Rope lights removed from tops of ships?

[Browezilla]

I've been on cruises where they have turned off some of the top lights for star gazing. Maybe that's why.

[dolphinsfan246]

Could it be that the ships that have the WaterWorks slides on the aft have had the lights removed? The two the OP mentioned have the WW and the ones mentioned that still have the lights don't have the WW. Just a guess...but, if someone has photos of the other Fantasy class ships then maybe we can see.

That's a really good guess but we were in grand cayman in april with the Carnival Inspiration which has WW and you could still clearly see its lights in a picture i took.

[Cruiser1547228475]

quote=Egon;

 

 

Welcome back to Host Mach who wrote to me today asking about the blue lights at the front of the Conquest class ships. Apparently some of the Cruise Critic readers had been asking about the blue lights that decorate the ships from deck 3 to deck 11 forward. Apparently, some of the readers had been looking at the web cams or had been on the ships and noticed that these lights were not there and asking therefore if they had been removed.

I checked with both the Carnival Valor and Carnival Conquest and they both told me that the blue lights had not been removed but are now turned off at the forward part of the ship due to navigational issues. They are turned on as and if the ships are docked alongside the pier at night time. You know, there are those who don’t like these lights……..me……well I do and as I think they are distinctive and somewhat romantic.

 

Must be a confusing issue on what ships and the lights are missing on .

 

Hate to quote my own post :rolleyes:

[DarthGrady]

Well, to throw my 2-cents in, OP, do you recall if there were strong winds forecast or something? Perhaps they pull them down if they are expecting certain wind speeds? I seriously hope it is not a stupid penny-pinching thing.

 

Nope, the weather was excellent!

[AryMay]

Welcome back to Host Mach who wrote to me today asking about the blue lights at the front of the Conquest class ships. Apparently some of the Cruise Critic readers had been asking about the blue lights that decorate the ships from deck 3 to deck 11 forward. Apparently, some of the readers had been looking at the web cams or had been on the ships and noticed that these lights were not there and asking therefore if they had been removed.

I checked with both the Carnival Valor and Carnival Conquest and they both told me that the blue lights had not been removed but are now turned off at the forward part of the ship due to navigational issues. They are turned on as and if the ships are docked alongside the pier at night time. You know, there are those who don’t like these lights……..me……well I do and as I think they are distinctive and somewhat romantic.

 

 

 

Could John be referring to these lights along the outside decks under the lifeboats? This photo was taken on the Freedom and the lights were definitely blue.

 

[OKLandShark]

...or..."Do you know how much money we could save if we turned all of those lights off every night?"

 

 

That was going to be my guess, too. I really liked the lights at night, it really rounded out the fun and festive atmosphere on board.

[DarthGrady]

mach man - by 'may be related', i meant in the same manner that the decision was made to remove the widget from the ships - it was then implemented ship by ship, painting over it, etc., not necessarily related to the logo itself...

 

i just meant that perhaps they made a decision that they were going to do this to all the ships, and started implementing it ship by ship, which grady caught 2 of... which would be ironic, since he's the one that first noticed the widget removal :D

 

but, for all i know, the store they buy them at is in nassau and they were re-stringing them :)

 

BTW, i don't think that john heald understood your question - because his answer (re: blue lights) on the blog today (assuming that's related to your question), was totally not about these:cool:

 

I'm just a ship nerd, that must be why I catch these little things. I get more excited seeing new ships in port than I do about the port itself sometimes! :D

 

It's the same way over at the Disney boards I frequent (I'm a huge EPCOT fan). Disney fans will catch ANYTHING changed, added or removed ANYWHERE. There are whole discussion threads started over new signs.

[spencercoop]

Could John be referring to these lights along the outside decks under the lifeboats? This photo was taken on the Freedom and the lights were definitely blue.

 

 

Probably

[cruzzza]

I've been on cruises where they have turned off some of the top lights for star gazing. Maybe that's why.

