luisrp

These images were captured from these cameras.

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/veneto/venezia/riva-schiavoni.html

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/veneto/venezia/san-giorgio.html

It is worth noting that cruise ships are now being escorted by two tugs in front plus the usual one behind.  They now use three tugs to get ships in and out of Venice.

Just out of pure luck caught MSC Opera sailing out of Venice.  Likely departed at 10:30 PM local time.

I have stayed in hotels in Italy and Spain.  Most electronic devices today can be used with just a plug adapter as long as their power supply states they work with 120/240 VAC and 50/60 Hz.  This is only for electronic devices such as cell phones, laptop computers, tablets, battery chargers, cameras and so on.  Anything that has a motor will not work properly because it is not just the voltage but also the frequency.,  A voltage converter is pretty much useless these days because it does not convert frequency.  It reduces voltage but its output is still 50 Hz.  So anything with a motor such as a hairdrier  or shaver will run at a slower speed if put in the adapter.  A hairdrier is also a high current devices and will likely blow the fuse of the voltage adapter before you will notice it runs slower.

Ships electrical systems may also pose a problem with frequency.  All ships I have been on offer both US and European plugs with the correct voltage but they were all 60 Hz, same as the ship's own electric system.  I think that the outlets were labeled as such.  Since ships are built in different countries, this may ba different depending on the cruise line.

1 minute ago, fsjosh said:

I saw that one but couldn't tell much by it. 

 

btw how did you embed the insta post?

 

 I just copied the link from the browser address bar and pasted into my post.  Did not do anything special.

10 minutes ago, fsjosh said:

A pic of Oasis leaving. You can see the side where the dock rubbed against the hull. 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv-mD8Fn0Fb/?utm_source=ig_web_options_share_sheet

Another picture by the same person shows what appear like the crane was removed.  The poster appears to be a Freeport harbor pilot.

Marine Traffic's forecast route does not show Oasis doing any stop in any of the NE Caribbean islands.  It will sail right between Culebra, PR and St. Thomas, continue SE to Montserrat and then turn around St. John's NE towards Spain.  Looks to me they want to keep near land for as long as possible.  San Juan is the next port in the route that could provide some services even if there is no dry dock that can hold this ship.

3 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

Thanks for confirming.

You're right, it's not too bad, but it misinterpreted the way viajaba was being used, translating it as a straight past tense, which is why another poster thought the Navantia workers had already travelled.

(and that's why human translators like me still have jobs! )

 

You confused "viajó" which is second and third person perfect past tense with "viajaba" which is imperfect past tense.  Don't think too much about it. Spanish verb conjugations are the hardest part of the language and even us native speakers some times have hard time with them too. 😉

The Google translation is not that bad.  I looked at it after I did my translation and they are very similar.

I am a native Spanish speaker and this is my translation.  If took the freedom to simplify some of the wording for the sake of brevity.

The cruise ship Oasis of the Seas from Royal Caribbean, will dry-dock in Navantia Cádiz to be repaired after having an accident while getting repairs on a floating dock.  Its arrival is scheduled for the 18th this month and a team of Navantia workers and auxiliary industry will depart this Friday to Bahamas to assess damages and do the trip onboard the ship.  

According to what company workers indicated to Europa Press, the cruise ship was on a floating dock in Bahamas doing repairs to one of the Azipods (my translation from "hélices de maniobra").  During the repair works, the dock buckled and caused damages to the ship after a crane fell on top of it.

The company has confirmed to Navantia that the ship will go to Cádiz to be repaired.  However, previously a team of Navantia workers and auxiliary industry would go to Bahamas to assess the damages on the ship and do the trip to Cádiz.

Cruise ship Oasis of the Seas from Royal Caribbean was scheduled to dry-dock in Cádiz on September for renovations.  Now due to this incident, it will be two times that the big cruise ship, one of the largest in the world, will be at the Cádiz shipyard.

Hello all.  I have been following this thread since there is more information here (or easier to find) than in other places.

The evacuation video brings to me a big issue that nobody has mentioned.  Did anyone notice that they had to walk under the fallen crane on the port side of the floating dock to evacuate to dry land?  What if that section of the boom had broken off and fallen into that area blocking access?  Was there a different evacuation route they could use?

Half of them probably were in San Juan the day before. San Juan had 7 ships in ports the last two days of November. The second day were reportedly 24,000 cruise tourists in the city. There were big ships of the likes of Anthem of the Seas, Carnival Magic and large Celebrity, Norwegian and Holland America ships.

