Silhouette Propulsion problems - no San Juan?

[jordans mom]

So there is some information flying around that the Silhouette is experiencing some propulsion problems.

 

As a result - no San Juan ?

 

Can anyone share any updates?

 

(and yes - I am on her next week and was looking forward to visiting)

[cruisestitch]

Have you seen this thread?

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2132162

[Kevnzworld]

I met the captain in Michaels club during Silhouette's transatlantic , I asked him about the rumors about a propulsion problem, because it was suspected as the reason. For an itinerary change on the prior cruise.

He looked visibly bothered, and said that there was nothing wrong with the ship that would effect us. Because of his irritation, I didn't ask a follow up question, but his body language answered my question

[c-legs]

I met the captain in Michaels club during Silhouette's transatlantic , I asked him about the rumors about a propulsion problem, because it was suspected as the reason. For an itinerary change on the prior cruise.

He looked visibly bothered, and said that there was nothing wrong with the ship that would effect us. Because of his irritation, I didn't ask a follow up question, but his body language answered my question

You just might have been the 1,734th guest to query him about the propulsion issue.....:rolleyes: thus, he'd be P.O'd.....Why do you think she's going in drydock in January:( ? Yep...you guessed it : a quick '' radial forward thrust bearing premature wearing'' fix..... ( the old familiar terminology everybody is now sick and tired of hearing for 12++ years now and affecting an inordinate amount of ships of all lines with azipod-type propulsion systems).

Meanwhile, the power delivered by the '' under the weather'' azipod is at 70% ...a quick look at the wake and you know:),,,and the overall slowing of the ship in question over an itinerary tested and sailed for years will cause the occasionnal skipped port....

In a way, I feel for the poor Master having to deal with those issues, specially if his current ship is not the first one he was involved with ,having similar problems...But he is duty-bound to be as diplomatic as possible.....

Cheers

[Islandbuoy]

You just might have been the 1,734th guest to query him about the propulsion issue.....:rolleyes: thus, he'd be P.O'd.....Why do you think she's going in drydock in January:( ? Yep...you guessed it : a quick '' radial forward thrust bearing premature wearing'' fix..... ( the old familiar terminology everybody is now sick and tired of hearing for 12++ years now and affecting an inordinate amount of ships of all lines with azipod-type propulsion systems).

Meanwhile, the power delivered by the '' under the weather'' azipod is at 70% ...a quick look at the wake and you know:),,,and the overall slowing of the ship in question over an itinerary tested and sailed for years will cause the occasionnal skipped port....

In a way, I feel for the poor Master having to deal with those issues, specially if his current ship is not the first one he was involved with ,having similar problems...But he is duty-bound to be as diplomatic as possible.....

Cheers

But they put out a letter blaming "mother nature" for missing San Juan(not a big loss as we weren't supposed to arrive until 3:30. Captain also blamed mother nature twice in his announcement. Absolutely no mention of the pod problem!

[WestLakeGirl]

Not surprised. If Weather had cooperated they would have made it even with the reduced power. Mother Nature did not, so the ship was not able to make it.

[candhu18]

Not surprised. If Weather had cooperated they would have made it even with the reduced power. Mother Nature did not, so the ship was not able to make it.

 

So basically WeatLakeGirl you are stating that: unlike its sister ships the Silhouette is presently incapable of coping with poor weather. Perhaps a warning to that effect prior to booking would have been appropriate.

 

Had I known I would have stayed on the Eclipse rather than change onto the Silhouette for my back to back.

[C 2 C]

Not surprised. If Weather had cooperated they would have made it even with the reduced power. Mother Nature did not, so the ship was not able to make it.

 

We are on Reflection and weather caused us to be nearly an hour late arriving in San juan. We were told that on a prior sailing Reflection was three hours late due to strong head winds. The speed needed to rich Puerto Rico from Miami is over 21 kts. Per hour.

 

Mother Nature has a habit of playing with schedules no matter what type of transportation we choose.

[bajathree]

Was originally booked on Silhouette and switched over to Reflection when I heard of propulsion issues....and this is exactly why. While I know that any ship can miss a port or run into an issue for some unforeseen reason.... why increase the odds with a known issue a ship is already having. While this issue is blamed on being weather related...sounds like the propulsion issue was also a factor here.

