Showing posts with label Enchanted Princess. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Enchanted Princess. Show all posts

Monday, September 29, 2025

Four ship day, and Update

Today September 29, was a four cruise ship day in the Port of Halifax. This meant of course that one ship anchored and used its tenders to ferry passengers ashore to the Pier 24 landing stage, and back again. The "fourth man out" was the Azamara Quest which found its spot in the northeast end of number one anchorage - not far off the Irving and Esso oil docks.  The other three ships took up the customary berths at Piers 20 to 23. 

In the photo above, from left to right (north to south), the Viking Polaris has berth 23, the Enchanted Princess at Pier 22 and in the background the Silver Shadow at Pier 20 with the Azamara Quest partially blocking the view.


 From a different angle, the Silver Shadow (at right) has the refuse scow alongside (actually sectional pontoons made into a barge) with the tug Mighty Edge

I don't usually edit photos on this blog, except to crop and level the horizon, but this time I attempted to erase several container cranes that projected above the profile of the Azamara Quest. Some traces remain however. I opted to leave the foreground fence that divides the Imperial Oil (Esso) and Irving Oil terminals.

The Azamara Quest has a long history going back to 2000 when it was delivered by Chantier de l'Atlantique, Saint-Nazaire as the R-Seven. In 2003 it became the Delphin Renaissance and in 2006 the Blue Moon before taking its present name in 2007. The 30,277 gt ship can carry 686 passengers and 408 crew.

The Viking Polaris was built by Fincantieri in 2022, with the hull constructed in Romania and fitting out by VARD in Norway. The 30,150 gt ship can carry 378 passengers in 189 staterooms. There are 15 crew cabins for a maximum of 646 persons on board. The ship is returning from the Great Lakes.

I have made links to the Wikipedia entries for the other ships:

Silver Shadow ; Enchanted Princes ; and 

Update

In my June 6, 2025 post I showed the Auto Carrier Way Forward docked at Autoport, but I declined to wade through tall grass to get a clear photo. For its call today, I was able to get a better view because the grass seems to have died back due to our on going drought - or perhaps it has been trampled down by hoards of ship watchers. In any event the ship looks the same.

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Sunday, November 3, 2024

End of Season

 Today, November 3, 2024. marks the end of the cruise season for the Port of Halifax. Although I haven't seen the statistics, I suspect it has been another banner year. The last caller was the Insignia, one of the smaller ships, with a maximum passenger capacity of 824 (all berths) or 694 (lower berths only) and a crew of 400.

 

The Insignia was built in 1998 by Chantier l'Atlantique (Alsthom) in St-Nazaire and measures a modest 30,277 gt. Originally Renaissance Cruises' R-One it became Insignia in 2004, then sailed as Hapag's Columbus 2 from 2012 to 2014 when it reverted to Insignia for Oceania Cruises.

We have experienced a remarkably mild autumn this year, so it has been ideal weather for cruise ship passengers, and the autumn leacves have hung on much later than usual. Now with the return of Standard Time (and coincidentally cooler temperatures) it is once again the "Dark Ages" for late afternoon ship photos. Five p.m. photos will soon be imposssible.


Due to construction in the deep water terminals area of the port, there were days this season when there was no dock space for all the ships. One ship would then anchor and ferry passengers ashore using the ships' tenders. I think this may have been a bit of a plus, since berthing ships in the industrial areas of the port was not a very pleasant welcome for visitors.

The landing stage at Pier 24, comprised of several connected pontoons and a long gangway certainly had a makeshift air to it, but at least it meant that passengers were within safe walking distance of the cruise terminal. The pontoons were lifted ashore on October 31. (The Halifax-built mini cruise ship Pearl Mist was tied on at Pier 23, with the giant Enchanted Princess occupied Pier 22.)

 Apologia:

Some computer glitches have prevented me from making posts for the past several days. I hope to have the matter resolved soon.

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