chengkp75

Especially since a "floor" is a vertical member of the ship's framing.

As noted, they are being kept in one lounge, and the passengers are being kept away from that lounge. Not sure where else you would accommodate 60+ people in segregation. Simplest from a logistics (meal serving, toilet facilities) and security viewpoints.

Alaska has no state sales tax, but some municipalities do. So, the tax would apply only within the municipality limits, for each municipality. In the past, those municipalities exempted cruise ship sales, but it seems that Juneau wants to make the limited number of cruise passengers it allows now to be more profitable to the city by rescinding the tax exemption.

Absolute rubbish. The code "rising star" is used by some cruise lines, but not all. Many don't have a code for this at all, it is just an extension of a medical emergency. As for needing space after the morgue "fills up", how many people do they think die on cruises? Are they just dropping like flies? Besides, the ship is required to land any bodies at the first jurisdiction (port) it reaches, for coroner's inquest, so unless the ship is doing a trans-Pacific cruise, they would be in port too often to stack up the bodies. Further, you don't put a body in a freezer, that can negate any forensic evidence that the body has as to cause of death. So, an ice cream freezer would not be used to store an extra body. There was a case recently, where a woman sued a cruise line because they stored her husband's body in a vegetable room (cooler) because the morgue was inoperable. Even there, they knew not to freeze the body. Gotta love a journalist who doesn't even make an attempt to fact check a story.

In a thread on NCL forum, they are discussing this, and someone posted the wording of the statute, and "pre-cruise sales" for goods and services received onboard in Juneau limits, are taxable. It's just like other lines don't allow their beverage packages to start in Texas, because even if it is pre-paid, it is when/where the goods are delivered that determines whether it is taxable or not.

Saw that the tax is a hefty 8% (5% sales tax, 3% alcohol tax), so Celebrity may not want to swallow that cost anymore.

Its possible, some ports and cruise lines do it.

"Aft" is an adjective (describing a noun "the aft elevator") or an adverb (describing a verb "I am going aft"). It is commonly misused here on CC, and just tends to set my teeth on edge.

I don't think Mr. Payne would have said "the aft", more likely "the stern". There is no "the aft". By a terraced stern profile, do you mean that each deck steps back from the one below? To me, she still has that. I just now remembered that QV had cabins added at the stern, these were stepped back, just like the original ones. The duck tail was added to increase the buoyancy required from adding that weight at the stern.

They are European outlets, but the poster was asking about UK outlets. Not a lot of ships have UK outlets (type G), which are vastly different from the European type C/F that cruise ships use.

The "duck tail" is, as you say, to lengthen the waterline length and improve the hull speed of the ship, and also to provide additional buoyancy when pitching, to reduce the pitching, the way that flaring bows reduce pitching. If you added superstructure above this, it adds weight, which would put the hull further into the water, creating more drag and weight to move (more power), and weight at the extreme end of the ship doesn't help with the pitching.

Actually, quite efficient, as the truck does the whole thing of storing the cables, rolling them out, and providing the arm to bring the cables to the ship. Allows for various length ships and various positions of power hookups. The picture of Anthem shows a dock arm supporting the cables, so there is one piece of equipment, and the cables need to be stored when not in use, so another truck to pick them up and take them to storage.

Which ports?

That's not the kind of information that is generally available to the public. But, if a ship home ports, or calls at, a port that mandates shore power, then it will have the ability. Generally, only those ships that are required to use shore power, will have it. Shore power is not generally available at all cruise ports, it is mainly a West Coast and NYC thing, though it looks like Miami is joining in. I'm wondering why you are interested.

Last I heard, a few years back, it was about $1 million/ship for shore power connection. No, they all can't. Which is why, generally, cruise ships continue to run one of their main generators, even when in dry dock. There is a connection for shore cooling water, but not for shore power. Each cruise ship would need around 8-10Mw (million watts) of power, provided at 10,000 volts. So, there is quite a bit of infrastructure needed to bring that amount of power, to the pier, and to have it at 10k volts (which is basically the line power at the top of the poles). And, you need to have the grid capability to absorb that load whenever a ship is in port. Cost is several million per berth.

