chengkp75

How are her lawyers going to get the principals of the crewing agency from the Philippines to a court in the US? How likely is a Filipino crew member to have personal liability insurance, and while he may be physically in the US for a criminal trial and incarceration, forcing an insurance company (if there is one) in the Philippines to pay up would be difficult.

My experience with helicopters is 12 years of flying in the back, and commanding flight deck crews on offshore oil rigs, so I'm in no way in your league. I've never seen a "light on the wheels" on anything other than a large oil platform, so I'm just saying that it could be done, but as you say, not likely. The Dolphin weighs 6900 lbs empty, so even though the pad on the Edge would be large enough, I think it would be overloaded.

Viking has contracted with Wilhelmsen Ship Management to provide technical (i.e. ship operations, not the hotel side) and crew management, since the Oceans operations started.

There is almost no maritime power system less efficient than a steam plant. And that is due to simple physics, not any design flaws or things that can be designed out. That's why the world shifted from steamships to motor ships (diesel) after WW2, because fuel was expensive. But, in the US, fuel was always far cheaper than the rest of the world, so we retained steamships into the 1970's.

If you notice at the right of the helipad is a note "0,5 t", which means the helipad is designed for a weight of 1100 lbs (metric ton). That looks like a Eurocopter UH-72 (can't be sure), which has an empty weight (no fuel or crew) of 3900 lbs. This means the pilot is seriously overloading the deck, or is practicing "light on the skids" (creating enough lift with the rotor to not quite lift the helicopter off the deck). With any ship's motion at all, especially on the bow you would get a lot of pitching, this could cause the helo to come off the deck as the ship's bow goes down, and slam back into the deck as the bow comes up, before the pilot can react. Note the nearly flat calm seas in the photo. Only very small, "light class" helicopters have an operating weight under 1/2 a ton.

Since both of these are in the Philippines, she won't likely get anything there.

They can get off at any port they want to, subject to local immigration, though with crew that's normally not a problem. Some places, like the US, a crew member getting off the ship (whether quit or end of contract) has to be escorted from the ship to the airport by a bonded ship's agent. Yes, if they are not working while onboard, they get charged room and board. So, you can "quit" but keep working to keep getting paid until you get to port.

They pay their own way home.

First, the port charges are for all ports on your cruise, including the embarkation/debarkation (same) port, so there are 4 ports on your cruise. It is not true that there is only one port charge for two ports in a country. The port charges are for wharfage (essentially dock space rental), pilots, and other things, but they are not "country" specific, they are port specific. This would be like saying that NYC and Miami split the port fees for a cruise from one to the other.

Just the same as they have in the past, essentially not at all. Probably 25-30% of new hires either don't complete their first contract, or never come back after the first contract. No way to "vett" somebody as to whether they are compatible with shipboard life.

It's not a fine, but I know that RCI charges a fee for downline disembarkation, since it does require more paperwork for passenger manifests, and the fact that the cruise for everyone else actually returning to the US is no longer on a closed loop cruise, since the manifest changed since leaving the US embarkation port. Not sure if Carnival charges this fee.

While it could be flown as a drone, there still needs to be a paramedic onboard for patient care.

But, most of the helipads are not strong enough, or large enough for most SAR helicopters to land, though I suspect they could try to stay "light on the skids" to reduce weight on the pad.

Just like the little loop on the back of men's shirts, who knows?

Probably done to minimize the passengers out there with their cameras and flashes distracting the pilot.