Escape drydocks early and for 30 days probably because of damage from hitting sand bar in Dominican Republic in Mar 2022

[fstuff1]

https://www.cruisehive.com/norwegian-cruise-line-cancels-multiple-voyages-due-to-required-dry-dock

 

In a letter to travel agents, NCL said, “we thank you for your loyalty and for making us your vacation of choice. We have important information regarding Norwegian Escape voyages from September 8, 2022, through and including October 2, 2022.”

 

wow..30 day drydock? 

Damage was that bad yet they kept on sailing the past couple of months like everything was ok?

 

Did they actually use cement to plug the rumored large gash (25+ feet) in the hull?

 

edit: last dry dock was in October 2020 

Edited June 8, 2022 by fstuff1

[bluesea777]

On another thread I read that someone that was on board the Escape last week heard Code Bravo a few times to deck 1/2 compartment 16. 

 

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by bluesea777

[ColeThornton]

Already a discussion about this.....

 

 

 

[F27TW]

And to think how smug and cavalier so many people were being in the other thread about the Escape's grounding when i mentioned how i'd not wanna be sailing across the Atlantic in any ship  that just run aground and had a patch job done while sitting at the pier in Port Canaveral afterward  .. regardless that the CG gave it all their blessing..     Guess all that Gorilla Glue didn't hold up like they thought, huh?

 

Now a sudden drydocking for a month?  Hmmm. 

Edited June 8, 2022 by F27TW

[fstuff1]

50 minutes ago, bluesea777 said:

On another thread I read that someone that was on board the Escape last week heard Code Bravo a few times to deck 1/2 compartment 16. 

 

bravo = fire.

 

obviously it's not as bad as the fire on a cruise ship earlier this year (forgot which line) in deck 1 (engine room) where the capt almost sounded the abandon ship. 

 

i was onboard a ship the week after that and the crew had their weekly drills at St Marteen pier.

but this time, it was 3+ hrs long and concentrated in the engine room.

 

crew i talked to afterwards said it was the longest drill they've ever been on and some on them worked 5+ years on cruise ships.

 

[ChiefMateJRK]

9 hours ago, F27TW said:

regardless that the CG gave it all their blessing..     Guess all that Gorilla Glue didn't hold up like they thought, huh?

That had to be it!!  Either that, or they had highly trained structural engineers looking at it, executed a viable safe temporary repair and then kept sailing until a dry dock became available for a long term permanent repair.  Nah... Couldn't be that.  Had to be that they slapped on whatever was available and then panicked when the ship started taking on more water than the pumps could keep up with.  🤣

 

This here is priceless:

9 hours ago, F27TW said:

And to think how smug and cavalier so many people were being in the other thread about the Escape's grounding when i mentioned how i'd not wanna be sailing across the Atlantic in any ship  that just run aground and had a patch job done while sitting at the pier in Port Canaveral afterward 

How do you know that they won't just use Gorilla Glue in the dry dock?  This is the evil/incompetent NCL.....

[BirdTravels]

Temporary repairs being made permanent. A little bondo and fresh paint to cover the damage. Remember, the Escape is not new to "accidents". She took out part of the dock at Harvest Caye in early 2020 (resulting in all future cruises needing to tender until the pandemic shutdown). Then she hit the dock in Rome during the shutdown causing more damage. 

 

I remember that we were on the first cruise after the Epic's dry dock in 2015. We were a bit concerned because the dry dock was extended so that they could cut a big hole in the hull and remove and replace two engines. Then patch it back together. During that cruise, there were a few "sea trial-like" events like a full acceleration start and emergency stop (done right after leaving a port = during dinner service). At the next port, we did a couple of very slow 360 degree turns to allow them to recalibrate the ship's compasses with the significant change in the amount of metal on the ship,,, glad the ship was using GPS for navigation. 

[letiha]

2 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Temporary repairs being made permanent. A little bondo and fresh paint to cover the damage. Remember, the Escape is not new to "accidents". She took out part of the dock at Harvest Caye in early 2020 (resulting in all future cruises needing to tender until the pandemic shutdown). Then she hit the dock in Rome during the shutdown causing more damage. 

