NJ Fred Posted May 16, 2014 #1 Share Posted May 16, 2014 I am writing this at 10:20 PM local time in Petropavlovsk, Russia. Celebrity Millennium was due to sail from its anchorage more than three hours ago. Russian authorities decided to do a pre-departure recheck of all passports. Cruise Director Steve Gayda and his very able team have made several announcements in several languages directing all passengers to proceed to Guest Relations to surrender their passports. As of a few minutes ago, several passengers have failed to comply. Steve made it clear the vessel will be held until there is 100% compliance. The obvious question is why the passenger list cannot be audited in comparison to those who have, in fact, surrendered their passports. The ship is being delayed and it is foreseeable that there will come a point when Russian officials will close down for the night making an overnight stay necessary and throwing Millennium severely behind schedule. I will discuss Petropavlovsk in my post-cruise review. However, it is not a port I have even a morsel of desire to revisit. St. Petersburg was well worth the journey last year. This port makes me think of the South Bronx. Wish us luck! BTW, Code Red remains in full force as of this writing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexdisic Posted May 16, 2014 #2 Share Posted May 16, 2014 I am writing this at 10:20 PM local time in Petropavlovsk, Russia. Celebrity Millennium was due to sail from its anchorage more than three hours ago. Russian authorities decided to do a pre-departure recheck of all passports. Cruise Director Steve Gayda and his very able team have made several announcements in several languages directing all passengers to proceed to Guest Relations to surrender their passports. As of a few minutes ago, several passengers have failed to comply. Steve made it clear the vessel will be held until there is 100% compliance. The obvious question is why the passenger list cannot be audited in comparison to those who have, in fact, surrendered their passports. The ship is being delayed and it is foreseeable that there will come a point when Russian officials will close down for the night making an overnight stay necessary and throwing Millennium severely behind schedule. I will discuss Petropavlovsk in my post-cruise review. However, it is not a port I have even a morsel of desire to revisit. St. Petersburg was well worth the journey last year. This port makes me think of the South Bronx. Wish us luck! BTW, Code Red remains in full force as of this writing. We do hope you get underway soon so as not to disrupt your cruise more. Whenever there has been a request from passengers there are always some it seems that spoil the party - particularly bad of them in this situation. Are they on board even? Shame about the code red still. We do wish you luck - and with all that is going on - you will still enjoy it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-Airbalancer Posted May 16, 2014 #3 Share Posted May 16, 2014 (edited) Code red :confused: Found it Edited May 16, 2014 by Airbalancer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MICHAEL_01 Posted May 16, 2014 #4 Share Posted May 16, 2014 Maybe this is in revenge for the sanctions against russia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexdisic Posted May 16, 2014 #5 Share Posted May 16, 2014 Maybe this is in revenge for the sanctions against russia. The port has consistently caused problems for X. Like the OP states - I dont know why X bothers with it - more trouble than its worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4774Papa Posted May 16, 2014 #6 Share Posted May 16, 2014 This port is on our itinerary for our Around Japan cruise. It appears that we would be better skipping the port. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMLAalum Posted May 16, 2014 #7 Share Posted May 16, 2014 (edited) On our 4/13 Millennium cruise from Hong Kong, our passports were taken and held so that proper visas could be stamped for Taiwan and Japan. The night before we arrived in Tianjin China we had to retrieve our passports per a schedule. This process was well-organized and upon return to the ship we again surrendered our passports to be retrieved the night before arriving in Shanghai where the cruise concluded. Had there been a forewarning about Petroplavosk, passports could have been collected similarly. Sounds like a mess in Russia that may well be 'politically' motivated. I hope those who failed to comply are located soon...perhaps it's a language barrier? We'd have been on this itinerary had it's original sail date of 4/26/14 not been moved:eek:! Edited May 16, 2014 by TMLAalum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patty1955 Posted May 16, 2014 #8 Share Posted May 16, 2014 When were in Petropavlovsk, we were late getting in to port. We were told on a later cruise that the Russian officials asked to examine each passport before we'd be allowed ashore. When they were brought the carefully organized passports, they dumped them in the middle of the table and went through them one by one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minoushka Posted May 16, 2014 #9 Share Posted May 16, 2014 Perhaps its time to reconsider going there to spend our hard earned money ....in these times this is one place I would avoid even though certain areas are gorgeous and great tourist places ,When countries start to hastle for the he ck of it ...its time to move on....you never know when they can get crrrazy and block a ship from leaving ...it could happen I noticed certain companies offering reduced cruise fare and free excursions in Baltics and Russia...gee i wonder why ...I would not set foot in these countries at this time ...perhaps when things settle .Who wants to get stuck in some political battle ?? No Ruusian stops should be eleminated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldenco Posted May 16, 2014 #10 Share Posted May 16, 2014 We're scheduled to go there next May. I hope Celebrity just passes Petropavlovsk and picks another port a little more friendly. I'll be happy to wave as our dollars go sailing by. Goldenco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rnrcruzin Posted May 16, 2014 #11 Share Posted May 16, 2014 I agree! On our Asia cruise we were also delayed by pax that refused to report as requested. The CD made many, many announcements for them to hand in their passports. Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app Yeahbut you Canucks have nothing to worry about. Everybody loves Canada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaBag Posted May 16, 2014 #12 Share Posted May 16, 2014 I am writing this at 10:20 PM local time in Petropavlovsk, Russia. Celebrity Millennium was due to sail from its anchorage more than three hours ago. Russian authorities decided to do a pre-departure recheck of all passports. Cruise Director Steve Gayda and his very able team have made several announcements in several languages directing all passengers to proceed to Guest Relations to surrender their passports. As of a few minutes ago, several passengers have failed to comply. Steve made it clear the vessel will be held until there is 100% compliance. The obvious question is why the passenger list cannot be audited in comparison to those who have, in fact, surrendered their passports. The ship is being delayed and it is foreseeable that there will come a point when Russian officials will close down for the night making an overnight stay necessary and throwing Millennium severely behind schedule. I will discuss Petropavlovsk in my post-cruise review. However, it is not a port I have even a morsel of desire to revisit. St. Petersburg was well worth the journey last year. This port makes me think of the South Bronx. Wish us luck! BTW, Code Red remains in full force as of this writing. I agree with you Fred about Petropavlovsk. We only took a tour so we could say we were in Russia. I found the place absolutely depressing. I don't know why Celebrity bothers to go there. We were very late leaving also, because of some passport problems. I think one of the tours was very late getting off the ship because the Russian officials insisted on going very slowly through the passports of those individuals and then, of course, they were very late reboarding. I hope you get out of there PDQ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hulamoon Posted May 16, 2014 #13 Share Posted May 16, 2014 When evaluating itineraries I give minus points for this port. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
20pluscruises Posted May 16, 2014 #14 Share Posted May 16, 2014 (edited) I am writing this at 10:20 PM local time in Petropavlovsk, Russia. Celebrity Millennium was due to sail from its anchorage more than three hours ago. Russian authorities decided to do a pre-departure recheck of all passports. Cruise Director Steve Gayda and his very able team have made several announcements in several languages directing all passengers to proceed to Guest Relations to surrender their passports. As of a few minutes ago, several passengers have failed to comply. Steve made it clear the vessel will be held until there is 100% compliance. The obvious question is why the passenger list cannot be audited in comparison to those who have, in fact, surrendered their passports. The ship is being delayed and it is foreseeable that there will come a point when Russian officials will close down for the night making an overnight stay necessary and throwing Millennium severely behind schedule. I will discuss Petropavlovsk in my post-cruise review. However, it is not a port I have even a morsel of desire to revisit. St. Petersburg was well worth the journey last year. This port makes me think of the South Bronx. Wish us luck! BTW, Code Red remains in full force as of this writing. Is the code red the reason for the delay? Or is there some other reason? Edited May 16, 2014 by 20pluscruises Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Frances Posted May 16, 2014 #15 Share Posted May 16, 2014 Phew! I thought Petropavlovsk was on our "Around Japan" cruise in 2015 but just checked and we are stopping at Vladivostock which looks really interesting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Frances Posted May 16, 2014 #16 Share Posted May 16, 2014 Is the code red the reason for the delay? Or is there some other reason? The delay is because some passengers are not following instructions to bring their passports to Guest Services:mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldenco Posted May 16, 2014 #17 Share Posted May 16, 2014 The delay is because some passengers are not following instructions to bring their passports to Guest Services:mad: ...and primarily the Russian authorities decided to do a re-check of passports, which is something I've never heard of before. Not excusing the pax that didn't give them the passports. :confused: Goldenco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
20pluscruises Posted May 16, 2014 #18 Share Posted May 16, 2014 The delay is because some passengers are not following instructions to bring their passports to Guest Services:mad: That's frustrating!!! I remember years ago several times we couldn't leave the ship to go home because some didn't pay their bill...I can't even tell you the number of times they were paged/loudspeaker to do so. I recall some were so angry they took it upon themselves to pound on the guests door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebeccalouiseagain Posted May 16, 2014 #19 Share Posted May 16, 2014 I was booked to do that cruise on May 10th but had a change of heart. From the sounds of it with the code red and disappointing port- was probably a smart move. Hope you have a more enjoyable cruise from this point on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldenco Posted May 16, 2014 #20 Share Posted May 16, 2014 Code red :confused: Found it I couldn't. Could someone please explain this code red? Thanks, Goldenco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DebbieMacG Posted May 16, 2014 #21 Share Posted May 16, 2014 I couldn't. Could someone please explain this code red?Thanks, Goldenco It means there is a significant number of noro virus cases on board and the ship puts in place extra cleaning and counter measures (no self serve items in buffet etc) to cope with this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozark74 Posted May 16, 2014 #22 Share Posted May 16, 2014 Last year on the Solstice it only 167 cases of noro out of 4000 passengers and crew to go to code red. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grandgeezer Posted May 16, 2014 #23 Share Posted May 16, 2014 Last year on the Solstice it only 167 cases of noro out of 4000 passengers and crew to go to code red. The ship only holds 3,000 passengers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DebbieMacG Posted May 16, 2014 #24 Share Posted May 16, 2014 Last year on the Solstice it only 167 cases of noro out of 4000 passengers and crew to go to code red. That's a significant number, the ship holds approx 2850 though not 4000 :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozark74 Posted May 16, 2014 #25 Share Posted May 16, 2014 (edited) That's a significant number, the ship holds approx 2850 though not 4000 :) That is including the crew. They are on the ship. Edited May 16, 2014 by ozark74 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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