Oosterdam repair saga continues

[Grumpy1]

HUM, it is the port azipod, but the starboard side is reporting the vibration?

Yes. The 'Pod om the port side is dead, so no vibration there. The one on Starboard side is running faster than normal since it has to provide all of the power. The harder the pod works the more it vibrates.

[constructiondude]

I'm tired of all these "what ifs" as I know everyone else is. My cruise is Jan. 6th and the ship is nowhere near sold out. As I said earlier, I don't mind rescheduling, I just wish they'd make a decision already!! I'm almost ready to cancel altogether and book on the Zuiderdam that has a sailing on the same day.

 

I've heard of other lines issuing full refunds plus a free cruise, but I have read of HAL only offering full refunds plus a percentage off on a future cruise, does anyone know what we could expect?

[barbon2]

As for a free cruise, not always a bargin for the people who were cancelled. As another poster stated, vacations have to be planned, work schedules changed, etc. etc. In our case we have tickets out to San Diego 2 days ahead of the cruise, booked on our own, which we would have to pay a fee to change dates unless the cruiseline would make that offer. HOWEVER, with 2 weeks to go, if HAL cancels at this late date knowing they had a problem, free cruise or not, I would take my refund and book another line at another date. I would feel as though HAL not only ruined my vacation, but it could be months until I could arrange to go again. IF they KNOW that a problem exists and cancel last minute, it shows that they do not hold consumer relations as a priority and that in itself would prevent me from booking with the line again. If as another poster stated, they pull a cruise several months in advance that would give people a little larger timeframe to select another cruise or even another line on the same date. At this late time, all other cruises out of San Diego that weekend would be pretty well booked up and it would be too late to change air (most likely) from a day or two earlier or later. As the other poster stated, HAL should make some type of announcement as to when it expects to have this problem repaired or if they are going to drydock. Again, I really would not be upset if I lost an hour or two in a port, but at this late date would be VERY upset if the cruise was cancelled. With the inquiries made to HAL, why don't they just sent a memo to the travel agencies for the pax who are booked within the next several weeks, explaining their intentions instead of the run around everyone seems to be getting.

Barbara

[constructiondude]

I'm definitely in your corner Barbon. The only reason why I don't mind rescheduling is because I don't have a lot of work lined up in January; spring/summer would be a whole different ballgame.

 

I have also thought about flying into SD a day or two early but have hesitated because of this.

 

I don't mind shortened port times or even vibrations.

 

I thought I read in another forum that when a cruiseline has problems with a ship and has to cancel cruises, their stock prices can fall; could this be the reason behind all the secrecy and pretending its business as usual?

[SueOverend]

It would be a disaster for us if they cancelled the Jan 6th sailing - we're flying from the UK with BA in First Class using mileage reward tickets. We would not be able to reschedule, unless HAL would reimburse us around $12,000 each to buy tickets for another date! I guess if they cancel us we'll have to look at a trip by plane to Mexico or Hawaii or something. It's a complex trip for us that we've had booked for a year - we're away three weeks, seeing friends in LA, skiing for 5 days in Mammoth (if it snows) and then after the cruise, driving up the Big Sur to San Francisco. The cruise is the relaxing bit and the highlight of our trip. We've got 8 different hotel reservations, 2 car rental reservations as well as tickets for Alcatraz etc. Would be a nightmare to cancel and unfortunately very difficult to rearrange due to poor availability with reward flights on British Airways.

 

Let's all hope that nobody is disappointed and that they can come up with a solution that works quickly and takes away all this anxiety which I know we are all feeling. This should be a time of anticipation and excitement.

[Atomica]

I have a co-worker on the Jan 6th sailing and I know that he is concerned as well that his sailing might be 'the one'.

 

However, until we hear it from HAL, it could be any date between now and April 21st. I would guess it's probably later rather than sooner, as they probably don't have these parts just lying around in a warehouse somewhere.

[constructiondude]

I have to agree. Somebody said earlier that drydock time needs to be scheduled with shipyards well in advance, although Celebrity didn't seem to have any problem getting in on short notice.

