Celebrity Solstice - Pacific Coast Itinerary in Jeopardy

[lovecruzin]

On 2/11/2023 at 6:46 AM, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Any different than dropping 2,000 passengers in Qaqortoq ? 

Perhaps they want tourists and apparently have the ability to handle cruise ships. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

24 minutes ago, lovecruzin said:

Perhaps they want tourists and apparently have the ability to handle cruise ships. 

A nice to visit for an hour or 2 ,

I would question that they have the ability to handle a cruise ship of the Voyager size 

[chengkp75]

On 2/9/2023 at 6:46 PM, LarryHD2 said:

Whale strikes are a real issue, and it's not just cruise ships but also all other ships.  Whale-ship collisions are currently a leading cause of death for large whales, and scientists estimate that over 80 blue, humpback, and fin whales are killed by vessel collisions on the West Coast of the United States each year.  There are efforts to try and mitigate this and keep marine traffic informed - https://boi.ucsb.edu/active_projects/whale-strikes

 

On 2/11/2023 at 9:34 AM, phoenix_dream said:

I'm all for saving the whales. I just wonder how dangerous cruise ships are. Given their size, are whales (very intelligent creatures) really not aware of passing cruise ships?  I can see faster, smaller ships hitting them. I wasn't able to open the link on my phone. Maybe it addresses this.

To the best of my knowledge, no necropsy has ever been performed on a whale/ship strike victim to determine whether there is an underlying cause for the whale to get in the way of a ship.  Yes, the ship strike may have killed the whale, but was it terminally ill already?

[Northern Aurora]

3 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

 

To the best of my knowledge, no necropsy has ever been performed on a whale/ship strike victim to determine whether there is an underlying cause for the whale to get in the way of a ship.  Yes, the ship strike may have killed the whale, but was it terminally ill already?

Actually a Princess (or was it’s a HAL) ship arrived in Juneau about a decade ago with a dead whale stuck on to the bulbous bow.  Juneau being our capital both federal and state wildlife offices are there.  They worked together to remove the whale and there were photos taken that day of them working.  There were a number of highly upset passengers with some folks claiming they would never cruise on that line again.  How dare the ship hit a whale type of sentiment.

 

 A necropsy was conducted and turned out that ship hit a whale which was already deceased and had died of natural causes.  
 

The incident was closely followed the Alaska news media.

[phoenix_dream]

Well, it's happening.  Our March 25th cruise has cancelled Monterey.  And on top of that they completely re-did our schedule, changing dates of call,  and cut a few hours off of several other ports.  They added an overnight in San Francisco, which frankly does nothing for me (and I know, it's not all about me, some people love that part).  Very frustrating and very disappointing.  

[terrydtx]

12 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

Well, it's happening.  Our March 25th cruise has cancelled Monterey.  And on top of that they completely re-did our schedule, changing dates of call,  and cut a few hours off of several other ports.  They added an overnight in San Francisco, which frankly does nothing for me (and I know, it's not all about me, some people love that part).  Very frustrating and very disappointing.  

At least they didn't give you another sea day as a substitute. I wouldn't mind an overnight in SF, as it would give us time to book a wine tasting tour in Napa. Too often when a port is canceled we end up with another worthless sea day cruising in circles offshore. We book cruises for itineraries that are port intensive, and we view a sea day as a waste of our money.

Edited March 7, 2023 by terrydtx

[JintyGirl]

The April 22nd itinerary has just been changed. Sea day instead of Monterey, but the previous sea day now Santa Barbara. 

[davekathy]

Just now, JintyGirl said:

The April 22nd itinerary has just been changed. Sea day instead of Monterey, but the previous sea day now Santa Barbara. 

IMO, Santa Barbara, you scored. 

[JintyGirl]

Just now, davekathy said:

IMO, Santa Barbara, you scored. 

Yeah, it could have been worse! 

[curmudgeon98]

44 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

Well, it's happening.  Our March 25th cruise has cancelled Monterey.  And on top of that they completely re-did our schedule, changing dates of call,  and cut a few hours off of several other ports.  They added an overnight in San Francisco, which frankly does nothing for me (and I know, it's not all about me, some people love that part).  Very frustrating and very disappointing.  

An SF overnight gives lots of options.  Even if you aren't into the city, it makes it feasible to hit some great locations.  To the north, look into Stinson Beach, Muir Woods, Bodega Bay, or Sonoma Valley, or Napa.  To the south, you can hit Half Moon Bay, Pescadero, Santa Cruz, or even Monterey.  

[davekathy]

5 minutes ago, curmudgeon98 said:

An SF overnight gives lots of options.  Even if you aren't into the city, it makes it feasible to hit some great locations.  To the north, look into Stinson Beach, Muir Woods, Bodega Bay, or Sonoma Valley, or Napa.  To the south, you can hit Half Moon Bay, Pescadero, Santa Cruz, or even Monterey.  

Or going over to Sausalito. 

[lovecruzin]

An overnight in SF gives you plenty of time to drive to Monterey. It would be a full day but doable.

[Pear33]

The April 29th cruise ports have all been changed. 

No Monterey and Seattle. 

Now its Astoria and Victoria! 

Super Disappointing as we had family joining us no this cruise an its their first cruise as they booked it for the ports. 

Anyone have any success in getting some compensation for a totally different itinerary than you booked ? 

Thanks 

 

[davekathy]

1 minute ago, Pear33 said:

The April 29th cruise ports have all been changed. 

No Monterey and Seattle. 

Now its Astoria and Victoria! 

