GuavaTechAngels

Very slow. Terrible for uploading pictures. Just got back from South America Cruise.

Used most of my minutes waiting for pictures to up load.

Thanks, my mom's doing a S America cruise. Maybe we'll skip the WiFi package on this one.

Next thing you know there will be no flaming Baked Alaska on the formal nights ! :D

Geeze, we gave RCI over $60K worth of business with our family cruise. Don't tell me that they're going to start taking away the pepper grinders and force us to bring our own! ;p We spent so much money, they need to bend the rules for me!

Either way, still chaps my rear that we have to play these Mickey Mouse games when spending hard earned money on a vacation and probably legally open ourselves up to some sort of penalty or fine or something... who knows.

Seriously, get over it. Just put everyone in their rooms the way you want when you board, tell them you want Sea Passes, open the balcony partitions, etc, they'll do it. But, officially, they're just covering their butts for liability like you said. You're stressing yourself out for nothing.

It's like you're picking fights over semantics with the phone reps at this point. GIve those poor reps a break, they could never afford to spend $20K on a cruise like you're bragging about.

Get off the phones and go pour yourself a glass of wine, or two. Sounds like you need a whole bottle! haha JK ;)

If you want to do this now you have to lie. You would have to put the siblings in the rooms next to the parents and then 'switch' on board. And their keys don't switch. This is exactly my issue. They told me I can't switch once on board because the config, similar to what you did, is no longer allowed.

That's a bit overly dramatic.

Sorry, no disrespect to you but it seems almost like it's a matter of pride that you're trying to prove RCI is out to commit some heinous wrong upon your family.

Honestly, AFAIK, I've never heard of any policy on any RCI ship that doesn't allow you to switch cabins once you go onboard.

On our cruise, we switched people in 8 cabins total, no issues, super friendly staff, offered to open up the balcony partitions, extra Sea Pass card, the whole shebang.

And, remember...RCI employs thousands of people. ONE rep telling you that you can switch rooms doesn't mean that that's RCI's policy. Call back and ask a different rep. That's what I always do. Or, ask for a supervisor. Ask where you can read the policy online and make them provide that to you.

Instead of harping about this ONE rep trying to "wrong" you with her/his information, call back and see what another one says. If the next one still says, "no switching rooms onboard the ship" then ask to see the policy in writing.

Good luck!

I don't see what the big deal is. On our last family reunion we booked:

Mom A + Daughter A

============||===

Dad A + Son A

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Mom B + Son B

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Dad B + Son B

After we got on the ship, we just told them we were going to move to:

Mom & Dad A

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Sons A & B

================

Daughters A & B

============||===

Mom & Dad B

Customer service even offered to open up all 3 balcony partitions between us. Just make sure you have a connecting room so you have access to the kids. You definitely can switch on board. Harmony of the Seas, Thanksgiving 2016 sailing.

This was just one set of movings, relevant to your situation. We had 32 total in our group. Another advantage to doing it this way, you get to bring on two bottles of wine for every cabin (the adult).

You're lucky to find 5 cabins in a row in a location on the ship that you want, hold onto it! Just book it the way they want, bring your wine, switch when you get onboard, open the balcony partitions, and enjoy your huge 5x balcony!

I keep hearing this term but I never really understood what it meant?

First World Problems

Now, it's crystal clear! ;)

We've been to Falmouth several times and the vendors there are no more pushy than the ones in touristy American cities or European cities.

I always check labels on clothes and stamps on merchandise for "Made in China" markings. It's really no different, conceptually, than souvenirs sold at shops in American and European tourist cities.

It's kind of crazy that the world is such a global village now that finding "locally made" crafts is actually difficult.

I can imagine a manufacturing district in China where all the companies are manufacturing souvenirs for all other countries in the world. You could probably walk through this district and buy souvenirs from every corner on Earth.

your spot on regarding retirement homes rip offs.there was a 4 corners-abc t.v expose 2 weeks ago,they charge $10 to replace a light bulb-$5 for a flat white coffee,and someone comes around to clean the unit every 2 weeks,1 bloke fell over and stayed over for a few days until the fortnightly cleaner came around.

at least on a ship you get room serviced daily.i do like my garden though...and my own washing machine

Why on Earth, when you can have someone clean and professionally press everything for you?! Plus, ships don't allow irons in staterooms due to fire hazard.

At $175K per year x 8 years = $1.4m so far. They must have lived in a mansion in Florida.

