SailorJeff66

Great review so far. Can't wait for the rest!

Um, have you seen the living quarters for the average U.S. Navy enlisted sailor? An 8 person bunk room is a luxury senior enlisted get. Pay grade E-6 and below live in 60-80 person berthing compartments.

On USN ships, there is an inflatable stern tube seal that acts as a backup to the normal stern tube seal. I have been on a couple ships where they used divers to remove the thrust bearing and shaft seal. Commercial vessels? No idea.

My marine engineering experience comes from the "grey funnel line". First ship was a carrier with 4 fixed pitched screws running off boilers. I also served on more modern ships with Controlled Pitch Propellers and APU's. Modern cruise ships are truly marvels of engineering. I'm up for the all access tour on my next cruise but sadly, My idea of "all access" probably won't match what's offered.

ChengKP, an article I just read said Vista's pod issues stemmed from a bearing. Makes sense, bearing issues cause excessive vibration at best, significant damage at worst. Allure is speed restricted due to pod issues, but I haven't seen specifically what the problem is. The article also said that Oasis was fixing pod issues at Grand Bahama when the dry dock crane fell on it. Interestingly, USN ships I've been on with traditional fixed propulsion have been able to affect repairs in water. Even had main shaft seals replaced. I imagine it's considerably more involved and difficult.

Seems to be a growing trend across all the lines. Azipod issues affecting max speed. Two of Royal's Oasis class(Oasis ended up with a crane on top of her for their trouble), now Carnival is losing Vista for almost a month. From what I gather, these are all ABB units, but I seem to recall the lines had issues with Rolls Royce units a few years back. Hopefully ChengKP can weigh in on this. In the U.S.N., when a common component exhibited reliability issues, an inspection fleetwide was initiated. Understanding the cost/schedule impacts a program would entail, compared to lost revenue from missed cruises and cancellation it seems they would almost have to do it. Thoughts?

There seems to be two distinct mind sets here. Some, like going on the same familiar ships, with the same itineraries over and over. Others, like myself, are "one and done" on a ship/ itinerary. I want to go to all the places and try all the ships. My brother in law and his wife? Same cruise, every year. Thoughts?

Reduction of waste paper and plastic on ships. Look for less single use packaging in the future.

Link I meant to share. https://t.co/KsYmDkMi3k https://twitter.com/beanotownphoto/status/1135096438424297473?s=17

Last year the Armonia crashed the dock in Roatan, now the Opera in Venice.....obviously not just an MSC problem( Norwegian, I'm looking at you). But they seem to have the crash bug.

Yep, the little pests are still here. Just saw a charter bus completely covered in them in Ocala at Zaxby's off of I-75....

I like Carnival's idea of the Brew Pub! Going on a "Fun Ship" for the first time in April. I'll report back afterwards.

One of the joys of living in Florida! NOT!!!! Harmless, but annoying. When the palmetto berries are ripe is another wonderful time. The mockingbirds eat them in droves, then you have purple poop splotches and palmetto seeds EVERYWHERE!

Yeah, mamma has a big ol' grin now that I booked Horizon. Grabbed FTTF while I was at it. Oh, and booked the tepanyaki for first sea day....

So, after consulting with D.W. (Allicat), looks like we're gonna go for the FOS in December and the Horizon in April. I'll get the upcoming November Rhapsody cruise paid, get Horizon booked, then start looking at FOS for a winter 2020. Win/Win. Trying real hard to get two a year in, a shorty in spring and a 7day plus in winter. Thanks for the input gang!