chengkp75

Unfortunately, this kind of behavior has been going on for quite some time on most cruise lines, and there have not been outbreaks of illness, and I think this would be quite a stretch to extend one or two dogs being fed (and I don't condone this) to an outbreak of illness.

The flag state is what governs while on the ship. The US ADA only applies in certain areas, as I said, in that if the cruise originates in the US, then things like whether or not there are accessible cabins, or whether all public areas are accessible, or whether a service animal is allowed or not, would apply, since they are acting as "common carriers" and also providing "accommodations". I would assume that the same would apply in the UK, for cruises originating in the UK. Even with the ADA, I know that Viking originally did not allow electric mobility scooters onboard, only wheelchairs (don't know the current policy). The reasoning for the SCOTUS ruling that "internal policies and procedures" of a foreign flag cruise ship do not need to meet the ADA, is based on the precedents of international law. How the UK handles this, I can't say, since their system is different than the US, and they may have different judicial precedents that handle things differently, or that interpret international law differently.

I don't believe I've posted regarding service animals on the Viking forum, so I'll try to answer some of the questions/observations that I see in this thread. First off, ESA's (emotional support animals) are not covered by the ADA, and so there is no requirement for a foreign flag cruise ship to allow them onboard. The only areas that ESA's are guaranteed protection, in the US, are the Equal Housing Act (provides protection for owners of ESA's in housing) and the Civil Aviation Act (though this has been recently restricted as to ESA's on aircraft). Per the ADA, the only place that a Service Animal should be is on the floor, or in the owner's arms (this allows for diabetes detection dogs to be close enough to sense the owner's breath for signs of keto acidosis). Next, there is no requirement in the US ADA for a service animal to have any identification (harness or vest) on it at any time. Why can cruise lines only ask two questions regarding service animals, while the airlines have restricted types of ESA's allowed? Because, as stated above, Service Animals are covered by the ADA, while ESA's are covered by the EHA and CAA, and the CAA has been amended or had the regulations changed by the agency involved. Regarding allergies, under the law of the ADA, the ability of a person to have a Service Animal trumps allergies, though the owner of the establishment should make as many concessions to those allergic as possible. Regarding the dog's toilet needs, this has been addressed by others, but the main point of contention is that Service Animals are (or should be) trained to only "go" on command, while ESA's and pets will typically "go" when the urge hits them. Per the ADA, there is no requirement for Service Animals to have any formal training, or certification, but there is a "code of conduct" that the ADA spells out, where if the Animal does not behave according to this code, the establishment can ask the owner to leave. Now, having said all that, regarding the ADA and Service Animals, everyone should understand that SCOTUS has ruled, in Spector v NCL, around 2005, that while foreign flag cruise ships must comply with the ADA in certain areas (such as not discriminating against the disabled, and requiring accessibility within certain limits), that the "internal policies and procedures" of the cruise ship with regards to accessibility (areas such as policies about where and how Service Animals are handled) is up to the cruise line, and do not have to follow ADA requirements. This was stated as being the case until Congress specifically mentions "foreign flag cruise ships" in the ADA, and in the intervening years, Congress has not acted to amend the ADA. Many of the "rights and protections" that US citizens take for granted in their everyday life, end once you walk up the gangway to a foreign flag cruise ship. So, know that you cannot complain to Viking about Service Animal behavior based on the ADA's "code of conduct", but given the lengthy description given in a previous post, there may be grounds for a complaint. Viking may need to adjust their terms as well, if they wish to more closely align with the ADA's code of conduct. Viking also needs to instruct their personnel that when a dog owning passenger presents their animal as a "Service Animal", the answer to the question, "what task does the animal provide for the owner", cannot be that the "mere presence of the animal" provides a service, as that is defined in the ADA as an ESA, and they are not granted protection under the ADA. Even PTSD Service Animals, whose main job is to calm the owner, must be shown to do certain "tasks" like blocking the person from walking into situations where the dog senses that the stress level will trigger a PTSD attack, or licking the owner to signal that the situation requires his/her attention to limit stress.

To answer the OP's question, no, the line has no responsibility, unless the passenger was injured on the ship. Whether or not the line will, voluntarily assist the passenger is something that is quite likely dependent on circumstances and location, as Heidi13 states above.

