chengkp75

Actually, the typical 220v power strip is a lesser risk than a consumer 110v power strip. First off, the current drawn for a given wattage appliance at 220v is half of the current drawn by that same appliance at 110v (and current, not voltage, is what is dangerous). This is why much of the world is on 220v. Secondly, most consumer 110v power strips only have a circuit breaker that opens one leg of the power, since the other is assumed to be at earth voltage, as it is in the US, but not on ships. Most consumer 220v power strips will have a circuit breaker that opens both legs of the power, providing a safer (for shipboard use) power strip.

They wouldn't need to take the ship out of service, just that cabin. An easy way to stop the noise temporarily is to try to jam folded up paper between the panels to see which panels are squeaking. It looks bad, but it works.

Yes, it is all marketing, but at the end of the road, you still have the increased operating cost of an older hull. Every dry dock, ships are required to perform ultrasonic thickness tests on steel plates and frames, and x-ray inspections of welds. At the 15 year mark, the number of these that are required increases exponentially, and in more difficult places to do, so this alone costs more. But, based on these tests, there will likely be requirements to repair welds or renew steel, and lots of this stuff can be in difficult places like inside bunker tanks, or sewage tanks, that require cleaning before any "hot work" (cutting and welding) can be done.

The problem is that no matter how much lipstick you put on the front of house, you still have a 20+ year old ship. The classification societies could care less how "fabulous" the hotel amenities look, they are still going to require the cost of inspecting the hull and renewing steel as needed, that happens on an older vessel. I never really understood Carnival's idea of massive hotel renovations on older ships, as the majority of maintenance costs on older vessels are things you'll never see, like dry dock costs and steel replacement.

Not really. Dry dockings are mandatory. If the ship is going to sail beyond the dry dock date (and Sunshine is due in Nov '24), then it has to dry dock, whether they intend to scrap it 2 months later, or sell it the next week. Even if a contract for sale was in the works, at the time the dry dock was due, Carnival would still have to go through the dry dock. Some sales done a short time before a ship is due to be sold, will require a dry dock before the sale goes through. If the ship does not dry dock within the statutory period, it loses it's "certificate of class" (think of your car's safety sticker), and without that certificate, it loses it's "Register" (think of your car's title) from the flag state, and can no longer sail at all.

Most cruise ships have a "salamander" broiler (I know the ship I worked on 20 years ago did), and they reach 1500*F.

I make no excuses for any cruise line. However, and I don't know the disability laws in Canada, but in the US, which has the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), the SCOTUS has ruled a few decades ago, that not all provisions of the ADA apply to foreign flag cruise ships. They rule that various other laws, like SOLAS, outweigh the ADA as far as accessibility is concerned, meaning that if SOLAS requires a high door sill that would prevent a wheelchair or scooter from using the doorway, then SOLAS wins out. It sounds like Cunard has had problems with SOLAS compliance (SOLAS does not allow mobility aids to be parked in the passageways), and so are simply tightening up an enforcement policy to meet SOLAS. SCOTUS also found in the same case, that the "ship's internal policies and procedures" are not subject to the ADA (meaning what policies they formulate to meet SOLAS and still adhere to accessibility standards) can be in violation of what the ADA requires everywhere else in the US. This is why the cruise lines choose to flag their ships in "flag of convenience" nations, they have very little in the way of protections for "protected classes" of people, like those with mobility disabilities. It is one of the realities one faces when you step on a foreign flag cruise ship. You are not being denied access, any more than if the only accessible cabins on the ship (not just those available) were more expensive than your original inside cabin. And, paying a single supplement is no part of the argument, as you would pay the exact same amount for one person or two people when booking a hotel room. I sympathize with your situation, but I feel it is more of a "caveat emptor" situation, where you did not read/understand all the terms and conditions of your booking, regardless of how many previous times you booked a cruise, thinking you met those terms and conditions.

Unless there is a total blackout of the ship, the most of the elevators do work in emergencies, they are merely switched to "fireman mode" where the floor call buttons don't work. The only elevators that will be shut down are those within the fire zone. There will be crew available to operate the elevators for those who need mobility assistance. The notification of Cunard of someone's personal assistance needs allows Cunard to generate a list of those pax who need assistance, and then crew from the "special needs" team can be directed to find these pax and assist them. They will not use a powered chair for evacuation.

Get the 10:30 mail boat run, then walk up Franklin St from the ferry terminal, to Middle St, and have lunch at Duckfat. All their fries are cooked in, guess what, duckfat. They have a poutine with duck confit that is to die for (but keep your statins handy!). Their milkshakes are notable as well. A half mile walk back up Middle towards the Arena, passing the "Lobsterman statue", turn down Center St for a block to Fore St and you'll find the statue of one of our native sons, director John Ford. Then take Fore St back towards the ship, which will take you through the heart of the Old Port (Central Provisions, Holy Donut). Turn down one of the cross streets to get back to Commercial St, and have dinner at one of the fine restaurants along the way back to the ship (I would pass on DeMillo's, it just hasn't kept up with the explosion of great restaurants in Portland).

This is the cause of 90% of cabin noise, not structural defects or architectural design problems. Each of those ceiling panels is held in place by a series of sheet metal screws on one side. The other side tucks under the next panel and is held by the screws on that panel. Therefore, if the screws are even a little loose, the two panels will rub against each other, creating the "creaking", as the non-structural cabin walls and ceiling move with the ship's flexing. It doesn't take real "major surgery" to fix, it just requires that the carpenters start at one end of the cabin, and take down all the ceiling panels until they get to the loose one, tighten that up, and then reinstall all the other panels. As for this being a problem of just "new" ships, nope, it actually will get worse as the ship ages, as more flexing causes the screws to loosen.

