Lefty Writer

I keep a pair of trauma shears in my BC. Never had a problem with taking them on the ship.

You can find them in a wide range of colors and price.

I just noticed that the poster above mentioned the same thing. I blame it on lack of coffee....

We use Sea Sports Belize and love them. They are just a five-minute walk from the cruise terminal and have small, fast boats, so no cattle boat diving with them.

OK, just for the fun of it, I have been a lifelong sailor and Captain. This is not a contentious post just having some fun with words and terms.

you are on a ship, not a boat

The front of the ship is fore or forward

The back of the ship is in the stern or aft

The bathrooms are Heads

The kitchens are Galleys.

There are no floors, but decks

There are no rooms but cabins.

Port is left (it has 4 letters)

Starboard is right, it has more than 4 letters.

 

anyone else think of any other Nautical terms, add them on

I laugh at this one all the time, especially since my wife and I are divers. Someone will ask us "When do you get on the boat?" I reply with "As soon as we get to the marina and meet the divemaster." (Note: in case this doesn't make sense, we are getting on a dive BOAT. ;p)

Wow! Fantastic information here. This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you, sir!

Now that I gave it more thought, when I was a rig medic on a semi-submersible rig, the general alarm signal wasn't specifically 7 short blasts (alarm bell rings, in our case). It was just "a series of short rings, followed by one long ring." Our abandon platform signal was one long ring.

In case anyone reading this is curious, the game I'm referring to is called Flash Point: Fire Rescue. The merchant ship board is in an expansion set called "Dangerous Waters." That expansion features both a merchant ship on one board and a submarine on the other board. A friend of mine is a retired Navy chief, who used to work on subs, so I was able to get an accurate alarm message from him.

The other scenarios range from a ranch house to an apartment building, high rise office, laboratory and an airplane. From my days as a paramedic and volunteer firefighter, I was able to write realistic dispatch scripts for them.

Again, while this does NOT impact game play, it will add to the experience when people play this game with me.

Thanks again to Chengkp75!

This isn't specifically cruise related, but I know there are several maritime experts on this forum. Mods, if this is inappropriate, please delete and accept my apologies.

I know that the general alarm on cruise ships is the standard seven short blasts followed by one long blast. We used this on our offshore drilling rigs as well.

I'm writing a script for some recorded dispatch calls for various fire scenarios for a board game. This is for private use, and not for commercial use, so there is no money changing hands or profit for me. I'm doing this to enhance the game experience for those that play.

One of the game boards/scenarios is a fire aboard a merchant vessel.

I know on CCL that the fire team is called "Alpha Team."

On a merchant vessel, specifically one tied up to the pier and NOT underway, what would the alarm process be for a fire, say in the galley. Would the "merchie" use the standard alarm signal above, followed by something like "Fire in the forward galley. Fire team 1 lay to the forward galley. All other crew report to your muster stations and await further instructions."

Thanks in advance.

I just prefer not to give out my email, and am on the ship now, so dealing with blind accounts is a problem. I don't look at the floataway forum much, but I can. Try it first in the Ask a cruise question forum first, see if they delete it.

I totally understand that. I'll post in Ask A Cruise Question as you suggested.

Thank you!

We would have two 3rd Officers be the Port/Stbd Deck Officers, in charge of all boats on each side, and then the deck crew was the primary crew for rigging out the boats. Most folks don't realize that the crew taking the muster will not get in the boat with them, nor will the deck crew, the trained mariners be the boat crew. Lifeboat crew are waiters, bartenders, cooks and dishwashers. I know that HAL does a lot to train the boat crews (one of Capt. Albert's jobs I think), not sure if they obtain Lifeboatman certification for them, but many lines don't, and the boat crews are only trained onboard.

 

Once the passengers are away in the boats, if the Captain decides it is necessary to abandon ship, the crew will be signaled to leave their emergency stations and go to their abandon ship stations, which will be generally in the same locations as the passenger muster stations, under the now empty boat davits, where the liferaft stations are. They will then deploy, board, and launch the rafts.

Chengkp75, I have a non-cruise, yet maritime technical question for you. Is there a way I can contact you (to be compliant with off topic material on the forums) via public e-mail or some other form? I could perhaps post my question to you in the "Floataway Lounge" forum here if that would be best.

Thanks!

Loved his morning show. The prank phone calls were hilarious!

Even funnier when you happen to be watching the morning show, and know that he's calling YOUR cabin (long story here). I answered the phone and played right into the prank call, reversing it on him. He sort of stammered a bit, and when he regained his composure I let him off the hook.

Funny, entertaining, and friendly CD!

We always book with a private dive operator, and have never had a problem. In Cayman, we prefer using Cayman Turtle Divers. They are a small dive op, but are simply fantastic! Their dive briefs are very professional and the crew are all friendly. If you book with them, mention you want to do the Kittiwake and they'll set it up. I finally got a chance to dive the Kittiwake this past May and loved it! There's even a geocache there (GC4BAC0) if you are into that as well (my wife and I are).

ALL of the above are fantastic choices. My wife really loves Indian food, and the Tandoor grill on aft Lido typically isn't that crowded either.

I've never seen them attach tags for people. You probably want to bring whatever you're going to use to attach it. I use scotch tape on mine and they've never come off. My tags from Feb are still on my bags. May put an extra copy in the bags just in case though.

