jan-n-john

Regarding the AIDAprima hull artwork mentioned several times above, that appears to be the same on their entire fleet. I guess the Germans like it!

I think the Radisson Diamond was a small/mid size cruise ship with a cat hull?

It was/is a SWATH, which is a twin hull design but different from a cat -- the hulls are mostly underwater where the wave action is attenuated, like two submarines supporting a top structure. Even then there would be problems scaling it up, and the design has various other technical limitations. Such vessels are also expensive to build given the weight of materials vs. the enclosed space.

It has/had a pax capacity of 350, small by Edge standards. It is still in service as the M/V China Star.

Comparing the steel profile cut out of Edge to AidaPrima we see that there is very little distance from the vertical bow to the sweep of the fdw end of the cabin area compared to the Prima.... Dare I speculate some more that this will be a catamaran hull?

I don't know the specifics, but I very much doubt it is possible to build such a large cat. It would be necessary to have a very strong connection to keep two such very large hulls together in rough seas where the forces acting on them would differ, which strikes me as not being feasible or anyway practical. The largest cat I know of was a military craft that displaced only about 1,700 tons, a fraction of the weight of a large cruise ship. But I guess we will have to wait and see.

No bulbous bow needed. Here is Aidaprima in dry dock getting finished before launching. This bow design doesn't need it since it cuts through the water like a knife rather than pushing it aside like a plow. This minimizes turbulence which the bulbous bow design is supposed to do with a slanted bow. All modern catamarans have the same straight bow design, which is one of the reasons they are so fast and efficient through the water.

 

What is truly ugly about this ship are the gawd awful graphics on the hull. What the heck were they thinking??? :confused::confused:

 

Actually if one looks closely at that photo it does appear there may be some "bulbousness" to that AIDA bow.

The normal job of a bulb is to create a wave that cancels out the effect of the wave created by the bow itself, ultimately reducing drag. But with this straight bow, who knows the effects without a towing tank and/or a really big computer.

Bulbousness of the bow on the Edge ship might possibly be confirmed by the photo that has been posted earlier thread about the first steel cut.

Perhaps that steel is a portion of the bow, with the bulbousness being the wider part that will be just below water level most of the time??? I guess we'll know eventually.

AT&T WIFI is most certainly free outside the country. If you have cellular off (Airplane Mode) and Wifi On, and have enrolled in AT&T WIFI then the calls will work as though you are home. I've used this option several times outside the country. You might be thinking of this bullet point.

 

"For international calls, the rates from your calling plan or international long distance package apply."

 

Which means if you call an international number, not if you call domestic while traveling internationally. Your phone works as though you are at home. So what is free at home is free over wifi. What costs money at home also costs money over wifi. It is a wonderful service.

 

https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/features/wifi-calling.html

Yes, I looked again at that bullet point and the call is indeed free unless it is to a phone outside the US. I stand corrected. BTW, apparently Verizon at least offers essentially the same deal.

My understanding for at&t is that if you have an international plan you can use either wifi calling or cell service. Wifi calling is useful if you can't connect to a local cell service, but have wifi available. The obvious case is, as you say, when you are in the middle of the Atlantic. That's my plan for staying in touch with my business while crossing.

 

You can test your wifi calling right now by enabling it on your phone (google for instructions). Then enable airplane mode (to turn off cell service). Then turn on wifi and connect to your network. That's it. Now you can test it by making a phone call. Once you verify that it works don't forget to turn off wifi calling (method varies by phone type - again google for instructions)

However if you use AT&T wifi internationally it's not free, as it is with domestic calls; even tho the call goes via the internet you will be charged according to your cellular plan whatever it is, so there's no cost saving compared to cellular service. Instead one can use free wifi based calling. The most obvious example is WhatsApp. The drawback is that whomever you call must also have the app. This should be no big problem if you plan to use it for family calling, and everybody can simply have the app on their phone. AFAIK WhatsApp will work on the ship's wifi.

