geezer466
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Posts posted by geezer466
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When we were on Discovery 2 we could not hear the tannoy announcements when the cabin door was closed. That was on deck 3.
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Would have heard the emergency alarm (the 7 long and loud bleeps indicating an emergency) these are pushed onto the cabin speakers for obvious purposes.
In a dozen or so cruises I have never known any line to miss a muster drill. On weeks where we have stopped on (not needing to attend twice) we have not missed the calls or the practice emergency alarm either..
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That is happening now.
Used to be you paid tip directly to the waiters, room stewards on the last night.
now you have the auto DSC added and people are still handing cash to the waiters and stewards in addition to the DSC.
People are also tipping on top of the 18% in Specialty restaurants and on drinks.
The tipping culture is really get out of hand.
Lois
I was also told by the same source that if cash is given to individual crew members as a gratuity it has to surrendered to the department manager to 'be added to the pot' on pain of gross misconduct (dismissal).
Clearly cabin stewards can be a little more flexible with this than other staff but no shortage of internal security camera's on NCL ships.
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Get rid of mandatory tipping. It's a dumb practice. Gives workers no incentive to work harder or provide service beyond the normal. Would rather tip onboard separately for great service. Go back to the old way of tipping. And do we really know the DSC is ending up in the hands of the proper people?
Couple of things I learned from a recent cruise confirmed by another guest who had an officer relation on board and a member of the Entertainment staff who had family on board whom we new.
1. Money collected from the DSC is not automatically passed on to staff, Waiting on, stewards or those in the bowels of the ships. They have some pretty demanding targets to hit before qualifying and it seems NCL can be 'vigorous' in applying these standards. As to what happens to the money withheld nothing was said.
2. All those nationalities where tipping at this sort of level is not customary (mainly Europeans) can have the DSC removed by requesting so at reception. There is a form to fill out and a reason has to be given but as I understand it the procedure is straightforward. It was implied that US citizens 'ought to know better' about these charges and will often be given the runaround and made to jump through hoops at the desk when making this request. If it is done on-board before the end of the cruise it will be applied to the on board account before dis-embarkation.
3. It was also implied that NCL apply a % fee (not know how much) for collecting this money on behalf of the crew.
Clearly it is not fair that NCL should treat US citizens less favorably than others.
The time has come for NCL to add these charges to their advertised rates and do away with the uncertainty and double dealing with their guests.
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Maybe they replaced the azipods with flux reactors and they have already popped over to tomorrow lunchtime to make sure the ship departed on time........ :)
Tongue in cheek I know but not as bone as some of the nit picking going on here.
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Bottom Line - Best guess, and I know it can only be a guess at this point; will the ship make the March 9th cruise? I guess not if drydocking is required.
Latest news is from Norwegian is the 18th Cruise Ex Auckland will leave on time. Being on the other side of the planet people are travelling over the next few days to spend a few days in NZ before embarking.
Some queried the NCL UK office and were told there was no information that they should not travel.
I guess the on board engineering team have already stripped out a lot of the parts needing replacement in the hours it was under tow.
Their reluctance to repair unit one can be explained by them not wanting to tie the ship up for 3,4 or 5 days and completely ruin one of the planned legs. Of course the other day unit 2 failed meaning they now have no choice but to berth the ship for a few days and conduct the repairs.
These repairs will be routine for these guys. Old failed parts out new parts in.
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Star is just coming alongside in Melbourne.
Think the plan when the tugs arrived was for her to be in by 15.00 local. Appears that schedule has slipped 8 or 9 hours already.
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If it were me I would make sure I got it!! Hang the cost of 3% I would withdraw it through the casino asap!!
Why?
You are still liable for the daily service charge which on this 19 night cruise (provided it runs) runs to just over $500 for two persons.
Compensation package is to pay the staff :)
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Arrival time 0200 2/12, 60 hours for repair is 0200 2/17 for leaving. Best time to Aukland would be at 22 knots, which is 3 days 3 hours or 0500 on the 20th.
If the ship comes alongside in Melbourne at 02.00 on the 12th then 60 hours (repair window) takes it to 16.00 on the 15th doesn't it?
