Carnival Legend DELAYED due to fog

[smc0320]

Well its 4 am and we are finally underway . Did the safety lifeboat muster at 11-12 pm ish. Held my sound asleep 3 year old who had crashed moments after we hit our cabin.

 

So far the crew has been great about this and I know weather is one of those things but right now my dw is talking stuff like " last carnival for me"

 

So far I am made of sterner stuff and willing to see what the week brings. But rcl or other may get the next cruise price notwithstanding.

 

If I were a newbie cruiser I would not be terribly impressed so far with this experience.

 

OMG....have a GREAT cruise!

[treasure4two]

Just curious...does an Airline call you when your flight is delayed or your equipment (airplane) hasn't flown in, do trains alert you if they will be late arriving or departing, does a hotel call you to tell you that they are overbooked and will be moving you when you check in...I don't think so.

 

 

Yes - Yes - and Yes

 

Carnival . . . it is what it is.

 

.

Airline call -Rarely;trains alert you, no;hotel call , ha, ha!!

What world are you living in?

No ship there had to be a clue. Yes, Carnival should have sent someone down the line and told people, but they are all boarded, on their way-

I can not imagine how mean some passengers will be to the poor crew on board, who had nothing to do with the port employees not informing them

of the delay, why, and anticipated departure.

[mavvie]

Depending on how long you are delayed there are some venues close to the port to eat up some time. Last time we were at the Tampa Port we had a great time at The Florida Aquarium right behind the pier. There is some limited shopping, a movie theater and one can't forget a stop at Hooter's for some wings just down the street.

[KennySoCal]

We'll be on the Legend next Sunday and we're spending Saturday night at the Hyatt. I'll probably take an early morning walk down towards the harbor to see if she's in. If we're going to be delayed, it may be worth another day's fee at the hotel or at least asking the hotel to store the luggage for a while to go play in Ybor or at Channelside. The unpredictability is not all bad in an anticipatory way...always good to find alternatives!

[Sparky2]

Standing in line 3 hours so far no one is moving. No one going up escalator and no one saying anything or seemingly in charge.

 

Ncl dream and ryndam are off. Only offering a $40 per person obc.

 

When we sailed on the Legend last year, the ship was late getting in from the previous cruise due to a mechanical problem or something like that. Nothing to do with weather.

 

Shortly after we got in line outside, an employee came by and said they were bringing in 3 buses to take us to the Convention Center where they had a hot lunch buffet waiting for us. It was very nice. We also got $15 OBC in case we wanted to eat around the port.

 

The lady who was in charge of our group was in constant contact with the port. We did not go back as soon as the ship was boarding. She waited till we were able to go back with a very short line. I think it was around 2PM.

 

We got on the ship much later that we would have preferred, but it was much better than waiting outside in the sun.

[loubetti]

I've always wondered why we can automatically land a Boeing 747 jumbo jet in dense fog at 150 MPH, yet we cannot dock a cruise ship in such conditions.

 

Ah! No one has developed the technology for it, but we can! :D

[RuthlessBoss]

I've always wondered why we can automatically land a Boeing 747 jumbo jet in dense fog at 150 MPH, yet we cannot dock a cruise ship in such conditions.

 

Ah! No one has developed the technology for it, but we can! :D

I questioned this earlier. I'm now convinced it had more to do with the tides and the ship's ability to get under the bridge.

[dbd0512]

My guess would be the liability of hitting another vessel that may not be visible in the fog. No one knows where private vessels are at at any given point of time. I think most airports can keep track of what planes are in the area. Also I would think all cruise ships have thermal imaging but that is designed more for night than fog. Coming into port there may also be to much radar clutter to rely on that exclusively. Just my guess.

[Captain Carnival]

Just wondering if LEGEND will still be able to make all of their port of calls after leaving 12-hours late?

[MrFunInTheSun]

On November 4th we had a thread here on the Carnival forum that pretty much went down exactly like this thread. With the port of Tampa closed and the Carnival Legend unable to dock on time. Pretty much play for play on both these threads. :rolleyes:

 

November 4th thread located below

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1732774

 

 

 

This will not be the last time the port of Tampa is closed for ships to dock on time. One thing to keep in mind is the Legend is a bigger ship than the Fantasy class ships and some of the others so additional caution is needed to go under the skyway bridge.

