IronRobi

It got the same way up here too before full legalization. The prescription I was given was for up to 40g/day!! For those who don't know, 1 joint is around 0.2g or so. So my prescription allowed for up to 200 joints PER DAY. I settled on oils at 10mg/day, so around 0.3g per month.

I'm Canadian, it's fully legalized up here. We've got provincially run cannabis stores, mostly attached to our liquor stores. However, prior to legalization, it was available on a prescription basis. And no, we couldn't walk in to a typical pharmacy and pick it up. Your prescription would be filed with the manufacturers and they would directly fill it. In those days there was a lot of additional security measures around it. Through my line of work, I got the see the inner workings of many of these facilities and at one point they were required to have a bank vault fully encased in cement (I forget the thickness required) followed by a 6ft air gap and a second re-enforced cement barrier around it. They were concerned criminals would smash cars through the side of the building to steal the marijuana LOL. Today.... some of them keep it in a fenced-in area, but most just store the finished product in a standard warehouse just like they would boxes of cereal or a shipment of TV's. I get it's fully against the rules and regulations. I personally find it very discriminatory though. When it was prescribed to me many years ago, it wasn't a life or death situation. I could easily live without it. But that's not the case for everyone. Denying access to their prescription is really no different than denying access to someone's heart medication or thyroid medication that they need to survive. Remember, we're talking prescriptions here for medical use not recreational. I'd have a completely different stance if medical use was permitted and recreational was not.

Except they're not. See quote directly above.

Seriously though.... this is cruise critic not a medical board, so not all posts that are considered common knowledge need to be backed by peer reviewed scientific studies. 🙄 And I say common knowledge, because the CDC considers them safer. They also link to several references and studies if you REALLY need to read them. As a Canadian, I should also add that Health Canada, the Canadian Lung Association, and the Canadian Thoracic Society all agree with the assessment that they are safer than a normal cigarette. EDIT: As does the Public Health of England. About Electronic Cigarettes (E-Cigarettes) | Smoking & Tobacco Use | CDC What I find extremely interesting here is that you seem to be able to read all of these peer reviewed studies and claim to fully comprehend them yet you seem to not be able to comprehend a simple post on cruise critic that never once said they weren't dangerous, only that they were less dangerous. Sincerely, Dr Robi Are e-cigarettes less harmful than regular cigarettes? Yes—but that doesn’t mean e-cigarettes are safe. E-cigarette aerosol generally contains fewer toxic chemicals than the deadly mix of 7,000 chemicals in smoke from regular cigarettes.3 However, e-cigarette aerosol is not harmless. It can contain harmful and potentially harmful substances, including nicotine, heavy metals like lead, volatile organic compounds, and cancer-causing agents.1

World's biggest cruise ship sails through wireless challenges | Network World This is an old one (2010), but an interesting article about network capacity on a ship. -All traffic runs across a routed 10Gbps MPLS backbone anchored by Cisco 6500 series switches that support a total of 27,000 gigabit Ethernet ports. -The network has 37 remote distribution points, each fed by more than one fiber source -- the ship contains nearly 2 million feet of fiber -The wired VoIP phone network has 4,000 extensions including one in each passenger cabin. There are 1,100 IP surveillance cameras to monitor activity aboard ship, and 370 Cisco plasma and LCD IP touch screen signs placed around the ship post notices of daily activities. -In all, it takes more than 900 access points -- all the gear is from Cisco -- to supply pervasive coverage throughout the vessel. That would be a very robust internal network by today's standards, except this was 12 years ago!! But then there's this... "The ship uses a 4Mbps down, 2Mbps up C-band satellite connection to reach shore."

I was thinking the exact same thing here, you just beat me to it! lol

I would be extremely shocked if this were the case. Modern Wi-Fi access points for large venues support 1,500+ clients PER DEVICE. Take NCL's largest ship which has a capacity of roughly 4,000 passengers + 1,800 crew and assume everybody has a device connected plus add the internal systems.... you've got your capacity covered in like 4 access points. Except there are literally hundreds of them all throughout the ship placed in carefully planned and mapped locations by highly trained network professionals. These pro's wire up stadiums for 100,000+ people. 5-6,000 is nothing for them! Your bottleneck is 100% in the satellite connection.

Nicotine vapes are not a LOT more dangerous to one's health than a cigarette. It's actually quite the opposite. But just because it's safer doesn't mean that it's actually safe. It comes with its own set of risks.

Strange, I've booked them on every NCL sailing I've ever done up until the most recent upcoming cruise.

Just hit up pubmed, there's 300+ studies on it that you can happily read to come up with your own conclusion. But here's a good one that pretty much says exactly what I did. Effects of marijuana smoking on the lung - PubMed (nih.gov) Here's one that lists 6 "well designed" studies that shows no links to cancer Marijuana and Lung Disease - PubMed (nih.gov) There's lots. But like I said, if you look hard enough you'll find studies that show a link between water and cancer.

While there's definitive evidence that ties smoking cigarettes to lung cancer, you can't say the same about marijuana. While some studies have shown it increases the risk, there are significantly more studies that show absolutely no ties. At BEST you could claim conflicting results. Did you know there's studies out there that can prove that drinking water causes cancer? This is why I typically take a larger number of studies than just a few and tend to side with the majority. And in this case, the majority show no links.

