Container Ship Struck Key Bridge in Baltimore, Bridge has Collapsed

[Ocean Boy]

2 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

Maybe Puff the Magic Dragon will solve this. He lives by the sea.

Nah, all he knows how to is frolic in the Autumn mist.

[Earthworm Jim]

12 hours ago, Yorkvillain said:

 

Did Carnival say they are going to bus guests from Baltimore TO Norfolk? I understand they are going to bus the guests that are sailing right now FROM Norfolk back to Baltimore but I have not seen anything saying they will bus future guests to Norfolk.

 

If they did offer such a bus, I wonder what the take rate would be? Assuming Baltimore cruises are mostly driven to, if you're coming from anywhere south or west of Baltimore it would be quicker to drive directly to Norfolk than to go to Baltimore first.

 

Even drivers coming from north of Baltimore might just do the extra driving to Norfolk or switch to flying. Driving yourself has extra costs and potentially traffic aggravations, but it also gains you control over timing and stops.

 

But if they offer a bus to Norfolk, then they have to offer a bus back from Norfolk at the end of the cruise too. And then we have the same question as to whether to offer a bus to Norfolk the next week. At some piont they'll want to get out of the busing business.

[Rubyfisch]

59 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

I think most people like whatever ship is in Baltimore for the convenience of just driving to the port.....There isn't alot of people flying to Baltimore to jump on Vision is there,when  there is so many other options to fly to in Florida.

I've flown to Baltimore twice, once on an Enchantment and once on Vision. And would do it again for my annual Christmas cruise, but their holiday savings in 2024 in 2024 start way to early for my schedule. It is so much cheaper to fly to Baltimore than Florida - like, a fifth the price, and the hotel is a quarter the price. And I like old style ships.

 

Many people do drive or take Amtrak to Baltimore, but a lot of people fly.

[davidrlewis2302]

I saw an article today talking about the number of LNG shipments that leave Baltimore. Where does Royal’s LNG ships (which I think is just Icon right now) top up their fuel tanks? In Miami or Caribbean? And where does this fuel come from?

[Engineroom Snipe]

1 minute ago, Earthworm Jim said:

 

If they did offer such a bus, I wonder what the take rate would be? Assuming Baltimore cruises are mostly driven to, if you're coming from anywhere south or west of Baltimore it would be quicker to drive directly to Norfolk than to go to Baltimore first.

 

Even drivers coming from north of Baltimore might just do the extra driving to Norfolk or switch to flying. Driving yourself has extra costs and potentially traffic aggravations, but it also gains you control over timing and stops.

 

But if they offer a bus to Norfolk, then they have to offer a bus back from Norfolk at the end of the cruise too. And then we have the same question as to whether to offer a bus to Norfolk the next week. At some piont they'll want to get out of the busing business.

Carnival stated the bus from Norfolk to Baltimore was a one way, one time deal for the disrupted cruise currently on the water.

 

As of now, Norfolk is the home port and they expect people to provide their own methods to get there.

[boscobeans]

1 hour ago, death_star said:

There is a marine terminal at Sparrows Point outside the bridge that's run by Tradepoint Atlantic. It's used mainly for RoRo at the moment but there really isn't anything that would prevent a cruise ship docking there with the normal port ramp style gangway. Process the passengers at the cruise terminal then bus them over for embarking. I remember we used to have to take a bus at Bayonne to the ship so it would be similar. Would be fine for the next few cruises before dry dock. 

 

Provisioning just means the trucks drive to the other terminal. 

Only a few short miles from the cruise terminal and since the passengers would be ready to board it would be fairly easy and fast.

Wouldn't even need a gangway just embark and debark from the lower deck.

[Jimbo]

5 minutes ago, Rubyfisch said:

I've flown to Baltimore twice, once on an Enchantment and once on Vision. And would do it again for my annual Christmas cruise, but their holiday savings in 2024 in 2024 start way to early for my schedule. It is so much cheaper to fly to Baltimore than Florida - like, a fifth the price, and the hotel is a quarter the price. And I like old style ships.

 

Many people do drive or take Amtrak to Baltimore, but a lot of people fly.

