chengkp75

I don't believe it is a full 360, but sometimes when a ship backs out of a berth, and needs to turn 90* to starboard to enter the channel, they will instead turn 270* to port, as the wind makes it easier to make the longer turn with the wind, as opposed to against the wind. And, I doubt it was a "satellite calibration", it was more likely "boxing the compass" or "swinging the ship" to determine the magnetic compass deviation from the gyro compass, which is then recorded on the compass card on the bridge, and if the deviation has changed drastically or become very large, they can adjust the "navigators balls", those iron spheres on each side of the magnetic compass.

This is why most cruise lines require you to toss the cremains in a biodegradable urn. It is just recently that I've heard that Carnival allows actual scattering. The ceremony is typically done on the aft mooring station, so low down and aft.

As I've said before, a Gross Tonnage/Pax ratio is a somewhat distorted measure of "spaciousness". A more accurate measurement would be Net Tonnage/Pax, as this measures only the passenger spaces' volume, but Net Tonnage is not a figure that is readily available to the public, as it does not show "who's got the biggest". Then again, things like Oasis class ships having the open Boardwalk and Central Park areas provide passenger space without being included in even Gross Tonnage.

I surely don't, and as the person who saw and read every single work request from the hotel side, I can say that I don't remember more than one or two in 4 years. And, I would stack my hotel engineers up against any in the international fleet, and I worked with them as well. And, just to help you with the math, that one shower you advised the OP to run for an hour is the equivalent of 3600 dripping faucets.

Wow. So glad that I worked my entire career in an industry that matured enough to get away from a "blame culture" when an incident happens, and move to a "what is the root cause and how can we fix it" culture.

Unfortunately, some of the best restaurants, like Grill Room, Scales, Street & Co, David's, are not open for lunch, so cruise visitors don't get the full benefit of our great restaurant experience. But, yes, with two ships in port, the downtown and Old Port areas are crowded. Make a reservation.

I don't know why there is the "K" factor involved in calculating GT, but prior to the introduction of Gross Tonnage and Net Tonnage in 1982, there were several methods of calculating tonnage for vessels, used variously around the world, and the IMO's decision to go to GT and NT was to make it all uniform. A lot of it dates to the change from sail to steam, as steamships had to have more space that could not carry cargo, so using the total volume of the ship was not fair (also why Net Tonnage came into being, being the volume of cargo carrying space only).

Just a note. While the Cunard ships in 1958 were registered by "Gross Registered Tonnage", that term has been made obsolete in the 1980's by the IMO, and ships now use "Gross Tonnage". GRT was an actual measure of the ship's internal volume, while GT takes that volume measurement and applies a non-linear factor to it, to calculate a unitless index of the ship's size. So, comparing GRT to GT, while accurate to an extent, is not an exact comparison. The factor applied to calculate GT from volume increases logarithmically with volume, meaning that larger ships have a GT that is further from the actual volume than smaller ships, further skewing the comparison.

This is changing dramatically with the new California pricing law. Under the old model, the cruise lines tried to pack as much into the "port taxes and fees" as they could, since it was allowed to be broken out and not be listed as part of the advertised fare, in order to keep the advertised fare as low as possible, for marketing reasons. This led to a class action lawsuit a couple decades ago against NCL, which limited what cruise lines could include in this "broken out" "taxes and fees". Only charges that were true "pass through" charges from passenger to a third party could be included, and the charges needed to be "instrumental to the voyage". This meant that charges to enter a port (pilotage, tugs, wharfage) or governmental taxes (passenger head tax) could be included, but optional things like garbage removal charges or charges for fresh water, or even port security could not be included. Under the new law, since all mandatory "taxes and fees" have to be included in the advertised fare, there is less incentive for the cruise lines to "pack" the "taxes and fees". And, since the "port taxes and fees" are refundable when a port is missed, there is now an incentive, and a way, to minimize these "port taxes and fees". The cruise lines under Carnival Corp have now apparently reduced the "port taxes and fees" to only the charges actually paid to a governmental agency (like a port authority) such as wharfage and head tax, so that only those are refundable. They have now created a new category "required fees and expenses", which encompasses things like tugs, pilots, and likely a lot of what was not allowed under the old "port taxes and fees". Notice that there is no mention of "port" in this new category, so these charges are not specific to any port, and are subject to penalty if the cruise is canceled. While everything is still listed under the full advertised price (base fare, "required fees and expenses", and "port taxes and fees"), this allows the cruise line to raise "required fees and expenses" as needed, while keeping the base fare as low as possible, and blaming the increase in cost on "others" who impose these "fees and expenses". And, since they are no longer allowed to be broken out as "pass through" charges, there is no regulation of what these "required fees and expenses" are. As to what the "port taxes and fees" used to be, and what the "port taxes and fees" + "required fees and expenses" are, some are flat rate based on ship size (length or tonnage) like wharfage or pilotage, some are based on passenger count, but all are divided up by the number of passengers. As a previous poster has stated, if the ship does not charge passengers enough to cover the flat rate fees, they swallow the loss, but if they charge too much, sometimes they adjust these by refunds during the cruise. Breaking down what is exactly included in these charges is way too much like work for this retired mariner to do.

