ew101

Thanks for the deck plan.  This is not a huge ship.  I like to see a promenade deck- or most of one.  A guess is the Carnival accountants saw how few passengers could be carried and decided a major shipyard rework to add the normal dining venues was not in the cards.  There is limited space.  Can this ship be used to serve smaller, height restricted ports?   

Yes.  They want everyone out of the cabins by 8:30 (depends on day/ship) and off by whatever time they announce- 10:00 last I recall- it depends on the ship/day/port.    They don't want you standing in the elevator lobbies or stair wells or the deck with the gangway.   But you can chill someplace allowed and enjoy the time.  

On 8/30/2022 at 8:40 AM, StartrainDD said:

There is a small band that plays at the Ocean Bar several times a day.

 

Is there a dance floor in the Ocean Bar?  

Enjoying the report.  Speaking of retro- is there any dancing aboard, you know the old kind- ballroom- a few of the older ships still, hopefully, have a dance floor and combo in Oceans?    And a new thing- I missed a memo that large, shared indoor tables are safe.  How many tables for two are available?  What about outdoor dining?  Can you take meals of any sort poolside?  Some of the lines have poolside food outlets- Carnival has four these days.  

One of the things Wall Street likes to see in a company is how well management responds to adversity.  There is even a model- Porter's Five Forces- all the things that customers, suppliers and competitors can do to impact your business.  Some of these are out of your (short term) control.  The cruise industry and the Pandemic, the car companies and chip shortages, etc.   

In terms of the Pandemic, there are Harvard case studies on Zoom, the video conferencing people.  They did a masterful job of scaling up and adding features and using a very "agile" culture to respond.  Their stock price rocketed up.    These days, they are getting yelled at- as people are going back to the office and more competitors are entering and responding in the collaboration market- their stock price is falling.     

I would give the cruise industry low marks for their actions in early 2020- lots of anger, indignation and denial.   But, lately, looking at Carnival, they are doing their best to focus on selling cabins, poker chips and drink packages.   Senior leaders are all over guest satisfaction scores.  They are keeping people (staff + passengers) safe (as best they can).   This is despite fuel costs, shortages of staff, bacon, etc.  

The OP has some good points though.  If you for example wish to hang out at Guy's, there pretty much has to be one aboard.  Renaming venues seems easy.  I personally would not require a Farcus makeover- some glue on plastic lobby decorations - fake columns and stuff to look like Rome?  

And - a Chengkp75 question- would a funnel modification require a trip to the shipyard ($$) and the whole class engineering approval thing?  Would a real Carnival funnel have to have the gas piping redirected to the wings of the funnel?  Would people howl and wail if the exhaust still went up and not sideways?  

We all have to remember pre 2020 the cruise industry was growing at six percent a year.  Anything that floated sailed full.  If the passenger counts keep rising, it would seem the order books would re-open.  

2 hours ago, CatsinShow said:

What's considered a 2 category upgrade when the room you are going to book is the Interior with Window (Obstructed View)?

 

Maybe the inside obstructed view case is that in any upgrade in category you would lose the window so the rule takes that into account.  On other lines, any window/porthole is already an ocean view, (inside means "no window at all") so you might move to a better ocean view.  

Brilliant.  So one of the lines wraps a few busses (ala Disney in Orlando), and runs shuttles.  You fly to Newark, bus to the water park, chill.  (Or drive to the water park).  Bus to the ship.  Would I take a van load of eight year olds to NYC- probably not.  Is it unsafe, no.  For adults, there is shopping in the winter.  If you want to see NYC- all good.  I have stayed by EWR many many times.  But I have friends who were stranded there and were sure they would die, and rented a car and drove all night instead.  

On 8/8/2022 at 9:32 AM, eh24fan said:

We like cruising from Baltimore because it's so convenient for us.  The itineraries are boring though.  We can't decide what to do next because the idea of flying in this current travel situation is unappealing and expensive.  We aren't interested in sailing out of NYC for a number of reasons.  So we've talked about Bayonne, but again, crappy itinerary unless you want to go for 2 weeks, which we can't do with our vacation time allotments.  Driving to Florida - again, wasted days off.  LOL  So...we have nothing booked right now.  

