chengkp75

No, its not "standard". Never heard of "rebooting" an electrical distribution system. However, the power supply for each fire zone (the space between the passageway fire doors are fed from two separate sources, with one feed active and one as backup. These are rotated in use, both are equal, so they may simply have been switching feeders for the various power panels.

According to P&O's FAQ, children who are not potty trained are only allowed in certain pools, none of which are on the Iona. https://www.pocruises.com/frequently-asked-questions Go to the "life onboard" tab and look for "are there swimming pools" question.

Milorganite dries out the microbes that digest the waste into fertilizer. Ships' advanced waste water treatment plants, because they do not have the same time factor as municipal systems (no big holding ponds) to process the waste, retain the microbes in the system, for use over and over. So, the waste sludge generated by the ship's system has virtually no organic value, as I said, it is predominately undigested wood (paper) fibers. The microbes do not have sufficient time to digest the tough wood fibers. Any microbes that are retained in the effluent water, are killed using UV sterilizers before the water is pumped to sea.

Surge protectors protect electronics on land from two main sources of voltage spikes: lightning and failed transformers on the poles. Neither of which happen on a ship. The ship's grounding system allows lightning to strike the ship and pass harmlessly through the hull to the ocean, without interacting with the ship's electrical system in any way. I've been on ships struck by lightning several times, and none of the electronics have been damaged, without any surge protection at all. None of the ship's electronics are surge protected. The second type is a failed transformer, which reduces the 12,000 volts running through the main power line to the 220 volts used by your house. When one of these transformers fails, you can get a 12,000 volt spike to your electronics, which a surge protector prevents. On a ship, the 10,000 volts generated, is stepped down to 220/110 volts for the cabins in three steps: 10,000 to 480 volts, then 480 to 220 volts, and finally 220 to 110 volts. Most surge protectors don't "activate" until the voltage spikes above 600 volts, so at least two of the transformers would have to fail at the same time to provide a high enough voltage spike to damage electronics. Now, speaking of the ship's grounding system, this is different than land based systems, and the semi-conductors in the surge protector are not designed to see the types of voltages that they may see on a ship. This can cause a perfectly working surge protector, due to an electrical issue somewhere else on the ship, to fail and catch fire. Surge protectors are not needed on ships, and the simple consumer ones used on land are dangerous.

If a device has surge protection, it should have, on the fine print engraved on the device, a "VPN" or voltage protection number, which is the voltage at which the surge protector activates, typically about 600v for consumer devices. Surge protection does not protect your devices from everything, just high voltages. So, it won't protect against "over current", you need separate protection for that (though "over current", "short-circuit", and "overload" all refer to the same protection, high current).

Never said, nor do I believe in this statement. However, the prime transmission vector for noro on cruise ships, regardless of what percentage of people get noro on a cruise ship, is the buffet line. Ask the CDC, they have a question answering service.

However, the link you provided states the unit is surge protected, and should not be used on a ship, whether it is ever confiscated or not.

Love to know the qualifications of the writer of this one article you seem to take as gospel. How do you pump a solid? And, why would their treating sewage cause smells at various locations and various times? And, why not at other times and places? The sewage treatment plant operates continuously. As I've stated, sewage treatment plants on ships that I have worked with, do not cause odors in the engine room, let alone other places around the ship. However, as I have stated, a dry drain trap will cause odors to back up from the tanks, just like when you open a summer home and the sink traps are all dry. They do more than "try" to process such waste, they do better than most municipal waste plants. And, again, what would be the justification for paying for disposal of waste ashore, when they can dispose of it themselves for free, completely legally. But, I'll let you continue with your idea of how a ship handles sewage, it's not what folks are interested in for this thread, nor what causes the odors they are asking about.

What crew was this? Your cabin steward? I've found that most of the hotel staff I've worked with, have absolutely no idea what goes on in the technical departments. I would bet that those barges are receiving oily waste and sludge, which due to retention in tanks as an oil/water mixture can get pretty rank when pumped. Discharging oily waste and sludge (bilge water and fuel processing waste) is pretty common, while discharging sewage sludge ashore (at a cost), when it can be discharged at sea for free, is almost unheard of, unless the treatment plant has failed, and then the ship doesn't have enough tankage to hold all the waste water for an entire cruise.

And that is supposed to prove that sewage is retained and pumped to barges in port? What part of that quote says that? It says exactly what I said, all sewage is treated onboard, and then goes overboard.

Yes, Lloyds Register shows Caribbean Princess' last dry dock as March/April 2022.

Sure sounds like you're saying they can't pump waste at sea to me. The word "having" in regards to retaining waste water implies that they cannot pump it at sea, for another example of your statements.

I don't believe that photo is from a scrapyard, as the Valdez stopped sailing under that name in the 1990's. Besides that looks like a dry dock (likely the NASSCO San Diego shipyard, where the repairs from the grounding were completed). The Valdez, under her last name of "Oriental Nicety", was grounded in Alang, India, in August 2012.

Cruise ships are far more proactive with preventative maintenance than most other ships I've been on. While most ships will test and maintain the circuit breakers for the diesel generators every dry dock, cruise ships go further down the hierarchy and test major feeder breakers (which is what I believe failed here) in places like the fire zone panels every dry dock, using the manufacturer's own technicians to test and replace/repair them as required. Things like circuit breakers are not "wear items" like the car parts you mention, when was the last time you replaced the circuit breakers in your house as part of preventative maintenance. Even if you have one breaker that has failed (and when was the last time that happened?), would you replace all the breakers just because one failed? Things like the number of "cycles" (how many times the breaker has been switched on or off, or how many times it has tripped) is more critical to determining failure criteria, rather than mere age. All ships follow the manufacturer's recommended maintenance and service instructions for all equipment, as monitored by the class societies. If it was not a breaker failure, the next most common failure like this is a loosened bolt connection between the breaker and the "bus bars" that carry the electricity within a switchboard or feeder panel. These connections are checked annually using infrared cameras to detect a "hot connection" where a loosened connection causes a high resistance path for current, creating heat. But, due to vibration and flexing of the ship, these things can start to loosen at any time, but are normally caught before a problem by the thermal imaging inspections.