 

I remember that we were on the first cruise after the Epic's dry dock in 2015. We were a bit concerned because the dry dock was extended so that they could cut a big hole in the hull and remove and replace two engines. Then patch it back together. During that cruise, there were a few "sea trial-like" events like a full acceleration start and emergency stop (done right after leaving a port = during dinner service). At the next port, we did a couple of very slow 360 degree turns to allow them to recalibrate the ship's compasses with the significant change in the amount of metal on the ship,,, glad the ship was using GPS for navigation. 

That’s what we are worried about. We are on the cruise scheduled for after the dry dock.

 

The irony it’s using 100% cruise credit from the NCL Pearl bring cancelled 48 hours before our cruise in 2019 and we had to rebook 12 days of travel on the run.

 

 

Given how far we are travelling from Australia I’m now booking a plan B trip to Scotland well in advanced.

[chengkp75]

Okay.  Ships are required to drydock "twice in 5 years" (all ships, every one), so that works out to be every 2.5 years.  Now, everyone on CC knows that cruise ships drydock every 5 years (except HAL, which follows the twice in 5 rule), so what gives?  For ships less than 15 years old, the class societies grant that an underwater inspection (divers with video) in lieu of drydock is acceptable for the mid-period.  This is far less expensive than a drydocking, so most ships follow this plan. So, Escape's last drydock was October 2020.  That means her mid-period exam (which normally would have been an underwater inspection) would be in the 10/22 to 4/23 period.  But, due to the presence of a temporary repair, class decided that the underwater survey was not acceptable, and so the ship needed to drydock during her statutory period, and they were able to find a time slot in September.

 

Now, the temporary repair is not "failing" or likely to fail at any time.  The repairs done in PC were overseen by the USCG (who really don't have the technical know how about ship construction), but also by the class society, which acts as the insurance underwriter for the ship.  Damage like this, is typically written into the ship's "certificate of class" (document stating the ship is safe to sail) as "to be repaired at the next scheduled drydock", and this is the scheduled mid-period drydock, so no one should read anything dangerous or nefarious into the fact that the ship is drydocking now to repair it.  I fully expected this to happen.

 

The 4 week timeline is a bit of a surprise, but I don't know all of what is planned to be done.  There may be problems with the shipyard getting enough labor to work 2 or 3 full shifts, and that would stretch things, or it could be supply chain issues with materials and parts.  There could also be other sections of the hull that are dented (but didn't breach), that would be allowed to remain on the ship until it is scrapped, or until the next drydock, that will get repaired.  Many ships go their entire life with dented and dimpled hull plating that is not renewed as it is not a safety concern, merely cosmetic.

 

As for the comment about using cement for the breach, this is common practice, but it is only to stop water inflow at the time, so that welding of a patch plate can be done. The patch plate is fully welded to the hull to seal it, and is as strong as the original hull plating.  New stiffeners (framing) inside the patch will be installed to match the new curvature of the plating.  Everything done is to industry best practices to produce a repair that is just as good as the original.

 

Regarding the Epic having a hole cut in the side of the ship to remove engines, this is the standard practice, and should not present any concerns to people.  What is the hull anyway, but a bunch of steel plates welded together.  If you don't think they can weld a patch plate in properly, why would you trust the tens of thousands of feet of welding that hold the hull together in the first place.  Oasis dropped a section out of the bottom, to get the middle of three engines out of the ship.  Welded back up just fine.

 

And, every ship, every 10 years, needs to "box the compass" (swing it in a stationary circle) to check the compass correction, and adjust the compass balls (two softball sized cast iron balls, one on each side of the compass binnacle), so that is not unusual.

 

Folks, if you don't trust the class society surveyors to ensure a good and safe repair, you should never set foot on a ship, because they are the ones overseeing the standards of how the ship is built in the first place, and how it is maintained over its life.

Edited June 9, 2022 by chengkp75

[wongcruise]

Thank you very much for the most informative explanation.  I now feel more comfortable sailing on her transatlantic voyage back to NY after the dry dock.

[PTC DAWG]

kp75 dropping knowledge, as usual.  Thanks..

[F27TW]

10 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

That had to be it!!  Either that, or they had highly trained structural engineers looking at it, executed a viable safe temporary repair and then kept sailing until a dry dock became available for a long term permanent repair.  Nah... Couldn't be that.  Had to be that they slapped on whatever was available and then panicked when the ship started taking on more water than the pumps could keep up with.  🤣

 

 

 

Aww .. see how nice?    We agree! 