[clueless2]

This picture was snapped from our aft facing cabin on Silhouette last week. You can see the difference in the wake created by what I assume are two propulsion pods. It was that way the entire cruise. Sorry for the poor quality. I was trying to get an in focus picture of the wake at night.

 

 

[chicagopaul]

This picture was snapped from our aft facing cabin on Silhouette last week. You can see the difference in the wake created by what I assume are two propulsion pods. It was that way the entire cruise. Sorry for the poor quality. I was trying to get an in focus picture of the wake at night.

 

 

 

Good picture though in the dark. I can see the difference. We board her next weekend and are in an aft cc. I will try to take a picture and video to post as well.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[bajathree]

WOW.....that picture shows a very obvious difference in propulsion of the 2 Azipods.

Edited December 3, 2014 by bajathree

[candhu18]

Eclipse on 13 November:

 

Silhouette on 26 November:

 

Silhouette starboard side doesn't look too well. Maximum speed on Silhouette was 17-18 knots. Remember it was all the weather's fault.

Edited December 3, 2014 by candhu18

[schlimazel_traveler]

I thought that a scheduled repair to the propulsion system was the reason the 1/4/15 sailing (which we were booked on) was cancelled. I'll admit, I wondered how the ship would limp along until then...the cancellation was announced months ago.

[mdk9950]

I was on the Nov 23rd cruise that missed the San Juan port. A couple of points:

 

1. We left Fort Lauderdale 25 min earlier than our 4:00 PM scheduled departure. I thought that was strange, I've been on over 30 cruises and never have seen that early of departure versus schedule. Ships captain must have been in a hurry, I know why now.

 

2. The ships captain had a very bad accent so it was hard to understand what he was saying when he announced the delay and then the announcement of missing the port. Was in the coffee shop area and could tell many people were confused by what he was saying. Celebrity needs to fix this in the future, maybe where the Cruise Director repeats the key points instead of thanking the ships captain for all the "great information". Wasn't till the next day when we had the letter from the ships captain did we fully understand what he was trying to communicate.

 

3. I took photo's of the weather conditions off the ship at the time because I could not match the conditions we were sailing to the reason given as "mother nature" why we were missing a port. Been on 30+ cruises and been in much much worse conditions with no delay in port schedules. That's what prompted me to look up on-line to find out why the ship was so slow.

 

4. On the 2 days to San Juan, I checked the ship position channel several times each day and never said a speed over 16 knots. Told my wife I didn't understand why we were going so slow, this was before any delay then cancellation was announced.

 

5. Would have changed ships if I would have known in advance that this was a problem. That's why sites like this are invaluable.

 

6. Funny, they are pulling it out of service for a week AFTER the most profitable holiday cruises, not when they discover they had a problem. Bluntly put, in my opinion this missing port was caused by a mechanical problem NOT a weather delay excuse we were given. This was poorly handled by the ship and cruise line. I paid a lot of money to go on this cruise and expect way more than I got. I'm really disappointed.

 

Just my thoughts.....

[NAVFAM]

On the Silhouette 18 Oct 14 Holy Land Cruise we were late to Jerusalem (Ashdod) with the same weather, currents & sea conditions excuse. We did arrive earlier than the Captain initially warned, but were late nonetheless.

 

Weather certainly appeared to be a non-issue. Best speed I saw trying to make up time to Ashdod was just under 20kts. According to the X website, cruise speed for Silhouette is 24kts. Even with a few years of "out-of-dock" performance degradation, she should still be capable of significantly more than 20kts.

 

I served on a very small destroyer out Naples for several years, so know the Med sailing environment well enough to be skeptical of this particular "Mother Nature" excuse. I think it was/is BS.

 

MARK

[c-legs]

I was on the Nov 23rd cruise that missed the San Juan port. A couple of points:

 

1. We left Fort Lauderdale 25 min earlier than our 4:00 PM scheduled departure. I thought that was strange, I've been on over 30 cruises and never have seen that early of departure versus schedule. Ships captain must have been in a hurry, I know why now.

