The Egypt crisis and the ongoing Cunard World Cruises

[Rob Lightbody]

The Egypt crisis must surely impact on the world cruises of the 3 Cunard ships unless a very swift resolution is now found.

Both Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth are due to go through the Suez Canal in a 2 day period in early April on their way home. If they have to go round by South Africa, they have a problem. It adds on thousands of miles. QE2 had to do this in 1991 when the first gulf war broke out, but her tremendous reserve of power & speed meant that she actually arrived back in Southampton on time. How I’d love to have been on that high speed run home!

I suspect QM2 could do it too, albeit at great expense (would she have enough fuel to run for many days at full speed?). But QE has very little speed reserve available and it is not clear what they’d do – they’d certainly need to plan well in advance to allow for enough time to get back in time. It must be a major headache for the planners.

There must be many other cruise ships with the same problem too.

[Louis De Sousa]

They do have a problem in case of the QE2 in 1991 the ship was in Bombay and course was sent to Mombassa this time round in case of QE and QM2 they have a call in Dubai after that is a long way to the next port if they go around South Africa.

The QM2 is in Mumbai on the 31st March maybe from here they head to Mombassa thus canceling Dubai, the same goes to QE which will be calling in Cochin on the 26th March and Mumbai on the 28th here maybe they cancel Mumbai and head from Cochin to Mombassa.

Louis

[Rob Lightbody]

Iranian ships in the canal today for first time in over 30 years...

[cunardqueen]

   It must be a major headache for the planners.

 

It would be interesting to hear how the planners actually plan out the various schedules for the cruises, and just how far in advance they are working.

[Janice Naylor]

After reading that Somalia pirates killed 4 Americans off the coast of Kenya today right in front of the US military ships that were following them, and being aware of the history of pirate attacks off Africa ... I am also concerned for the QE and QM2 if they are forced to go that route. 

[Rob Lightbody]

After reading that Somalia pirates killed 4 Americans off the coast of Kenya today right in front of the US military ships that were following them, and being aware of the history of pirate attacks off Africa ... I am also concerned for the QE and QM2 if they are forced to go that route. 

At least QM2 has the advantage of being able to crank it up to 30 knots if need be... which presumably makes it harder to be attacked.

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

After reading that Somalia pirates killed 4 Americans off the coast of Kenya today right in front of the US military ships that were following them, and being aware of the history of pirate attacks off Africa ... I am also concerned for the QE and QM2 if they are forced to go that route. 

This piracy is a very serious problem for Kenya, as many ships now avoid the port of Mombasa (a beautiful old city, and very attractive to tourists) and those which call (mostly cargo ships) have to contend with higher insurance rates. Kenya captured quite a few pirates and took them to court -- but sadly, the courts refused to judge them, saying they had no jurisdiction over crimes committed outside their territorial waters. The news report was very pessimistic, as this took away the only means Kenya thought it had of fighting them.

And many of the hostages held by the pirates are also Kenyans... sailors on the captured vessels.

[Michael Gallagher]

Myles - In response to your question. The 2012 programme was finalised late last year and the 2013 World Cruises are already finalised - just not released yet.