Ok, the Italian liners of the 50's and 60's. In particular the Rex (1930's)

Had to look that up: http://cruiselinehistory.com/the-other-ss-rex-a-gambling-ship-off-santa-monica-california-in-the-1930s-and-early-1940s/

#nostalgiaBrag be damned I, for one, am glad that ship building has progressed beyond that for sure!

Absolutely irrelevant. If you sell your products or services to the public then you are a public accommodation and are obligated to live up to the standards of society with regard to public accommodations.

 

 

 

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Fair enough, but crack down on these shady people claiming their pets as "service animals".

Royal could cut down on this a bit by simply charging a fee - the posers are more likely to give up then.

 

 

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I'm not here to judge. I totally understand that some people regard their pets as true family members. But cruise ships need to either get rid of this service animal policy or charge the same exact fare to a service animal that they would a true family member.

After all, if your pet is truly your family member, then you should have no issues with paying for it just like any other family member. Then, we don't have to worry about unscrupulous people cheating the system.

Cruising is not a right, it's not like school, a public building, restaurant or store.

More people need to call RCCL and make a stink about this.

Preachin' to the choir.

I try to call them as much as I can to complain about their website. I think if enough people do this, they might actually get the message.

The definition you gave is actually the definition of "Gross Registered Tonnage", which is a term that is no longer in use since the '80's. Gross tonnage is a unitless number that is a factor of the total internal volume of the ship. A multiplier "k" is used, and this multiplier is based on various design characteristics. Gross tonnage is actually no longer linear compared to actual internal volume.

 

You are correct, that gross tonnage includes volume not accessible to passengers, and this somewhat skews the space ratio. A more accurate calculation would be "Net tonnage divided by the number of passengers", since net tonnage only includes the volume of "cargo space" (does not include crew spaces or machinery spaces). However, net tonnage, especially for cruise ships is not generally available, so the more commonly known gross tonnage is used.

Thanks, that makes more sense!

I agree it's a cool looking ship I just don't really care what a ship looks like on the outside. Heck, I only see the outside when I'm boarding or re-boarding during a cruise. 99% of the time I’m on/in the ship. That’s the stuff I care about, the common spaces inside, the cabins, the outside spaces. But most of all I care about the customer service, is the food good, can they make you decent cup of coffee, or a proper drink, do they have enough loungers, pools, exercise areas etc. If the important stuff is top notch the darn ship could look like a garbage scow for all I care.

Haha! While statements like this make for a nice #humbleBrag, in real life, space on ships is a limited resource.

Therefore, the best designers will be forced to have form follow function in order to maximize efficient use of space, not the other way around. All of those great spaces and luxurious amenities on the inside will be reflected in the form on the outside.

So, the form we see on the outside usually follows the function that is waiting for us on the inside, like this concept:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=49654148&postcount=50

A lot of people might call this concept ugly, but I'm curious about what's inside that lead up to it looking the way it does on the outside? But, right off the bat, I would have to take off points for this concept not having any balconies.

36.

 

GT divided by max capacity of passengers.

Gross Tonnage: Gross tonnage is a measurement of total capacity expressed in volumetric tons of 100 cubic feet; it is calculated by adding the underdeck tonnage and the internal volume of tween-decks and deck space used for cargo.

This doesn't seem accurate because a good chunk of that space isn't accessible by guests?

According to the numbers posted, this MSC ship will have a space to passenger ratio of 29.

 

No thanks!

 

Seeing this rendering and seeing Carnival's similar rendering that goes even lower into the 20s, I gotta say, if these sardine cans are the future of cruising, it'll be without me.

Just curious, what's Harmony of the Seas' space to passenger ratio?

How do you calculate this ratio? You'd need access to square footage of all passenger accessible spaces, right?

I love how sleek MSC's new ships look but it doesn't look like there's much in way of ship activities like the Oasis Class ships. But, it might be fun to try something different.

You think the Ocean liners of the past were boxy? Then I have no clue what you would call many of the cruise ships that have been built over the past 15-20 years, especially some of those NCL ships.

I didn't mean to just single out ocean liners. Most manner of all craft design during the industrial age was "boxy." We didn't have the technology to model anything better than that.

Engineering and design progress aren't always on a linear scale. There may have been a recent breakthrough in modeling or simulation software allowing ship designers to more accurately design efficient ships? Just like the recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have recently enabled us to have self driving cars by next year.

