High winds in Nassau prevent docking

[shof515]

Due to high winds both the carnival liberty and carnival sunshine ships is unable to dock today.

 

Currently on the sunshine and Nassau is the only port. This cruise is now a cruise to nowhere

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

7 minutes ago, shof515 said:

Due to high winds both the carnival liberty and carnival sunshine ships is unable to dock today.

 

Currently on the sunshine and Nassau is the only port. This cruise is now a cruise to nowhere

 

That's never happened to us in Nassau. On the bright side, it's "only" Nassau!

 

We did have one sailing to Key West on Celebrity where, at the end of the day, they could not safely push away from the pier due to high winds. We overnighted (though we couldn't get off the ship to enjoy the nightlife), and they somehow managed to open the casino!

 

Tom

[Guest BasicSailor]

6 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

That's never happened to us in Nassau. On the bright side, it's "only" Nassau!

 

We did have one sailing to Key West on Celebrity where, at the end of the day, they could not safely push away from the pier due to high winds. We overnighted (though we couldn't get off the ship to enjoy the nightlife), and they somehow managed to open the casino!

 

Tom

[mz-s]

Cruise Radio talked about this today, there is a strong storm blowing across the Bahamas today. A Royal ship cancelled their call at Coco Cay, etc.

 

It's a shame when any port of call, especially your only call is cancelled!

[groundloop]

That's too bad, but it sure beats the alternative of being stuck there because the ship sustained damage (such as the Norwegian Escape which was grounded while trying to leave port in the Dominican Republic in high winds).

 

But to be honest the next time we're in Nassau I'm staying on the ship.  We were there in November and between the construction and multiple ships disembarking at the same time it was a total cluster f%$#.

Edited January 14, 2023 by groundloop

[EngIceDave]

I'm in Daytona, hour north of Port Canaveral, and it's really windy here and 46 degrees!

 

 

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, mz-s said:

Cruise Radio talked about this today, there is a strong storm blowing across the Bahamas today. A Royal ship cancelled their call at Coco Cay, etc.

 

It's a shame when any port of call, especially your only call is cancelled!

Rcl radiance heading to new orleans reported lots of rocking. Another miami boarding pax worried about the winds. Hopefully the front will pass. 

 

Sorry about missing your port. Happened to me once on carnival and we were charged taxes onboard because it was a cruise to no where. 

[Knights on the Beach]

Same thing happened in March on Mardi Gras. We were able to dock in Nassau later that week instead but I wouldn't have been upset with an extra sea day. In October we opted to stay on the ship in Nassau and it was a great day. Best thing about Nassau IMO is the beautiful blue water so I enjoyed the view.

[shof515]

24 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

 

Sorry about missing your port. Happened to me once on carnival and we were charged taxes onboard because it was a cruise to no where. 

They was an announcement about getting some kind of onboard credit and another kind of credit for missing Nassau today. Will see what happens later today

[mjkacmom]

1 hour ago, EngIceDave said:

I'm in Daytona, hour north of Port Canaveral, and it's really windy here and 46 degrees!

 

 

My daughter is currently at Newark airport ready to board her flight to MCO and then driving to Daytona, I’m hoping winds die down.

[SRQbeachgirl]

5 hours ago, mz-s said:

Cruise Radio talked about this today, there is a strong storm blowing across the Bahamas today. A Royal ship cancelled their call at Coco Cay, etc.

 

That storm front came through here yesterday (southwest Florida) and it's still pretty windy today. Our roofing company came this morning to re-secure the tarps on our roof (the roof needs to be replaced due to Hurricane Ian and the clay tiles will take another two months to arrive), and then an hour after the guy left the tarp came undone and is now flopping around up there again. 🤦‍♀️

[EngIceDave]

35 minutes ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

 

That storm front came through here yesterday (southwest Florida) and it's still pretty windy today. Our roofing company came this morning to re-secure the tarps on our roof (the roof needs to be replaced due to Hurricane Ian and the clay tiles will take another two months to arrive), and then an hour after the guy left the tarp came undone and is now flopping around up there again. 🤦‍♀️

That's rough.

 

How is it down there?

In Volusia, other than the beaches, everything seems fairly back to normal.

[SRQbeachgirl]

1 minute ago, EngIceDave said:

That's rough.

 

How is it down there?

In Volusia, other than the beaches, everything seems fairly back to normal.

 

We were hit hard. Our neighborhood has more tarped roofs than not. Our pool cage just got finished with repairs yesterday. Driving around town still looks like a war zone, though I will say the local cities and counties have done their darndest to get debris picked up. Just going to be a long, hard slog to something that feels back to normal.

