Fat Albert

Sami is a very kind gentleman; he will make some additions to PCL that will be well received.  He brings enormous knowledge of operations in a high-quality control environment. His background is proven to have been successful in every Operational Challege in his distinguished career. I wish him the best.

working on the sea is not easy work

Mustang GT, we were cruising, and we meet onboard a friend who was cruising, and it was her first time since her husband passed away.  She was most travelled passenger and was not having a great time like she has had in the past with her husband.  I have coffee around 6am every day and I enjoy the coffee klatch that gets created form fellow passengers. I enjoy seeing the Captain and Most of the Senior Officers who come for their espresso around 7am daily. The Maite D is always there to walk the area too. They are all very friendly to the passengers having morning coffee. I talked to the Maitre D about the lady who was so lonely and was MTP. he knew her and her husband off course form all their cruises.  I asked him if he could make her feel special and tell the head waiter to look after her a bit. Well, she was all happy the next morning and she had lots of great stories of her wonderful day yesterday. I was really happy to see her happy. She then was greeted by him with a morning kiss on the check and asked her how everything was going and had a nice chat. We were doing 15 days from LA to Hawaii and back and the morning of our first port for Hilo I wrote a Thank you note to him for making her feel special especially after her loss of her husband and she was trying to continue on. I put a 100-dollar bill inside and my note said have a wonderful lunch in port. I also had the Maitre D on another cruise help me secure 6 seats for the chefs table and sit us together and I also thanked him with a 100-dollar handshake after dinner that evening. Money is relative to how much you have and how you feel about having it all. Most of my friends are successful professionals and we are retired nowadays. We enjoy sharing our blessings with others who are doing what we did (work hard) to become financially independent. I also have a soft spot for those who leave their families and live on a ship for months at a time and miss many wonderful family celebrations. I served int eh US Marines for 21 yrs and I know what that feels like to miss our loved ones, that in itself is a hardship to endure, especially for those who have been doing it for over a decade. The Maitre D has bills to pay and a family to financially support and it they might really appreciate the money to go and enjoy a wonderful meal in port and hopefully bring another cruise worker along to share in the delightful time. The senior officers with 3 stripes are eligible for financial compensation bonus based on expenses. The Capt. uses the estimated fuel for 4 months or comes in under that makes a very large bonus.

On 12/19/2021 at 1:05 PM, Babr said:

Please note that insurance does not cover air/sea rescue when that service is provided by the nearest Coast Guard equivalent or military trained for such maneuvers. There is no cost, but the ship must be within range with acceptable weather and sea conditions.

 

In some instances, such as remote or exotic locations, a private rescue company may be called upon.

The US Coast Guard does Helicopter transport from Ship to Base. These helicopters are too big for Hospital helicopter pads. The patient is transferred from Coast Guard Helicopter when they return to their home base. The civilian airlift helicopter coordinates with USCG to transport civilians from emergency sea rescues to the nearest hospital for treatment.  The cost of this transportation is the responsibility of the patient.  

On 11/3/2021 at 9:28 PM, DougH said:

I sailed on the Princess 50th Anniversary cruise on the Pacific Princess a few years back. It was the original route with the full cast on board for the whole cruise. They all did talks/shows about their careers, guest entertainers were all top notch. Fantastic cruise, that one would be hard to beat. Our roll call thread almost broke the Cruise Critic site lol

That was a lot of fun . They also provided the original singer for the Love Boat Theme song and he sang it so many times it was a lot of nostalgic fun. The Concert by Julie the Captains daughter in the show was so nice. I was impressed the casting crew were such a tight family . Julie said that Capt Stubbing walked he down the aisle.  The open deck parties were fun doing the new dance by the bartender in the show , The dance called The Isaac?

I think the CC Loyalty program will continue with new tiers of cruise levels. I think the OBC will show up at maybe 50 cruises gets 25 bucks and every 10 after it goes up another 25 bucks. The new change will be 50 gets 25 bucks, 60 gets 50 bucks ,70 gets 75 and 80  will be for 100 dollars.

When we cruised the canal in 2019 the ships that were north of us going from Caribbean to Pacific  that went through the new locks stayed north and diverted to the  new locks for the Pacific and I do not think they go under any bridge .  