 

2. The ships captain had a very bad accent so it was hard to understand what he was saying when he announced the delay and then the announcement of missing the port. Was in the coffee shop area and could tell many people were confused by what he was saying. Celebrity needs to fix this in the future, maybe where the Cruise Director repeats the key points instead of thanking the ships captain for all the "great information". Wasn't till the next day when we had the letter from the ships captain did we fully understand what he was trying to communicate.

 

3. I took photo's of the weather conditions off the ship at the time because I could not match the conditions we were sailing to the reason given as "mother nature" why we were missing a port. Been on 30+ cruises and been in much much worse conditions with no delay in port schedules. That's what prompted me to look up on-line to find out why the ship was so slow.

 

4. On the 2 days to San Juan, I checked the ship position channel several times each day and never said a speed over 16 knots. Told my wife I didn't understand why we were going so slow, this was before any delay then cancellation was announced.

 

5. Would have changed ships if I would have known in advance that this was a problem. That's why sites like this are invaluable.

 

6. Funny, they are pulling it out of service for a week AFTER the most profitable holiday cruises, not when they discover they had a problem. Bluntly put, in my opinion this missing port was caused by a mechanical problem NOT a weather delay excuse we were given. This was poorly handled by the ship and cruise line. I paid a lot of money to go on this cruise and expect way more than I got. I'm really disappointed.

 

Just my thoughts.....

thanks for posting.

All your points are quite valid.:)

The simple fact is; starboard azipod is suffering from an often-occuring annoying ailment; premature wearing of a forward radial thrust bearing. All lines owning ships with azipod-type propulsion system have experienced that pretty regularly on a good number of ships over the last 13-14 years...almost becomes a ''regular nuisance'':(. Costs the lines $$$ to deal with the operating aspects, and a lot of PR damage when they do NOT handle it in a straight forward fashion with their impacted guests.

Seems Celebrity is not exactly handling this properly here...unfortunately, this is a pattern they have gotten us accustomed to...:mad:

I like your point about the CD ''relaying'' the high points of the Master's 10;00am announcement from the bridge, specially when it is evident the Master's accent makes it challenging to get his points accross.

 

 

The Eastern Carribean itineraries are a tougher time-keeping challenge than the Western ones, and that is at ~~ 20.5kt average. Sillouhette is limited to ~~17kt .....so the next 2 eastern runs will be....unpleasant for guests as SanJuan will be a ...testy scenario...to put it mildly. Will be interesting to see how the officers handle those.

 

About picking 4th January for drydock after the profitable Holiday runs...hard to resist the temptation to judge as such. However, drydock slots for a ship over 1,035' long at GrandBahamas Shipyard in Freeport, is rather hard to nail down.....we could maybe cut Celebrity some slack and allow for the fact they couldn't find an earlier slot...:rolleyes:

Cheers

[mdk9950]

thanks for posting.

All your points are quite valid.:)

The simple fact is; starboard azipod is suffering from an often-occuring annoying ailment; premature wearing of a forward radial thrust bearing. All lines owning ships with azipod-type propulsion system have experienced that pretty regularly on a good number of ships over the last 13-14 years...almost becomes a ''regular nuisance'':(. Costs the lines $$$ to deal with the operating aspects, and a lot of PR damage when they do NOT handle it in a straight forward fashion with their impacted guests.

Seems Celebrity is not exactly handling this properly here...unfortunately, this is a pattern they have gotten us accustomed to...:mad:

I like your point about the CD ''relaying'' the high points of the Master's 10;00am announcement from the bridge, specially when it is evident the Master's accent makes it challenging to get his points accross.

 

 

The Eastern Carribean itineraries are a tougher time-keeping challenge than the Western ones, and that is at ~~ 20.5kt average. Sillouhette is limited to ~~17kt .....so the next 2 eastern runs will be....unpleasant for guests as SanJuan will be a ...testy scenario...to put it mildly. Will be interesting to see how the officers handle those.

 

About picking 4th January for drydock after the profitable Holiday runs...hard to resist the temptation to judge as such. However, drydock slots for a ship over 1,035' long at GrandBahamas Shipyard in Freeport, is rather hard to nail down.....we could maybe cut Celebrity some slack and allow for the fact they couldn't find an earlier slot...:rolleyes:

Cheers

 

I think they discovered the problem while in Europe over the summer where I believe there are a lot more options for dry docking a 1,035' ship.