[EngIceDave]

29 minutes ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

 

We were hit hard. Our neighborhood has more tarped roofs than not. Our pool cage just got finished with repairs yesterday. Driving around town still looks like a war zone, though I will say the local cities and counties have done their darndest to get debris picked up. Just going to be a long, hard slog to something that feels back to normal.

Been there, feel for you.

 

Be thinking of y'all

[shof515]

Not bad for what is now a cruise to nowhere. Better then I expected

[EngIceDave]

For missing Nassau?

 

Dang...

[Itried4498]

That’s a pretty sweet deal.  Last week, we were on Princess and our stop at Ensenada was cancelled after we docked due to a developing storm.  It was on the last day (16) of our Hawaii cruise, so perhaps that’s why we received zero compensation.  And since we stopped at port, we didn’t receive a refund of port taxes/fees.  
 

The Carnival Radiance, which was performing a three-day cruise, also cancelled its stop and left before we did.  Wonder if they received any comp?

 

 

[ShakyBeef]

Nice compensation!  On our last cruise (5-Day Grand Turk and Amber Cove, the second leg of a 10-Day B2B) on Elation in January 2020, we missed both of our scheduled ports due to winds/currents making it "impossible" for us to dock (even though other ships were able to do so on each day at both ports).  We received $50 (total, not per port) per person OBC, and had our shore excursions and port fees refunded.  But we got no future cruise credit.  I guess it's a sign of the post-COVID times?  They're desperate to get people back on the ships now and weren't so much before?

[SRQbeachgirl]

I would be more than happy to miss Nassau for a 50% FCC!

[knagl]

That's incredibly generous compensation for something that is firmly beyond their control.

 

In addition to the OBC and future cruise credit, it seems likely that Carnival will be fined for violating the Passenger Vessel Services Act, with the Sunshine being a foreign-flagged ship and not making a port of call in a foreign country. Per this article, it sounds like they may be able to negotiate the fine down to a lesser amount than the standard $762 per person, but they'll still have to pay something.

[Itried4498]

9 hours ago, knagl said:

That's incredibly generous compensation for something that is firmly beyond their control.

 

In addition to the OBC and future cruise credit, it seems likely that Carnival will be fined for violating the Passenger Vessel Services Act, with the Sunshine being a foreign-flagged ship and not making a port of call in a foreign country. Per this article, it sounds like they may be able to negotiate the fine down to a lesser amount than the standard $762 per person, but they'll still have to pay something.

I’m sure there’s execrations / waivers.  It’s pretty common - a handful of ships across multiple lines operated cruises to nowhere back in September from SF/LA/SD due to a mixture of weather + unrest in Ensenada.  
 

Cruises to nowhere were pretty common until a decade ago, when the government began enforcing the rules.  IIIRC, a startup line was planning cruises to nowhere from Florida with large ships for the purpose of gambling (something like that), and the other cruise lines cried.  
 

Carnival itself did lots of cruises to nowhere.  We did a 2day from Tampa in the late 2000s and the port waived most of the fees so it was really cheap. 

 

[chengkp75]

42 minutes ago, Itried4498 said:

I’m sure there’s execrations / waivers.

If the reason for missing the foreign port is outside the cruise line's control (weather), then the fine is waived.

 

42 minutes ago, Itried4498 said:

 IIIRC, a startup line was planning cruises to nowhere from Florida with large ships for the purpose of gambling (something like that), and the other cruise lines cried.

Nope.  It was a resort/casino in Bahamas that had a small ship that "ferried" guests from Florida to the resort, and they wanted to increase the usage of the vessel by selling casino cruises to nowhere on the other days of the week.  CBP is the entity that decided that the foreign crew working on foreign ships doing cruises to nowhere were in fact working within the US, and would require work visas, not crew visas.  In fact, cruises to nowhere are specifically mentioned in the PVSA, and are still allowed by the PVSA.  It is the requirement to obtain work visas for the entire crew that drove the cruise lines to stop offering cruises to nowhere.  Cruises to nowhere are still legal.  Nowhere did the major cruise lines get involved in the situation, and in fact, they would have preferred to be able to continue to offer the occasional cruise to nowhere.

Edited January 15, 2023 by chengkp75

[firefly333]

21 hours ago, shof515 said:

Not bad for what is now a cruise to nowhere. Better then I expected

I would be happy with that. Mine was pre covid and we knew when we boarded no ports. Cheap price so I was good. I'd love a 50% off a future cruise. I have several carnival I want.