 

They might not need a full week and only need to drydock for a day or two. I'd be willing to sacrifice one day of my cruise with a generous shipboard credit. And by generous I mean a lot more than the $25 they are offering for the shortened port times. If I divid the total amount of the cruise by 7 days I get a little over 200 bucks--that is what they'd owe me for chopping off a day.

 

She arrives in SD in just a few hours so lets keep our fingers crossed.

[Vic The Parrot]

Spare parts? Drydock repairs?

 

 

It sounds more serious than a propeller problem.

Unless there's more to the story.

 

I'll try to catch up thru the other posts.

[jellens]

We, too, have FF mile tickets and free hotel stay points and will be traveling into SD early as well. I just don't like the fact that this that is totally out of our control. We are all such planners as evident by our frequent monitoring of this board. Wonder why we have not heard any more from people on board this week??? What about Mr. Deering that others speak so fondly of on these boards??? I read the letter text about shipboard credit, but is this per cabin or per person?? Yeah, I agree, $25 is a measly amount as we are in a suite. My engineer husband said the type of problem on the Celebrity ship is different as it is newer type of propulsion system than that on the Oosterdam. Who knows?? Guess there will be a new set of people on board today that will be hit with the 'news'. Our turn comes on Dec. 2nd.

[CruisinNana]

I read the letter text about shipboard credit, but is this per cabin or per person??

It is $25 per person.

[mapman_2004]

FYI, just saw this little barge thingee being pulled up to the ship. Is it a fuel thingee or a fixee the ship thingee?

[azsunshine]

Hard to tell what that is, but last week when they put the prop back on there was a crane, can you see one of those? I was just wondering if they were taking it off again. Last week they were on the other side of the pier though. Are you going down there today to check it out?

[mapman_2004]

Hard to tell what that is, but last week when they put the prop back on there was a crane, can you see one of those? I was just wondering if they were taking it off again. Last week they were on the other side of the pier though. Are you going down there today to check it out?

 

Yep, heading down in a couple of hours, report back in afew hours...

[Grumpy1]

When they removed the prop and when they reinstalled the prop the ship was on the opposite side of the dock where there is room for a crane. the only way they could do anything where it is docked today would be with a floating barge crane. That suggests to me that they think there is still a chance of getting the pod at least somewhat operational, otherwise, they would pull the prop again to reduce the drag. Another possibility is that drag wasn't the concern, but they removed the prop to keep the armature from turning while people were working on the windings down inside the pod. If that is the case, and there is nothing more they can do inside the pod while in motion, there wouldn't be a need to remove the prop again.

 

What I found curious was the statement made earlier about the heavy vibration on starboard side that occured when they were trying to get up to 21 knots. That would seem to be a pretty tough feat for one pod, and all other reports reported that they have been operating more in the 18-19 knot range. Perhaps the Coast Guard wanted to know the maximum they could do in an emergency or something like that.

[Tinknock50]

I don't see any crane thingee now.......but it could be out of sight from this camera angle.

 

My speculation on this matter is that the ship will continue to do its season on one pod until time to reposition for the summer season.

If the props are taken off today, that would seem to confirm this.

 

I noticed that the repo cruise on April 28th is not book-able (could also be full?) in addition to the April 21 as previously mentioned.

April 14th has lots of availibility, so it somewhat indicates the April 21st cruise will be cancelled.......unless HAL determines that work can be done in conjunction with the 4 day repo cruise....if thats enough time to replace

the pod and still make it to Vancouver.

 

My guess is that HAL at some point will try to move people to the April 14th sailing from the 21st sailing because there are many open cabins.

 

If all my speculation is right, none of us on upcoming sailings will miss our cruise....just have shortened port times.

 

I would advise anyone booked on the April 21st sailing to do all they can to switch to another date now to save disappointment later.

[hawgwildterry]

Brain,

Give it a good look and be prepared for the 'Company Line' unless you are able to actually get a crew member to tell the truth.

Terry

[bepsf]

The issue with the pod is not one which is recurring (like the X pods) so the manufacturer does not have spare parts readily available to make the switch - this is the major reason HAL can't just pull the ship from the water and do the work necessary (discussed at length here some weeks ago...)

 

Mr Deering is not HAL PR and is not allowed to post here in his capacity as a HAL employee.* He is however a very conciencious Hotel Manager and (like many other HAL employees) does read the threads here to get a feel for what passengers are saying about the ships and service.

