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Sailing out of Baltimore--bridge question


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Hi everyone,

 

I have read some posts on this board referring to cruise ships sailing under a bridge when leaving from the port of Baltimore. I believe people said it's cool to be on deck when this happens because it's really neat.

 

I'm wondering which bridge this is and how long after the ship gets underway does this take place? This will be my first cruise. I'll be on Grandeur cruising to Bermuda in August. I don't want to miss anything exciting!

 

Thanks!

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I believe its the Key Bridge and that should happen about 10 minutes after the ship sails. Joe V.

 

Serenade of the Seas 1/7/2006

Zuiderdam 4/23/05

Princess 3 times

QE2 1 time

RCI 2 times Song of America and Monarch of the Seas

Carnival 1 time

Royal Majesty 1 time

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You are in for a treat if you can keep your eyes open long enough! You will go under the first bridge about 15-30 minutes into your cruise, the second one you will hit about an hour later and then the most interesting will be about 1AM when you go over the Bay Bridge Tunnel! Coming back to port you will hit the bridge tunnel around midnight, but you can see it coming around 10:30.

Enjoy and congratulations on your first cruise!

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It actually passes under two bridges, the Key bridge, now too long after you leave port and the Chesapeake Bay bridge, about an hour or so later. We were on Galaxy a few years back and went under the bridges. The top of the ship gets pretty close to the bridge. The exhaust from the smokestacks on the ship actually passed through the Chesapeake Bay bridge! My fiance and I live on the Bay in Annapolis and have watched the Grandeur sail under the Bay bridge many times. Enjoy.

 

Mark and Janet

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Don't forget the Maryland Bay Bridge, in addition to the Key Bridge in Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in Virginia. The Maryland Bay Bridge is between the Key Bridge and the CBBT, but is closer to the Key Bridge (it is also much much larger than the Key Bridge).

 

To clarify, as some locals are confusing each other...there are two bridges commonly referred to as "The Bay Bridge". The first is the William Preston Lane Bay Bridge (aka US Route 50). The second is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel in Virginia.

 

http://www.roadstothefuture.com/Balt_Outer_Harbor.html

http://www.roadstothefuture.com/Chesapeake_Bay_Bridge.html

http://www.cbbt.com/

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The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is a bridge with 2 tunnels, so when the ship goes over a tunnel you can see cars on the bridge part. As the ship is right over a the tunnel part, you will see the headlights just disappear as they cars go into the tunnel. Very cool to watch. Hope this helps.

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It actually passes under two bridges, the Key bridge, now too long after you leave port and the Chesapeake Bay bridge, about an hour or so later. We were on Galaxy a few years back and went under the bridges. The top of the ship gets pretty close to the bridge. The exhaust from the smokestacks on the ship actually passed through the Chesapeake Bay bridge! My fiance and I live on the Bay in Annapolis and have watched the Grandeur sail under the Bay bridge many times. Enjoy.

Hi,

 

I am wondering if Sandy Point State Park would be a good place from which to watch the Grandeur sail by. It is close to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (Route 50), but I don't know if the channel is close enough to the shore to provide a decent view of the ship from there.

 

Thanks,

 

Theron

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Call me a Dork, but my favorite part of the whole cruise was going over the Chesapeak Bay Bridge Tunnel around Mid-Night on the last night of the cruise. We could see the Va Beach Boardwalk around 10:30pm after our late seating for Dinner. It wasn't until 12:00 that we actually passed over the Tunnel. It was so cool being able to see the Boardwalk all lit up, Oceana Air Base, Little Creek Amphibious Base, Langly Air Force Base, NASA, Newport News Shipbuilding, Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, and Fort Monroe. Everything was so beautiful all lit up and glowing. You could pick out every little detail. I just stood there for the entire two hours soaking up every little minute of it.

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Thanks for the confirmation!

 

I'm in the planning (ha ha keep your eye on that sig!) for a Fall cruise on the Grandeur, with at least 3 first time cruisers... thinking about dragging them to a little picnic at Sandy Point SP on a Friday or a Sunday late afternoon. Not sure I could pull it off as a surprise, but even if not, thought it would be a pretty fun thing to do, get a look at her as she sails by! :D

 

Theron

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I'm sailing on the Grandeur 9-day in September. A couple we met on our Roll Call thread, and my group went to Ft. Armistead Park last month to see the Grandeur sail by. There were a lot of other future Grandeur passengers there as well. Here's a shot I took of the Grandeur sailing under the Key Bridge:

 

7b270e52.jpg

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I'm sailing on the Grandeur 9-day in September. A couple we met on our Roll Call thread, and my group went to Ft. Armistead Park last month to see the Grandeur sail by. There were a lot of other future Grandeur passengers there as well. Here's a shot I took of the Grandeur sailing under the Key Bridge:

Thanks, that is really cool! We'd be coming up from Virginia, so Ft. Armistead Park would probably be an extra 45 minutes driving.. so we'll probably stick with Sandy Point SP.

 

Theron

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We sailed Grandeur twice last summer out of Baltimore. The tunnel is part of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. You will be able to see the bridge sections and where they disappear into the water. As you are passing between the bridge sections, you will be over the tunnel. This happens around 11 - midnight on the way back, (I was on deck to watch), but not sure about on the way out. I believe it is in the wee morning hours.

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Great, thanks for all the info everyone! I can't wait to see it. Great pic, Purple Sunday.

 

By the way, go Steelers! ;)

 

You got confused...that's

 

GO RAVENS!!!!

 

 

LOL Just playing with ya.

 

Great picture PurpleSunday, I nabbed a copy to show to my BF

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Last year, I called guest services and asked what time we passed over the bridge/tunnel. It was around 1am and they offered me a wake up call. I took them up on the offer and went forward to watch. Really neat. Have a great time.

 

 

 

 

Sue

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I should have thought to post this earlier...

 

ChesterH, who mostly hangs out on the Celebrity board, took some video on one of his cruises going under the bridges. He set it to some music (Men at Work, Down by the Sea) and it came out quite artsy! He's very talented... if you haven't heard of him, read some of his reviews, they are most excellent. They are the kind of material you would send to a friend that you want to go on a cruise with you!

 

The video can be found here: http://www.chesterh.com/video_index.html

 

Links at the top of that page for the other stuff.

 

Theron

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