A case of bad fog wreaked havoc with cruise ship operations on the west coast of Florida.
Heavy winter fog enveloped Tampa Bay on Saturday morning, forcing the closure of Port of Tampa Bay. This delayed docking of three of Royal Caribbean’s ships:
- Rhapsody of the Seas
- Enchantment of the Seas
- Grandeur of the Seas
The problem was the fog was too dense for safe navigation and thus that delayed each ship's arrival by at least eight hours.
The delay impacted both the sailings wrapping up and the next set of sailings scheduled to begin on Saturday.
Delayed ships
All three of the delayed ships are among the oldest in Royal Caribbean's fleet.
Rhapsody of the Seas, Enchantment of the Seas, and Grandeur of the Seas are all Vision Class ships. Each is between roughly 73,800 and 82,900 gross tons, and they entered service in the mid to late 1990s.
- Rhapsody of the Seas: Returning from a 7-night Western Caribbean cruise, the ship was scheduled to begin a new 7-night voyage with calls to Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Belize.
- Enchantment of the Seas: Returning from a 5-night cruise with two Mexican ports, slated for another 5-night sailing visiting Costa Maya and Cozumel.
- Grandeur of the Seas: Returning from a 7-night cruise and schedule for another week-long journey calling Cozumel, Belize, Roatán, and Costa Maya.
For all three ships, instead of arriving in the early morning as planned, docking and disembarkation had to be delayed until late afternoon or early evening.
For example, guests on Rhapsody of the Seas who originally had appointments to arrive at the terminal around 11:00 a.m. were notified they should now arrive around 7:00 p.m., with the latest arrival pushed to 9:30 p.m.
The impact was quite large considering people on the ship waiting to disembark and people waiting for the new sailing were impacted.
According to a statement shared by Port of Tampa Bay, "All Cruise Ships are delayed from entering port today due to fog in the bay."
Guests on Rhapsody of the Seas received an email from the cruise line informing them of the delay:
"Due to dense fog earlier today, our ship was delayed returning to Port Tampa Bay. As a result, the terminal will not be open for embarkation, and we will need to push back our boarding."
Similar notifications were sent to guests on the other two ships.
Later, Rhapsody of the Seas was given permission to enter the bay first.
Fog is a long running seasonal problem in Tampa
If you've sailed from Tampa in the past, you may have heard of fog delays there.
Port of Tampa Bay is located at the northern end of the bay, about 30 miles from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and close to 40 miles from the bay’s mouth.
Even in good weather, it takes 2.5–3 hours for a cruise ship to transit from open waters to the terminal.
When fog is dense, the port typically shuts down entirely until it's safe to resume operations. That means all marine traffic, including cruise ships and cargo vessels, are halted until visibility improves enough to ensure safe passage.
On Saturday, that meant all three Royal Caribbean ships were stuck outside the bay until the afternoon.
Ships stuck waiting to enter the bay then run into a domino delay effect. When multiple ships are waiting to dock, it takes time not only to get each vessel in, but also to secure pilots, coordinate tugs, and ensure safe passage for all.
The winter cruise season brings more ships than normal to Tampa, and turnaround day with three ships in port pile onto the delays.
