Royal Class ships and Vancouver

[cruisingrob21]

It's been well documented in the past that the Royal Class ships (as well as several NCL ships) barely fit under the lionsgate and generally only near low tide.  Typically, unique itineraries (coastal voyages) show this as either a very early arrival time into Canada Place, or a very late (10pm) departure time.  For the more regular/routine itineraries (7 day voyage of the glaciers) has anyone received a change notice close to sailing date of a much later departure or very early arrival?

[travellingnana]

1 hour ago, cruisingrob21 said:

It's been well documented in the past that the Royal Class ships (as well as several NCL ships) barely fit under the lionsgate and generally only near low tide.  Typically, unique itineraries (coastal voyages) show this as either a very early arrival time into Canada Place, or a very late (10pm) departure time.  For the more regular/routine itineraries (7 day voyage of the glaciers) has anyone received a change notice close to sailing date of a much later departure or very early arrival?

We arrived in Vancouver a couple of days ago (on the Royal) early in the morning so I didn’t see us come in under the bridge, but we left around 3:30-4pm and we fit under just fine!

[Wishing on a star]

Tide charts are very reliable, and Princess should know the windows for arriving or departing thru that area for these sailings.  I do not know, but I wonder if all sailings go that route, or if some use alternate routes.

 

[sonomaphil]

13 hours ago, cruisingrob21 said:

It's been well documented in the past that the Royal Class ships (as well as several NCL ships) barely fit under the lionsgate and generally only near low tide.  Typically, unique itineraries (coastal voyages) show this as either a very early arrival time into Canada Place, or a very late (10pm) departure time.  For the more regular/routine itineraries (7 day voyage of the glaciers) has anyone received a change notice close to sailing date of a much later departure or very early arrival?

High or low tides have nothing to do with time of day. 

[chengkp75]

21 minutes ago, sonomaphil said:

High or low tides have nothing to do with time of day. 

What?

[Wishing on a star]

high or low tides do not follow a daily pattern.

they can be at 12:00 noon,  at 12:00a.m.  or at any other time.

 

If there are 'unique' itineraries that seem to always have early or late departures or arrivals, then this might be because of the Ships berths at the Port and their availability. 

 

The port, and all of the cruise lines, are well aware of tides.

Whatever the itinerary schedule is showing for the cruise, I would tend to assume that this has been taken into consideration.  They ( the powers that be) know what they are doing.  there should be no surprise changes to itinerary due to the tide schedule alone.

 

I believe one example of this is described in a thread asking about an 'Operational Overnight",  where the ship leaves Victoria early in the afternoon, and arrives at Vancouver that night, instead of the next morning.  Which could possibly be because of the tide schedule.   While the ship arrives on that date before midnight, the itinerary mentions an 'Operational Overnight',  and then debarkation the next morning.  When all staff and Customs, etc..  will be there.

 

 

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by Wishing on a star

[Outerdog]

1 hour ago, Wishing on a star said:

I do not know, but I wonder if all sailings go that route, or if some use alternate routes.

 

Unless they drive down E Hastings St, there no other way for a ship to get to Canada Place except under the Lion's Gate Bridge.

[Wishing on a star]

Thanks!  I have only arrived pre-dawn, once on the Coral Princess.

[cruisingrob21]

I'll add some specifics because I agree with everything that's said here, and the reason for my question is that I'm curious if princess will ultimately change the embarkation time of a future, 3 day coastal cruse on the Royal, departing Vancouver very near a high tide.

 

The voyage I'm looking at is the Royal Princess leaving Vancouver at 4:30pm on May 3rd which will put the ship very near the high tide at the bridge, given that it takes almost an hour from casting away moorings to when its sailing under the LG Bridge.  You can see the time of high tide and the tide on the chart below, circled in red.  The next port is Victoria so its not a long distance.

https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=1314N

 

 

The voyage I'm comparing it to is a Majestic (sister to the Royal, so essentially the same height) which is arriving in vancouver early the morning of the 5th of May, at 3am to be exact.  The previous port is Victoria, so its not a long distance.  The nearest low tide is around midnight (green in the figure above) and the next high tide is about 5:30am, but I figure it will sail under the LG Bridge around 1:30am, closer to the low tide at midnight.  Normally, the ship would dock around 6 or 7am, which would put it sailing under the bridge right around high tide.

https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=8310N

So if the Majestic is clearly working with the tides to clear the bridge, why isn't the royal?