The page is still there. The one that didn't come back was the webcam at the http://www.partridge.it web site. The site itself is up but not the camera. Not sure if the dry dock is visible from that location.

Carnival Epic

I don't get why there is this cruise line war here and everywhere. I have cruised only three times, first two in Carnival and the last recently in Royal Caribbean. All three times the line was not a deciding factor. I chose the first and last based on itinerary and the second one was a family group that I joined after the specific cruise had already been selected and booked by some in the group. Carnival or Royal are each better depending and what you is important to you and your expectations.

If you cruise for the ship, Royal Caribbean wins. No question about that. Bigger, flashier and with more onboard options. Well, in the biggest and newest ships, at least. See my experience below.

If you cruise for the destination, they are about the same although Royal Caribbean sails year round from more locations away from Florida than Carnival.

But... the cruise experience itself, the service, the food, the bars.... they are the same. I cannot say that I felt better served in one line or the other. I felt equally pampered by the staff about the same.

The "party boat" environment, my experience does not reflect reality described by others. My first cruise in the Caribbean out of San Juan (Carnival Destiny) had a party boat feel to some extent to the point that the deck party started the first night the minute the ship passed the entrance to the San Juan bay (being late in the night helped). Deck parties were always very crowded.

My second Carnival cruise was night and day in this regard, perhaps due to a different mix of cruisers, perhaps older. That was a Mediterraean cruise from Barcelona. Deck parties were not nearly as good and the entertainment staff was not as good as in the first cruise.

My latest two months ago was on Royal Caribbean in one of their older and smallish (Rhapsody of the Seas is by no means small except when compared to the newer Quantum and Oasis class ships of course). The party atmosphere was way better on that older ship than it was in my second Carnival cruise aboard Magic (bigger, better and flashier). The entertainment staff on Rhapsody was very good at it.

Other entertainment, is highly dependent on the ship you are on. What I saw on Rhapsody was on par with what I saw on Carnival Destiny which is a similar ship (prior to refit).

In simple words, the best is the one you like best. Don't feel lame or left out because you sail Carnival. They are more similar than they are different.

It depends on your carrier too. I recently cruised (not on Carnival) and was able to use my phone on Wi-fi for phone calls and texting. But my carrier (T-Mobile) supports texting over Wi-fi in addition to phone calls. Your mileage may vary with other carriers.

In this video it can be seen that a crew member in white uniform appeared to be filming the whole event from the overhanging thingy at the corner of the ship.

The pilot is not in control of the ship. I once took the "Behind the Fun" tour on Carnival Magic (I visited Messina on that cruise) and during the Q&A with the captain on the bridge I asked that question, if the pilot controls the ship in the port. His answer was simple. "No. The pilot knows the port, I know the ship".

There is another video taken from a different angle that makes me think that wind played a factor even though it appears not too windy. Looks like as the ship was departing and sailing through the narrow part, wind from the starboard side caused the ship to over rotate and the stern got too close. This ship has "azipods" which are a lot more powerful than thrusters. It was probably the main propulsion system pushing all the way to one side and not just thrusters of the type you find at the bow or stern in ships with shaft-mounted propellers.

http://www.adnkronos.com/2016/09/03/disastrosa-manovra-della-nave-crociera_TCI9w6hlzhcRgbnr2aUWFP.html

Well, it is a done deal. The wreck is now in dry dock. Just found this site which I wonder WHY, just WHY none of us ever found it before. Lots of info, pictures, updates and videos.

http://www.lecostaconcordia.com/A8-The-dismantling-of-the-Concordia.htm

The sponsons are now a bigger thing to take care about than what is left of the wreck.

Just found these pictures from August 19. They appear to have been taken from aboard an arriving or departing ship. I am not posting the original images because they are too big to post here but each will have the original link.

http://www.naviearmatori.net/eng/foto-224753-1.html

http://www.naviearmatori.net/eng/foto-224732-1.html

http://www.naviearmatori.net/eng/foto-224731-1.html

http://www.naviearmatori.net/eng/foto-224730-1.html

http://www.naviearmatori.net/eng/foto-224729-1.html

Amazing how every single prediction made by he who shall not be named over more than four and a half years was proven wrong. If I were him, I would quietly take down that web site and deny I ever posted such predictions.