Piracy in the Straits of Hormuz has been going on for centuries. 😲 There are several multi-national naval task forces in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean areas formed to protect against smuggling and piracy. There are about 4 task forces, and some can be sent to reinforce the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden to provide maritime security/escort protection as they have for the last few years.

Not sure what site you're using, but marinetraffic and vesselfinder show this time (though 16:00 UTC is 08:00 PST) as the arrival in Victoria. It looks like you're using cruisemapper, which is notoriously unreliable for unscheduled ship movements. Not sure why they are going back to Ogden Point, Victoria, unless it is for bunkers.

The total fees and tariff for a Canal transit for a Panamax cruise ship will be about $400k.

You are confusing a closed loop cruise with an open-jaw cruise. A closed loop cruise (that begins and ends at the same US port) only needs to visit any foreign port. An open jaw cruise (that begins at one US port, and ends at a different US port) is required to stop at a far distant port. A "far distant" port is defined as any port not in North or Central America, the Caribbean, Bahamas, or Bermuda.

Murder, kidnapping, assault. And, as noted, it would have to be in international waters. If the crime happened in some other countries' territorial waters, then the US does not have any jurisdiction.

Further to the overlap of jurisdiction between "flag state" and "port state", the UN Law of the Seas convention (UNCLOS) states that the "port state" only has criminal jurisdiction on the ship, even when the ship is in the "port state's" waters or docked, if: "a) the consequences of the crime extend to the coastal State b) the crime is of a kind to disturb the peace of the country or the good order of the territorial sea c) the assistance of the local authorities has been requested by the Master of the ship or by the diplomatic agent or consular officer of the flag State, or d) such measures are necessary for the suppression of illicit traffic in narcotic drugs of psychotropic substances." So, even a crime like murder, committed on a Bahamian flag ship, by a German national (for example), on a Belgian national (for example), while in US waters would not necessarily fall under US jurisdiction, but the US could request jurisdiction in consultation with the Bahamian government. It is a very large gray area of law, and one that keeps admiralty lawyers in business.

It looks like Jul '25.

Don't know your definition of a large city, but Portland only has a population of 68,000. The vast majority of downtown Portland is within a mile radius of the cruise terminal. Aside from lobster, Portland has been a top 10 "foodie" city in the US for a few years now. Great restaurants abound, lots of history to see, good walking trails.

According to Lloyd's, her bottom survey is due Jan '25, so the range would be about from Dec '24 to Jan '25.

That only applies to US citizens.

No, the POA is the only large US flag cruise ship. As noted above, there are 3 cruise lines that go to Alaska, or do US coastal cruises, and one cruise line that has 2 or 3 US flag expedition ships.

American Cruise Lines, Uncruise Adventures, Alaska Dream Cruise lines all are US flagged, so they don't need to visit a foreign port, and all do Alaska cruises. NCL's Pride of America does Hawaii only cruises, as it is also US flag. There are some Lindblad/NatGeo ships that are US flag and do US domestic cruises as well. Coco Cay is not "technically" part of the Bahamas, it is part of the Bahamas. Just because a cruise line either owns or leases an island does not make it a sovereign nation. Does owning your house make it not part of the US? Here in Maine, there are quite a lot of privately owned islands, but I can assure you they are all part of the US. What is stupid about this? If you take the Bimini Resorts World ferry to Bimini and back (and that is only 50 miles from Miami, not the 140 to Coco Cay), you have to clear customs and immigration upon return.

Just because there is a pier there, would not assure docking. Disney and RCI have docks at their private islands, but they are basically unprotected docks that protrude out into the sea, and depending on wind direction and speed, the ship cannot dock. By law, there must be one light in each cabin that is on the emergency generator circuit as well as normal power. This light would go out for less than a minute before coming back on under emergency power. Typically, it is the bathroom light.

The only part of the article that is "US based" is the fact that the FBI requires reporting of certain crimes for cruises that start and end in the US. Further, the US has claimed "extra-territorial jurisdiction" (meaning they claim jurisdiction for crimes committed on the high seas) against US citizens only, and only for a very few crimes. Other than that, what the article says pertains to your circumstances. As Heidi13 says, the flag state has sole jurisdiction at sea, outside territorial waters (unless a claim is made similar to the FBI for citizens of a particular country, but not many countries do this), and the Captain is the flag state's legal law enforcement agent onboard the ship. So, as noted by others, no other police other than Italian national police would have any jurisdiction, or interest, and the laws of the UK, where you say this would constitute simple assault, do not apply, Italian law applies. As noted, your only recourse is to complain to the cruise line's corporate offices, but there will be no legal recourse. You've learned a valuable lesson that many US cruise passengers simply cannot fathom, that when you set foot on a vessel of another country, your home country's laws, rights, and protections go right overboard.

Doesn't an establishment that has a "Mixed Beverage with Food and Beverage" license have to serve food with alcohol? Since less than 60% of gross revenue can come from alcohol sales, food must be the priority, and the business listed as a restaurant. The reason businesses go for the "F&B" condition on their license is that they are not required to post the "personal surety bond" that bars have to.