 

It indeed isn't fun for all those involved on the ship or waiting to board. As always things like this will always work out and add to the adventure of the trip.

[Nana257]

We returned to Tampa this morning on the Paradise. Our docking was also delayed. We were told it was due to ship traffic, but there was considerable fog around too. We didn't disembark until 11:30 this morning. And by that time on Thursday, we were already on board and drinking our first DOD. ;) There were tons of people around in port, both arriving and departing. It was like organized chaos. I don't know how they keep it all straight. Have to give the crew and the port officials credit. Can't wait for our next cruise!!

[newcruiser08820]

Hi there!

 

Sitting on Carnival Legend right now out in the gulf....nowhere near the bridge....DELAYED due to fog. Guest Servvices estinates 4-hr travel time from where we are right now.....but has no idea when we might start moving.

 

That's all I know....not sure if I'll be back on with an update or not.

 

Anyone getting messages from Carnival about today's boarding times?

 

I was on that November 4th sailing. Got the message around 10 am about delay. We had to leave hotel anyway, so we opted to go to aquarium. Got the money worth there with two kids 4 & 11. Stayed there all day till 5 pm. Thankfully weather was beautiful and they have small water playground, sand box, restaurant. About 4 pm we receive the message that ship should be around 5.30pm which actually did arrive around that time. From about 5 pm till 10 pm we were sitting in the port area. Again, thankfully we were able to get few chairs outside . Ate few time including three times ice cream. I was getting really tired so are the kids. We had to carry our little one on board around 11 pm. They still hold muster drill sometime after mid-night. Ship departed sometime after that. We did not miss any islands and made it on time to Cozumel. But i was so tired after all day of waiting so my next sea day spend most day sleeping. But we still have a good cruise. After reading many reviews, missing a port during my first cruise, few years ago, I am always going with the open mind that anything can go wrong.

[newcruiser08820]

Just wondering if LEGEND will still be able to make all of their port of calls after leaving 12-hours late?

All depends when the ship actually arrives at port. Our arrived on 11/04 around 5.15 pm. After that about 3 hours for people to get out, than about 2.5 hours to get in. We were almost the last ones around 11 pm, muster drill after mid-night. Ship left shortly after. We were at Cozumel right on time.

[legion3]

Well we are back. Embarcation was the only issue of an otherwise flawless cruise for us. Perfect for us at least. Lots of overblown or simply wrong info in many recent legend reviews. The ship is not falling apart, the crew is not grumpy and the mdr food is not lukewarm or cold or particually slow in arrival.

[CruiseGirlyGirl]

Just wondering if LEGEND will still be able to make all of their port of calls after leaving 12-hours late?

 

We did make all the ports! My only compliant is that most of my information came from Cruise Critic not Carnival. Thank goodness for this thread.

[belkin]

Glad you guys had a good time and made all the ports. We were on the ship during the "fog in". We missed our 3:20pm flight and spent the night in Tampa. Our flight out the next day was delayed twice, but we finally made it home. Cant wait for the next one.

[yankee46]

Maybe the real truth would hurt Carnival. We were there last week waiting on the dawn. We were told that the Port notified all three cruise ships to arrive early as they were closing the Port. The Dawn and HAL apparently heeded the message. Carnival did not ,to me that is arrogance on the bridge. Why would Carnival admit fault they would have to compensate folks more then 40.00. Think of the missed flights and other travel arangements. Can you imagine the waiting passengers with small children who traveled all day and could not board till after 9pm and not sail till early morning. worth more then 40.00 dollars I would guess.

[smc0320]

Maybe the real truth would hurt Carnival. We were there last week waiting on the dawn. We were told that the Port notified all three cruise ships to arrive early as they were closing the Port. The Dawn and HAL apparently heeded the message. Carnival did not ,to me that is arrogance on the bridge. Why would Carnival admit fault they would have to compensate folks more then 40.00. Think of the missed flights and other travel arangements. Can you imagine the waiting passengers with small children who traveled all day and could not board till after 9pm and not sail till early morning. worth more then 40.00 dollars I would guess.

