EVALUATOR

What the picture doesn't show is how it looks FULL. You can get a lot of soft knit clothes in that bag, because it's very stretchy.

 

I think my record was a week's worth of undies for both of us, 2 pairs of rolled up knit capris for me, 2 pairs of knit shorts for hubby, and several tee shirts.

 

You have to get creative about closing it at the top. I twirl it around by the top (teeny) piece of bag I can grip, and then tie the pull off band around that very short twisted piece.

Your description of the bags capacity can also be misleading.:eek::eek::eek:

A week's worth of undies could be one thong each, worn all week,:o, or 14 heavy duty boxers, (changed daily).:) YMMV:D

I'm with you there. Just as a wish, I wish you could browse excursions currently offered in ports even if your cruise is more than 100+ days, just for planning, even if you can't book them. Ok, I'm a plan-aholic.

I thought you could (website permitting):):):)

Don't have a reservation yet or just want to browse our Shore & Land Excursions to see what adventures are available? You can browse by Ports of Call, Ship and Sail Date, or just click on any of the Activity Types below.

The whole web site is a complete mess. I'm surprised they let things get so out of control. It's complex, full of bugs, and just creates barriers to their customers.

I agree. the ite is a mess and you end up calling and put on hold to talk to some one who may or maynot know the answer

I just read an article where a company in Australia was going to charge customers a 6.8% tax for browsing on their site and ordering if they still use internet explorer 7.

Maybe we should deduct 6.8% from RCI's invoices every time we have a website SNAFU.:eek:

The only browser that is even somewhat dependable on their system is landline 1.0 with a 5th call to break the 2-2 information tie :rolleyes:

LOL....Made me think about a law that was put in place here a few years back. The scrap metal buyers had to start documenting who was selling the "scrap" and where it came from. The law was in response to the price of copper going through the roof and thus people started stealing A/C units or just trashing them and ripping out the copper.

Here in Florida a lot of the A/C copper thieves have gone eco-friendly.

Instead of just ripping out the copper coil, they first puncture the line and inhale the refrigerant.:eek:

Nice of them to think of the environment.:D

I would think that there would be two vastly different re-float approaches depending on whether the plan was salvage or scrap.

If they want any kind of salvage they would take a less aggressive approach.

If all they want to do is re-float for a trip to Alang India, then it is as "simple" as welding plates to above the water line areas allowing water in. Then maybe a little more substantial welding of plates over the breech below the waterline.

Then pump like crazy and start the floating process. Anything that gets the ship started upright will greatly ease the re-float.

If they don't worry about structural damage needing repairs, it should be a faster operation. If they worry about scratching the paint, they could be there for years.

Carnival Corporation may get paid for the ship, but I think it was purchased with borrowed money, and depreciated. So it's not like they would come out ahead based on depreciated value. They would probably break even at best.

I would urge everyone to watch the video. It is about six minutes long taken between 12 midnight to 1 am in the morning from a rescue boat helping the victims on the Concordia. In the video, you get the sense of the increasing list of the ship, which is about 25 degrees near midnight going towards 45 degrees by the end of the video. This video shows people in rafts, people in the water, people being rescued off of ropes on the high side of the ship, the empty rope ladder at the bow that the coast guard demanded that Captain Schettino climb up, etc. The video provides some great context and proof of items outlined in news stories.

I read somewhere that the time stamp on the video is 1 hour and 9 minutes fast. So 0:12:00 is actually 11:03:00.

I still haven't found video of rescue boat #1 launching.

When you refer to the rafts in the water, note they were launched from the port side bow. They were in the water before any of the port side boats started to launch. Rescue boat #2 seems to be the first boat launched from the port side.

Greg, the 4th large picture down, underwater shot, does that look to be on the starboard side? That's a pretty big gash and looks to show what might be some crew quarters.

I would say it is definitely the starboard side since it is under water.

However, in the top center of the photo, you can see deck chairs. That would seem to indicate it was near the top deck, and not a below the normal water line gash.

It's probably just damage from whatever the starboard side of the ship is laying on.

So very true and not always appreciated. Excellent point.

 

The sideways effect can catch people out.

 

Some numbers about the sideways effect:

A ship turns around it's 'pivot point'. With most ships, this is pretty close to amidships in calm water, ship on an even keel, ship not under power.

 

However the pivot point is not fixed.

