mo&fran

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

 

I don't know who this blogger is, or what his maritime experience is, but it has some errors in his analysis.

 

The most glaring error is when he says that the black smoke coming from the ship indicates an "engine problem".  This is not correct.  The type of diesel engines used on ships like this, are connected directly to the propeller, and are required to stop whenever the propeller is needed to be stopped, or reversed.  Therefore, the engine needs to stop and restart when going from ahead to astern, and this always results in a cloud of black smoke when the engine starts.  Also, if the engine is immediately placed to a "full astern" bell, the black smoke will continue until the turbocharger catches up with the air needed by the engine at that high load.  And, the engine that drives the propeller is not the engine that provides electricity to the ship, so when the generator engine failed, causing the black out, the "main engine" that drives the propeller stops as well, so when power comes back on, it restarts, causing the black smoke again.

 

He also claims that by backing down (going stern to stop the ship), the ship will veer to one side or another (and this is correct), but that if they continued to allow the ship to glide forward without propulsion, that they would have had "some control".  This is also not correct.  A traditional rudder loses effectiveness when the speed of the ship through the water is less than 5 knots (that's why ships use thrusters to swing ships at the dock, and tugs to push the ship when operating at low speed along the dock).  So, there would have been almost no benefit from the rudder when coasting forward.

 

Steering would also not be lost when the power went out.  One of the two electro-hydraulic steering systems is powered by the emergency generator (which comes on automatically when the ship loses power), and when in confined waters (under a pilot's orders), this is the steering system that would have been in use, just because this could have happened.

 

I can't remember other things he said, but it may come to me later.

I was surprised that the tugs didn't continue to accompany the ship, at least to get the ship past the bridge.

22 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I saw on the news that the ship lost propulsion. You could see in the video how the ship started to kick to the port side kicking the aft starboard side into the bridge.

2 minutes ago, Cru1s1ng2009 said:

 

I dont, sorry. will see if i can get info. 

Click on the upper left hand corner of the video and it takes you to his youtube account. I think it is like a chengkp75 type person on youtube.

There is some good youtube videos on a thread on the RCCL board.

I just realized, this must be the I95 bypass around Baltimore we all use when driving back and forth from Florida to the north.

20 minutes ago, Neosophy said:

I know the math.

And I get the value of being able to try things and if you dont like it, you don't feel forced to finish it.

But if you have the drink package, is service any different? Is it faster/easier to get service? Do waiter tend to serve those without faster than those with?

 

I.e., cost aside, is the drink package worth it?

 

We figure we will have coffee or two in the morning, fresh juice with breakfast, 2-3 bottles of water, and then cocktails in the afternoon/evening.

 

I doubt that they care.  Tipping probably counts more. 

With all of the capacity they are bringing online, if that doesn't soften things, what will?  Another Icon and a 7th Oasis is a lot.

50 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Today is International Day of Happiness. 
 

 

That was also the look on my face when I saw a price drop for our Utopia cruise this summer.  Called and saved almost $1,800.  So, yes, that was my happiness for the day.
 

Told Susan that is almost enough for another cruise for the two of u.  

That is even more than what I got on Odyssey.  And it was nonrefundable OBC. I wonder if the bubble on outrageous prices is bursting.

11 minutes ago, broadwaybaby123 said:

No, you don't. 

 

I cruise heavily with both RC and X. While they both offer tier match up to Elite/Diamond, when you're cruising you're only earning points for that line. For example, I'll be in Liberty in June for 10 nights. Those points only count towards my C&A points, not my CC points.

 

Conversely, when I go on The Connie in January, I'll be getting 30 points towards my CC account, not my C&A account.

The point of my post was that after the points system changed for both cruise lines, that the more expensive rooms accumulated points much faster on X than on RC.  We first  cruised on Celebrity Horizon and we had the presential suite, 1 point.  then we did the next 4 cruises that were TA's in a Sky Suite. 3 points.  One point for the cruise, one point for the suite, and one for the longer cruise.  I would have become Elite much faster when they changed their loyalty system because the took into account your stateroom.

Not to worry, we took or Elite status, got diamond, cruised a lot, and we are Pinnacle now on RCI.  The point was, that after the change, it applied to ever day that you cruised, instead of just one point regardless of how long the cruise was.

4 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

It is the date of the spring equinox, so it is March 19 where we live.

 

 

I always thought it was the 21st too, but today was on my calendar.  

