Cruises from Baltimore

[read2learn]

Carnival is moving its cruises from Baltimore to Norfolk,VA. Has anyone heard if there will be any changes to RC cruises from Baltimore due the bridge accident? 

[Another_Critic]

No announced changes at this time.

[Merion_Mom]

1 hour ago, read2learn said:

Carnival is moving its cruises from Baltimore to Norfolk,VA. Has anyone heard if there will be any changes to RC cruises from Baltimore due the bridge accident? 

Yes, there will be changes.

 

No, the changes haven't been announced yet.

[ace2542]

Forget cruises from baltimore. Bigger question what about the container shipping where do they sail from now and do these sailings take cruise ship berths if they can? And wouldn't Bayonne NJ be a good choice given the possible ease of access to freight train at least to a close proximity. A closer proximity than brooklyn.

 

And since they are rebuilding the bridge do we think they will build it higher which would maybe open up baltimore to cruising?

[chengkp75]

29 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

Bigger question what about the container shipping where do they sail from now and do these sailings take cruise ship berths if they can?

Yes, all of these container ships will be lining up to dock at a passenger terminal to unload their containers down the boarding ramps, and store the containers in the baggage area of the terminal.

[ace2542]

13 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Yes, all of these container ships will be lining up to dock at a passenger terminal to unload their containers down the boarding ramps, and store the containers in the baggage area of the terminal.

So they wouldn't be able to bring trucks down and unload onto the truck at ship side on at a time?

Edited March 27 by ace2542

[chengkp75]

21 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

So they wouldn't be able to bring trucks down and unload onto the truck at ship side on at a time?

The vast majority of container ships are not self-unloading, meaning they have no cranes onboard, and rely on shore cranes to load/unload.  Haven't seen too many container cranes around passenger terminals.

 

Seen anything like this around passenger terminals?:

 

Edited March 27 by chengkp75

[ace2542]

3 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

The vast majority of container ships are not self-unloading, meaning they have no cranes onboard, and rely on shore cranes to load/unload.  Haven't seen too many container cranes around passenger terminals.

 

Seen anything like this around passenger terminals?:

 

No and I take it they can't be bought in easily it would be too involved to try?

 

If they could be bought in though wouldn't it just be a case of bringing the baltimore staff down to work the equipment once setup as they probably trained in it? Be.slower with the space restrictions perhaps but better than nothing. Albeit at the expense of a few cruises. And if it is a choice between commerical ships and cruise commerical will win everytime we all know that.

 

 

[chengkp75]

13 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

No and I take it they can't be bought in easily it would be too involved to try?

Let's see, first we have to tear up the dock to reinforce it to carry the weight of these cranes, and add the rail tracks they roll on (in the mean time tearing down the passenger terminal to run the rails and have space to run the cranes up and down the dock).  Then you need specialist cranes to dismantle these cranes where they are (and I don't know of any just laying around spare and unused), transport them by water (so that means the idled Baltimore cranes can't be used since the channel is blocked), and then have the specialist cranes reassemble them at the new dock.  Might be done in 1-2 years.

[ace2542]

14 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Let's see, first we have to tear up the dock to reinforce it to carry the weight of these cranes, and add the rail tracks they roll on (in the mean time tearing down the passenger terminal to run the rails and have space to run the cranes up and down the dock).  Then you need specialist cranes to dismantle these cranes where they are (and I don't know of any just laying around spare and unused), transport them by water (so that means the idled Baltimore cranes can't be used since the channel is blocked), and then have the specialist cranes reassemble them at the new dock.  Might be done in 1-2 years.

Good to know they can't take any cruising slots then. Once is the channel is clear it can reopen problem they have is constructing the bridge in the centre.

 

I take it there is no chance they would construct the bridge higher to possibly open the city up to more cruising? I ask this question with no knowledge of any other bridges in the area.

[chengkp75]

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, further down the bay, that ships would also have to pass under, is only 186 feet high, or the same as the Key bridge, so raising the Key bridge would do nothing.

[ace2542]

6 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, further down the bay, that ships would also have to pass under, is only 186 feet high, or the same as the Key bridge, so raising the Key bridge would do nothing.

I didn't know that. It is a real pity that explains why ships like NCLGem or Dawn never go to Baltimore. Yet I thought those ships where very similar in size to the Vision of the seas?

[Keasel]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

The vast majority of container ships are not self-unloading, meaning they have no cranes onboard, and rely on shore cranes to load/unload.  Haven't seen too many container cranes around passenger terminals.

