chengkp75

Regardless of whether security confiscates this product or not, please do not bring this, or any surge protected power outlet onto a cruise ship. Your perfectly good surge protector could burst into flames, even with nothing plugged into it, entirely out of your control, due to a ground fault anywhere else on the ship. Surge protectors are a major fire hazard due to the unique nature of ship's wiring, and are not used for any electronics by the ship, as they are not needed, also due to the unique nature of ship's wiring.

Not in the "good old days".

When I worked in offshore oil in Canada, I would get my Canadian co-workers to trade my paper Canadian money for Canadian coins. The paper money was widely accepted in Maine, but at a discount, while the coins would be used as equal to US coins, even in vending machines and tolls.

They may have been trying to cook meth.

Ah, now this makes a lot of sense, and it wasn't due to steam. The only alarms on the sprinkler system is a flow alarm, meaning that the bridge is notified that water is actually spraying into a cabin on that zone. The water spray from the sprinkler then sets off the smoke alarm. I fully understood the problem when you said the dress was hung from the ceiling. The only place to hang something from the ceiling is the sprinkler head itself. The sprinkler has thousands of gallons of water at 100psi behind a plug in the pipe held in place by a small plastic "pill" (if you've looked closely at the sprinklers, you'll see the little red pill). This pill is designed to melt at a set temperature (from a fire) and the plug falls out and the water starts spraying. When folks hang things from the sprinkler, they almost invariably break the pill. The only way to stop the water flowing is to notify the Staff Chief Engineer, who will identify the zone, and go to where he can close off the manual valve. By this time, everyone knows which cabin is the problem, as water is pouring out under the cabin door. After replacing the sprinkler head, the water can be turned back on.

First off, Spector did not require foreign flag cruise ships to fully or completely comply with the ADA. Secondly, accessible urinals are only required if there are 4 or more urinals in the restroom. And, the "child" urinal is actually the accessible urinal.

As I've noted, the vacuum toilet piping is 2" all the way. It doesn't get bigger. So, imaging a hand towel, soaking wet, shoved into a 2" pipe (about 1-3/4" diameter). Now, shove it through 8 or 10 90* elbows until it balls up and stops. You have 30" of vacuum on one side of the plug. You find the closest cleanout to where the clog is, and try to get a roto-rooter around the bends to get to the clog. Maybe you can, maybe you can't, so then you look for a place where you can cut the pipe out and reasonably introduce a rooter. So, let's assume you get to the clog with the cutter head. You cut away at it until is loosens, and then the vacuum in the system sucks it further down the piping, and maybe finds another spot to stop. You then have to repeat the entire process with the clog at the new location. And in many places in Europe, including hotels, there are rooms without private toilets.

Okay, this time I'm not going to let this go. Based on your statement in the first post above, you have cleared clogs in vacuum toilet systems in order to state as fact that only incompetence would cause a 3 day repair. Then you say that you know there are other reasons for toilets not working, again showing knowledge of the system, so perhaps you could enlighten a poor soul who is posing as a marine engineer as to what those causes could be? For those who say that the cruise lines will fine a passenger for flushing things down the toilet, that is mainly a deterrent threat. Unless the clog is right at the toilet, it is difficult to find the exact culprit, as things that cause clogs can travel along until it finds just the right spot that snags it. While my plumbers (those fictitious ones I make up) were pretty good about narrowing down the source of a clog to several cabins, as stated, finding the exact culprit is almost impossible, unless they have a nametag in their clothes. There are no "main lines" in a vacuum toilet system. Unlike land based systems where the size of the sewage pipe increases as more toilets and sinks are plumbed in, a vacuum toilet system maintains the same small 2" piping from the highest deck to the engine room, and from bow to stern. Some toilets even flush up to the deck above if that was the best design option. Now, unlike some posters who claim knowledge of the systems, without providing examples, here are a few examples of why toilets don't work on cruise ships. I will deal with cases where multiple toilets don't work, since a single non-working toilet is traced to that toilet, and can be fixed within an hour. First, there would be a total loss of vacuum in the system due to a pump failure in the engine room. This is mitigated in the design stage by having 3-4 pumps in staggered standby for each system, so this is again something that would be fixed within minutes, if it even resulted in a down system in the first place. Then there is the "sucking toilet", where the discharge valve on one toilet is stuck open. This will relieve the vacuum for the entire system, but is easily found by walking down the passageways, listening at the sanitary lockers at each cabin for the distinctive "sucking" sound of a runaway vacuum cleaner. Again, once located, it is quickly fixed. Lastly we get to the clogged pipe. This is akin to sucking a golf ball up your vacuum cleaner. While there is still suction between the stuck golf ball and the vacuum cleaner motor, this doesn't do any good, as there is no suction between the golf ball and the end of the hose. So, wherever the clog happens in the piping, everyone "downstream" will still have working toilets, and everyone "upstream" will not. I won't repeat my experiences (and those are only two of the many I've had over 40 years of maintaining vacuum toilet systems), but there are very good reasons, other than incompetency, that a clog would take 3 or more days to clear. Not all do, but some do. And, as the previous poster stated, I have found that many who work on cruise ships, even senior supervisors with many years' experience, don't have the foggiest idea of how a ship works, yet are quick to claim knowledge and disparage those who have to deal with the most difficult and nastiest problems on a ship. Yeah, I'm smart enough to know what I don't know, and I know vacuum toilet systems, and I know that you don't.