I am happy to be on a ship, but a lot of people like to be in a lounger by the pool in the sun instantly.  So the seven day NY area>Florida>Bahamas type run works for me but those seem a tough sell in January.   NYC vs NJ- I dread the automatic $60+ cab /Uber rides via (full) tunnels/bridges to get in and out of Manhattan.  Luggage on the subway- not so much.  Walking around NYC is cool though for many.  But the hotels (what hotels) near the NJ port are an issue.  Ideally, you fly in near the port, sleep, board.  If the NJ folks took a brownfield near the port and made/allowed a tourist hotel/water park/RV park it might draw more year round guests.   Flying far away to cruise seems possibly dodgy long term.  More Bahamas destination development seems good.  Bermuda seems a bit fussy on health regulations.  But that is their call.  

On 8/7/2022 at 6:21 PM, vadersprincess12 said:

Elevators were constantly not working.  One of the glass elevators in the lobby area was out the entire cruise.  Two in the bank of elevators just outside our cabin were in and out of service the entire time.  

 

Chengkp75 question.  Does the ship engineering team fix elevators?  Or at some point is the factory called in (rather like azipods)?  On land I have never seen the building engineer tearing apart elevators or escalators- always someone in an Otis or other factory coverall.  

On 8/7/2022 at 12:11 PM, BlerkOne said:

Passengers might balk at the thought of having to wear a dosimeter badge.

If this was 1964 I could see a reactor room tour as part of Carnival Behind the Fun 🙂

The data linking low level, short term radiation exposure and cancer is not very compelling - and passengers would probably get more of a dose on the airplane flying to the port than on the ship.   The engineers and crew would see more.   Extended analysis of solid cancer incidence among the Nuclear Industry Workers in the UK: 1955–2011 | Radiation Research (allenpress.com) 

14 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

No hydrogen powered cruise ship regulations have been approved by the class societies, and the infrastructure to produce hydrogen is not exactly green either.

 

You can see why the "Bat Signal" is in constant use out here.  Thank You.  OK so if say Carnival wanted to build a new eco friendly ship for the under 30 year old passengers out of Miami, and decided to truly innovate (Virgin chose not to - they are having a lot of fare sales lately LOL)-  who has influence on the class societies?  Can the VP of Sustainability at Carnival pick up the phone and say - "yea we all get that burning a barge load of heavy fuel oil every voyage is reliable and proven, but we have customers wanting a "lighter" option for shipboard energy?"   

And yes you keep coaching us to do our homework- is hydrogen made from burning coal "green"- no.  

55 minutes ago, topaz123 said:

Hmmm....maybe a wind powered cruise ship?

I was impressed by this statistic from the Carnival report above "our absolute carbon emissions peaked in 2011 despite significant capacity growth over the past decade. "

There are bits and pieces of hardware around to contribute to a lower impact cruise ship.  It would seem the three /four day market out of say Miami might be best as you would be near places to charge.

Wind turbines (Flettner) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flettner_rotor - or plain sails i.e. Windstar

Batteries (i.e. Tesla Megapack)- maybe a big solar farm on Grand Bahama 

Hydrogen (made with solar/wind, not coal or LNG please)

Biofuels (these can tricky - input vs output efficiency- see corn Ethanol) 

Solar panels aboard on walls/roofs - summer hotel loads are vast however 

High efficiency AC units /heat pumps  

Given the ferocity of recent air conditioning complaints, Carnival the core brand may not be the best place now for a low emissions/eco ship.  But looking out ten years, newer passengers might be interested.  

19 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

Sounds similar to what was said when AIDs started to rear its ugly head.   It may be true the exposure is greater for some lifestyles.   As we know, early management can prevent it from spreading.  

The similarity to HIV is indeed striking.  The CDC website mentions "fetish gear" - so some activities and lifestyles seem more at risk.  Being old and boring seems protective.  They are not asking the average healthcare worker to race off and get vaccinated.   

31 minutes ago, ShakyBeef said:

Although it seems (according to CDC) that it can be transmitted through fomites and respiratory droplets, it also seems that one would have to be doing a lot of rubbing of skin on those fomites or spending a lot of time up close and personal to those respiratory droplets:

 

https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/transmission.html

 

This really seems to be a disease of close, personal contact, i.e. sexual or intimate transmission.  Not casual passing-by-an-infected-person-on-a-cruiseship transmission.

 

The CDC articles on this are a good read.  Some steps the cruise industry has taken seem helpful- this illness feels more like NORO.  So - hand washing is good.  Surface cleaning of door handles and railings and elevator buttons.  60% hand sanitizer seems pretty effective - I noticed less of a focus lately on Washy-Washy at the buffet - he/she needs to be back on station.  I was amazed to read for those of us who are old - the smallpox vaccines taken way back when are pretty effective- like 80%.  For the cabin/laundry staff- gloves and N95 masks are effective when handling soiled laundry.    Congregate Living Settings | Monkeypox | Poxvirus | CDC

Found them.  They are sold as inside cabins 🙂 I had to find a very empty sailing for them to appear.  But they are a good price performer.  