19 hours ago, westcoaster said:

September 2022 is a long way off, and I suspect the situation in Canada will be much different by then.  Canada is set to overtake the U.S. in terms of % of population with at least one vaccine dose within about a month, and will likely overtake the U.S. in % of fully vaccinated people some time this summer.  Once 80% or so of people are vaccinated, I think Canada will be much more open to allowing cruise ship stops.

The staggering COVID-19 case numbers in the United States may have seemed like a world away compared to Canada's relative caseload for most of the pandemic, but recent statistics show the growing severity of the situation on this side of the border.

Friday, April 9 marked the first day since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020 that Canada averaged more confirmed cases per million people than the U.S.

The running graphic from Our World in Data — which uses statistics from Johns Hopkins University to juxtapose the seven-day average number of cases in both countries — showed that trend continuing on Saturday.

Experts say differences in the countries' vaccine rollouts and the presence of more transmissible variants in Canada contributed to this situation, but context is critical when comparing what's happening in both countries.

On 4/9/2021 at 10:40 PM, NSWP said:

Surely passengers arriving into the USA, US citizens or not have to go into managed hotel quarantine for 14 days? (Like Australia has been doing for almost a year.) So pre January, going back to pandemic starting in March last year, people could just fly into the USA from anywhere with no covid test? That seems like an acute lack of responsibility and care, with all due respect I can see why Covid is out of control in USA with like near 80,000 positive cases on Thursday. 

 

Stay safe, it's a jungle out there.

SsWe do not have a southern border for the USA that has any security. We are right now spending 60 million a WEEK , Yeah that's 240 MILLION A MONTH  to process the tens of thousands of people entering the USA Southern border ILLEGALLY. We have 16 ports of entry along the border but that is for legal entry. The current administration under President Biden is importing covid at a rate of 10% positive cases from the ones we do test. They are then being bused all across the country to spread the Virus. We have over 16,000 children under the age of 16 being "housed" in detention  for processing. We have been so busy with the entry of people we are also importing tons of meth and heroin for future addicts. We have recently been treated to the TV interviews of Hunter Biden discussing his meth and crack cocaine addiction by promoting his new book. The people we have in leadership in our government right now is a grave danger to our country and the world. I know we folks in the USA gets lots of harsh criticism for all our  worldly involvement but thier is a reason the POTUS is called the most powerful person in the free world. Sadly we have got a terrible situation here in the U 

Do you live in the USA? Do you understand the US tax code ? A company in US ordering from a US company any goods or services will be taxed accordingly.  If you order a drink package on embarkation you pay US sales taxes. If you wait to sail you can eliminate those taxes. Your understanding of doing business is incorrect. The difference of the Federal Government  (CDC) discussing a vaccine passport and the states rights are in conflict of our Constitutional amendments of states rights. We are 50 separate governments that are united in one Nation.  The Vaccine is an emergency executive order and it is only suggested. It is NOT a LAW to be vaccinated and therefore, to make all citizens require proof of vaccine for free movement and entry in public or private business is not mandatory by law.  We are free people and we earned our freedoms. Are you a US Citizen? 

On 4/10/2021 at 9:35 AM, HappyInVan said:

 

Here's some interesting facts. In terms of vaccination, Alaska at the top. They've opened up to 16+ on March 9.

 

On the other hand, Florida under this government is at the bottom...

 

" Florida ranks 36th in percentage of population with at least one shot, 35th in percentage of a fully vaccinated population, and 40th in percentage of shots used."

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/which-states-actually-have-a-subpar-vaccine-rollout/

 

So, the fact that Florida government is opening eligibility to 16+ is a bad sign. IMO, the states will have a vaccination rate in the range 50-80% of eligible residents. So, pick a number for FL.

 

Not a surprise, since FL has no mask mandate. Governor has said that biz cannot check for vaccine status. My expectation is that FL will remain a superspreader state. Should the CDC allow cruises to resume from FL?

 

https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/covid-19-the-truth-about-super-spreaders/103490/

 

Common sense should tell you that CDC must impose some performance requirement. For example, the positivity rate in CA is 1-2%. Status GREEN!

 

 

 

OTTAWA — Canada's race for Covid vaccines quickly exposed a flaw: It lacked the capacity to produce any.

