UPNYGuy

On 2/24/2023 at 10:57 AM, Hlitner said:

Our last Carnival cruise was back in 2005 or 2006 on the Carnival Spirit.  We were on our way to Australia, stopped in CA for a few days, and grabbed a week Spirit cruise to the Mexican Riviera.  My one memory of that cruise was that the noise from the props, in part of the restaurant (Empire) was deafening.  I had never heard such a racket on any ship (we have been on more than 60 different cruise ships) and thought it must have been an engineering fiasco or an issue with a bad prop.  I always wondered if this had been repaired, or if it is a cavitation-related problem inherent in the design,

 

Hank

oh I’m assuming it would have been repaired. DW and I haven’t had any issues like that on the sisters in that class. 

On 2/19/2023 at 9:17 PM, Bostonjetset said:

Oh yes the dancing waitstaff. I’ve always cringed at that on past carnival cruises. I’m surprised they still do it after all the other cutbacks I’ve heard about. It won’t ruin my cruise but I certainly can do without it. 

I actually don’t mind this. HAL used to have a cheesy Baked Alaska parade. It is nice to see a cruise line stick with something somewhat ‘traditional’ in the era of cutbacks. 

On 2/18/2023 at 12:13 AM, Hlitner said:

Have you ever been on Carnival?  Which ship(s) and when?  Do not get me wrong, we are not Carnival fans, especially being in our 70s.  But when we cruise on lines like HAL and chat with other cruisers, it is common to hear "Carnival bashers."  When this happens, I always ask about their previous experience with Carnival and the response is usually "we would never go on Carnival."  

 

So, DW and I have only been on 3 Carnival cruises (out of far more than 100 cruises) and all 3 were quite good (and fun).  It is not one of our normal cruise lines, but those 3 bookings made good sense and we had no regrets.  In fact, there were quite a few things on Carnival that we thought were far superior to what we have experienced on HAL (we are 5* Mariners).

 

I am not suggesting that most HAL fans would enjoy Carnival.  But for many folks, the right CarnIf ival cruise might be enjoyable.  If you have experienced Carnival (in recent years) and dislike it, that is one thing.  But if you have never been on Carnival and just assume it is awful, you might be surprised.

 

Hank

 

 

agree with this. The spirit ships are similar in size to the HAL vista and signature ships. DW and I quite like them. In fact, we actually stopped sailing on HAL after 2 dreadful sailings (Ryndam and Eurodam) and now sail on MSC, Carnival, and Royal Caribbean. 

9 hours ago, maui traveler said:

Couldn’t agree move…I felt so uncomfortable when I spent a few hours in Haven on NCL Bliss as wasn’t a guest of that level. Should’ve had to walk the plank. I left before the gig was up. Wouldn’t enjoy daydreamer in my Havana experience this July.

I got annoyed when the tours used to go through the Haven area when I was staying in there. I don’t recall Carnival doing this in the Havana area. 

MSC also did this with the yacht club, and I also thought that was disruptive. 

On 1/20/2022 at 9:13 PM, cruisingguy007 said:

 

I think you missed the point entirely. OP, as well as myself, are not trying to "sneak" in. Just getting/using what is paid for. If I pay for a havana room, I'm dam sure going to use it, just like anyone else who pays for it. As far as the ship within a ship, get ready for everything to turn into à la carte. You'll see. 

DW and I have witnessed numerous people tossed out for trying to skirt the Havana access rules on Horizon and Panorama. One on Panorama was so belligerent that ship security was called on her. This *is* (thankfully) enforced. 

5 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

You have to get right. It's "This is Todd your cruise director,  that's T-O double D on the M-I-C". Annoying as hell! 😁

Todd is easily the most grating CD I have had in 43 cruises. 

21 hours ago, Beezo said:

***PURE SPECULATION**

 

If I were to make a guess...I'd say Deliziosa.  This would give Carnival a total of six Spirit-class vessels, replacing a lot of the itinerary and homeport coverage previously held with the Fantasy-class vessels.

 

Elation is currently in dry dock - but I believe at her age she now needs to be in dry dock a minimum of every two years.

 

 

I would agree with this, especially if the Luminosa is received well. 

