Quote:  As for taking your own glass of wine from your hidden bottles into the MDR, that is just not cricket, depriving those hardworking waiters their 15% gratuity on purchase of a bottle of wine. from the MDR wine list.

Please stop with these jokes, my sides ache.

My waiters and the head waiter get gratuities that I give them. Generally they have a picture of the Queen on them.

Quote: 

Since the people you were referring to had placed wine in their carry-ons and in their other luggage one assumes they knew what they were doing and were trying to either get away without paying the $15 corkage (if it was aPrincess cruise) or trying to bring more wine than was permitted on other cruise lines. Break the rules? Suffer the consequences!

Also I very much doubt that a phone call asking them to come and identify the contents of their luggage would be considered rude.

You seemed concerned by the levels of crime and security on cruise ships yet seem to have little understanding of what is permitted to be brought onboard and what isn't. You can't have it both ways.

Hahahahah! You are now free to say any negative comment as this is the last time I will lower myself to answer.

Firstly Princess does not charge corkage anymore; that ceased about three years ago. These days we fill our glasses from our hidden bottles and carry them to the dining table. The head waiter always has a waiter take them on a tray to our table.

Most people that sail would do anything to bring good wine on board and dream up ways of doing it.

As for crime on board, one of the biggest crimes is perpetrated by Princess themselves against the passengers when they charge $14 a half glass of Hunter Valley, raspberry cordial wine pumped from metal kegs.

I hope that you don't really look like your avatar like they say.

Here we go splitting hairs again. Searched, scanned, xrayed, sniffed at by dogs or opened, it is all searched.

The people were rudely told to go to some place and get their luggage because of two bottles of wine.

Now the best part. They had walked on with the mandatory allowable two bottles and somehow it was found that these people had  [gasp!] four bottles. [They were trying to do what I want to do.]

Anyone know how the book keeping is kept? Is it cameras? 

Quote: In 2002 when that happened, and now, passengers can take these drugs onto a ship. Passengers' luggage isn't searched - and neither should it. 

Firstly how do we keep firearms off ships if the luggage isn't searched let alone drugs and anything else?

Secondly, on our last cruise on the first night, we were at the dinner table with some people and they said that their luggage was late being delivered to their stateroom. They then got a phone call telling them that if they wanted their luggage they must go to some place on the lower deck and retrieve it. During the search by security it was found that they had a bottle of wine in each bag. Subsequently they were told that the wine was impounded until the disembarked.

Imagine the outrage that they had two bottles of wine. Gasp! Horror!.

It was at sea with the ship at full cruising speed.

Very informative explanation. Thank you.

I always drink the water from the taps on board which I am told is condensed sea water.

Hope they don't mix them up.

17 minutes ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

 If cruise ships are doing their utmost to keep people safe and create a safe environment or are they just doing the bear minimum required by law and then blaming the passengers for not protecting themselves.

One area where they are not doing all they can is the recruitment of security staff. Most of them would stay out of sight during a fight and are mostly inadequate to handle a situation. These are the guys and girls walking around in pairs in fabulous blue, beautifully ironed uniforms covered in badges. Most are nearly a foot shorter than myself and the girls I could blow over with a puff of wind. Is this doing the utmost to protect the passengers? After all they are supposed to be the ship's police force.

13 hours ago, The_Big_M said:

Treated, and dumped out to sea.

Treated? 

One day when I was walking around the promenade deck at the stern a fellow passenger was looking over at the wake and he drew my attention to the brown part of the wake on the starboard side. A great continuous discharge as far as I could see. 

As I said, I know what it takes to treat the sewerage of a town of 7000 people. Huge settling ponds, tanks and pumps. Unlimited electricity.

There is no doubt that treatment is occurring on the ships but how much of the solids are the fish eating?

8 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

 

Cruise Line Incident Reports

 

However this only applies to USA. I wonder if this sort of information is accessble for Australian cruise ships?

Good job finding this. In reading some figures I was surprised that all the incidents that I read related to passengers.

It is highly probable that the incidents are between people who share the same cabin.[including husbands and wives in some cases]

Some interesting figures there.

I am always intrigued by where the sewerage all goes. These ships have up to 7000 people on them and are as big as many regional towns and small cities. I know what it takes in sewerage treatment plants to convert the raw sewerage into clear water. As I never see any effluent removal  trucks meet the ships and even if they did you would need a hundred trucks. How do they do all this on board?

Quote: A lot of it would probably be bickering and incidents between crew. With a high passenger turnover it is less likely to be a passenger committing crime all the time. 

I agree with this. When staff have told me about how small their living quarters are and what it's like to share a room I can see that there would be problems. Security for their possessions would be paramount as I wonder if they have a safe each like passengers do? Pilfering their purses whilst in the shower for instance.

The other thing is their young age and might I say sexual starvation as they don't sail as couples as passengers do as most of them are elderly.

Cruise Ship Crime

Personally and thankfully I have never witnessed a crime on board a ship during any cruise and it is a surprise to learn the prevalence of this activity.

Below you will see just how much criminal activity we are very close to when cruising.

Cruise ships are required to report serious crimes. This includes a homicide, any suspicious death, an assault that results with a bodily injury, or a sexual assault. Any money theft above $10k is also supposed to be reported. Outside of these crimes, however, the cruise ship company can resolve the case internally without saying another word. Needless to say, there are thousands of victims of cruise ship crime that will never see justice served.

Incredibly since 2011 more than 950 crimes have been reported to the FBI by cruise ship lines.

According to the head of the FBI of New York's city division, almost every cruise ship that comes into port in New York requests agents to come on board because something had happened.

These reports ranged from people going overboard to sexual assaults and thefts.

Makes you want to look over your shoulder on your next cruise. However be aware.