The absence of domestic manufacturing forced the Trudeau government from the get-go into a global .  So far, Canada has had to rely entirely on over-burdened foreign supply chains for a Covid vaccine rollout that has lagged international peers, including the United States. competition to attract drug producers to the country’s shores. The biomanufacturing scarcity in Canada has highlighted the health risks of foreign dependence as well as the political ones. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has faced flak for Canada’s program to get doses into arms. Trudeau has predicted everyone who wants to get vaccinated will be able to by September, though he’s recently said the timeline could end up being shorter. Just 1.76 percent of Canadians were fully vaccinated as of March 27 and only around 10 percent had received one dose, says the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Dr. Alan Bernstein, a member of Canada’s Covid-19 Vaccine Task Force, said in an interview that the pandemic has reinforced the need for governments to partner with the private sector.

For example, he said the U.S. government has had success by partnering with drug makers on a vaccine through the Trump administration’s accelerator Operation Warp Speed. In contrast, he said the European Union decided it would only be a consumer.

Pamela Fralick, who heads the pharma industry association in Canada, said that conditions in the country haven’t been hospitable to the sector for decades. In recent years, she said the Trudeau government's costly regulatory measures made it worse.

“Just about every country in the world will feel blindsided by this pandemic. ... Canada’s certainly not alone,” she said, noting only a handful of countries produce the vaccines. “We were caught flat footed.”

21 hours ago, harkinmr said:

Here you go!  In black and white.  See Section 2:

 

"Businesses in Florida are prohibited from requiring patrons or customers to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or post-transmission recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the business."

 

https://www.flgov.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/EO-21-81.pdf

 

Cruise ships have foreign flags, they are NOT US businesses.  They are only in port to drop off passengers and pick up new ones. The ship is then sent to open waters and they pay taxes to a foreign country for operating under that flag. The HQ are just administration offices and those employees are either citizens or work with visas. If the ships were US businesses we would not need to stop in Mexico or Alaska out of the west coast when the company does Hawaii or Alaska from US ports.

Captain 

1992 our first Alaskan Cruise on thr Regal 

10 hours ago, MJC said:

The Harrier Jump Jet is my favorite plane. We have one here in NY on the Intrepid museum, when it arrived I was happy to see one IRL. My friends think it's funny that I have a favorite fighter jet (if you knew me you would know why). When my students would ask me what I'd be if I weren't a teacher, I'd say helicopter pilot.

 

I have a boring handle, its just my initials. I wasn't very familiar with CC and it didn't occur to me to make up a fun one. I love how creative some people are with their CC names.

 

Thanks for starting a fun thread!

Thanks for appreciating the Jump Jet.I  was with them for 3 models A B and C.I deployed with VMA 311 VMA 214 and VMA 513 all Harrier squadron's.   They provide a unique element for delivering ordnance in ground support operations. 

11 hours ago, AF-1 said:

Thank you for your service;   Have seen Blue Angels Fat Albert many times during my career

I saw AF 1 on the tarmac a couple times. I got to fly in HMX 1 Helicopters when training in Quantico, Virginia 

The C-130 aircraft used by the US Navy Blue Angels is called Fat Albert. I served my 1st tour of duty with VMGR -352 and VMGR -152 and we called our C-130 squadron Fat Albert Airlines . I manifested over 2,000 flight hrs with these 2 squadrons before being assigned new orders. I became a Chemical, Biological Defense Officer and then an Aviation supply Officer for AV8 Harriers to finish my 21 yrs of service USMC.

Corporate tax rates  are expected to  increase, printing  5 trillion dollars will lower the US dollar purchasing power, future oil prices are increasing from reducing production, the looming possibility of inflation. The business model has been suspended for over a yr without revenue.  The companies financials have been under a stressful burn rate that has disrupted all reserve accounts. The business model must be tinkered with  to sustain profitability and build back the reserves. The revenue is still not coming in for months to come. I am impressed the company is still going strong with marketing for back to crusing. The executive team at Princess is a strong team and great folks working very hard.

The more insurance I have the better I feel. We have purchased insurance for all our cruises and that is 83 times each just for Princess. We used the insurance policy a few times for cancellations and received all our money except the price of insurance. We had 2 cruises planned in 2020 and we called our TA and cancelled both when we were aware of the Covid virus on the Diamond. Insurance is a good thing .