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chengkp75

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    Former cruise ship Chief Engineer

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  1. No, its not a fee. Foreign flag ships must have a foreign port call. US flag ships can cruise to US ports without a foreign port call. What the savings for the foreign ships is; US taxes (they pay none), labor costs (they pay well below US minimum wage, with no social security payroll tax), inspection fees (they don't have to pay for USCG inspections, nor have as many, or any, compared to US flag ships), insurance (most foreign seafarers have minimal insurance coverage (and none while off the ship), as opposed to US seafarers, customs duty (all ship's supplies brought into the US from overseas that end up on the ship are brought in with no customs duty, since it is merely in transit from a foreign country to a foreign ship, while US ships have to pay duty for the same parts and supplies if they are manufactured overseas). However, smaller cruise ships will charge a higher fare, even if foreign flag, because they can not generate the "economies of scale" that large ships get. As a very small example, a cruise ship that carries 3000 passengers only has one Captain, drawing $150k/year. But, 5 ships carrying 600 pax, need 5 Captains drawing $150k/year. And, that Captain's salary on the larger ship is spread over 3000 passengers, while the smaller ship Captain's salary, while the same amount, is spread out over only 600 passengers.
  2. Probably the larger reason you get the respiratory infection (since the HVAC units have filters already), is that the dry air conditioned air dries out your nasal mucus membranes, and these are the first and best line of defence against respiratory infections. Try using a saline nasal spray daily.
  3. Just so you know, there is no such thing as "cruise compliant". No cruise line certifies anything as being "compliant" with either the law or their rules.
  4. Not sure I follow all the gobbledygook that the OP is saying, but will try to explain how things happen. First, duty free can be open as soon as the vessel is outside the harbor limits, since the ship itself is foreign territory. And, duty free just means that no duty was paid to import the goods into the US, by the seller, so they can pass the savings on to the customer. The customer still has to pay any duty required when bringing the goods back into the US (or other country). The casino will open when 12 miles offshore. The state of Florida has a 6% sales tax, while Miami-Dade county assesses an additional 1%. This is levied on each purchase, based on the "list" price of the purchase (in your case, each drink). This tax is levied anytime the ship is within 3 nm of land in Florida. Typically, the bridge notifies the purser's office whenever the ship crosses the 3 mile or 12 mile limit, and the POS registers are reprogrammed to start or stop charging tax. I don't believe you were being charged a flat tax of $2/drink, I believe you misunderstood that even with a "free drink package", you still need to pay the 20% gratuity charge per day.
  5. I suspect that one diesel engine was down, and it just required an amount of time to repair. Sometimes repairs take more than a day to complete, and crews are no longer allowed to work round the clock, unless the safety of the ship is involved.
  6. If an azipod was down, which would have required a tug escort all the way from the Ambrose sea buoy, then the use of two tugs to dock would be expected, but I didn't hear about a full tug escort, so I don't think this is the case. Docking at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, for the large ships, is typically scheduled around times of slack water, and the unusually late arrival likely meant the tide and current were running together to make the turn into the berth very difficult. Remember that a perfectly working Carnival ship rammed the pier a few years back. The turn from the Hudson into the berth at MCT is historically difficult, even with azipods and thrusters, as the current the ship is fighting while turning, suddenly goes to zero as the bow becomes shielded by the pier structure.
  7. Yes, it is an incentive program, in the sense that it incentivizes the crew to perform well in order to earn their full compensation. Tipping in a restaurant on land is also an incentive program. The second reason that the DSC model is used by cruise lines (after being able to cut the DSC out of the advertised fare) is so that the DSC is used as both the carrot and the stick to force the crew into a "team approach" to guest service, because any one crew member who causes DSC to be adjusted affects every DSC crew member's paycheck. It is one of the poorest forms of leadership and team building around, but given that the cruise lines do not invest in any leadership training for first and second line supervisors, it overcomes the shortcomings of those supervisors, transferring the leadership requirement to the front line workers themselves. I worked for NCL, and as senior ship management, so I do know how the DSC is set up. It was discussed nearly every week in the shipboard management revenue meeting.
