chengkp75

Yes, the crew are not getting anything extra for being hired by the ship management company. And, while Viking is paying a fee to Wilhelmsen for managing the ship, they have found that, as you say, Wilhelmsen can do it better, for less money (less Viking shore payroll offsets the Wilhelmsen fee). In fact, Wilhelmsen does the payroll for crew as well, but the pay rates are set by Viking, either by market forces or by collective bargaining agreements in the crew's home country.

Not really. Viking places certain expectations of quality, professionalism, and service on the management company, and if these are not met, then if the problem is with a crew member or officer, they are replaced at Viking's request. If the problem is endemic, then the management company can find itself being replaced.

Not a law, but a requirement to meet the US USPH/CDC Vessel Sanitation Program. Interestingly enough, the EU's ShipSan program, while similar, allows swim diapers in pools.

Virtually all ships' crews, on all vessels around the world are hired by the shipowners through manning agencies in the home countries of the crew. Shipowners find this practice very efficient, as the company does not need to keep a large personnel department, with contacts in many countries, but relies on the crewing agencies to have large pools of candidates available at all times. In the US, crew are hired through unions, for the much the same reasons, the union is responsible for maintaining the pool of mariners, not the company.

Still doesn't answer why whether they are employed by Viking or by Wilhelmsen it would affect your evaluation of them.

Now, which officers are you referring to, and what have they not done to your satisfaction? Interested to know, as again, noted that there is an operational break between technical and hotel.

If you've seen these people in the passenger public areas, they are not part of the regular crew, especially wearing t-shirts. At any time, there can be manufacturer's tech reps onboard to service equipment, it is found to be more cost effective, and better maintenance that way. For instance, the engines require complete overhaul every 2.5 years, and this takes 5-6 men, working 12 hour days, about 4-6 weeks to complete. The engineering staff do not have that kind of man/hours available from their "normal" maintenance routines, so one or two tech reps from the engine manufacturer are brought in, and a marine engineering service, like Goltens or Chris Marine, will provide some more grunt labor. Now, if you've seen these people wearing this gear ashore, well, getting "swag" from the tech reps is a longstanding maritime tradition, and the first question the crew ask the tech reps is "what swag do you have?" Many cruise lines that don't use an outside ship management company, will use an in-house, operating company that charters the ship from the parent cruise line, and further, typically only one, or at most three, ships are owned by the same company, regardless of how many ships the cruise line has. So, for example, the Viking Orion is owned by "33 Sea Leasing Co, Ltd" while Viking Star is owned by "Viking Ocean Cruise Ships I", and both are managed by Wilhelmsen on the technical side, and likely another Viking subsidiary operates the hotel side.

And, really, even if you contaminate your hands from the menu, if you don't eat with your fingers, you break the transmission chain. Knife and fork for french fries, burgers, and pizza, if you are concerned.

Typically, the necropsy finds that the whale was diseased or injured prior to the ship strike, as whales are quite able to avoid ships when healthy.

That's not quite correct. The statement from MSC says both reverse osmosis and evaporation. Generally more is made by evaporation, since this uses waste heat from the diesel engines to evaporate the sea water, while reverse osmosis uses electricity to pump the sea water at high pressure, so evaporation is more efficient and more environmentally friendly. And, the water in the restaurants and bars is filtered, but not because of taste or smell. It is filtered to prevent chlorine scale formation in the water stations/bar guns. So, further to the OP's question, the "tap water" is at least RO quality (and all RO water has some minerals in it), or better, as the RO water is mixed with the evaporator made (distilled) water. I looked at quality reports for Nestle Pure Life, and found sodium, chloride, and sulfates as reportable quantities, and total dissolved solids in the range of 26-60ppm. Shipboard RO units stop producing water, and dump the product back to sea at 20ppm, and evaporators dump at 10ppm, and generally operate at 1ppm total dissolved solids. Chlorides come in at 6-16ppm, whereas the ship's water only has a residual chlorine of 0.5ppm.

While it does not change the closed loop status for what documentation is required, it does change it for what CBP may decide to do with regards to disembarkation interviews. They may, at their discretion, go to the "starting at a foreign port" type of interview, requiring more time for each passenger. I remember when NCL was interporting a cruise with embark/disembark ports in Miami and Roatan or Belize. It caused the Miami to Miami disembarks to have a foreign voyage start interview, and there was a lot of delays and complaints about missed flights, partly because CBP didn't have enough agents there. The interporting didn't last long.

Virtually all crew are hired from crewing services in their home country, which supply crew to many different cruise lines.Some lines, HAL for instance, have training academies in Indonesia where crew learn the basics of their jobs (table service, guest interaction, some cooking skills, etc), while in most countries the onshore training of new hires is minimal. All safety training and most training in their assigned duties is done in the first week onboard. Typically, the first NCL employee that a new hire will meet will be the HR clerk signing them on the ship.

