GEMarshall

On 7/31/2022 at 1:00 PM, roger001 said:

Hard to figure how  the Pearl's radar and the radar's collision alarm system didn't see the fishing boat.  It is pretty good size.  You  know that was a major surprise to the fishing boat crew.  

I looked at all of the articles on this topic and they said that the fishing boat was returning to port after fishing.  It is likely they were tired and all and mistakes happen....  The only way that the Pearl should have tried to avoid this 69' fishing boat was if the boat was fishing.  The fact that the Pearl was hit on her port side, she had the responsibility to maintain her course so that the boat on her left would have been able to keep clear.  

The captain I knew from the Pearl when I was on her off and on between August 2018 and October 2019, got offended if he got black tire marks on his white hull from the Panama Canal so he would have been very upset with his ship being scratched or dented.  He retired shortly after we completed the October 2019 transAtlantic and then the Captain who had been working on the opposite 'shift' from the Captain I knew moved to the Scarlet Lady in 2021 so I've never met the current Pearl captain, but I'm still certain that Pearl was doing the right thing but could easily understand how the fishing boat could have messed up if they were preoccupied with securing their catch or just plain tired from being out working too long.  

17 hours ago, sullyd said:

Saw a YouTube video they hit a fishing boat around 330 am his morning?
 

 

The fishing boat did the equivalent of running a red light and hit the Pearl who was in the intersection with a green light because the Pearl was hit in the left rear. Here are the rules of the road for motor boats: 1. If another vessel is approaching you from the port — or left — side of your boat, you have the right of way and should maintain your speed and direction. 2. If a vessel is aiming to cross your path and they're on your starboard — or right — side, they have the right of way.

46 minutes ago, fox02554 said:

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/cruise-ship-strikes-fishing-boat-near-nantucket/2794495/?fbclid=IwAR0vp61C-4PSkgPV17GQ4ukSwuFM3CFJolSJ4J007dfmAUAQpLVJe8qzMxA

I was sleeping so didn't hear a thing 🤪( I live on Nantucket ) 

 

 

The fishing boat did the equivalent of running a red light and hit the Pearl who was in the intersection with a green light because the Pearl was hit in the left rear. Here are the rules of the road for motor boats: 1. If another vessel is approaching you from the port — or left — side of your boat, you have the right of way and should maintain your speed and direction. 2. If a vessel is aiming to cross your path and they're on your starboard — or right — side, they have the right of way.

2 hours ago, shof515 said:

 

that is not experience. i was on the gem back in December and i was able to make reservation online before the cruise. Next month i am sailing on the Getaway and i just made all of my reservations for that sailing with no additional costs

 

Are you saying you made dinner reservations using your two free Platinum Plus dinner coupons or are you saying that you made dinner reservations from the room perks?  Maybe the Jade had a different policy?  I'll have to look into this again.

Gwen 

3 hours ago, mking8288 said:

It's been widely available elsewhere and also sold as packs on supermarket shelves for a while -

the smaller 10 oz (284 ml.) and mini 7.5 oz (222 ml.)  - the 10 oz. (385 ml.) can easily be replaced by automated dispensing machines, just a matter of retrofitting them here in US of A - if and when.  Traveling abroad pre-Covid, it's not unusual to see 10 oz. becoming the standard.  Airline catering services already doing that for certain international carrier when stocking the FA's gallery carts.  Probably, sooner or not going to take less than 5 years. 

 

But, not going to rush to book more cruises just b/c of these changes hitting next week 🙄 🤣

When it comes to booking with NCL, there is no penalty to booking early and deciding before final payment because unlike RCCL the NCL deposit is completely refundable.  I book as early as possible and hope the price goes down and then take advantage of that too.  I have one NCL cruise that I booked that is now at least 5 times as expensive as when I booked it.  It was a popular itinerary because it is a 'one of" at this point. 

Gwen 

10 hours ago, The Traveling Man said:

For several years NCL has been offering more frequent and easier access to free specialty dining.  With double or sometimes triple points, getting to Platinum and it's two free specialty dinners has come sooner for more and more passengers.  There was a time when Inside cabins received maybe one Free at Sea option, Ocean View got one or two, and Balconies had their choice of two perks.  Now it seems that everyone gets all of the perks on every cruise.  That makes for a lot more folks wanting reservations in specialty restaurants.  I think NCL finally realized that "their mouth wrote a check that their butt couldn't cash" and they needed to cut down on the number of freebies that they were handing out.  It's a bummer for us, but it may be a stark reality of what's going to happen when ships again start sailing at or near full capacity.  There simply may not be enough seats at the table if they continue with their old policies.

I was thinking that too, that it would be hard to get dinner reservations at a time I would want with so many people getting them as included in their fare.  Also, now if we want to use our Platinum dinners we can't reserve until we get on the ship unless we want to prepay for the dinner.  

Related to the issue of costs going up, I went to the car wash today it is now $10 for the previous $7 short, automated car wash and the fast food place that I tried to go to was closed from 3:00 - 5:00pm on a Saturday afternoon due to staffing shortages. When I went back after 5:00, the grill was down and only fried was available.  CVS, Walgreens, Walmarts and other stores are cutting hours they are open due to staffing shortages.  When I asked the nurse at the hospital that I have to go to once a month for infusions if they were given at-home covid tests to take home with them, she said no and that she assumes they don't want to know if the staff is testing positive but isn't sick according to the new CDC rules.  I saw a fast food place advertising that they were looking for cooks & paying $16/hour or servers for $15/hour.  There are also a lot of empty shelves in the stores.  I know that one of the cruise YouTubers was complaining about a cruise which didn't have white potatoes more than every other day; the complainer didn't know that there is a global shortage or if he did he still thought he should still get everything he wants on a cruise for the include price.  We are emerging into a new world for sure.  

Gwen 

I hope they will require the vaccine I would not want to return to cruising under the current situation where every time they get one false positive (Alaska & Singapore) the ship has to return to port and cruises are cancelled.  I also think they should still require masks for at least all of 2021 since the vaccine is still a bit of an unknown in its effectiveness.  I am just hoping for more certainty that when I go on a cruise, I will get to go on the whole cruise to actual destinations.   I think that the ships need to be able to manage an outbreak on board and the vaccine is the best way to make that happen.