chengkp75

No, as Andy says, Viking did not write the contract with the shipbuilder, they signed it with the shipowner, Edison Chouest. Chouest signed the contract with the shipyard. Viking does not, and will not own the ships at all. Viking does not own the ship, and the actual owner has contracted with another company (Wilhelmsen) to crew it (so crew are not Viking employees), and maintain it, and operate it. Not much left for Viking to do but sell cruises. Let's take a non-maritime example. A developer (Chouest) buys some land. He is going to build a shopping mall there. He contracts with a builder (shipyard) to build the mall. Any delays are contractually between these two parties. Now, you go to the developer and say, I want to lease a store (lease the ship) in your mall. The developer tells you when the mall will be ready, and you set your grand opening for that date. Now, a delay happens, and the builder (shipyard) informs the developer (shipowner) of the delays, but he is under no legal obligation to tell any potential lessees (Viking) about the delays, and in fact would not even talk to the lessees. Now, is the developer (shipowner) under any responsibility to inform the lessees of a delay? Morally, yes, but whether there is a contractual requirement is unknown. As far as not knowing Canadian cabotage laws, the major cruise lines who have been operating in the US for decades, still make mistakes over the PVSA, and when the Viking Mississippi operation was first planned, Viking did not comprehend that they would not be allowed to build boats where they wanted (not sure how they thought they'd bring them across the Atlantic), nor did they understand they would need a fully US crew. This is no different from when NCL started their US flag operation. I was on the Pride of Aloha when she reflagged, and the NCL plan was to leave a certain number of foreign crew onboard to continue training the US crew. They got a rude awakening when they were told that the minute the US flag went up the halyard, all foreign crew had to get off. Even the US government does not understand the Jones Act/PVSA. I worked a US flag, foreign built, RO/RO vessel for Crowley Maritime. During the first Gulf War, we were placed under US government charter, carrying military supplies to Saudi. Because we were foreign built, we were not Jones Act compliant, and were prohibited from loading cargo in one US port and discharging it in another US port. However, the Military Sealift Command of the US Navy continued to attempt to book cargo from one US port to another. This went on for a couple years. Is this bad PR for Viking? Yes. Is it totally, their fault? Nope.

As Andy has mentioned, it is the CTA, not the PVSA, but even so, virtually every cruise line out there will accept B2B or more than 2 cruises booked together that violate the PVSA, and it is not until the compliance department reviews the booking (sometimes months later) that they will notify the passenger that one or more of the cruise segments needs to be cancelled. Viking is not alone in this. Also as Andy says, there is a "middleman" between the shipyard and Viking, and this middleman is the one who actually owns the ship. The other aspect is whether or not this is a shipyard issue, or a crewing issue. As NCL's Pride of America has found out (again, after the lessons they should have learned in 2004 when we started US flag operations), you can't go out and hire crew today and have them on the ship tomorrow. POA is operating with reduced restaurants and capacity due to shortage of crew. Why is this? Because under US flag, every single crew member must obtain a merchant mariner's credential (unlike foreign flag operations), which requires weeks of training, an FBI background check, drug testing, and documentation processing. The USCG has been backed up in processing mariner's credentials ever since Covid started, and its not getting much better, and the FBI is also backed up on background checks. So, without knowing whether the boat has been delivered from the shipyard to the owner, it could be that they are cancelling last minute due to required crew not getting credentials in time.

Pools have their own electric heaters. Domestic water is heated by steam. The two systems are not allowed to interconnect in any way. Do you get hot water at the sink? If so, the most likely problem is a simple one for them to fix. The shower has a temperature balancing valve in the mixing valve (what you turn to set the temperature), that won't allow too much hot water if the cold water pressure is low. Each side of the mixing valve has a strainer in the line to keep scale from entering the mixing/balancing valve. The hot water side strainer always seems to clog faster than the cold side, stopping the hot water from getting to the mix valve. I suspect that the Pride is taking on a lot of shore water (don't know the itinerary details), and this water is circulating more minerals around the ship than normal, and the hot water strainers are clogging. It's about a 15 minute job to remove the strainer and clean it.

Those ships have a much more costly and maintenance intensive system for the make-up air. When the "infinite veranda" is open, the cabin recirculation system is shut off, just like normal balconies, but also a motor damper closes off the make-up air. The fan for the make-up air system will have a pressure sensor in the ductwork, and a variable speed drive for the fan, so that when enough dampers close, and the supply air pressure rises, the fan will slow down. Given these additions, and the number of complaints I've read about the overall design of these cabins with regard to the "window" (non-sealing folding doors, no curtains on the folding doors), I don't foresee these types of cabins "spreading" to other lines.

When I worked in the engine rooms of cruise ships, I dehydrated myself badly, and presented myself to the medical center. Not only did they put me on IV fluids, they did the "squeeze the bag" to get me started rapidly. Two bags later, I was good to go, except for a kidney stone that resulted, but that is another story, but also dealt with onboard.

Just be aware that there are two systems of AC in each cabin. I was the Staff Chief on the Sky when it was the Aloha, so I know the system intimately. One system, that is controlled by the thermostat, merely recirculates the cabin air over a cooling coil. This cooling unit is located under the sink in the vanity, and any problems with this are typically a dirty air filter, quickly resolved. The other system is not controllable by you, it has a preset temperature, and supplies fresh air to a whole bank (30-40) of cabins. They both blow out of the same vent louver on the wall, one system in one half of the louver and the other next to it. No ships will guarantee a "cold" room, industry standard (cruises or hotels) is about 70-72*F.

No. There are two AC systems for each cabin. The one you control with the thermostat, and which shuts off when the balcony door is open, is the same as a window AC in your house. It only takes the air from the cabin, cools it, and returns it to the cabin. However, there is a second system, that provides fresh air to the cabins, and which balances out the air removed from the cabin by the bathroom exhaust. This system will supply air to every cabin on one deck, within a given fire zone (between the doors in the hallways), so maybe 40-60 cabins. This system is designed to supply slightly more air than the bathroom vent removes, and this keeps the cabin at a slight overpressure compared to the outside, or the hallway, in order to prevent smoke entering the cabin in case of a fire. When you leave the balcony door open, this is a very large opening, and the system cannot keep up with maintaining the overpressure, as the air flows outside through the doorway. Basic physics then says that the air flow in the system will take the path of least resistance, and send the majority of the fresh air supplied for the bank of cabins, to the one cabin where the pressure is slightly lower (yours with the door open), and so all the other cabins get less cool fresh air than normal. To see this in action, open your cabin door to the hallway while the balcony door is open, and hold onto anything light in your cabin, as the wind tunnel will blow it out the balcony door. This is how I found the balcony door offenders when we would get complaints about warm cabins, just walk down the hallway and listen for the wind screaming under the hallway door. This type of system applies to every cruise ship built within the last 30 years.

Hawaii does not have a "sales tax", they have a "General Excise Tax", which is levied on each company involved in the entire purchase chain of the good or service. So, the alcohol sold onboard has had GET paid by the wholesaler, the shipping company that brought it to the islands, the trucking company that delivered it to the wholesaler, and finally the retailer (the ship). Now, you will notice that this GET is levied against the business, but the state allows each company to decide if they want to roll their cost of GET into the sales price, or pass it on to the customer as a marked "tax". So, until a "good" has been sold, there is no GET, as the package (while a service), also depends on the sale of the "goods", so each drink is charged GET. This applies to anything purchased onboard the ship (shops, drinks, specialty dining), while the ship is within state limits (out to 3 miles offshore). The bridge notifies the purser's office when the ship leaves the 3 mile limit, and the POS registers are reprogrammed to not charge GET anymore. GET varies by county (island) and some municipalities, but runs about 4.5%.

This is BS. The Staff Captain will have a full set of every hard key on the ship, and the Carpenters have a key making machine to duplicate the one he has. Get on the Hotel Director, or Staff Captain directly.

All good advice here. The only bear attack I heard about when I was going to Alaska was a fisherman out at Nikiski on the Kenai peninsula, who had his salmon catch on the bank next to him, and the bear felt it was the Golden Corral buffet. So, remote areas, alone, and having a food source nearby are the big threats. That boar was not really following the sow around, but the cubs. As long as a sow has cubs, she won't go into heat, so boar bears have a nasty habit of killing cubs so the sow goes into heat.

Just a fine point, Ruth, there are no watertight doors on the Upper Promenade, nor do I believe there are any in passenger areas. The doors to the outside decks are "weathertight", not "watertight", the distinction being that the door is designed to keep rain, snow, and spray from getting inside, but are not designed to be submerged and hold back the water. Watertight doors require a sealing lip on the frame, a rubber gasket on the door, and a set of clamps around the door that clamp the door firmly into the frame. Watertight doors also do not go to the floor, but have an 18" high raised threshold (the well known "knee knocker" to Navy types).

This depends. Has the ship taken water in port? If so, it is municipal tap water, and not further "filtered" by the ship. However, the Pur water filter, nor any consumer water filter will remove the calcium carbonate that is added to the water produced onboard. The ship has filters at water usage points (water dispensers, water fountains, ice makers) that will filter out the calcium and chlorine to prevent scaling of the equipment. This is accurate, but can be accomplished without the use of a filter, simply by filling a pitcher with water and leaving it on the counter or in the fridge for several hours, and the chlorine will dissipate naturally.

There is really not a lot of difference in size between the Epic and Prima.

When Kilauea was flowing to the sea (in the early 2000's) all three NCL ships sailed around the south side of the big island. The ship was stopped, and rotated on the thrusters so everyone got a view. We couldn't get too close, as we had to monitor the sea temperature and if it got too high, the engines would start to overheat. But, I think the flow into the sea stopped in 2008-2009, and they went with the shorter northern route around the Big Island.

