bstrauss3

Temu sells a small hand-held welder... pack it for next time.

On 3/23/2024 at 4:14 PM, chamima said:

 

If it's a closed loop cruise (beginning and ending in US) you don't really need a passport. Take it anyways! But if you have one, take a certified birth certificate and driver's license also. (I over prepare)

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=closed+loop+cruise

 

And apply for your renewal as soon as you get back!!!!

 

****

That may technically be true, but it's poor advise.

You should ***always*** bring your passport and it needs to be valid six months after the end of the cruise.

If something happens and you have to leave the ship, you will need your passport for return travel to the US.

There are different speeds where the ship is most efficient depending on how many generators are brought on line. 

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:374588/zoom:14

The Italian article, translated says they found contamination in one tank and it has already been fixed.

Almost certainly there is something else they found,

2 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

IOW -- It's like the post office.

It's not. The post office is a separate corporation that is wholly owned by the government.

Passport processing is just a Department of State function. Where the money comes from and goes to is accounting, not within the definition of essential or non-essential services.

There was a hope that processing times would drop towards the end of the peak summer travel season, but that does not seem to have happened. And if the idjits manage to shutdown the government, it will take 3x the length of the shutdown to catch-up.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-apply/processing-times.html

Buy a new bag & help the world economy too....

NCLhad brought crew back to the ships when they were planning to restart.

They're now (re-)(re-)patriating them 

All NCL Non-Essential Crew To Be Repatriated Home by April 2021 | Crew Center (crew-center.com)

Speak to the Maître 'd when you first board. They will be able to show you the menus a day ahead so you can figure out how to accommodate your special needs. 

If the wheat rolls are you biggest issue, grab some off the buffet before dinner and bring them.

My table mates thought it was very unfair that I wouldn't share, but might drop cryptic hints at the end of dinner. Even for my wife...

Quoting the CDC order...

CDC-Conditional-Sail-Order_10_30_2020-p.pdf

Officially Carnival Corp. hasn't identified the impacted brand.

Suspicious coincidence???

I wonder, if they have to restore from backups will some people get refunds twice...

Truth to be told, Carnival Corp. has NOT identified the brand. 

That Princess has call center and computer problems at the same time and none of the other brands have any such reports is certainly suspicious... but...

3 hours ago, LeeW said:

Was going to suggest Renmar's extensive set of cabin view pictures on Google, but looks like they have taken down his site.  This is really the kind of thing that Cruise Critic should be hosting, but for some reason they don't.

The Internet Archive appears to have an old copy of his site (2017)

https://web.archive.org/web/20170228031528/sites.google.com/site/cabinviewbyrenmar/

We've done several holiday cruises. Usually one runs over Xmas and then the next runs over New Years.

For us the fun is watching as each day some additional decorations show up. You wake up one morning and there are a dozen holiday theme Gingerbread houses that weren't there the day before.

Another morning and the staircases are all covered with garlands and lights.

But nothing specifically with the menus.

4 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

I used to drink a fair amount of Diet Mountain Dew when I was working. I got tired of it disappearing from the refrigerator so I just kept it in a file drawer in my office and drank it warm. Caffeine and IT go so well together. 😎

I knew I had it bad when I would buy the 36 pack of Diet Dr Pepper from Costco and drink it warm... because i was too lazy to walk across the floor to the break room for ice.

One of my work mate always checked my supply hoping I had snuck a PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) in there. So towards the end of the project, I bought one, emptied the can through a hole cut with a Dremel, rinsed it out and left it there. Took him two 1/2 weeks to notice.

Nobody really knows ... when they started with the FCC it seemed quite generous - long period to use them, etc.

Now? Not so much...

The line will have to decide if it's more important to them (cash flow) to stick to the letter of the terms and risk alienating passengers (potential). Or now...

I would say zero. One of the questions in the CDC survey asks if you would sail if 3&4 were restricted to children

None of them will sail...

Crusing is just not a priority for the CDC and related national bodies..

First, CDC is too busy trying to kill off the parents of school age children.

More generally none of them have a clue how to make it safe to cruise. They're hoping the industry bodies can come up with something they can review, make a couple of tweaks to and endorse. But they aren't putting effort into it today.

Lastly, when they  restart, they will have to bring 100s or 1000s of crew from around the world to meet up with the ship(s) and then position for the first cruise. That will be almost as difficult an operation as the repatriation was.

Essentially ships are down close to minimal safe manning, that is enough officers for the bridge watch, engineering and other departments that must be manned. Lots of systems need their periodic routine maintenance regardless of whether they are being used or not. Plus some housekeeping staff to take care of the on-board crew.

I'm sure there is some poor soul running around the ship flushing every vacuum toilet every few days and running a little water in the sink to keep the p-traps full. Stuff like that.

And I'm sure there is some work going on to chip away at the never-ending list of minor glitches and non-critical stuff that just never gets done because something always bumps it. The pump on deck 7 that squeals is getting torn down and rebuilt properly because the plumbing crew isn't busy 24/7 fixing vacuum toilets that idiot passengers clog with everything under the sun.

The only way to go lower is to go to cold layup - drain all the systems and such. And even then you need a minimal crew for firewatch.

As they truly get closer to restarting cruising, you will see more engineering-types on board to make the 100s of modifications for COVID-19 safety. But that won't happen until the lines and CDC and other regulators get together and figure out what is required.

So does anyone else think they are selling Unicorn farts and Fairy glitter to pump up the stock price????

Just remember that cruising today is not what cruising was in our parents or grandparents time. It has constantly been evolving since it was first invented. Ships may need to be designed differently and laid out differently - the ship of 2020 is not the ship of 2010 nor 2000...

If there is money to be made, somebody will have a product to sell.

If they want to make an issue of it, for anything larger, you gave up the right to sue in favor of binding arbitration see 15(b)(ii):

https://www.princess.com/legal/passage_contract/pcl.html

"with the sole exception of claims brought and litigated in small claims court"

Now the interesting twist is "who pays the aribrator's fees" - google for DoorDash or this story: https://www.reuters.com/article/legal-us-otc-massarb/chegg-tries-a-new-way-to-avert-mass-arbitration-cancel-users-contracts-idUSKBN24333W

nobody knows... the rules aren't written yet and people are starting to try to figure out what is possible... 

For example, it's not only being six feet away from the next table, you actually have to be able to get to that table... so your aisles need to be wider too.

I just picked up dinner from our local Chinese restaurant. They're still to-go only. They could reopen for dine-in, but at 25% capacity - they only have 28 seats to begin with (your typical 1 bay wide strip mall place)...they could have a 4 top and a 3 top along one wall. That's it.... but... if you put the tables near the left wall, you can't safely get to the restroom. If you put them on the right wall, you can't exit/enter the kitchen. If you use only the two tables at the front, the left one is too close to the door.

I suspect if you are a licensed naval architect you are working 18 hour days and turning away business left and right.