Sea Princess - disruption to cruise

[SeaDog-46]

Plans were changed on Sea Princess departure from Cairns, Australia yesterday due to cyclone Oma off Brisbane where she was due on 24th Feb.

She departed to sea to dump black water outside GBR & returned AM today for those passengers wanting to leave cruise & make own way south by air. It's going to be a rough trip.

She will depart again at 13:00 today 22nd for Brisbane -  ETA  PM 26th.

The cat. 1-2 Oma will hopefully have moved away from southern Queensland or disipated by 26th.

 

Two other Carnival Corp. ships are also delaying arrival into Brisbane this weekend.

Pacific Dawn is extending cruise in New Caledonia & has cancelled 3 day comedy cruise from Brisbane 23rd. Now due 26th.

Arcadia on world cruise due Brisbane 23rd is waiting in Sydney & will be arriving next week. 

 

[gottagocit]

Yes we disembarked in Cairns today and are out a lot of money as we make our own way towards getting back on track with the rest of our time down under. So far we have forked out about $1,200 usd to secure flights, hotel rooms and expected meal cost to avoid even more impact to our stay down under should we have stayed onboard and arrived 2-3 days late back in Brisbane. We hope to recover some of this once back home from travel insurance but Princess has done little to help out situation other than recommend disembarking in Cairns if we wanted to continue our trip since even if we arrive in Brisbane in a few days we may not be able to get flights out of there for some time after that. 

 

 

[ggprincess2004]

We are just comfy and cozy at the Marriott in Brisbane waiting to embark the Sea Princess Wednesday rather than this Sunday. The nice people here happily extended our reservation, and we are pretty confident insurance will pick up the tab for the extra dsyx. Our goal was just to recover from the long flights and try to feel more human before we boarded, but now we are hopeful the weather will be good enough to allow us to explore the area for a few days.  Hoping to get word on the revised itinerary for the r/t NZ cruise and a cabin assignment for the following one, but i am sure Princess is scrambling to get things all reset. 

 

Winds have been very gusty in Brisbane since we arrived.....but our flight was smooth as silk. This storm doesn't seem to be impacting air travel. But this trip still has our sleep schedules out of whack. Quarter of 4 in the morning here in Brisbane, and time to try for a few more hours of sleep before i really start my day. If e get more info from Princess i will post it here and onbthe roll call. 

[Colo Cruiser]

Hope everyone stays safe!

[Diver2014]

Those pesky hurricanes!!  Oops, I mean cyclones!  We had to cut our Australia cruise short a few years ago due to Cyclone Dylan.  You'd think us coming from Miami would check out when cyclone season is down under but it never occurred to us.

[ggprincess2004]

20 hours ago, SeaDog-46 said:

Plans were changed on Sea Princess departure from Cairns, Australia yesterday due to cyclone Oma off Brisbane where she was due on 24th Feb.

She departed to sea to dump black water outside GBR & returned AM today for those passengers wanting to leave cruise & make own way south by air. It's going to be a rough trip.

She will depart again at 13:00 today 22nd for Brisbane -  ETA  PM 26th.

The cat. 1-2 Oma will hopefully have moved away from southern Queensland or disipated by 26th.

 

Two other Carnival Corp. ships are also delaying arrival into Brisbane this weekend.

Pacific Dawn is extending cruise in New Caledonia & has cancelled 3 day comedy cruise from Brisbane 23rd. Now due 26th.

Arcadia on world cruise due Brisbane 23rd is waiting in Sydney & will be arriving next week. 

 

Seadog, thanks for all the info. We have updates from Princess but they are not advising of any change to our depature cruise terminal  nor have the wesites i can access for port schedules updated their info. Can you confirm the terminal Sea Princess will be departing from by any chance? Thanks in advance.  

[SeaDog-46]

Happy to be of assistance - Brisbane port looks to be shut with several ships waiting offshore & no movements recently.

Until they reopen the port & the cruise ships confirm there arrivals there is no certainty of which berth Sea Princess will leave from.

