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Intricate Docking Manuevers - Your Opinions

sbnuggie

By sbnuggie,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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sbnuggie

sbnuggie

Posted
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Just doing more research for our upcoming cruise and had a thought pop in my noggin'. Where is the most intricate or intriguing places to dock? I'm like most men in that I'm fascinated by the "operations" of a cruise ship and the engineering et al.. On the only two cruises I've been on I was up early and out on the balcony watching us pull into port (kid at Christmas), my wife gets mad because I video tape us pulling into port or docking, don't know why but it's fascinating to me how they can pull these huge ships into such tight areas, must be a man thing (insert grunting here).

 

The two places that stand out in my mind, and again I've only been on two cruises, are Belize and Puerto Vallarta.

 

Belize all of the turns to avoid reefs and such was fun to watch and even more so was we were in a line of three ships all in a row. Good Times.

 

Puerto Vallarta: I was on the Carnival Pride, we pulled in to the little turning basin and then spun 180 degree's and then went sideways to the dock. I was just burning our video tape onto DVD and didn't realize that I filmed 45 minutes of us docking....ooops. You can hear me in the background telling my wife "you gotta see this". I know the splendor hit the dock a few weeks back but I wonder if this was the same place we docked 5.5 yrs ago, it was north of town by the Wal Mart.

 

Anyway, to all of you experienced cruisers, what is your favorite place to watch a ship dock or the most fascinating?

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conchead

conchead

Posted
Posted
Just doing more research for our upcoming cruise and had a thought pop in my noggin'. Where is the most intricate or intriguing places to dock? I'm like most men in that I'm fascinated by the "operations" of a cruise ship and the engineering et al.. On the only two cruises I've been on I was up early and out on the balcony watching us pull into port (kid at Christmas), my wife gets mad because I video tape us pulling into port or docking, don't know why but it's fascinating to me how they can pull these huge ships into such tight areas:eek:, must be a man thing;) (insert grunting here).

 

The two places that stand out in my mind, and again I've only been on two cruises, are Belize and Puerto Vallarta.

 

Belize all of the turns to avoid reefs and such was fun to watch and even more so was we were in a line of three ships all in a row. Good Times.

 

Puerto Vallarta: I was on the Carnival Pride, we pulled in to the little turning basin and then spun 180 degree's and then went sideways to the dock. I was just burning our video tape onto DVD and didn't realize that I filmed 45 minutes of us docking....ooops. You can hear me in the background telling my wife "you gotta see this". I know the splendor hit the dock a few weeks back but I wonder if this was the same place we docked 5.5 yrs ago, it was north of town by the Wal Mart.

 

Anyway, to all of you experienced cruisers, what is your favorite place to watch a ship dock or the most fascinating?

...get your mind out of the turning basin!!:D

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jonbgd

jonbgd

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Yes the splendor docks the same place as the pride use too

The most exciting was when the Splendor hit the Radiance while we were on it in PV He came in hot just like when he took out the tender peir

 

I do agree with you about Belize

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KarenMF

KarenMF

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This isn't a docking, but how about sailaway from JAX - going under that bridge! Wow! Looks like there is no way you are going to clear....

 

Do you mean Tampa? That's really cool to go under the Skyway bridge. I have never sailed out of Jacksonville so I don't know if they have a bridge too.

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AFsouth

AFsouth

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Town Cut, Bermuda is a thrill, but I just love being on deck when we come into Nassau, especially when there are ships following you, and you get to watch them each swing 180 and back into their slips...EM

Ditto regarding Nassau. The port was loaded the day we were there, but the sail away was awesome!

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misguidedangel

misguidedangel

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I think Ocho Rios would be challenging with having two ships dock at the same pier as there is room for two ships, but everytime I go to Ocho Rios we are the only one.

 

I found Montego Bay interesting to dock at and the ship has to do a 180 as well and then back into the berth.

 

Belize is interesting with all the turns. I have been there twice (in a three month span) and it seemed to take a good 2 hours just to get to where we were to anchor!

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salty dingo

salty dingo

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I liked it when we got to the port of Miami and our ship was docked backwards. Upon sailaway, we sailed away from the ocean a bit, got in the turning basin, and watched the cops close off the waterway. We did a 180 and went back toward the place we came from.

 

The other ships were dropping the lines as we went past, and fell in line behind us.

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nybumpkin

nybumpkin

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One suggestion I have for leaving port (probably arriving in port as well) on a Spirit-class ship if you like to watch the crew at work: be on deck 3 aft. This is the deck with the outside promenade. We were on Miracle this past summer, and DH and I went aft while we were leaving Grand Turk. We had a great view of the crew letting go the lines and bringing in the flag from the aft jackstaff.

 

I also agree with the 180 in Nassau!

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cathyz

cathyz

Posted
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Just doing more research for our upcoming cruise and had a thought pop in my noggin'. Where is the most intricate or intriguing places to dock? I'm like most men in that I'm fascinated by the "operations" of a cruise ship and the engineering et al.. On the only two cruises I've been on I was up early and out on the balcony watching us pull into port (kid at Christmas), my wife gets mad because I video tape us pulling into port or docking, don't know why but it's fascinating to me how they can pull these huge ships into such tight areas, must be a man thing (insert grunting here).

 

The two places that stand out in my mind, and again I've only been on two cruises, are Belize and Puerto Vallarta.

 

Belize all of the turns to avoid reefs and such was fun to watch and even more so was we were in a line of three ships all in a row. Good Times.

 

Puerto Vallarta: I was on the Carnival Pride, we pulled in to the little turning basin and then spun 180 degree's and then went sideways to the dock. I was just burning our video tape onto DVD and didn't realize that I filmed 45 minutes of us docking....ooops. You can hear me in the background telling my wife "you gotta see this". I know the splendor hit the dock a few weeks back but I wonder if this was the same place we docked 5.5 yrs ago, it was north of town by the Wal Mart.

 

Anyway, to all of you experienced cruisers, what is your favorite place to watch a ship dock or the most fascinating?

One other thing you might like to do is do the 'Behind the Fun' tour, you'll love the visit to the engineering control room with the head engineer, very very interesting! Not to mention the rest of the tour.

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Nannersmom

Nannersmom

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Do you mean Tampa? That's really cool to go under the Skyway bridge. I have never sailed out of Jacksonville so I don't know if they have a bridge too.

Jax has a bridge too. It is called the Dames Point Bridge. When we lived in Jax (husband was in the Navy, and like men he really is in to the "workings" of a ship) we could watch it go under. Once was going over the bridge while the ship was under. It is really cool and also really close! They are going to drudge that canal a little deeper so there may be larger ships in the future.

If you google Dames Point Bridge there are some cool pics, even some of cruise ship going under bridge.

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cruisetobeaches

cruisetobeaches

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We were in Belize last month. we've been there before and know about the multiple turns leaving the port. Quite a zig-zag.

 

But, last month on the Legend, we did multiple circles and forward-reverse moves and I thought maybe the ship had run aground and they were trying to get it freed up.

 

Turns out that a new compass had been installed while in Florida and the company that calibrates it boarded in Belize to do the calibration and testing. I found this out on the last day of the cruise when I took the Behind the Fun Tour from the Captain. One of the others on the tour actually asked him if he had gotten "stuck" in Belize! He explained the procedure and then showed us the new equipment. Pretty cool!

 

Almost every control has a back up, so it's not like we were sailing with Jack Sparrow's compass!!!

 

Oh yeah, that's CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow.....................

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