On 2/6/2023 at 1:18 PM, At7Seas said:

And if you ask me MSC in the same port forms no serious risk for Costa - I can’t know the new project of course, so I compare the known. MSC has neither an Italian touch (they try being a compromise between international and Italian and fail with both) nor reaches the quality by far. They are just cheap. I personally regard MSC being a ferry boat line one takes if no better option is available - or too expensive.

as someone who sails on multiple lines, I would disagree with that assessment. I have sailed in The Haven repeatedly, as well as Oceania, and do not have any issue with the MSC product. 

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Typically, up to 100% passenger capacity, all passengers are accommodated in the boats.  Look at Oasis.  Her double occupancy is 5606 passengers.  Her 18 lifeboats hold 354 passengers (370 capacity minus the 16 crew), for a total of 6372 passengers in boats.  Her maximum passenger capacity is 6699, so even somewhat above double occupancy, all passengers are in the boats.

 

Adding in the 2181 crew to the 6699 max passenger capacity, gives a maximum "all souls" of 8880.  The 370x18 lifeboat capacity (6660) is exactly 75% of "all souls".  So, until Oasis gets to a booking level of 114% occupancy, all passengers will be in boats.

makes sense

14 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

They never have.  SOLAS requires that 75% of "all souls" be accommodated in fixed lifeboats, but the ship has to have 125% of "all souls" capacity of boats and rafts.  The crew have always been assigned to rafts.  The only crew that get into the lifeboats are the 3 assigned as crew of the boat (up to 16 for boats like the Oasis has).

this seems to be a common thought that all pax are accommodated in the boats, and not the rafts. 

21 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

All of them.  Barring a complete failure of command, as what happened on the Concordia (and was the sole reason for the chaotic evacuation and loss of life), any ship, following proper procedures can evacuate before sinking.

 

Take the Concordia as an example, since it was mentioned previously in the thread.  This is considered by marine accident investigators to be the "worst case" scenario for a ship sinking.  Cruise ships are divided into many watertight compartments below the waterline, the Concordia had 11.  Cruise ships are designed as "two compartment" ships, meaning that if any two adjacent compartments fully flooded, the ship would stay afloat.  The Concordia breached 4 compartments, and therefore there was nothing on God's earth that was going to keep that ship from sinking.  Now, while the breach was on the port side, the compartments that were flooding (engine rooms) ran all the way across the ship, so flooding would essentially be equal between port and starboard, and this is what the Concordia exhibited during the first hour after striking the rock, it was sinking down by the stern, but with a list of no more than 10-12* to port or starboard (it changed as the ship swung around in the wind).  Computer studies of the Concordia show that had she not grounded a second time on Giglio, the ship would have stayed afloat longer, and would have remained upright (the fact that where she grounded the second time had deeper water towards shore, allowed the ship to pivot on this rock and roll over).

 

The first striking of the rock was at 21:45 hours, and the ship did not ground on Giglio until after 22:33 hours, and even at 23:10 hours, the list was only 10* (and lifeboats are designed to launch at 20* list).  Schettino was notified about the extent of the flooding (at least 3 compartments) at 21:55, and should have signaled for passenger muster (the "fire and general emergency signal") at this time.  If he had, the passengers would have been mustered, and the boats prepared long before the ship grounded on Giglio, and therefore, they could have had an orderly evacuation with only an acceptable list.  As it was, 23 of 26 lifeboats were launched, and 71% of all souls onboard were evacuated using the ship's boats.

 

All of that is to say that ships don't sink in minutes.  Even the Titanic, with it's design flaws, took nearly 3 hours to sink.

 

So, given that a catastrophic breach like the Concordia's is extremely rare, and without a command failure, a ship like the Oasis would take a couple of hours or much longer to sink, I am completely confident that given the training the crew received using the in person muster training, that every passenger could be evacuated safely, and the crew also (remember, when the passengers get into the boats, only the 3 assigned to each boat as crew (up to 16 for Oasis type boats) would be evacuating with the passengers).  The crew waits until the passengers have all been evacuated, and then, if the Captain feels that the ship is not able to be saved, he/she will sound the "abandon ship" signal, and the crew will take to the life rafts.

 

So, if 

this also goes into the “ship as its own lifeboat” as well. Yes, I know it won’t sink in minutes. 

Ken is still on, was just on the ship last week. 

