BruceMuzz

As you said "Uuugghhhh, not quite correct."

 

Recent technologies on many newer ships now use waste heat from the engines to distill salt water at zero additional fuel costs. This is called "flash evaporation". The waste heat evaporates the water which is then collected and treated with appropriate chemicals to make it drinkable, both for taste and health reasons. The residual salt is collected and safely disposed of once at the dock. This results in cost savings over buying water from an on shore source.

You are correct. The ship I manage has this technology and equipment onboard. But we have a challenge with waste heat from the engines. There isn't enough of it.

Priorities for recycled engine heat are:

1. Steam for galleys and laundry.

2. Hot water for cabins and galleys.

3. Heat for swimming pools.

Whatever waste heat is left over is used to produce fresh water.

But we are in the Caribbean right now, meaning very few opportunities to produce large quantities of fresh water from Sea Water.

Last week my ship produced fresh water at an average cost of US$7 per ton.

We bunkered fresh water at several ports at an average cost of US$3.50 per ton.

We consume 2,500 tons of fresh water every day.

The costs - and savings - add up very quickly.

Just so it's clear, no ships have freshwater pools. They all use sea water. Princess, Royal Caribbean, Disney, and whoever else advertises "fresh water," pump the sea water through an intricate filter system to remove most of the salt, making it more "fresh."

 

Cruise ships can not have standard chlorinated pools because they have to be able to drain the pools for numerous reasons. Most importantly, for safety, is to avoid free-surface effect in rough seas.

Uuugghhhh, not quite correct.

Over the past several years, the cost of desalinating sea water has skyrocketed with the high cost of fuel. In many ports it is now less expensive to bunker fresh water at the pier than it is to produce it ourselves at sea.

In the Caribbean today, most of the fresh water on a ship was purchased in port.

It is true that we do not have "standard chlorinated pools" on ships. We are required by USPH to use far more chlorine and bromine in our pools than most pools ashore.

And yes, we do often drain the pools during rough weather, and also to dump the pollution into the sea and re-fill the pools.

Travelers as individuals are usually rather clever and intelligent.

But when you get them into a semi-organized group, on a cruise, they become a panicky herd of dumb cattle.

I sailed in Hawaii for many years.

For many people, a Hawaii cruise is a once in a lifetime experience. They want to get the most out of this unique experience.

Every time my ship called at Hilo, passengers found 2 basic choices on the pier:

1. A $10 bus ride to see, visit, and experience the longest erupting volcano in modern history. People on this excursion could actually walk right up to the flowing lava, and take great photos of the lava exploding as it entered the sea.Truly a once in a lifetime experience.

2. A free shuttle bus to the local WalMart.

I loved to watch the pier from my office as the passengers disembarked the ship. Nearly every one paused for just a few seconds, had to think for a moment, then quickly headed for the WalMart shuttle bus. The WalMart bus was always packed. The $10 Volcano Bus always only half full at best. The mental processes that caused this to happen are beyond my comprehension.

Oh boy, not what I want to hear. I hope someone out there may have more info on the subject. Perhaps the cruise line has more insight on this matter. Seems a bit unreasonable to me.

The Canadians do this because the USA first started doing it to Canadians trying to enter the USA. Seems very reasonable to me.

My ship calls at Canadian ports every week during the summer season.

Every week, on the day before we arrive in Canada, we receive a list of passengers who are to be interviewed by Canadian Immigration. It is normally between 4 and 12 passengers.

We are instructed to block these people at the gangway until the authorities have interviewed them. We are also forbidden to tell the pax what we are up to.

These passengers are usually quite surprised and sometimes upset that we will not let them go ashore - especially if they have booked shore tours.

The officials interview them one at a time, which can take quite a bit of time.

Some are interviewed in their cabins, sometimes accompanied by a cabin search.

Others are interviewed in a conference room.

Generally most of them are informed that they will not be allowed to leave the ship in Canada. Our security staff are told that the ship will get a large fine and the passengers will be arrested if they do manage to get ashore.

Very rarely a passenger who has been interviewed is then allowed to go ashore.

About once a month one of the interviewed passengers is taken off in handcuffs and does not return to the ship.

The Canadian officials are very nice, but also very secretive about the details. We rarely get any explanations as to what is really going on.