So much wrong with that article, but I won't get into that. The "helpful bacteria" actually digest waste from the liquid waste water, just as your septic tank does, or your municipal waste water plant does. Once it goes through the aerobic "digester" tanks, then the remaining solids, which are primarily paper fibers (since the bacteria don't have as much time to digest wood fibers like your septic tank does) are indeed separated from the water, but the solid waste is allowed to be pumped overboard (it is more like a thick oatmeal consistency rather than solid), since the bacteria have removed all the harmful elements of the waste water (and the "helpful bacteria" remain in the digester tanks, not with the waste water flow to the separating devices). I know of no cruise ship that pumps their solid waste water residue ashore. It is legally allowed to be pumped overboard when more than 12 miles from land, except in a few restricted areas, and then it is held onboard until the ship is outside those areas. I've spent 46 years operating and maintaining shipboard waste water treatment plants.

I would say that the materials and technicians would be onboard in Hawaii at the latest (don't know the itinerary, so can't say if it could be before). After that, 1-2 days would see it fixed. While it is affecting a large area of the ship, it is caused by a failure at a central point for that large area. The entire fire zone (the area from the bottom to the top of the ship between two sets of fire doors), is fed electrically, for lighting, outlets, and ventilation, from one sub-station (think of it as the "breaker box" in your house), so one failure, like one breaker failing, could knock out power to the whole fire zone. Since it is likely one failure, the repair can be fairly simple.

I can say that with certainty, it will be repaired as quickly as possible. What folks don't realize is that the fire zone that is affected goes all the way down to the keel of the ship. So, the crew areas under the aft restaurant, most typically on ships like this would be galley, food prep, and provisions stores, including walk in freezers and coolers, will also be affected as far as lighting and ventilation are concerned. Taking out an entire fire zone on a ship is a major casualty, and they will fly in materials and specialists to make repairs a quickly as possible.

From RCI's FAQ section, winnings for a non-US citizen or resident alien, will only be reported to the IRS, if the winnings happen within US territorial waters. US citizens or Resident Aliens will have all winnings reported to IRS, regardless of where it happened.

Well aware of the relative incidence of noro in various locales. Noro is not as prevalent on cruise ships because the CDC considers it to be a significant threat. And, while the cruise ships clean, as you say, what the other poster was talking about is the passengers (who are not regulated by CDC for hand hygiene) touching utensils, and then another passenger touching those same utensils and becoming contaminated. I've been trained by the USPH/CDC in cruise ship sanitation, and I know where the transmission vectors are, and they are primarily in the buffet line, which is why the self-service is the first casualty of a noro remediation plan.

That would be like all the foreign crew on the ship having to report their income to the IRS. Just ain't gonna happen.

Ships have not been allowed to pump sewage overboard for 40 years. I don't know of any ship that pumps sewage to a barge, they all have treatment plants onboard that treat the sewage to legal limits and then pump it to sea. In fact, most cruise ships have advanced waste water treatment plants that treat all the waste water (black and gray water) to near drinking quality before discharging at sea.

Why would they care? This doesn't pass the smell test for me. The USPH/CDC are only tasked with controlling the introduction of disease into the US, so why would they care, or spend their budget, worrying about a ship that doesn't come to the US?

Was the water dripping from the same spot each time? That would be the only case where the ship couldn't "seem to solve the problem". If the pipes develop leaks at various locations, but it is fixed at that location, but pops up somewhere else, it is not that they can't fix the problem, but there is a continuing problem. To fix that problem is very costly and time consuming. NCL's Sky had to do this, renewing every foot of the miles of water piping on the ship. We had to block off one deck full of cabins each week, to allow for all the piping on that deck to be renewed.

"Sewer odors" are typically caused by a floor drain trap drying out due to dry AC air and little to no water getting into the drain to renew the trap water. If the smell is in your cabin bathroom, there is a floor drain (outside the shower), that handles overflows, so typically sees little water into it. Pour a glass of water down the drain (frequently found under the wall mounted toilet), and the smell will disappear in a couple of minutes. The same happens in public spaces, frequently when there are "mechanical lockers" around, that will also have drains for emergencies, but that don't see water flowing on a regular basis, and the trap dries out. When you notice it, tell the housekeeping crew, and they will do the same thing, just pour some water down the drain.

I agree with you, Paul. I've never heard of anything like this Sorry, Bruce, but this is not close to right. The US Navy has no jurisdiction over any civilian ship, regardless of what flag it flies, or what nationality passenger it carries. No, the USPH only claims jurisdiction over cruise ships, not "any" ship (CBP has sanitation officers that inspect foreign cargo ships). And, the USPH only has jurisdiction over ships coming into the US. Under a non-VSP regime, the cruise ship would be inspected every single time it enters the US. But, if the ship decides to adhere to the VSP, then the ship agrees to follow the VSP requirements throughout the voyage. As for a ship that does not call at any US port, the USPH has absolutely no jurisdiction over that ship, it falls under other agencies, like the EU ShipSan (regulated by the EU member nations), or the "Port State" using their own sanitation regime, or the WHO ship sanitation regime. No, that isn't even close to correct. Only if the casino winnings were made while the ship was in port, or in the country's territorial waters, would the port state have any jurisdiction. This is why the casino's on cruise ship are not regulated by anyone other than CLIA.