chengkp75

Neither of which was caused by azipod issues.

Bingo

What was meant was that a "heavy lift ship" was used as there was no floating dry dock of suitable size. Vista was lifted while outside the port of Freeport, as the heavy lift needs more depth to submerge than a drydock.

Where was this said?

Except that based on a class action suit against NCL a couple decades ago, what is allowed to be included in "port taxes and fees" is strictly controlled, and is limited to direct pass through charges by governmental or quasi governmental agencies that are strictly related to the requirements for the ship entering the ports. And, has booking been stopped on this cruise one year in advance? Nope. Not sure how you can figure how many are actually going to sail on the cruise, even if nearly fully booked. Port fee refunds generally don't go out until the ship has sailed. The other fact is that the Panama Canal has just passed a new toll structure, to take effect on Jan 2023. I would expect that your port fees were calculated on the toll structure in place when you booked, and could be considerably higher next year.

Please elaborate. Nearly all port charges and fees are based on either vessel size, or capacity, which has nothing to do with occupancy. So, they are fixed costs. As stated above, fees are divided by the "expected" occupancy or double occupancy. When occupancy drops below what was "expected", then the per pax fee goes up, and they will use the unused fees from cancelled ports to cover this, rather than refund that charge and then charge you more to make up the shortage. Have you never seen the many threads about Panama Canal cruises where the fees go up or down wildly during the booking process?

The Bahamas is considered part of the Caribbean Area, and is a Caribbean nation. Not sure where you thought Freeport was not a Caribbean port.

I'll answer a few questions about this: 1. The lawsuit was about the representation of the reliability of the azipods. ABB relied on safety and reliability data from smaller installations to project reliability figures for the much larger cruise ship models they produced. 2. ABB has an almost complete monopoly on "podded propulsion systems" for cruise ships. The only other manufacturer of note is Rolls Royce/Kongsberg, but they have had their own reliability issues from day one, and have a miniscule market share. 3. The main issue comes from the "thrust bearing" in the azipod. This bearing takes all of the thrust that the propeller makes in the water, and transfers it to the ship's hull to propel the hull through the water. Due to the design of the azipod, the size of these bearings is limited, and so the loading (force per square inch) goes up, and apparently the bearing design and metallurgy did not upsize as easily as the rest of the pod when sizing up to cruise ship sized pods. This lead to "premature" bearing failure. This means that ABB claimed that in normal use, the bearing would last a minimum of 5 years of service (requiring renewal every dry docking), or longer. This did not prove to be true. 4. As noted, the problems primarily exist with the older VO model pods, where the thrust bearing cannot be changed out without a dry docking, so a premature failure requires an emergency dry docking, and associated increase on operating cost. In the newer XO model pods, the bearing can be changed out without dry docking. 5. While many think that azipods are "tried and true" technology, but in the maritime field, they are actually still (after 20 years or so of use) considered "cutting edge". There are about 700 azipod units (of all sizes) out there, with less than a 20 year average "historical lifespan" to provide data. Shafted propeller drives (where the thrust bearing is inside the hull of the ship, and therefore has no real size limitations), have been around for 160 years, and there are over 50,000 ships out there currently using this technology. So, you can see that azipods have a very small data base for service life of components. But, the bearing failures of the past with azipods are leading to not only the XO models, but continually testing new designs and metallurgy for the bearings to increase reliability. 6. Whether or not NCL will upgrade all the older VO model pods to the XO pods will remain to be seen, this cash will be used to weather the current financial crisis, with no thought to upgrades. ABB has produced "historical service life" curves, and the cruise lines are now using these to plan maintenance intervals that fall within the 90% reliability range, to preclude (though nothing can prevent) premature failure. As the VO pods are older, the ships with them are older, and will require shorter dry dock intervals (2.5 years instead of 5, regardless of whether they have pods or not), so it may simply be a case of increased maintenance cost to overhaul the pods at 2.5 years instead of 5.

While I can't speak to Celebrity personally, I will give my thoughts on the great "frozen/fresh" debate. Regarding the "vast walk in freezers" onboard, probably half of them are "chill boxes" and not freezers. About the only food that comes aboard frozen is proteins. I have personally seen fresh produce last on a ship for over 14 days, many times, in fact, in most cases it will if not used. Produce is graded when it comes aboard by the Provisions Master, as to what is ripe and needs to be used "first" and what can be used later. In fact, they will often specifically order cases of ripe and unripe produce of the same type. The "use now" cases are placed at the front of the walk in boxes, and the rest are moved around the boxes to areas known to have better or less air circulation to help or retard ripening. The boxes have CO2 monitors in them, used to control the amount of ventilation, as CO2 levels above 3% can cause browning. The boxes will have ozone generators in them to create ozone to react with ethylene. Ethylene is given off by ripe fruits and vegetables, and will increase the premature rotting of the produce if levels are high in storage. Ozone reacts with ethylene to produce CO2 and water, and extends the life of even ripe produce. Further, the provisions team goes through many boxes of produce daily, looking for produce that is either turning or about to turn, and will remove it from the box to prevent the spread to other produce in the box. This "hand picking" takes hours each day, and contributes greatly to the longevity of the produce. I have to agree that if your childhood vegetables were mushy and bad tasting, they were likely canned and not frozen. But, I digress. The fresh produce, lets say green beans, are placed in an appliance known as a "tilting box", which is a rectangular pressure cooker about 3' x 2' x 1' (so, about 6 cubic feet, or 4.5 bushels of beans). This cooks these beans in a very few minutes (heated by the ship's steam system) 2-3 minutes for this entire quantity of green beans. Now, whether the galley staff training has fallen, and the pressure cooker is not watched closely, overcooking can happen.