Sufficient time to reach Auckland for the 18th?
Of course this assumes all the parts they need are also alongside and available as they need them.
Lots of unknowns I admit in this and NCL are not the best at sharing information.
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As a retired U.S. Navy Captain who commanded a warship, I can tell you a ship without propulsion is in a precarious situation, bow thrusters or not.
In which case sir I bow to your experience in the matter........
I guess the location close to rescue assets formed part of the risk assessment at the time..
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Port state can detain the ship with a defect notice , but the flag state can issue an exemption and the ship can proceed , this shp has a long history of propulsion issues which should have raised red flags , the ship was without power is a seaway which is renown for its bad weather, I say again they have no concept of how lucky they have been , the ship could have been lost
Regards
John
Bit of a dramatic statement....... A Technically qualified poster has already mentioned the ship retained its bow thrusters and this gives it the ability to maneuver in heavy seas and that the ship is already under the auspices of Maritime agencies regarding it's safety.
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Since they are now dead in the water they must have sailed with only one working unit out of two. That is allowed by the coast guard ?
It would be the Marine Safety Branch of whichever Nation the ship is currently in...
And yes most of the World's shipping only has one main drive shaft and one screw......
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I also heard that they intend to stay in Melbourne for 4 - 5 days and then go directly to Auckland. If they can spend that much time in one place, maybe they an get it FIXED. Then all will be well for those of us boarding in Singapore. Ever hopeful.
Maybe they have decided to bite the bullet and effect the FULL repairs the vessel needed weeks ago....
Fingers crossed but sympathetic towards current stranded passengers.
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You can (usually) deposit travelers cheques into your onboard account. I don't know they will cash them for you. (If not, you can withdraw cash at 3% as usual.)
I had the feeling that the OP wanted to bring cash to use ashore in the various ports. Because they seem happy to use a credit card to cover their charges onboard.
It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to withdraw dollars on the ship (with a service charge), charge the amount to the stateroom (possible credit card charges) and then presumably exchange it for local currency in port (more charges). It would almost certainly be cheaper simply to use the credit card to withdraw local currency at an ATM in port.
I know, lots of people prefer not to use credit cards or ATMs abroad, and they are prepared to go to a lot of effort and/or spend a lot of extra money and/or do even riskier things to avoid it.
I have a resolute card which I will use in Foreign ATM's to get Oz and NZ dollars ect.
I need crisp $$ to pay for private excursions off the ship, I currently have around $300 which may suffice but wanted to explore avenues where I could source more if needed.
Thanks for the replies ladies and gents. I now know that if I do I can source US$ on the ship but it carries a charge.
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Brits on a far east itinerary.
Rather than travel with a lot of Dollars are we able to draw US Currency on board from Customer Services either against the on board account or against a debit/credit card?
If so is there a charge applied?
Many thanks for all and each replies.
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There is no published new itinerary yet.....but the ship can't make its scheduled stops at reduced speed.
Looks like Bay of Isl, Brisbane,Airlie,Komodo,KL gone.....yet to be confirmed,but highly likely.
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Brisbane is an embark/depart port so I don't think they can pull that.
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If the ship returned to Europe on one pod....what speed would you put into the distance calculater.
I put in 15 knots in calculator from Singapore to Dubai and came back as missing 4 ports......is 15 knots resonable to expect.
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Sip has just popped back on the marine traffic site around 200nm off Darwin.
She making 13.7Knts and looks overdue going on the arrival time stated on that site.
The past track shows she has been up to 16knts but the speed seems all over the place.
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Don't anyone mention the Rhum Runner......
On your own head be it.
We missed dinner.......
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As previous poster Money Bar would be my choice. Been Cozumel twice and we always head there.
Take your own snorkel gear plenty to see.
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Nil chance of them going under given the headline firm is TUI.....
That said they must be having trouble filling cabins as I have no end of emails offering quite handy discounts on cruises £200 in one case with a free AI...
Have cruised with Thomson for the last 6 winters but not this one (MSC and Norwegian this year (and last)) so their database must have flagged me up.....