It all has to do with taxes:

In Europe a cruise ship itinerary has to include a non EU port, if the cruise line can claim tax free status...good for the overall profits as well that tax and duty free stores can stay open during the entire voyage.

 

Non EU ports include:

Norway

Canary Islands, even that they belong to Spain

Channel Islands

Gibraltar, often ships make only a "technical" stop there.

Monaco

 

Now it becomes clear why these ports are skipped so often.

 

Just a point of interest: Since Malta joined the EU in 2004, the number of arrivals has dropped by 50 %!

 

Since the unrest in Northern Africa, cruise lines are now in desperate search of non EU ports, and often will include them in their itinerary, but never really intend to "make port" there.

This is nonsense.

I have been sailing ships in the Med for over 30 years, and have never heard of this requirement.

My ship has also never followed any regulation like this.

At my staff meeting this morning we had a very good laugh over this fiction.

Of the lines we have sailed we prefer the food on Celebrity above the others. Now for my opinion to help you at all, I need to include why.

 

Celebrity spends more per passenger on food than other mainstream cruise lines. This is clear when looking at the cuts of meat they offer, the quality/variety of produce etc. Menus are more inventive and have greater variety. This is true if comparing the main dining rooms to those on the other mainstream lines or comparing specialty dining.

Celebrity USED to spend more per passenger on food than any other mainstream cruise line.

They held that #1 position for years.

Since 2008 they have cut that spending more and more until they are now in third place.

Holland America and Princess now vie for the First Place position, depending on ship and itinerary.

Ferraris right to charge what they want for their cars,

McDonalds right to charge what they want for their food.

airlines right to charge what they want for their flights and

photographer's right to charge what they want for their photos

 

But that being said, I'd like to ask BruceMuzz:

How much does it cost Ferrari's a car?

How much does it cost McDonalds a burger?

How much does it cost an airline a flight?

How much does a photo costs to a photographer?

 

I really don't know how the world should be run, but I know when a price is exaggerated big time, don't you?

Mario,

Perhaps you don't really know when a photo price is being exaggerated big time.

Those Black and White photos must be hand printed and hand developed in large quantities of photo chemistry.

When you buy a black and white photo at Walmart, they just dump the used chemistry down the drain when they are finished. It costs them nearly nothing.

On my ship we must pay local waste handlers US$85 per gallon to dispose of our waste chemistry. Last cruise we disposed of 850 gallons at a cost of over US$72,000.

Should we increase your cruise price, or the price of your drink to pay for that, or should we charge the people who want the photos?

By the way, the cost of making a McDonalds burger is the same as the selling price.

A large Coke at McDonalds costs less than 5 cents to make and they charge you $2.

Yes, we did it too,and purchased $550 of pics! We really suffered sticker shock. We did submit a comment to Holland America and got no response, zero, zilch. At least you got some action. I think they would get twice the number of purchasers and twice the number of happy purchasers if they lowered their prices by half!

I think that the Ferrari company would get twice the number of purchasers and twice the number of happy purchasers if they lowered their prices by half!

I think that McDonalds would get twice the number of purchasers and twice the number of happy purchasers if they lowered their prices by half!

I thnk that the airlines would get twice the number of purchasers and twice the number of happy purchasers if they lowered their prices by half!

I think it's a crying shame that people like us - who really know how the world should be run - are too busy taking cruises and posting on Cruisecritic, while those know-nothings are in charge of everything instead.

One wonders if one of the specialty restaurants aboard would think to offer "real" Indian or Japanese food? That way the masses can obliviously slurp their gruel at the troughs and we who are in the know can get a decent meal.:rolleyes:

 

BTW, I consider myself part of the "masses", and am appreciative of whatever efforts a line makes toward expanding the horizons of those who might never try something different. There is always feedback and input to influence a line to tweak their menus where you think improvement might be made.

 

Bruce, perhaps you'd be happier working for a more upscale line?

I already do work for an upscale line.

But I am quite happy about it.

"Let's just put a trough of baked beans down the center of the room and garnish it with a couple of dead dogs".

.................................Basil Fawlty in "Gourmet Night"

I agree, the so called 'Indian Cuisine' on the ships is a joke.. With so many talented chef's I really don't know why they 'dumb it down' either serve a nice flavourful Curry dish or not at all... They really need to kick it up a notch or two!!

