Visitors boarding Cunard’s Queen Victoria for the ship’s present cruise had no thought they’d be embarking on extra of a maritime journey than they bargained for.
In what can be one of the thrilling turns of occasions for any fan of cruise ships and engineering, at this time Queen Victoria entered an sudden two-day dry dock in Cadiz, Spain — with friends nonetheless on board.
The ship has been coping with points with one in all its Azipod blades which, in response to many friends over the course of a number of months, has been inflicting disrupting vibrations in direction of the aft.
Presently, Queen Victoria is on a 15-night Christmas and New 12 months’s Canary Islands cruise that departed on December twenty third from Southampton, England.
In a letter to friends on embarkation day, the ship’s captain Tomás Connery stated “Queen Victoria will likely be going right into a dry dock in Cadiz throughout your voyage. Which means sadly we will likely be cancelling the scheduled name in Lisbon on 4th January, and as a substitute you may be in port over two nights to discover the traditional Andalusian metropolis of Cadiz. We will be arriving there with time to go ashore in the course of the night of Monday 2nd January and departing on the morning of Wednesday 4th January.
While in dry dock, our service and actions will largely proceed as regular… There will even be complimentary common shuttle buses to and from the yard to town centre.”
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As a substitute of shortening the cruise and disembarking passengers previous to dry dock, they’ll be staying on board all through the entire course of the place shipyard staff will likely be changing the defective blade.
In one other letter, the captain gave extra particulars, explaining how friends would get ashore to discover Cadiz whereas the ship is on the shipyard. “All friends will likely be required to make use of the shuttle bus service between the ship and the port gate, no strolling via dry dock space is permitted,” the letter stated. “Visitors should keep inside the outlined foot path between the ship and the shuttle bus pickup.”
At 9 am on Wednesday, January 4th, all friends are required to be again on board Queen Victoria. Shortly after, the gangway will likely be eliminated and the dock flooding course of will start. The ship is scheduled to sail out of the dry dock between midday and a couple of pm, and is ready to reach again in Southampton on time on January seventh.
The letter concluded, “We thanks in your understanding as we supply out this important piece of upkeep, and hope that you just completely take pleasure in this as soon as in a lifetime alternative for many friends to admire Queen Victoria out of the water.”
Take a look at these photographs from earlier at this time because the dock was drained:
2023 off to a flyer in Cadiz #drydock #cruise #cruiselife #queenvictoria pic.twitter.com/UhlNJKMGM6
— 🏴Ginger Mountain Man🏴 (@B_ri_Laird) January 2, 2023
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