On the serious side, it is a shame that the Partridge.it web cam is not working anymore. Last time I contacted the owner more than two months ago he asked me to access my computer via TeamViewer to "fix" something that would allow me to see the camera again. Something was preventing the web control from being able to see the camera and instead of telling me what to do he just asked if it was ok to use TeamViewer to fix it. I never replied since this was not an option. The camera never came back and it now seems to be offline. It appeared to be operated by some random guy out of his own Internet connection.

Since you are leaving tomorrow I am going to put my brief review of Zadar first because you asked.

We took the "Tastes and Panoramas of Dalmatia". I will say its description in the shore excursion catalog is a bit over enthusiastic. The bus picks you up at the pier and heads to the town of Šibenik about one hour drive away from Zadar. The bus goes trough a coastal road with nice views but the drive gets boring pretty quickly until it gets to the Krka river right before arriving to Šibenik. There is a walking tour around town and some free time for souvenir shopping and such. Then back to the bus for another long drive back to Zadar but on a freeway away from the coast this time. In Zadar the bus stops close to where the Sea Organ is located and we were walked though it to get into the old town. The walking tour in Zadar was short and just to show some of the major attractions such as the main church. And then some free time before the bus heads back to the ship.

Of all the cities visited, this was probably the least interesting with the notable exception of the Sea Organ. On the little free time we had, we headed back to the Sea Organ to take more pictures and videos and enjoy the intriguing sound created by the waves some more time. This was actually the very last bit of our cruise before returning to Venice. :mad:

I would recommend to skip the old town unless you are interested in seeing the Sea Organ. In its place probably the Krka River National Park excursion would be a better option based on the stunning pictures I have seen (long before deciding to take this cruise) of the waterfalls in the park. Cannot comment on the Paklenica National Park tour.

Ater the visit to Zadar we talked with some other cruisers (such as our MDR table mates and other stranded cruisers who also had to stay an extra night thanks to United Airlines) and they all agreed that Zadar was not very interesting. Kind of disappointing after visiting Dubrovnik in 2011 and being the highlight of that cruise second only to Venice.

Yes, I was on the 10-day itinerary that did Corfu, Santorini, Athens, Mykonos, Kotor and Zadar. There is another 10-day itinerary that is the reverse of this and replaces Split with Kotor. I know because that was my original itinerary prior to rebooking.

On mine the formal nights were the second night (sea day and prior to us getting our missing bag back :mad:) and the second one was on night 8 which is the last sea day and prior to Kotor. Don't remember off the top of my head when where the deck parties. We took shore excursions on each port. When I come back to write about the ports I will mention the specific excursions we took.

Let me add a bit more about the ship experience.

The MDR service was very good as I said before, and the wait staff very friendly and always looking to please us. We were on a shared table with another couple and their daughter. Usually we arrived at the table a few minutes after them (yeah, the sunset happened to be right at our set dinner time a few nights) but on other days when we did arrive a few minutes before them, the table already had been set with drinks for the other couple. We never requested to have drinks, so they did not do that for us but I found this a very nice detail.

Michelle Oliveira, the cruise director does a very good job and is very funny and friendly. She seems to be everywhere and does zumba classes in the morning next to the main pool. Of course, we never went. :D

As is expected in cruises, there were many activities everywhere including a few deck parties at night which were popular and crowded. The entertainment staff do an excellent job at this since all activities we saw were very popular. I did another Mediterranean cruise in 2011 on Carnival Magic and for some reason the deck parties were never very good. Don't know if there population was older in that cruise, or if the staff was not very good or what. However in my first cruise in the Caribbean also on another Carnival ship had deck parties as crowded or even more than I saw on Rhapsody. The cruise director that time seemed to be like Michelle: everywhere. Not so much the Carnival Magic cruise director.

Hello all! I am now back home after the cruise. The missing bag was waiting for us aboard the ship when we returned from the shore excursion at Santorini. Everything went well after that and we finally got to dress up on the second formal night. :-)

I will do a brief review on the different parts of out trip before going into more details about the cruise itself and the ports. Do not expect a lengthily and very detailed review with lots of pictures.

Air travel to and from Venice

As I said in a prior post, we had issues with our United flight from Boston to Venice via Newark. There was a weather related ground stop at Newark that afternoon that caused us to miss our connection in Newark. Therefore they put us in an Alitalia flight later in the night via Rome. This caused us to miss our gondola ride with the female gondolier the next day. :mad: We were REALLY looking forward to doing that ride. As you all know, one of our bags (my girlfriend's) did not arrive to Venice and later caught up with us in Santorini. The Guest Services people at the ship were extremely helpful with this.