IIRC, the major port authorities in Florida (Miami, FLL, PC, Tampa and Jacksonville) were exempted from this statute. Wonder why?

Ozone can be used to disinfect fruits and vegetables by killing bacteria on the surface of the fruit, but the main use in food storage is to react with ethylene. Ethylene is the VOC that plants give off that causes ripening. By having ozone react with ethylene (to produce CO2 and water), you delay the ripening. This is similar to what is done for some expensive fruits (mainly "stone" fruits like peaches and mangoes) when shipped in a refrigerated container. Instead of introducing ozone to prevent ripening, the entire atmosphere inside the container is removed, and replaced with 100% nitrogen. Without oxygen, the fruit cannot produce ethylene, and so will virtually never ripen. The food covers are plastic, and are washed before each use. They are not disposable.

In fact, the water makers would have an easier time making potable water from fresh than from salt. No, the reason is that the ship is not allowed to make water when within 12 miles of shore, as there is greater risk of contamination or infectious disease close to shore, where municipal or industrial outfalls are.

They use the Craft Brewer's Association definition of a craft brewery, production must be less than 6 million barrels/year. Nothing "happens" if they exceed this level, they just cannot call themselves a "craft" brewery.

Sorry, John, those are not watertight bulkheads, any more than the doors to the outside from the promenade deck up, nor the balcony doors. Watertight subdivision ends at what is known as the "bulkhead" deck, and this is typically one deck above the waterline (like the I-95 deck), in crew spaces, and there are no watertight doors or bulkheads above this. These are, as you correctly point out, fire zone division bulkheads. These are classed as "A-60" bulkheads, meaning that the fittings, doorways, and structural fire insulation is such that regardless of how intense a fire is burning against one side of the A-60 bulkhead, it will take 60 minutes before anything on the other side will catch fire.

The thing is, most of the reason cruise ships are switching to LNG is cost. LNG beats traditional fuel in the North America market cost wise, somewhat less attractive in Europe (though their infrastructure is better), and non-existent in Asia. The beauty for the cruise lines is that they can claim less emissions by only monitoring CO2, not methane (which is not required), and leave the blame for more damage by LNG to those entities further up the supply chain. The cruise lines' "environmental promise" is just PR pandering.

Draft is not a problem, but air draft is. You will notice that the mast on the JFK was removed to get her under the bridges. This, and the length of the river transit (pilotage fees, closed casinos) are what made Philly untenable as a cruise port. Along with the closeness of NYC and Baltimore.

Crystalspin is correct, that indicates a fire zone boundary, and there will be a sliding or folding door in the hallway that will be deployed automatically in case of a fire. The balcony divider between two cabins on opposite sides of a fire boundary are capable of opening, as the ability of dividers to open is based on allowing fire teams to move from one balcony to the next, not passenger convenience. However, the divider will not be allowed to open, as fire jumping fire boundaries on balconies is the reason the Star Princess fire got so out of hand. Further, as Crystalspin points out, the Musica was built in 2005, and the requirement for opening balcony dividers was not instituted until after the Star Princess fire in 2006. Maritime safety updates generally are not retroactive, so the Musica is not required to have opening dividers. Many ships built before 2006 have retrofitted opening dividers, so the majority of them on the ship may be openable, but not between these two cabins.

Yes, and these are cargo ships with much less fuel consumption than a cruise ship, and are currently filled by LNG tanker trucks, which is possible during the 1-2 days the ship is in harbor, but which is not feasible for the amount of fuel a cruise ship would need to bunker. I don't know that California has any specific concerns with LNG, but studies have shown that in the "well to wake" analysis of CO2 emissions (all effects of the fuel from the well, through processing, transportation, and distribution, to the burning in the ship's engines, that LNG, while cleaner in "hull to wake" (the actual burning of the fuel on the ship) is cleaner in both short term and long term (20 and 100 year analysis), in the "well to wake" it is significantly worse for CO2 emissions in the long term (20 and 100 year analysis), when burned in the types of engines used in cruise ships. "Methane slip" or the amount of unburned natural gas lost from "well to wake" is significantly more damaging than an equivalent amount of CO2, I've seen reports of 200 times as harmful over 100 years.

Since this is a totally domestic cruise, on a US flag vessel, there would be no problem with joining the ship later. The only thing is that you should notify them immediately if you miss embarkation so they don't cancel your reservation. Your cabin would not be sold to anyone else, but they need to keep the reservation open.