Super Disappointing as we had family joining us no this cruise an its their first cruise as they booked it for the ports. 

Anyone have any success in getting some compensation for a totally different itinerary than you booked ? 

Thanks 

 

Celebrity reserves the right to cancel or change the itinerary at their discretion.  

[lovecruzin]

6 minutes ago, Pear33 said:

The April 29th cruise ports have all been changed. 

No Monterey and Seattle. 

Now its Astoria and Victoria! 

Super Disappointing as we had family joining us no this cruise an its their first cruise as they booked it for the ports. 

Anyone have any success in getting some compensation for a totally different itinerary than you booked ? 

Thanks 

 

They didn't have a choice about canceling Monterey, but I wonder why Seattle. We had 2 of our S Pacific ports canceled recently and it became much less desirable for some. No compensation offered, it was also beyond control of X

[LarryHD2]

1 hour ago, curmudgeon98 said:

An SF overnight gives lots of options.  Even if you aren't into the city, it makes it feasible to hit some great locations.  To the north, look into Stinson Beach, Muir Woods, Bodega Bay, or Sonoma Valley, or Napa.  To the south, you can hit Half Moon Bay, Pescadero, Santa Cruz, or even Monterey.  

Note that if you want to go to Muir Woods you MUST have reservations in advance

[Mickey22]

2 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

Well, it's happening.  Our March 25th cruise has cancelled Monterey.  And on top of that they completely re-did our schedule, changing dates of call,  and cut a few hours off of several other ports.  They added an overnight in San Francisco, which frankly does nothing for me (and I know, it's not all about me, some people love that part).  Very frustrating and very disappointing.  

We are on the March 25th cruise and have not received any information about changes. My app still has the same itinerary and the website still shows the same ports. How did you find out about the changes and what are they? Thanks

[kpun]

3 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

Well, it's happening.  Our March 25th cruise has cancelled Monterey.  And on top of that they completely re-did our schedule, changing dates of call,  and cut a few hours off of several other ports.  They added an overnight in San Francisco, which frankly does nothing for me (and I know, it's not all about me, some people love that part).  Very frustrating and very disappointing.  

 

1 hour ago, Mickey22 said:

We are on the March 25th cruise and have not received any information about changes. My app still has the same itinerary and the website still shows the same ports. How did you find out about the changes and what are they? Thanks

We are on the same cruise as well and haven't been informed of the changes. Would you mind sharing the updated itinerary? Thanks!

[phoenix_dream]

3 hours ago, curmudgeon98 said:

An SF overnight gives lots of options.  Even if you aren't into the city, it makes it feasible to hit some great locations.  To the north, look into Stinson Beach, Muir Woods, Bodega Bay, or Sonoma Valley, or Napa.  To the south, you can hit Half Moon Bay, Pescadero, Santa Cruz, or even Monterey.  

I understand.  But I've been there a number of times and seen most of what you mention at least once if not more often.  So I get that makes me lucky, but I don't have a real desire to try to book a tour or to rent a car so the extra time rather than Monterey is pretty useless to me.  I realize it might be a lucky change for some, just not for me.  At the same time, I definitely admit that it is much better than missing ports entirely and having another sea day.  I booked this cruise because I love visiting so many nice US ports. For sea days I book the Caribbean.

[phoenix_dream]

42 minutes ago, kpun said:

 

We are on the same cruise as well and haven't been informed of the changes. Would you mind sharing the updated itinerary? Thanks!

[phoenix_dream]

3 hours ago, Pear33 said:

The April 29th cruise ports have all been changed. 

No Monterey and Seattle. 

Now its Astoria and Victoria! 

Super Disappointing as we had family joining us no this cruise an its their first cruise as they booked it for the ports. 

Anyone have any success in getting some compensation for a totally different itinerary than you booked ? 

Thanks 

 

For what it's worth, both Astoria and Victoria are great ports to visit!  There's a wonderful maritime museum in Astoria and a very cute town to walk around among other things.  Victoria has so many great things, including my favorite,  Butchart Gardens.  I understand the disappointment as I am really sad about our cruise missing Monterey.  I used to love Seattle but last time I cruised out of there (admittedly a year and a half ago) it was really run down and not a great experience.  Hopefully it is better by now.  

[phoenix_dream]

2 hours ago, lovecruzin said:

They didn't have a choice about canceling Monterey, but I wonder why Seattle. We had 2 of our S Pacific ports canceled recently and it became much less desirable for some. No compensation offered, it was also beyond control of X

They actually might have had a choice about cancelling Monterey as they could possibly have provided, or hired, their own pier personnel.  But probably for cost reasons or maybe timing they could not accomplish the visit in time at a price they were willing to bear.  Unlike some ports Monterey did not exactly prohibit visits, they just made it costly and inconvenient to do so.

[davekathy]

It would be nice when a cruise line changes an itinerary they would tell us why. 

[sunviking90]

18 minutes ago, davekathy said:

It would be nice when a cruise line changes an itinerary they would tell us why. 

It would also be nice if they update the website! The old itineraries are still showing for booking.

[lovecruzin]

3 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

They actually might have had a choice about cancelling Monterey as they could possibly have provided, or hired, their own pier personnel.  But probably for cost reasons or maybe timing they could not accomplish the visit in time at a price they were willing to bear.  Unlike some ports Monterey did not exactly prohibit visits, they just made it costly and inconvenient to do so.

Ok ships are technically not banned but the decision makes it very difficult for ships to visit.
Taking over a public dock with no support from the city would imo not be a good look for any cruiseline.