arush5268d

Would a hand held VHF radio do the job?

If its set for the right band then you could hear other transmissions on that band IF you also have the ability to scan through unprogrammed freqs.

Your typical 2 way radio does not have the ability to scan all the possible frequencies in the band it is designed for.

Scanners do that. 2 way radios can scan the frequencies that have been programmed in them ahead of time (some models, not all)

Seriously though - this scanner idea is not a good idea for anyone unless you are comfortable with scanner procedures. If you are not then you need to figure out how to use a scanner and what they do first - before trying to use it on a cruise ship otherwise you'll just end up taking up room in your luggage.

Yes and No. There seems to be a trend in ships built by Fincantieri in Italy having a single point of failure. There have been other ships by other lines that have had similar failures and having to be towed back to port. The big difference is they have been far away from the US and usually closer to port so they have not made the news.

 

Crystal Harmony, Costa Allegra, Royal Princess are some examples that have had to be towed in.

I don't remember which thread it was but someone pulled up the past 9 ship fires. 7 of the 9 were Carnival Corp & plc brands. That is a problem. I will say again that there is much more to this story than is visible on the surface. The problems run deep and I suspect it goes all the way back to Carnival ordering ships as cheap as possible - hence poor engine room design, prone to fires and lack of redundancy.

None of the CD's listed would encourange to book their ship over any other.

We had recently completed a European Cruise the Royal Princess. We did notice that cost cutting which we had experienced on Carnival was also being applied to Princess. I always had thought that Carnival was the competition of NCL and RCCL, but after our Princess trip I do feel that Princess would be closer to these two lines and Carnival would be the bargain basement Wal-Mart Cruise Line.

 

I do think that Carnival is trying to imitate the old G.M. You first bought a Chevrolet and then moved to a Pontiac, Olds, or Buick and then to a Cadillac. The problem with this strategy was that all of the brands lost their unique identify.

 

I do feel that this is what is happening to Carnival. While Princess used to be a classy unique product, I do feel that is is becomming Carnival Light.

 

Our next cruise will be on Celebrity.

That is a very fair review of your observations. Thanks for sharing.

A ham radio scanner will not get you very far. You will need a multi-band scanner.

Since its been 2+ years, can a party of ten get a reservation for anytime dining?

How long do you want to wait for your table every night?

Not recommended for groups of that size.

In rooms 1 & 2, is there one of the rooms with 2 people at least 25 years old? If so, swap one of them out with one of the people in room #3. Swap them only with how you book it. When you get on the ship, go to guest services and get the cards changed around to put people into the appropriate rooms.

 

I don't know what your situation is, but if there was a young married couple, ages 18 & 21, there would be no problem booking them in a room, as long as they bring the marriage certificate.

This.

Easy enough to swap them out once on board. Book them so each of the younger ones is with a 25 plus. Another thing to consider: If some people want to buy the Cheers package, but others don't, book with the 18 year old, who cannot order cheers.

And this.

I have a recent one at home. I'll try to remember tonight to post it.

That's not the point.

 

This is a problem that can happen on many active cruise ships if the right combination of circumstances are in place. As has been stated many times, the issue is redundancy, or the lack thereof, and if a pipe bursts or something else becomes defective or malfunctions the rest is history.

Other cruise lines seems to have redundancy in their ships electrical system. An engine room fire doesn't cripple the whole vessel.

Althought it is a bit hard to compare since nearly all of the fires in recent times were on Carnival Corp flagged ships. :rolleyes:

Sounds like the casino offer

Two cabins = two bookings. Each cabin has it's own booking number.

 

You can purchase FTTF for only one cabin, if you wish. If you're only concerned about dropping off all luggage into one cabin, that's the way to go.

 

But the non-FTTF cabin will not receive the other perks (such as the cabin being ready).

This.

The good thing is that it covers everyone in the room. I'm sure they will soo modify that so that everyone in the cabin must purchase it.

Well..so far its not as cheap as I would like it to be!

 

$36.65

That's a lot cheaper now than few years ago. Before all most of the fires and stranded ships and upside down ship. They have had a rough time recently. I'm not sure how much of it they brought down on their own selves.

I blame Obama Care

That makes me want to jump.

ON the cheap?

I believe that the FBI tends to investigate such incidents. They would need to investigate the cabin as a crime scene before it could be used. The FBI tends to be involved in the case of ships leaving from or returning to US ports, as well as cases involving US citizens. In the case where the ship was sailing from a foreign port the FBI would not be primary and would be dealing with second hand information from the agency that did have jurisdiction. I believe that the other agency that would be involved is from whatever country the ship was registered in.