Alcohol is allowed for passengers, since it is not classified by the WHO as a dangerous drug, so it is allowed onboard. Alcohol can affect the crew's ability to perform needed safety functions, and can lead to additional injuries performing daily functions. Alcohol for crew is strictly limited, with random alcohol testing, and the crew can have no more than a 0.05% (lower than most state's DUI limit), at any time while serving on a ship.

Coupling the smell complaint with the fact the ship was rolling enough to splash the pool out onto the deck, and that the smell improved the second week, when the rolling stopped, tells me what this was. Every floor drain on the ship, including the one in each cabin bathroom (there is a floor drain in addition to the shower drain, that is outside the shower, usually under the wall mounted toilet), has a "trap" on it, just like the U-traps or P-traps that are under the sinks and showers in your house. These traps have some water in them, to act as a seal and keep odors and gases from coming back up the drain pipes. Rolling and pitching of the ship will cause the water in these traps to empty down the drain pipe, and then you lose the seal, and the odors come back up. As the crew notice the odors, they will start pouring water down all the traps to "re-seal" the trap. Complaints about odors in the cabin bathrooms are dealt with the same way, pour a glass of water down the drain, and the odor will stop. These drains, unlike sinks and showers, do not see water running down them frequently, so the dry AC air in the ship will evaporate the water in the trap, causing the odors to come up.

It makes perfect sense if there were labels on all the sinks from a pipe flushing (though for the most part when ships have to flush the pipes, it is still okay to drink, it just doesn't look right), and the previous occupants removed them from the sinks they used., and didn't remove them from the sinks they didn't use.

This is absolute nonsense. What does your friend consider "deep seas"? What reason does he/she give for why they can't be deployed in shallow water? When you look at the size of the stabilizer fins, and the size of the ship, one fact becomes glaringly obvious: stabilizers are not designed to, nor can they stop rolling. Nor are they capable of even reducing rolling. The one thing stabilizers do, is to slow how fast the ship rolls from one side to the other. A cruise ship is inherently "stiff", meaning that it will roll from side to side in a very fast, snapping, motion, which is very uncomfortable. The stabilizers slow this roll down so that while you may still be veering from one side of the hallway to the other as you walk along, you are not being thrown across the hall. And, as for "pitching", or the bow of the ship rising and falling with the waves, stabilizers can do absolutely nothing for that motion, nor for "swaying", which is lateral motion of the ship as it is thrown by the waves (most commonly when wind and seas are from behind the ship).

No, it would not, as the class society doesn't care about passenger amenities. But, that would be the time frame for any "improvements" to happen.

According to the Lloyds Register database, the Island Princess is due for "bottom inspection" (dry dock) in Sept 2024.

The movements described by @3rdGenCunarder are quite common for azipod equipped ships, and has to do with the flat hull at the stern above where the azipods are. As I've said before on other threads, the only way to compare how two ships roll or pitch, is to have them at the same location, at the same time, going the same speed, and in the same direction.

There is no "non-potable" water anywhere in guest areas of any cruise ship. There is extremely limited usage of non-potable water even in crew areas, strictly limited by USPH regulations.

So, the ships aren't bound by the IMO conventions?

I don't know of any site that lists all of NCL's ship dry dock schedule. I looked at the DNV (the class society) website, and the Dawn was last dry docked in Nov 2022, so isn't scheduled for another until 2025.

Yes, I've been a Marine engineer for over 45 years, most of it as Chief Engineer, and have worked on virtually every type of ocean going ship, including cruise ships. The pumps in your municipal water system are running all the time as well, it's just that if the pump is putting out more than is demanded, it raises the pressure, and a relief valve returns it to the suction. One reason the water is recirculated, rather than being a static system, is that the USPH requires a minimum residual chlorine content "at the furthest point from the pumps", and so it is necessary to measure it, and dose continually, as it is recirculated.

What folks don't understand, and despite Carnival's sign saying it is due to federal law, it really isn't, it is the law of every nation who has ships flying their flag (which is why the drug dogs are on the ship at sea, where the US federal government has no jurisdiction). Even countries like Holland, where marijuana has been "decriminalized", do not allow marijuana onboard ships that fly their flag. This is based on the IMO's (International Maritime Organization) SCTW (Standards of Competency, Training and Watchkeeping) convention, and the ILO's (International Labor Organization) MLC 2006 (Maritime Labor Convention), both part of the UN, which make all ships zero tolerance drug free zones. When a nation becomes signatory to these conventions, they must pass laws that copy the conventions terms into their laws. So, every "flag state" that has ships operating anywhere in the world, agree that regardless of what the drug laws are for the rest of that nation, ships are completely drug free. And, until the WHO (World Health Organization) changes its classification of THC, marijuana will be illegal on all ships.