And what are the chances of having problems on the way back home? Our return flight was also on United via Newark to Boston.

We returned to Venice after the cruise on July 15 and our plan was to fly home on July 16. Our departure flight was at 10:55 AM and we were planning to get up at 4:00 AM to get ready be able to board the 6:55 AM Alilaguna ferry from S.Zaccaria to the airport and arrive around 8:00 AM. At 3:45 AM I get a text message from United telling that our flight was delayed so we decided to get up at 5:00 AM instead. By that time our flight has already delayed several hours due to bad weather in Newark. There was a storm in the northeast US that delayed the incoming flight. The thing is that by the time we were getting ready to go to the airport around 8:00 AM the flight has been cancelled due to plane maintenance issues according to United. So we left for the airport with no flight home. We had to do a looooong line to find another flight and at the end there were no more flights departing on the same day (actually I found several but from other airlines not partnering with United) and were sent to a hotel for the night at United's expense. We were put on a Lufthansa flight on July 17 to Boston via Frankfurt. We took that flight the next day and arrived uneventfuly in Boston with all our bags.

Marco Polo Airport

The airport is a bit messy. I found it unorganized and there is a huge construction project going on. The walk between terminal and the ferries is a bit long and takes around 10 minutes with luggage. Due to the construction, in some areas you have to walk on the street along with vehicles and have to carry your bags over curbs with no ramp. No big deal but still messy when you are carrying luggage around. The one plus I give them is that the security checkpoint at the terminal where Lufthansa is located is better designed and organized than their American counterparts. Getting through security on the day of our return home was a breeze.

Transport between airport, hotel and cruise terminal

We used the Alilaguna blue line for all transfers. It worked quite well. Not the least expensive and not the fastest but is one of the easiest ways to get around of your hotel is near any of the stops. We paid each 23€ for the round trip from the airport to S.Zaccaria (stop before San Marco). They did not charge anything for the bags. The trip from the airport to S.Zaccaria takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes. The return trip to the airport takes 1 hour.

The day of the cruise we took the blue line again at S.Zaccaria and paid each 8€ to go to the cruise terminal.

After the cruise we purchased another 8€ ticket plus this time they charged also I think 3€ for each of the two large bags. Somehow they missed the bags on the way to the terminal. The transfer between S.Zaccaria and the terminal is a short 20 minute ride. Then there is a short walk to the cruise terminal. The ship docked at the 107 pier which is the one closest to the Alilaguna dock.

Hotel

Following the recommendation of one fellow forum member here we booked both stays (one night each) at Hotel Fontana in the area just a few streets away from San Marco square and just a very short walk away from the San Zaccaria stop of the ACTV and Alilaguna ferry stop. The hotel staff was extremely friendly and treated us like they previously knew us. The check-in process was a breeze and in no time we were in our room after we arrived from the airport. Room was large although it did not have a view to the street. It was on the first floor and had access to a small interior patio behind the building. Breakfast was a bit limited but I think this is an Italian thing because Italians do not eat a big breakfast like people in the US are accustomed.

When we returned from the cruise we arrived early (around 9:30 AM) but they let us store our bags until check-in time (2:00 PM). So off we went to the city and returned around 1:30 PM and they let us do early check-in at that time. This time we had a room in the second floor with a view of the street in front of the hotel. A very nice lively area of town. There is a restaurant right across the street in front of the hotel but it was not a problem with noise.

In both stays we had to pay in cash a 7€ city tax at check-out. Don't know if this is per night or for any stay.

We liked this hotel and will recommend it. Thanks to the forum member who recommended it!!! :)

On our unplanned stay thanks to United Airlines we stayed at a Hilton Double Tree hotel in mainland Italy about 20 minutes away by bus from the airport. The hotel was nice and pretty but seems to be mostly oriented to business travelers and there was practically nothing around to see and do so we just stayed there and rested for our long flight the next day. The room we were sent had a malfunctioning A/C and was hot as hell. We had to be put on another room. We were a group of maybe 50 people who were on the same cancelled flight and they had arranged dinner for us and shuttle buses the next day back to the airport.

Rhapsody of the Seas

This is about the ship itself, not about the cruise or the ports.