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So in short Customer service are poorly thought of and better news is we are expecting a repair to the propulsion system some time over the next 10 days?
That's all we want to know really, we purchase insurance for the rest.
We don't get on till Mid Feb in NZ so am not bothered at all at this stage.
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Here's where Jorge does work:
In the ABB drawings, note the size of the human figure compared to the open area of the pod. The short inclined ladder to the right of the figure climbing down into the pod is the ladder visible in the Nieuw Amsterdam photos. Rotund engineers need not apply.
Thanks for your contributions, your technical expertise assists us mere mortals in understanding the issues.
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Ship still in Singers.... As at 09.30 GMT Tuesday 13th
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:374130/zoom:14
Only mildly concerned at the moment as we do not embark till February in Auckland....
Plenty of time for Norwegian to send another ship down (assuming they keep a spare)... :)
Singers is the favorite slang name for Singapore for us Brits, once a colony now a valued member of the Commonwealth. Lived there as a kid on the UK Naval base, know there is a dry dock there the Royal Navy built specifically for the dreadnought Battleships. King George VI dock. Was the largest in the World at one time...
http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/history/events/16e4cb2c-7e75-4d33-b1cf-b11cf2da4104
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Partly due to all this nonsense we have decided to give Thomson a miss this Winter for the first time in 6 years.... Usually we would have a fortnight down in the Caribbean and/or a week around the Canaries.
I say partly as we have done most ports including Havana, Mexico and Panama, Columbia ect at least once, others like St Marrtin and St Kitts two or three times. Barbados and Montego bay 4 or 5 times.We just need a bit of change of scene.
Anyway this year we have booked a bucket list trip starting in NZ up the West coast of Aus a bit of Indonesia finishing in Singapore on Norwegian. TBH not that much more expensive that having a balcony cabin on Thomson once the all inclusive is factored in which is was included anyway. 19 days as opposed to 14 as well, with a couple of days in Auckland at the start and Singers at the end, hotels included.
But the point I am putting this here guess what. We fly down/back with Singapore Airlines where as soon as we got the documentation through we were able to go on their website and pre-book our seats for the 3 flights at no extra charge.
Thomson please take note. You need to keep up with the competition not stiff your customers for every penny you can.
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Not sure I understand what is going on here.
Did a week on Poesia last November and once one board used the terminals to transfer funds with my debit card tomy onboard account.
On the last day there was around 50 Euro's left so I attended guest services and they paid this over in cash.
Has the procedure changed as we are due on again this coming November.
caribbean port info please
in Marella Cruises (formerly Thomson)
Posted
Have been all these places on Winter (Europe) with Thomson.
Bridgetown
Head on down to Brownes Beach this is walking distance into Bridgetown and will take around 30 Minutes. Cross the bridge by Independance Square in the centre of town by the Parliament building and head down Bay street opposite the bar with the veranda on the first floor. The beach is public access if you want to find a stretch and lay some towels out or you could go into the Boatyard pay the admission and use their sunbeds, bars conveniences ect for a reasonable fee. On three visits this has always been our preferred option. Not much snorkeling on this beach but a short walk will take you to kayaks jet skis ect.
End of play the Boatyard lay on a free shuttle service back to the ship. Always seem to see the entertainment team there so they know a good thing when they see it.
St Georges Grenada.
Nice little town worth about an hours of your time for a wander about. Nearest beach is a cab ride or consider an excursion. Last time we did the PM Rhum Runner which took us over to Grande Anse beach which again has all the beach jollies to hand. Careful of the rum punches though (all included) they are a little overwhelming (we missed dinner as we fell asleep woke up at 2.00am).
Kralendijk -Bonaire
Aim to make this your snorkeling stop. Use google or TripAdvisor to search out a firm called Woodwind Snorkel. They do a drift snorkel and is most recommended.
Willenstad - Curacao
Pretty little town to wander around but plenty of DIY trips available check the port of call forum on here for ideas.
Oranjestad - Aruba
Much more commercialized than Curacao. Not much in the town but close by if you fancy a walk. Again plenty of stuff to do a little farther afield on the island so check out the same resources.