This is truthful.

It is on the books that the U.S. has authority to investigate any incidents involving U.S. citizens.

The concept of leftovers doesn't work out too well on a cruise ship. There are no microwaves on board Carnival that I have ever seen. It is not practical for you to ask room service to heat up something. They would have to heat up an oven just for you and that isn't going to happen.

Don't agree with your comments about maintenance. The recent issue with the Carnival ships I don't think are about maintenance as much as the original design of the ships. They were designed with a single main power distribution panel that provides a single point of failure. The ships built by Fincantieri in Italy seem to be built this way. Even though they have multiple engine rooms they have a single power distribution system.

 

Keep in mind that Celebrity (one of the RCL lines) have had major problems with their propulsion systems (the pod designs). Azmara has also had a couple of problems with fires in the main power distribution area a few years back. These were on cruises in Asia so they did not make the news here.

Were people forced to poop in bags for days on end on those cruises?

Wow... I'm sure next time someone is in so much pain and despair that they want to end their life they will hang in there long enough to jump out of a plane to even out the bad press..

 

Seriously. Heartless.

Someone that commits suicide in a public fashion or in such a way that disrupts others vacations voids their right to sympathy. They took the coward way out and are inflicting their problems on others - be it friends, family or total strangers.

I support people having the right to end their life - in the right way. Not on a cruise ship.

Where are you coming from?:eek: I was a flight attendant for 26 years and still have friends in the industry and NEVER had or heard of suicide on an airplane. Like someone said previously, if airplane has a bad engine, they do not depart. If you have a full airplane and one seat belt does not work, they do not even depart until it is fixed. Please talk about something you know about.

There is no need to be so defensive. The OP didn't say that there WERE suicides on airplanes - the OP said that they wished people would inflict their issues on the air industry instead of cruise ships. You need to re read what the OP said and retract your claws. You should also apologize for your last sentence.

No confusion on my part, I do understand that the master is responsible for every thing the the staff captain does. On 95% of the vessels afloat, these responsibilities fall to the chief mate. Same in the engine room.

Well your posts are nonsense. When you have this many people you need a #2 man. All military units of this size have an XO. Retail stores have assisant managers. Companies have VP of divisions. There is a patern here.

If the cruise lines did not need a captain and a staff captain they would NOT have that expense.

If the Captain has to go to Miami for meetings (this happens often) and therew as no staff captain then she ship would not be able to sail.

Again, you are confused.

Ah yes. The sounds of violent eating as carnival diners gorge themselves on Carnival's 'food.'

I can see why you would be concerned to be OVER the MDR. How much quiet time do you need in your cabin during dinner? Most people don't need peace and quiet in the room during dinner. Even so - I have never known the MDRs to be noisy places to be over.

My speculation is that if it were indeed suicides they needed to be investigated by the police and perhaps Carnival thought it would be better to have the investigation in the USA and at the port where everyone disembarks. Rather than delaying the process and the delay of the disembarkation for the other passengers Carnival decided to return 7 hours early so as to make sure everyone would be disembarked in a timely manner in the morning after the investigation.

 

Again this is just a speculation. Do you think I'm right?

Actually, I know you are at least partly wrong. The Magic returned to one of the cargo piers in Galveston. They were already scheduled to come back early to use one of the cranes there. From there they went to debark at the normal cruise pier on time.

If there were deceased to debark, I can understand why they would want to get back early.

 

There isn't a whole lot of time between turnarounds, You have cruisers debarking at the same time cruisers are lining up to embark. Would you really want to bring out dead bodies while people are waiting to embark? And if law enforcement were involved, wouldn't you want that dealt with before current passengers began to show up?

It is not standard practice to rush back for a fatality. There is plenty of time to debark the body before the ship is cleared for debarkation.

 

It sounds like no one knows a true story... two people covered in sheets doesn't mean they were dead, maybe they were covered to hide them from the embarrassment of an entire ship staring at them while they were brought off the boat... besides dead bodies typically aren't covered in sheets, they're in a bag...

A clean sheet is a great tool in the hands of a great paramedic. A great clinician - be it physician, EMS or other - is an advocate for patient privacy.

OR you could even be a [former] Coastie with some experience in the matter...

I always thought that would be an awesome job, but it is a path I did not go down. I have known some Coasties over the years and they have the utmost respect from me. They can be looked at like step children but when the time comes for them to shine they always step up to the plate.

I don't think the rescue swimmers have to pay most of their drinks in the bars.