Electrical outlet(s) - Grounded or non-grounded?

I need to bring an extention cord and need to find out if the outlets are grounded or non-grounded. If it makes any difference, we are on the NCL Sun.

What cabin category/room? We were in a mini and there were 6 sets of outlets from what I remember. I tend to recall they were grounded but I looked through the pictures and didn't have any that showed the actual outlets close up.

If you assume non grounded, then you will be just fine.

Is the concern that you want a grounded outlet, or which extension cord to take.

P.S. - Pretty much every laptop I have ever owned has had the grounding plug broken off during our travels. We get somewhere with only a two prong outlet, so we just wiggle the third plug off. I am guessing a techie type will let me know I should be dead by now!

The outlets have the standard U.S. three prong receptacle, just like you have at home.

Ok...maybe I'm being a bit contrarian here but...grounded? Can anything be grounded on a floating ship? I thought "grounded" meant connected to an uninterrupted conduit which is buried in the ground.

Yes, the receptacles accept three prong plugs. ...but, grounded? .., I'm not sure.

We usually take a coarse nail file along, so that I can file the wider prong of the extension cord down to fit, if necessary. Never had any problem charging our toys, such as iPods, cell phones, cameras, etc. Grounded outlets or not, did not seem to matter.

@jorapp -

How does one protect a sailboat with a tall aluminum mast from lightning? Don't they mount a lightning rod at the top of the mast and run the wire down INTO the water to "ground" it?

We usually take a coarse nail file along, so that I can file the wider prong of the extension cord down to fit, if necessary. Never had any problem charging our toys, such as iPods, cell phones, cameras, etc. Grounded outlets or not, did not seem to matter.

Why polarization is good, and using a nail file is Bad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets#Polarization

A grounded wire does not have to touch the actual earth "ground". All a grounded wire has to do is be connected to a neutral piece of metal like steel

@Ask4Jay, mostly like that tall aluminum mast will be coated with a non conductive coating the will prevent the lighting from impacting the mast. It is a bad idea to ground something to water because electricity can flow in water due to salt

Ok...maybe I'm being a bit contrarian here but...grounded? Can anything be grounded on a floating ship? I thought "grounded" meant connected to an uninterrupted conduit which is buried in the ground.

 

Yes, the receptacles accept three prong plugs. ...but, grounded? .., I'm not sure.

OK answer from a master electrician. Yes the ship is grounded by being submerged in the water. The ground wire does not have to be buried in earth it just has to have contact with the earth. Water serves as the conductor and as long as the ship does not leave the water it has contact with a ground source.

The receptacles (plugs) in our balcony cabin on the star were 3 pronged (meaning 2 straight slots and 1 round) grounded and polarity sensitive (meaning big and little straight slots).

JFYI. The ground on a ship or airplane is the neutral or star point at the gen set (alternator) and in general this is bonded to the hull, or in the case of a wood or glass boat the bonding system. The only reason anything is grounded is to insure there is a known voltage to ground or bonding system. It is standard marine electrical practice to bond the neutral of the gen set or transformers. Should there be a fault on any equipment the return path would then be to the gen set, (through any unfortunate soul touching the faulty equipment and the hull). If a new young electrician joined the ship we used to ask the question "why do we ground a gen set?" If the gen set (land or sea) was not grounded then the voltage to ground could be anything as static builds up in the generator.

Here's what it looked like - there's usually another one near the hairdryer.

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2247572300105161613pfvsjx

BTW, the RJ-45 or Ethernet port for a wired connection (for NCL ships so equipped) is right next to it or besides the telephone, behind a sliding (silver) cover and is marked with a static i.p.