Stowaways snails on Coral Princess

[Fortunatefew]

he Coral Princess had sea snails living in the discharge pipes. (File photo) - Princess Cruises

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The Coral Princess’s journey around the country’s tourist hotspots hit a snag when snails were detected in the ship’s discharge pipes.

The cruise was meant to begin with a view of Mitre Peak, but instead passengers are spending another two days at sea – on top of the three-day journey from Brisbane. The ship was not allowed to sail into the Milford Sounds, where it was entering the country, because of the snails.

Instead it rerouted up around Cape Reinga and over to the eastern coast of New Zealand. The cruise ship is now sitting 77km off the coast of Tauranga, out of the country’s territorial waters, while it is cleaned by divers and the snails removed.

Passenger Christine McDonald said the reaction on board had been “overwhelmingly negative”, but she was glad the “precious and pristine” sounds in Fiordland were protected.

 

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Some Australian passengers blamed New Zealand’s “ridiculous OTT environmental rules”, but “most rational passengers are dismayed with the cruise line for failing to have a clean hull in view of their advertised itinerary”., McDonald wrote in an email.

“We imagine [the cleaning] has been a major logistical exercise for the cruise company organising a dive team the week before Xmas and finding a safe place (given weather and wind) to carry out the hull clean outside NZ territorial waters ...

“However good news for our precious and pristine Fiordland sounds,” McDonald said.

[arxcards]

 

[Over from NZ]

$100 credit. What a joke Princess. 

[patch nine]

how many times have l'escargot appeared on the menu?  😂

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Over from NZ said:

$100 credit. What a joke Princess. 

That's just the OBC, they got 15% of their fare as FCC as well.

[Over from NZ]

8 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

That's just the OBC, they got 15% of their fare as FCC as well.

Which is pitiful. Almost adds insult to injury. 

[NSWP]

3 hours ago, Over from NZ said:

Which is pitiful. Almost adds insult to injury. 

I agree. It is neglect by Princess that caused this issue, neglecting to clean the hull. Pax missing ports in this instance should have got more than 15% FCC, should have got 50%.

[Ondine]

It seems that NZ authorities are being super strict.  Queen Elizabeth has been prevented from going into Milford Sound because of a dirty hull and I have received an email from P&O this afternoon to say that we wont be able to go into Milford Sound either on our NY cruise on Pacific Explorer due to the hull needing cleaning.   We are offered $50 OBC pp.

 

Not just Coral.

[Over from NZ]

17 minutes ago, Ondine said:

It seems that NZ authorities are being super strict. 

As they should be. There's many that would suggest the cruise-ships shouldn't be allowed into Milford at all. 

[SinbadThePorter]

6 hours ago, Ondine said:

Not just Coral.

 

I wonder where and how the NZ authorities are checking the hulls of these ships?

[arxcards]

43 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

I wonder where and how the NZ authorities are checking the hulls of these ships?

Trained dolphins with Go Pro's.

[NSWP]

7 hours ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

I wonder where and how the NZ authorities are checking the hulls of these ships?

French Commando Divers, a la Rainbow Warrior, 🤣

Edited December 23, 2022 by NSWP

[Bubbeh]

1 hour ago, NSWP said:

French Commando Divers, a la Rainbow Warrior

A Nation's shame.

[Aus Traveller]

16 hours ago, NSWP said:

I agree. It is neglect by Princess that caused this issue, neglecting to clean the hull. Pax missing ports in this instance should have got more than 15% FCC, should have got 50%.

I thought that further information advised that it wasn't a dirty hull, but snails in the ship (not in the kitchen) that were the problem. They could be discharged in the pristine waters of Fiordland.

 

The Coral Princess’s journey around the country’s tourist hotspots hit a snag when snails were detected in the ship’s discharge pipes.

The cruise was meant to begin with a view of Mitre Peak, but instead passengers are spending another two days at sea – on top of the three-day journey from Brisbane. The ship was not allowed to sail into the Milford Sounds, where it was entering the country, because of the snails.

Instead it rerouted up around Cape Reinga and over to the eastern coast of New Zealand. The cruise ship is now sitting 77km off the coast of Tauranga, out of the country’s territorial waters, while it is cleaned by divers and the snails removed.

Passenger Christine McDonald said the reaction on board had been “overwhelmingly negative”, but she was glad the “precious and pristine” sounds in Fiordland were protected.

 

Maybe Princess' Environmental Officer discovered the snails and knew they had to be removed before the ship went to NZ. I don't believe NZ officials could have detected the snails while the ship was in Australian waters (and thereby insisting on a clean out). If it was Princess' Environental Officer, the company is to be commended. Not 'Shame on Princess'. 🙂

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

I thought that further information advised that it wasn't a dirty hull, but snails in the ship (not in the kitchen) that were the problem. They could be discharged in the pristine waters of Fiordland.

 

The Coral Princess’s journey around the country’s tourist hotspots hit a snag when snails were detected in the ship’s discharge pipes.

The cruise was meant to begin with a view of Mitre Peak, but instead passengers are spending another two days at sea – on top of the three-day journey from Brisbane. The ship was not allowed to sail into the Milford Sounds, where it was entering the country, because of the snails.

Instead it rerouted up around Cape Reinga and over to the eastern coast of New Zealand. The cruise ship is now sitting 77km off the coast of Tauranga, out of the country’s territorial waters, while it is cleaned by divers and the snails removed.

Passenger Christine McDonald said the reaction on board had been “overwhelmingly negative”, but she was glad the “precious and pristine” sounds in Fiordland were protected.