 

When a ship is moving forward, the pivot point will move forward as steering takes place from the rudder. If there was no water resistance, the pivot point would actually be very close to the bow! Due to water resistance, the pivot point moves about 1/4 way back from the bow. So with Costa Concordia, which is 952 feet long, the pivot point would be approximately 250 feet from the bow, 700 feet from the stern. To see what this would be like, take a pencil, mark it 1/4 of the way down, and move it along your desk in an arc, pivoting it around the point you've made. See how much the stern of your pencil swings out.

 

VP

The best example I can use to explain it is this. It's like driving a car backwards.

Imagine you pull your big suv into a parking lot. You park in the middle of three spots and go in shopping. When you come out, there is now a car parked close on each side of you. As you back out, you have to turn. But the actual front of the suv goes the opposite way. If you turn too sharp too fast you will hit the car next to you, but on the opposite side you are trying to get the rear of the suv to go.

The bow thrusters might have turned (or pushed) the bow of the ship away from the reef. But they would only work at speeds of less than ten knots. If he would have tried to use them at 16 knots they would have cavitated and probably disintegrated.

As for the wind being a saving grace, it might have helped cause the impact too. That same wind that pushed it back to shore north of the port would have also been pushing the ship west before striking the rock.

The water depth drops off so fast there only a few meters could have made the difference in striking the reef, and luckily missing it like an earlier fly by. Remember, they were worried about the ship sliding a few meters and dropping off a ledge into water 100 meters deep.

Oh My Gosh, Evaluator - I believe you have uncovered the actual chart the Capt was using. Good catch!

All joking aside, here is aerial video that shows the Ship, port, and Le Scole in the same screen and helps put how close the impact area was to shore.

Starting at about 0:35 it should be easy to make out the Ship. The port with the light houses is on the right side. At the top of the screen there is a point where a small rocky island is just off shore. That is Le Scole. Approximately 85 meters or 275 feet from the island is where Concordia struck the rock. That is about how far the keel of the Concordia now sits from shore.

If anyone is interested, the chart to reference when examining Costa Concordia's final track is It74 (B), Porti Dell'Argentario E Dell'Isola Del Giglio - Porto Del Giglio

 

VP

So you are saying the map below is not any good for close to shore navigation???

Could Kirk say there were no moon near Jupiter, they weren't on his map?

How did they determine that it was blown by the wind? I dont have regular tv, so I have no way of watching the specials.

Other than knowing what the weather conditions were that day, they didn't make any special statement why.

Have friends on deck 11 aft with the Port Everglades banner..waiting to see them pass the cam and wave :)

:D

THEM??

Ruby just blew its horn. I can't tell you how much I love that sound!:):):)

We have a cordless doorbell Mrs E. uses for her paging system when she needs my immediate assistance. The doorbell sits on the kitchen counter. The actual button clips to her shirt.

It's set to sound like a cruise ship horn when she hits the button. :D

Mixed feelings for me loving the sound though.:)

I would like to know why the character breakfasts are capacity controlled to begin with.

The dining room on the Oasis can hold 2700 +/- passengers at a single seating.

Other than the characters showing up, what is different than a normal breakfast?

Evaluator:

 

I'm not sure if there was one character breakfast or multiple character breakfasts. But when we went online to book the character breakfast, they only gave us one option, which had space available only for two. As I think about it, there may have been other breakfasts, but when I clicked on them, they said there was no availability at those breakfasts. So there probably were multiple breakfasts. They just filled up within days of becoming available online. I went back multiple times to check on availability to see if anything opened up. It never did.

Thanks for answering.

I think your issues should be directed more at RCI. On a ship with a dining room that seats 2700 +/- people, there should not be a limit on the number able to attend.

If the character breakfast was so popular that everyone on the ship wanted to do it, and multiple times at that, why would it be a bad thing to expand the times and capacities?

I'm sure the photographers were there taking photos to later try to sell for $20 each.

The merry-go-rounds on Allure and Oasis aren't kids only activities for a simple reason. They run all day, and I can't ever remember them being more than a third occupied. My kids probably went on the merry-go-round 100 times (literally) during the trip. There was never an issue of access.

 

But that's not the case with the CL (or the character breakfasts, or the face-painting, which is only open for a limited time). When kids are taking up space in the CL during the cocktail hour, that's less room for adults. And that particular venue is more appropriate for adults--not necessarily ONLY appropriate for adults but MORE appropriate for adults.

