Inaugural cruise date ever change?

[trippingpara]

I'm booked on the Vista's inaugural cruise out of Trieste, Italy. This is my first inaugural cruise and I'm curious if the initial cruise date would every change? Seeing how building a ship is a monumental undertaking and there are a plethora of ways that the completion date could be delayed. I know that it is supposed to be delivered in April and the inaugural cruise is May 1st. I was just wondering if anybody has ever experienced or knows of an inaugural cruise getting pushed back or is that date rock solid?

[chengkp75]

Nothing to do with ships and the sea is "rock solid". Anything can change. As an example, look at NCL's Pride of America, which sank at the builder's dock before completion. Many cruises cancelled, another ship reflagged months ahead of schedule to get the Hawaii operation back on track, and over a year to repair and complete the POA. Having said that, look at Quantum of the Seas, which had to go into drydock immediately after sea trials to repair thrusters, and still made delivery on time for the inaugural.

[Tapi]

Even if the inaugural sailing does go on schedule, also be prepared for the ship not to be "quite ready". Some venues may still be getting final touches, systems throughout the ship may not be fully operational, glitches may be experienced, etc, etc. You are sort of a "guinea pig" since an inaugural is usually the first time that everything on the ship goes live with real passengers onboard.

 

Expect for things to happen, but have an awesome time!

[love my grandkids]

IMHO dangerous to do an inaugural sailing especially on a new class of ship as they might not be ready and could delay first sailing or even sail with work going on.

[loubetti]

With dry docks and modifications being made to the ship during such, this could prove true, with work being done after the dry dock. This is common.

 

With a new ship, this will very, very not likely be the case.

 

A contract has been signed with the ship yard, at a specified price for a certain delivery date. Granted, some problems may occur that could delay the date, even increase the cost, and that might entail penalties for the yard. However, when the ship is delivered she will be 100% complete. Now, that does not mean that there might be some unforeseen "glitches" that need to be corrected, but the ship will be complete. You will not see closed venues or uninstalled carpet for example.

 

Typically a ship is completed and then goes on sea trials for a day or so in order to see that it is up to performance specs etc. Of course she is otherwise inspected as to completion. Usually staff of the cruise line, such as the future captain are around during building to keep an eye on things. The owners sign off, deliver a BIG check to the yard and take ownership of the vessel.

 

Any cruise line that would take delivery of a new ship that is not 100% complete is not a cruise line line I would sail on. I am quite certain that Carnival will bring to service a 100% complete ship.

[chengkp75]

With dry docks and modifications being made to the ship during such, this could prove true, with work being done after the dry dock. This is common.

 

With a new ship, this will very, very not likely be the case.

 

A contract has been signed with the ship yard, at a specified price for a certain delivery date. Granted, some problems may occur that could delay the date, even increase the cost, and that might entail penalties for the yard. However, when the ship is delivered she will be 100% complete. Now, that does not mean that there might be some unforeseen "glitches" that need to be corrected, but the ship will be complete. You will not see closed venues or uninstalled carpet for example.

 

Typically a ship is completed and then goes on sea trials for a day or so in order to see that it is up to performance specs etc. Of course she is otherwise inspected as to completion. Usually staff of the cruise line, such as the future captain are around during building to keep an eye on things. The owners sign off, deliver a BIG check to the yard and take ownership of the vessel.

 

Any cruise line that would take delivery of a new ship that is not 100% complete is not a cruise line line I would sail on. I am quite certain that Carnival will bring to service a 100% complete ship.

 

I'm going to disagree with this, to a certain extent.

 

When a ship is built, many systems are sub-contracted out, as the shipyard does not have enough business in that specialty to keep a workforce on hand. Things like surveillance systems, IT systems, casinos, many, many others. If the contract for these services is between the shipyard and the sub-contractor, then completion of the job would be a requirement for delivery. However, frequently, the ship owner will contract directly with the contractor, and in these cases, the shipyard has no control over the work, and therefore delivery of the vessel is not contingent on completion of the job. Depending on how critical the system is, the ship owner may decide to place the ship in service while the contractor finishes and just refund a portion of the cruise fare.

 

Sea trials are generally to ensure that the ship's infrastructure (engineering, propulsion, maneuvering) and regulatory requirements are working, not whether everything works in the theater. Even then, things can break, and parts are not available for an extended time, and the owner will decide to take delivery anyway.

 

There are many cruise line representatives in the shipyard more knowledgeable about ship's construction than the ship's future Captain. Each cruise line has a department solely devoted to newbuilds, and has specialists in hull construction, engineering, and hotel operations who will be supervising the construction. I chuckle at the RCI shows about building their ships, where it appears that the Captain is chairing the morning meetings. No, he's right down the list, generally below the Chief Engineer and above the shipyard's foremen.

 

Will the ship be 100% completed? Maybe. It all depends on how critical the unfinished item is to the operation of the ship. If the ship can generate revenue while work is completed, you bet that cruise lines will bring that ship into service. Do they concentrate on making the front of house look complete? Sure. How is the average cruiser to know whether everything in back of house has been finished.

[love my grandkids]

I'm going to disagree with this, to a certain extent.

 

When a ship is built, many systems are sub-contracted out, as the shipyard does not have enough business in that specialty to keep a workforce on hand. Things like surveillance systems, IT systems, casinos, many, many others. If the contract for these services is between the shipyard and the sub-contractor, then completion of the job would be a requirement for delivery. However, frequently, the ship owner will contract directly with the contractor, and in these cases, the shipyard has no control over the work, and therefore delivery of the vessel is not contingent on completion of the job. Depending on how critical the system is, the ship owner may decide to place the ship in service while the contractor finishes and just refund a portion of the cruise fare.

