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Port visits, many now departing 9pm or later


barriead
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Port visits, many now departing 9pm or later....I noticed on P&O website while browsing (like you do:)) on many Cruises now there is a part moon symbol for many Ports indicating a 9pm or later departure...my question I guess, is this a change from P&O for future Cruises, I have never left a Port that late...a great move imho if it is...and also is this quite common with other Cruise lines as well.?

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I noticed this feature too. It's really helpful to see how long you will be in port, I'm guessing if a port doesn't have any symbol it will be the usual 5/ 6 o clock. There were other symbols too for a sail past and overnight dock.

I looked at a canaries cruise and most of the canary island ports had the moon symbol. This would be great as on a previous canary cruise sometimes the sun had onlyy just broken through the clouds and it was time to sailaway. A good move imho for P and O and more inline with other lines.

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News to me. When we first started cruising with P&O, 6pm was early and 7pm the norm. Nowadays around 5.30 pm seems to be the average, some as early as 4.30pm. Ships go slower these days (fuel savings) and the longer you are on board, the more money you spend!

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The moon symbol denotes "the ship will depart 9pm or after", if you click on it you will see it...also there are ports on the same cruise with no moon symbol which I assume will be the usual "tea time" departure.

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News to me. When we first started cruising with P&O, 6pm was early and 7pm the norm. Nowadays around 5.30 pm seems to be the average, some as early as 4.30pm. Ships go slower these days (fuel savings) and the longer you are on board, the more money you spend!

 

 

 

Bit of a myth that one they go as fast as is needed to get to the the next port and an appropriate time. Often they will cruise at 20 or 21 knots which of course is maximum speed for most of the fleet. If the port is nearer then they may cruise a lot slower.

 

 

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To seek clarification I just called c/s and they confirmed the moon symbol does indeed indicate a 9pm or later departure, good news as far as I am concerned....but there will be some who will not like it I'm sure....you know who you are..;p:)

The c/s girl said that they are doing it as some customers prefer it that way:evilsmile::)

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Mulling this over, I now wonder if it will mean possibly arriving later at ports than usual....but then I thought about excursions and any possible impact so it will be interesting to see what the reality is...if anyone has inside info it would be good to hear from them.:D

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To be honest we've noticed that on the cruise we are on next week and are disappointed. Love my sailaways - on the balcony, glass in hand and relaxing after a long day. The last cruise we did where we left late most evenings (not P&O) we felt like we'd missed out as we tended to be eating when we left so not the same atmosphere.

Oh well, we'll go with the flow and work around it.

Must admit, the thoughts of being able to enjoy Rhodes Town late in the evening appeals to us :-)

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Just found it for my cruise and every port bar a couple have that symbol and I'm pretty sure we are not in port in Cadiz at 9pm. It's a quarter moon?

 

On Adonia in March I have two overnights which is great!

Edited by jeanlyon
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Bit of a myth that one they go as fast as is needed to get to the the next port and an appropriate time. Often they will cruise at 20 or 21 knots which of course is maximum speed for most of the fleet. If the port is nearer then they may cruise a lot slower.

 

 

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Not a myth Dai. It is indeed correct that the top speeds of the newer (larger) vessels is generally slower (QM2 aside), but they don't stretch their legs as much as they used to. On our first cruise (Oriana 1996) we were cruising at 25 knots minimum, left ports later and arrived earlier. On our Britannia cruises, we have generally cruised at 20 knots. Yes, the top speed is less than Oriana, but when on the ship last week we had to make an emergency unscheduled call at Almeria in Spain in order to medically evacuate two sick gentlemen who needed transferring to hospital. All of a sudden, our 'fixed' 20 knots became over 22 knots and, in spite of the additional mileage and several additional hours getting in and out of Almeria and offloading the passengers, we only arrived at Gibraltar 50 minutes late. So there is quite a bit of 'slack' built in to itineraries now that simply wasn't there 20 years ago. Doubtless this would be presented as being for passenger comfort or environmental factors, but the end result is less time in ports of call.

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Bit of a myth that one they go as fast as is needed to get to the the next port and an appropriate time. Often they will cruise at 20 or 21 knots which of course is maximum speed for most of the fleet. If the port is nearer then they may cruise a lot slower.