Leap year

You can get your new seapass at GS the night before and will receive an IN TRANSIT card to facilitate reboarding. Then you can exit before the B2B group if you want. Remember, you will have to do muster again.

 BTW  Ron Jon's surf shop is close by. A  popular place to visit.

Customs normally uses facial recognition. You just walk up to a video screen , look at it, and it should recognize you from your passport photo, and you are on your way. You will be given instructions before, and will get your new seapass before getting off. But, you should have your passport, just in case, but also reboarding.

Facial recognition gets everyone processed very quickly, no long lines.

59 minutes ago, Jacob0525 said:

I’m on the odyssey right now. I have not seen the vending machines. 

Walk past the Pub, in a room to the right, in front of the Diamond lounge

11 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

We left late last week, 7pm. The captain made an announcement for us, perhaps your friend missed it. 

You ever notice that many people do not shut up and pay attention when the captain makes an announcement. Sometimes after those announcements I have the urge so exclaim loudly "Did you hear that , I wonder where we are going now". 

My carryon item I must have is a sweater. Stateroom attendants must be trained to always turn the thermostat to the coldest temperature. Too dam cold for me. I have had to call maintenance to fix the heat, it doesn't always work.  

3 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

I assume he meant CS at Royal, not the ship directly

Isn't that the guestrelations@rci.com?

16 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Neither of us like to cook.

This was our lunch.

When I was between wives, I had to learn, couldn't survive on the alternative. The only joy was having something to eat.

 Little story though. In those days,  there was a little pizza place, where the guy made his own sauce and I loved it. So I usually drove up there about once a week for pizza and beer.   The place was County Line pizza. As the name implies, it is on the county line with neighboring Martin county. The town in our county is Jupiter, in Martin is Tequesta.  The pizza place had one waitress. Her husband was a Tequesta police officer. Must have been 1980 when the restaurant  closed and the owner retired. During the restart we were booked on Odyssey. We got to chatting with , he probably noticed  her Boston accent, and he had lived there at some point.  Then he said he now living in Florida, and he is a Tequesta  policemen. So , as we talked he said he had moved there in 1978. 2 years after I had moved down, I knew then he would know about county line pizza. When i mentioned the waitress, he just grinned. The waitress's husband was his boss when he first joined the force.

2 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Good evening.

The rain is pouring down here after a dry day.

I hope everyone is safe and well.

To cheer Pauline up I took her out for dinner tonight.

I thought any excuse was a good one for you guys.

28 minutes ago, George C said:

We do get the points in one or two more of our royal suites we will be elite plus . We were Diamond on rccl on our first celebrity cruise a dozen years ago so we that made us elite , but you get no points , but since all our cruises on Celebrity were suites and half those were in large suites we are almost elite plus.

Lets face it, you move up a lot faster when to get the more expensive suites. That makes sense.

It took us 5 long cruises all but 1 was in a suite to get the 10 cruises for elite.

When they changed. we would probably made it in 3, we were mostly in a sky suite. The kicker point for a suite counts for every day.  

they changed the system after we came to RCI.

1 hour ago, A&L_Ont said:

What a crew to ride with.
 

@Lovetocruise2002 look at Justin go.  Huge improvements all week. Welcome to the flow-rider widows club. 
 

 

Sure looks to me someone has done some snow skiing.

41 minutes ago, George C said:

Pictures from yesterdays Pablo Cruise who was in suite lounge this morning 

we also signed up for same Royal suite for next years Rock and Romance 

 

 

 

You don't get Captains Club points for these cruises do you? Not that it makes any difference, if you are Diamond on royal you would be elite on X.

Haven't figured that there was any special benefit.

I have an RCI credit card.  I charge all cruise  expenses and do not carry a balance, so I pay no interest, and get points that I can use for OBC.

But you can use a debit card, just put the info in when you checkin.

There are 2 penthouse, at the stern of the ship taking up the entire stern. This ship is the same size as a Radiance class ship. I believe they might actually have a refrigerator iin the PH.

22 hours ago, sgmn said:

I think we're going to hire a car as we're in Le Havre overnight.  DH is happy to drive on the continent and we've been to France multiple times

At least you drive on thee right side of the road.

On 3/13/2024 at 10:19 AM, pstone1 said:

We have done that tour and it is fantastic - worth the long drive!  Not sure about that particular day though!  😳

I guess some like it.  Maybe it is better now.