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Royal Princess to move to California?


cruzrbachoua
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I thought only one set of the locks was finished for bigger ships? That's why CB is only doing partial transit...

 

Based on past discussions, there's a cost factor with the new locks being more expensive.

 

I'm certainly no expert on the Canal but have read posts from those who seem to be informed who write that larger ships can make full transits using the new locks but it's more expensive.

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Even if Royal came to California there is very (very!) little likelihood that it would come to SF. It would go to LA. Princess really doesn't care all that much about SF.

 

But the new Royal class ships are too tall to pass under the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver. The Royal Princess is 217' tall and ships have to be 200' or less to pass under the Lions Gate Bridge. :loudcry:

 

Paul

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But the new Royal class ships are too tall to pass under the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver. The Royal Princess is 217' tall and ships have to be 200' or less to pass under the Lions Gate Bridge. :loudcry:

 

Paul

 

I was just going to ask that same question about the Centennial Bridge in Panama. I thought it was too low to allow tall ships through which is the other reason CB is not doing full transit she is too tall?

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I was just going to ask that same question about the Centennial Bridge in Panama. I thought it was too low to allow tall ships through which is the other reason CB is not doing full transit she is too tall?

 

It is 262' tall so Royal class ships should be fine.

 

Paul

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But the new Royal class ships are too tall to pass under the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver. The Royal Princess is 217' tall and ships have to be 200' or less to pass under the Lions Gate Bridge. :loudcry:

 

Paul

 

But she could still sail round trip from Seattle! :D

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But the new Royal class ships are too tall to pass under the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver. The Royal Princess is 217' tall and ships have to be 200' or less to pass under the Lions Gate Bridge. :loudcry:

 

 

I'm wondering if that 217 ft number is really the height over the keel. Yes, it's reported as air draft (height over the waterline) but Regal easily clears the Storebaelt Bridge in Denmark and it is listed as having a clearance of 65m (213 ft). When we were on Regal last year, an officer said we clear by over five meters which would fit with the 217 being height over keel (Regal and Royal each draw over eight meters (25 feet)). So if true, then Royal's air draft is under 200 feet and it would clear the Lions Gate Bridge.

 

It's hard to figure how they could effectively use it on the west coast if it didn't clear Lions Gate. While it could do the cruises out of Seattle, there's the issue of positioning cruises which do things like L.A. to Vancouver followed by a one-day Vancouver to Seattle to be legal for carrying passengers. Without being able to get into Vancouver, they'd have to move it empty from California which I don't see happening.

 

As for the question of getting it to California, there's also the possibility it would go there at the end of a European season by sailing east, presumably via the Suez Canal and around India.

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It's hard to figure how they could effectively use it on the west coast if it didn't clear Lions Gate. While it could do the cruises out of Seattle, there's the issue of positioning cruises which do things like L.A. to Vancouver followed by a one-day Vancouver to Seattle to be legal for carrying passengers. Without being able to get into Vancouver, they'd have to move it empty from California which I don't see happening.

 

As for the question of getting it to California, there's also the possibility it would go there at the end of a European season by sailing east, presumably via the Suez Canal and around India.

 

Couldn't they stop in Victoria vs Vancouver to cover the Passenger services act?

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I'm wondering if that 217 ft number is really the height over the keel. Yes, it's reported as air draft (height over the waterline) but Regal easily clears the Storebaelt Bridge in Denmark and it is listed as having a clearance of 65m (213 ft). When we were on Regal last year, an officer said we clear by over five meters which would fit with the 217 being height over keel (Regal and Royal each draw over eight meters (25 feet)). So if true, then Royal's air draft is under 200 feet and it would clear the Lions Gate Bridge.

 

It's hard to figure how they could effectively use it on the west coast if it didn't clear Lions Gate. While it could do the cruises out of Seattle, there's the issue of positioning cruises which do things like L.A. to Vancouver followed by a one-day Vancouver to Seattle to be legal for carrying passengers. Without being able to get into Vancouver, they'd have to move it empty from California which I don't see happening.

 

As for the question of getting it to California, there's also the possibility it would go there at the end of a European season by sailing east, presumably via the Suez Canal and around India.

