chengkp75

You are correct. I suspect that the OP's toilet had a "discharge valve" (the valve that opens to empty the toilet) that was leaking slightly, so the vacuum in the system was slowly sucking the water out of the bowl, but if the toilet is flushed often enough, one of these "leakers" doesn't get the bowl dry and create a "sucking toilet" that can be heard. Now, when the vacuum goes down in the system, sometimes there is enough vacuum at a location to trigger the flushing sequence valve, so someone's toilet could flush, but there is not enough vacuum to get the "product" all the way through the system, and then what "product" is laying in horizontal pipe runs will flow by gravity down the system. If the "discharge valves" are all working properly, then nothing should come back through while the vacuum is down. But, a "leaker" will allow the "product" to back flow into a toilet by gravity. So, long story short, the OP's toilet was most likely an unnoticed problem, that became a problem when the vacuum system got plugged repeatedly. It is a pretty rare occurrence, I would set it at about once in every couple of thousand toilet failures.

If you're worried about malware from a public USB port, use a "charging only" USB cable, which only has the two power wires installed, not the two data wires, or use a "data blocker" which only connects the two power wires from your USB cable to the USB port, disconnecting the two data wires.

I don't believe that's actually what I've said. While hotel load is constant, whether at sea or in port, that hotel load can vary from 100% of load (in port), to 50% of load (slow steaming), to 15% of load (full speed), so generally, sailing slower will save fuel, especially when you consider that fuel consumption vs speed is not linear, but exponential, and a small decrease in speed from full speed can save considerable fuel. So, if you are on a fixed itinerary, the hotel load is a fixed consumption for the entire cruise. Then it becomes a calculation of how much fuel is burned going from port to port at 20 knots or at 14 knots. If you can keep the schedule regardless of which speed you are going, then the slower speed (less time in port, more time at sea) saves fuel.

Actually, ships older than 15 years are required to dry dock twice in 5 years, and HAL has been historically better than other lines in drydocking newer ships twice in 5 years, and not relying on the in water underwater survey that newer ships are allowed. And, dry dockings are not required to make repairs like this deck repair.

The teak decking requires specialist installers, and a day or two with no rain to get the sealant between boards to cure. This looks like the square patch is over a deck drain that may have rusted through, and the others are from sections of decking that came unglued from the steel deck. Most times this kind of work requires the deck area to be taken out of use for a week, and to have the installers brought onboard.

Most municipalities find that cruise tourists spend about 50% or less than the typical day tourist, let alone one spending multiple days. With cruise ships, a good bit of the restaurant trade goes to the ship instead of local restaurants. And, what is the difference between hotel room costs going to "huge corporations", and cabin and dining costs going to "huge foreign corporations"? Sure, the "footprint" of cruise ships is less than hotels and condos, but I don't see much traction for your argument.

Industry standard calls for fall restraint equipment any time you can fall more than 6 feet, so yes, leaning out the side port to secure a gangway would qualify.

Actually, the tariff for the new locks is higher than the old locks, so the port taxes and fees would be higher.

Dysons are not multi-voltage, so yours from the US will need to be in the US outlet, while jjsparkles, who is from Scotland, will have to use the EU outlet, and would not work at all on the US outlet. Plugging a US Dyson into the EU outlet will definitely burn it out.

From what I've heard (I don't use these products myself, being 70 and baldish), many of the Dyson products don't work, inconsistently, on ships, and many ceramic type hair straighteners don't either. I believe it is the electronics of the Dyson digital motor that does not like the shipboard grounding system (same with the ceramic straighteners). And, this may be that the products work for one user on a given ship, and not for another user on the same ship a different day, or even for the same user on different days, since the existence or non-existence of a ground fault somewhere on the ship can affect how these electronics work, and these ground faults show up and disappear (repaired) almost randomly.

Nope.

Typically, deck and engine crew do not participate in the "DSC" pool. They are more likely unionized, and have a collective bargaining agreement for wages, that are a good bit higher than the hotel staff.

Until the international definition of "passenger vessel" changes, that's not going to happen. Unlike many people's opinion, the maritime labor lobby is not that powerful, but a really powerful lobbyist, CLIA, does not want any change to the PVSA, as they fear that the alternative would require more US regulation like wages and taxes, than would be gained by the addition of domestic routes.

While the terminal will adhere to federal regulations, the ship adheres to international convention, and flag state law.

