Blog Success – Ship Not So Much

Once again my blog seems to be working as it should.  The stress was not needed as this is Supposed to be a relaxing, no ports-of-call, trip.  Which it is and will likely continue to be.  However…the Ship’s Captain may have a slightly different view on the matter.

When we first booked this trip the idea was we would leave Vancouver around 5 PM on Saturday (today) and arrive in L.A. around 6 AM on Tuesday.  Great.  We booked our flight to Vancouver with an arrival time of 11 AM.  That would give us ample time to get to the ship.  With a little luck, our preferential status would afford us a faster boarding time.  (If I’m being totally upfront, our ‘preferential status’ is enjoyed by a LOT of people on this cruise, so the term ‘preferential’ might be a tad generous.)

Two weeks ago we received a letter advising us that “due to newly updated speed restrictions to safeguard the marine life in the area, we must allow more time for the passage to Los Angeles from Vancouver”.  This now means we leave Vancouver at 3:30 PM (earlier) and arrive in L.A. at 8:30 AM (later).  Hmmm…well now…that might put a bit of a dent in our projected arrival time in L.A. to pick up our rental car which we had scheduled for 9 AM.  Ok…fine…no big deal.  We’ll contact them (email should work) and advise them we’re going to be late.

Our flight arrival time had no impact on us.  However there were a LOT of other people that had their times moved up considerably.  Guess what that did to our ‘faster boarding time’ idea.  Now we’re in line with WAY more people than we had thought would be here.  Couple that with the fact there are 2 other cruise ships in the Vancouver port also boarding passengers.  At some points, lava would move faster than we did.

However, once again, no big deal right?  We’re getting on a cruise ship with NOTHING but R & R ahead of us for the next 3 days.  Living with a little inconvenience is acceptable.

Fast forward a little more through the day.  Wait…what time is it?  It’s 3:30 and muster should be almost over never mind that it has not yet started.  (Muster is like listening to the flight crew telling you about buckling up for safety and how to put on your oxygen mask except geared for life jackets and life boats – unavoidable and boring yet mandatory before departure.)

Now it’s 4 PM…muster has began and over in about 20 minutes…ish.  But we’re still not moving.  Ah…now the captain is on the intercom.

To paraphrase a lot, the gist of the problem is the oil tanker that had been loading the ship with oil, managed to accidentally spill enough oil into the water to cause concern.  As it was right beside the ship when it was doing so, not only does the water have to be cleaned up, but the ship’s hull does as well.  The oil has contaminated it sufficiently that the Canadian Transportation Agency will not allow the ship to leave until and unless it is cleaned properly.

Now we’re sitting down for supper (joined by another 2 couples who turn out to be welcome conversationalists) and it’s closing in on 6 PM.  Nope…we haven’t left yet.  Once more the Captain comes over the intercom to tell us that yes, the hull and the water have been cleaned and the ship cleared for departure.  However…there is a very small window of time when the water levels in the port area are low enough for the ship to get under the Lion’s Gate Bridge.  We’ve managed to Miss that window.  Now we won’t be leaving port until about 9:30 PM (which is right now as I’m typing this).

Guess what impact this now has on our L.A. arrival time.  You’re guess of ‘it makes it a lot later’ is correct.  We just won’t know HOW late until some time tomorrow.

And you wanna know something else?

I just don’t care. 🙂  I’m not driving this rig,  I have no commitments on board yet I get to enjoy it a little longer.  I see no problem from my perspective.

Now…back to what the Captain might be feeling…