I didn't say anything about customer relations. I asked why it would be NCL's fault. That taxi break down isn't the owner's fault (if it was maintained properly), but as you say, good business relations would require compensation.

How so? If you do all of the scheduled maintenance on your car, and it still breaks down, is it your fault?

Size really is of no account. And, a newer ship should have less ground faults. I don't think "people believe there is a bigger problem" with Icon, it's just that when it happens to you, you think it is caused by the ship's design. But, I don't see massive amounts of reports of appliances not working on one particular ship, but lots of folks will chime in with problems they've had on other ships as well.

Many of these items will work on one ship and not another, or even work one day on Icon, for instance, and then not work the next day. The problem is not with the ship, it is whether or not the ship has a ground fault anywhere on the ship, in any equipment, that could affect the electronics in your hair appliance. Ground faults are serious things for ship's engineers, and are usually traced down and cleared as soon as possible, which is why your appliance may not work one day, and then start working the next.

As noted in the thread linked above, the problem lies with ceramic heating elements in straighteners and curling irons.

The lawsuit was for the "representation" of the reliability of the azipods (i.e."the pod should not require major overhaul until the 5 year dry dock interval"). Now, if NCL did not adjust their maintenance schedule based on their own experience, that is on NCL. I know that RCI has adjusted the interval on their Oasis class ships (that was the cause of the dry dock collapse in Freeport) to be less than the normal dry dock interval, based on their own fleet experience.

Never seen that in 46 years at sea, 4 on cruise ships. Stewards are only too ready to report this, and the engineers that I've had consider this to be just as critical as stopped up toilets. Must be difficult working for a cruise line that doesn't supply sufficient engine staff to deal with all repairs. As I've said, never seen or heard of this. We had enough staff to repair these leaks, and we were paying US wages, so the company had a large incentive to cut staff. Just as a note, a dripping faucet typically leaks about 30 gallons/month. A shower uses 150 gallons/hour.

Yes, that water, that takes a lot of energy to produce, and treat again after your wasting it.

If it is one that heats the water to evaporate it, it is not allowed. If it is an ultrasonic mister, then it would be okay. The AC system is designed to produce air well below the dew point. This is one of the causes of the much mentioned "cruise crud" or "cruise cough".

It's considered to be "greener", and it allows discharge of food waste in areas where the ground up slurry isn't allowed.

I'd be surprised if you could see the plume, as it is discharged 10-15 feet below the surface and ahead of the propellers. And at night.

The thing is, the type "C" plug is still legal in many countries around the world, even though it is ungrounded. However, using it for a multi-outlet adapter is risky. The two pin, flat (the insert does not fill the round recess) version of type "C" is supposed to be limited to 2.5 amps (600w) total power, so using it for hair dryers, etc, is not recommended.

I think you mean "C/E/F" not "C/D/E". But, anyway, type "C" is not grounded, while "E" and "F" are grounded in different locations, but using a type "E" plug in a type "F" outlet, or vice versa, will eliminate the grounding feature of the plug, as the plug grounding will not match the outlet grounding.

Incinerator ash is not allowed to be dumped at sea, it must be landed for disposal.

There is a new system as well, that takes the ground food waste slurry and sends it to a "micro digester" which is like a chest freezer sized septic tank where bacteria digest the food waste before essentially water is discharged overboard. I believe Carnival has done this, or is doing this, to all ships in the fleet, and I believe RCI and others are using this on newer ships.

The ships have a central garbage disposal system. This takes water from a tank, and pumps it to every garbage disposal on the ship (one at each dishwashing machine, one at each potwashing station, etc. The food waste from the plates and pots is washed down into this disposal, that grinds up the food, and the water carries the waste back to the tank. Leftover food, and discarded food that was put into garbage cans at the dining venues, is all taken to the garbage area, placed in a walk-in refrigerated garbage room, until the evening. A night shift crew member (or a couple of crew) take all the garbage cans of food and feed it into disposals that are located near the garbage rooms. When the ground garbage is returned to the tank by the circulating water, it is separated from the water by a filter screen. The water is reused, pumping it back to the disposals around the ship, and the ground food waste (about the consistency of oatmeal) is transferred to another storage tank, and then pumped overboard at night. Some ships will dry out the "oatmeal" and burn it in the incinerators, rather than pumping overboard. Either is allowed. As noted, I think the comment about using it in the buffet was in jest, but as pointed out, it is not done. There are no "leftovers" on a cruise ship. Once food has left "temperature control" (a piece of equipment where the temperature can be monitored and controlled (an oven or hot box, or a refrigerator), it goes on "time control", meaning it must be discarded after 4 hours on time control, and cannot be returned to "temperature control" again (can't be put back in a fridge and start the clock over). Places like the steam tables in the buffet, or the plating stations in the galley are not "temperature control devices", and so once it is on the line it has to go after 4 hours.