 

 

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Whilst there are no speed limits in open sea, there are areas where the ships cannot go as fast as they like due to restrictions and company policies.

 

This does affect timings between ports and can extend transit periods, hence the need to leave earlier.

 

 

I've not seen the P&O website but there is a chance the info is published in error, it wouldn't be the first time on the P&O site.

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Not a myth Dai. It is indeed correct that the top speeds of the newer (larger) vessels is generally slower (QM2 aside), but they don't stretch their legs as much as they used to. On our first cruise (Oriana 1996) we were cruising at 25 knots minimum, left ports later and arrived earlier. On our Britannia cruises, we have generally cruised at 20 knots. Yes, the top speed is less than Oriana, but when on the ship last week we had to make an emergency unscheduled call at Almeria in Spain in order to medically evacuate two sick gentlemen who needed transferring to hospital. All of a sudden, our 'fixed' 20 knots became over 22 knots and, in spite of the additional mileage and several additional hours getting in and out of Almeria and offloading the passengers, we only arrived at Gibraltar 50 minutes late. So there is quite a bit of 'slack' built in to itineraries now that simply wasn't there 20 years ago. Doubtless this would be presented as being for passenger comfort or environmental factors, but the end result is less time in ports of call.

 

 

 

Sorry not true the ships go at the speed which is required for the voyage. Nothing at all to do with saving money.

 

 

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As Selbourne says in post 3 - Looking back on old photos from Caribbean 10+ years ago, the ships definitely left later from Caribbean ports than they do now. in 2002/3/4 often leaving 6:30/7PM and not only the normally late ports such as St Maarten.

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Sorry not true the ships go at the speed which is required for the voyage. Nothing at all to do with saving money.

 

 

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Wrong way round. The voyages are set based on the most economic route having regard to local restrictions and company policies as regards optimal fuel use and environmental concerns.

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Sorry not true the ships go at the speed which is required for the voyage. Nothing at all to do with saving money.

 

 

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I'm afraid that, on this one Dai, you are wrong. As I have proved in my example, they can get from A to B a lot quicker than the schedules. They choose not to do so. This very point was raised in a Q&A with the captain a few years ago (when they still did them) and the answer he gave was that there was an increased focus on fuel efficiency these days for both environmental and cost efficiency reasons. So, the speed is NOT set by the time required, because they can go quicker. It is set by the time they choose to make the journey from A to B. And in going slower they save money. Fact. Of course, it can be argued that ultimately this means that we save money as a result and we do less damage to the environment than we could otherwise do, but I found out last week that to fill up Britannia from empty would cost £1.15m, so to think that they aren't very focussed on timining itineraries in order to save money here and there would be extremely naive of us.

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Well this is bizarre. I have just looked at cruises before and after mine and loads of ports are showing as in port until 9pm. This is a big change and very welcome. Nobody will worry about getting back late on a DIY. Marvellous! But is it true?

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I've just checked my next cruise online and all port calls except Lisbon have the moon thing next to them which - as chuffed as I would be with that - maybe means this is yet another I.T glitch on the ever faltering P&o website?

 

Out of the two : I.e. P&o suddenly departing most ports after 9pm (when personal experience has seen them departing earlier and earlier in recent years) or an I.T glitch, I'm afraid my money is on the latter.

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I guess it depends on your definition of evening! We are on the transatlantic on Azura in October. P&O customer services emailed me departure times a few weeks ago, all of which were 17:30 back on board time yet the website now shows the half moon/evening symbol for every port. Are p&o really claiming that 17:30 is 'early evening'? I can't find any mention on the website that defines evening as 9pm as suggested by an earlier post.

 

 

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Yes mine all say 9pm, but I don't believe we are staying in Cadiz until 9 at night. And in fact I have just checked the Cruise Ship Schedule page for the Port of Cadiz and we leave at 18:00, so as I thought, the P&O website tells porkies.

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Sorry not true the ships go at the speed which is required for the voyage. Nothing at all to do with saving money.

 

 

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I think it's chicken and egg. There are definitely more sea days for on the TAs we every Winter, so it takes longer to cross than it used to. Crossing the Atlantic the average speed can be 14 knots some days compared to the 20 it used to be.

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