Prima broke moorings in Zeebrugge

[www3traveler]

34 minutes ago, DebbieMacG said:

We’ve just had a notification from NCL to say our port call in Zeebrugge on Prima on 7th August has been cancelled due to tidal restrictions, maybe they don’t have replacement gangways yet? 

NO  Simply means the tides are to low to safely sail.

[ontheweb]

20 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

NO  Simply means the tides are to low to safely sail.

And they did not know this in advance when they made the schedule?

[ontheweb]

56 minutes ago, DebbieMacG said:

We’ve just had a notification from NCL to say our port call in Zeebrugge on Prima on 7th August has been cancelled due to tidal restrictions, maybe they don’t have replacement gangways yet? 

Did you notice that they still have Isafjordur listed? They have not made that stop yet this season. What do you think the odds are that they actually will for our cruise.

[www3traveler]

1 minute ago, ontheweb said:

And they did not know this in advance when they made the schedule?

NO  Tide tables change all the time.  Given the heat wave that Europe is expericing just like in the US, there is LESS water flowing in many rivers and esturaries than this normal for this time of year.  A number of river cruises in Europe have either been canceled or re-routed if possible because of the low levels of water in the rivers.

[ontheweb]

3 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

NO  Tide tables change all the time.  Given the heat wave that Europe is expericing just like in the US, there is LESS water flowing in many rivers and esturaries than this normal for this time of year.  A number of river cruises in Europe have either been canceled or re-routed if possible because of the low levels of water in the rivers.

Thanks, I learned something from your post.

[DebbieMacG]

19 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

NO  Simply means the tides are to low to safely sail.

So every time they say a missed port is due to tidal restrictions that’s true? Pull the other one, that’s the reason they’ve been giving for them missing Isafjorder in Iceland multiple times, when everyone knows it’s because the new dock  hasn’t been constructed and it’s delayed, (that’s not NCL’s fault) 

 

[ontheweb]

11 hours ago, DebbieMacG said:

So every time they say a missed port is due to tidal restrictions that’s true? Pull the other one, that’s the reason they’ve been giving for them missing Isafjorder in Iceland multiple times, when everyone knows it’s because the new dock  hasn’t been constructed and it’s delayed, (that’s not NCL’s fault) 

 

Is not having boats capable of being used as tenders NCL's fault? Their older ship, the Star, has been tendering passengers in Isafjordur. One of the improvements in new ships is not being able to tender? 🤦‍♂️

[hallux]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

Is not having boats capable of being used as tenders NCL's fault? Their older ship, the Star, has been tendering passengers in Isafjordur. One of the improvements in new ships is not being able to tender? 🤦‍♂️

For what it's worth - Royal's Oasis-class (and probably Icon as well) are not even designed for tendering, which is why they built a pier at CoCo Cay.  Prima can at least tender as she stops at GSC...

[shof515]

44 minutes ago, hallux said:

For what it's worth - Royal's Oasis-class (and probably Icon as well) are not even designed for tendering, which is why they built a pier at CoCo Cay.  Prima can at least tender as she stops at GSC...

GSC tendering is very different compare to other tender ports. At GSC they have tender boats that somewhat looks like a ferry boat. Where as other tender ports like Newport, Rhode Island and Bar Harbor, Me the ship uses a special lifeboats that are designed as tender boat. It is at these tender ports that make big ships like Prima and Oasis class impossible to tender 

 

I also been to tender ports where the ship contracted out those whale watching boats to be used as tender instead of using the ship tender lifeboats

[hallux]

33 minutes ago, shof515 said:

GSC tendering is very different compare to other tender ports. At GSC they have tender boats that somewhat looks like a ferry boat. Where as other tender ports like Newport, Rhode Island and Bar Harbor, Me the ship uses a special lifeboats that are designed as tender boat. It is at these tender ports that make big ships like Prima and Oasis class impossible to tender 

 

I also been to tender ports where the ship contracted out those whale watching boats to be used as tender instead of using the ship tender lifeboats

Actually, the Oasis class is simply not designed with tender platforms AT ALL. At CoCo Cay Royal had tenders similar to those at GSC (or maybe the ones now at GSC WERE the ones Royal owned) up until the pier was constructed.  I was there in 2014, before the pier.  Until the pier at CoCo Cay was completed an Oasis-class ship had never ported there because the ships were never designed for tendering operations.

 

Royal could never send an Oasis ship to Cabo - that's a tender port.

 

Prima at least has the ability to use those boats, lifeboats as tenders not withstanding.

[DebbieMacG]

9 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Is not having boats capable of being used as tenders NCL's fault? Their older ship, the Star, has been tendering passengers in Isafjordur. One of the improvements in new ships is not being able to tender? 🤦‍♂️

I’m sure Prima can and does tender, maybe because they have been told there will be a new dock at Isafjorder they are refusing to tender there? Who knows? It’s been cancelled again for the cruise before ours with “tidal conditions” cited as the reason I believe, they’ve replaced it with a sea day which isn’t good as the weather isn’t good enough to use the outside spaces, at least if it was replaced with more time in another port (as previously) it might help offset some of the disappointment of missing Isafjorder. This must be having an impact on the tourism industry in that place too. 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, DebbieMacG said:

I’m sure Prima can and does tender, maybe because they have been told there will be a new dock at Isafjorder they are refusing to tender there? Who knows? It’s been cancelled again for the cruise before ours with “tidal conditions” cited as the reason I believe, they’ve replaced it with a sea day which isn’t good as the weather isn’t good enough to use the outside spaces, at least if it was replaced with more time in another port (as previously) it might help offset some of the disappointment of missing Isafjorder. This must be having an impact on the tourism industry in that place too. 

No, they say the ship's lifeboats are not capable of being used as tenders.

[chengkp75]

21 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

No, they say the ship's lifeboats are not capable of being used as tenders.

There are different design, structural, and safety requirements between a lifeboat and a "small passenger vessel", which is what a tender is.  So, if the lifeboat is not designed to meet both the lifeboat and "small passenger vessel" requirements of SOLAS, it cannot be used for tendering.  Ship's boats that are classified as "lifeboat/tender" are completely different looking than the "lifeboats".

[ontheweb]

1 minute ago, chengkp75 said:

There are different design, structural, and safety requirements between a lifeboat and a "small passenger vessel", which is what a tender is.  So, if the lifeboat is not designed to meet both the lifeboat and "small passenger vessel" requirements of SOLAS, it cannot be used for tendering.  Ship's boats that are classified as "lifeboat/tender" are completely different looking than the "lifeboats".

As always, thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[Bruges]

On 7/20/2023 at 12:20 AM, www3traveler said:

NO  Simply means the tides are to low to safely sail.

No! Being from Bruges I can assure you Zeebrugge is a deep sea port handling the largest container ships afloat. 

[Sailing12Away]

We stopped in Bruges on my 9/7 sailing. Later than expected, but we stopped there without issue.