 

Bottom line is I have been on 5 cruises where weather and mechanical problems caused changes in itinerary. I have seen the response and communications from the cruise lines and ship staff on each of those. In my opinion this was by far the worst than any of the others, no question. There only response was we got you to St. Kitts an hour earlier than we scheduled. That is not proportional to the 10 hours saved (roughly 2 hr in and out + 6 in port) by not going to SJ. Heck, I didn't even know they refunded the port charges till 3 days after the cruise, I had to ask customer service to email me a copy of my bill and the TV never worked to show me my charges.

 

In my opinion, there is a different response needed when a known mechanical problem causes a safety concern with weather that a ship of this size, age and design should be able to easily handle. It was not. There is a different communication needed from the ship when a known mechanical problem causes a concern about docking a ship in weather conditions that this ship should easily handle. It was not. People who are on this Eastern trip in December should be warned in advance so they can decide to go forward with their cruise or not, or adjust their schedule now with another port. For me I would have chosen differently if I would have know 5 sea days on a 7 day cruise. I am disappointed.

[Wj420]

We sail 12/21. If this turns out to be five out of seven days at sea, Merry Christmas to us! We love sea days and spending from 3:30pm - 10 in Puerto Rico has little appeal, especially in the winter when it gets dark very early.

 

Remember, to one person the glass may be 1/2 full!!

[csg0325]

Comments are for the Eastern Caribbean itinerary. We are sailing 12/14 for Western Caribbean. Do you think there might be an issue? I think the ports are closer together on the Western side?

[Charles4515]

Comments are for the Eastern Caribbean itinerary. We are sailing 12/14 for Western Caribbean. Do you think there might be an issue? I think the ports are closer together on the Western side?

 

 

I was wondering the same. I am on both Dec. 7 and 14. Don't mind missing San Juan evening call but if can't make San Juan seems some adjustment might have to be made on the Western leg.

[DYKWIA]

.....

 

Weather certainly appeared to be a non-issue. Best speed I saw trying to make up time to Ashdod was just under 20kts. According to the X website, cruise speed for Silhouette is 24kts. Even with a few years of "out-of-dock" performance degradation, she should still be capable of significantly more than 20kts.

 

...

 

MARK

 

When we were in the Med on the Eclipse this summer, taking the figures from the TV in our stateroom, we were seeing speeds up to about 25kts, sometimes less than that - but some nights we were only travelling a relatively short distance. Even with a seemingly no problems we still arrived a couple of hours late into Malaga

[FLACRUISER99]

I met the captain in Michaels club during Silhouette's transatlantic , I asked him about the rumors about a propulsion problem, because it was suspected as the reason. For an itinerary change on the prior cruise.

He looked visibly bothered, and said that there was nothing wrong with the ship that would effect us. Because of his irritation, I didn't ask a follow up question, but his body language answered my question

Yes Celebrity always blames their problems an something else.

[cwb27]

Comments are for the Eastern Caribbean itinerary. We are sailing 12/14 for Western Caribbean. Do you think there might be an issue? I think the ports are closer together on the Western side?

 

I don't think so, I saw another poster indicate that an average speed of only 14 knots was required for the Western itinerary.

[c-legs]

Comments are for the Eastern Caribbean itinerary. We are sailing 12/14 for Western Caribbean. Do you think there might be an issue? I think the ports are closer together on the Western side?

The Western cruises are not as challenging as far as time keeping goes.'The reduction to 17kt in speed has a more minor effect on the itinerary...but it does affect it Based on reports from folks on the current one, there are delays ( later arrival, shortened time in ports ) but no skipped ports. Something along the line of '' 9 hours in port becomes 7 1/2 or 8 '', arrival next port 2 hours late...but staying 1 hour longer''..etc.etc...

As there are 2 Western to sail before drydock, I suggest == X== will

''officially'' and publicly modify those itineraries, much the same straight forward honest way as they just did for the Eastern runs.:rolleyes: