chengkp75

A "duck tail" or stern sponson is never "needed" for stability. It is added to provide reserve buoyancy to reduce pitching, just as the "flare" of the bow section above the waterline does the same thing, but doesn't do anything for stability.

Jade was the Pride of Hawaii when built, and the Sky went to Pride of Aloha, and then back to Sky. That was part of the deal with Congress when NCL America took over the partially built hull of Pride of America. They could flag in an existing foreign built ship, and also flag in a foreign built newbuild, and have all of them be PVSA compliant.

Since the engineers in the ECR have a monitor for the surveillance cameras, I had to keep on top of whether they were paying attention to the plant, or watching the "free shows" or zooming in on passengers walking off the gangway.

No, it means that state tax (about 4-5%) is added to any purchase made on the ship while in port. Whether you have a beverage package or not, or purchase something in the store, or a specialty coffee or whatever. Once the ship leaves the 3 mile limit, the POS registers are reset to not charge state sales tax.

And the crew will focus the bridge wing cameras on your balcony and get some adult entertainment.

And look how much profit the Navy makes. Most of that on the Navy, and on commercial ships as well, is known to be a waste of money, and is done just to keep the crew busy. Many ship owners (fair enough, not cruise ship lines, as they care more for cosmetics) don't even stock paint on the ship, as they know it is just money thrown away, and they get far better for their money when the paint is completely gone over in shipyard every 2.5 years.

So, you think it would be money well spent to grind off the gel coat on the lifeboats and apply a new gel coat just to change the color? That's not paint. Huh? If they are doing a drydock now, that is not a statutory docking, and does not give them "credit" towards the docking due in 2024, which is the 15 year survey. There is only a six month window where a docking can be done ahead of time and get credit for it.

His point was to refute your statements in earlier posts that: 1. "There is only one cruise ship in the world that is US registry", and then 2. "that vessels that operate only domestically must be of domestic registry since they are unable to safely make stops outside the US. While the particular vessel in the photo does not make foreign port calls, it can do so safely, and that is not the reason the vessel is US flagged. As I've noted above, both UnCruise and Lindblad operate US flag small cruise vessels that routinely make foreign port calls. Your statement implied that the only reason a ship would flag US was because it couldn't go to foreign ports safely. The reason these vessels are flagged US is to allow them the choice to offer cruises that only go to US ports. The Pride of America is US flag, and operates "only domestically". Do you feel she is not "safe" to travel to foreign ports? What about the Norwegian Jade and Sky? Both of these were at one time US flagged.

Not sure what you mean by "balanced" for pool chemistry. Since cruise ship pools are drained and renewed so frequently, they do not need lots of the chemicals that land based public pools use to maintain the viability of the chlorine. Ship's pools use chlorine and acid, period. And, as the water is drawn through the filtration system (continually), that water is checked continuously for pH and chlorine residual, and a dosing pump is controlled based on the sensor readings. Salt water averages around a pH of 8.2, and chlorine works best as a sanitizing agent at 7.2 to 7.8, so some acid is always needed. The chlorine residual is kept at a constant 3-4ppm (allowed 1 - 5), which is higher than most home pools, and this high chlorine is what leads to most complaints about the pools, either fading of swimwear, or rotting out the stitching of the swimwear. SPA pools are required to be kept between 3 and 10 ppm of residual chlorine, the same as the hot tubs.

As these use a 3M adhesive strip to adhere the lock to the door, there will likely be damage or residue on the door, and possible charges for this.

Could you please provide a link for this lock, as I can help with whether it would be allowed or not, or whether it would work, having maintained cruise ship door locks in the past.

This is also an incorrect statement. The majority of the US flag cruise vessels mentioned above can safely make stops outside the US, using the National Geographic Lindblad ships as example, they routinely, and were designed for, cruises to Central America from the US west coast. These ships and lines choose to be US flagged, so that they can offer strictly domestic cruises. Many of both UnCruise and Alaska Dream vessels that are currently doing Alaska cruises were built on the US East Coast (wonder how they got to Alaska if they couldn't safely make stops outside the US?). And, if you look, you will see that there is a large section of CC dedicated to river cruising, and the smaller lines mentioned as coastal cruises are represented under "other cruise lines" forums. And this particular forum is a general cruising question one, so not just about "ocean liners" (which the Cunard purists will tell you that Princess ships are not).

