Diamond drydock ????

[Venture]

It was just announced over a Victoria, B.C. radio station by Michael Cormier, CEO of the Victoria Harbour Authority, That Princess Cruises is attempting to get a 'time slot' for the Diamond Princess in Victoria's Esquimalt Drydock to repair damage. The drydock is one of the largest on the pacific coast- 1,040 ft. in length 126 ft wide at the base sloping to a width of 149 ft. I am sure Princess will give all passengers ample time to book on other sailings.

[srphnx]

Interesting but no time frame?

 

Life is at it's best when your address floats

Two MORE open Bookings.

<FONT color=red>Alaska</FONT>

Diamond Princess 05/04 ~~ Mercury 06/02

Rhapsody o.t. Seas 05/98 ~~ Legend o.t. Seas 09/95

<FONT color=red>Mexican Riviera</FONT>

Diamond Princess 12/04

Diamond Princess 11/04 ~~ Diamond Princess 04/04

Sea Princess 01/02 ~~ Vision o.t. Seas 04/02<FONT color=red>

West Coast-Baja Mexico</FONT>

Ecstacy 09/01

<FONT color=red>Eastern Carribean</FONT>

Century 12/97

<FONT color=red>Western Carribean</FONT>

Century 9/96

 

[Venture]

No time was given. The report stated that the reason for not docking May 28th was not only the strong westerly wind but the damage sustained by Diamond the previous Friday evening.

[Druke I]

Not surprised, for if they did fact "tip" or bend a prop, easiest way to repair it is out of water. Very difficult for divers to do more than a temporary grinding job.

 

Michael

[TracyQ]

Yeepers - I can almost get over not making all my ports, rainy weather, and late embarkation.....but to not get on at all would just be the worst! Keep us updated - I am sure we will hear when something is definite.

 

Tracy

 

DIAMOND ALASKA

 

[gaschatt]

I called Princess and they had no notice of anything on their daily ship updates. Of course, the people on the phones may be the last to know. Wonder if this is also why the ship did not go all the way up Tracey Arm, while others did (although I think one of those instances may have been b-4 the Victoria incident)

[WCAB]

This makes me really nervous because our cruise is the five day transition cruise between Alaska and Mexico, which will take place in September, it might make since to Princess to try and do repairs in that break of time. We have booked our own air and hotel. We are getting travel insurance, so I guess we would not be out of the money but I am sooo looking forward to this that I would just be sick if our trip got canceled How much notice does one usually get, if repair is not critical? Is there a web site where we can track who is going to dry dock and when?

 

Carol

 

Carnival Spirit-Hawaii

[Sandy R]

Seems to me it depends on when Victoria's drydock has a slot open. IMHO sooner would be better than later. There will be lots of unhappy Alaska passengers missing ports from now until September if Princess waits. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. At least we're sure to hear quickly thanks to cruisecritic.com.

 

Sandy

 

Sandy

[cnmiranda]

Well, a very interresting turn of events. I wonder if this means all the cruises here on in will be missing Juneau and Victoria until repairs? Thanks for the update Venture!

 

Majesty of the Seas (2)

Norwegian Dawn

Monarch of the Seas

Diamond Princess Alaska

Grand Princess 9/04

[gaschatt]

I wouldn't think Juneau would be missed as that was probably the result of late departure. Captain did tell last cruise that they were going to dock in Victoria, but only cancelled (again) at last minute because of 'weather' Last minute change doesn't really indicate that damage caused him to beg off since at one point following damage they were going top go for it. Maybe he was a bit jittery about it though. Is Victoria that much harder of a docking procedure than the Alaskan ports?

 

[This message was edited by gaschatt on 05-31-04 at 09:53 PM.]

[edYYZ]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by gaschatt:

Is Victoria that much harder of a docking procedure than the Alaskan ports?

 

[This message was edited by gaschatt on 05-31-04 at 09:53 PM.]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

I'm not sure, but I think it may be? I was on the Diamond from 5/15 to 5/22, and the pier in Victoria did look like it would require more precise maneuvering than in Juneau, Skagway or Ketchikan. Of course, since I'm not the captain of a cruise ship, I wouldn't know for sure. In every pier (except for Victoria), the dock was on one side only, so there was a relatively large body of water on the other side. In Victoria, however, our space it looked like we were heading for had concrete structures on both sides (like parking between two cars in a parking lot). The Oosterdam's pier in Victoria looked the same too.

[srphnx]

I have several pics of the damage before they painted it, for anyone who cares to see.

 

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by gaschatt:

I wouldn't think Juneau would be missed as that was probably the result of late departure. Captain did tell last cruise that they were going to dock in Victoria, but only cancelled (again) at last minute because of 'weather' Last minute change doesn't really indicate that damage caused him to beg off since at one point following damage they were going top go for it. Maybe he was a bit jittery about it though. Is Victoria that much harder of a docking procedure than the Alaskan ports?

 

[This message was edited by gaschatt on 05-31-04 at 09:53 PM.]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

Life is at it's best when your address floats

Two MORE open Bookings.

