I thought it’d be a fun idea to start a new thread in MINI tracking since some of the info in the old one is fairly outdated. Do you all have any issue with my copying and pasting the relevant parts from the old thread but adding the new information that I discovered through this process?

I used Fleetmon to track my ship across the sea. They no longer offer a free trial on their website, unless you send them an email, which I did. I had to sign up for a free trial of their “unlimited sat 15 service” and as soon as I signed up I went into account settings and cancelled it. My trial is still good for 14 days. It is extremely important to cancel immediately because it is over $300 a month. Don’t forget to do this. (I’ll try to attach a video of this process if I can figure out how to get an mp4 converted on my phone.)

Next, you can actually stalk your MINI ship in the Port of Baltimore! I went to this website:
https://chart.maryland.gov/trafficcameras/index.php
And selected Baltimore as the region, then the I695 N or FSK bridge camera. I set up an alert on fleetmon so that I would get an alert when the ship changes “navigational status” I got an email. When the ship went from Moored at Baltimore to “Under Way” I got an email, and about 30

minutes later (may have been longer) she showed up under the bridge. Also, the ship actually moved once inside the port. She was on the west side first, then moved over to the east side (which is where the BMW processing center is.) That actually alerted me the night before and I spent about an hour stalking the traffic cams before I saw on fleetmon that it was actually not leaving port.

I did have to buy credits to get the email alerts. It was 12 euros for pretty much unlimited tracking emails. I had done this already when I saw there was no free trial on the website, before they responded to my email. It’s up to you whether it’s worth it to do the same.

My ship is now on the way to Brunswick, where my new MINI is supposed to unload. Fingers crossed for no delays! I’m super excited to get her here!

 

For those of us that have their cars delivered on the West Coast there are great cameras for the Panama Canal transit. I used MarineTraffic.com to track the ship once my MA got the name of it (Don Juan in this case). The ships "port" in Cristobal waiting for their scheduled transit which is listed on MarineTraffic.com. Then its just a matter of watching the maps and matching up the boats you see on the cameras with the boats you see on the maps to figure out which one is the ship that you're looking for.

Here's the Don Juan transiting the Canal with my MINI in July:

Gaten Locks on the Atlantic side

Miraflores Locks on the Pacific side

 

That’s awesome!

 

I know I can call Mini USA for status updates, but what's the best website for tracking build status before it gets on a boat? Mini Owners lounge only provides the VIN.

 

Unfortunately, I don’t know of any other way. The fun of ordering a mini is declined immensely. They used to send you a cool gift in the mail and have the owners lounge where you could track it. Instead of enhancing their services they have cut them. Seems foolish from a business perspective. It was part of the reason I was excited to do my first order for my third mini.