Looks like Pacific Dawn [ex Regal Princess] will arrive after extended New Caledonia cruise, for pilot am 26th & berth at Portside at 06:00 as the previous 3 day cruise was cancelled & the will be coming in to start the next cruise.  This ship is based in Brisbane.

Sun Princess is departing Sydney 19:00 today according to Sydney ports & will berth Portside AM 25th on schedule - if she can enter.  Sea Princess is in the Coral Sea & will have a rough time passing ex Oma & is then expected hang around in Hervey Bay - arriving off Brisbane PM  26th & would berth at Portside or could go to Grain berth.

P&O UK Arcadia is hanging around in Sydney on a world cruise & is listed to depart 04:30 24th but has to use the Brisbane Grain wharf near the container terminal as she is too big to get up river & under the Gateway bridge.

The above is only my guess & if there is a clash of arrivals there should be spare berth at the container terminal.

In the meantime enjoy Brisbane - travel on the River Cat - it goes past Portside down river. Take a trip to Moreton Island & you will see the whole river. Day trip to Sunshine Coast & Australia Zoo - home of the Chrocodile Man's family the Irvines.

 

 

[ggprincess2004]

Hoping to do Koala Sanctuary tomorrow, with sime additional sites, and the Australia Zoo on Monday. Checking the forecast to see if the weather will cooperate. Also, to anyone staying at the Brisbane Marriott going on the NZ cruise now departing on Wednesday, i am trying to connect to set up a group transfer to whichever pier we be will using. We were going to take a cab, but in weekday rush hour traffic that is not a good idea. With a small group the private transfer makes economic sense. Would like to arrive at the pier before 8, so thinking about 7:15 am departure, they have vans of various sizes and can add a luggage trailer if needed. The front desk of the hotel knows we are trying to get a small group together ad can put you in touch with us if you are interested. We would love to have this sorted out by sometime tomorrow evening. Posting a similar message on our roll call, too.

[Aus Traveller]

15 minutes ago, ggprincess2004 said:

Hoping to do Koala Sanctuary tomorrow, with sime additional sites, and the Australia Zoo on Monday. Checking the forecast to see if the weather will cooperate. Also, to anyone staying at the Brisbane Marriott going on the NZ cruise now departing on Wednesday, i am trying to connect to set up a group transfer to whichever pier we be will using. We were going to take a cab, but in weekday rush hour traffic that is not a good idea. With a small group the private transfer makes economic sense. Would like to arrive at the pier before 8, so thinking about 7:15 am departure, they have vans of various sizes and can add a luggage trailer if needed. The front desk of the hotel knows we are trying to get a small group together ad can put you in touch with us if you are interested. We would love to have this sorted out by sometime tomorrow evening. Posting a similar message on our roll call, too.

Currently Princess is planning to have the Sea P in Brisbane in the afternoon of Tuesday 26th. If they are going to Portside (their usual dock) they would have to wait until after the Pacific Dawn leaves. Even if she leaves at 2pm, there would be a further delay because two ships cannot pass in the river. It takes one hour for a ship to cruise from Portside to the mouth of the river. If the Sea P docks at the Grain Terminal (near the river mouth), the Pacific Dawn can pass by. However, the channel once they get out of the river is narrow for the first section across the bay.

 

The bottom line is (as I see it) if the Sea P docks at the Grain Terminal, they could probably get there at any time, as long as it didn't interfere with the departure of the Pacific Dawn (say 5pm at the mouth of the river if she leaves at her usual departure time of 4pm, then an hour or so in the narrow channels.) I would guess that the reason Princess have quoted 'afternoon of Tuesday 26th' is that they plan to dock at Portside after the Pacific Dawn leaves. They MIGHT be planning to leave at 2pm, rather than their usual 4pm. Portside is a much more convenient terminal. The Grain Terminal is the 'pits'.

 

With an afternoon departure, I strongly (no very strongly) advise you NOT to go to Portside in the morning. In my experience, the people who organising the boarding of P&O ships only let people into the terminal at their assigned boarding time. You would have to sit outside all day or go to a coffee shop. If you are advised that your departure is in the afternoon, I suggest you ask your motel/hotel if you can leave your luggage there, and go sightseeing for the day.

