Silver Wind London depature time changes!

Just FYI: Silver Wind was to leave London, going through the Tower Bridge this summer twice at 7:30 in the morning. They just change the July departure to 3:00 AM!. So forget about taking any pictures of this July's departure.

That's disappointing to have your schedule changed unexpectedly.

We have been through twice - the first time was 4:30 AM. Inconvenient for sure, but worth setting an alarm for! We had the viewing deck pretty much to ourselves. You can get pictures, and there aren't any tourists in the way unless you want them there!

We had no issues getting up for sailaway but we couldn't stay awake for the sail downriver. That was a disappointment. We managed to make it to Greenwich but no further.

The second time was 6PM. Everyone was out on deck. Still cool but a different vibe. That time, we made it to the Thames barrier.

Waited two years to get the 7:30 departure time only to find the day we make the full payment. They change the departure time the middle of the night. JUST GREAT...

By the way JP : good luck on your Danube river cruise... we have ours next year in May.

It is still so very nice to be able to board from the Tower Bridge.

Things happen.

Don't assume the worst.

Keith

Waited two years to get the 7:30 departure time only to find the day we make the full payment. They change the departure time the middle of the night. JUST GREAT...

 

By the way JP : good luck on your Danube river cruise... we have ours next year in May.

What rotten luck, and timing! We have some experience with port times changing after final payment too, but unfortunately not much you can do. They will claim that they can't control the Tower Bridge authority, and that the authority is the one who changed the time...rightly or wrongly.

It may well be out of their control but it sure is frustrating to have it happen the day after you make final payment! And a bit suspect, too. Makes you wonder whether they knew sooner.

It is still an awesome sailaway though, as Keith says. Try to get up anyway and see it. It's worth losing sleep over, and the first day is usually a sea day so you can rest up after sailaway.

They changed our departure time from Edinburgh for our August 2014 cruise which wreaked havoc on our independent touring plans, as we had to return the rental car earlier than we wanted to, and therefore we had to skip the last item on our itinerary. Oh well...

Thanks for the positive thoughts about our upcoming Danube cruise. We are getting pretty excited about it. Hoping that the third time is the charm!

Going to be all over Europe for over a month and will, of course make the best of it... just thought I would let others know so they won't be so surprised later.

Our agent advised today that penultimate day of our June/July round trip Tower Bridge cruise starting 27 /6/16 will arrive at Tower Bridge 4pm and not 8am.The tides on the Thames don't suddenly change a few days after final payment day do they? Strange but now a full day in London has turned into a few hours which does not affect us as UK citizens but may be disappointing to non UK citizens visiting London for the first time.

I have looked at The Port of London Tide Information and it seems to confirm that the High Tide is around the new Scheduled Arrival/Departure Times to enable navigation to The Belfast. I am sure these times have been known for many months but it does not surprise me that Silversea have not communicated the change to Guests.

I agree with Brimary that the UK Guests are likely to be comfortable with the changed Itinerary but those from elsewhere may be rather disappointed at a missed opportunity.

What a great pity. I expect it will still be enjoyable but nowhere near as nice had it been a nice sunny day. When I did it last year, It was a really nice sunny day - just until we departed. It cut short my Time lapse filming and as disappointing as that was, it didn't detract from the experience. Whatever the time, it will still be awesome.

None of the SS Tower Bridge arrival and departure times are on the lift site yet - I'm sure they were there way in advance of now last year.

Shame for me too, as I'd have been there to see her leave waving from my desk or down by the bridge - but not at this time. That's one less filming opportunity this year! :mad:

The timing of the advice is very dodgy too!

We are on the Wind for what I think is the first arrival at Tower Bridge for the season from Lisbon, arriving 11 June which was to be 4.00 pm and has just been moved to 8.00 pm, that will sure make everyone that wants to view very late for dinner.

We overnight there before disembarking on Sunday 12, not a big deal for us as we live in London but for anyone that had been planning theatre or dinner ashore that's now impossible. Likewise to,late to,invite guests aboard for dinner.