 

Seen anything like this around passenger terminals?:

 

When you're on a cruise ship at Cape Liberty, you can see a bunch of cranes just to the north of the passenger terminal.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6707536,-74.0791064,2676m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

[TwoMisfits]

8 hours ago, read2learn said:

Carnival is moving its cruises from Baltimore to Norfolk,VA. Has anyone heard if there will be any changes to RC cruises from Baltimore due the bridge accident? 

 

Guess Norfolk's reno was easy to finish quick...

 

We'll see how long Carnival keeps Norfolk as a year round port.

[SRF]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, further down the bay, that ships would also have to pass under, is only 186 feet high, or the same as the Key bridge, so raising the Key bridge would do nothing.

I know the numbers, but doing under each, it seems that the Key Bridge had a lot less clearance.

 

Some optical illusion

 

[ace2542]

42 minutes ago, Keasel said:

When you're on a cruise ship at Cape Liberty, you can see a bunch of cranes just to the north of the passenger terminal.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6707536,-74.0791064,2676m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

How far is just to the north? Close enough so it could be used without needing to be re-enforced or whatever?

[not-enough-cruising]

45 minutes ago, Keasel said:

When you're on a cruise ship at Cape Liberty, you can see a bunch of cranes just to the north of the passenger terminal.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6707536,-74.0791064,2676m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

Of course you do, that’s a freight port you see 

 

You see the same thing from port Everglades, Miami, and Galveston. 
 

This doesn’t mean that cargo ships can dock and unload at cruise terminals; that is the point of the above post. 

[ace2542]

52 minutes ago, TwoMisfits said:

 

Guess Norfolk's reno was easy to finish quick...

 

We'll see how long Carnival keeps Norfolk as a year round port.

Bayonne is closer to Baltimore than Norfolk and there is Brooklyn of course and any international flights to BWI can probably be changed easily for NYC/NJ. I guess it will come down to which port is cheapest for vision to sail from.

Edited March 27 by ace2542

[ecslady]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, further down the bay, that ships would also have to pass under, is only 186 feet high, or the same as the Key bridge, so raising the Key bridge would do nothing.

Once again, thank you for chiming in with your expertise and technical knowledge about this incident.

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, TwoMisfits said:

 

Guess Norfolk's reno was easy to finish quick...

 

We'll see how long Carnival keeps Norfolk as a year round port.

They have scheduled cruises out of Norfolk starting in 2025

[blondie from arizona]

Would anyone like to take an educated guess as to how long it will be before Vision is back in port at BWI? And, for those that do not want to change embarkation ports, what is RCLs standard protocol for this?

[lovesthebeach2]

5 minutes ago, blondie from arizona said:

Would anyone like to take an educated guess as to how long it will be before Vision is back in port at BWI? And, for those that do not want to change embarkation ports, what is RCLs standard protocol for this?

I would call Royal to ask about their protocol for this situation.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

2 hours ago, TwoMisfits said:

 

Guess Norfolk's reno was easy to finish quick...

 

We'll see how long Carnival keeps Norfolk as a year round port.

I don’t know what Reno they were doing at Norfolk. But we have sailed out of the Norfolk terminal many years ago and our son lives in Virginia Beach. The Norfolk cruise ship terminal is absolutely beautiful. It has an entire wall of windows that overlook the Hampton roads. They rented out for wedding receptions. It’s so nice

 

my only issue with Norfolk is the traffic because it’s in a highly congested area of the city and there is no immediate parking. The city has several garages, but there are a couple blocks away. You either have to park and push your luggage for a couple blocks or take their shuttle 

Edited March 27 by DragonOfTheSeas

[smokeybandit]

11 minutes ago, blondie from arizona said:

Would anyone like to take an educated guess as to how long it will be before Vision is back in port at BWI? And, for those that do not want to change embarkation ports, what is RCLs standard protocol for this?

They'll be back in May after Vision's drydock.

[BDevilCruiser]

4 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, further down the bay, that ships would also have to pass under, is only 186 feet high, or the same as the Key bridge, so raising the Key bridge would do nothing.

Maryland already has approval to start design on a new Bay Bridge crossing.  One article from 2022 indicated that they would raise the clearance 50 feet.  So I would expect design of the new Key Bridge to consider what height is optimal.  I doubt that they’ll be able to use all of the approach spans so a steeper approach is possible (they are ~50 years old and a reasonable decision would be to replace them as well; one to accommodate a new design and two to accommodate 50 years of design/safety improvements.). This bridge is going to cost ~$3-5 billion (or more) it would be foolish to build it “as it was” and not make improvements.

’ 

the new Key Bridge no doubt will be completed first, so a higher bridge won’t be of help immediately, but will be eventually.