 

Sorry you have had this disruption to your holiday caused by the cyclone. I think you can expect weather similar today, or even less windy for the next couple of days as the cyclone moves away from the coast.

Edited February 23, 2019 by Aus Traveller

[trbarton]

Read this post

 

about the storm in Australia & it effects on cruise ships. 

 

Tom😀

[Aus Traveller]

I suggest you phone Princess to find out the latest information on the expected arrival and departure time of the Sea Princess. The phone number is 13 24 88.

[ggprincess2004]

Thanks everyone.  She is scheduled to sail at noon, all aboard by 11 am. Boarding is to start at 8 am. So we will head over and if stuck outside for a little while, so be it. Let me just note that there are going to be grumpy passengers with the loss of south island ports (we are not grumpy about it, stuff happens and sometimes Mother Nature is a b*&$%) so perhaps we won't have boarding times too strictly enforced.  Never ever seen them enforced by Princess anywhere else, by the way.

[Aus Traveller]

36 minutes ago, ggprincess2004 said:

Thanks everyone.  She is scheduled to sail at noon, all aboard by 11 am. Boarding is to start at 8 am. So we will head over and if stuck outside for a little while, so be it. Let me just note that there are going to be grumpy passengers with the loss of south island ports (we are not grumpy about it, stuff happens and sometimes Mother Nature is a b*&$%) so perhaps we won't have boarding times too strictly enforced.  Never ever seen them enforced by Princess anywhere else, by the way.

I am puzzled. From your CC name and from what you say "with the loss of south islands ports" it looks like you are booked on the Sea Princess cruise to New Zealand. From what has been posted by Sea Dog_46, the Sea Princess is due into Brisbane in the afternoon of Tuesday 26th. Sea Dog is a former mariner and (from what I have read of his posts over a considerable time) he knows what he is talking about.

 

The P&O ship Pacific Dawn is due into Portside on the morning of 26th and will then leave for a 4-day cruise up the coast. I didn't think it was likely you are booked on this ship. When I referred to check-in staff not allowing people to enter the terminal ahead of time I specified P&O check-in and that if you wanted to check in for a Princess cruise leaving later in the day, they would not let you enter.

 

For boarding to start at 8 and have all aboard by 11, they would have to arrive at 1am or 2am. The passengers on board have to disembark and the ship has to be prepared for the new passengers. It sounds strange. I have never heard of Princess tossing people off a ship in the very early hours of the morning.

 

I suggest again that you check with Princess (if you are in fact booked on a Princess cruise).

[jammer5122]

14 hours ago, gottagocit said:

Yes we disembarked in Cairns today and are out a lot of money as we make our own way towards getting back on track with the rest of our time down under. So far we have forked out about $1,200 usd to secure flights, hotel rooms and expected meal cost to avoid even more impact to our stay down under should we have stayed onboard and arrived 2-3 days late back in Brisbane. We hope to recover some of this once back home from travel insurance but Princess has done little to help out situation other than recommend disembarking in Cairns if we wanted to continue our trip since even if we arrive in Brisbane in a few days we may not be able to get flights out of there for some time after that. 

 

 

Sorry to see that your trip is not going as planned. Hope the next cruise is much better. Stay safe.

[dstables]

1 hour ago, ggprincess2004 said:

Thanks everyone.  She is scheduled to sail at noon, all aboard by 11 am. Boarding is to start at 8 am. So we will head over and if stuck outside for a little while, so be it. Let me just note that there are going to be grumpy passengers with the loss of south island ports (we are not grumpy about it, stuff happens and sometimes Mother Nature is a b*&$%) so perhaps we won't have boarding times too strictly enforced.  Never ever seen them enforced by Princess anywhere else, by the way.

 

1 hour ago, ggprincess2004 said:

Thanks everyone.  She is scheduled to sail at noon, all aboard by 11 am. Boarding is to start at 8 am. So we will head over and if stuck outside for a little while, so be it. Let me just note that there are going to be grumpy passengers with the loss of south island ports (we are not grumpy about it, stuff happens and sometimes Mother Nature is a b*&$%) so perhaps we won't have boarding times too strictly enforced.  Never ever seen them enforced by Princess anywhere else, by the way.