I will be interested in your report.

 

At the risk of having you demean this as more blather I have personally been on numerous Celebrity cruises (Eastern Caribbean, Western Caribbean, Europe, mid-Atlantic [Azores]) where ship time in some ports was NOT the same as local time, and I have also been to the same locations with Celebrity when ship time did match local time (for what it is worth I am E+ on Celebrity). I agree that Captains would not risk firing by disregarding company policy, so the only conclusion I can reach is that company policy is for ship time to be at the discretion of the Captain.

 

Thom

First I apologize, but for various reasons I was not able to dig into the issue during my recent trip.

That said, based on what I have been able to piece together, it seems to me the below is how it works. Take it for what its worth, and if someone has better info/explanation please correct me. I am a mere E on Celebrity, so what do I know?

Part of the problem is what is meant by the term "local time."

My understanding, based on experience combined with knowledge of how large organizations work, is that Celebrity company policy is that ships' clocks start the voyage set at the time in the departure port. As it crosses into new internationally-recognized standard time zones (one definition of "local time"), they are set up or back one hour, during the night, presumably as closely as possible to the time the ship physically crosses the line. This will align the ship's clocks with most places in that next time zone.

However, not every country/port in any time zone necessarily keeps its clocks on that same time, due for example to differences in whether and when daylight time is observed in that place and possibly other factors. Consequently, in a few situations the hour in a particular port (another definition of "local time") may not be the same as time on the ship or more generally its time zone. This is how discrepancies can arise.

So for example, suppose a ship is visiting ports A, B, and C all in the same time zone; daylight time is in effect. A and C observe daylight time but B doesn't. When the ship visits B, shore time and ship's time will differ, even though the ship is always on the "correct" time in that zone.

That's my story and for now at least I'm sticking with it.

For our last two cruises from Miami we have used Safe Cruise Parking. It's about 15 min. from shipside, depending on where you are in the drop order. Google them. You pay in advance -- I think it's about $8 per day. They state forcefully that the parking is safe. We have had no problems -- very high fences and iron gates. They shuttle you to the ship for free (tip of course). They also shuttle you back for free, but we have decided not to wait and took a cab back both times. Cab fare should be around $15 but they will go the long way around if you don't insist they take the short route -- tell the taxi to take the US 1 bridge and the streets, not the tunnel, or just use Uber.

They also have a lot in Ft. Lauderdale.

Celebrity posts its rules under the trip cancellation insurance on its website. My read of it is that it will not help you in the case of a "normal" pregnancy, but you can check it out yourself. Independent policies may have different rules, tho in matters such as this they generally have very similar terms. Cancel for any reason such as mentioned above may be available to you but that could be expensive. Insurance companies don't stay in business by allowing themselves to be taken advantage of. If I were you I would book whatever I want to do, then make the final decision to go/no go just before the final payment date when normally you can get your deposit refunded. That's a few months before the sailing. Beyond that date your room to manoeuvre narrows considerably.

There's a simple answer to this that wouldn't impact the vast majority of cruisers - stop sailing from California

I wouldn't hang my hat too tightly on the California standards. Most states have similar standards, and they all take their cues from recommendations made at the federal level. While food handling standards are a local not a federal responsibility, state and local regulations typically adopt and hew closely to language recommended by the FDA and USDA as appropriate, and for that reason they are relatively uniform throughout the US.

Also, there is a version of Purell (used in hospitals) that will kill norovirus. It is marked as such in the text on the bottle. I have several from when my son was hospitalized and it indeed different. I suspect this is what is in the stationed sanitizers on the ship. (This is info gathered from the CDC website and a few other websites, all of which agree in terms of the content).

I understand the Purell used on cruise ships is a version specially formulated for cruise ships, different from what is sold at retail. Probably the same or similar to the hospital version you have. I do notice the odor of alcohol in the ship version is quite pronounced. I'm on Reflection right now and Summit is docked right across from us. On this trip they seem to have people at the entrance to OV all the time, which is more than I recall from previous trips.

Isn't the MDR carpeted? Don't they serve 3 meals a day there? I don't understand what the distinction is with a buffet.

The distinction is that, with a buffet, lots of food ends up on the floor due to careless self-service by guests, dropping of plates while going to the table, etc., whereas with waiter service that is less of a problem.

I had been given to understand (by one of the head chefs) that the grand buffet was stopped due to the colossal waste. I do not know whether this was truly a factor or not.

You have only sailed on a tiny, tiny, minuscule portion of Celebrity sailings. I have had multiple sailings where ship time and local time were an hour discrepant. So have many others on Cruise Critic who have posted on similar threads over the years. It is doing people a grave disservice to tell them ship time and local time are always the same; that is factually wrong and potentially could lead to someone missing the ship. While it is more common for Celebrity Captain's to change ship time to match local time, there are plenty of instances where there is an hour discrepancy. This is always at the discretion of the Captain and cannot be known with certainty in advance what will transpire on any particular sailing.

See my post two posts up.

I suspect ship's time is a company policy matter and not subject to the whim of the captain. In spite of all the "captain is the ultimate authority" blather, in fact he has to follow company policy in most thing, and no captain with half a brain is going to go to the mats with Miami over something like this. I will also look into this next week.

Anybody who relies on anything he reads on this or any other internet bulletin board needs to have his head examined. He's doing his own disservice.

I think the primary issue that may be causing confusion is daylight saving time. I believe Celebrity's policy is to adjust ship's time to whatever time zone the ship is in, as I said earlier, and AFAIK all or the vast majority of places in a particular time zone set their clocks accordingly. However, individual ports/islands/countries may or may not elect to use daylight saving time and this could be the source of the observations. Nevertheless, I find it odd that, in such a case, the ship would fail to take pains to be sure passengers are informed when leaving the ship.

This is an interesting issue. I will be on Reflection starting tomorrow and am going to corral ship's officers or whomever and do my best to get to the bottom of this. I will report whatever I learn.

Absolutely incorrect; arrival time is ALWAYS listed in ship time. If there is a discrepancy between ship time and local time it is at the discretion of the Captain whether or not to change ship time to match (this will clearly be announced); sometimes they do, sometimes they do not.

Ship's time is local time. That's why they are always having you reset your clocks etc. as the voyage goes along and crosses various time zone lines. I've never heard of any discrepancy.

A physician visit in Chile is generally quite inexpensive, and many if not most speak English (indeed were often trained in the US). Ask your hotel to set something up. You should be able to get a prescription easily that way.

Thanks for your post. Unfortunately it seems Select guests become third class passengers below Suite Guests and Aqua Guests and are seated only when those other guests have been accommodated should they wish to venture beyond their own exclusive dining room. I'm typing this and yet cannot truly believe this situation exist.

 

 

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Implicit in the substance of your argument is your assumption that RCL/Celebrity are new to the cruise business and don't know what they are doing. In fact, they do know what they are doing. Be assured they know very well that on any given night there will be a number of guests from Blu dining in the MDR, guests from the MDR dining at the buffet or specialties or their cabins, etc. etc. It's one big mish-mash, has been going on for as long as there has been more than a single restaurant on the ship, and they have long since sized the venues and the staffing to account for and adequately deal with the practice, which indeed they encourage as part of the overall cruise experience which is what they sell. Neither you nor anyone else is materially affected by it, and to claim that whenever anyone comes to the MDR from Blu this "displaces" you is simply out of touch with the reality of what is going on.

