MBP&O2/O

Much the same as I remember. Once in the dry dock then minimal facilities. No toilets at all. Porta-loos on the dockside, sometimes for more than a week. Occasionally, they came to fumigate the ship ... cockroaches ... which was a night ashore in a fleapit hotel 😄 It used to kill the cockroaches .... but not the eggs 😏 It was nice to be able to strip down things and sort at leisure, and get hints and tips from the techies😵‍💫

I need hypoallergenic toiletries so I am bringing my own as SB seem reluctant to comment on if such a product is available ...

We often used to make 'technical stops'.... usually to keep politicians from being seen to have dirty fingers 🙂 Can I say this? I suppose so as apartheid is no longer with us! Common practice was to load a cargo of fruit in Capetown. The discharge ports were in the Arabian Gulf. Now at this time trading with South Africa was not seen to be politically friendly so we couldn't really be seen taking South African fruit to the 'Gulf ... could we? To overcome this political intrigue, we loaded the cargo as normal - but all the boxes were labeled 'Product Of Botswana'! Then, en route to the 'Gulf, we stopped / anchored at Maputo. Whilst at Maputo we started a new 'Deck Log Book' and when we arrived at our first port of call the log book showed us arriving from Mozambique! Sneaky! Plausible deniability for the politicians?

Just remember, when you aee layered up to the eyeballs because it is chucking it down ... if the rain stops and you need to ' de-layer ' then you need to be able to deal with all your wet clothing 😄

I shouldn't really chip in, but ..... Not specifically cruise lifeboat related, but to labour a point. A Merchant ship with four lifeboats, each of course would accommodate all staff on board. Two boats on the midship housing, and two aft. During an incident in heavy weather when we had to consider use of the boats .... The two aft boats became damaged, on the davits, by the weather and in any case were inaccessible .... The port side midship boat was also wrecked by weather, again on the davit. That's three muster stations out of the window 🤔 The plan of action was to use the last remaining boat to make two trips to transfer all non essential personnel to a rescue ship. Good plan ..... until the lifeboat, on trip 1, in worsening weather, shipped a greenie and sank to the point of zero freeboard. Oops.😵‍💫 Regulations have obviously changed since then but no matter how well you plan, no matter how many named degrees of emergency you have, there will still be a passenger who knows best and will ignore instructions. Remember, Murphys law will still kick in. ... and, politely, excreta occurs.

UK insurance can be a rip off. I had a partial knee replacement some years ago. I declared on the questionnaire that there were no issues, no meds, no further treatment and in fact it was better than before the op. They doubled the premium? Essentially for a non existent condition. No explanation offered. I bank with Nationwide and my account gives free travel insurance for self and wife ... amongst other things. I declared a heart condition. I took out the worldwide, including USA, cruise supplement and the age supplement. My total extras are £106 pa! That and £13pm account fees made it a no-brainer!

Eight months ago I booked two BC return flights from the UK to Canada. They cost £5k. Three weeks later, the airline was charging over £20k for the same flights. I tracked them with Google flights and they have been up and down, varying between £7k and £20k. No consistency. Strange.

I once organised a seminar on Aircraft Related Emergencies. One of the lecturers was, in his own words, a trained "Dope on a Rope". Fascinating information given, especially when comparing Military and Civiliation aircraft and their operational parameters.

What some people do not realise is ... IF the person is unconscious then most of the body is under water. What you are effectively looking for is something the size of a basketball, and if there is any sort of sea running then half the time the head and neck etc will be obscured.

Have a look at https://claalaska.com/?page_id=1250 To see what is in port with you ....

I would venture to suggest that the authorities can indeed board the ship. Certainly had similar incidents when visiting the USA and the authorities escorted someone from a British flagged ship. It could be worth investigating further in case the offence is statute barred on a time limit?

I was on a ship en route Durban to Kuwait when we had to divert for a sick crew member. Took an age before we rv'ed with a Royal Navy ship. Alas too late. We had to continue to Aden to repatriate the deceased.

Is the ship not obliged to declare this information before berthing? We used to enter port flying the " Q " flag. The International Code of Signals meaning is "My vessel is healthy and I require free pratique". If they have an infectious disease on board ........?

More a light hearted comment .... from today's menus, courtesy of the Source app ... an 'Interesting' goats cheese ... 🤔

Many moons ago our weekly drills were at the same time and same day every week. Galley staff were excused as they were preparing lunch. This was standard practice with 'traditional' Masters who were brainwashed into this scenario. On one ship I sailed with a Master with a more modern outlook. He came onto the bridge one morning, shortly after 0800hrs, made small talk about weather and the lack of nearby shipping and then activated the general alarm 🙂 Mayhem! Several people came to the bridge to see what was happening. One complained it woke him up. Very few people did what they should have. The Old Man made it perfectly clear that emergencies could happen at any time of day and not specifically at 11:00am on a Saturday ... his parting shot was "get used to it" 🙂 Such conduct would not be acceptable nowadays as training is now taken more seriously and has improved a touch since then ... thank goodness.

I would suspect that most 'ex job' on this forum disprove of the current MO. and would prefer to go back to a 'hands on' approach. Especially those people who have been there, seen it and then 'worn the tee shirt' . Having said that there are some people who know best and are no afraid to say so 😏 and regretfully the crew are not allowed to advise them accordingly.

Check the website. Prohibited items include .... 21. Items brought on board the vessel and not supplied by the Company containing any kind of heating element, such as but not limited to: immersion heaters, heating blankets, flat irons, water heaters, coffee machines with heating/hot plates, etc. Which intimates they * may * supply something. Equally of course they may not.

I had been considering an Oceania cruise. My last three have been with Silversea but there new pricing structure has forced me to look elsewhere. No recompense if you do not want a ' free ' excursion ... even if you are physically unable to take one. Several local airports have dropped off their list ....use them and pay a deviation fee. Door to airport transfer? Ooops ... no airport within range. IF OCEANIA adopt this policy then that leaves me out of the equation.

I booked a two week August 2023 cruise in March 2022. I booked 2 x TK and also several shore excursions as soon as I had an official booking reference? No problems whatsoever ... even so far in advance.

The other aspect of course is "How do you define rough?" . Some people think that a 2 foot chop is rough ... others not so. We caught the back end of a typhoon of Japan and were rolling through an arc of 80 degrees for a couple of days and had to heave too to cope. That was a small-ish ship fully loaded. On another, a very very small open boat in F7 winds and accompanying seas. The seas were nowhere near as bad as previous, but being in a small boat exaggerated the issue.

But those included excursions are paid for by SS increasing the cruise price. If you cannot or are physically unable to take an excursion there is no recompense. An example would be a Central American cruise. Two included excursions only, no additional fee excursions, both had a health warning ... kayaking or white water rafting,... really? Another port on the same cruise offered one excursion.... snorkeling. Personal choice I suppose..

Severe operator malfunction .... this is actually quoted as18 pax max .... better 🤞

Ours is shown as .... Ventures by Seabourn: Hubbard Glacier by Catamaran 11:00 am. The other is shown as Discover Alaska's Whales: Small-Group Experience ... hopefully less than 100pax 🙂

Thanks for that ... practically half the ship .... hope the zodiacs and kayaks are full 🤞😄

There have been a couple of threads recently - on specific cruise line forums - regarding slow boarding at Vancouver. In general it seems as if the blame is being put on American Immigration protocols.... causing very long queues My questions are "Having waited your turn and been granted permission to to visit the USA, and board your ship ..... what happens if you decide to go ashore for a while? Do you have to join the queue again?" If not .. "Is there anything to stop you clearing immigration the day before? " Forever optimistic ... not😏