla Grande, Santurce.

Luis

 

How did you like the Costa ship?

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Lilmatcat

Lilmatcat

Posted
Posted
I found this statement interesting:

 

However, even though plans and simulations had been made, Captain Queirolo realized that the steel cable that was part of the canopy on the pier would cause damage to and possibly puncture the lifeboats and life rafts.

 

 

I know that there are simulations that the crews of container ships and oil tankers use that included pretty much every port they can expect to make but for some reason I didn't think that the same was true of cruise ships and ports...

 

:)

 

During John and Todd's show, which was broadcast in our staterooms, there was considerable discussion over the ship's inability to dock at San Juan. John explained that in preparation for docking at all ports, the captains undergo rigorous practice on a million-dollar simulator machine. As I understand it, the dock's dimensions, as well as the ship's dimensions and the structures on the dock were all programmed into the simulator as part of a detailed process to plan for the docking and everything in the preliminary planning looked good. Unfortunately, the supporting steel cables on that canopy structure were NOT included on the simulator. As we approached the pier, the Captain (thankfully) noticed that the protruding cables were situated in a manner that they would have likely caused extensive damage to several lifeboats.

John further explained that IF our lifeboats had been damaged, our cruise would have been immediately halted (because you cannot sail with inadequate numbers of lifeboats). I, for one, am grateful the Captain noticed the potential problem and opted to skip the port. I can understand and accept the human error that occurred when the cables were not included in the simulator data. Thus, missing San Juan was not a big deal to me; it WOULD have been a big deal to me if they tried to force the ship in, damaged the lifeboats, and ended our cruise. Kudos to the captain and Carnival for recognizing the problem and handling it as best they could under VERY difficult circumstances.

 

 

I'm not sure why you say no fault incident. John Heald clearly said it was their fault in his blog.

 

I think John was very gracious when he said Carnival accepts full responsibility. I personally felt he was accepting more blame than he needed to, but he is not the type of person to pass the buck off onto someone else's shoulders. If people, instead of judging and pointing fingers and looking to find something to complain about, would look at this in a reasonable fashion they would understand how a cable could have been inadvertently missed in the planning stages. Yes, it was an unfortunate thing to have happened and I am sorry for those who were looking forward to their day in San Juan, but life is full of glitches. To Carnival's credit, they went into high gear to plan additional activities for our sea day, they made alternate arrangements to get the scheduled comedian on board at our next port so people didn't get shortchanged on the planned entertainment, and they also opened the main dining room to help counter any potential overcrowding on Lido Deck.

 

I appreciate the efforts they made and despite all the reviews I read prior to my trip, I have to share that I had an AMAZING nine days aboard the Carnival Dream. It was a memorable, fun-filled trip

... and by the way, we had a great day in San Juan!! :D

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jessemon

jessemon

Posted
Posted
Man. Over 200 posts & the topic is still being thrashed to death.

 

The last post on here should have been the comment about SJ being the Dream's only visit. That's it. Done, case closed because after that it's like beating a dead horse. :D

 

 

BaDH

Maybe because there are two more "Dream" class ships on the way.....:rolleyes:

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gaylensgigi

gaylensgigi

Posted
Posted
I was on the Costa Atlantica, which was docked next to the Dream in Grand Turk. I am so sorry that the Dream could not dock in Old San Juan. Frankly, I was dumbfounded when I saw the Dream head back to sea after being so close to the pier!!!! By the way, San Juan is not equipped for tendering. The only other pier that could have handled the Dream is the Pan American pier used by Royal Caribbean, which is in Isla Grande, Santurce.

 

Luis

 

 

I loved the way the passengers sang to us in Italian from the deck as you sailed away from Grand Turk.An incredible memory:D

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