Independence of the Seas Cruise 2011- Page 1: Southampton - Simplon Postcards

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	Independence of the Seas Cruise Royal Caribbean International (RCI) Page 7: La Coruña - Sunday 3rd April 2011 Sea Day - Monday 4th April 2011 Southampton - Tuesday 5th April 2011 Ship Name: Independence of the Seas - Ship Type: Passenger - Year Built: 2008 - Length x Breadth: 339m x 38m Dead Weight: 10600 t - Flag: Bahamas - Call Sign: C6WW4 - IMO: 9349681 - MMSI: 309374000 This page is under construction
	This page is one of a series showing mainly shipping and other transport images from an 11 night cruise on Independence of the Seas in March 2011 to Vigo, Lisbon and the Atlantic Isles. We travelled in balcony cabin 7548, Deck 7 on the port side, adjacent to the forward end of the Royal Promenade. This page covers the final port visit to La Corunna and the final sea day.

The tourist tramway in La Coruña is operated by Tranvia, as are the local buses and the metrotenerife. My previous visit to La Coruña was prior to the weekday operating season, as was this one, but luckily we were there on a Sunday. The official timetable showed services starting at 12:00 noon from the port (actually one stop away at Castelo de San Anton due to building works), as did the posters on the tram stops. However, no tram had appeared by the appointed time, by which point a substantial number of potential passengers had arrived. The first tram from the the other end of the route at Riazor was scheduled at 12:30, so we waited until that time before giving up and starting to walk along the tram route. We had walked around half the total route before tram 32 appeared, but we were not near any stops. We continued walking to the stop for the Torre de Hercules and waited for a further considerable time before the ram arrived, crammed to capacity with people from the ship. enough got off to allow us to board and we travelled most of the route around towards Riazor. The service was supposed to leaved hourly from each terminus, running just the one tram. In practice, the number of passengers and the time they took to clamber on and off, plus negotiate and pay the fares (clearly displayed at the stops) led to a round trip time of around 90 minutes. Given the presence of a ship with 4000 passengers, whose arrival had been publicised for well over a year, single tram service was not the best of plans. The Riazor terminus is at the far end of the Enseada do Orzan, the beautiful bay and beach looking out to the Atlantic. We walked further around the bay to the Millennium monument, then back to Riazor and around the bay hoping to photograph the tram again, but it did not arrive. We gave up and made our way into the city centre and then back to the ship. In July, August and September they run a three tram service with an interval of 20 minutes every day. Anyone visiting just for the tramway should ensure they visit during this period - the service whilst we were there would embarrass the smallest of haphazard preservation groups. That such a large transport company could not do better was ridiculous.

The system has been laid out at huge capital expense, with much landscaping and remodelling of the road system that it runs along. it is double track along the outside of a large dual carriageway around most of its route, then single track with one passing place around the Enseada do Orzan beach, running on its own right of way between the road and the promenade, Blackpool fashion. It is hard to see how even the summer peak service could ever pay back more than a fraction of the construction costs, given the small size and frequency of the vehicles used. I was not particularly surprised when operations were suspended in July 2012.

	Sections on this Page La Coruña Trams La Coruña La Coruña Navigation Lights La Coruña Tugs Independence of the Seas Other Shipping Ships on this Page:- Ibaizabal Dos - tug Ibaizabal Nueve - tug Ibaizabal Uno - tug Independence of the Seas Seacat Sertosa Veinticinco - tug Sertosa Veinticho - tug Sertosa Treinta y Dos - tug Cruise Itinerary:- Fri 25th March 2011 - Southampton Sat 26th March 2011 - At Sea Sun 27th March 2011 - Vigo, Spain Mon 28th March 2011 - Lisbon, Portugal Tue 29th March 2011 - At Sea Wed 30th March 2011 - Tenerife, Canary Islands Thu 31st March 2011 - Las Palmas, Gran Canaria Fri 1st April 2011 - Funchal, Madeira Sat 2nd April 2011 - At Sea Sun 3rd April 2011 - La Coruña, Spain Mon 4th April 2011 - At Sea Tue 5th April 2011 - Southampton Contacts Royal Caribbean UK Home Page - www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/ Celebrity Cruises UK Home Page - www.celebritycruises.co.uk	Associated Pages Cruise Ships Ocean Liners UK Excursion Vessels World Ferry Fleets Simplon Postcards. Home Page Simplon Postcards - Recent Updates - Simplon Postcards facebook page Royal Caribbean Pages:- Royal Caribbean Cruises Page 1 Royal Caribbean Cruises Page 2 Celebrity Cruises Pages:- Celebrity Cruises - Header Page Celebrity Constellation Celebrity Constellation 2007 Cruise Celebrity Eclipse Celebrity Eclipse 2010 Cruise Celebrity Equinox Celebrity Infinity Celebrity Solstice References Click on images for more details - www.overviewpress.co.uk - info@overviewpress.co.uk
Other Independence of the Seas Cruise Pages:- Southampton - sea day 1 - Vigo - Lisbon - sea day 2 - Tenerife - Gran Canaria - Madeira - sea day 3 - La Coruña - sea day 4 - Southampton - Search the Simplon Website