I have to say that the ship shows its age (19 years) in the form layers of paint in many external areas (such as the hull and railings) and you can spot areas where flooring or carpeting is a bit worn or window panes look foggy. But still the ship is beautiful and even these details did not take away in any form from the cruise experience. I would sail on her again any day.

Again, due to its age the ship is not the biggest or has all the bells and whistles of the newer ships but it is on par with similar ships of the time (I sailed in Carnival Destiny which before its refit as Carnival Sunshine was a similar ship and about the same age). For the type of cruisers we are, this type of ship is perfect for us. We are both middle aged adults who do not drink except for a glass of wine at dinner a few times during the cruise, neither are we party-goers. We cruise mostly to visit new places and to relax on the ship. I did visit most of the venues during my exploration of the ship.

Having said that, do not ask for specific recommendations about bartenders or venues because I cannot answer them. :D We ate at the Edelweiss dining room all nights except the first formal night due to the aforementioned missing bag which meant my girlfriend did not have here nice dress for that night, so we had dinner at the Windjammer instead that night. We did not go to any of the specialty restaurants. When I booked the cruise I wanted to have late or second seating because from our previous cruises, late worked better for us. However, only early seating was available. So the first night we requested changing to the late seating. They did not guarantee we would get it but still I placed my request. The next day we got the notification that our request has been granted. :cool: So the third night (second night was the first formal night) we went to dinner on the late seating.

On the port days we usually had a snack after we returned to the ship if we did not have lunch in port. We went to the Windjammer but a couple of times we got back too late and found the Windjammer closed so we had to go to the Vitality Spa pool area to have our snack.

We had breakfast at the Windjammer each day. Selection of food was OK. Also had lunch on sea days there. Again the selection was OK.

A few times we just wanted to relax at a quiet place on the sea days we went to the Viking Crown lounge were we could have a bird's eye view of the main pool area and still hear what was going on outside with all the loud music and such. Even watched the belly flop, sexiest man and a few games from there. Also watched a few things at the Shall We Dance lounge a couple of nights after the shows in the main theater and dinner.

MDR service was very good and on par with my expectations. The food was good but at times I found it limited for my particular tastes and found it hard to select something. There is something for everyone but at times I felt like nothing was to my taste. Mind you, I am a bit picky and not to adventurous with food. Still I found that I liked the food in Carnival better in quality and variety than what I found at the Rhapsody.

Our stateroom attendant (Jinky) did a very good job and was always looking to see if everything was fine. We requested to have ice in our room and she always provided us with enough ice each day of the cruise. The only thing is that she only did three towel animals during the cruise :mad: and not every night like the stateroom attendants do in Carnival cruises.

Our ocean view room was a bit smaller than I expected (Carnival ships generally have larger rooms than most lines) but still was adequate for both of us and had plenty of storage for our clothes and stuff in the closet and drawers. The bathroom was tiny but typical of what cruise ships offer. Also had plenty of storage next to the sink. We were in the starboard side on deck 4 (room 4542) right under the open promenade in deck 5. Some nights I could hear people running or making noise in that area but not something that would wake you up. The bow thrusters can be clearly heard and felt in that room but again, nothing that would wake you up unless you are a light sleeper. Sometimes, the vibration from the thrusters was the signal for me to go out and see the ship depart.

We had to go to the guest services area a few times the first days of the cruise due to the missing bag. When we arrived to the ship on embarkation day one of the first things we did was go there to notify about the missing bag and provide them with the details and a copy of the claim filed with Alitalia. The company that does the service for Alitalia asked us for our cruise details (ship and sail date) so that they knew where to deliver the bag if found. The guys at the ship also kept looking and informed us every day about the status of the bag. Then on the night of July 17 I got a notification that the bag was found The ship has not notified us yet by that time but they did on the next day. The bag would be sent to Santorini in time for our visit in July 19. They also gave us a complimentary laundry service which we used. We also used the special $30 laundry bag offer later on the cruise.

Embarkation was simple enough since I had done most of the pre-requisite things online although the line was a bit long. When we finally got on the ship we were literally herded to the muster station because the muster drill was about to start.

Debarkation was also an easy process. We were assigned the 8:15 AM slot and we had plenty of time to have breakfast at the Windjammer and then go down to the main theater to wait for our turn. We found our bags at te terminal quickly and off we went back to the hotel on the Alilaguna boat.

On future posts I will cover the ports of call.