SFBayAreaShipLover
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Posts posted by SFBayAreaShipLover
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I do have a tip for Lerwick. A few years ago, we had this port. The entire ship had to go through immigration ON board and appear before officials at a set time. It was probably took 2 hours after arrival before we could get off. Said that to say, I wouldn’t schedule any excursion there right at the time of arrival, give yourself some time. We took a wonderful independent excursion planned in advance and had a fantastic day! Contact the local tourism bureau, they can let you know about all the local agencies & get you good information. Happy Sailing!
I agree there too, but in the other hand if you don’t have the time to plan it out and the budget allows book a HAL excursion. Yes there little more costly, but the advantage is if the ship is delayed getting in, custom delays, or tour group returns late then that’s on HAL. And they would hold the ship or solve the problem. But we look at each location differently
Enjoy you cruise
Greg
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No you are not a "ding dong". That particular App is only on Intranet onboard a Princess ship. As soon as you board - put your phone on Airplane Mode and pick up the Ship WiFi.
The App should (usually) shows up then.
I have always found the ships internet Mgr to be very helpful. There will also be a card in the packet of info how to connect.
As the Princess Medillion program being fully rolled out is delayed some, it’s nice to have there basic service
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To clarify further, you save a webpage link to your homepage on your phone; it makes an icon that looks like an app. When you click the icon it launches your web browser and takes you to a ship specific intranet page that is designed to look like and behave similar to a phone app; but is all browser based.
Not quite that way
When I’m ship place your phone in airplane mode so you don’t get billed for hi seas calls.
Then select on your phone set up choose WiFi, click the ships name, in my case was on Golden Princess last week. After choosing the ships WiFi, then open you web browser and type Princess@Sea in the heading, and click enter. Once the web page opens, follow direction for the different options, worked good for us. Was very handy. Not sure all the Princess ships have it fully installed yet. 90 percent have. Your TA can find out for you.
Enjoy you cruise. What ship?
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If you bring your own, it risks being confiscated by security when your luggage is scanned and the room stewards are asked to confiscate them I’d seen. That’s a safety regulation to prevent deadly fire that have happened from heat producing items. If you look in the HAL website at the bottom, there a section called security, it lists what you can and can’t bring. I accidentally brought pair scissors that were half inch to long and they saw them during scanning. Glad there doing there job
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Sorry, but my vanity is forcing this question. What are the hair dryers like? Similar to hotel dryers? Considering trying to find a good travel dryer. Thanks!
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There actually pretty decent. Might not be as hot as some home or commercial ones, this done for safety reasons.
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Well said.
I 2nd that, is take it up a notch. Black jeans I’d wear but up a notch formal nights, otherwise there is the buffet
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No matter how the OBC was listed in Jimorel's onboard account, the customer service rep could not accurately say nobody received such OBC unless the rep checked every single account on board, something that obviously did not happen.
If the rep had no knowledge about OBC for lack of the *****, then the correct response would have been for him to say he would have to check into the matter, not pretend to know with 100% certainty that nobody had it.
When a travel agent gives a OBC when they make the booking in One Source the Princess TA booking system or on phone with Princess Rep and and OBC is giving as gift by TA it will show who gave it. But when a statement is printed and looked at by the front desk in the ship it will only show OBC.
They use to place a note card in stateroom when OBC gift was given by TA. Apparently stopped that now.
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On NCL, you can have the power strip by specially no surge protector. I’ve done extensive research today. Thanks for reading!
Alaina
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We’re all here to help each other out. Most cruise let a power strip as long as it’s not a surge protector. That’s the fire hazard part. We all have to remember these regulations are for the safety of the passengers and don’t make the cruise lines money. They are floating cities with limited fire fight capabilities. Room stewards are being asked to ensure vessel regulations are being followed
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Our cabin choice depends on where we are sailing. If we are going to a cold climate we will take a cabin without a balcony, if it is hot we will upgrade to a balcony. We used to do inside but prefer to have a window now. It is personal choice.
I agree with you no fuss. We do the same thing. Balcony’s nice if hotter climate. Waste of money that can used for tours or toward another cruise
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Okay, I'm going to make one more statement regarding this, and then I'm gone. This is based on my professional experience with the ISPS code, since it was promulgated in the wake of 9/11.
Yes, people can get invitations to visit the ship.
No, you can't go up to the Guest Services desk and say, "when we're in port tomorrow, can my brother-in-law come onboard for a visit?"