Are the cups disposable? Which has more potential to get thrown into the trash and be sent over the side? That is what it is all about, discharging plastic into the ocean, it has nothing to do with the general debate over whether or not plastics are a good thing, or are or are not biodegradable. The maritime industry lives under a whole different set of laws than those on shore.

Yeah, I've posted a lot of things to do here in Portland on other threads, really wouldn't do any cruise line tour. To see Portland Head Light from a different perspective than 95% of photographs of it, get up early on arrival (0530-0600) to see the lighthouse from the sea, as the ship will pass close by.

You don't see a problem with sorting the trash, because you've never done it to know how much time it would take. Until you've seen the organized chaos of the dishwashing stations during meal operations, you don't know how much these folks hustle. And then, everyone would start complaining about the slow service caused by the bus staff taking the time to sort out the trash. They already do the best they can with it, but some still gets through. And yet, Carnival and RCI are operating under vastly different environmental oversight conditions. Note that I didn't say different regulatory conditions, because they are the same, but that Carnival, due to its failures in the past to improve on environmental compliance have third party inspectors making inspections throughout the year, and checking records for periods between these inspections, and since Carnival has been cited repeatedly for not separating plastic from food waste, they are particularly sensitive about this, and subject to more scrutiny than RCI is. RCI is basically hoping that they don't get caught sending the occasional "biodegradable" plastic straw over the side with the food waste (because the law doesn't care how "biodegradable" the plastic is, you can't dump plastic in the ocean). This is true only if you disregard the 800 lb gorilla in the environmental room called methane slip. Yes, LNG reduces SOX and NOX emissions, and reduces CO2 emissions over other marine fuels. However, methane slip (the amount of methane released during pumping from the well, transporting in pipelines, trucks, trains, etc, at the liquifaction plants, bunkering the barge and then the ship, and then the unburned methane from incomplete combustion in the engine of the ship) releases methane into the atmosphere, and methane is 200 times more harmful as a greenhouse gas than CO2, and tends to linger in the atmosphere about 20 times longer than CO2. LNG has its merits, but there are drawbacks as well. And, anyone thinking that the switch to LNG was done for environmental reasons is truly naive. It was done for cost reasons. Why do you think that Carnival is only bringing LNG ships to the US market (disregard the other lines in the Corp)? Why not Europe, where there is far more LNG bunkering infrastructure? Because in the US there is a considerable price difference between LNG and bunker fuel or diesel fuel. In Europe, that is not so much the case, so there is no incentive to switch. And, Asia is even less attractive for LNG, as the price there is more than conventional fuels.

Sugar based.

Until they wet down the tablecloths to keep the dishware from sliding and serve the soup in cups, it ain't rough.

Because this is a cruise line sponsored excursion, the cruise line sets the requirements for handling the fish to ensure it meets food safety requirements, and that the excursion provider obtains the fish in an approved, sustainable manner, so it is allowed onboard. But, if it is from an outside excursion provider, they will not allow it. One of the main requirements is that the provider documents the temperature of the protein regularly, and ensures it is within the safe zone at all times from being caught to being delivered to the ship.

No, because it does not have anything (like the semi-conductors in a surge protector) that provides a potential path from power to ground. The electronics in it are very similar to those in your USB charger that takes 100-240v and converts it to 5v.

Quite common on European cruises, where there are two homeports, and the cruises overlap each other.

And even those "inside a cruise ship" shows on TV that show the organized chaos of the meals being prepared and carried out to the passengers, you never see the dirty side, the pot washing stations, or the dishwashing stations. Hand hygiene is critical. In addition to not allowing the same person to work both ends of the dishwashing machine, if waitstaff has touched a dirty (used) plate, bussing it off the table and back to the galley, they need to either wash hands or re-glove before touching the next course going out. Rinse and repeat.

While many have done galley tours, they never see what a madhouse it is when meal service is in full swing. There is almost a constant line up at the counter dropping off bus pans full of dishes, and the dishwashing crew are in constant movement just trying to get the dishes into the machine in the proper orientation for cleaning, and sorting out the silverware, etc. And, these are the "dirty hands", these people are not allowed to touch the dishes that come out of the machine, there are those who have only touched clean dishware to do that. Then, the bus staff have to wash their hands before going back on the floor. Putting a couple of more people standing there to separate out trash would clog things up completely. Even though I was required to be touring the galleys during meal services (not every day), to see how USPH standards are being maintained, and to see how the equipment is working, I really had to work at not being an intrusion on the dishwashing staff, as these guys were going full out for the entire meal service, and then had to tear down the machine for cleaning. Do you see these waitstaff standing around with time on their hands? I haven't. So, taking the time to sort out the trash, and they already try their best to do so, would require again more personnel to make it happen.

I do want to repeat the warning that you can't always get on the next trolley when you arrive at a stop. If it is full, it will simply drive by, and you wait for the next one that has room. It can get pretty hairy in peak season.