Jewel reverses out of the Port of Miami?

[pmanchuk]

Hmmm, saw something a bit interesting this afternoon... the Norwegian Jewel backing out of Miami?!

 

For those of you familiar with the port of Miami, usually the ships docked facing west, leave the dock, proceed west down the channel then turn around in the basin right next to downtown... and finally proceed back down the channel and out to the ocean... HOWEVER, this afternoon, the Jewel (as well as one of the Carnival ships) actually proceeded down the channel (eastward) in reverse! When the ships got in front of Miami Beach Marina and Fisher Island, they then turned and finally proceeded out to the ocean.

 

I've lived in my condo 3 years now overlooking the port and I've never seen this before... anyone have any idea why they did this today?

[Glenn925]

I was on the Jewel this morning (vacation ended). They are going to start doing that because like a car, when they go in reverse, the hour meter goes backwards! They are doing that with all their fleet to lower the hours on the engines. Sort of a legal way to "turn back the clock"!

 

Glenn

[Glenn925]

gotcha!!!! LoL

[rcicruiser]

I saw them do that a few weeks ago, the NCL ship was backing up as the Freedom of the Seas was coming up on them.

 

Why are they doing this? Who knows. I thought that was interesting when I saw that.

[shoreguy]

I saw them do that a few weeks ago, the NCL ship was backing up as the Freedom of the Seas was coming up on them.

 

Why are they doing this? Who knows. I thought that was interesting when I saw that.

 

Maybe there is not enough room to get by that beast :D :D :D

[MrPete]

I was surprised when we were on the Explorer of the Seas out of Bayonne, upon our return, we backed from New York harbor right into the channel, and right up to the pier.

 

I guess these mammoths can do anything now!

[Zimomiller]

We were on the Jewel the week of 2/25 and they did the same thing.

Pretty cool because we had aft balcony cabins and it sure did give us a front row seat on departure!

 

It is obviously a time saving move as they save a half an hour by not traveling down to the west end of the port, turning and then traveling back the way they came.

[pmanchuk]

Hey, at least they made the turn before backing out the whole way into the ocean... that would have been interesting.

 

For a second I was wondering if it was a new ingenious way to not cancel a cruise when the propulsion pods get stuck in the wrong direction.

 

OR maybe it's a new spin on Freestyle Cruising... they take a vote from guests on the pool deck before leaving the dock to decide which end will be the bow this week!

[CamilleandNick]

The captain spoke to us about this in our meet and greet. It is an amazing feature to be able to do such.

 

When we docked in Miami on 3/18, I was quite confused by what I saw on our inroom television as to our view from the bridge. Or was the Captain playing a trick on us all? Not sure.

 

But we did notice the backing out thing and turn around....quite cool. Poor little tugs are going to go out of business.......:(

[Cruise_More_Often]

The same thing happened on our 2/10/07 Star cruise out of LA. There were three ships in port and not enough room to turn around. It's a pretty interesting way to start a cruise.

[calmac]

On our Eastern Caribbean cruise last Easter on the Dawn the captain said that they could either dock bow first or "reverse" in. They liked to vary which way they faced so maybe they've just become bored sailing out in a forward gear :D:D