Well, short of eliminating the PVSA, the NCL model is the only one that would be allowed, whether Hawaii wants to change things or not. The only other model would be the one NCL used to do, with a call at Fanning Island in KIribati, 700 miles south of the Big Island. And, Fanning is nothing but a big barbeque at the end of a day and a half at sea. Never said NCL didn't like the deal, just saying that yes, as you say, they are struggling to make things work well. When they hired me, the head of HR told me flat out that they had no clue about dealing with US unionized maritime labor. Lots of us in the first hires for NCL America tried to educate them, but there were forces in NCL corporate that wanted the Hawaii operation to fail, and they nearly accomplished that.

Sorry, but there is no "official training" or "paperwork" required by the US government for a service animal, so Carnival cannot ask to see any. The ADA specifically allows for owner trained animals, but there is a "code of conduct" that the animal must adhere to. Drug dogs are trained to sniff and scratch at the found item. It is bomb dogs that are trained to sit or lay down, as you don't want them disturbing the item.

Within the last 5 years or so, and they are standard in all industries. But, again, the number of times I've seen "trained" individuals misusing PPE, or not using it at all, despite a "safety culture" in the company, would astound you. Not saying this is the case here, but it is very common. Very little details of the incident available, so I'm just guessing about the situation, but no hotel worker would be working over the side. Heck, it could be as simple as the crew member breaking for coffee break, and detaching the harness before climbing out of the window washing rig, slipping and falling. It happens, sea going is a dangerous business that most cruise passengers don't realize.

Sure, they can, but POA could never do any other domestic US routes, it would have to be the same as the international ships, and they would of course flag out. But, while they have a monopoly, they wil keep it. NCL originally wanted into the Hawaii market when Genting owned them, and KT Lim wanted to invest in Hawaii. After the uproar over the Japanese "buying out" Hawaii, he wanted to show that it was a US company doing the investing. He wanted to buy bus and helicopter tours, golf courses and the like. It never worked out. Frankly, they expanded their capacity in Hawaii too quickly, they never really marketed the ships properly (showcasing Hawaii over the ship), or the golf packages (each ship had a pro shop onboard), and the other cruise lines flooded the market with cheaper 12-14 day cruises from the West Coast, which drove the Hawaii only cabin prices down below profitability. That's when they started taking ships back out of US flag.

Workers not using all of the required PPE (personal protective equipment) happens all too frequently. Just recently they have introduced double attachment harnesses, so that when moving from one location to another, you hook your new tether before removing the old one, which, in the old days, you would be untethered while moving.

Nothing. Cruise ships pay a hefty surcharge for a reserved transit date and time, and the Canal Authorities are very willing to rake in this extra. The backlog is ships with no reservations.

While it is true that the POA's "US built" clause was waived by Congress, there is some debate as to whether or not she actually meets the "US built" clause without the waiver. I have worked on several ships that had the hulls built in the US, and everything else, from the machinery to the piping, to the engines, were built overseas, and the ships still qualified for the Jones Act as "US built". Since POA's hull was built in the US, there is some question as to the percentage of the build that is US and what is foreign. And, while many folks trot out the line from NCL's quarterly statements that "POA is the highest revenue earner in the fleet", note that they say "revenue", not profit. The US flag ships have never been exceedingly profitable, and in many years they lost money. In the last year that NCL operated 3 ships in Hawaii, they lost $179 million, just on the Hawaii operation. US crew costs are about 5 times what the international crew get (when benefits are added in), and everything for the cruise, from food to alcohol to fuel has to be shipped from the mainland, unlike the foreign flag ships which provision and fuel on the West Coast. That shipping cost adds considerably to the operating cost of POA.

From the description that the crew member fell over the side of the ship, in port, it would most likely point to a deck crew member, doing "over the side" maintenance.

Likely not in the slightest. Cruise ships pay a boatload more for a reserved transit time, and a daylight transit. The Canal Authority is more than willing to take that money over a ship that doesn't have a reserved slot. The most that could happen is a raise in the transit tariff, which might scare off some cruise traffic.

The above post is not quite correct. If you have booked air fare through Cunard, and there are significant numbers of passengers on that plane (likely 25 or more), then they will normally hold the ship. If you are the only ones, or just a few Cunard passengers on the ship, they won't delay the ship, they will arrange for you to get to the next port. There are also cabotage laws that may prevent you from joining at a later port, it all depends on the itinerary.

First off, the gangway is owned and operated by the Port Authority, not a ship, so damage to it is not a "marine incident". Secondly, since there were no injuries, and the failure was not caused by an accident like an allision, just a mechanical break down, it does not fall under the definition of a "marine incident" that the USCG would investigate. There is no regulation that says a port has to have a fancy movable boarding ramp to get passengers on and off a ship, so failure of the gangway is simply not an issue for the USCG. I don't believe they were ever informed.