Yes- the 1A (inside?) and 20 "PT" cabins are shown on this older deck plan.  Carnival Ecstasy deck 4 plan | CruiseMapper

I was just looking at very low fares for outside cabins on the remaining Fantasy class ships.  But we prefer a couch or side chair in the cabin (DW likes to knit).  These are apparently a "no" on the ordinary picture window (i.e. 6C) outside cabins.  But older deck plans show "PT" (porthole) cabins forward on several of the decks that seem to have couches.  I can't seem to actually find or book one of these cabins.    

Thanks for this.  There is just enough variation between ships on music and dancing this detail is important.  

On 7/26/2022 at 10:36 PM, MeganGC1983 said:

Thank you for catching up! I absolutely LOVE my crew, and I’m sad that they are all going their separate ways. Makes it hard to determine my spring cruises. Gotta see Aris and Teo at some point soon. I Nyoman leaves next week. Mr. Chow, not til Oct. it’s hard having a cruise family. They know there are people who appreciate them. We just like to show extra love! 

Brilliant review.  Love the crew connection.  The last minute day of flight was a nail biter.  Not a good idea for the trip of a lifetime 🙂  Thanks for the back to back details.  The prices for seven day trips are rising - this is a good option.  I did not see much ballroom/Latin dancing on this ship - so the larger ones perhaps.  

This was taken a month or so ago aboard the Valor  

47 minutes ago, PORT ROYAL said:

Interesting posts.  
It appears the only resolution to the current Cunard Internet woes would be for the “purchase” system to revert back to the per minute use/pay.

But Cunard would only consider to do this if complaints reach saturation point at GS or the whole system collapsed.  
One now will do one’s bit.  
On the QM for Canada in September and one used to send the occasional email and photographs to friends and family as requested.  But from now on it will be sending regular mega videos and downloads to deliberately assist in draining the system.  Who will join in?

 

This seems drastic.  It does beg the question - maybe Hattie knows - do we have a "back channel" into Cunard HQ- maybe a gentle poke would be good on this.  

On Norwegian, known for smoky lobbies on newer ships- they did have an excellent system.  There was a "Dear Hotel Director" box in Reception, a stack of cards and a pencil.  If a staff member was rude or could not mix a martini, or the dish room was overflowing into the hallway, you drop in a card, an hour later your phone would ring and a bottle of bubbly appeared on your desk.  A nice closed loop feedback system.  

1 hour ago, Se1lad said:

I think one of the problems is that now internet is per the day rather than per the second, people leave their devices connected all the time, and ship’s infrastructure is not able to cope with so many connections.

I used to design big corporate networks.  Extra devices, mostly idle, are not by themselves a menace.  So if my phone checks email every 10 minutes, vs twice a day, the total number of daily bits downloaded (my messages) from the Internet is roughly the same.   On the other hand, if we all fire up a webcam viewer or movie,  that adds up and fills the limited capacity right away.  Or yes, if the twice a day peek at Facebook becomes an 18 hour a day live thing, that all uses bits. 

There is a technology, "quality of service" - which divides traffic and users into classes - rather like Grills vs steerage aboard.  The idea is everybody gets a little bandwidth (enough to download your mail- eventually), but those paying extra (or the ship's weather photos) get a priority.   The ship Wi-Fi does not much care, the scarcity is the satellite to cloud link.  And we are all used to free/unlimited at home, which cannot be replicated at sea.   

1 minute ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

I had to go read the linked story on Watanabe, though I was surprised that they only extended him $12,500/mo in air travel!!

 

Tom

Yes- I would be in "send our jet" mode with that level of VIP 🙂

On 7/9/2022 at 5:15 PM, DomoYoshi said:

Just want to throw out there that I do know for a fact that multiple land-based companies like Cordish, MGM, and Caesars have been using this level of analytics outside of Vegas for years. That’s why some find extremely generous offers to get them in the door/on the ship but they steadily decrease afterwards. 

This indeed has been a topic in MBA programs for a long time.  The trick, as was pointed out, is to work the system to get the most free stuff 🙂 Big Data At Caesars Entertainment - A One Billion Dollar Asset? (forbes.com)