 

 

[F27TW]

7 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

 

 During that cruise, there were a few "sea trial-like" events like a full acceleration start and emergency stop (done right after leaving a port = during dinner service). At the next port, we did a couple of very slow 360 degree turns to allow them to recalibrate the ship's compasses with the significant change in the amount of metal on the ship,,, glad the ship was using GPS for navigation. 

 

They did all that with pax on board ??!    How tacky.

[BklynBorn47]

23 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

The patch plate is fully welded to the hull to seal it, and is as strong as the original hull plating.

@chengkp75 (since message feature is disabled)
I always appreciate your technical explanations.  This one reminded me of my Dad's WWII diary when he wrote that because of damage at Anzio they were in Malta where the damaged bow was cut off and replaced with one from a British ship (the only available) until they could get back to the US for total repair.  Obviously, the weld held up since they returned to battle afterwards.  Dad was trained as a welder but could also type 60 wpm so as he said he didn't see the war, he heard it (damage control) and typed it up. The Navy had a lot more welders than men who could type.
My project since retirement has been to visit all the places he wrote about in his diary and recreate his photos.  

[BirdTravels]

Prior to her last dry dock, there were plans to replace the ropes course and sports court with a go kart track. Wonder if they will do it this time. 

[Oceansaway17]

6 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Prior to her last dry dock, there were plans to replace the ropes course and sports court with a go kart track. Wonder if they will do it this time. 

 

oh gosh I hope not.  I love the Escape just the way she is and don't need a noisy kart.  

[hallux]

8 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

 

oh gosh I hope not.  I love the Escape just the way she is and don't need a noisy kart.  

They're electric.  Unless you're right next to the track you don't even know it's being used.

[Red-Sol]

9 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

 

oh gosh I hope not.  I love the Escape just the way she is and don't need a noisy kart.  

I Agree! Escape is my favorite ship....adding go karts would be a shame. (Noisy or Not) they take up way too much real estate on the ships (including eliminating some of the best spaces such as Spice H2O) While we don't get a vote my guess is far more people would not want them added than do! 

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, hallux said:

They're electric.  Unless you're right next to the track you don't even know it's being used.

While electric, the go karts are not silent as you would imply. The go karts make artificial vroom vroom noises to give the riders the impression that they are in a gas powered kart. And it is loud enough to hear through helmets. Vroom Vroom. 

[hallux]

34 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

While electric, the go karts are not silent as you would imply. The go karts make artificial vroom vroom noises to give the riders the impression that they are in a gas powered kart. And it is loud enough to hear through helmets. Vroom Vroom. 

I never said they were silent.  I simply said that unless you were standing next to the track you wouldn't even know they were being run.

[bowlinmoe]

I booked a January cruise on the Escape a couple weeks ago. Not worried.

 

Besides, I can swim well.

[Ixtoras]

On 7/2/2022 at 2:09 PM, BirdTravels said:

Prior to her last dry dock, there were plans to replace the ropes course and sports court with a go kart track. Wonder if they will do it this time. 

Eh, swapping the go cart track in would seem like a tall order for a previously unplanned / midterm drydock.  Plus that's an expense that maybe made sense prior to the pandemic, but I'm sure they're trying to make up for some of the losses.

 

Honestly, the go carts on Bliss and Encore are fun but they do take up an awful lot of real estate.  As for the noise, honestly I didn't really hear them except when I was right next to it. 

 

Eh, as long as they leave Spice H2O alone and don't replace it with a darned laser tag course or virtual arcade, I'm sure it will all be fine.  That was the one thing I really missed on Bliss and Encore - but they got the observation lounge which is a fair tradeoff.

 

[hallux]

39 minutes ago, Ixtoras said:

That was the one thing I really missed on Bliss and Encore

Encore maybe, but the Bliss has a Spice H2O.  Encore is the only BA/BA+ ship to not have Spice H2O...

[Ixtoras]

23 hours ago, hallux said:

Encore maybe, but the Bliss has a Spice H2O.  Encore is the only BA/BA+ ship to not have Spice H2O...

You are absolutely right. I must have been projecting my disappointment with not having it on Encore. 

 

I had to go back and look at my pictures from the trip. Yup, spice h2o is there with that cool water feature.  They managed to put the laser tag up on deck 20 mid-forward on Bliss.   That area looks to be part of the Vibe area on Encore.