We have to dumb it down for the MASSES.

We do have very talented chefs on our ships, but when we are serving all of humanity on a mass market ship, we have to reach down to the lowest common denominator.

It's not only the food. We also must "dumb down" the drinks, entertainmant, tours, and events so that they all appeal to everyone from Joe Six Pack to the Simpsons.

If we offered real Indian Food, or real Japanese Food, most of the passengers wouldn't eat it.

When we offer top flight wines and top shelf spirits, nobody buys them.

Hairy legs contests are standing room only; the jazz trio plays to an empty room.

The best quality tours rarely sell.

Nobody ever lost any money UNDERestimating the taste of the North American public.

That's why McDonalds and WalMart are king.

But some people can't cruise just anytime of the year...

 

The side effect of pulling all your ships to Europe? Alienate American families who mainly cruise in the Summer.

Another side effect of pulling all your ships to Europe is alienating all those American families who cannot really afford to cruise and replacing them with the European families who have far more money - and are willing to spend it on a cruise.

Please save the daggers.

What is it with the Indian food on the buffets? Our last cruise had it on the tables for lunch almost everyday. Sorry It's nasty ! We were on Carnival for 5 days. I can understand one day. But 4 out of 5 Come on! And it looks like NCL also has it on there buffet. I just can't take another cruise filled with Curry ...I hope they don't serve in morning noon and night.

Am I the only one who doesn't like it ??

Please tell me I will only see it 1 day on my next trip? (ncl-jewel)

You are not the only person who does not like Indian Food - but you may be surprised to learn that there are more than 1 BILLION people on this planet who quite like it.

If you chartered your own yacht, you could decide what you and everyone else would have to eat every day.

But when you go Mass Market, you are unfortunately going to have to put up with the Masses - and with what they like to eat as well.

This is interesting.

 

 

http://www.cruising.org/vacation/about-clia

 

 

The Cruise Lines International Association looks like a trade association lobby group. I have no idea what the association does, or what its internal politics look like.

 

 

What Bruce needs to do is to show the link to the guest satisfaction numbers that he mentioned. Were they done by CLIA, independent group or internal company?

 

 

I have linked the summary from the World Travel Awards (London based). Here is an analysis on the Conde Nast survey.

 

 

Let's have a careful look at the Conde Nast poll that Bruce has little regard for.

 

 

In the design/layout section, Celebrity Solstice (94.9), Disney Wonder (93.3), and Independence of the Seas (95.5) score highly. By comparison, the HAL ships score around a mediocre 80 points. Accurate?

 

 

In this poll, HAL's strong points are itinerary and service. But, dragged down by excursions and activities. Looks right to me.

 

 

Oddly enough, the Prinsendam stands out from other HAL ships. It scores among the best in itinerary, service and food. Why can't all HAL ships be this way? Any comments from Bruce?

Prinsendam is easy.

It is a small ship that offers primarily longer cruises where the passengers and staff are together for extended periods.

Service on a small ship is automatically perceived as better, where the service staff have more time per guest; service on longer cruises is automatically perceived as better, since the staff have more opportunity to interact with the guests.

The other HAL ships - or any large cruise line ships - cannot be this way because they are forced to operate at a profit, to finance small ships like Prinsendam that cannot make a profit.

HappyInVan,

I notice a distinct trend here. You are enamoured of small ships that are more costly to cruise on, and offer superior services and amenities. And that's great. I agree that they are marvelous values - if you have the money

But you err in assuming that a large segment of the population agrees with your personal desires. You may be correct that they DREAM about sailing on those ships. But when it comes time to commit with a credit card or check, they vote with their wallets.

The North American cruising Public wants a Rolls Royce cruise experience, but the vast majority of them are only willing or able to pay for the Chevrolet version.

Wal-mart did not become the most successful retailer in American history due to their high quality and service.

McDonalds is not the most successful restaurant chain in the world based on great food and service.

If the reality was otherwise, there would be hundreds of small elegant boutique cruise ships out there.

But they don't exist -except in very limited quantities. And their owners cannot manage fill them up. And their owners cannot manage to make a profit.

At the end of the day, a cruise line needs to make a profit if they hope to remain in business. I hope you understand that.

