chengkp75

Well, I'm always in a minority here on CC, but as someone who has done emergency drills on ships for decades, has experienced real emergencies on ships, who has run cruise ship muster drills and fire and boat drills, and who has had the required training in crowd and crisis management, no I don't believe it would be complete chaos.

For frames, I don't know, but tempered glass panels can be obtained in most major cities (Buenos Aires might be closest). If they have the dimension drawings, then getting a fabricator to extrude the aluminum frames should not be hard, bronze might be a bit more difficult. It is getting the installers to the ship that could be another problem. I suspect that some of the "nordic balconies" will become "interior" cabins with steel plate over the windows.

And, another example of PR for the passengers. Marine engineers live by the old US Navy SeaBee slogan "the difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer". The engineers will try their darndest to fix anything that breaks, but there are some things that require a part that cannot be fabricated onboard. We come up with "innovative" "outside the box" or just plain "nuts" solutions that work, but I can guarantee that there could be situations on both of these expedition ships that the engineers could not repair, only patch until port. And, I've worked many years on the same ship, in fact taking it from the builder's yard, so I knew everything about that ship, and there were things we couldn't do.

Andy, diverting to the Zodiac incident, this sounds like it was something under the deck, where are the fuel tanks located? Could a combination of fuel leak and non-functioning bilge blower have resulted in an explosion? No real experience with RHIBs, so just speculating.

Andy, I did a quick read on the training requirements for the Polar Code last night, and I thought I saw that 2 or 4 (can't remember which) of operational experience in polar waters was required for certification.

Under international law, not any US state, ships have a zero tolerance for drugs. While CBD products have THC levels within state or federal guidelines, there is almost always a detectable level. I have had knee pain for years, but while I was working on ships, I never considered using a CBD product, as there are documented cases of crew who used CBD having a positive drug test while onboard.

I believe that they are controlled similarly to the Celebrity "Infinite balcony" windows, where the bridge has a complete override of the window controls.

At the time it happened, "rogue waves" were considered to be "old salt's tales", and I was not on the bridge at the time. The bridge watch described it as two 15 meter seas hitting the ship from different directions at the same time. Was this a rogue wave? Can't say. I will say that it stopped a RO/RO cargo ship doing 10 knots dead in the water. It lifted the stern out of the water, and tripped the starboard engine on overspeed as the propeller came out of the water. It also fractured a salt water cooling line in the bow thruster space. This was in the North Atlantic in winter. Busy night for the engineers.

While it's true that no one will likely know, it is illegal on all ships.

Portland and Sebago.

Unless there is a lawsuit, no one other than Carnival will see it, and even then it will up to each legal team to determine whether to make it public or not.

Using average statistics, anyone less than 5'10" (for a male) has their center of gravity below the top of the handrail, so he would have had to hop up while leaning over to fall over the rail. That is why the rail heights are set that way.

Then again, the NCL Dawn hit a rogue wave, stove in some forward cabin windows, and flooded 62 cabins, a good number of insides.

Did the Hanseatic ever get hit by a rogue wave? Was the Hanseatic alongside the Polaris when the wave hit the Polaris? As I've said, from 46 years at sea, unless you have two ships in the same location, at the same time, heading in the same direction and speed, you cannot say how the two ships would perform compared to each other. Why does the NHTSA use identical tests to compare car safety? Because that is the only way to do it scientifically, rather than emotionally.

I believe that the next cruise has already been cancelled. Again, you cannot make something that never fails. How many tons of force do you design for? How much does this affect the vessel's stability, or operational ability? Do you design ship's balconies so that no one can ever jump over the side?

It is still required that each boat be lowered to the water and exercised monthly.

I'm very surprised that any ship still has an aerator in the hot tubs. Back in the early 2000's, we were directed to disconnect them on NCL. The reason is that the temperature of the water in the hot tub is the optimum breeding temperature for legionella bacteria (Legionnaire's disease), and since this is an aerosol disease, creating air bubbles in this potentially dangerous environment just provides the optimum transmission vector to get the bacteria into your lungs.

Yes, if I received a "complimentary" meal at Golden Corral, I would expect to have all I could eat, as that is their "meal". If, however, I was "comped" a meal at Ruth's Chris, I doubt they'd allow me to order 3 filet mignons.

Far be it from me to disagree about praise for the engine staff, but we are not miracle workers. While many "jury-rigged" things can be made in emergencies, and while a lot of structural and piping repairs can be simply done, we cannot, for instance fabricate a piston or crankshaft for an engine.

There is typically the "naughty table" with all confiscated items at the security check point as you leave the ship.

I would be very surprised if the USCG allowed this. They were adamant in their opposition to creating the "NRAC" crew (non-resident alien), but were overridden by Congress. Even then, they required that the NRAC crew be limited to the US standard of 25% of non-licensed crew, and that if there were Green Card crew (common in deck and engine), that those were counted among the 25%, as they always are.

Didn't realize the concept of "complementary" dining equaled "all you can shove down your gullet".

Storms can happen at any time.

This could be, as I see that each county (island) has its own liquor commission and issues their own licenses, not the state.

From the reports I've read, it would appear that the superstructure around the window buckled under the same force, and the entire window and frame blew out, and that plate of glass would inflict the same force upon anything or anyone it encountered in the cabin.