And yes we just paid in full !!

I also find it highly suspect that the London arrival changed exactly one day after final payment was made. My TA tells me that SS has the right and I say find, they can enjoy my company for what will be my final sailing with them. If this is how they treat loyal customers, the hell with them. We had made independent tour plans for our 'day' in London and they have just been screwed. This is my fourth SS cruise, I think it is time to spend my cash elsewhere.

Arrival and departure times for all trips are now booked and published.

http://www.towerbridge.org.uk/lift-times/

Good morning Stapler40 - I understand your disappointment at the changed Arrival time into London, which seems to be entirely dependent on High Water Tide times ( The Ship could not get to its position aside HMS Belfast at any other time ). However surely you did not take this Cruise solely on the ability to spend a day in London ? - Cruising is subject to a number of ' Variables ' in relation to the Itinerary and we have all missed Ports etc at some time.

I hope that you will not let this ' Variable ' spoil the rest of your Cruise. Yes Silversea might have been able to let Guests know earlier but the Tide Times are not their fault. Few other Lines are able to provide the experience of sailing right into the heart of London.

Good morning Stapler40 - I understand your disappointment at the changed Arrival time into London, which seems to be entirely dependent on High Water Tide times ( The Ship could not get to its position aside HMS Belfast at any other time ). However surely you did not take this Cruise solely on the ability to spend a day in London ? - Cruising is subject to a number of ' Variables ' in relation to the Itinerary and we have all missed Ports etc at some time.

 

I hope that you will not let this ' Variable ' spoil the rest of your Cruise. Yes Silversea might have been able to let Guests know earlier but the Tide Times are not their fault. Few other Lines are able to provide the experience of sailing right into the heart of London.

Tide times are easily available at any time. I suspect 100 years hence if you really needed it! ;)

For example these are the tidal details for Tower Bridge this summer:

https://pla.co.uk/assets/towerq32016.pdf

Jeff

Good Afternoon Jeff - You make a good point , I stand corrected. My point about the overall motivation for choosing a particular Cruise still stands in my opinion but I accept others may have differing views.

Jeff, tides do change.

Some cruise lines in fact place an asterisk on selected ports noting that schedules could be revised based on tides.

Keith

Good Afternoon Jeff - You make a good point , I stand corrected. My point about the overall motivation for choosing a particular Cruise still stands in my opinion but I accept others may have differing views.

Greetings. :)

I think the issue is that SS appear to be publishing cruise arrival and departure times that are very attractive in the brochure and intended to optimise bookings but in reality knowing full well that their published timings of arrival and deprture are not going to happen. In plain English it is cheating. People fantacise about leaving and arriving at the Tower and is a motivator for many. It is about publishing the plan knowing it will not work.

On your other point, I disagree that any of us should question what is or is not important to someone else simply because it isn't important to ourselves or we risk sounding unintentionally patronising. :)

Jeff, tides do change.

 

Some cruise lines in fact place an asterisk on selected ports noting that schedules could be revised based on tides.

 

Keith

I am puzzled.

Tidal times are published years ahead and can be relied upon as the starting point for scheduling arrivals and departues subject to a last minute change for other reasons.

Unless the moon suddently changes position or Tower Bridge jumps away and moves the hi and low times will not change although the exact water levels may change due to rainfull.

I'm interested to hear what you think might be so big a changing factor that might cause a change today in tide forecasts to cause a change in schedule of four and a half hours in July?

Might it more likely be that a small change in sailing speed from The Tower might save a few dollars worth of fuel? ;):D

all the best

Jeff

Jeff, I am far from the expert. I am just telling you that I have seen this on some itineraries including some that involve some of the London Ports.

Keith

Jeff, I am far from the expert. I am just telling you that I have seen this on some itineraries including some that involve some of the London Ports.

 

Keith

Thanks. I understand. :D

I think we can lay this to rest. I think you are talking about lines that want to change stuff for other operational or profit reasons and exploit people's lack of knowledge about the predicatability of tide times. "Factors outside of our control". Not.

