chengkp75

Bulbous bows are mainly rolled plate, just like the rest of the hull, so they can be fabricated at any time. The only thing that is difficult is a plate that is curved in two directions. These have to be "forged", or taking a red hot plate, supporting it at the corners, and then beating it with a large steel billet (a couple of tons). This can be done at most yards, but is time consuming and costly.

The original birth certificate will be fine. Depending on how the document has been stored all these years, the embossing may be very faint, but if it is at all visible, it should be fine. (Usually the embossing will pick up some dirt/dust transfer and make the embossing more visible) Ten days is pretty close for trying to get another one, unless you live right where the documents are stored.

As the article says, they are divesting Costa's China capacity, to return to the Europe capacity pre-covid. The Costa ships sailing in China were a "stop-gap" anyway, just until the Chinese built ships came on line. Since there is no demand in China, they can do without any capacity now, until the new ships are built.

Nope. The ships being built in China are for the domestic market in China, so, just like the US PVSA, these ships must be built in China, flagged in China, owned (at least partially) in China, and crewed in China. The current Costa ships in China need a foreign port call to be legal, these new ships will not need to leave China, so keeping control of the Chinese citizens, and keeping the money in China.

I can't say for sure, but I believe the older ships do.

This is a huge issue across the entire maritime industry, with the introduction of non-native species carried by ships. It also mentions that the problem has been identified in the "discharge pipes", or where the sea water cooling is discharged from the ship. This could complicate the process greatly, as this will require even more specialized tools than a hull cleaning.

With all due respect Chief, and thanks for your service, which I truly appreciate, I did a short stint with the "gray funnel line", and know the difference between naval vessels and commercial vessels. In maintaining those propulsion systems to 99% availability, how often was the ship dockside for extended maintenance intervals? How often were they in dry dock or shipyard for many months at a time? Cruise ships are lucky to get 2 weeks every 5 years out of service. This is why there is more redundancy built into the ships, and I can guarantee that there are at least a dozen cruise ships worldwide currently sailing with an engine taken down for major overhaul (scheduled every 12,000 running hours) that no one onboard is aware of. And, if this is an azipod issue, I don't know what the failure type is, but the azipods are new technology, as it relates to maritime propulsion (200 years and tens of thousands of ships as data points, versus 20 years and a couple of hundred ships), so whether this is a maintenance issue or a manufacturer issue is up for question. I seem to recall the Navy having lots of issues when they were developing the gas turbines for ships.

Actually, they do. Some ships use electric heat at the cabin AC cooler, and then steam heat to the public space coolers, some use the steam from the boilers to raise the temperature of the chilled water used as the AC medium, instead of cooling it, for both cabins and public spaces. As heat is not frequently used, there may be problems with the steam system (steam traps, etc) from disuse, or it may be that they didn't anticipate the cold early enough, as it takes a good while to warm up an entire volume like a cruise ship.

But, isn't the tap water unsafe to drink? How do I heat my bottled water?

There is no contractual requirement to have food available when a crew member goes off shift. Deck and engine officers and crew who stand bridge and engine room watches will have a schedule like 12 noon to 4pm, and 12 midnite to 4 am. Is there food available for these people at 4am? Nope, even if you had a meal hour at midnight. You adjust your personal routine to the work routine of the ship. Done it for decades. The crew mess halls serve 4 meals a day. If a crew member cannot work out how to get 3 square meals a day when 4 are served, that doesn't bode well for their careers at sea. I suspect that this complaint came from a first time crew, who has not adjusted to life at sea. Next, what do you want? They serve a "nite meal" at 10:30 to 11:30, and then the galley staff have to clean up. Should they provide another meal for the galley staff who would have to clean up after your later meal? Who then cleans up after this? Or do the galley staff go to bed hungry? Or do we just have the crew mess open 24 hours a day?

The cleaning must be done less than 30 days prior to arrival in NZ (or within 24 hours after arrival), but without any knowledge of the ship's prior itineraries, and logistical arrangements wherever the ship has been, can't say whether or not they could have done this prior.

I think you are correct. However, the ability to do a hull cleaning is limited in that many ports do not allow this, as it can release toxins (the anti-fouling ingredient in the paint) into the water. There are companies that do a full recovery of cleanings, but not sure their availability in Aus/NZ ports.

What difference would that make? The fully qualified and certified Staff Captain would take over.