Unlike land water systems, which are static (no flow) until you turn on a faucet or shower, the ship's system is constantly circulating water around the ship at constant pressure. The pumps are also not miles away from your shower, requiring a long time delay between your turning on the shower and the pump seeing a drop in pressure. So, turning on a faucet or shower does not affect the pressure due to increased demand, the pump is always pumping more water than is being used. You're shower too hot problem is common. Since the distilled, or desalinated water produced onboard is slightly acidic by nature, the ship adds calcium carbonate (the active ingredient in Tums) to the water to neutralize it. This can cause scale buildup in the piping, though the scale does tend to drop out more in the hot water heaters (just like the water heaters in your house) than in the cold pipes. Your shower "mixing valve" (that sets the temperature), has small strainer screens in both the hot and cold inlets, to keep the scale from fouling the temperature mechanism. Over time, the cold water strainer will clog with scale, reducing the amount of cold water to the mixing valve, and your shower runs too hot. This is about a 5 minute fix for the plumber.

Just to contradict and clarify some statements made in the article. By law, the minimum wage for any crew, working any kind of ship, is $658/month, for a 40 hour work week. Any hours worked over 40 in a week must be paid at 125%. Tips (not sure what line he worked for, or their policy, but typically the bar steward is included in the bar tip pool) are allowed to make up some of the pay, but if they don't reach the statutory minimum wage, the cruise line has to make up the balance.

I still don't understand the findings, as reported. The first picture shows the boat's deck deformed, but intact, so I don't see how this could have thrown a passenger "several feet into the air". The second photo shows the bottom of the hull, and I can't picture 9 psi, even over the area of the bladder, exerting enough force when blowing out the bladder to deform the metal in that way. I know what low pressure over a large area can do, but that isn't a very large area. I suspect that the bladder blew out when the boat struck something, and the combined pressure of the bladder and the object below flattened out the hull, and the force of the strike is what threw the passengers about.

This is the difference between a USCG approved life raft and a SOLAS approved raft. For the annual inspection, USCG requires the raft to be inflated via the CO2 cannister, not by a compressor, to simulate the actual inflation in an emergency, and to fail rafts that are marginal in seam strength.

Since the Star is over 15 years old, the ship is required to dry dock twice in 5 years. She would be due for mid-period docking in the Feb to Aug 2024 span.

This should absolutely have been a part of the SMS, but then again, the plan is so comprehensive that sometimes things are left out, only to be found after an incident. Not condoning, just saying it does happen. If that is what they were thinking, they weren't clear on the facts. 10*F reduction in temperature results in a 1 psi drop in pressure, so a 100*F drop would be 10psi loss (probably less as the base pressure is a bit lower than most pressurized things). And, the temp could not have been that colder than where the boat was originally, or the pressure in the keel bladder would have likely dropped below the allowable pressure. The USCG MSA is an advisory to foreign flag cruise ships, and they are not routinely distributed to foreign shipping companies, nor are they required to have been seen by the lines. USCG has no jurisdiction unless they find this condition on a ship in US waters. I'm not sure if the NSIA is required to issue a "final" report, if they feel that all topics and concerns were covered in an interim report. They may feel that a final report is not required. No. Prior to publishing, it would only be shown to the ship owner, the class society, the flag state, the port state, and any "interested parties" that were actively attending the investigation.

The closest is at the airport, a 20 minute drive away from the pier. There is no Enterprise there, they've closed.

You are right, they will still be doing that, but those things are the finishing touches (the lipstick and mascara), not real construction work. And, sea trials are typically only 3-5 days, so not a lot of hotel work can get done in that amount of time. Everything in the hotel, like all the laundry machines, the galley equipment, the cappuccino machines, etc, have to be shown to be working as designed before delivery.

No, what the poster you quoted is correct. The ship's crew do not touch the baggage until it is loaded onto the ship. The longshoremen take the bags from you, place them into the carts, then through security, where the longshoreman driven forklifts take the carts to the ship and place them on the side port platforms. The crew then wheel the carts into the ship. And, technically, a "stevedore" owns the company that provides the "longshoremen" to load/unload ships.