Yes, this is why there are about 20 or so ports in the US that can supply shore power to cargo ships, but only about 4-5 that can accommodate cruise ships. A cargo ship needs about 700kw of power at the dock, while a cruise ship needs 7-8,000kw, and the cargo ship needs 480v power (normal land industrial power), while the cruise ship requires 10,000v power (what comes from the "high tension" long distance transmission lines).

I think the vast majority of San Francisco cruise ship calls are "turn around" days, and therefore, they are adding in the value of food and supplies purchased locally, as well as food and lodging from passengers arriving a day or two early or staying after. This depends. Yes, as I've said, the US created, in conjunction with Canada, the North American ECA, which restricts emissions from ships by restricting sulfur content in fuel below what is allowed in the rest of the world. (0.1% sulfur, against 0.5% worldwide) The IMO adopted the US/Canada proposal, and it applies to all ships. So, nations can impose stricter standards, in certain conditions, over ships, especially if they gain approval from the IMO for the restriction. Here you run into the most gray of legal areas, the overlapping jurisdiction between "port state" (the nation where the ship is located) and "flag state" (the nation where the ship is registered), when a ship is in another nation's waters. In the interest of international commerce amity, it is generally held that things that are "external" to the ship (sales taxes, commerce, customs, pollution, etc) fall under the jurisdiction of the "port state", and the port state is free to impose whatever laws they wish. "Internal" policies and procedures on the ship (crew wages, working conditions, ship construction, safety, operation and maintenance, etc) are held to be under the jurisdiction of the "flag state", unless the "safety or good order" of the port state is affected. In addition to the 3 ECA's I mentioned, there are specific areas of the world that have stricter garbage or sewage disposal regulations, some of these the countries involved have submitted to the IMO and are adopted into the international conventions, some only apply to areas within a country's territorial waters, and they are free to impose those limits on all ships. Probably not. There is a whole department dedicated to handling the food in storage (they don't do anything about preparation). This "provisions" department will grade boxes of produce when it comes onboard to say "this box is used first, these can be used in a couple of days, and these can hold for the end of the voyage", based on the condition of the product at delivery. Then, once in the walk-in coolers, which have ozone generators in them, and CO2 monitors to control venting (both of which can control ripening), they will go through boxes daily and pick out produce that has started to go off, and dispose of it, tomato by tomato, to keep it from affecting the rest of the case. In many cases, they will specify to the supplier that they want 5 cases of ripe bananas, and 20 cases of green bananas.

To us here in Maine, where we have the second most craft breweries per capita, it is still considered to be a "volume" based distinction. While most craft breweries jumped whole hog into the IPA craze (doubles, triples), I've never been a big fan of highly hopped beer. I prefer a more malty beer, and we are starting to see the craft breweries realizing that they have pretty much exhausted the IPA genre, and are starting to introduce reds, browns, whitbeers, and English ales. And, while Sam Adams continues to successfully lobby the craft brewers' association to increase the volume limit annually to whatever they produce, I don't think of any of the beers you listed as "craft" beer. "Niche" beer maybe, but not craft. No truly craft beer could have the production a cruise line would need for their ships, and still have enough for local distribution.

The vast majority of crew remain onboard during dry dock. They form a cheap labor source for many jobs like daily worksite cleaning up after contractors, and fire watch for shipyard cutting/welding. Then there are the crew who have to service the hundreds of contractors who sleep and eat onboard. Pretty much, only entertainers, concessionaires, and those crew with contracts ending will leave the ship when it goes into dry dock. They also have to start cleaning the ship during the sea trials and any deadhead passage.

As Andy (Heidi13) says, the IMO (International Maritime Organization, part of the UN) passes international conventions, which signatory nations then pass into their law. There are 147 member nations of the IMO. These conventions cover pollution (MARPOL as Andy says, which covers air pollution, oil pollution, garbage, sewage wastes), the construction and operation of the ship with regards to safety (SOLAS), the training of crew (STCW), working conditions (MLC2006), security (ISPS), and operations and maintenance of the ships (ISM). These regulations apply to all shipping, not just cruise ships. Remember, cruise ships make up only about 5% of the world's shipping tonnage, and cruise ship crews make up about 10% of the 1.8 million mariners around the world. Yes. Many countries have gone over and above the international laws, for instance there are ECA's (Emission Control Areas), where as Andy says, the sulfur limits on fuels are severely restricted. These areas are the Baltic, North Sea, and North America. Additionally, EU ports require special fuels or shore power when a ship is docked. Some countries, notably the US enact stricter regulations regarding safety, training, certification, and inspection than the international conventions allow, but by those conventions, these stricter laws only apply to ships that fly the US flag. Typically, all food, beverages, alcohol, and other supplies (replacements for dishes and glassware, everything that is needed to operate the hotel), engine parts and supplies, are loaded at the embarkation port. I don't think that Viking does a "behind the scenes" tour, but you can google this for other cruise lines, or there are TV shows about cruise ships that show the intricate dance that is embarkation loading. Only on longer cruises, say 3 weeks or more, will they load food again, outside of the embarkation port. This can vary depending on the itinerary, but lets say every 2-3 weeks on average. And, the fuel bill is $1-3 million each time.

The 40 milliamp limit on the shaver outlet is because the ship does not use a GFCI in wet areas like in the US.