Vision moving to Norfolk?

[ColdCruise]

The offer from Royal seems very fair to me. We have a very tragic and difficult situation in Baltimore as a result of a shipping ACCIDENT that is unrelated to any of the cruise companies that sail out of Baltimore. They’ve had to make pretty significant changes that are probably incurring extra costs.
 

I just hope the federal, state & local governments involved can coordinate and quickly (relatively) clear the shipping channel without using this disaster as a way to score political points (in a major election year) OR pad the figures with unrelated pet projects which would add to costs the recover and rebuild. I have several coworkers who used that bridge to commute and their drives are way more complicated as a result of the bridge collapse. The government in Maryland is claiming 14,000 people’s livelihoods are affected or will be by the port closure. Plus there’s the 6 people who lost their lives, their families’ suffering to consider. 

[ONECRUISER]

9 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

yes I saw thst but that should should cover the missed port not yhe fact yhe cruise was shortened. 

In 2022 I had 3 Cruises loose a day, no prorate or OBC, but at least we had option to cancel 

[ONECRUISER]

4 hours ago, ColdCruise said:

The offer from Royal seems very fair to me. We have a very tragic and difficult situation in Baltimore as a result of a shipping ACCIDENT that is unrelated to any of the cruise companies that sail out of Baltimore. They’ve had to make pretty significant changes that are probably incurring extra costs.
 

I just hope the federal, state & local governments involved can coordinate and quickly (relatively) clear the shipping channel without using this disaster as a way to score political points (in a major election year) OR pad the figures with unrelated pet projects which would add to costs the recover and rebuild. I have several coworkers who used that bridge to commute and their drives are way more complicated as a result of the bridge collapse. The government in Maryland is claiming 14,000 people’s livelihoods are affected or will be by the port closure. Plus there’s the 6 people who lost their lives, their families’ suffering to consider. 

Clearing Bridge wont take too long, rebuild will. 

[BND]

8 hours ago, TPKeller said:

 

I think I found the actual reason.  The City of Norfolk is hosting a two-hour long parade, starting at 10AM, that walks right by the cruise terminal!  No possible way to turn around 5,000 passengers in the middle of all that!!  😄

Theron

Well, there won't be 5000 passengers to "turn around" but a parade like that would be an issue.  Vision is leaving for drydock from there. There is no cruise booked until the end of May after our 12-19 April one.  There will be somewhere around 2,000 cruise passengers debarking, depending on how many cancel. I've seen a few posts of people who already have cancelled.

Edited March 29 by BND

[renostyle]

Local Norfolk news is now reporting:   https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/norfolk/royal-caribbean-temporarily-moving-baltimore-operations-to-norfolk/

[zebra36]

13 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

Come on, ya gotta cruise while ya can!! Eat cruise and be merry! Life’s short!

Reassessing options. Looking into flying down using Southwest points on an early morning flight the day of out of BWI. If flight goes south(problem) I will be no worse off than just canceling or being a no show. Definitely do not want to drive down even a day early and try to find a hotel with parking for the length of the cruise. Hope to see you on board.

PS for me it is usually eat, drink(in moderation) and be merry!

[toad455]

Curious to see if any of these Norfolk sailings will become available for sale. Either on the Vision or either Carnival ship.

[smokeybandit]

2 minutes ago, toad455 said:

Curious to see if any of these Norfolk sailings will become available for sale. Either on the Vision or either Carnival ship.

If you can find your way to "MIssing Port Content" then you can.

[TPKeller]

1 hour ago, BND said:

Well, there won't be 5000 passengers to "turn around" but a parade like that would be an issue.  Vision is leaving for drydock from there. There is no cruise booked until the end of May after our 12-19 April one.  There will be somewhere around 2,000 cruise passengers debarking, depending on how many cancel. I've seen a few posts of people who already have cancelled.

 

Ah yeah I forgot about the "nobody boarding" after that one!  🙂

 

Theron

[GimmeOcean]

"MISSING PORT CONTENT" is my favorite port! 

[Engineroom Snipe]

39 minutes ago, GimmeOcean said:

"MISSING PORT CONTENT" is my favorite port! 

Gives Royal quite a bit of leeway to have you start anywhere and end anywhere.

 

😮

[BND]

3 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

Gives Royal quite a bit of leeway to have you start anywhere and end anywhere.

 

😮

Well, since they have no idea when the port of Baltimore will be open to them, what are they supposed to put there?  I've seen posts by people who obviously have zero idea about how long it will take to do underwater demo, move all the debris, redredge and then inspect and reopen the channel.  

[GimmeOcean]

1 minute ago, BND said:

Well, since they have no idea when the port of Baltimore will be open to them, what are they supposed to put there?

I think it's just an IT issue in that they don't have information in their database for Norfolk. Probably be remedied soon.

[clochette]

One more reason I am not a gambler I loose every bet, I would certainly have bet that Vision would sail out of Cape Liberty/Bayonne as Royal has all of the infrastructure in place there.

[BND]

3 minutes ago, clochette said:

One more reason I am not a gambler I loose every bet, I would certainly have bet that Vision would sail out of Cape Liberty/Bayonne as Royal has all of the infrastructure in place there.

Us too.  We even made a hotel reservation a couple of days ago in Elizabeth just in case.  Cancelled now of course.