2 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

In an actual emergency, you only need to know 3 things:  show up, shut up, listen up.  These are all taught in the in person drill but not in the e-muster.

what (in your opinion) is the largest capacity ship that can be safely evacuated at sea using current technology. I can’t wrap my head around an Oasis class evacuating using its lifeboats if it were sinking. 
 

2 minutes ago, sanmarcosman said:

Some flight attendants take too long with the FAA required emergency evacuation procedures, too, but I don't hear people growling about it.

 

The you tube videos of the Costa Concordia capsizing are a good indicator of how things can go terribly wrong at boat stations in an emergency. Even the captain jumped on the overhead of a rescue craft to save his life!

IIRC Sea Diamond also had issues. This ship is still in the Santorini Caldera. 

8 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

On land, either at home, work, or at your AI resort, in an emergency, you can just leave, and get away from the emergency.  A shipboard emergency, you are fighting for your "planet" since there really isn't much option to remaining with the ship.

Ok yes.  This part makes sense to me. This is also why I said I do see the value of mustering, but (for me) it is an irritant. 

But my statement still stands that I find the mustering an irritant and if the e-mustering goes by the wayside, DW and I will likely be cruising much less (if at all)

Just now, chengkp75 said:

So, what was the emergency?

According to you… being in a tropical storm isn’t one 😉

4 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

I can pretty well guarantee you that the ship was in no danger of sinking

oh I knew it wasn’t. It would have been made obvious if that were the case. 

6 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

 Believe me, if you think the muster drill is an irritant, just wait until you are in an actual emergency.

I have been… ended up in a tropical storm on Sunrise. 

7 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

I wonder how it would go if the crew just decided that drills are "uncomfortable", and decided not to participate, since the passengers don't seem to care.

I don’t disagree that they are important. As stated above.  We know how to locate our muster stations by location on the back of the door,  and know how to locate the life jackets. I am not downplaying the importance of the drills, just making a statement about how the drills can be an irritant for those of us that cruise frequently.  

20 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

I find it amazing how spending less than 0.5% of your week's vacation (less if you're on a longer cruise) in perhaps uncomfortable conditions learning how to save your life in an unfamiliar environment (and trust me, a ship in an emergency is unfamiliar territory to 99.5% of the passengers, regardless of how many cruises they may have been on), can affect their decision on whether to cruise or not.

Believe me, it does. DW and I go sometimes 5 times a year. We know how to locate our muster stations by location on the back of the door,  and know how to locate the life jackets. I am not downplaying the importance of the drills, just making a statement about how the drills can be an irritant for those of us that cruise frequently. 

45 minutes ago, kelkel2 said:

I don’t want to do it the old way, but I see it coming. 

DW and I will cruise *much* less often if it goes back to the old way. When cruising shut down, we started venturing to all inclusive resorts, and found out that many aspects of the AI are more preferable to the cruise experience for us. No mustering is Number 1 on that list. Much larger accommodations is a close number 2.
 

If the muster goes back the old way, it would become cruise to AK / UK / EU and AI / resort in Caribbean / mex. We spend most of our time cruising the Caribbean / mex, so our cruising time would be cut WAY down. 

3 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

I think $20+ drinks are not covered at all, rather you get a 25% discount on them. So if a drink is $21, you'd pay $15.75+gratuity for it.

 

https://www.carnival.com/drink-packages/cheers-package/cheers-SUM

this is correct

3 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

Guess I won't be enjoying that Bacardi Gran Reserva Limitada after all then.

You should try it if you havent yet. It is a fantastic rum, and one that really shows what Bacardi is capable of.

the paradise is a nice ship, but imo if your kids had a good time on another ship, they may be disappointed (and bored) on paradise. It does not have the bells and whistles of the newer ships, by any stretch of the imagination. 

This is fine for many people (including DW and I), but the design dates back to 1989-1990 if I remember right. If you are looking for a 'family friendly' atmosphere with lots of stuff for your kids to do, it isnt here. If a 4 day cruise is what you are looking at, the Royal Caribbean Freedom class (Freedom of the seas , Independence of the seas, liberty of the seas) and voyager class (Mariner / Explorer / Adventure of the seas) will likely be more to your (and their) liking.

I *will* say that IMO Carnival has better food, but RC has carnival beat in the activities in short cruises department.