<FONT color=red>Alaska</FONT>

Diamond Princess 05/04 ~~ Mercury 06/02

Rhapsody o.t. Seas 05/98 ~~ Legend o.t. Seas 09/95

<FONT color=red>Mexican Riviera</FONT>

Diamond Princess 12/04

Diamond Princess 11/04 ~~ Diamond Princess 04/04

Sea Princess 01/02 ~~ Vision o.t. Seas 04/02<FONT color=red>

West Coast-Baja Mexico</FONT>

Ecstacy 09/01

<FONT color=red>Eastern Carribean</FONT>

Century 12/97

<FONT color=red>Western Carribean</FONT>

Century 9/96

[bcs819]

for anyone who has knowledge of how this works....I assume this would happen before the Diamond returns to the Mexican Riviera, right? We are scheduled on her on 9/25 and I am concerned that I should have a backup vacation plan as we already have non-refundable air to LA...

 

Bernie

 

 

"so many cruises, so little vacation time"

Diamond Princess - September 2004

Grand Princess - March 2003

Carnival Pride - June 2002

Carnival Victory - June 2001

 

 

 

[woodspines]

Hi sphynx,

Glad to hear you made it back safe and sound. I was gone for the holiday weekend, and the first thing I did when I settled in at home was check the boards to see your reports. I would love to see the pictures of the damage. Where can I retrieve them? One more MAJOR question, did they have any jello with marshmallows??? Ha Ha

[lesharona]

I had my agent check with Princess this morning

here is his reply:

 

Princess tells me the propeller has been replaced and there will be no

dry dock needed.

Let me know if you have heard something different.

[gaschatt]

Please by no means take this as a questioning of Venture's integrity, but the 'announcement' sounds like some kind of press release, however, I can find no mention of it anywhere. Is it possible it may not be being published as it was not deemed newsworthy?

[cnmiranda]

Srphnx, if you happen to check back to this thread, I would be interrested in seeing the photos of the damage. We were never able to see it during our sailing. Thanks.

 

Majesty of the Seas (2)

Norwegian Dawn

Monarch of the Seas

Diamond Princess Alaska

Grand Princess 9/04

[srphnx]

Obviously I don't have prop pics.

 

Here is what happens when you dock in 35 knot winds for a medical evacuation.

 

 

Life is at it's best when your address floats

Two MORE open Bookings.

<FONT color=red>Alaska</FONT>

Diamond Princess 05/04 ~~ Mercury 06/02

Rhapsody o.t. Seas 05/98 ~~ Legend o.t. Seas 09/95

<FONT color=red>Mexican Riviera</FONT>

Diamond Princess 12/04

Diamond Princess 11/04 ~~ Diamond Princess 04/04

Sea Princess 01/02 ~~ Vision o.t. Seas 04/02<FONT color=red>

West Coast-Baja Mexico</FONT>

Ecstacy 09/01

<FONT color=red>Eastern Carribean</FONT>

Century 12/97

<FONT color=red>Western Carribean</FONT>

Century 9/96

 

[Rat]

"Princess tells me the propeller has been replaced and there will be no

dry dock needed".

 

I find this quote hard to believe. I can't imagine how they are able to replace the propeller without drydocking. A propeller depending on size must weigh a few tons.

[cnmiranda]

Thanks so much for posting the photo, Srphnx. I imagined a few scratches, but not that Will show hubby when he get's home. It will give us good bragging rights to say "we were on that fateful cruise!"

 

Majesty of the Seas (2)

Norwegian Dawn

Monarch of the Seas

Diamond Princess Alaska

Grand Princess 9/04

[lesharona]

I can't imagine why Princess would lie about it.

I told my agent we were just wondering when they

may be doing the repairs so if it interfered with our Sept cruise we could make other plans now.

[Rat]

Lesharona,

 

I hope your cruise in Sept goes as planned. The size, weight and location of the propeller make this task a major undertaking. If they have to replace the propeller, it may take a few months to fabricate a new one and to ship it. Just hope for the best.

[WCAB]

Gee, just when I breath a sigh of relief, there is another take on the repair and whether or not it has been done or not. If you listen to Princess all has been taken care of and the ship will not have to go to dry dock but then some posters seem to feel the damage was beyond what could have been repaired while the ship was in the water. This is driving me crazy. If it turns out Princess knows now they will be going to dry dock and are telling us all they will not have to, I am going to be upset. They could say yes but no date has been determined yet. Hope Princess is being up front and all is well.

 

Carol

 

Carnival Spirit-Hawaii

[Sandy R]

Unless you're speaking to someone higher up, it has been my experience that Princess booking agents aren't generally told of future plans such as going into drydock, until it is made public. I think we cruisecritics find out info faster than a Princess agent. Someone mentioned it would take time to get a new propeller. Sounds right to me. If that's the case, it's a distinct possibility that Princess doesn't know when they'll go into drydock yet. Why should they alarm passengers on various cruises if they themselves don't know the date. I do believe Princess understands that it's to their benefit to let passengers know well ahead if their cruise is to be cancelled... let's hope I'm right. We sail on the Diamond in August. I, for one, would rather Princess cancels our cruise if the choice is to limp along for 7 days and perhaps miss a port or two. I do hope we hear something soon.

 

Sandy

[Palomino]

Last year, two weeks before we boarded the Celebrity Summit in Vancouver, she hit something (perhaps an iceberg with a rock in it) while visiting Hubbard Glacier. She made it to Seward with a damaged prop, but the next group was delayed in leaving. Upon our arrival in Vancouver, we were told that our cruise would be departing several ours late. From my parents aft balcony, we saw the shiny new prop sitting on the dock waiting to be installed. Divers were able to complete the task, and we sailed at midnight with no further interupptions in our itinerary. As far as I know the Summit never had to go into dry dock.