I was thinking the same thing. While I do think that the lights give a festive atmosphere, they also bring the term "light pollution" to mind. I have often wondered why they don't turn them off to let us have a view of the stars. I can't think of a better place to stargaze than in the middle of the ocean, yet the view is greatly degraded because of those lights. I don't recall them being turned off on any of my cruises, but I don't stay up very late either (usually around 10pm-midnight).

[Essiesmom]

The strings of lights from bow to stern are called dress lights. The flags on the rope are put up when in port, taken down before sailaway. Not just on embarkation and debarkation. I can't find a definition of dress lights, but I took this picture from a bridge cam on Logos Hope as she sailed from Trogir to Kiel, and their caption involved checking out the dress lights. EM

[DarthGrady]

We just booked Imagination for the 2nd of July! So we shall see if they are still MIA next weekend. You all rest assured that I'll be back with a full report. ;)

[uffdafla]

I remember years ago laying on the deck of the Victory and attempting to count the lightbulbs on the string. It may have been easier were it not for my friend Captain Morgan;)

I usually try to count the burned out bulbs. But leaving So. Fl on a saturday night, you do get to see other ships going to debark arround midnight. Then the lighted ships do look better.

[tbjl24]

Paid extra special attention to the Inspiration on the drive in to work today(Sorry rav4 for swerving into your lane:D:D).

 

The flags were flying but I did not see the rope lights.

[DarthGrady]

Mach, did John ever get back to you?

[Luluwa]

I too love the lights - WE WANT OUR LIGHTS!!!!! :p

[JerseyshoreBruce]

Check this out somebody just got off the Liberty yesterday and posted this picture under UNIQUE PHOTOS...i see the lights by the Carnival stack!:)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1158659

[WishIwasOutThereNOW]

somehow i keep thinking "trip hazards" and "legal liability". might not be such a good idea to black out the top decks at night, carnival.

[Frank12]

Paid extra special attention to the Inspiration on the drive in to work today(Sorry rav4 for swerving into your lane:D:D).

 

The flags were flying but I did not see the rope lights.

 

Just off the Inspiration today. Rope lights were on every night!:)

[JerseyshoreBruce]

Thats great news Frank lets hope the others without it was a fluke. Ship without those lights at night is boring!

[Frank12]

Thats great news Frank lets hope the others without it was a fluke. Ship without those lights at night is boring!

 

I feel ya. We were on the Fascination last month (no rope lights anymore) and it was the first thing the wife and I noticed at night. :(

[Biffer1997]

Legend had them 2 weeks ago.

[EMBFlyer]

We were on the Destiny in March and she had the lights from the bow to the foremast and then from the back of the funnel to the stern. She did not have lights stretching from the front of the foremast to the funnel. I thought that was weird. The only other time we saw a Carnival ship was in Grand Cayman and I don't recall if the Valor had them or not. I hope the Liberty does when we're on her in 2 weeks.

[EMBFlyer]

Could John be referring to these lights along the outside decks under the lifeboats? This photo was taken on the Freedom and the lights were definitely blue.

 

 

The lights John is referring to are the same color, but those are the ones on the bow (in the areas fed by the secret doors on Decks 6 and 7). They light a pretty blue light on the front of the ship when she's in port. They're turned off at sea, as they're directly below the bridge and make it very hard for the officers to see at night. It really does make the ship look nice at night, though.

[DarthGrady]

Just a little follow up:

 

We did the Behind the Fun tour on Imagination this past weekend, and I asked the Captain about the lights. He said that they may be down for maintenance, and should go back up. He didn't sound overly sure about this though.

 

All of the rope lights were gone from in front of, and behind the funnel. Only the strand at the bow was in place. There are also no cables at all now above the lido deck, so the flags were also MIA.

[Genesis803]

We just got off the Triumph today and the rope lights were on every night. However, the string from the bow up to the bridge were never on. I assumed this was for better visibility from the bridge. The dark front decks were a great place to view the stars. We even saw a shooting star.