EvanBedar

1 hour ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

"The Black Friday Sale You’ve Been Buzzing About"

I've heard mostly whining, complaining and b$tching.  Are we calling that "buzzing" now? 

 

 

 

Not according to your linked article:

"Norwegian Cruise Line revealed its special, one month-long Black Friday Special"

Well.   Those are the first time I’ve heard those words used in connection with the black Friday sale. Mostly all I’ve seen has just been glee or disappointment.

11 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

 

 

 

Icon OTS won't be completed until after the OP wants. RCCL interior colors are often a bit....much. The exterior colors of Icon turn the color volume up to 11. 

 

 

I think most of the whales are on the port side.

Of course, if he has a sense of humor, you could always send him out for two weeks on a ship that looks like something straight out of Who-ville.

 

Not for nothin' but I also wouldn't rule out exploring all other cruise lines besides just NCL.  It should be a younger clientelle.  But just because he's young doesn't mean it has to be a party ship.  He's becoming an adult now, so it's time to also learn some culture and refinement (presuming he didn't just graduate from Julliard.)

8 minutes ago, julig22 said:

Have you considered just adding baking soda to normal water?

A half teaspoon of baking soda will increase the Ph in a whole gallon of water, bringing it to commercial "alkaline water" standard."

https://www.gaiam.com/blogs/discover/how-to-increase-the-alkalinity-of-your-water

Bear in mind this is the BLACK FRIDAY SALE.  That isn't until the day after Thanksgiving.  So if you're basing your disappointment on a test shopping cart from the current pricing, you might want to have another look a week from Friday.

Cheers~

NCL has revealed it’s Black Friday sale structure.   I saw a thread asking if anyone  knew anything.  So here’s an article that explains it.   If this has already been detailed, my apologies; I looked for it and didn’t see anything specific.  
 
https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/?view=article&id=28733:norwegian-cruise-line-reveals-greatest-ever-black-friday-deal&catid=117

1 hour ago, davencl said:

Just received ticketing for our Portland Oregon to Australia/NZ flights for Jan. 15 cruise.   United to Sydney economy was allowed to select seats on United website.  Flight thru SFO.   Return on Hawaiian Air thru Honolulu.  Very happy with these arrangements.   We fly in two days early to Sydney and leave Aukland 2 days later.

Yeah, United’s good for that.  You should be able to upgrade to premium economy fairly cheaply too, which would entitle you to 2 checked bags free and much better seating for such a long trip. 

On 11/9/2022 at 11:18 PM, kjquilts said:

I' was traveling with my recently widowed mother who had dementia.  She hated the music, the thumping and shaking and just couldn't understand why it was happening.  Every time a song started up we went through the same conversation.    When I complained Guest Services said the ship was totally booked so there was nothing they could do.  

 

Without offering detail, I feel fully the pain of wanting to do something fun and loving for an aging mother and having it go terribly wrong.  
 

This story breaks my heart all over again. 
 

I’m not social in large crowds.   I can only hear 2 or 3 voices at a time.   But some of the sweetest stories have come from people sitting with strangers in the formal dining rooms.  People from different countries, different cultures, different ends of the political spectrum.  
 

Being outgoing in a bar or nightclub after you’ve had a couple liquid muscle relaxers isn’t unique to cruise ships.   It’s kind of the goal for most people.   

$1,200 on a nickel machine at the old Alladin in Vegas.  Only time I had to wait for a tax form.   That same weekend, $900 on the $5 slots at Bellagio.   I had to pay for everyone’s every g— —  thing after that.  Food, drinks, it all comes out in the wash.  

1 hour ago, v3cruiser said:

 Punishing one of the only companies that makes these propulsion systems doesnt make a whole lot of sense if these lawsuits continue one way or the other.

You call it punishment.   I call it legitimate corporate regulation.  And yes, they probably will just pass the cost of their own negligence off on to consumers, which is just further proof that you can’t trust billion dollar companies to just do the right thing out of the goodness of their “hearts”.  
 

Perhaps if there was more competition and less monopoly it would be less necessary.  
 

The rules of capitalism dictates that next to a profit margin, 3000 souls on every ship is irrelevant.    But you can bet they’ll hire a CEO that will pay a little better attention to safety and reliability in the future. 
 

And yes, cruisers will pay the price for that too.  But at least they’ll be alive to pay it. 

If you’re that fascinated by the straights why not just go there?   A drive is under 2 hours.  
 

https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Cádiz/Gibraltar

Your steward will have steamed whatever you ask.  Or there’s the clothes line behind the shower curtain and some swell, steaming hot water.  

I was asked to upload a profile photo, and a security photo to the NCL app.  Does that security photo serve as my check in photo?

 

51 minutes ago, coldflame said:

That's very annoying. I think it's the only cruise line that won't allow to bring _some_ non-alcoholic drinks on board.

I've also sailed on Princess and Royal Caribbean.  They had identical policies.

So I'm not sure what you mean by "the only cruise line."

We're doing the 13 Day Canary Islands in December.  It embarks out of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

But when you look at the upgrade bidding, the info says that it is embarking out of SOCOTRA.   Which is in Yemen.   A good distance from the coast of Morocco.

Is Socotra just sort of a default city they use when someone forgets to fill it in?  Kind of like the generic photo in a new wallet?  

 

12 minutes ago, genian_travels said:

I am the person onboard who first tweeted about this - which was posted in the first comment on this thread.

 

I am a journalist (ex-BBC) and posted what I know to be true from what I personally experienced, what I saw watching the events unfold for 2.5hrs and from eyewitnesses who saw the incident happen.

 

Media that have reported the story have all used my tweets as their primary source of information.

 

The pictures and video I posted are from my balcony on deck 13, so you can’t see the true angle of the collapsed gangway and what deck it’s coming from. However, the gangway was attached to deck 6, beside Q.