 

Same goes for the character breakfast. It is MORE appropriate for kids than adults. When adults take up the space at the character breakfast, they are taking up a limited space that is MORE appropriately reserved for a child. I get that adults enjoy the character breakfasts. But in a limited space event, they are taking away a spot from the audience that the event was primarily designed for (i.e., kids).

Was there more than one character breakfast on your cruise?

You stated earlier there was only one. Others mention booking for multiple breakfasts.

Did you miss the other two?

No - of course not - however on a ship reservations are limited and since the debate has come up about children being inappropriate in the CL - its an interesting post when adults are taking a "space" away from something a child would immensely enjoy and thinking nothing of it. Things have to work both ways, don't you think? And how heartbreaking for a child to be denied.

Why can't RCI simply make more "space" available for the character breakfasts?

If it's fully booked, add more.

There is no fee. The equipment will either be by the tables or stored at the Schooner Bar. It can definitely be busy and sometimes the self-leveling tables are broken.

I have seen them "broke" until the jewelry seminars were done.

Then the were amazingly unbroke, only problem was after the jewelry seminar I was broke.:eek:

Good thing there was no charge for using the pool tables.:)

They had a two nighter on Navigator last year, just went to Nassau and back. So where would you be if that were your first cruise? :confused: Noob+?:D

Yes, nowhere. Still needing another night to make Gold.

 

:D

They could award three cruise points for a 2 night cruise. They mentioned adding additional cruise points could be an option for slow selling cruises, so they might do the same for the 2 nighters.

Wow !!! That's cool.:cool: Are you a full time Florida resident now ?

YES!!!! It's 60 down here right now. 9 at the old home.:eek:

Hehehe...yeah that is about an hour and a half from us.

Have you been there ? Place looks beautiful.

Hope to live in Florida for half of the year within the next couple of years and be able to cruise more often without all the flying we normally would have.

I lived next door for 6 years.:D

We hope to reach Pinnacle in about 15 years !!!;):D

Depending on where you live in Vermont, you could reach it sooner.

One in a balcony, and I had a seperate cabin for my kids inside.

 

One in a JS, with another JS for my kids in an adjoining cabin.

 

So 4 cabins in total, in x7 day cruises, 2 cabins at JS but I think they had a different name then? C class maybe? It was 2002.

 

So is 2 cabins 2 credits for the adult member who books? Or is one cruise one credit even if you book 2 cabins?

You only got the credits, and only get the new cruise points for cabins you stay in. You could charter the ship, but only get credit for your cabin.

Suites did not get double points in 2002

Patti, just wondering did you ever find the effective date by ship? Or did I miss you answer?

 

I am bleary eyed after all this reading. I bet everyone has eye strain today!

 

Joanne

I did this post earlier. Someone else posted on another thread also.

Q: When is the Crown & Anchor Society program changing? A: The program changes will be announced beginning January 21, 2010 and will take full affect onboard our 21 ships soon afterward. The schedule to rollout the new Crown & Anchor Society enhancements is as follows:

 

SHIP 1st SAIL DATE PORT Monarch January 24 Port Canaveral Majesty January 24 Miami Legend January 24 Singapore Splendour January 23 Sao Paulo (Santos) Grandeur January 23 Colon, Panama Rhapsody January 22 Sydney, Australia Enchantment January 29 Baltimore Vision January 22 Sao Paulo (Santos) Voyager January 23 Galveston Explorer January 28 Bayonne Adventure January 23 San Juan Navigator January 24 Fort Lauderdale Mariner February 1 Valparaiso, Chile Radiance January 22 Tampa Brilliance January 24 Dubai Serenade January 22 San Juan Jewel January 24 Fort Lauderdale Freedom January 23 Port Canaveral Liberty January 30 Miami Independence January 26 Southampton, UK Oasis January 22 Fort Lauderdale Allure January 23 Fort Lauderdale

 

 

DOI:D is there points for finding the 1st screw up?

try this link

Can someone help me understand this a little better?

 

I've been on one cruise with RCI. I see the 8 points. My next cruise is in August and I'm book in a GS for 7 nights. What should my total points be after that cruise and how does the formula look like? I want to make sure I'm credited properly after my trip. Thanks so much!!

22 points