Sounds like Bruce works for a cruise line. Which one? Hope Bruce owns up! Maybe we can ask a few questions.

 

The luxury hotels/ships don't need to fill every bed. The Silver Cloud runs at +90% capacity. They always have a few extra rooms if guests are unhappy about their assigned rooms. After all, the Cloud is the same age as the Ryndam.

 

The luxury companies are able and willing to maintain their standards. They understand their business. Do you understand your business?

 

In the World Travel Awards (London, England), travel agents rate the best products in the travel industries.

 

http://www.worldtravelawards.com/winners2010-1

 

In 2010, these travel professionals gave the nod to RCL (Leading Cruise Brand) , Seabourn (Leading Luxury Cruise Line), Silversea (Leading Small Ships Cruise Line), and HAL (Leading Green Cruise Line).

 

In fact, Silversea has won awards all the way back to 2001. By comparison, the Carnival brand has few awards.

Sorry, I am not allowed to divulge my employer.

It is true that the luxury cruise lines do not have to worry about filling all their beds. They cannot make a profit even if they do fill them all, so it becomes a non-issue.

This is a situation that everyone who can afford it should take advantage of.

The small Seabourn ships can carry around 230 passengers, but rarely sail with more than 150. They don't have to worry about making a profit because the profits from the big ships in the Carnival Corp fleet finance their losses.

It is all fine and good to win awards - but those awards do not pay the mortgage on the ship, nor dividends to investors.

I have been in the Travel Industry for over 30 years and never heard of the World Travel Awards.

However if you do a search on CLIA, you will find that they are the largest recognized organization for International Cruise Lines on the planet. They represent all the major cruise lines; that is, they are non-partisan within the industry.

If you dig a bit deeper into CLIA, you will find that Carnival Cruise Line (not Carnival Corp) has enjoyed the top Guest Satisfaction Ratings in the cruise industry for the past 15 consecutive years.

Dig even a bit deeper and you will find that Carnival Cruise Line has also been the most financially successful cruise line during that same period.

So why is it that the more pedigreed members of CLIA; Silver Sea, Seabourn, Crystal, Sea Dream, Azamara, and Oceania, were not recognized by the cruising public as superior in Guest Satisfaction or in financial success?

By the way, I do not work for Carnival Cruise Line, and have never set foot on a Carnival Ship. Nor do I plan to.

So if the small elegant cruise lines appeal so strongly to the growing population of affluent travelers, why is it that they have so few ships, are rarely full, do not rate very well in Guest Satisfaction, and cannot turn a profit?

Is that true?

 

 

Let's look at a hotel example. Ritz Carlton charges from $500 per nite. They have expanded to 74 properties. The property owners must be making money from combined revenues on rooms, dining and beverages. There is a business plan.

**Yes, there is a business plan. Charge $500 per night for a bed only. Everything else (food, entertainment, transportation) is extra. It's called nickel and diming in the cruise industry. Ritz Carltons - despite their elegance - cannot even manage to hit 50% occupancy at most of their properties. There are not enough people willing to pay so much for a superior product.**

 

And, Ritz Carlton must be making enough as a profit center to keep its owner (Marriott) happy.

** And Seabourn must be making enough profit ($0.00) to keep it's owner (Carnival Corp) happy.**

 

 

Among the luxury cruise companies, Crystal launched Serenity (new) in 2003. Seven Seas added the Voyager (new) in 2003,

**Crystal is owned by Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), the world's largest and wealthiest shipping company. When I worked for them, we were rarely able to reach 60% occupancy on our ships. They only built Serenity after they re-cycled Harmony to their subsidiary brand. They knew that demand could not fill an extra ship. Crystal has NEVER in the history of the company made a penny of profit. Luckily the owners don't care.**

 

 

Oceania has two ships Riveria/Mariner (66,000 tons) under construction. Barely making a profit? Seabourn's Sojourn and Odyssey (both new) entered service in 2009/10. Silver Spirit (new) 36,000 tons entered service in 2009.

**Yes, Oceania is barely making a profit. Seabourn's newest ships are making 50% occupancy, despite the fact that they are truly elegant vessels. These new ships are bleeding more money than their smaller sisters. Thank God that the other Carnival Brands are so profitable and well able to cover the bleeding at seabourn.