I have sailed out of Brisbane a few times and only preferred passengers are allowed to board outside of their boarding times. They have enforced this every time we have sailed from Portside. Enjoy your cruise. We sailed the Sea and Sun in January and are now in Surfers Paradise enjoying the sun!😎

[ggprincess2004]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

I am puzzled. From your CC name and from what you say "with the loss of south islands ports" it looks like you are booked on the Sea Princess cruise to New Zealand. From what has been posted by Sea Dog_46, the Sea Princess is due into Brisbane in the afternoon of Tuesday 26th. Sea Dog is a former mariner and (from what I have read of his posts over a considerable time) he knows what he is talking about.

 

The P&O ship Pacific Dawn is due into Portside on the morning of 26th and will then leave for a 4-day cruise up the coast. I didn't think it was likely you are booked on this ship. When I referred to check-in staff not allowing people to enter the terminal ahead of time I specified P&O check-in and that if you wanted to check in for a Princess cruise leaving later in the day, they would not let you enter.

 

For boarding to start at 8 and have all aboard by 11, they would have to arrive at 1am or 2am. The passengers on board have to disembark and the ship has to be prepared for the new passengers. It sounds strange. I have never heard of Princess tossing people off a ship in the very early hours of the morning.

 

I suggest again that you check with Princess (if you are in fact booked on a Princess cruise).

She departs the next day, Wednesday, at noon. I suspect they will disembark the current passengers Tuesday afternoon/evening and the ship will be empty of passengers Tuesday night. Trust me, we have the emails from Princess with all the information, and now, based on what has been shared about the timing of other vessels, the pier has not changed. We should be at the passenger terminal, not the grain terminal. Definitely booked on this cruise, and the one folloing for a circumnavigation of Australia, then a flight from Brisbane to Sydney for embarkation on the Golden through to Vancouver. 

The more i reread your post the more insulting it is.  Ou clearly had no undersyanding of how the voyage schedule had changed. If you wonder about my creds check the signature,  and consider an apology. 

[ggprincess2004]

3 minutes ago, dstables said:

 

I have sailed out of Brisbane a few times and only preferred passengers are allowed to board outside of their boarding times. They have enforced this every time we have sailed from Portside. Enjoy your cruise. We sailed the Sea and Sun in January and are now in Surfers Paradise enjoying the sun!😎

Thanks. We are elite....not an issue.

[Aus Traveller]

3 minutes ago, ggprincess2004 said:

She departs the next day, Wednesday, at noon. I suspect they will disembark the current passengers Tuesday afternoon/evening and the ship will be empty of passengers Tuesday night. Trust me, we have the emails from Princess with all the information, and now, based on what has been shared about the timing of other vessels, the pier has not changed. We should be at the passenger terminal, not the grain terminal. Definitely booked on this cruise, and the one folloing for a circumnavigation of Australia, then a flight from Brisbane to Sydney for embarkation on the Golden through to Vancouver. 

The more i reread your post the more insulting it is.  Ou clearly had no undersyanding of how the voyage schedule had changed. If you wonder about my creds check the signature,  and consider an apology. 

I am sorry you took my post as insulting. It certainly was not meant to be. I can understand that you are very upset about the change to your travel plans.

 

You have given us some new information that the Sea Princess is leaving on Wednesday, not Tuesday. I was mistaken in believing the ship would do a turn-around in the one day as is usual.

 

Yes - I agree. The disembarking passengers will leave the ship late on Tuesday and the embarking passengers will board on Wednesday morning.

 

Please note what 'dstables' and I have both said that boarding times are enforced at Portside. As well as when boarding P&O ships, we had it late last year when boarding a Princess ship. I forgot that one because we had preferred boarding as you probably do also. Have a great cruise.

[ggprincess2004]

42 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

I am sorry you took my post as insulting. It certainly was not meant to be. I can understand that you are very upset about the change to your travel plans.

 

You have given us some new information that the Sea Princess is leaving on Wednesday, not Tuesday. I was mistaken in believing the ship would do a turn-around in the one day as is usual.