 

Good comments Larry. Hope it can clear the Lions Gate. May have to coordinate that with low tide, if they can.

 

Paul

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I was just going to ask that same question about the Centennial Bridge in Panama. I thought it was too low to allow tall ships through which is the other reason CB is not doing full transit she is too tall?

 

The clearance issue on the Panama Canal is the Bridge of the Americas, at high tide the clearance is 201'

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Couldn't they stop in Victoria vs Vancouver to cover the Passenger services act?

 

It's not just stopping at one of those ports, they would need to embark and disembark. You can't go by foreign ship from a U.S. west coast port to/from Seattle without stopping at a "distant foreign port" which essentially means on a different continent. Neither Vancouver or Victoria meet that requirement. And it's why you get those one-night Vancouver-Seattle cruises so the ships can go from California to Seattle as two separate U.S. to/from Canada cruises.

 

I seriously doubt Victoria could handle embarking / disembarking 3,600+ passengers. There's not a lot of air capacity at YYJ (Victoria) and while the ferries are large, they're pretty busy with the existing local traffic.

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It's not just stopping at one of those ports, they would need to embark and disembark. You can't go by foreign ship from a U.S. west coast port to/from Seattle without stopping at a "distant foreign port" which essentially means on a different continent. Neither Vancouver or Victoria meet that requirement. And it's why you get those one-night Vancouver-Seattle cruises so the ships can go from California to Seattle as two separate U.S. to/from Canada cruises.

 

I seriously doubt Victoria could handle embarking / disembarking 3,600+ passengers. There's not a lot of air capacity at YYJ (Victoria) and while the ferries are large, they're pretty busy with the existing local traffic.

 

Yeah didn't think about the embarking/disembarking part...duh.

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So if the Royal goes west, how does Europe get filled, let alone the Caribbean? I forget when the next new one is launched.... maybe that's the answer?

 

Based on what I found, there are new Royal-Class ships scheduled for 2019, 2020 & 2022.

 

I'm considering a Norway cruise in June 2018 on the Sapphire which has been redeployed from Asia.

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I'm not surprised that the Royal or Regal is being redeployed to the West Coast. I predicted it as soon as I heard that two more Royal-class ships had been ordered. It made no sense to have three or four Royal-class ships in the Caribbean. These ships are too big for most of the South American ports and with the new Panama Canal locks, it wouldn't be a big deal to redeploy one of them to California. They are perfect (and more economical) for both the long 30-day South Pacific and Hawaiian cruises.

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I'm not surprised that the Royal or Regal is being redeployed to the West Coast. I predicted it as soon as I heard that two more Royal-class ships had been ordered. It made no sense to have three or four Royal-class ships in the Caribbean. These ships are too big for most of the South American ports and with the new Panama Canal locks, it wouldn't be a big deal to redeploy one of them to California. They are perfect (and more economical) for both the long 30-day South Pacific and Hawaiian cruises.

 

I'm thrilled! I love that ship. Maybe we'll go to Hawaii after all.....

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I'm not surprised that the Royal or Regal is being redeployed to the West Coast. I predicted it as soon as I heard that two more Royal-class ships had been ordered. It made no sense to have three or four Royal-class ships in the Caribbean. These ships are too big for most of the South American ports and with the new Panama Canal locks, it wouldn't be a big deal to redeploy one of them to California. They are perfect (and more economical) for both the long 30-day South Pacific and Hawaiian cruises.

 

They have to as the Bliss will be deployed on the west coast for 8 months to do Alaska and Mexico.

 

Watch Bliss (Breakaway Class) dent the princess west coast market.

 

https://www.ncl.com/cruise-ship/bliss

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They have to as the Bliss will be deployed on the west coast for 8 months to do Alaska and Mexico.

 

Watch Bliss (Breakaway Class) dent the princess west coast market.

 

https://www.ncl.com/cruise-ship/bliss

 

Not necessarily... Not many Princess cruisers would switch to Norwegian. Some,yes and some will try it but that would mainly be a younger crowd. I'm very happy to have the Royal on the West Coast!

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