They likely as well confiscated the Zippo/Ronson lighter that the fuel was for.

Steam will not set off the sprinkler, but may set off the smoke detector (this happens all the time in engine rooms), but I doubt a steamer would generate enough to set off the alarm. Even a UL listed clothes steamer represents a fire hazard, as the "auto-off" temperature switch that is supposed to shut the unit off when there is no more water, are known to fail, and the plastic water container will melt and start to combust. This is why if you read the UL approval on these items, or the manufacturer provided safety instructions (which are required by UL), they instruct you to always unplug when not in use.

Just a warning, that I have seen reports on here that newer "ceramic" curling irons will not work onboard cruise ships, due to the electronics in the curling iron.

I was "management", one of 4 top officers on the ship. And, the Captain concurred with my actions.

My plumbers became pretty good detectives in determining the offending cabin down to a small group, or even the actual cabin. For some, after laundering, I would take the offending garment and show it to all passengers whose toilets were affected, and let them trade the "stink eye" between themselves. As for relieving the problem, no, unless you completely re-invent a new toilet system, a vacuum system is always going to be susceptible to clogs from foreign objects. We've seen articles of clothing, towels, cloth napkins, feminine hygiene products, food bones, crack pipes, coke spoons, and even ammunition that was flushed down the toilet. It's incredible, because people can't flush this stuff down the toilets at home, yet they think nothing of it on the ship. When there is a noro outbreak on a ship, the amount of underwear we find in clogs jumps dramatically (I'll leave you to visualize why).

Every cabin, on every ship, of every cruise line gets fresh air continually. The entire air volume of every cabin is changed out 6-8 times every hour. And every bit of that fresh air supply comes from outside the ship.

It would depend on how many cabins are affected. The bikini incident only affected about 6 cabins, but the hand towel took out around 100 cabins. I typically don't comment on guest relations questions, as that is not my wheelhouse, but they didn't have 100 cabins available. All the toilets on the ship flow together to about 4-6 systems, and any toilet upstream of the clog isn't going to work, so if it gets close to the end, you could be talking about 25% of the entire ship being without toilets. A vacuum toilet system does not have increasing pipe size the further along it goes like a home or land system does, the pipe is the same size from the highest deck to the engine room, so the clog could catch anywhere. I have had total system clogs (25% toilets down), but fortunately we cleared it quickly.

If you would read the posts by myself (46 years as a ship's officer) and Aquahound (a USCG Investigator) you would know why they would not send a small boat or helicopter, but would instead take you there as fast as possible, with the best care available (the ship's medical center, and not a paramedic struggling to keep you alive in a cramped helicopter with limited assets), and with the least risk to you. Have you ever been in a small boat in the ocean doing 20 knots (23 mph)? And, no small boat is going to do more than 20 knots in the open ocean. Which would be more comfortable for you as a patient, that small boat pounding into the waves, or the massive cruise ship also doing 20 knots? How far did the helicopter have to travel from its base (a USCG station, not the nearest airport) to the ship, and how long did that take? How long did it take for the Captain to slow and steer the ship to its most stable condition for the helicopter lift? How long did it take the helicopter to advance in a moving hover to where it can lower the rescue diver and basket? How long did it take to winch the patient and the diver back into the helicopter? How long did it take to reach the nearest hospital, from the ship? Did you take all of these into consideration when you claimed that the helicopter (I won't even touch the boat idea, you'd be dropped in the ocean for sure) would get you to medical attention faster than the cruise ship? Because I can guarantee you that the ship's Doctor, the Captain, the USCG flight surgeon, and the USCG flight crew all did before making the decision to have the ship divert. Oh, and by the way, you might want to review the posts from those of us with actual experience in these matters, which state that it is not the cruise line's decision, it is the USCG. So, if you are going to complain that someone is telling you that they can do anything, and just shut up, complain to the USCG.

The ships will not make protein shakes, nor will they supply them. With a doctor's authorization for the shakes as required diet, and notification to the cruise line's "special needs department" (look at the bottom of their web page to find it), you should be able to bring as many as you need, or at least as many as you can lug onto the ship.

No, not really. The systems were always running, remember, there was crew onboard all the time. If the toilets are left too long without flushing, the water in the bowl will evaporate, and this can lead to loss of vacuum and smells. So, the toilets in the guest cabins would be flushed weekly or every other week, to keep the valves working.