 

Yes - I agree. The disembarking passengers will leave the ship late on Tuesday and the embarking passengers will board on Wednesday morning.

 

Please note what 'dstables' and I have both said that boarding times are enforced at Portside. As well as when boarding P&O ships, we had it late last year when boarding a Princess ship. I forgot that one because we had preferred boarding as you probably do also. Have a great cruise.

Ok. Thanks for clarifying. Apology accepted. However, if you had really read this thread, it was mentioned a number of times that the Sea Princess would sail Wednesday, We are actually not upset. It is typhoon season, so this sort of thing happens. The bright side is we have time to not only recover from the time change (east coast US) to here, but also can spend time enjoying the greater Brisbane area. We will call on the south island ports we are missing with the changes to this cruise, on our Golden Princess cruise that departs Sydney April 8....at least i think it is the 8th, working from memory and details of the upcoming cruise are much more important at the moment. This morning i went into my cruise personilzer and dealt with the shore excursion issue. We booked our a list this cruise, our b list on the Golden. Simply changed a few excursions on the Golden to our a list ones. But, i do believe a lot of passengers will be deeply disappointed...those that don't easily have another shot at those ports, or with limited vacation time. 

What is annoying me is I left my laptop at home, working with a tablet so many more typos...grew up keyboarding, not texting. Sigh. First world problem. 

Edited February 23, 2019 by ggprincess2004

[SinbadThePorter]

3 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

With an afternoon departure, I strongly (no very strongly) advise you NOT to go to Portside in the morning. In my experience, the people who organising the boarding of P&O ships only let people into the terminal at their assigned boarding time. You would have to sit outside all day or go to a coffee shop. If you are advised that your departure is in the afternoon, I suggest you ask your motel/hotel if you can leave your luggage there, and go sightseeing for the day.

 

Just as an aside that is not really relevant to the topic, but if you do happen to get caught at Portside waiting for a cruise with hours to spare, there is a Dendy Cinema where you go upstairs to the observation area.

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

Just as an aside that is not really relevant to the topic, but if you do happen to get caught at Portside waiting for a cruise with hours to spare, there is a Dendy Cinema where you go upstairs to the observation area.

We took our three-year-old granddaughter up there when our daughter picked us up after one cruise. We wanted our granddaughter to see the "big ship". She was literally speechless as she swivelled her head from one side to the other.

[SeaDog-46]

Brisbane Pilots managed to get 3 ships to sea this afternoon.

Port info page has Sea Princess - pilot 10:15 26th & 14:30 alongside Portside cruise terminal.

Departing at 12:00  - 27th.

[Mitte]

Not really relevant to this thread, but thought I would mention an alternative scenario  as happened with a past departure from Brisbane Portside for Sea Princess, We arrived at Portside as instructed on our boarding pass. We were a bit surprised to see the ship was absent . People were arriving for our cruise and all were wondering where the ship was.

As it happens, Sea Princess was not able to get to portside that morning and had to berth at Fisherman Islands Grain Terminal.

Princess had it all sorted. The boarding process still took place at Portside after which you were directed to a coach to be taken straight to the Sea Princess at Fisherman Islands. Everything went smoothly and we got away on time.

[DDG 41]

6 hours ago, dstables said:

 

I have sailed out of Brisbane a few times and only preferred passengers are allowed to board outside of their boarding times. They have enforced this every time we have sailed from Portside. Enjoy your cruise. We sailed the Sea and Sun in January and are now in Surfers Paradise enjoying the sun!😎

In my experience they have never enforced them.

I Guess it may vary from time to time then.

[Aus Traveller]

53 minutes ago, DDG 41 said:

In my experience they have never enforced them.

I Guess it may vary from time to time then.

We have had it enforced on three cruises out of Portside in Brisbane which is what we are talking about. 🙂 Two were on P&O where there is no preferred boarding. It is all by the allocated times, and one on Princess where we had preferred boarding as elite members. We haven't seen the boarding times enforced anywhere else we have boarded a cruise.

Edited February 23, 2019 by Aus Traveller