I don't quite get why people trying to come up with new designs think that creating something that looks like anything but a ship is the way to go. I still like being on a ship that looks like a ship. If the actual build looks anything like that concept picture I wouldn't be likely to want to book it no matter what they put inside of it.

 

And I'm the opposite. I'm very attracted to cruise ships that innovate away that old cruising motif and instead offer me with the view of the sea but a completely modern venue from which to have that view.

I agree bUU.

Any craft design, be they air, ground or sea, are always going to be limited by the technology available at the time. I get the emotional attachment to inefficient, boxy designs out of nostalgia but from an engineering standpoint, it makes no sense to hold onto them, they weren't better because they're old, they're actually awful!

We live in a fluid world (no pun intended) and the only reason why we didn't have aerodynamic designs back then is because we didn't have computers that were powerful enough to do software simulations to test different designs against each other to find out which ones were the best. But, we have the tools now and will have even better tools tomorrow.

When humanity progresses to building spacecraft, then we can go back to the boxy designs all we want since space is mostly a vacuum.

Biggest Cruise Ship in the World Announced by MSC Cruises

http://www.cntraveler.com/story/biggest-cruise-ship-in-the-world-announced-by-msc-cruises

Competition is great for all consumers, but this article is wrong. Judging from the specs released from the article, MSC's new World Class ships will not be the biggest cruise ships in the world:

DIMENSIONS:

• MSC World Class: 1,082 ft by 154 ft
  
• Harmony of the Seas: 1,188.1 ft by 155.6 ft
  

TONNAGE

• MSC World Class: 200,000 GRT
  
• Harmony of the Seas: 226,963 GRT
  

PASSENGER CAPACITY:

• MSC World Class: 6,850 Guests
  
• Harmony of the Seas: 6,780 Guests
  

Bottom line, their ships are big enough to compete against the Oasis Class but they are slightly smaller and hold slightly more people. Not sure what they mean by this though?

In addition, the World Class's "Y" shape will give the ships' balcony cabins more space

What if you put the flight deck on top of the Harmony, instead? That'd be the safest cruise ship in the ocean.

 

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LMAO :'):'):')

No pirate of the Caribbean would want to mess with the MS Harmony of the Seas! But, probably not worth losing the pool decks...

The carrier does not have very much mass above where the hull flairs out. Below the flight deck is the hanger deck which is mostly empty space if you don't count the aircraft and maintenance items that are stored there. Above the flight deck is only the island which compared to the rest of the ship is quite small, and even smaller on the Ford class. If you were to pile all that mass of passenger decks on top of the flight deck as in your photoshop image without also increasing the beam the ship would be very unstable, i.e. top heavy. The cruise ships get away with such tall profiles by having the heavy machinery, fuel tanks, and water tanks low in the hull and by a generous use of aluminum in the upper decks.

 

Another thing to consider is the overhang over the docks or piers to which the ship moors. There may be structures near the dock or in the case of a pier such as at St. Maarten, another ship on the other side. The ship still needs to moor with the hull close to the dock or pier so that enormous overhang would need to not interfere with anything else.

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. You sound like a marine engineer! :cool:

Same answer, you are comparing 2 different views, look at a carrier from the back and it's straight up

Rear view looks pretty similar to me? ...an upside equilateral triangle shape:

A hybrid would follow this type of design:

Nimitz class carriers are only about 50 feet wider than an Oasis class cruise ship. And the reason for that width is because it's what required for landing airplanes. The draft of the Ford is about 40 feet vs 30 feet for the Oasis class ships.

 

The ships are designed for different things and what works on one doesn't necessarily work for the other. Cruise ships are designed for comfort and aircraft carriers for... well... other things. :cool:

But the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers have a beam that is 256 ft compared to 155 ft on the Harmony of the Seas. An extra 100 ft would sure be nice to have, probably impossible due to physics, but one can dream. :cool:

Aircraft carriers also go straight up from the water line to the flight deck when looked at from the stern, just like the stern pic of o class

I'm not a marine engineer, but this is what I mean:

Maybe aircraft carriers can get away with this design because most of their weight is on the bottom?

Fantasy engineering" question here, why do they build cruise ships with their sides going "straight up from the bottom":

..instead of arching out wide from the bottom, the way aircraft carriers are built?

It seems like it would open up a lot more space in the middle where the Promenade and other activities are located?

Is a "cruise ship carrier" just an impossible engineering feat?

*forgive my rudimentary photoshop skills