 

Other HAL employees do post here from time to time, but they do so:

A) not as a HAL employee, and*

B) never addressing corporate policy issues.

 

 

 

IMO, if folks are that concerned about their cruises being cancelled or cut short - why not look into changing reservations for Ryndam?

[senator6]

We are also on the December 2nd cruise, so we are in hopes that it gets fixed, we bought cruise cancellation insurance so we are not very worried about that. What ever happens we will be fine, I can understand that they tried to fix it and that did not work. I don't think it is asking too much for HAL to at least let those of us who are booked on Oosterdam cruises what their plans are if they are unable to fix the problem.

 

We have been on several HAL cruises (20+) and in the past we have been notified well in advance of changes in port schedules.

[Atomica]

The issue with the pod is not one which is recurring (like the X pods) so the manufacturer does not have spare parts readily available to make the switch - this is the major reason HAL can't just pull the ship from the water and do the work necessary (discussed at length here some weeks ago...)

 

Mr Deering is not HAL PR and is not allowed to post here in his capacity as a HAL employee.* He is however a very conciencious Hotel Manager and (like many other HAL employees) does read the threads here to get a feel for what passengers are saying about the ships and service.

 

Other HAL employees do post here from time to time, but they do so:

A) not as a HAL employee, and*

B) never addressing corporate policy issues.

 

 

 

IMO, if folks are that concerned about their cruises being cancelled or cut short - why not look into changing reservations for Ryndam?

 

Very well said, Brian.

[SanDiego Single]

I can go down and take pictures of the other side of the ship since we can't see whats going on. Would anyone like this?

[azsunshine]

Yes, Sandiego single, I would appreciate that. We leave one week from today and I am really curious about what is going on, if anything. I would be surprised if they weren't working on some sort of repair.

[Copper10-8]

The issue with the pod is not one which is recurring (like the X pods) so the manufacturer does not have spare parts readily available to make the switch - this is the major reason HAL can't just pull the ship from the water and do the work necessary (discussed at length here some weeks ago...)

 

Mr Deering is not HAL PR and is not allowed to post here in his capacity as a HAL employee.* He is however a very conciencious Hotel Manager and (like many other HAL employees) does read the threads here to get a feel for what passengers are saying about the ships and service.

 

Other HAL employees do post here from time to time, but they do so:

A) not as a HAL employee, and*

B) never addressing corporate policy issues.

 

 

 

IMO, if folks are that concerned about their cruises being cancelled or cut short - why not look into changing reservations for Ryndam?

 

Great post Brian!

[Tinknock50]

Yes SanDiegosingle,

I'd like to see that too.:)

[LoboJ]

Hi everyone-

I was down there this morning after a run. Pretty morning!

I took a couple of snaps with my Camera Phone. Not super great quality, but you may be able to see things a little bit. It did look like a crane kind of, but it was more forward in the ship that I would have guessed if they were trying to remove the prop.

 

I didn't talk to any crew but I did talk to one passenger who said he had just disembarked, and I asked if he heard anything about the issues with the prop/azipod. He was like, "huh?" Wasn't aware of it at all... hehe. I guess that's a good sign in a way.

 

I'll attach the shots below. The tree sculpture in that one shot was made by a good friend of mine- local artist here in San Diego.

 

Can't wait to sail in a few weeks....

 

Cheers,

LoboJ

[CruisinNana]

Hi everyone-

I was down there this morning after a run. Pretty morning!

I took a couple of snaps with my Camera Phone. Not super great quality, but you may be able to see things a little bit. It did look like a crane kind of, but it was more forward in the ship that I would have guessed if they were trying to remove the prop.

 

I didn't talk to any crew but I did talk to one passenger who said he had just disembarked, and I asked if he heard anything about the issues with the prop/azipod. He was like, "huh?" Wasn't aware of it at all... hehe. I guess that's a good sign in a way.

 

I'll attach the shots below. The tree sculpture in that one shot was made by a good friend of mine- local artist here in San Diego.

 

Can't wait to sail in a few weeks....

 

Cheers,

LoboJ

 

Thanks, LoboJ. Beautiful sculpture! I'll look for it when I am there.