Why else would he knowingly violate company policy, and then continue to press the issue in the face of the parents wishes? I'll tell you what, every single Captain I've worked for, and every Hotel Director would fire that man in an instant if that was reported. You actually condone this?

There is an overlap in jurisdiction between "port state" (the country where the port or waters the incident happened in) and "flag state" (the country where the ship is registered). And this gray area is what keeps Admiralty lawyers in business. In a port (I don't remember if this happened in port or at sea), the flag state has jurisdiction on the ship, unless the "safety or well being" of the port state are affected, in which case the port state has jurisdiction. However, the US has also claimed "extra-territorial" jurisdiction to claim jurisdiction over certain crimes against US citizens that happen on the open ocean (in no other country's waters), regardless of the flag of the ship.

Don't know where the "engineers and technical staff are obviously contractors", or how they are so obviously contractors. The deck (Captain, bridge officers, deck crew, Medical, Security, and Environmental officers) and engine (all engineers and maintenance personnel onboard, whether in the engine room or in the hotel) are the technical departments of a cruise ship, and both departments will be either company employees or employees of a Ship Management company.

Yes, but it is the cruise line's responsibility to not allow non-potty trained kids in the pools. Not being proactive in stopping this before it happens is a non-conformity in itself. Just as it is the cruise line's responsibility to enforce the no touching food in the buffet line, and other sanitation requirements.

Shutting down a recreational water feature due to a fecal or vomit incident must be recorded by the ship's staff, and all remediation methods taken recorded. If this record does not match with reports the CDC has received from the public, then there will be a violation noted. And, if an inspector sees that the pools have been shut down for fecal/vomit incidents several days in a row, this will trigger them to ask about the policies regarding potty training, and whether they are being enforced. The cruise lines rely on the ignorance of the cruising public. In many cases, just mentioning that you know about the VSP, and what it covers, is enough to get shipboard staff to respond.

I realize that, I was responding to someone who suggested that she sue these people as well.

USPH is the US Public Health Service that administers the VSP (Vessel Sanitation Program) for the CDC. All cruise ships that call at US ports are subject to health inspections by USPH every time they enter the US from a foreign port, and these inspections include health interviews with selected groups of passengers and crew, before allowing anyone to disembark the ship. Imagine the chaos and delay if this were carried out on every cruise ship every week. So, in order to bypass this, cruise lines and the CDC devised the VSP which is a comprehensive plan covering all aspects of public health on ships, from pools to food safety, to laundry, kid's centers, and lighting and ventilation, and not only covers the operation of the ships, but how they are built in the first place. The VSP is the basis for those USPH inspections that you see on cruise ships (those guys and gals in khaki uniforms), and they try to inspect every cruise ship calling in the US twice a year, unannounced. These inspections give the "grades" that one can look for on the CDC website, and a failing score (under 75 out of 100), can cost the ship its ability to embark passengers in the US. So, involving the USPH/CDC is a big deal for the cruise lines.

What is really required is to report to onboard staff (preferably the Hotel Director) that you intend to report this to the USPH/CDC as a violation of the VSP, and then do so. That will get attention in a hurry. A fecal incident caused by inattention by staff will be a high point deduction on an inspection score, and almost guarantee a failing score.

Given Bermuda's unique fresh water situation, I'm sure that any water you want to bring from the ship, and not use theirs is welcome.

Unless things have changed markedly since I worked there (and it's been a while), the things that were outsourced were things where consistency wa key, like burger and hot dog rolls, and some of the dessert "deatails" (candy trim, etc) This is a USPH/CDC requirement and followed by all cruise lines that call at US ports, as well as part of the EU's ShipSan program for the EU. For POA, since it is a US flag ship, it follows the FDA program for cruise ships, not USPH, but they are almost identical.

"Something like this" is a violation of company policy, and a high liability issue. He is well aware of company policy, and is only trying to get bigger tips.

How are her lawyers going to get the principals of the crewing agency from the Philippines to a court in the US? How likely is a Filipino crew member to have personal liability insurance, and while he may be physically in the US for a criminal trial and incarceration, forcing an insurance company (if there is one) in the Philippines to pay up would be difficult.

My experience with helicopters is 12 years of flying in the back, and commanding flight deck crews on offshore oil rigs, so I'm in no way in your league. I've never seen a "light on the wheels" on anything other than a large oil platform, so I'm just saying that it could be done, but as you say, not likely. The Dolphin weighs 6900 lbs empty, so even though the pad on the Edge would be large enough, I think it would be overloaded.