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ew101

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About Me

  • Location
    USA Midwest
  • Interests
    Cruising in Europe, cruise history, older ships, sailing
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Any line that still has ballroom/Latin/two step dancing and a promenade deck 15+ cruises.
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Med or anyplace really.

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. 'We need quality tourism': Barcelona brings in rules to limit cruise ships (inews.co.uk)
  2. The Med cruise market is not the best lately. MSC has deep pockets. Barcelona seems unwelcoming to ships and tourists.
  3. I have never been to India, but we do enjoy "North Indian" food very much. (An Indian cookbook says a lot of the dishes we see in the US were popularized near New Delhi). The corner of the buffet on NCL with a few Indian items is helpful when the school cafeteria pizza (not hand tossed) is not getting the job done. More than once (a day) I have thought- I wonder if there is decent Indian (or Indonesian) in the crew galley? Maybe the chef down there does one dish for the passenger buffet with a little sign? The comment that the passengers want mainstream, bland "Americanized" food is largely true, but once you have had Pizza in Naples or Carbonara in Rome, the modified, watered down food is not up to standard. All of this (i.e. menu adjustments) requires Corporate to get involved I think. Good luck with that.
  4. According to Legionella - Wikipedia the bacteria is semi common in nature and is killed by chlorinated water. It says healthy people are not much at risk, and the illness is not known to spread person to person. This sounds very isolated and rare, given the number of shower heads in the world not to mention the cruise ship fleet.
  5. The American Chemistry Council says plastic water bottles are safe- even those with BPA- which I find hilarious. Bisphenol A (americanchemistry.com)
  6. Lovely review, food and port photos. The Four Seasons on Nevis looks lovely. Did you see people dancing in any of the onboard venues? Based on your daily programs, it looks possible?
  7. I do think that based on recent events, the idea of a "day of departure" cruise flight package provided by a line should be considered a defective product (or game of chance) and not allowed to be sold or carry a warning (would anyone read it?). You might get away with say Atlanta to Tampa - usually, maybe, possibly. Buit then the issue is what about hotels and meals, increases the cost, more days off needed etc. Which would lead to complaints out here 🙂
  8. Two days early is the new one day early. If there is a bad storm and they close the airport(s), you cannot blame or easily sue the cruise line. This is similar to connecting flights - the systems/rules might allow/ book you on a 45 minute connection- but who in their right mind would even consider the idea? And then think long and hard about the possibility of lost luggage on close in flights.
  9. Are there any signs or hints of ballroom dancing aboard?
  10. Surely someone aboard can sniff out the actual issue? As a long time student /fan club member of @chengkp75can we look at Wikipedia and try to make a list of possibilities? Installed power: 2 × Wärtsilä 12V46F (2 × 14,400 kW) (Hotel?) 2 × Wärtsilä 16V46F (2 × 19,200 kW) (Propulsion?) 2 × Cat 3516C HD (2 × 2,500 kW) (Emergency?) Propulsion Diesel-electric 2 × ABB Azipod XO thrusters (2 × 20.5 MW) 4 × 3,500 kW (4,694 hp) Brunvoll FU115 bow thrusters Speed 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) It would seem that the vessel has two engine rooms, two big azipods and two propulsion-focused diesel generators. So if there is one big engine offline, would they be down to (currently making) 18 knots? If there is one Azipod out or limping with a bearing problem the same? I remember some older ships having more engines, so the loss of one was not so noticeable? Can all the engines ( +hotel) pool the power for the azipods? The cruise industry has made a business decision to move away from well proven shafts to azipods. A fair number of ports have been missed (and vacations ruined), but as far as I can remember, no lives or ships have been lost as a result. I think I would feel safer on a ship with azipods turning in a fast current docking on a river vs one with fixed shafts. It is all trade offs. 07 Feb 1953 - Queen Mary beats N.Y. wharf strike - Trove (nla.gov.au)
  11. Another deck plan question- how far around does the "jogging track" go? It seems blocked at the stern certainly.
  12. This is funny. B to B aka Consecutive is one way to get there. Transatlantics are/can be cheap- but return air can be pricey. What about those getting comped players cruises (though one must consider losses there I suppose).
  13. Does anyone know on this ship class if it is a connecting oceanview cabin, like 3620, does the couch shrink down to a chair to make room for the door? We saw this on Vision class with an inside cabin.
  14. Empty cabins are by far the worst case. Many cruise ship costs are fixed. Staff, fuel, the mortgage on the ship. Except for actual drinks poured are 100% variable, and maybe frozen steaks thawed and cooked. Several of us are baffled by the RU1 promotion. Is the idea to fill an empty cabin, or convert a guest to a regular Cheers buyer? Or both? Cheers is a lovely revenue stream I'm sure.
  15. This is probably a good @chengkp75 topic. I learned something recently on another line. I brought up a problem I was having with sticky drawer slides. Like 15% were very hard to open. I called one in and realized I did not want to have my naps interrupted, etc. The officer I spoke with said there are two maintenance departments on board. Ship and hull is one department- they report to the Chief Engineer, Staff Captain, etc. So engines, bottom paint, fuel tanks, propellers. The other department handles hotel maintenance. They report someplace in the Hotel Department. They fix the vanity, drawers, chairs, etc. A guess is that in all the cutbacks and shutdowns, the ship repairs were continued, as required by Class, insurance, US Coast Guard, etc. The hotel stuff, arguably mostly cosmetic, was perhaps not as much. Rust on balconies has become an issue out here, I'm not sure why. That is presumably in the ship department vs hotel.
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