 Majority don't fly to Baltimore to get on ships that Royal ports in Baltimore. The ships they port just don't have the eye candy that the Florida Ports offer. Thus there are a ton of more people flying to Florida. Price of flights doesn't even matter.

[Earthworm Jim]

2 minutes ago, Rubyfisch said:

It is so much cheaper to fly to Baltimore than Florida - like, a fifth the price, and the hotel is a quarter the price

 

Assuming a $200-$250 hotel room price in Florida, which is what we normally pay for a mainstream chain hotel, you're finding Baltimore hotels for one fifth that cost, $40-$50 a night?

 

Flight costs may be the case wherever you're flying from, but randomly picking a Friday to the following Saturday round trip in May out of my airport (Albany, NY) on Southwest shows from $134 RT Baltimore and from $154 RT Ft. Lauderdale. Minimal difference. And Baltimore is a major SW hub too.

[Rubyfisch]

1 minute ago, Earthworm Jim said:

 

Assuming a $200-$250 hotel room price in Florida, which is what we normally pay for a mainstream chain hotel, you're finding Baltimore hotels for one fifth that cost, $40-$50 a night?

 

Flight costs may be the case wherever you're flying from, but randomly picking a Friday to the following Saturday round trip in May out of my airport (Albany, NY) on Southwest shows from $134 RT Baltimore and from $154 RT Ft. Lauderdale. Minimal difference. And Baltimore is a major SW hub too.

Trying to find a hotel the week of Christmas that doesn't have horrible reviews under $400 a night proved very difficult. And there definitely decent options in the just over $100 range. Again, I have done this twice and am going out of Port Everglades this year (and did in 2017, where we paid over $700 a person for tickets on Spirit - American would have been over $1,000).

[Earthworm Jim]

10 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

Carnival stated the bus from Norfolk to Baltimore was a one way, one time deal for the disrupted cruise currently on the water.

 

If they did state that, I missed it. All I saw was them saying there would be buses from Norfolk to Baltimore, without any "one way, one time" definitive statement. Still, unless they say they're going to do something, they presumably aren't doing it.

 

Regardless, the point was it may not have been worth offering the bus to Norfolk anyway because I doubt many would take it. Carnival probably came to the same conclusion.

[OnTheJourney]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

some cosmetic stuff to keep them presentable enough to sail for the next few years

and just enough to justify raising the cruise fares (?)

[Earthworm Jim]

1 minute ago, Rubyfisch said:

Trying to find a hotel the week of Christmas that doesn't have horrible reviews under $400 a night proved very difficult. And there definitely decent options in the just over $100 range. Again, I have done this twice and am going out of Port Everglades this year (and did in 2017, where we paid over $700 a person for tickets on Spirit - American would have been over $1,000).

 

In fairness, we had a car when we got those $200-$250 hotels recently so we were able to look outside the immediate Port Everglades area. That's not likely a viable option for most people flying in.

[westerdam]

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

I think most people like whatever ship is in Baltimore for the convenience of just driving to the port.....There isn't alot of people flying to Baltimore to jump on Vision is there,when  there is so many other options to fly to in Florida.

Sadly, I am one of the very few (probably) flying in.  I currently live in Las Vegas and it was a semi free cruise from MGM that my friend received. I would rather have flown to Florida and boarded something from there or gone out of Galveston but hey this is the one he picked on the list and I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth! Hahahah

[SRF]

3 minutes ago, Earthworm Jim said:

Regardless, the point was it may not have been worth offering the bus to Norfolk anyway because I doubt many would take it. Carnival probably came to the same conclusion.

 

We would take it.  Live 30 minutes from Baltimore port.  Easy, get up, have breakfast, finish packing, easy quick drive to port.

 

Add 4 hour drive to that and it makes it a LOT different.

 

And, we are booked on the April 15 TA, so will have to change flights to Norfolk, getting in late in the evening, so another hotel before the 4+ hour drive home

[Ourusualbeach]

4 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

and just enough to justify raising the cruise fares (?)

