Chiliburn

2nd week in April I believe 
 

I just asked my agent about the cruise with confidence program in Australia.

Thats where ,if the price drops Royal will match the lower price.

Unfortunately it’s no longer in Australia,the closest is the refundable deposit.

Back to the bad old days.

9 minutes ago, buchhalm said:

Ok, I'm going to say it:

I don't care a whole lot about emissions when I go on holiday.

I don't attend or support such nonsense as car races, but I do not feel any guilt for taking an occasional flight or a cruise every now and then.

I get annoyed when airline reviews talk about "carbon emissions " before they mention the service or - God forbid- a price.

To be asked to pay a "carbon offset fee" myst be the biggest scam in history. 

A "white, middle-class problem.

WE should "do something about it".

Meanwhile, most of Asia and Africa (with probably a handful of exceptions) don't give a damn. Don't care, or say they can't afford. Let the rich Europeans, Americans and Australians deal with it.

Sorry. Rant over.

 

It doesn’t matter if we like it or not it’s something we just have to deal with .

Just like tax ,we just have to deal with it .

Try the mercantile ,they should be able to do something and it’s just a stone throw   ,  25 George street ,in theory it should be 30 meters away but I think it’s a bit more. 

https://www.themercantilehotel.com.au

I don’t know about this for cruise ships but it’s Bill Gates and Hyundai behind it .

10 hours ago, gbenjo said:

To keep all the greenies out there happy, the next Edge class ship,   Xcel to be launched in  November 2025,  is to built to operate on methanol. 

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/03/celebritys-next-newbuild-will-be-methanol-ready/

32 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

The blue pill continues the delusions while the red pill provides understanding.

You weren’t in the C.I.A ‘s experimental program where mic ,I saw a lot of monkeys in that testing session.

5 minutes ago, buchhalm said:

It's not the size that matters. It's what you do with it...

And a blue pill helps at our age 

There two Methanol plants here that should be producing Marine Fuel by 2027 ,

Tassie and Victoria 

https://www.afr.com/companies/infrastructure/port-of-melbourne-to-ride-tsunami-of-green-methanol-20230424-p5d2w6

5 hours ago, colourbird said:

The best thing would be to get rid of the smaller ships and just build and run the larger ones that can fit substantially more passengers on them. That's more efficient. It's a win for everyone, the environment and the passengers who end up with more to do on the ship. Having fewer ships would also please the residents of the countries who complain they are swamped with ships.

I was waiting for the backlash LOL

I like the big ships and the small ones,they all have something going for them.

The secret with the big ships is to find a nice little place to hang out.

You might be better going to a bar next time. I have used a voucher 

48 minutes ago, arxcards said:

A lot of benefit comes from engineering some efficiency into it. Some of the newer ships require your cruise card in the slot to run the lights & aircon. Not any card like the old days, but a cruise card with RFID. 

 

Fuel efficiency of the hull and propulsion is a big deal, and a decision to schedule max speed at 16 knots instead of 19 has massive savings on cost & fuel efficiency.

 

Yes, the dinosaurs will be dead, and P&O will have other old ships by then.

There’s a rumour that Quantum maybe converted to duel fuel when isn’t in dry dock this November. Diesel / Methanol,  Ready for California.

Apparently one of the biggest problems with ethanol is the flammable vapour  in the fuel tank.

The void in the tank has to be filled with an inert gas like nitrogen .Plus the fuel lines have to be double walled and the void filled with nitrogen.

The vapour of the methanol is a lot more volatile than diesel.

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

P&O can cut emissions by travelling less per day. An extra day either way to cross to/from the islands, and/or more cruises to nowhere. The slower cruising means more nights or less ports, so we lose out on experiences, or pay more for the extra nights.

 

Older "dirty" ships will eventually scrapped. In the meantime, the better emissions of the newer ships will help offset the older ships.

 

I have commented on the excess smoke from Egde not being a good look in Sydney Harbour (similar to the Eclipse photo above). Apparently, it isn't a fair comparison, as their emissions are much cleaner than the sooty black smoke being emitted from older ships.

I think it was 60% reduction by 2035 and zero emissions by 2050 is the target.

Those old ships won’t be around for long.

It’s not just the fuel used to move the ship it’s all the stuff in Hotel . Incandescent lighting,old fashioned air conditioning,water production. It all adds up.

On the edge the other week the captain said it uses 17% less fuel than a solstice.