Silver Sea had to tie up 2 of their new ships and leave them empty for most of the past decade. They just couildn't fill them. The Italian Billionaire owner of the company just cannot admit that his product will never make a profit. But he doesn't really need the money anyway.**

 

These are 20-50% expansions in capacity for these small companies. Insignificant?

**Yes a 20%-50% expansion of these tiny companies is truly insignificant. They have added a few hundred beds to the cruise industry total capacity of over one half million beds.**

 

 

Don't have any illusions. The well-to-do know about value. They won't put up with a feeble refurbishment of an old ship. In fact, the Silversea Shadow and Whisper are radical redesigns of its earlier ships.

** These are beautiful and elegant vessels that cannot even make 50% occupancy. As yet, they have never ever made a profit.**

 

 

That said, the value-premium customers are less demanding. IMO, you could get away with a old hull and superstructure. Just add some glitter and wood. You will have to modernize the plumbing/electrical/mechanical systems.

** Actually, you cannot get away with an old hull and superstructure. The new SOLAS regulations that are kicking in withi increasing speed and regularity are forcing the operators of the older ships to take them out of service. The new requirements require a complete re-construction of the vessel, costing more than building a new one.**

 

 

I hear that the Ryndam is still using DOS in some of its electronic systems!

At the end of the day, the small elegant lines cannot fill their very few beds on a limited number of small ships. That equates no no profit.

No profit eventually equates to bankruptcy.

As far as I know, the parent company of both Oceania Cruises & RSSC is Prestige Cruise Holdings. PCH is a private company that was formed in '07 to manage select assets of Apollo Management LP, a private equity investment firm. I don't know how any stockbroker, sane or otherwise, could recommend purchasing stock in a private company.

 

Prestige Cruise Holdings is led by Chairman & CEO Frank Del Rio, founder of Oceania Cruises. Earlier this year, FDR announced that an IPO was "a very likely possibility" which have put them into the public domain. Nothing has come of that to date.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/cruise_industry_report/2010/03/cruise_industry_sails_towards_ipos.html

 

Oh - and while I agree that Conde Nast may not be the arbiter of all things cruise-related, I disagree that cruise lines don't pay any attention to CN ratings. Witness the bragging of most cruise lines who receive any positive mention in a Conde Nast survey!

I also disagree that cruise lines don't pay any attention to CN ratings. That's why I never said that we do not pay attention to them. I said, "Their demographic is of little interest to the major cruise lines." Conde Nast doesn't have enough readers under the age of 1,000 to make them of any value to the cruise industry.

But ALL the cruise lines pay attention to ANY positive press we can get.

It matters little whether the good ratings or press come from a passe magazine like Conde Nast, Chicken Noodle News, or a "ratings for hire" magazine like Porthole.

Repetitive? Really? Here's some additional material to work with.

 

 

Conde Nast did a survey in 2010 of its readers. Who has the most highly rated ships?

 

 

http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/502255

 

 

 

 

The small ship category is dominated by SeaDream, SEABOURN, Regent and SEA CLOUD, with Silversea bringing up the rear. That tells you who has that special experience.

 

 

Interestingly, RCL dominates the megaship category. Not a single Carnival brand ship in the top 15. Carnival's upmarket Cunard Queen Mary 2 is at an embarrassing #14. The Celebrity Solstice and Disney Wonder take the top price.

 

 

Here's the interesting part. In the broad Large Ship category (40k to 100k tons), HAL sweeps the bottom half of the top 25. The Prinsendam is rated #6 besides Oceania and Regent.

 

 

Clearly, people were impressed by their HAL cruise experience (relative to the Carnival, Norwegian and RCL competitors of the same size). But, they're not willing to pay a premium price. And, HAL isn't trying to maintain a premium price!

 

 

So, this paradox is at the heart of the differing POV (Is HAL a premium experience/line?) in this thread. What are the psychological factors at work?

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1318690

HappyInVan,

There are a few assumptions being made here that need clarification:

1. Conde Nast Magazine is somehow a good measure of public opinion.

Conde Nast readership is tiny, fragmented - and shrinking fast. Their demographic is of little interest to the major cruise lines.