Unlike tobacco smoke, second hand marijuana smoke will not harm you. If anything it may make you a little happy LOL But seriously, I do agree with everything you're saying. I would be equally as offended if someone were smoking a joint by the pool as I would if someone were smoking a cigarette. There are dedicated smoking areas for a reason. Vaping could go either way, there are some with literally 0 smell and can be quite discreet. But as you said, eat an edible or some oils if you absolutely must do it while part of a big crowd.

You still cannot cross the border with CBD product, even if it contains 0% THC. However if you are a licensed producer you can import/export it between Canada/USA (At least here on the Canadian side)

I know to travel internationally with prescriptions you're supposed to have everything in the original bottle, copy of the prescription and no more than a 30 day supply. I would expect it to be the same on a cruise ship since it often sails into multiple countries. Even if the meds stay on the ship, they're still in that country's waters. But they'd have to be digging pretty deep to be going through passenger's pill containers on a cruise ship to lay drug related charges.

Is it banned federally in the US for medical use as well or just recreational? It's technically not legal to acquire ANY prescription medication without an actual prescription for it. If legal for medicinal use with a prescription, denying it would be no different than denying somebody's heart medication. I get that laws are outside of the cruise line's hands. Not trying to argue it or contest it. I'm just stating it's not the "right" thing to do. I meant carry it over international borders, just as you would any other prescription medication. As for getting it home, they just sent it in the mail. But now that it's legal, we've got provincial cannabis stores attached to a large number of our provincial liquor stores LOL

For the record, marijuana that's prescribed for medicinal purposes would be no different to the person taking it than your thyroid or blood pressure medication. So you probably shouldn't be judging those who use it for legitimate medical reasons as prescribed by their physician. And for those that use it recreationally, it's likely safer than alcohol since it does not cause dependencies and you can't OD from it. Also, a little fun fact, during prohibition, marijuana was only made illegal a few years later. But discussion for non-medical use is a whole different topic here lol What surprises me is that NCL can deny somebody access to their prescription medications and even ban them completely if they're caught bringing it. Imagine being told you can't bring your thyroid or blood pressure meds. I believe this is all be due to laws about crossing international borders with it, which is entirely beyond their control. Governments should view this as any other prescription medication at this point where one can carry a personal-use amount no greater than 30 days worth as long as they carry a copy of their prescription with them. Although back when I was given a prescription it was for up to 40g/day (crazy!!!) so a 30 day supply would allow me to bring 2.6lbs worth. 100x more than I'd likely ever use. So there's got to be some more regulations somewhere.

I've been having issues for the past 3 days. Some pages load if I try 10-15 times, but for the most part I've been having issues.

I can only pray for that low capacity for our upcoming sailing in November! That'd be amazing!!

That's exactly my point! Some countries where they aren't as advanced technologically, I can see needing some cash. But that certainly isn't the case here in Canada. I'm the exact same way. I haven't had my wallet physically with me in like 2 years. There's less than a handful of times where I've had to run back to the car and dig out my mastercard because their terminal didn't accept tap. Cash feels so foreign now.

As a local to these ports, this thread has made me smile a few times. I'll say this.... the large majority of us don't use cash, especially since the pandemic. There's even many places where they no longer accept cash. So why would anybody visiting here be worried about bringing cash? The majority of us use cards, for literally everything. Big or small. I tap my mastercard for a $1 coffee. So just bring your credit card, your google wallet, apple pay, samsung pay... whatever form of digital currency you want and use it just like you would at home.

I've taken many all-inclusive vacations with Sunwing. I don't think Toronto is that big of a deal since all the major airlines will fly direct to MCO out of Toronto. But direct from Halifax would be great for anybody in Atlantic Canada.

On our upcoming cruise in Nov. we have $450USD in non-refundable OBC. I plan to use some of it to upgrade to unlimited internet, but beyond that we already have the Free At Sea perks with the dining package and drink packages. We're also in a spa suite so that rules out using it on the thermal suite pass. So I figure we'll use the remaining OBC on shore excursions, but we also don't want to wait until we're on board and risk the excursions that we want to do being full. What I'd like to do is pre-book the shore excursions and pay for them to hold the spot on the excursion, and then refund/rebook once on board to use the OBC. I understand the rules changed a few years back where you can no longer call in to reserve your spot and just pay when you're on board. And I understand that when booking online in advance you must pre-pay for the excursion. The NCL site says that shore excursions may be cancelled without penalty up to 48hrs in advance, and I've read if cancelled on board it gets added to your account as a refundable OBC. So here are my questions: 1: If we board the ship at approx. noon on day 1, and our first port of call puts us in at 9am on day 3, that's inside the 48hr window. Does this mean there would be no way to do this and that we have to just wait until we're on board and hope the excursion isn't full? 2: For the remainder of the ports of call that would be beyond 48hrs, is there a specific order that the OBC is used? I would hate to cancel the excursion in Port 2 only to have the refundable OBC used up right away when it's rebooked, leaving the same non-refundable OBC on our account.

3 shots of 151 proof rum...... You gotta drink whatever we suggest right? LOL

Only sailed out of there once a few years back in the month of Nov. Took an Uber from the hotel to the port. Was in line for about 15 minutes to go through security. Once we went through the scanners it was as-if we had the place to ourselves. Walked right up to the check-in counter with no line and then walked right onto the ship. I could not believe how smooth it went.

$136CAD pp for our upcoming cruise. That's just under $40/day. I just don't see the value in this package at all.