chengkp75

As I said, the state tax will end at the end of state waters, 3 nm from shore. The casino cannot open until in international waters, outside of 12 nm from shore.

State waters end 3 miles offshore, except Texas and Florida's Gulf coast, where it is 9 miles.

They not only have long enough roller handles, they have rafts they can put in to get to those spots. While it does improve the "curb appeal" of the ship, painting while in operation, especially that close to the waterline is generally a waste of time and money, as the surface is never clean enough to have the paint adhere properly. That looks to me not to be from dock fenders (as that part of the hull never contacts the pier), but that the last dry dock paint job was not done properly (again, an unclean surface), and it will continue to peel, regardless of whether they paint it in service or not, until the next dry dock where they will need to grind off that coating and do it again.

The biggest exception to this is that the Captain has an overriding responsibility to his/her ship, crew, cargo, passengers, and the environment. So,a Captain does not have to render assistance if doing so would endanger the ship, crew, cargo or passengers. And, the SAR convention does require the nation providing SAR functions to essentially do so without consideration of risk. The US Lifesaving Service (one of the precursors of the USCG) had a motto that "you gotta go out there, but you don't gotta come back".

USCG inspection?

Not all water produced onboard is made by evaporation. Some is produced by reverse osmosis, which produces excellent drinking water, but not distilled water. Further, it is fairly common for ships to load potable water from ports, depending on the ship's itinerary. The only thing mineral is "reintroduced" is calcium carbonate, the active ingredient in Tums, to neutralize the natural acidity of distilled water.

Actually, taking water in port is fairly common. It depends on the ship's itinerary, as to whether or not the ship is at sea (outside 12 miles from shore) long enough, and whether the ship is traveling at high enough speed to generate enough heat to make maximum water, to make enough water to meet the demand over the cruise. 2-1/2" fire hoses are used for potable water loading. You can tell them by the blue band painted on the hose at each end, the blue painted fittings on each end, and by the blue wooden supports used to keep each connection up off the dock. The hydrant where the water is being taken from must have been tested for water quality within the last month (not just the overall municipal system testing), and a certificate provided to the ship, along with a test by the ship for residual chlorine at the time the water is taken. Shore water is then chlorinated before it goes into the storage tanks, and it must be kept segregated from use onboard until a coliform bacteria test is completed onboard, which takes 18-24 hours. For these segregation and delay reasons, along with the cost of the water, taking shore water is kept to a minimum, but in some cases it becomes a large percentage of the water onboard.

The problem is that you made an assumption that the water had a high sodium content. Water retention can also be caused by a lack of magnesium or potassium, both of which are in very low to nil quantities in water produced onboard.

I really hate this persistent myth. The water produced onboard has a lower salt content than most municipal water supplies in the US. Even a southern city like Miami, that does not get road salt into the ground water, last year tested at 24-41ppm sodium, while ships produce water at 1ppm (evaporators) or 20ppm (RO units).

They need a new doctor. From what I see, the only inoculation required for Panama, and only if you are traveling from Brazil, is Yellow Fever.

The simple act of flagging the ships in Panama or Bahamas is stating that "you can't make us".

I know that as of pre-pandemic, Carnival ships did not have this technology. There is also debate as to whether or not an "automated" system, rather than relying on shipside cameras that just record, but that can be accessed later for confirmation of an overboard meets the law. There is also debate as to whether the CVSSA even has jurisdiction over foreign flag vessels. This has not been challenged in court, but it does apparently fly in the face of the "uniformity" clauses of SOLAS, where every signatory nation agrees to not impose stricter standards on other members' vessels. Even when Congress passed the "Cruise Passengers' Bill of Rights", it was posited to CLIA whether or not its members would approve, and CLIA voluntarily accepted the terms.

Not sure how you came to this conclusion, as even in good times they have limited the number of neo-panamax transits to just 10-11. If they used that much less water, and they "preferred" to use the new locks, why were they still having over 3 times the number of transits through the old locks as the new locks? The new locks don't use less water than the old locks, but they reuse a portion of the water each transit, so they use less water than the larger lock would have used under the old system. I was starting to answer your other misconceptions, but NJhorseman did a fine job of that. Please note that the number of reserved transits have not been reduced, it is the number of "spot" transits (show up and wait your turn) that are being reduced. Cruise ships pay a premium for a reserved day, and even more for a confirmed daylight transit.

Typically, as far as the cruise line is concerned, if the first name and DOB match between DL and BC, then you are okay. CBP does recommend that "bridging documents" (marriage license, divorce decree, name change order) be brought, as without them, there might be a need for secondary screening, with possible delays in disembarking.

Yes, outside of the Baltic "cruises" mentioned above, all of the container lines that offered passenger service have not restarted this since the pandemic. A place to watch for lines restarting is Marisfreightercruises.com.

Looks to me, from Lloyd's database, that it will be April 2025.