A lot of it probably was, but this is not something that just happens once. It is a continual process, where rust is dealt with in one area, and the next day some pops up in another area. Same with varnish failure. Even when the ships were running full time before covid, the crew were dealing with this daily. And a minimum crew. None of this would require a visit to the shipyard, though "fabric maintenance" (the preferred term for chipping and painting) is done better when addressed by shipyard practices over what can be done by crew. Most of that painting you see of the hull, and even most of what is done during cruises with the crew chipping and grinding away rust and repainting, is mostly cosmetic. Unless you sandblast the steel down to gray metal and recoat, the rust will come back sooner or later.

"Rustoleum" is virtually worthless in a marine environment. No rust short of extremely light "flash" rust (where bare steel has rusted in the day or two before it is coated) can be successfully covered with a "converter" (far better than Rustoleum), and not on edges.

Alaska Dream Cruises, and Lindblad National Geographic also operate US flagged small cruise ships.

It could also be a cabotage thing, because Costa is Italian flagged (EU) as are some of MSC's ships (Malta). I see that the next port is in Greece, so there wouldn't be any cabotage issues for the OP, but there could be if the remaining ports were in Italy, as the OP would be essentially taking a cruise from Florence to end in Italy without visiting another country, and that would not be allowed on a ship that is not flagged to an EU member nation.

This is not quite correct. While they typically don't open a bag during embarkation, the ticket contract gives them the right to search your cabin and baggage without your presence or knowledge.

Yes, all the lines are having problems getting parts for the engines. RCI's Quantum is having to reschedule itineraries due to engine shutdowns.

Unless they have completely blown the engine up (and I mean into shrapnel and chunks of iron around the engine room), the engine does not need to come out. These engines are completely torn down and overhauled every 2.5 years, while the ship is in service, and passengers don't know anything about it. Even a crankshaft can be renewed with just a bit of cutting and welding, mostly inside the ship, as HAL did a couple years ago.

Looking at the portable locks on Google, I have my reservations about using one on cruise ship doors. First off, the doors are fire rated doors, and these devices may interfere with the door latching completely, negating the fire safety rating of the door. Second, with the key card lock, I'm not sure there is enough space to get the insert into the strike and clear everything needed to record the door closing completely. You can try them, but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't work. Does the child know how to operate a dead bolt lock? All the doors have a dead bolt.

No, they will likely work overtime to complete the overhaul in the time frame they've laid out now.

This is correct. The two systems are normally connected together, so a failure of one will temporarily knock the other offline. Once the systems are disconnected, then the good system can be restarted. There is no "primary" and "secondary" system, they are equal. For instance, the large consumers like propulsion and AC, the motors have two windings, each providing half of the required power. Each of these windings is fed from a different distribution system, so when both are available, the motor gets full power, but when one system is out, they only get half power. The lower voltage users (480v and lower) have distribution boards in each fire zone, and each distribution board is fed from both systems, but only one is connected at a time, so some of them will need to be manually switched from one system to another when there is a problem. Typically, a blackout should only take a couple of minutes to get another generator online, but restoring all power may take an hour or so.

Both are equally "strict" in their requirements, but the main difference is that the Panama Canal Authority assumes full financial responsibility for the ship, which is why the Captain relinquishes command of the ship to the Canal pilot when in the canal. You'll remember that the Suez Canal sued Evergreen for damages when their ship grounded.

Don't know about where you live, but go to any grocery store, Target or Walmart in my area, and you are greeted by either empty shelves or a single row of items hiding empty space behind them. Welcome to the post-Covid world.

As "Port State Control" agency in the US, the USCG has the final decision whether any ship sails from a US port, anywhere in the country. There is really not a minimum speed requirement, but there is a statutory requirement for redundanc'y in steering, and power generation. The two small Cat generators that Quantum has, provides the redundancy of power generation if only one main generator is available, so the ship won't be without power. If one of the two azipods is out of service, the USCG will require a tug escort from the sea buoy to the dock, since the azipods provide steering as well as propulsion. You don't need redundancy in propulsion, since 95% of the ships on the oceans have only one engine connected directly to one propeller, and if that goes out, you've lost propulsion. All countries are equal in their authority as "Port State Control", but each nation determines how they enforce that authority. Some countries are as strict about losing an azipod as the US, but most aren't.