Getting port times for your cruise early with marinetraffic.com

I’m someone who likes to plan ahead and I’m impatient enough that I hate to wait for my cruise documents to see how long I’ll have in ports on my cruise. This week I’m using marinetraffic.com to follow a ship doing the itinerary that I’ll be doing in August.

I’m not trying to push this web site, but by typing in the name of a ship that’s doing your itinerary, you can follow it up or down the river and see when it arrives in and departs from specific ports. As always, “your mileage may vary,” but it’s a good way to see “typical” arrival and departure times before you get your cruise documents.

I’ve registered on the site (free), and set up a “fleet” with the one ship I’m interested in. I can go to the marinetraffic home page and click on “Vessels,” and then on “My Fleets.” Then I click on my ship and then click on the link to show the ship on the map. Once you have the map, click on “Show Vessels Track.”

Now you can see where the ship is and where it’s been. By holding your mouse over the small ship icon on the track, you can see the time at which the ship was at that point. This doesn’t always work. There are areas on some rivers (Moselle for one) where there appears to be no coverage. Also, my ship apparently didn’t turn its transponder on when it originally left port, and the week before, it was turned off for several days as it cruised in Holland.

For most of you, this isn’t a big deal, but if you’re obsessive and want to get an early idea of when you’ll arrive at and leave from ports, it’s a quick and easy way to get an estimate.

FuelScience

 

For most of you, this isn’t a big deal, but if you’re obsessive and want to get an early idea of when you’ll arrive at and leave from ports, it’s a quick and easy way to get an estimate.

 

FuelScience

I am obsessive and I love this app. Easy to use and works like a charm. I'll be watching the Viking Kvasir sail back and forth until August when we hop on.

Thanks for posting,

FM

You can also watch Sceniic on anyoverip maybe other cruise companies use this as well. With marine traffic you also get emails, only a certain number on the free bit but useful.

CA

Very cool. I just found my ship, complete with photo.

Am I missing something?? What App????

I originally cited a web site, but there are apps as well for iOS and Android.

FuelScience

Ok I see it now, for those of you who don't know..... When using the smart phone cruise critic app we do not see what is in the "subject line" I had to log into the regular website when I became suspicious for that reason.

So sorry if some of us some clueless or blind, we really can't see what you are talking about ;)

Unfortunately the free version does not show the ports of Strassbourg or Passau, among others. Perhaps when you register or get the app they appear. Not all river sections are covered well by signals.

notamermaid

Unfortunately the free version does not show the ports of Strassbourg or Passau, among others. Perhaps when you register or get the app they appear. Not all river sections are covered well by signals.

 

notamermaid

You're right that a lot of ports are missing, but by using the "Show Track" functionality, you get ship positions every 5 minutes or so (assuming that the ship is transmitting its location and that it's on a part of the river with coverage). This is usually good enough to estimate arrival and departure times even though it doesn't show up as a port call on Marine Traffic.

FuelScience

I wonder how consistent the times are from cruise to cruise? River conditions, depth, flow traffic, lock schedules etc. would seem to be factors. Does that site allow for determining how consistent mooring locations are?

I wonder how consistent the times are from cruise to cruise? River conditions, depth, flow traffic, lock schedules etc. would seem to be factors. Does that site allow for determining how consistent mooring locations are?

If you're willing to do a little work, this should be possible. It would involve gathering information from multiple cruises and tabulating it. For a line with a lot of ships doing the same itinerary, it should be pretty easy. For a smaller line, it would take more time.

FuelScience

Thanks for posting this link.