Why is P&O using Container terminals?

[Witchymob]

Read in a cruise site review a grumble from passengers on Oriana's world cruise this year about docking in container ports at Singapore and Hong Kong and why that is when those ports have cruise terminals closer to the main centres. One reason given apparently in Singapore was that the Sentosa cable car was too low for Oriana to fit under. We were on Adonia in 2004 and were berthed at the cruise terminal and cable car was way above us, so not sure why Oriana won't fit under. Superstar Virgo was alongside us and she is just as big as Adonia, probably bigger than Oriana. We are going on Oriana in 2008 joining in Singapore and wonder if any of you knowledgeable cruisers out there know the real reason for this. Also read that the container terminals are difficult to get in and out of and don't allow taxis in making embarkation difficult!!

[Druke I]

A thought re Singapore.

 

We were there in Dec 07 on Oceania's Nautica - just one of five passenger ships in that day. We ended up at some out-of the way dock.

 

I'm guessing that Singapore, like San Francisco & Vancouver, can only handle a small number of ships at the Cruise Terminal, and the overflow goes elsewhere.

[daiB]

Witchymob;9859268]Read in a cruise site review a grumble from passengers on Oriana's world cruise this year about docking in container ports at Singapore and Hong Kong and why that is when those ports have cruise terminals closer to the main centres. One reason given apparently in Singapore was that the Sentosa cable car was too low for Oriana to fit under. We were on Adonia in 2004 and were berthed at the cruise terminal and cable car was way above us' date=' so not sure why Oriana won't fit under. Superstar Virgo was alongside us and she is just as big as Adonia , probably bigger than Oriana. We are going on Oriana in 2008 joining in Singapore and wonder if any of you knowledgeable cruisers out there know the real reason for this. Also read that the container terminals are difficult to get in and out of and don't allow taxis in making embarkation difficult!![/quote']

 

I do not know how much cruising you have done in Europe but it is my experience that it is quite common for cruise ships to be berthed amongst all the nice containers, I can think of Barcelona, Marseilles and Livorno , as just three.

 

Not all ports have nice cruise berths near to all amenities.

 

If you go to Edinburgh you get off the ship at South Queensferry .

 

Newcastle is having a nice cruise terminal built at North Shields only 8 mile away.

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

:cool:

Dai

[Elaine0138]

I would have been very disappointed if I had been sailing into Hong Kong and not docked at Ocean Terminal in Kowloon.

[Globaliser]

I would have been very disappointed if I had been sailing into Hong Kong and not docked at Ocean Terminal in Kowloon.

It happens quite a lot, particularly for the once-a-year ships. Ocean Terminal now has a lot of regular ships which are there week after week, and obviously have priority for the berths there.

[mancunian]

We have been lucky. Four times in Singapore and twice in Hong Kong and each time we have been at the cruise terminal. Just hazarding a guess but I wonder if it is an exercise in cost cutting - docking at the terminal will cost a lot more than at the container ports. I would have been very disappointed particularly at Hong Kong.