 

Maybe Princess' Environmental Officer discovered the snails and knew they had to be removed before the ship went to NZ. I don't believe NZ officials could have detected the snails while the ship was in Australian waters (and thereby insisting on a clean out). If it was Princess' Environental Officer, the company is to be commended. Not 'Shame on Princess'. 🙂

Mentioned earlier in thread, it isn't just Coral Princess. As this sort of stuff is rarely known to occur, I think it was someone from the rightfully officious NZ environment protection office calling out ships with overdue inspections, and those inspections have triggered this round of unscheduled cleaning. It is not like they all just gained these snails in recent weeks, more likely picked-up while these ships were all languishing at various anchorages around the world.

 

The presence of snails in discharge pipes is also an indicator they would be present in other protected areas of the hull. Typical cruise line PR is to tell the truth such as snails in pipes, but not the full extent of the story.

 

A bit of light background for these inspections https://commercialdiving.com.au/new-zealand-ship-mpi-inspections/

[Pushka]

Apparently snails are the issue with Orion ship currently in NZ. Refused entry to Tauranga. Coming to Adelaide for scrubbing according to a social site. Maybe to the submarine depot?

[arxcards]

5 hours ago, Pushka said:

Apparently snails are the issue with Orion ship currently in NZ. Refused entry to Tauranga. Coming to Adelaide for scrubbing according to a social site. Maybe to the submarine depot?

Viking Orion docked in Tauranga earlier today.

[Pushka]

9 hours ago, arxcards said:

Viking Orion docked in Tauranga earlier today.

I've just reread the FB post. And as you stated it docked in Tauranga. However The passengers were informed at that port that there were to be no more NZ ports, missing three, and now coming over to Adelaide for Hull cleaning. 

[harbourside]

Passengers on Viking Orion got 50% of their fare back.  They were not even going into the Sounds.  Just had to miss three ports, Dunedin, Christchurch and Hobart.  They have had 2 days in Adelaide added.   When I was on a China cruise with Viking we got $150 US dollars per person just because there was going to be crowds at some stops because of a Chinese national holiday .

 

[Pushka]

1 hour ago, harbourside said:

Passengers on Viking Orion got 50% of their fare back.  They were not even going into the Sounds.  Just had to miss three ports, Dunedin, Christchurch and Hobart.  They have had 2 days in Adelaide added.   When I was on a China cruise with Viking we got $150 US dollars per person just because there was going to be crowds at some stops because of a Chinese national holiday .

 

Viking has an excellent compensation process.  Do you happen to know the Adelaide dates? We sailed on Orion to Alaska and Viking normally doesn’t come here to SA. 

Edited December 24, 2022 by Pushka

[boeckli]

Orion's AIS still shows Wellington as next port on Dec 26 and she's just doing 13.2 kn. 😕

[OzKiwiJJ]

23 hours ago, arxcards said:

Mentioned earlier in thread, it isn't just Coral Princess. As this sort of stuff is rarely known to occur, I think it was someone from the rightfully officious NZ environment protection office calling out ships with overdue inspections, and those inspections have triggered this round of unscheduled cleaning. It is not like they all just gained these snails in recent weeks, more likely picked-up while these ships were all languishing at various anchorages around the world.

 

The presence of snails in discharge pipes is also an indicator they would be present in other protected areas of the hull. Typical cruise line PR is to tell the truth such as snails in pipes, but not the full extent of the story.

 

A bit of light background for these inspections https://commercialdiving.com.au/new-zealand-ship-mpi-inspections/

It's hard to tell whether it was overdue inspections, or a routine hull check that is carried out on ships heading to NZ that this time happened to turn up something that NZ didn't want imported into its waters. Both Coral and Viking Orion may have recently unknowingly passed through an area where there was an outbreak of these snails who then hitched a ride on these ships. They could be the marine equivalent of locusts and I recall driving through a cloud of locusts on one of our regular Xmas trips to Melbourne. Never saw anything like that before that day, and have never seen it since. The snails could have been something similar but at a port or mooring.

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 hours ago, harbourside said:

Passengers on Viking Orion got 50% of their fare back.  They were not even going into the Sounds.  Just had to miss three ports, Dunedin, Christchurch and Hobart.  They have had 2 days in Adelaide added.   When I was on a China cruise with Viking we got $150 US dollars per person just because there was going to be crowds at some stops because of a Chinese national holiday .

 

With half the number of passengers on Coral Princess who probably pay double or more pp in fares Viking can probably afford to be very generous in compensation.

 

Personally I think Princess has also been generous, as they have been ever since the restart. After all the passengers on that cruise are still being accommodated, fed, and entertained for the full length of the cruise they booked. If they booked with Plus or Premium fares they are still getting full benefits of those packages. Yes, they are missing Dunedin and Fiordland which is sad but there is always the risk of missing one or both of those due to adverse weather conditions.

[arxcards]

59 minutes ago, boeckli said:

Orion's AIS still shows Wellington as next port on Dec 26 and she's just doing 13.2 kn. 😕

It is possible they may need to refuel.

[MMDown Under]

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

It's hard to tell whether it was overdue inspections, or a routine hull check that is carried out on ships heading to NZ that this time happened to turn up something that NZ didn't want imported into its waters. Both Coral and Viking Orion may have recently unknowingly passed through an area where there was an outbreak of these snails who then hitched a ride on these ships. They could be the marine equivalent of locusts and I recall driving through a cloud of locusts on one of our regular Xmas trips to Melbourne. Never saw anything like that before that day, and have never seen it since. The snails could have been something similar but at a port or mooring.

We drove through a plague of locusts in rural NSW en route to Broken Hill.  A local stopped us and told us to go to Bunnings?  to buy netting to protect our engine parts.  We had never seen anything like it!