calikak

My family and I will be sailing from Red Hook in August and I'm wondering about whether wheelchair assistance is available. I have incurable cancer, and standing for long periods of time is hard for me due to fatigue from my treatments. I'll be able to handle walking around the ship, since I can rest as needed, but long lines at check in would be difficult for me. Is wheelchair assistance something I need to arrange in advance, or is it readily available at the pier?

Great, thank you!

Hello everyone! I'm finally planning a QM2 sailing to make up for the one that Cunard cancelled on us back in 2008. It'll be my husband and our now 2 kids (we had just one back in 2008). We're considering a grill suite, but I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a pen than try to keep the kids from bothering all the other diners in one of the Grills (or in the main dining room, frankly, but my mom guilt would be even greater in the Grills if they are having a bad night--and who wants to feel like that at dinner?). So, my plan was to feed the kids at the buffet, then drop them for evening activities at the kids' club while DH and I enjoy a nice meal together. It's not clear on the Cunard site that the buffet is open for dinner--is it? Thank you in advance for your insights!

Also, to update info on Metro Transit to Pier 91: The #15 has been replaced by our new Rapid Ride D line. Its stops downtown are on 3rd Ave and are pretty well-signed. http://metro.kingcounty.gov/maps/routes/rapidride/d-674.html

Seattle now has Uber, a town car service available via an app for your smart phone. It's also available in several other cities. The way it works is, you tell the app that you need a towncar and it dispatches the nearest one. In my experience, they arrive within 5-10 minutes. No need to tip, the fare/tip is all charged to the credit card you register with the app. Fares are fairly similar to a taxi, and you can see on the app where the car is, it's kinda cool. :) http://www.uber.com

There is an old fashioned carousel just a few blocks walk from where the tender drops you off that I am sure the children would enjoy. It is at the corner of Cabrillo and State. The same park with the carousel also has a nice playground for the kids. Stearns Wharf has the Ty Warner Sea Center which is geared toward younger children with hands on exhibits. The wharf is right across the street from the carousel.

 

You can take the waterfront shuttle for 50 cents to the zoo. The waterfront shuttle runs along Cabrillo. The zoo is right across the street from the beach with ocean views and a delightful little train that runs around the grounds. it is small and manageable by comparison to the San Diego Zoo, especially for younger children. There is a lot for children to do right along the waterfront.

This is super helpful, thank you so much!

We'll be there in April with the kids, ages 5 and 18 months. Best suggestions for activities? The kids are happy with a park or beaches or really anything where they can run around. I would love to hear more about the zoo, although our itinerary goes to San Diego and we may do the zoo there.

Metro (our transit agency) is eliminating the ride-free zone this fall. It ends on September 28, 2012, which is after I think all of the ships have left for the season this year. But good to know for next year's cruisers.

http://metro.kingcounty.gov/tops/bus/ride-free-area/changes.html

Hi all--I did a Google search for "Olga McPhee" and only came up with one hit:

http://64.226.34.179/events/sharingwwIIstories022201/sharingww2stories022201.htm

All it says about Olga McPhee (and I'm not even sure if it's the same Olga McPhee) is "Olga McPhee was the first female cargo handler for American Airlines."

I didn't get any hits for "Mirtle Gibson" so I ran the search again without the quotes, but it came up with a bunch of hits that didn't seem relevant.

I tried a search on Rootsweb.com too (great free genealogy site) but all I found was an Olga McPhee who died in Riverside, California in 1993, and nothing on Mirtle Gibson.

 

And Congress continues to make laws but can't unmake this idiotic law.

So true. I think the main reason that Congress hasn't done anything about it is that the cruise industry has not lobbied to have it repealed. I'm still not clear on why they haven't lobbied to have it repealed, perhaps someone with a better understanding of the industry can explain that to us.

Let me try to sum up the way the Passenger Services Act works. The PSA (often erroneously referred to as the Jones Act, which applies to cargo instead of passengers) applies to itineraries that both begin AND end in the US. If the itinerary begins and ends in the SAME US port, the ship must visit any non-US port at some point in the itinerary to meet the requirements of the law. If the itinerary begins in one US port and ends in another US port, it must visit what the law calls a "distant" foreign port at some point in the itinerary. "Distant" is defined in the regulation linked earlier in this thread, but generally it means a port not in North America (so, not Canada, Mexico, or most of the Caribbean). The law analyzes an itinerary not by what is advertised by the cruise line, but by what itinerary the individual passenger actually takes. Hence there being potential PSA problems when a passenger disembarks early (even if it's by accident or because of an emergency), or sails a back-to-back itinerary. The penalty for violation of the PSA is a fine of a few hundred dollars, which the cruise line usually passes along to the customer. The PSA is a US law, so it applies to sailings from US ports, but some other countries also have their own versions of the PSA. In general these laws are referred to as "cabotage" laws.

Now let's take an example. Say someone wanted to do a back-to-back Alaska cruise, Anchorage to Vancouver and Vancouver to Anchorage. The passenger would get on in Anchorage, and get off in Anchorage, so the cruise would both begin and end in a US port, so the PSA would apply. Since it begins and ends in the same US port, the passenger would need to visit any foreign port, and since the ship stops in Vancouver, the itinerary would not violate the PSA.

Here's another example: Say someone wanted to do a similar back to back at the end of the Alaska season, except instead of returing to Anchorage, they want to stay on the ship for the repositioning to LA. The cruise would start in Anchorage, a US port, and end in LA, another US port, so it would need to visit a "distant" foreign port. Since the Anchorage to Vancouver and Vancouver to LA itineraries only visit a regular, not a "distant", foreign port, this itinerary would violate the PSA.

Now let's take that example that someone mentioned about the Hawaii-Tahiti-Hawaii back to back cruise, where some people disembarked early, in Hilo, instead of continuing on to Honolulu, where they had embarked. So, these passengers embarked in one US port, Honolulu, and disembarked in another, Hilo. So, to meet the requirements of the PSA, they would need to stop in a "distant" foreign port at some point during their cruise. Since they stopped in Tahiti, which counts as a "distant" foreign port, they met the requirements of the PSA, even though they embarked in one US port and disembarked in another US port.

I guess that wasn't really summing it up, but it's hard to understand how it works without seeing a few examples.

I had to call the Diamond last year when my parents were onboard (my grandfather had passed away). I called the 1-900 number and the ship's crew put me through to their room. They happened to be in their room at the time, so I didn't need to leave a message, so I have no idea if there's voice mail. But if someone on the ship calls your room phone, they can leave a VM, so maybe since they put me through to their room phone, maybe I would have been able to leave a VM? If not, I would imagine whoever answers the phone would take a message and leave it in the room?

Sometimes I think one doesn't really realize the importance of the Cruise Director ----------- until you get a really bad one!

I agree completely. We had 2 additional sea days on the Golden's last sailing because bad weather forced us to miss ports, and the CD really didn't come through for us. If you enjoyed bingo, bridge, or jigsaw puzzle competitions, you were all set, but otherwise there was little to do during the day. Fortunately for those on the Golden now, he's been replaced. I'd never really thought about the CD before that sailing, but now it's something I'll consider even if it's a port-intensive cruise, because you never know when a port is going to be cancelled due to weather or other problems.

You can also just walk along the waterfront in the inner harbor. Lots of good photo ops there of the Empress Hotel and Parliament at night, very romantic...unless it's cold and rainy, then it's not as fun.

That's too bad about the horse-drawn carriage. Princess is offering a one-hour carriage ride around the city for about half what NCL is charging you, although I'm not sure it's a solo thing, you might end up sharing the carriage with other people. Not as romantic that way!