The Genting Dream I has been sold to Disney, and the Genting Dream II is, or was, merely some hull blocks which were going for scrap. And, given Disney's business model, they will either use the ship in the Chinese market it was designed for (where the small cabins are acceptable), or rip out the interior and start over. I also think that pax number is incorrect, I thought the Dream had about 2000 less pax, and that number included crew.

Do you know what the requirements of the company's ISM code are for making decisions as to where a ship ports and when? If you don't, and unless you work for RCI, you don't, then you can't make any kind of informed judgement on the decisions made for this cruise. Not only are shipboard personnel, but shoreside right up to the CEO, are required to follow the ISM, which outlines how every aspect of the company's business is performed.

If this is a bearing problem in the azipod, then these are the newer XO pods, that can replace the thrust bearings without dry docking. If it is a rope around the shaft, this should be able to be addressed by divers, first cutting the rope loose, and then replacing the shaft seal if necessary. These shaft seal repairs are done underwater all the time.

Nope. Decisions like this are made at corporate level. The Captain has overriding authority when it comes to decisions of safety of the vessel, passengers, crew, and environment, not over how the ship spends the company's money. He may be responsible for poor revenue performance of the vessel, but not for decisions as to where the ship goes, or how long it stays there.

This would depend on your definition of "almost as big", since Radiance is about half the size of Ovation. And, we remember what happened when they did the partial drydockings in Bahamas.

Actually, he would likely not know, unless the ceiling panels in the cabins had been taken down for maintenance, to be able to see the inter-cabin spaces. While senior engineering staff would be present for much of newbuilding (and who's to say that those officers are not on vacation now), much of the hotel construction is supervised by shoreside corporate technical superintendents, rather than shipboard personnel. I have brought several ships out of the newbuilding yard, and still, years later find surprises that should have been found and corrected by the newbuild team. One person cannot supervise every aspect of a ship's construction.

Yes, they could just crop out the entire row of damaged windows, put new cabins in, and then insert the sideshell as one or two pieces. Probably quicker and easier. I've had to dismantle cabin bulkheads to get to holed drain lines, and it is almost impossible, and has to be done in sequence, so you don't always starts anywhere close to where you need to be. They could ship cabin modules on flat-rack containers anywhere in the world, and perhaps even pre-fab the window units and ship them on flat-racks. If they bring in "consultants" from the cabin manufacturer and the window company, just about any decent yard could be used to provide the "grunt labor" to get the job done. Using a US or Canadian yard would be pricey, they may have to interrupt the north-south cruise in Curacao, or in Brazil, Uruguay, or Argentina. Yes, one week should see it done, with plumbing and electrical to follow up.

The "condition of class" from DNV for the window repairs is now cleared, so there is no requirement to ever make final repairs. They may wait until the first dry dock in 2027 to make final repairs. If they don't, once the windows and frames are delivered, they would likely have a shipyard fabricate steel inserts around the window frames, and then weld the entire insert into the ship. That would take likely a week, so maybe one cruise canceled. The cabin repairs may be completed in service.

Nope. Since the OP's cruise is now an open jaw cruise from SD to LA, it has to visit a "distant" foreign port, which would be in South America. Since the violation is caused by something outside the control of the cruise line may be able to get an exemption to the PVSA (though I doubt it), but since the airline was booked through the cruise line, they would not pass the fine to the passenger. This is not an "intentional" booking violation, but something again not under their control, so there would be no further penalty to the cruise line.

The experience I've encountered with "reduced" stabilizer function is a failure of one stabilizer wing itself (they ran it into the dock). This would be a drydock repair. It could be a control problem, which could be repairable in service. I have no knowledge of what type of roll stabilizing the Venture has, it may be a combination of wings and roll stabilizing ballast tanks. A failure of a stabilizer tank would likely be either a valve or pump failure, and would be repairable in service, should parts be available. It would be my opinion that a small ship like Venture would be a more "tender" ship than larger cruise ships. This means that while the ship may roll more easily, the roll motion will be more comfortable (slower, longer time between on end of roll to the other) than the "stiffer" larger ships, and therefore have less need for stabilizers, which do not stop rolling, but merely slow the speed of the roll. Only you, and your susceptibility to sea sickness can answer whether you do the cruise or not. The Drake Passage can be almost flat, as often as it is storming.

It stands for Greece. As Heidi13 says, the navigating officer entered the first letters of Fournier Bay, and it came up with Fourni, Greece. Since Fournier Bay is in Antarctica, that is not a port with a UN Location Code, that fits into the AIS system. It needs to be entered manually.

Probably the quietest spot on the ship.