Let me correct this quote, which is frequently made, and misunderstood. To be "classified as a US flagged ship", the ship can be built anywhere in the world, but it must be US owned, and US crewed. What that quote meant to say is that to be "classified as a PVSA compliant ship", it must be US built, US owned, and US crewed. There is a difference. Any US flag ship can carry passengers or cargo from US ports to foreign ports, or vice versa, but only PVSA compliant US flag ships can carry passengers from one US port to another.

And, for the record, the ships are never 100% on LNG. Marine diesels using LNG fuel have to use 5% diesel or residual fuel to get the LNG to ignite.

RCI has apparently learned the hard lesson that having only 4 main engines causes problems when overhauls (about every 2.5 years) come due, especially when the large engines are taken out of service for a month to overhaul. The itineraries would be designed for a "normal top speed" (not "true" full speed) using the 2 19Mw engines and one 14Mw engine, to allow one 14Mw engine to be down for overhaul without affecting itinerary. But, if one of the 19Mw engines is down, you would have to adjust itinerary to account for a slower top speed. The two CAT engines make up the difference between a 14Mw engine and a 19Mw engine, so you run the two CAT's, the two 14Mw engines, and a 19Mw engine, and you get the needed output. Also, having more than 4 engines allows for more fine tuning of generating capacity to meet the power requirements at various speeds and weather conditions (such as running one 14Mw, one 19Mw, and one CAT, for example). Keeping the engines loaded to as near 85% capacity provides the best fuel consumption, so matching production capacity to demand by mixing engine sizes helps with this.

An electricity consumer can buy power on the open market for a given metered account . That would be the port authority, not the individual cruise line customers. HAL could try to negotiate a different rate than other consumers, but I doubt the port authorities would do this, any more than they would negotiate different dockage rates for each line. Given that the engines are overhauled every 14,000 hours, that 7 days a year savings is not that significant as far as wear and overhaul are concerned.

I think it is more that the cruise lines are seeing the regulatory landscape change to require shore power in more ports, so they are reacting to meet this. As for the ports, in many cases, it is a matter of kicking the can to another jurisdiction, as there are questions in some places as to whether the electrical infrastructure can handle another 8-30Mw of power (1 to 3 cruise ships)(about 400-600 homes per ship), and what to do with the excess generation capacity when the ships are not in port. Heck, there are problems with integrating community solar projects into the grid due to aging and limited infrastructure, for example, Vermont has placed a moratorium on new solar projects due to infrastructure limitations.

I have to chuckle when articles like this mention "aux power engines", when the same engines that power the propulsion also power the hotel load in port. They are all the same.

What incentive would they have to retain US citizens, when they could hire international crew like the cruise ships do, for an estimated 1/5 of the cost of US crew (from US Maritime Administration figures). And, that figure includes repatriation airfare for the foreign crew. And, if there is a shortage of US crew, that is even more incentive to hire foreign crew. So, if you allow foreign built ships into the ferry system, how do they get here? I don't see a Washington State Ferry type vessel crossing the Pacific from China. And, with the exception of the AMHS mainline vessels, I don't see these coming from overseas shipyards either. And, what of the other 700 ferries operated by 190 companies, let alone the sightseeing boats, whale watching boats, and charter fishing boats, that employ tens of thousands of US citizens? These ferries account for over 100 million passenger trips a year (only about 12 million passengers sail on cruise ships from the US annually), and every dollar of that ferry revenue stays in the US economy, unlike foreign flag ship operators, who pay zero tax on ship revenues, and can pay foreign crew who take that money to their home country's economy. Sure, when you cut out the 4 times a year USCG inspections for what the foreign flag ships get (one or two non-mandatory inspections, depending on budget, that don't require the stricter safety regulations that US flag vessels need to meet), and the requirement to have USCG approved safety and lifesaving equipment, and you remove the USCG mandated training and certification of the officers and crew, as the foreign flag ships do, you can cut fares quite a bit, but "at what cost to the passengers?"

Just a fun fact, Saint John has a larger population than the entire island of Bermuda.

"Refurbishment" and dry docking are two totally different things. Dry docking is a statutory requirement to maintain the ship's certificates to sail, while "refurbishment", as understood by cruisers, is a voluntary repair of the front of house of the hotel. "Refurbishments" happen during dry dockings because the ship has to be out of service anyway due to the docking, but may be deferred or cancelled due to financial decisions by the cruise line. The only way a "dry docking" can be postponed is if the ship is "taken out of service" (i.e. cannot sail at all, whether with passengers or not), and the ship's certificates are suspended. This is what happened during Covid. The Marina is due for a bottom survey in May of 2024, but this was originally an "intermediate" survey, which could have been completed by divers, without taking the ship out of service. However, since the 2021 dry docking was cancelled, and the ship taken out of service, this 2024 survey now requires an actual dry docking, and this cannot be postponed. This is from the Lloyd's Register database for Marina, and my knowledge of ships' classification societies based on 46 years going to sea. And, based on my experience working with cruise ship "staff" (especially front of house hotel staff), their knowledge of what actually goes on on the ship, from a technical standpoint, or a future scheduling standpoint, is minimal to be generous.