2. Conde Nast Magazine is up to speed with the international cruise industry.

For the past several years, Conde Nast's winners in the "Big Ship" Category were not really very big at all. Conde Nast defines a Big Ship as up to 100,000 tons. That was true 10 years ago, but no longer.

3. There are many people willing and able to pay for a small ship cruise experience.

If that was true, the cruise lines would be building as many small ships as possible, as quickly as possible. The actual number of small cruise ships in the world today is only a few dozen (most of them very old), The actual number of new small ships built in the past decade is fewer than 10. The number of planned new small ships in the next 5 years is Zero.

4. Small Cruise Ship lines make money.

Despite their rather high per diems, Silver Sea, Sea Dream, Crystal, and Seabourn have never - in the history of their existence - made a penny of profit for their owners. We are extremely lucky that the families and corporations that own these companies have extremely large wallets and even bigger egos that compel them to continue bleeding money for the privilege of owning a top quality cruise operation.

Regent and Oceania have managed to eke out some very small profits in recent years, but not nearly enough to justify the massive investment in their ships. No sane stockbroker would ever recommend that you purchase stock in their parent company.

Those small cruise ship operators who insist on continuing business as a hobby or a charity deserve all the thanks we can give them. But sadly, they are never going to make significant progress in this industry.

What identifies a cruise virgin?

Walking up to the Captain, asking him who is driving the ship, and expecting him to laugh at a really stupid joke that he has heard more than 10,000 times.

Stumbling around when the ship is rolling and saying to everyone, "I haven't been drinking".

Demanding to speak to the Captain when your toilet paper is too rough, your bed is too hard/too soft, or you cannot get the dining table you want.

Using your cabin vacuum toilet as a waste disposal and then complaining when it gets stopped up.

Leaving your balcony door open and complaining that your cabin is too warm, and the cigarette smoke from your neighbor's cabin is being sucked into your cabin.

Complaining that the ship is moving or creaking when you are cruising in heavy seas.

Complaining that there is vibration in a cabin or dining room that is located directly above the engine room.

Complaining when your partially obstructed stateroom is partially obstructed.

Rushing to the dining room to stand in line for 20 minutes instead of having a drink first and waiting for the newbies to finish wasting their cruise standing in line.

Walking through the Casino and complaining about the smoke, instead of using the beautiful outside Promenade Deck with the wonderful fresh sea air.

Complaining that the ship is too big. It is the same size as when you booked the cruise.

Complaining that your cabin doesn't look as big as it did in the brochure picture.

Asking an officer to turn on the wave making machine in the swimming pool.

Why would any human choose to eat a chicken's abortion? An egg.

Why would any human choose to drink milk that a mother cow produced to fatten a baby cow?

Why would any human agree to eat the ground up nose, eyelids, lips, cheeks, face, tongue, and chin of a cow? Hamburger.

The USDA knows that cockroaches love coffee beans. When the American coffee makers receive bags of coffee beans from the tropics, there are thousands of cockroaches in those bags. There is no safe method to remove the roaches, so they are just roasted along with the beans.

The average ground coffee in America contains 18% roasted and ground cockroaches.

Google this if you do not believe it.

The USDA knows that ice cream makers have a very difficult time keeping insects away from the sweetened custard that becomes ice cream. When they inspect commercial ice cream, they cut one cubic inch samples, melt them, and place them under a microscope.

If they find 199 or fewer insect parts in that melted cubic inch, the ice cream is deemed fit for human consumption. If they find 200 or more insect parts, the ice cream is considered unsafe for human consumption and is destroyed.

I want to know who decided that more than 1 insect part is OK.

I also want to know who decided that 199 insect parts are OK, but 200 parts are unsafe.

Google this one too.

Larger passengers are becoming a major problem for the cruise lines.

Today's cruise ship is built with stability calculations from the last century.

The designers assume that the average pasenger - and all his luggage - weigh 120 kilograms.

That's 264 pounds - TOTAL - per passenger.

On a cruise ship today, how many passengers - with all their belongings and suitcases - weigh more than 264 pounds??

The answer is - just about all of them.

When you have a ship with 3,000 or 5,000 passengers - most of whom are far in excess of the 264 pound stability calculations - how many additional TONS of uncalculated weight are affecting the stability of the ship?

The people on the bridge - and their stability computers - have no idea.