That would happen whether or not they did anything. Pretty sure Royal doesn't feel the need to justify any price increases

[Jetmama1]

I was on Vision out of Baltimore back in December. We flew in, but were greatly in the minority. Everyone we met was driving distance to the port. We chose it for the longer itinerary and the fact that we were going to be flying into port anyway, being west coasters. There will be a lot of passengers looking for transportation back to Baltimore. It kind of makes you rethink flying out the same day after a cruise though. 

[Jenna1983]

34 minutes ago, Earthworm Jim said:

 

If they did offer such a bus, I wonder what the take rate would be? Assuming Baltimore cruises are mostly driven to, if you're coming from anywhere south or west of Baltimore it would be quicker to drive directly to Norfolk than to go to Baltimore first.

 

Even drivers coming from north of Baltimore might just do the extra driving to Norfolk or switch to flying. Driving yourself has extra costs and potentially traffic aggravations, but it also gains you control over timing and stops.

 

But if they offer a bus to Norfolk, then they have to offer a bus back from Norfolk at the end of the cruise too. And then we have the same question as to whether to offer a bus to Norfolk the next week. At some piont they'll want to get out of the busing business.

I honestly wouldn’t take a bus from Baltimore to Norfolk. It’s almost 2 hours to Locust Point for me. And then having to jump on a bus. I’ve told my friends if Royal switches to Norfolk I’m cancelling my cabin. It’s over 5 hours to drive to Norfolk for a five day cruise to Bermuda. I’ll go another time.

Edited March 27 by Jenna1983

[wrp96]

8 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

We would take it.  Live 30 minutes from Baltimore port.  Easy, get up, have breakfast, finish packing, easy quick drive to port.

 

Add 4 hour drive to that and it makes it a LOT different.

 

And, we are booked on the April 15 TA, so will have to change flights to Norfolk, getting in late in the evening, so another hotel before the 4+ hour drive home

You might consider taking the train to the cruise so you don't have to change your return flight to Norfolk and can avoid a 4+ hour drive home.

[shipgeeks]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

Difference is, massively better selection of brands and ships and itineraries from Florida. Baltimore to Nassau is fine once and it’s also fine if I can get to port cheaply and easily. Which I can NOT. I tested it and won’t do it again. Of course there will always be some flyers. 
 

I would guess if we could see the stats, Baltimore would have one of the highest drive to flight ratios of any US port.

"Baltimore to Nassau" is not really typical of the range of cruises offered by RC. No repetitive 7-nighters, but mostly 9- and 12-night cruises south, north, and Bermuda. B2Bs are not uncommon, and there are a few who stay aboard for up to three months at a time, enjoying all the diversity of ports and weather. There are always some pax from west coast, Canada, and Great Britain.

[SRF]

18 minutes ago, wrp96 said:

You might consider taking the train to the cruise so you don't have to change your return flight to Norfolk and can avoid a 4+ hour drive home.

I will have to look into the train to get there.

 

Looks like would have to travel the day before, so an extra hotel night.

 

Thanks for the idea

Edited March 27 by SRF

[smokeybandit]

Southwest flies Norfolk to Baltimore, so that'd be an option, too.

[RFerrington]

2 hours ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

 

@Jimbo,

 

While you only see a pig with lipstick, I see a magic animal full of bacon, chops, ribs, loins, belly, butt, fillet, spare ribs, ham, baby back ribs, and hock.

 

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

 

😉

OMG this one made me laugh out loud.  Too cute

[RFerrington]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

I still think that’s a small % of Baltimore cruisers for most sailings.

Agree.  Baltimore is to the mid-Atlantic as Galveston is to the mid-Central South.  Sure, there are fly-in cruisers, but the majority of cruisers drive to both Baltimore and Galveston.

Edited March 27 by RFerrington

[SRF]

17 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Southwest flies Norfolk to Baltimore, so that'd be an option, too.

Have a heart.  I am already cruising on Carnival and you want me to fly SouthWest ALSO????

 

The horror........  😄

[smokeybandit]

1 minute ago, SRF said:

Have a heart.  I am already cruising on Carnival and you want me to fly SouthWest ALSO????

 

The horror........  😄

Still a heck of a lot better option than Spirit!