Regarding medevac situations. The first thing that will happen is the doctor and Captain will discuss whether the patient can be stabilized for the amount of time it will take the ship to get to port, and if this is affirmative, then that is the method that will be used, it is the best for the patient. If the doctor feels the patient needs to get to a hospital sooner, then the Captain will notify the USCG, and the USCG flight surgeon and flight crew will join the discussion. The flight surgeon will determine the risk to the patient of being airlifted is less than remaining on the ship. There are very limited assets on the helicopter, if the patient's condition worsens. If that is the case, then they will schedule a medevac flight, if the flight crew and Captain concur that the risk to the helicopter and ship justify the airlift. No helicopter will land on a cruise ship, they will almost always use the basket and winch, as the helicopters are generally too large for the helideck, and landing on a moving ship is risky. Since there is a limited number of USCG SAR helicopters and crews, "planning" for medical emergencies is not something that can be done. Besides, how many complaints would there be if the Captain came on the PA and said "sorry, we're going to miss the next port because we have to practice a helicopter evacuation today"? As noted by others, a helicopter extraction requires a lot of skill on the part of the ship (maintaining enough speed to minimize pitching and rolling), and training by the crew in handling the winch lines (risk of electrocution is very real), as well as by the flight crew, who have to essentially fly along with the ship, keeping station on it. Generally, they winch from aft on the upper decks, and this causes more problems due to the turbulence caused by the ship's exhaust. The helicopters have a limited range, and if the range is over a certain distance, or the water temperature or weather is not great, the USCG will send a fixed wing aircraft to watch over the helicopter and to provide assistance if things go sideways. Using a small boat is almost never done, except in port. The first problem is getting the patient from the ship to the boat. Unless you have a tremendously skilled boat driver, the ship will need to stop, and form a "lee" (act as a windbreak), but that means the ship is rolling, so it is a danger to the boat, and the ship is rising and falling with respect to the boat, and lifting a patient, likely in a stretcher onto the boat is extremely difficult. We offloaded a deceased crew member, at anchor, in a sheltered port, and still nearly dropped him. Then there is the motion of the boat when running at speed in the open ocean. It will either be pounding into the waves, shocking the patient, or the pitching and rolling will cause the patient to get seasick, worsening their condition and their likelihood of survival. So, yes, a medical emergency will cause a "force majeure" situation, and like all triage scenarios, you prioritize your assets, and since the entire rest of the ship is in no danger if the ship diverts to put the patient ashore, the patient is the important, deciding factor. All of this has been tested and proven over decades, and while it impacts your vacation negatively, it saves the patient's life. That is what is important. As for compensation, under UNCLOS (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), the ship is required to provide the best possible care for a sick or injured crew or passenger, so a diversion is out of the cruise line's hands, and hence no compensation. As an example of why this is the case, look no further than the Costa Concordia. Italian law requires that if passengers are held at their muster stations for a certain amount of time due to an onboard emergency, then they are entitled to compensation. This compensation factor is what made Schettino decide not to muster the passengers when the ship hit the rock, and this is the direct cause of the loss of life in that incident.

Since you require peer reviewed studies, please provide one that shows that air filtration systems on a central HVAC system mitigates covid. ASHRAE has at best stated that it might, but has no data. Also, some studies of how much surface sanitation mitigates transmission.

I considered this to be a foregone conclusion when cruising restarted, and am frankly surprised that there haven't been more complaints about blocked toilets. And, it could very well have taken 4 days to resolve, depending on what was flushed, and where it lodged. I've had two events that took days to resolve, one where a passenger decided it would be a good idea to flush their bikini down the hopper, and it lodged in a bend in the pipes that was particularly hard to reach with the roto-rooter to chop it out. The second was when a passenger decided it would be great fun to flush a hand towel down the hopper, and this also lodged where we were lying on top of ductwork, in the overhead against a steel bulkhead, trying to chop this out. Due to that position, it required three plumbers at a time to operate and feed the roto-rooter in, and then it took days of cutting to get it clear, working shifts around the clock.

The only "one stop" places might be the Chinese consulate or Canada's foreign office. Other than that, yes, you would need to contact the consular services of each country you plan to visit.

It's really about 5%, but that's correct. The "auto-ignition" temperature (the temperature where the fuel will self-ignite, and for a diesel, the temperature that the compressed air in the cylinder has to reach for ignition) for methane is 1000*F. The same auto-ignition temp for diesel fuel is 410*F. It would be virtually impossible to compress enough air to reach 1000*F (and have a usable amount of area for energy conversion), so a little diesel is injected with the methane to "start the ball rolling". Once the diesel ignites, the flame will spread to the methane. LNG powered vehicles on land utilize a spark plug instead of the diesel injection.

Young bridge officers today may have had the rudiments of celestial navigation in school, but rarely practice it once employed, and without practice, it becomes a lost art. Unfortunately, they rely almost completely on GPS, to the point that paper charts are no longer published by NOAA, as the GPS input to the ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display Information System) or electronic chart is used as the primary and secondary forms of navigation, and paper charts are no longer required. Even aspects of coastwise navigation, like taking bearings on navigational aids to determine a position are almost unknown to today's navigators.

While that is an EU tax, it is up to the member nation as to whether they collect it or not. As far as I know, only Spain and Italy charge this, and only on cruises that are entirely within the EU.