 

The morning we arrived in Panama there was a long delay getting people off the ship for excursions. This was because - according to announcements given over the PA system - low tide meant they couldn’t use the usual lower gangways and only one gangway was being used.

 

I had breakfast in the restaurant on deck 6 and when I went to the forward lifts by Q to go back to my cabin after, there appeared to be a lot of disorganisation amongst crew who were trying to manage the large crowd of people all trying to get off the ship from a different point of exit than usual.

 

Later in the day as the tide rose, further gangways were put out on the usual lower decks.

 

That evening, I went to dinner at Q at 7:30pm and saw the gangway was still in place, with crew using it.

 

The following day, the same situation occurred with the tides. I left the ship around 7:45am to go on an excursion and walked off the gangway on deck 6. I noted it wasn’t flat, but I had been on steeper gangways.

 

Clearly as the tide rose during the morning, so did the height and angle of the gangway, fixed to deck 6.

 

When I returned to the ship around 12:45pm, I thought how unusually high and steep the gangway had got. I saw one person on it walking back on, but we were directed to enter via the gangway on deck 5.

 

As mentioned in my tweet, I heard the code alpha for the pier around 1:30pm while I was eating lunch. At 2pm I went back to my cabin and watched events on the pier until 4:30pm.

 

No injured passengers were on the pier at this time. Lots of ship officials were outside taking pictures and speaking to police. The first ambulance arrived at 2:22pm, the second at 2:28pm.

 

Port staff began to try and detach the gangway from the ship after attaching a winch at the top end, with a forklift truck at the other. There was not enough space on the pier to move it in one long piece as passengers were still returning and coaches/people were around - so they folded it over on itself to break it in half. The forklift removed both halves and it was all cleared away at 2:58pm.

 

At 2:59pm the first two passengers (male and female) were taken out to different ambulances. They were both on their backs on gurneys and were responsive. The male had no visible injury, the female had an ice pack on her head.

 

I saw an additional 10 passengers brought out over the next hour - 4 on gurneys, the rest in wheelchairs. All were responsive/moving/talking to paramedics. One man on a gurney was lying on his side with his hip/thigh heavily bandaged. One woman had her left arm in a sling, another had her right foot bandaged. The others had no visible injuries. I saw one man in a wheelchair carrying his passport.  All the injured looked to be aged 65+.

 

Six ambulances turned up in total, but no one got in the last one, which left just after 4pm.

 

After the gangway wreckage was removed, another gangway was put out on deck 4 and two trucks full of produce were offloaded and brought onto the ship.

 

We left port as scheduled at 7pm.

 

I do wonder how they originally planned to get the gangway off deck 6 at departure, as it was so high up…

 

As for eyewitness accounts, one person told me he had just walked up the gangway and heard it collapse as he put his bag down for security. He said 11 passengers were on the gangway at the time.  

 

My cabin neighbour said he had walked down it the previous day and thought the gangway was a bit “bouncy”.

 

Another couple said they had walked down it and could feel it “flexing and bouncing”.

 

Hopefully the above will give a clearer picture as to what happened and why, and reduce any further speculation.

 

I contacted NCL for a press statement - asking specifically for an explanation as to why the gangway collapsed, to confirm how many were injured and the nature of their injuries. I posted their response on Twitter - it answered none of my questions.

A little unsettling that the balance of the injured had to wait 90 minutes to be taken to the hospital, but I suppose they could have been seeing physicians in sickbay.

 

There are a ton of things like this made.  
 

I take one everytime I cruise.   I’ll be taking one this time too whether anyone thinks it’s a bad idea or not. 
 

1 hour ago, Lakesregion said:

The butler should do the very same things your butler does at your home. If you do not have one at home, then tread lightly as the butlers "know" who belongs and who does not.

Anyone who can afford the price of a fare, or wins it in a contest, or is given it as a gift  …. “belongs.”

And don’t let anyone tell anyone otherwise.  

4 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

I'm wondering about that "2 stories up".

Look at that photo, where the sharpest angle of buckling is, next to the steepest portion of the gangway remaining.  See that man?  Look again at how high the gangway is likely to be attaching (it can't even be seen fully).  How many heights of that person would it take to get to the "door" there?

 

Who is responsible?  Does the Captain have the ultimate authority to approve anything that could affect safety of passengers (or crew, of course!)?  Assuming it's as fragile as it looks (and, uh, as it actually performed - or failed to!?), and especially if there was no substructural support, WHO gave the approval for this apparatus...???

 

GC

Well it's reported to be coming from deck six, and going down to the pier two decks below.   It's not the height, or even the length of the gangway.  It's the garbage aluminum the thing is made from. 

From the twitter feed that posted those photos:

"The 9 elderly passengers I saw taken to ambulances were in various states of pain and distress, in slings and/or bandaged up. One woman was in tears as she was stretchered into an ambulance while being comforted by a travelling(sic)  companion, who was also injured in a wheelchair."

Good god.  Why on earth would they hang a gangway 2 stories up?  I mean, the physics of it become obvious now unfortunately. 

2 minutes ago, rbxlady said:

...but they are also showing as sold out...

If they're sold out don't just give up at the web offer.  Call the number listed at the bottom.  If they have stock somewhere, they're going to be elated to sell it to you.

I won't give the phone again, I already did once.

I'm not sure about that "all the other cruise lines" stuff.   Princess 2018 was the longest wait we've ever had.  First a long wait to get the room, and then our luggage didn't show up until just before dinner time.

I'm not complaining because one person already pointed out, all hospitality and travel outlets have to prepare, and secondly I'm on vacation and having to sit and eat free food for 2 hours while you wait will hopefully be the worst thing that will occur on a luxury vacation.