Yes, there is some vetting and background checking done for every guest and this requires submission of ID in advance (how far in advance is up to the cruise line/port)
Is it easier to get approval if a "known personage" vouches for the guest (ship's officer, corporate official, well known TA, etc)? Yes.
Does this still happen today? Yes.
Does this vary from cruise line to cruise line, and port to port? Yes.
Can a cruise line okay a guest, and the port deny it? Yes, and vice versa.
So, that's the long and short of ISPS. If you're real interested read up on it. Know, however, that each cruise line's and each port's ISPS code is a restricted document, and onboard the ship, only the Captain, and perhaps (not always) the Staff Captain are aware of all the procedures and policies pertaining to security. So, you will never get to see a company's ISPS document, and you will never find a ship's officer who will discuss the ISPS code with someone without the "need to know" (whether passenger or crew).
So, enough, ladies, stop the squabbling.
Could not be better put Chief. It’s time folks accept the procedures and face the fact we need to abide by them and not squabble about it.
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they would have an answer which is what they want. I think now it is most of the principal for them.
The sad part is it’s not only Princess, my mom has owned a travel agency for 48 years, and has seen it get worse across the board. Trust me, they all act the same way. Oceans, Regent, Princess. All the same Corp structure. Days for responses, and have to call again. It seem to be the culture of the labor force all over. Saying I don’t know..... don’t let this stop you from sailing Princess again.
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Bolding is mine.
She's scheduled for 2 week dry dock in December 2018. Had major work done on the last dry dock & $ spent as well.
Sorry I missed thus up coming drydock
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Bolding is mine.
She's scheduled for 2 week dry dock in December 2018. Had major work done on the last dry dock & $ spent as well.
Ships still have to drydocked for regulatory inspection and routine maintenance even if they may leave fleet in next few years. Perhaps she will stay around. We actually prefer the older smaller ships. Hope they don’t lose them over to another brand or sold.
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Or on hangers if we send out shirts and slacks.
I agree, sending wash to ships laundry on HAL has always has always taken one more thing we had to do, and have been very please with there returned condition,
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Not only does the Prinsendam still have its self-service laundries, there is no charge to use them.
That’s properly one of the last ships that have them. I wouldn’t surprised if that ship leaves the fleet sooner or later. As havnt heard any major refits coming up
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Why don’t you say “bye bye “yourself instead of critisizing when you obviously have no clue what you are talking about...
Maybe the Crew made errors, well, let me explain you something: we ALL do. Every time we go to work, every sailing, every flight, every operation. We are humans, and error is inevitable. How we recognize these errors, solve the situation and learn from them makes us Professional.
I agree with you..... let’s feel bad for them
Instead....and move forward...... thinking lot of the topics were all post so negative.
Were all able to go home at night to our loved ones, the crews on these ships don’t get too for months, and work work
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Seems the best skippers are the ones on this forum again [emoji57]
As you can see in the video, they fully knew that they were having a situation as both anchors were dropped to increase drag. Bow thrusters were deployed but are not very effective with forward/backward speed.
No bridge officer will purpously endanger the vessel like this. It is obvious they were dealing with either a failure and/or a severe wind component, but wind is something that should be calculated-in before approach.
Wind does seem quite strong in the video.
Yes feel sorry for the Officers. A no win situation. Had to be mechanical problem seems like.
Westerdam docked 10 hours late in Vancouver yesterday do to wind.
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It was the bow thruster going at high speed to try and turn the ship in addition to the anchor deployed and main engines most likely full astern. The water churning had nothing to do with the anchor itself.
In these emergency situations the bow thrusters are used to help turn even though using them while the ship has forward motion can damage them.
Sounded like he was talking about water coming from the hawser pipes that the anchor chain pass through. Yes the thrusters were working hard. They can be ran with vessel going forward or back, not recommend at high rate speed, often during maneuvering as you using thruster to get away from pier you may want to start making headway. Have overhauled and sea trial many of them, and they take a beating
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Someone definitely needs more practice.
Reports have they lost engine control.. when you approaching a pier and you close, you should be moving
Very slower and far enough away that the wind won’t act like a sail against side of ship and slam it sideways to the pier.
Typically it’s the Capt docking the vessel with the harbor pilot if required by the port giving commands. Even then when ship very close to pier, Capt takes over or the staff Capt giving orders. Or controlling it him self on bridge wing. Lot of this depends on weather conditions.