 

Do you happen to know the position of each of the cruise ships relative to the port when they received that information? I wonder if they all had time to make a difference.

 

I sort of remember us doing 11 knots from Tampa to Cozumel and we made that on time, if not a bit early. On the way back to Tampa, we came back from Grand Cayman and did 18-19 knots for much of the trip.

 

The Dawn was coming back from Cozumel....MUCH closer than Grand Cayman...so maybe they were closer and have time to respond.

[yankee46]

Forget the rhetoric Dawn was on a sea day coming back not Cozumel. I don't want to get anyone in trouble by naming names or where they work. Each week these captains get there ships back into port in the early morning hours. What was different this week? I was on the legend a few years ago when we returned back to port at 1am because of fog/ The point is you will not know the truth because it would put them in a bad situation.

[newbie3815]

Forget the rhetoric Dawn was on a sea day coming back not Cozumel. I don't want to get anyone in trouble by naming names or where they work. Each week these captains get there ships back into port in the early morning hours. What was different this week? I was on the legend a few years ago when we returned back to port at 1am because of fog/ The point is you will not know the truth because it would put them in a bad situation.

 

 

 

I totally agree with you. I was on the Legend on the 12/2-12/9 cruise. Not making it into port caused many issues for many of us. I will be posting more later about the way Carnival handled things that day. It was not all great as others have eluded to in other posts.

Also Cozumel is 509 nautical miles and Grand Cayman is 517 nautical miles from Tampa so the point a previous poster made is not valid.

[smc0320]

I totally agree with you. I was on the Legend on the 12/2-12/9 cruise. Not making it into port caused many issues for many of us. I will be posting more later about the way Carnival handled things that day. It was not all great as others have eluded to in other posts.

Also Cozumel is 509 nautical miles and Grand Cayman is 517 nautical miles from Tampa so the point a previous poster made is not valid.

 

I was asking because Grand Cayman looked further away when viewing a map than Cozumel. I tried looking up nautical mileage and got several conflicting measurements. It doesn't add up why we were going no faster than 11 knots the 1st two days and we made same distance that we couldn't make in same timeframe going 18 knots. Either way, it doesn't matter...we had a great cruise and we're home now...wishing we were back onboard.

 

WHO in their right mind thinks Carnival did this on purpose? Does anyone think the captain woke up thinking he would do this as a favor to extend our vacations (and make us spend more $$$) or maybe he woke up thinking how he could ruin everyone's day and especially screw with the people waiting to get on the ship that day?

 

We were disappointed when we called guest services at 6am about why we were stopped and they didn't make an announcement for another 2 hours. We made at least 4 calls to them in those 2 hours. In those morning hours, the lack of communication was unacceptable.

 

We were even more disappointed to find out (from staff) that they only have 6 outgoing phone lines, so when they "opened" the lines for people to call out, it really did not good because all the cell phone traffic and stateroom calls went through the same 6 lines. I still don't know if that is accurate.

 

It also didn't help when they "opened" the internet when really they only opened 3 computers in the Internet Cafe. It also didn't help that some moron of a woman was in their wasting an hour checking in for her flight that she would not make when people really needed to change or book flights.

 

However, the staff was quick to put together activities and keep people entertained so we weren't bored and trying to jump ship. It was nice of them to open movies so we could watch those for free. It was wonderful for those who bought the Cheers program that they continued to be served. We were fed well, we were safe, we continued to have fun...and we were off the ship with the 1st group of self-assist.

 

Everyone felt terrible for the people waiting to board the ship.....I just don't know what we would have done had we been them. We were on the better end of the delay.

[newcruiser08820]

I was asking because Grand Cayman looked further away when viewing a map than Cozumel. I tried looking up nautical mileage and got several conflicting measurements. It doesn't add up why we were going no faster than 11 knots the 1st two days and we made same distance that we couldn't make in same timeframe going 18 knots. Either way, it doesn't matter...we had a great cruise and we're home now...wishing we were back onboard.

 

WHO in their right mind thinks Carnival did this on purpose? Does anyone think the captain woke up thinking he would do this as a favor to extend our vacations (and make us spend more $$$) or maybe he woke up thinking how he could ruin everyone's day and especially screw with the people waiting to get on the ship that day?