 

Sea trials are generally to ensure that the ship's infrastructure (engineering, propulsion, maneuvering) and regulatory requirements are working, not whether everything works in the theater. Even then, things can break, and parts are not available for an extended time, and the owner will decide to take delivery anyway.

 

There are many cruise line representatives in the shipyard more knowledgeable about ship's construction than the ship's future Captain. Each cruise line has a department solely devoted to newbuilds, and has specialists in hull construction, engineering, and hotel operations who will be supervising the construction. I chuckle at the RCI shows about building their ships, where it appears that the Captain is chairing the morning meetings. No, he's right down the list, generally below the Chief Engineer and above the shipyard's foremen.

 

Will the ship be 100% completed? Maybe. It all depends on how critical the unfinished item is to the operation of the ship. If the ship can generate revenue while work is completed, you bet that cruise lines will bring that ship into service. Do they concentrate on making the front of house look complete? Sure. How is the average cruiser to know whether everything in back of house has been finished.

 

makes sense to me. thanks for the post and confirmation of us never doing an inagural cruise

[SadieN]

I read here (years ago) about a cancelled first sailing.

 

The cruiseline refunded everyone's fare then invited them to fit out the ship.

The pax that took them up on the offer were given hard hats and put to work---setting up chairs, tables etc.

[loubetti]

What I was trying to say is that you should have no closed venues, un-installed carpet, etc. A delay might happen.

 

What happens back of house can certainly be different, but the passenger will not know this, and if such occurs back of house, one has to ask who screwed up?

 

When these ships continue to use new technology, there is always the chance that "glitches" can occur, as I stated above.

 

Let's change the course here:

 

Does anyone in their right mind think that United Airlines would take deliver of a new Boeing 787 DreamLiner unless it was 100% complete?

 

"Uh, the first class lav isn't working, but we'll get it fixed". "The IFE system has some glitches, but we'll get it fixed".

 

Then again, the 787 suffered some early LI battery issues in operational aircraft, but they were addressed in the field. However, the aircraft was delivered to the customer ready to fly, just as the ship should be.

 

Seriously! I don't agree!!! You buy it, it IS complete. Issues occur afterwards, and they are corrected, but who in their right mind would write a check for an uncompleted ship? That shows a serious lack of competence in design talent, design and build planning.

[chengkp75]

What I was trying to say is that you should have no closed venues, un-installed carpet, etc. A delay might happen.

 

What happens back of house can certainly be different, but the passenger will not know this, and if such occurs back of house, one has to ask who screwed up?

 

When these ships continue to use new technology, there is always the chance that "glitches" can occur, as I stated above.

 

Let's change the course here:

 

Does anyone in their right mind think that United Airlines would take deliver of a new Boeing 787 DreamLiner unless it was 100% complete?

 

"Uh, the first class lav isn't working, but we'll get it fixed". "The IFE system has some glitches, but we'll get it fixed".

 

Then again, the 787 suffered some early LI battery issues in operational aircraft, but they were addressed in the field. However, the aircraft was delivered to the customer ready to fly, just as the ship should be.

 

Seriously! I don't agree!!! You buy it, it IS complete. Issues occur afterwards, and they are corrected, but who in their right mind would write a check for an uncompleted ship? That shows a serious lack of competence in design talent, design and build planning.

 

I'll continue to differ with you.

 

I know your expertise is aircraft, mine is ships. Your analogy isn't quite 100%. Airplanes are essentially mass-produced, while ships are generally one-offs (or a limited number of copies). The manufacturer of parts for airplanes knows that there is a pretty steady market for their parts, so there is a continual production (if no longer a constant warehouse stock, given today's "just in time inventory" model), while much of the equipment for a ship is built to order, and just enough are built to complete the number of ships ordered. This has a common and unfortunate effect where the first ship built has a problem with a piece of equipment. Rather than delay the ship's delivery because the part needs 8 months to produce, they "steal" the one from the next ship to be built. Sometimes this means the last ship of a class has some "repaired", or "reconditioned" parts that have come from the earlier ships. Remember, until the ship is delivered, it is not owned by the cruise line, so in a lot of cases, how the shipyard does their business is no business of the ship owner. The yard just hopes that last ship will pass sea trials.

 

So, again, I will say that things that fail towards the end of the building period will be analyzed by the owner, and they will determine whether or not to take delivery, whether or not they trade delivery for a reduction in price, or whether or not to cover it under warranty.

 

Will you have unopened venues or uninstalled carpets? Most likely not, as they will try to put the lipstick first.

 

Shipbuilding is not a "pay on delivery" industry. You have to make incremental payments as various "milestones" are met, like 10% at signing of contract, 20% more at start of steel cutting, etc. The cruise line is paying interest on this money they have already paid to the yard, so there is a penalty for delaying delivery, and it may not be within the yard's control, so the line does a cost analysis to determine whether it is better to delay delivery and delay any revenue coming in, or whether to start revenue and hold the yard responsible to complete the work with the ship in service.

 

The ship owner will take the best "deal" balancing cost to benefit when deciding to accept a ship.

[EZ4]

Anyone remember the Sunshine debacle? Granted, that wasn't a new ship, but Carnival DID try to pass it off as "new". It sailed at least 3 cruises before everything was completed, including, but not limited to the main pool being closed for a number of cruises. To this day it continues to experience the curse of the name change, most recently the last sailing where cabin 3143 suffered from horrific sewer gas smells that exposed Carnival's inept response to serious guest issues.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2167632

[kicia]

The ship could also be completed earlier than planned. We were supposed to be on the inaugural of the Splendor in 2008. It was finished early and there were three last minute cruises before ours so we were not on the inaugural. We were very disappointed and I probably would not try to be on an inaugural again.