  8. And, in most cases, to get more speed and keep the power (and fuel) down, you need to go longer. Look at the QM2 (86 Mw of propulsion power to move 80k tons displacement (actual weight) at 30 knots) compared to the SS United States (180 Mw of propulsion power to move 47k tons displacement at 36 knots). The SSUS was pushing way above her "hull speed" at 36 knots, which is why it took so much more horsepower to move a smaller ship than QM2 does. Lots of people think that LNG is some wonder fuel that answers all the problems of marine fuel. However, methane (which is what LNG is) when released through what is known as "methane slip" (or the amount of methane lost due to leakage, spills, and incomplete combustion to the atmosphere) is over 80 times the greenhouse gas compared to CO2 over a 20 year span, and over 20 times the effect over a 100 year span. While LNG can make a ship "cleaner", the problems with methane leakage along the supply chain make it arguably worse.
  9. And, to waste money on putting "replica" lifeboats on the upper deck, doesn't help the bottom line.
  10. If he believes that the price will be under a billion dollars in today's environment (it was around $600 million in 2013), he's dreaming. And, if he believes he can operate a small ship like that at prices that are competitive with even low end premium cruise lines, he's dreaming. And, if he believes that he can drum up enough interest to fully book a ship with no balcony cabins, and vast numbers of inside cabins, and price them where he can make any profit at all, he's dreaming.
  11. You would not be violating the law, as you would travel SF-Vancouver-SF, which is a closed loop cruise (SF to SF), and has a foreign port call (Vancouver). Not sure if you do a CBP "pre-clearance" in Vancouver if ship is going to SF (they generally do when going to Seattle), so getting off at the mid-point SF may be problematic. Are the cruises sold separately? If so, then a lot of passengers will be permanently disembarking there, and you would clear entry there, and no problem. If it is sold only as one cruise, then you would need CBP to clear you into the country at the mid-point, and they typically don't do that for just a port call. As far as the cruise line is concerned, just leaving will not leave you in good favor with them. They will likely be making announcements to find you, and may have to search the ship to see if you are onboard, to know whether or not to include you on the departure manifest. You may also have difficulty leaving with your luggage, unless you put it out for collection the night before, as security will see the luggage, and see that you are booked on the next cruise, and stop you to see if your account is paid. While they cannot detain a US citizen from disembarking in a US port, they could place a "innkeeper's lien" on you and not allow you to take your luggage off with you.
  12. The AC does not "turn off" if the card is not in the slot. It activates a "set back" thermostat, just like your house probably has, that raises the set temperature by 5 or 10 degrees. It would require more energy to shut off the AC for the daytime and then work to cool that cabin back down again, rather than just a few degrees range.
  13. There will be different "classes" of dining, with 3rd class being served at long, communal tables, and featuring "mash" and "stew" and other "simple fare".
  14. Are you asking about permanently disembarking in San Francisco, and not taking the second leg? Or just getting off to visit the city, and returning for the second leg? Your first leg, SF-Vancouver-SF, is a closed loop cruise, which the PVSA allows as long as it stops at any foreign port (Vancouver). The second leg, which I assume includes a port call in Mexico as well as SF-LA-SF (as it wouldn't be offered without a foreign port call), is also a closed loop cruise, so any foreign port call is what is required. But, CBP would look at the two cruises together (assuming they are on the same ship), but this would also be a closed loop SF-SF (regardless of what ports are in between), and only requires one foreign port call. The two types of cruises "closed loop" and "open loop (or jaw)" (open loop means you permanently disembark at a different US port from embarkation), are handled completely differently by CBP, the open loop cruise requiring a "distant" foreign port call, while a closed loop only requires a foreign port call (does not need to be "distant").
  15. And, I believe that the Shipping Acts of both the UK and Bermuda provide different requirements for crew compensation than flags of convenience, so the DSC may have been less of an effect on minimum compensation.
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