 

We were disappointed when we called guest services at 6am about why we were stopped and they didn't make an announcement for another 2 hours. We made at least 4 calls to them in those 2 hours. In those morning hours, the lack of communication was unacceptable.

 

We were even more disappointed to find out (from staff) that they only have 6 outgoing phone lines, so when they "opened" the lines for people to call out, it really did not good because all the cell phone traffic and stateroom calls went through the same 6 lines. I still don't know if that is accurate.

 

It also didn't help when they "opened" the internet when really they only opened 3 computers in the Internet Cafe. It also didn't help that some moron of a woman was in their wasting an hour checking in for her flight that she would not make when people really needed to change or book flights.

 

However, the staff was quick to put together activities and keep people entertained so we weren't bored and trying to jump ship. It was nice of them to open movies so we could watch those for free. It was wonderful for those who bought the Cheers program that they continued to be served. We were fed well, we were safe, we continued to have fun...and we were off the ship with the 1st group of self-assist.

 

Everyone felt terrible for the people waiting to board the ship.....I just don't know what we would have done had we been them. We were on the better end of the delay.

I was actually feeling worse for the people on boards with missing flights and needs to find/book hotel for the night. Being with two small kids, I don't know what's worse - wait for 12 hours to board or sit on the ship without any info when it will dock and how to make the flight at least next day.

[belkin]

I was actually feeling worse for the people on boards with missing flights and needs to find/book hotel for the night. Being with two small kids, I don't know what's worse - wait for 12 hours to board or sit on the ship without any info when it will dock and how to make the flight at least next day.

 

We were on board. Yes, it was a little frustrating not being able to get through on the phone and the difficulty with the internet use. Our flight out was for 3:20pm and we pretty much figured we would miss our flight as we were told that from where we were anchored to reach port it would take about 4 hours not including time to debark.

 

We just figured that it is.... what it is... and getting all mad about it would do absolutely no good.

I just waited until we were close enough to the port to get phone signal and then I called Marriott and told them the issue and asked them to book us a room with a shuttle to the port. They did that and gave me the address.

 

At that time we then had internet service and I checked orbits for the cheapest flight and booked it.

 

Once all that was done we headed up to the Serinity Deck and had some drinks. It was beautiful and there was hardly anybody up there. We stayed up there and ate some pizza so we would not have to worry about supper. When they called our zone number we walked right off the ship and got a taxi.

 

We thought they handled it really well. We did not have insurance and the airline we flew with refused to give us any credit. They said we had to notify them 24 hours in advance. It cost us $350 for new tickets back to Michigan and we used points for our room. We are OK with that we were well aware of the risk of not buying the insurance.

[elgato2]

We were on the 12/9 sailing..and were one of THOSE people sitting at the Port of Tampa all day.

I, too was feeling sorry for those on board that missed flights etc...

I will post a review about the cruise tomorrow..(too tired tonight)

Since we live only one hour away..we COULD have spent a leaisurely day at home with our out-of-town friends..got the info from CCL etc...BUT...

One word to the wise...we thought we'd be smart and save $50+ by using an off-site lot.. It was reserved and paid for in advance, when I contacted them about when to proceed to the port, I was told we still had to arrive by 11:30am (no one knew at that point just how late the ship would be)..so we spent the day at Channelside with no car, and as the hours dragged by, that $50 saved seemed less and less important.

Next time we will pay the extra $$ for the parking garage..lesson learned.

It was a great cruise BTW!

[camarodrivenrs]

 

WHO in their right mind thinks Carnival did this on purpose? Does anyone think the captain woke up thinking he would do this as a favor to extend our vacations (and make us spend more $$$) or maybe he woke up thinking how he could ruin everyone's day and especially screw with the people waiting to get on the ship that day?

 

 

I dont think the Captain thought of screwing the passengers either on board or waiting. I think more likely he is sailing under orders from corporate and probably not advised to speed up. Ships that size use a lot more fuel at top speed than at a slower cruising speed. A LOT of money was saved by not burning the extra fuel and just giving people $40.00. Just my 2 cents