[Engineroom Snipe]

5 minutes ago, clochette said:

One more reason I am not a gambler I loose every bet, I would certainly have bet that Vision would sail out of Cape Liberty/Bayonne as Royal has all of the infrastructure in place there.

I might be losing my house on one bet here and I would have lost my vacation house on this one.

 

I am with you.

 

I think the biggest difference was the fuel savings first and time second.

 

They have enough supplies on board to get them to Port Canaveral where they will load up.

[KmomChicago]

1 hour ago, zebra36 said:

Reassessing options. Looking into flying down using Southwest points on an early morning flight the day of out of BWI. If flight goes south(problem) I will be no worse off than just canceling or being a no show. Definitely do not want to drive down even a day early and try to find a hotel with parking for the length of the cruise. Hope to see you on board.

PS for me it is usually eat, drink(in moderation) and be merry!

Are they allowing cancellation with full refunds? I am not on this cruise so I am just a cheerleader on the sidelines. 
 

Others have mentioned Amtrak as an option to avoid flying or driving. 

 

I would just hope folks who have been looking forward to a cruise get to still make it happen but obviously an individual decision.

[KmomChicago]

25 minutes ago, GimmeOcean said:

I think it's just an IT issue in that they don't have information in their database for Norfolk. Probably be remedied soon.

No doubt correct but all our foolishness in speculating is much more fun. Like the Priceline model of cruises. Put in a bid for a nonspecific mid-Atlantic debark location and take what you get. 
 

I know, don’t give them ideas!

[KmomChicago]

18 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

I might be losing my house on one bet here and I would have lost my vacation house on this one.

 

I am with you.

 

I think the biggest difference was the fuel savings first and time second.

 

They have enough supplies on board to get them to Port Canaveral where they will load up.

Sooooo where are you? Emotionally I mean? Going through the stages of grief for your Baltimore departure, which is dead. Adjusting to a new option which is alive and in front of you. 
 

Is the glass half empty or full, and is it filling up for the better with the promise of a cruise still happening for you?

 

For me, once I am in launch mode, roughly 2 weeks prior, the thought of missing a vacation is far worse than the thought of unplanned adjustments.

[Starry Eyes]

18 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

I might be losing my house on one bet here and I would have lost my vacation house on this one.

 

I am with you.

 

I think the biggest difference was the fuel savings first and time second.

 

They have enough supplies on board to get them to Port Canaveral where they will load up.

Yes, the fuel saving of Norfolk vs Bayonne should be significant.  It is also possible that Norfolk was more helpful and accommodating (perhaps hoping to attract future cruise ship home ports) compared to Bayonne.  Royal might have gotten feedback or looked at bookings to determine many of the Baltimore passengers would have been arriving from the south or west vs north in deciding whether Norfolk or Bayonne was a better substitute for more people .

[BND]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

Are they allowing cancellation with full refunds? I am not on this cruise so I am just a cheerleader on the sidelines. 
 

Others have mentioned Amtrak as an option to avoid flying or driving. 

 

I would just hope folks who have been looking forward to a cruise get to still make it happen but obviously an individual decision.

People on FB roll calls are reporting calling and cancelling and being given full refunds.  We like Amtrak for Bayonne, but it doesn't work as well for Norfolk (requires a bus transfer in Newport News).  With my mom living down in NN/Yorktown area, we drive down there every few weeks anyway.  I've done it many times by myself as well as with DH.  

[Nadey]

There are four of us and we are still going. The reason we picked Baltimore it was because we could drive and two the group have never been on a cruise . We had a cruise scheduled to Bermuda for September 23 and they canceled that because of the hurricane so we scheduled this one to make up for it. It will take us eight hours now to drive instead of five but we are going. I was disappointed, mostly because I wanted to swim with the pigs in Nassau, I don't know why they skip Nassau and go to grand Bahama. Going out of New Jersey would have been closer for us but at least it wasn't canceled again. If that happened, we were not going to reschedule a cruise. This is for the April 12 cruise . We are driving down and staying overnight on Thursday.

Edited March 29 by Nadey

[firefly333]

11 hours ago, ColdCruise said:

They’ve had to make pretty significant changes that are probably incurring extra costs.
 

Ccl unfortunately had earnings before the bell yesterday am and ceo was interviewed on CNBC. He was asked about the impact and said he expects it to cost carnival $10m. I know work to norfolk terminal area and busing. 77 last  minute bus rentals?  For tomorrow. 

[LB_NJ]

Royal is still showing a cruise out of Baltimore at the end of May.

 

I think they are being a little optimistic. They really should warn people that they might be switched to another departure port.

[HBE4]

1 hour ago, clochette said:

One more reason I am not a gambler I loose every bet, I would certainly have bet that Vision would sail out of Cape Liberty/Bayonne as Royal has all of the infrastructure in place there.

 

I'm pretty sure everyone would have lost that bet too as it seemed like the obvious choice. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

I might be losing my house on one bet here and I would have lost my vacation house on this one.

I think the biggest difference was the fuel savings first and time second.

 

Good point, I didn't even think of fuel savings. I just assumed that since Norfolk dusted off their cruise terminal so quickly for Carnival that Royal just tagged along rather than trying to get Cape Liberty opened mid-week.  And perhaps shipping traffic? I read somewhere that even thought the Port of NY/NJ is maxed out, they are going to try to take on some the cargo traffic from Baltimore to alleviate the supply chain issues.  Just total guess on my part, I have zero knowledge of harbor management.