We do this even when we don't fly to a port. Just one more way to help your bags find you if something happens to the outside tag.

We've used Subway several times, and really enjoy diving with them. They are definitely our "go to" dive op on Roatan.

Hands down, Ben Gentry is BY FAR our fave piano bar entertainer.

First off, I totally agree with what omeinv said. We, too, dive primarily in lakes here in Texas, so I'm always glad to have better than 5' viz. :D

For Cozumel, we like to use either Scuba with Alison or Chucho Divers. Both work with cruise ship divers and both are very friendly and professional. Alison is very popular, and books up fast, so it's best to contact her sooner rather than later. She's a PADI Master Instructor, so can sign you off on different "adventure dives" if you so choose.

In Roatan, we like to use Subway Watersports. We've used them several times and are happy with them. They'll pick you up at the bottom of the hill and drive you to their dive shop. They'll also drop you off at the terminal when done.

Have fun!

I'm firmly in the "Don't Care" camp. I don't get the obsession with tablecloths.

Same here. About the only time we are in the MDR is for dinner. The presence or absence of a tablecloth isn't going to affect my cruise.

From what I've noticed by following John's posts, he typically will ask something like this based on a comment he received. It seems to me he'll ask the ice cream question whenever some parent complains to him that Carnival should limit access to the machines because their kids eat too much of it.

Yep! Mutzie and Carolyn Picard are my two faves. Cowboy Bill is also fun to watch, as is Just June.

Controlled substances should be in their original prescription bottle. I believe that's actually Federal Law. Otherwise, most cruisers use the 7 day dispenser type.

That's the way I see it as well. There's a big difference between a prescription narcotic painkiller and something less controlled, like blood pressure medication or common antibiotics.

At least you could squeeze in one more breakfast burrito at the Blue Iguana, though. :D

That's correct. Platinum from the start of the cruise. Congrats to both of you!!!

Thank you! It was nice not having to scramble for FTTF. :D

She'll get her platinum card upon check in. We are in the same position for our upcoming cruise. :cool:

The dives were FANTASTIC! We saw everything from Angel fish to huge grouper. Our DM managed to spear a few lion fish as well.

By the way, an interesting quirk about diving in Grand Turk. Apparently, if you are only there for the day, as opposed to staying at a resort, nitrox is NOT available. It's some weird logistical thing as they explained it. I prefer diving with nitrox when I can, but this wasn't a deal breaker for us by any means.

Hello! Does anyone have experience diving with Grand Turk Diving Co. in Grand Turk? Thanks in advance!

DW and I used them when we were on the Breeze and would definitely use them again. We had to take a taxi to the dive shop (about $9, I think), but they dropped us off near the cruise terminal when we were done.

Hi all!

 

Hubby and I are going on three back-to-back cruises, and we want to scuba dive most of them!

 

Cruise ports are:

Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua, Belize, Cozumel, St Thomas, St Kitts, and St Maarten.

 

So far I think we have Aruba, Bonaire, St Kitts, and St Thomas covered for dive operators.

 

1) Suggestions for good dive operators for Grenada, St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua, Belize, Cozumel, and St Maarten would be much appreciated.

 

2) Are there any "don't bother" locations or any "must dive" locations? So far we are considering Bonaire our "must dive". Everything else is up in the air.

 

Thank you very much for your suggestions. Hubby and I are extremely excited - we have only been able to dive cold, murky (boring) water so far, so we're looking forward to beautiful Caribbean water!!

 

Breanne

Manitoba, Canada.

Wow, sounds like a LOT of fun! DW did a B2B on the Liberty/Breeze in 2013 and hit several ports like y'all are doing.

For Cozumel, we like using either Chucho Divers or Scuba with Alison. Both are popular, and fill up fast, especially Alison, so you need to book early with them. Both use small, fast boats and are based out of Caleta Marina, just a short cab ride away from the terminal.

For Belize, we like Sea Sports Belize. Their dive shop is about a 5 minute walk from the terminal once you get off the tender. All of these dive ops offer nitrox for just a bit more.

As for St. Maarten, I'm such an aviation nerd that I won't consider diving. :eek: GASSSP! I know, that's heresy, right? :p It's straight to Maho Beach for me to watch the aircraft come in for their famous LOW landing pattern. Just check out this search here from YouTube to see what I'm talking about.

I think most of us here who frequent this particular forum would love to hear about your trip when y'all get back.

Thanks Lefty Writer - we'll look into Cayman Turtle Divers and Chuchos. We live up in Tomball, so not close to Mamacita's, though I've been there a few times and like it. :-) We'll try to make it down there so we can stay active throughout the year. We've got 6 kids from 4 to 15, so not a lot of free time, but they want to learn to dive too.

We have some members that live up in Spring, so please don't let your location stop y'all from hanging out with us. It's only once per month, right? :D Our events are mainly on the weekends, and typically include diving at places like Mammoth Lake, The Blue Lagoon and weekend trips to Athens Scuba Park and Clear Springs Scuba Park. We organize rig diving trips, Flower Gardens trips and try to do at least one international trip each year. This year, we have a group cruise on the Carnival Magic on 11/8 going to Cozumel, Belize and Roatan to celebrate the club's 40th anniversary. So far, we have 32 going.

We also do non-diving events like TRF, Fearshire Farms, tours, etc. Y'all definitely won't be bored with us....LOL