There are only three things that effect tide times.

1. What day it is.

2. Where you are.

3. Where the moon is.

Tide times are tide times. They do not change. You could probably predict high and low tide at Tower Bridge in 1000 years time from today within a second if you really wanted to. And assuming Tower Bridge hadn't been sold and moved. :D

:)

QED.

Jeff

Interesting to hear from everyone concerning this change. At a base level, it stinks...I'm not the only person to note that SS waited until after final payment to inform its guests that they have just lost a day in London. And yes, Mayflower1, being in London for a day did enter into my equation for choosing this sailing. I happen to have made plans to fly out of London for Scotland the following day so, with this change, SS has disrupted my plans. Call me a disbeliever but this stinks to high heaven. It's a basic bait and switch, pure and simple. Fuel, docking fees, etc are all calculated to the nearest penny so for them to change something, SS must have determined that it was simply cheaper to dock at 4 pm rather than at 7 am.

As I said before, if this is how they want to treat their customers, fine, but it won't be me anymore.

Stapler40,

There's nothing unusual about your view. We're Londoners and even we have always hankered after a cruise that starts and stops at The Tower and actually see everything stop for arrival or departure. I'd put it second only after Venice.

I guess this is something more that customers now have to check for themselves and cannot take on trust.

Jeff

Stapler40,

 

There's nothing unusual about your view. We're Londoners and even we have always hankered after a cruise that starts and stops at The Tower and actually see everything stop for arrival or departure. I'd put it second only after Venice. Jeff

On the "London to London" they change one morning departure to 3AM, then on the other voyage they change the afternoon arrival time to the evening. Looks like they spread-out the disappoint across two voyages...

I can see Jeff as been around! Those that are looking to take pictures under proper daylight, don't appreciate someone changing times to the middle of the night.

On the "London to London" they change one morning departure to 3AM, then on the other voyage they change the afternoon arrival time to the evening. Looks like they spread-out the disappoint across two voyages...

 

I can see Jeff as been around! Those that are looking to take pictures under proper daylight, don't appreciate someone changing times to the middle of the night.

Thanks! :)

I spent most of my life living in a part of London called The Barbican, which I guess is a 30 minute stroll or 10 minutes on the tube from The Tower (I went to school 10 minute walk away :eek: ), but even for a Londoner The Tower remains a magical place.

It's a shame people will miss a bit of it.

Jeff

Thanks! :)

 

I spent most of my life living in a part of London called The Barbican, which I guess is a 30 minute stroll or 10 minutes on the tube from The Tower (I went to school 10 minute walk away :eek: ), but even for a Londoner The Tower remains a magical place.

 

It's a shame people will miss a bit of it.

 

Jeff

Absolutely. My work desk is 50 minutes away and with a great view of the Cloud and Wind mooring next to the Belfast. so I'm gutted - and I'm not even on either of these changed trips! (I watched most of the arrivals and departures of the Cloud last year - including the one I was on! Its magical - even though it did start raining 10 minutes after setting off)

Will be interesting to see what they do next year on these Wind cruises.

11 June 2017 - Tower Bridge arr 1400

12 June 2017 - Tower Bridge dep 1800

29 June 2017 - Tower Bridge arr 0800

30 June 2017 - Tower Bridge dep 0600

13 July 2017 - Tower Bridge arr 1700

14 July 2017 - Tower Bridge dep 1800

31 July 2017 - Tower Bridge arr 0800

31 July 2017 - Tower Bridge dep 2359

23 Aug 2017 - Tower Bridge arr 2200

25 Aug 2017 - Tower Bridge dep 0600

Cloud cruise

09 June 2017 - Tower Bridge arr 1300

11 June 2017 - Tower Bridge arr 0600

6 trips arriving and departing in 2017 just shows how popular and good seller the Tower is (and completely understandable!) I'm going to be busy in 2017!

Haha.... Just spotted the auto correct! My desk is 50 metres not 50 minutes away!