Do cruise ships leave Bermuda in the middle of the night?

[LB_NJ]

It looks like heavy winds on June 6 so I am thinking the cruise ship may have to leave earlier than scheduled.

 

Are they likely to leave in the middle of the night or the previous afternoon?

[Charles4515]

6 minutes ago, LB_NJ said:

It looks like heavy winds on June 6 so I am thinking the cruise ship may have to leave earlier than scheduled.

 

Are they likely to leave in the middle of the night or the previous afternoon?

 

No way you can get an accurate forcast for Bermuda this far out.  Don't bother with weather apps or the weather channel.  If there is a bad storm they will leave in daylight. We left early once because of an approaching hurricane. 

 

http://www.weather.bm

[princeton123211]

1 hour ago, LB_NJ said:

Are they likely to leave in the middle of the night or the previous afternoon?

As Charles said, it takes some pretty serious weather like a hurricane to cancel or cut short a port stop.

 

That being said, if the ship does leave early, it does need to give passengers a reasonable heads up they are departing off of the set schedule, unless it was an extreme emergency, so it won't be a spur of the moment move in the middle of the night. Keep in mind that ship's gangways are open 24/7 in Bermuda so there could very well be some passengers ashore even at a late/early hour. 

 

If there was a change most likely it would be communicated just before or during arrival in Bermuda so they could be assured that all passengers were advised of it based on predicted weather. They will err on the side of caution-- they aren't going to chance it and be forced to react quickly if they can avoid it. 

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, LB_NJ said:

It looks like heavy winds on June 6 so I am thinking the cruise ship may have to leave earlier than scheduled.

 

Are they likely to leave in the middle of the night or the previous afternoon?

In addition to what was already said the ship can only leave during daylight hours. The ship channels are too narrow and too shallow to allow navigation by a large cruise ship at night .

 

http://www.rccbermuda.bm/pilots_about.aspx

Pilot Service

 

This Section provides Branch Pilots to assist international shipping to safely navigate Bermuda’s narrow channels. Transit of Bermuda's channels is limited to daylight hours only, however night pilotage does take place on a limited basis in cases where ships on passage may divert to Bermuda with medical cases onboard or where ships alongside at the ESSO Oil Docks complete their cargo discharge and are able to shift to anchor in Murray’s Anchorage.

[nzdisneymom]

On 6/1/2022 at 1:34 PM, njhorseman said:

In addition to what was already said the ship can only leave during daylight hours. The ship channels are too narrow and too shallow to allow navigation by a large cruise ship at night .

 

http://www.rccbermuda.bm/pilots_about.aspx

Pilot Service

 

This Section provides Branch Pilots to assist international shipping to safely navigate Bermuda’s narrow channels. Transit of Bermuda's channels is limited to daylight hours only, however night pilotage does take place on a limited basis in cases where ships on passage may divert to Bermuda with medical cases onboard or where ships alongside at the ESSO Oil Docks complete their cargo discharge and are able to shift to anchor in Murray’s Anchorage.

 

We had just this situation on the 9/3-9/11/2022 sailing on the Mariner of the Seas to Bermuda.  We arrived around 3 PM on Monday, Sep 5th, with a scheduled departure of 3 PM Wednesday, Sep 7th.  But with Hurricane Earl on a path that way, it was decided that we would leave at 7 AM ( pretty much day-break) on Wednesday morning so we could skedaddle out of the way of the storm.  Capt. Tobias explained about the daylight restrictions and because it takes about 2 hours to fully clear the channels, if we left on Tuesday, it would have been  at 5 PM.  He said that was still his preference but he knew we could still beat the storm by going fast and more directly west than the southwestern route he usually takes from Bermuda to Nassau, so he made the decision to leave at 7 AM on Wednesday.  It was a good call as we were able to get out safely and not experience much effect from swells.