AFAIK, if you have WiFi internet access on the ship, and both you and the party on land have iPhones, you can text as normal as Apple sends it through their MMS system using internet not the cell phone system [maybe the other party also needs to be on WiFi -- not sure, but I'm pretty sure not]. If one party doesn't have an iPhone, you can do the same thing if you both have WhatsApp on your phones, but then I think you do both need to be on WiFi -- you can also make a voice call via WhatsApp in place of texting. You apparently can also text/call via Facebook (Facebook owns WhatsApp), but I don't use Facebook so am not sure of the details. All of the above are "free".

Our GG bridge is #2 on the list!

P.s. I cross the Golden Gate many times per week. It's always breathtaking.

You're fast Bonnie, but me too as I had already corrected that error and edited the post before I saw your post. Sorry for creating some confusion.

Another candidate would surely be the Pont de Gard, although admittedly it was actually an aqueduct not a road bridge.

I would second the Forth Bridge to be included. Also the Millau Viaduct.

What is RFID?

Where & when is Seatrade Cruise Global 2017?

IIRC, RFID=radio frequency ID. Some day soon everything you buy at the store (if there are still stores) will have an RFID tag which means you will check out by simply running your cart by a little sensor that will total your purchases and present you with a bill (or charge it to your card automatically). No need for a checkout person to scan everything.

In the case of X, if I understand correctly your seapass card will be an RFID so you will be able to enter your cabin without inserting anything, sort of like your key fob on a modern car. Charges will also be done without swiping. Probably other functionality as well. Who knows?

We'll be getting on next Saturday when you're getting off. Keep up the reports. Especially interested to know your impressions of any specialty restos you might try.

Thanks Jan,

I amazes me when people on cc say that the main reason they like the all inclusive (or cruises with a lot of promos like beverage packages) is so the don't have to WORRY about the individual cost of a drink.

 

Give me a break, that is just being too lazy to do the math.

 

Yes, but of course now you're getting into human nature and what some would call irrational economic behavior. Even though one often spends more by taking the beverage package, for some folks not having to think about what you're spending every time you order a drink brings some "value" by eliminating the pesky thought process (the drink is "free") and that makes it worthwhile. To each his own. As an aside, it also perhaps helps the cruise line's bottom line, which I suppose helps keep fares down for everyone who doesn't think that way.

What is the relative difference in cost?

There is no definitive answer except for specific voyages, but this may help give a flavor for it.

I did a quick run of pricing in the Fl-Carib market among X, Az, and Regent for currently posted "cheapest" balcony prices from Feb to April 2018. X generally ran around $150 PP per night. Az runs around $250-300. Regent runs about $360-420 (voyage only--no air fare, even though it is typically included in Regent price quotes).

Keep in mind the Regent price is all-inclusive so to compare you would need to add whatever you would spend daily on the others for drinks, shore excursions, specialty dining, gratuities, and internet, any and all of which may also at times be included in the others (e.g. the Az prices appear to include gratuities, "select" beverages, and some OBC). Other geographic regions are typically priced higher on all lines. [Also note, Regent has a new ship (Explorer) which is in high demand so its pricing is considerably higher than the prices above.]

Hope that sheds a glimmer of light. But of course it's always necessary to drill down deeply on specifics to make a valid comparison.

You might consider Celebrity's upscale sister line Azamara too. We didn't experience any upsell on our Azamara cruise, and since then they have severed their arrangement with Park West for art auctions -- which was the only "downscale" part of our cruise...

We have done many Celebrity cruises, did one Regent a couple of years ago, and did our first Az a few months ago. We are booked on one Az trip next year, and had another which we have now cancelled and switched to Regent.

Bottom line for us, based on what we've seen so far: Az is Ok, but it's no Regent. Regent is just more luxurious, rooms are bigger, entertainment is better, and food is way better and more varied. The all-is-included aspect is nice, and if one is price conscious one needs to figure the full cost on Az to make a valid comparison. Also, Regent's quoted prices generally include business-class air; if you can avoid flying (e.g. Miami) or are content to arrange your own economy class, they will knock quite a bit off the price, so you need to take that into account as well.