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At the end of the video the anchors (they dropped both, you can briefly see the starboard anchor chain) are both pulled up into their receptacles. The water was while they were hoisting the anchors (after the ship had stopped).
They were properly pulling up they slack before they hit in order to try to slow the vessel down. When ships are mooring or departing an anchor is ready to be lowered if need in emergency, even in areas of restricted maneuverability in case they lose steering or power. Those folks were really lucky in that building had it collapsed when bow went into it.
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It protects coastwise shipping for the country involved. Most nations with sea coasts have some form of cabotage laws that preclude foreign ships from doing coastwise trade (Russia, Japan, China, Brazil, the EU).
As noted above, it requires ships trading along our coasts to be US flag, thereby mandating that they all are subject to all US law.
When viewed from the narrow context of the cruise industry, it may seem outdated and restrictive, but the law paints with a much broader brush in the maritime industry than just the cruise industry.
And safety and qualifications annimportant part of the law. Thanks Ch for your input, much valued.
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It is only considered useless if you think of it as the "Cruise Vessel Services Act", and not the "Passenger Vessel Services Act", and take into consideration the international definition of a "passenger vessel", which is any vessel that carries more than 12 persons for hire. Therefore, the PVSA protects the tens of thousands of US jobs on ferries, commuter boats, water taxis, duck boat tours, whale watching tours, dinner cruises, casino boats, and even larger charter fishing vessels. Without the PVSA, all the officers and crew on these multiple types of vessels could be foreign crew, meeting only the international STCW standards of training and certification, not the more stringent USCG standards, the vessels would not have to meet USCG standards for safety, and the companies would not have to meet US labor or tax laws.
As to the POA. All US vessels are allowed to hire up to 25% of the unlicensed crew as US legal resident aliens (green card holders) (all licensed officers must be US citizens). The law passed for NCL to allow NRAC (non-resident alien crew) onboard still limits the non-citizens to 25% (now being a combination of Green Card and NRAC), the NRAC have to obtain US Merchant Mariner Credentials (including the background check), have to have been employed by NCL for a minimum of 10 years prior, and NCL has to obtain a work visa for them, not just the far easier to obtain crew visa.
I'm not sure that the POA is the top net revenue earner in NCL. It may be the top gross revenue earner, but I can tell you that the expenses to operate the ship under US flag is what makes the cruises so expensive. A 7 day cruise on POA is about the same cost as a 15 day cruise from the West Coast on a foreign flag ship, and that ship uses 3-4 times the fuel that POA does. The Congressional Budget Office has determined that the difference in operating a cargo ship, with its much smaller crew, as a US flag vessel, over operating as a foreign flag vessel, is $1.4 million/year. You can probably factor that by a factor of 10 for a cruise ship, especially when you add in the added cost of operating in Hawaii. Fuel alone is about 150% of what it is on the West Coast. Just getting a new crew member to the gangway for his/her first day of work costs NCL about $8000 (training, certification) and that crew member is free to quit and walk off the ship at any time, and we had many do just that within an hour of boarding the ship. I was part of the NCL US flag fleet from the time it started (an original officer on the Pride of Aloha, even before it reflagged from the Sky) until the Aloha left and was reflagged back to the Sky, leaving only the POA.
I Agree that the passage secures lot of jobs, those aren’t the ones I was referring too. I have worked on lot ferries and smaller coastal passenger ships, and MARAD port engineer, before becoming a shipyard project manager.
Just saying if better mix on hotel staff end maybe more US flags would be out there. Read about POA earning during a recent stockholders earning report about its revenue. I was suppressed too. Well double check. Frank Rio talked about it.
NCL is always having slot to hire for on POA, that’s lot of training costs. Have heard good reports from passengers lately on the crew
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New to Holland America? This is for you...AKA "HAL For Dummies"
in Holland America Line
Posted
I am surprised you haven’t got a call back yet. The bad part is with any cruise line and found same with few airlines. The folks that work the phones later afternoon and evening aren’t always the sharpest. And found best to deal with day sales folks. I work part time as a travel agent that my mother owned for 40 years after leaving the cruise ship refit business and we all have same problem when calling in too. Waiting could be 30 min on hold. And many times were the more experienced ones.
If you have a TA. Let them do the work for you at the same cost. And solve your problems. Often we can look up the info on there systems.
As said before, sounds like this is the leg of a longer cruise and most of not all cruise lines will do same thing and have sections that are guaranteed only. But they should tell you the min category you will be in, often they will upgrade if room as a marketing tool. HAL is. Very good line
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