There was a very minimal chance of her restoration under NCL, since no serious feasibility studies were done, which is what kept the idea alive, but under Crystal, there was no hope whatsoever, after the feasibility study showed the vast amount of cost needed to bring the ship up to SOLAS standards, let alone completely build the interior. The historical significance of the SSUS is her power plant, which has not moved in over 40 years, and therefore is not likely to be usable, even if efficiency is discounted. When NCL tried to restore her in the early 2000's, a lawsuit brought by the Conservancy required that the power plant be retained, due to its historical significance, which doomed any restoration. To be honest, the hopes for any potential use of the SSUS, even as a static museum or hotel/convention center, died when she was towed to Turkey and gutted, back in the 1990's.

Assuming you didn't pay for airfreight, the rug merchant sure didn't, so its container shipping. While the rug merchant may not wait to get a full container load before shipping, the freight forwarder they are using surely will, so let's say two weeks to get that. Then, non-stop its 2 weeks from Turkey to the US East Coast by container ship, add another week for port stops along the way, and you're at 5 weeks now, and just at the port of arrival in the US. Then a week for customs clearance, and a week for the freight forwarder to arrange a LTL (less than trailer load) shipment to you in Minnesota, and another week for actual transport, again stopping along the way to deliver partial loads, and you've reached 8 weeks. They are not paying priority pricing for Amazon's network, or even DHL, so there are delays at every step of the way.

Security clearance from whom? The government, CBP, does not see the passenger manifest until 60 minutes prior to sailing, so they have no idea who has booked, or when. Some cruise lines do run bookings through a sex offender database, but that is not mandatory, and I don't believe there is any "timeline" for doing this.

Theoretically. The closest I've heard about is RCI, I believe, that allows bookings the afternoon before. Has to be done by phone, not online, and most certainly not at the port, despite what some think.

The ship is only required to turn in the passenger manifest 60 minutes prior to departure.

You'll note that they mention "going to a port of entry (Canada or Mexico)"? As I noted, you walk right up. This also references arriving at a port of entry. So, nowhere did I mention being left behind by a cruise line, I am merely rebutting your statement that you cannot reach a port of entry without a passport, or that you cannot be allowed into the country without a passport. And, your point is? We are talking about returning to the US, not leaving a country legally or otherwise. And, if you entered a country on a WHTI accepted documentation, then left the ship, would a country care if you had the proper documentation to leave the country? Most countries could care less about who leaves their borders.

If a person presents themselves to a CBP station or officer, they are on US territory, and regardless of how they got there, they cannot be denied entry if they are US citizens. So, CBP is required to check databases to see if the person presenting themselves as a US citizen matches information in US databases (photo from drivers license database, dob from state birth records, etc), and then if proven as US citizens, they cannot deny entry just because of no passport. As noted, given that the OP was talking about a Canadian or Mexican port of entry, they could just walk up to the CBP checkpoint. Even if a person used a US passport to board a flight in Europe, and the passport was lost or stolen while on the plane (or maybe in a transit lounge), when that person gets to the CBP station at the airport on arrival, they cannot be denied entry just because they don't have a passport, if other means proves their citizenship.

My personal experience, on the crew side of cruising, is that cruise lines do allow oxygen tanks onboard, it just needs to be handled differently. Different lines will handle it differently, but there will usually be a small colored round dot sticker placed next to your cabin door, to notify emergency teams that there is a source of near pure oxygen inside, in case of fire.

Even those ships with "helipads" will almost never have a helicopter land on it, unless the ship is in port. Landing on a moving, rolling, pitching small deck while the ship's superstructure moves towards the helicopter is dangerous in the extreme, so winch evacuation is done 99% of the time.

We have it several times a summer. Current price is $6.99/lb, or $8 to $10 a lobster, buy them from the garage lobster pound on the way to the lake house and boil them in the gas lobster pot/turkey fryer. Probably once a year we do a full "lobster bake", with potatoes, corn, shrimp, clams, lobster. Even those cruise lines that offer "Maine" lobster, it is still frozen, unless served within a day or two of embarkation. Freezing changes the consistency of the flesh. Also, they tend to broil the tails, which is fine if you pay close attention to each tail as it cooks to prevent overcooking, but when you are using a convection oven that holds over a hundred tails, that just isn't done, resulting in overcooking the tails. And, my favorite is claw meat, much better than the tail. As for scallops, the key there is to get "dry packed" scallops, those that have a bit of a "mahogany" hue to them, not the juicy white ones. Only dry scallops can be seared, and that is the only way to really enjoy scallops. Or just take it out to the back lot and dump it and let the wildlife enjoy.