Ship's elevators were designed under the assumption that the average rider weighs 150 pounds.

Nearly any of today's cruisers over the age of 12 weighs more than that.

Ship's elevators are getting slower and slower because they can no longer carry as many passengers as in the past. At the same time, the number of passengers onboard is increasing. And at the same time, the number of passengers who cannot or will not walk up or down one flight of stairs has increased.

Dining room chairs can no longer accommodate the larger bottoms being squeezed into them.

Cruise lines are being forced to replace all their chairs with armless ones - to accommodate the wider bottoms, and reinforced to handle the rapidly increasing weights.

Handrails in corridors are designed to assist passengers who are unsure of their footing when the seas are rough. But the anchors for these rails are aluminum, which is not very strong.

We are seeing many more cases where larger passengers pull the railings out of the bulkheads when they try to steady themselves. This is especially alarming as the railings are most needed by these larger people.

Passenger corridors have legal minimum widths. But these widths are based on passenger sizes from a century ago. On many ships today, 2 large passengers cannot pass each other in the corridor. This is not only uncomfortable, but a serious safety hazard. In an emergency, passenger evacuation would be seriously delayed with congestion in narrow corridors.

Cruise line aircon standards are carefully guarded secrets. But most cruise lines have a standard of around 74 - 75 degrees F. Larger people get overheated far more easily than smaller ones - and it takes them far longer to cool off. The cruise lines need tro re-think these standards and consider keeping their ships cooler to protect the health of the larger cruisers.

Cruise line bed frames are made from steel. But they are rated for weights from a century ago. We are seeing big increases in the number of bent and broken bed frames. The combined weight of the users exceeds what the frames were designed for.

Do you ever read the lifeboat capacities, or notice the tiny white "bottoms" painted in the tender boat and lifeboat seats?

We always laugh when we use a tender boat for passengers. After struggling to cram 100 large passengers into a tender boat, we ask ourselves how we could ever get the 200 passengers the boat is rated for (along with their lifejackets) into that boat. The answer of course, is that it would be impossible. Today's passengers are far larger than the passengers the lifeboats were designed for.

Even if a ship claims to have double the passenger capacity in it's lifeboats, that probably still is not enough room for today's supersized cruisers.

The cruise lines really need to re-think their ship designs, and come up with solutions that cater to the actual passengers on our ships.

Did you think it was just a coincidence that no cruise line will issue these poison patches on any of their ships?

EVERY ship's doctor I have worked with over the past 3 decades has recommended against them.

I have lived in Tokyo for 30 years.

Yes, the train stations can be a bit challenging at times.

But the station staff are very good about helping out.

Tomorrow I am going from Shinjuku Eki through Yokohama to the beach in Enoshima with beach chairs, cooler, radio, towels, etc.

There is never a problem getting them on the train.

You can be a traveler or a tourist.

I recommend the former.

Thankyou BruceMuzz and world citizen for your replies.

 

Just another question regarding the train option. Is access to the subways and train platform via stairs?

 

I'll have another look at the limousine bus option and limo option too.

 

Thanks again

Regards

CRUISING ALONG:)

All Tokyo stations have elevators and escalators, as well as the stairs.

We are cruising on Legends of the Sea 18th May from Tokyo ( Yokohama)

to Shanghai. We will be spending 2 days in Tokyo before the cruise.

As we will both have luggage ( a suitcase each) plus backpack what would be the best way, less hassle, of getting from Tokyo to Yokohama?

All replies gratefully accepted.

Thankyou in Advance.

 

Regards

CRUISING ALONG:)

There are dozens of trains every hour between Tokyo Station, Shinjuku Station, and Yokohama.

Some are "Locals" (Futsuu in Japanese); slow and inexpensive (around US$8, and about 45 minutes)

Some are "Express" (Kuuko in Japanese); faster and sometimes more pricy (around US$15, and about 25 minutes)

Some are "Bullet Trains" (Shinkansen in Japanese); very fast and costly (around US$40, and about 15 minutes)

There are also limousine buses from most major train stations and hotels. Not very costly and perhaps a 60 - 90 minute trip.

You could take a taxi, but it would be very costly and really wouldn't save you any time.

It's OK to cruise to Alaska in January too, although understandably not too popular.