Thats a fair bit.

8 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

What's going to affect the cruise industry first is various ports mandating on shore power. New York City has just done this, although the details are yet to be worked out.

 

In a few years, ships that don't have on shore power capability are going to be limited in their choice of ports.

The older ships will be going to the scrap yard.

The E.U. and California , I believe has said if one of your ships operates here ,your whole fleet must comply to our standards .

P&O Australia might be able to get around that as they don’t operate in the E.U. or California.

Like I said I’m not a greenie but this is what the cruise industry will have to deal with.

I believe it’s this month of March it’s now mandatory to cut emissions.

16 minutes ago, Ozwoody said:

 

In the video the commentator said the LNG ships were just as bad because they discharged a different greenhouse gas. Seems the cruise lines can't win.

The commentator said they should use energy cells, not sure what they are, (assume some type of batteries).

But batteries require huge amounts of rare earth minerals, can't see how that helps, humongous amounts of mining to obtain, isn't good either.

 

All this is well beyond me, every time they come up with a solution, there seems to be ramifications.

 

However it is great that RCL is looking at bucking the big ship trend.

I was on Celebrity Edge just recently and the captain had a seminar and one of the subjects was the incoming emissions.

He said LNG was just a temporary thing to reduce emissions but it’s not the answer.

A interesting thing he said was Egde class is 17% more efficient than Solstice class.

Thats fuel burn and carbon emissions.

I’m not a greenie   but I thought I would start a thread on cruise ship emissions.

Its something people don’t seem to be aware of and have it’s going to effect the cruise industry.

1 hour ago, springaussie said:

This is all I can find is this 

 

 

Apr 16 - Apr 21: Singapore to Hong Kong

 

Apr 21 - Apr 26: Hong Kong > Naha > Keelung > Hong Kong

 

Apr 26 - May 01: Hong Kong to Tianjin

•  

I suppose it will be released soon with our season.

@springaussie

Im looking at Ovation’s repo after next season. Apparently after Singapore it does a 5 night to Hong Kong. Have you seen any details of that cruise and where it stops?

4 hours ago, ceeceeDee said:

Sorry, I'm a bit confused. Monkey?..............

Mic likes hanging out at the monkey cage  on the weekends.

Feels secure and wanted.

3 hours ago, twangster said:

 

It's nothing really, think of the money they save by having old IT infrastructure.  

 

We all know what that means... much lower cruise fares!  Could you imagine what cruises would cost if they invested in IT?  

 

Their billing process seems to work efficiently.

36 minutes ago, ceeceeDee said:

Cruise wharf would be great.

 

Just slightly off topic............. If anyone likes murder mysteries, Matt Francis (Australian author) has written two books so far in the series Murder in the Pacific set in Vanuatu featuring police sergeant George Long (half Chinese, half Ni Vanuatu). The first, Ifira Point is set in Vila and the second, Mt Yasur, is set on Tanna. They're a light, engaging read with plenty of local colour and insights into local customs. I'm impatiently waiting for Matt to produce the third book.

Tanna supposed to quite nice ,probably a good place for a murder mystery.

I like a story with a monkey in it .

43 minutes ago, beatleman said:

How is Lelepa going Chilli is Big Gav  got any news/

I was just on Celebrity Edge Beatle and at the captain’s thingo . He was talking about carbon emissions and how Royal and Celebrity are trying to comply.

By the sounds of it they won’t be throwing much money around here until they get more efficient ships.

As for Lelepa, I haven’t heard anything and don’t expect to.

1 hour ago, bonsai3s said:

 

That's the smart thing to do.

 

I drove a bit over 4 hours to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco. (My mistake.  * I did not want to mail and relinquish my passport to an agency.)  Arrived early and the queue was already around the block.

When I got in, there was no courtesy...people cutting lines and insisting they had priority (?)...when I finally made it to the window, they told me the photos I'm submitting were unacceptable.

 

To make a long story short, I asked for a supervisor who ultimately approved the photos. I was told to come back at 2pm.

 

When I came back, same scenario inside...long queue and chaos. At the end of the day, I did get our visas.

 

This was over 10 years ago...perhaps it's better now...perhaps not.  Most of the other countries we've visited, that required a visa, we can easily apply online. Curious if China allows U.S. citizens to apply online?

Apparently they have made it a lot easier for most western countries but that could change at the drop of a hat.

The biggest problem I’ve heard of is the scams when you get there .