26 minutes ago, The_Big_M said:

 

Okay, so you don't like it - you haven't explained why - so all I'll say is Quantum is my favourite RCL ship.

 

That said, I can understand her not being for everyone - many activities are for the active so for those who are less so, there may be less appeal.

The biggest problem is that there are two many people. When we got to Dunedin on our last cruise there were so many people on the wharf waiting for the shuttle buses that we gave up trying to get into the town itself. It bought it home to us just how overpopulated the ship was. Try queuing for the north star.

As I don't drive a gopher or a wheel chair I know it's hard to believe but I actually do some stuff. But I draw the line at that ridiculous' bone head' rock climbing or 'show off', egotistical surf board riding.

The Quantum ship is based up in China anyway.

3 hours ago, lyndarra said:

I have only cruised on one Princess ship - Sea Princess. Although we had a great cruise (all our cruises have been great one way or another), it was the most run down and tired looking of all the ships we've been on. The main problem with SP was the plumbing. The crew were constantly fixing blocked or overflowing toilets and water leaks from ceilings. Worn fixtures are only visual and don't bother me but damaged carpet or broken furniture can be a hazard. (The cruise was about six years ago and may have been refurbished since then).

I agree with you Lyndarra, you are absolutely right.

We sailed on our greatest adventure on the Sea Princess and the plumbing was so bad we couldn't flush the toilet with out phoning for the plumber. It is the first time I have ever flushed a toilet with the telephone. I had a meeting with the Captain and Chief engineer over it.

Princess send me a cheque for $370 when I got home.

One of our greatest adventures  to Santiago in Chile via Easter Island and Pitcairn Island.

Below the Sea Princess approaches Pitcairn Island at dawn on the 8th of February

It was like being in the Bounty and their approach.

Note the passenger friendly balcony I'm on in this class of ship. [Sun class]

Continuing on with things I do on my balcony during cruises.

Wine drinking is the most important. Other stuff we have to go inside and pull the curtains. Like playing Scrabble. We don't like people looking around the balcony partisan and seeing us do that.

Shiraz is my favourite wine. But it has to have the magic words " FULL BODIED' printed on the back label. 

But one wine that is little known in Australia is DURIF. It is inky dark and full bodied. [If you can get it]

25 minutes ago, mr walker said:

18 cruises on 9 different ships across 4 cruiselines from 3N to 29N from 130 to 3500 passenger capacity - enjoyed them all.

Mr Walker? Are you the Phantom? I used to love those comics.

Of all the ships we have sailed on, my choice is the Serenade of the Seas. We did the Arctic Circle on it.

The Diamond lounge is fabulous. Couldn't wait till 4.30 pm every day.

This is the most generous service we have ever received on any ship

17 minutes ago, The_Big_M said:

Yet neither Ovation or Majestic are advanced age, and actually the opposite - very new!

 

There are reasons Ovation and Quantum are rated lowly, and it's not because they're cast offs or anything wrong like that.

1) Both serve in the Chinese market - which based on cruisecritic US reviews have given them worse scores than the rest of the fleet due to the local experience. I.e. not a ship but environment/passenger issue.

2) Both had dynamic dining which also had a lot of criticism, compared to other ships. That isn't in place now, but the ratings remain.

 

So, the rating may be a fact, but it doesn't mean anything bad about it operating here, nor does it mean that any passenger would have a worse experience on it here than any other RCL ship.

I've sailed on the Ovation three times and the Quantum of the Seas  inaugural voyage of 42 days from New York to Singapore.

I've had a gut full of that class.

Before you tell us of your experience, let's not have any of that junk about 'why did you sail on it then"?

The reason is simply that the Ovation was doing cruises that we wanted to do. No other ship was available

All Australians who love cruising and who spend their many thousands of dollars on cruises should read this.

How many realise  that the ships we get down here in Australian waters are the northern hemisphere cast offs from passenger criticism or in advanced age.

Check out the Ovation of the Seas and Princess's Majestic.

We won't even talk about the Sun Princess.

https://www.farandwide.com/s/worst-cruise-ships-c8eb6e9ffd384546?utm_campaign=worstcruise-90aa9f23dd7e4f9b&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=oat&utm_term=FINANCE_US

57 minutes ago, NSWP said:

You Sandgropers are sensitive people.😅

I wonder how we got like that. Paying all the bills for the Eastern states out of our GST share and being given just 30% of our receipts didn't help.

and

If you keep maneuvering me into posting, I am going to move from the 100 post club to the Federal public servant class.

I am proud of being in the 100 post club. It means that I have another life.

1 minute ago, Aus Traveller said:

Mmmm. 😊 Maybe we know one.

Gee, I hope you aren't alluding to anyone who posts on our board. That wouldn't be right.

I wonder how many Federal public servants sit at desks and use this medium to alleviate boredom?

That might be the case in the worst wine growing district in Australia, namely the Hunter region.

Let's see you come to Margaret River and say that at the counter at Leeuwin Estate winery.

Only $630 for the half dozen at the winery.

Remember to get your bargain if you buy six at $99 per bottle

LEEUWIN ESTATE Art Series Chardonnay, Margaret River 2016

No it wasn't, it was me. My mate jumped on the wharf side.

Well I always want to know if my balcony is on the ocean side and not next to a wharf so I can jump from my balcony into the sea. One of my mates jumped and didn't check that small detail.

Quote 1 We shall be in Margaret River in Feb on Majestic Princess, Sydney -Singapore.  I will do a winery tour I think.

Hunter Valley wines should be hunted out of the valley in my opinion. That raspberry cordial stuff is priced accordingly.

The best wines in Australia are from Margaret River in W.A. But they are priced out of the market so no one gets to drink them.