chengkp75

There is a Seaman's Church Institute center in many ports, and they provide lounges and shuttles. There are other non-profit organizations, that provide centers for seafarers around the world. Seaman's Church provides shuttles not only to the centers, but to shopping as requested.

As long as they're not the nasty little "strips", but whole clams, I'm in.

If you like poutine, there is a restaurant in Portland, the Blue Rooster, that does a variation on poutine using tater tots. The "Three Little Pigs" (with bacon, sausage and pork belly) is the ultimate.

While Eventide has a good roll, and the brown butter is unique, you can get a very good butter lobster roll (no mayo) at the other places mentioned, for about $10 less. IIRC, Boone's gives you the entire meat of a 1-1/4lb lobster in their rolls.

Mail from ships is notoriously slow. First, the ship gives the mail to the port agent (when convenient). Then the port agent, to whom delivering passenger mail is a low priority, finally gets around to giving it to the postman or putting it in the mail. Not sure where your cruise was, but not all postal services are as good as US postal (and I'm being generous to USPS), so international mail can be quite slow to get sorted and sent. I'd say 2-3 months would be about right.

All foreign cruise lines are required to post surety bonds for "performance" (cancellations of cruises or insolvency) in the amount of $32 million, and for "casualty" (injury or death of passenger) in the amount of $5000 per passenger berth on the ship. As with the recent Crystal bankruptcy, the passengers who have paid for future cruises will be getting refunds (not necessarily full) from this surety bond.

Where the company is incorporated has nothing to do with US bankruptcy laws. US law allows foreign corporations to file both chapter 7 and 11 bankruptcies in the US, and this is frequently done because the US bankruptcy laws are more lenient than other nations. Not sure why this would affect a decision to file for bankruptcy. Do you think there are that many customer/shareholders that they could affect a board decision? In any reorganization, the original stock becomes worthless, but is typically reissued as new stock, at an exchange rate, and this is for all shareholders. Most customer/shareholders only have the minimum number of shares required to get the OBC (100 shares, IIRC), so even in total, they represent a small portion of the stock, even before covid. I've spent my life in the maritime industry, and I would never have invested six figures in a single shipping company. There is far too much risk involved, and the return on investment is average or below at best.

They are the same thing, muriatic acid is generally less concentrated than hydrochloric acid. Home pools get muriatic acid, ships get hydrochloric acid, as they are trained in hazmat procedures, and the more concentrated acid requires less volume in storage.

Very few, if any, ships use bromine, as using chlorine allows the same chemical to be used in pool, potable water, and sanitizing solutions. Typically, pool/hot tub chemicals are chlorine and hydrochloric acid.

A certain percentage must be US built, I'm not sure of the exact number, which is why things like the engines and the like can be from overseas. If it fit the percentage, then they could import cabins, but most of those in Europe are built far from the shipyard and trucked/railed to the yard for installation, they are assembled at the manufacturer plant. Not sure how cost effective shipping completed cabins (essentially empty boxes) from overseas would be. My last ship was a Jones Act tanker, which means, like the PVSA, that it must have a certain amount of US built in it. Basically, the hull steel was US made (though the bulbous bow and stern tube casting came from Korea (we just don't have that capability here), everything else came from Korea. The engine, the switchboard (assembled), most machinery flats (all assembled), the catwalks and ladders on the well deck were all pre-fab. It was more like building a model ship.

Given that there has not been a cruise ship built in the US since long before pre-fab cabins were invented, and that for cargo ships, the cabins are built on site (only the bathrooms come pre-fab), and that the US does not have the manufacturers of the pre-fab cabins like Europe, it would not surprise me.

Nothing to do with the age of the ship, it has to do with whether there was a ground fault of some other circuit anywhere on the ship at the time.

Drinking water test kits are in daily use for pH and chlorine content, as these two things are dosed to the drinking water continually (I should have mentioned that acid is added to the water since chlorine works best as a sanitizing agent when the pH is within a narrow range). Monthly, the potable water tank in use, and 6 locations around the ship (chosen at random), are tested for fecal coliform bacteria. This requires the sample to be incubated for 18-24 hours, so is normally done in the medical center. Salt content is only measured at the device making the water, where a salinometer will dump the water produced back to the sea if the total hardness gets too high (typically the alarms are set at 10ppm for evaporators, and 20ppm for RO units. More commonly, you will see a portable test kit for pool water.

See above post. There is nothing other than a small amount of calcium carbonate added to the water.

Most ships have both evaporators (that produce distilled water) and reverse osmosis units. Typically, the evaporators are larger and produce the majority of the water, as they use the "free" waste heat from the diesel engine cooling water to heat the sea water, while the RO units use a lot of electricity (the sea water has to be pressurized to about 1000psi to remove the salt.). There are only two things that are added to water made in an evaporator on a ship (distilled water is slightly acidic). Those are: chlorine for sanitation, and calcium carbonate (the active ingredient in Tums antacid tablets). The calcium carbonate is added only to neutralize the the acidity of the distilled water. It is the acidity that "strips" minerals into the water, as it tries to neutralize itself. There is nothing added for the purpose of changing the taste of the water. Most bottled water actually adds a trace of salt back into the water (along with some sketchy chemicals used in fertilizers and such) for taste, but ships do not.

Your shower head will not be as clean as the ship's one, which is taken off and sanitized in chlorine every 6 months. Typically, pressure problems in a shower are not due to the head, so your head won't make any difference. There is a filter in the mixing valve that can plug up with scale, most Typically in the cold side, and then the pressure balance in the mixing valve will close off the hot water as well, to prevent scalding.

East End Beach is about a mile (15-20 min) walk from the cruise terminal. It is not a real "beachy" beach (more shingle than sand), and has become a bit of a pet toilet. However, taking the Eastern Promenade Trail, which is about 2 miles long, and includes the walk to East End Beach, is very nice for views of Casco Bay and the islands. Some very nice large, old houses along the Eastern Prom. Shipyard Brewery is before the trail, and the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad is near the start. Of course, going the other way from the terminal lands you directly in the Old Port, and downtown Portland, with all it has to offer.

What not to put down the toilet.

Just know that I've heard reports that ceramic type straighteners will sometimes not work on ships.

Uh, no. Cruise ships operate under maritime law, and the jurisdiction for possession of marijuana products is the flag state, not the US. The jurisdiction in the terminal is federal, but once onboard, you are under flag state law for this kind of thing.

From the lobster fishing zone map, the vast majority of zones are 2-3 months, and only 3 zones last 6 months like yours (obviously off NS or Bay of Fundy. And, according to the Lobster Council of Canada, there are some zones with a maximum size, and I was under the impression that Canada had joined the Atlantic States Fisheries Council in 2007 in setting maximum size limits.

The beneficial ingredient in Cannabis oil is THC, which is the illegal drug in marijuana. And, Cannabis oil has a higher concentration of THC than CBD oil. Can she bring it, and not have any problems? Probably. Can it be detected? Sure, drug dogs are trained to detect THC. Could it be confiscated? Sure. Would there be any other concerns? Only if detected in a place like the Bahamas, where they routinely fine tourists heavily for pot products. Does the doctor's prescription make a difference? No. None of the crew are allowed to have a prescription for this, as stated, the ship is a drug free zone, and the ships have a zero tolerance policy.

That was my senior moment for the day, that is what I was trying to type.

There is also a limit on numbers of traps, and the season gets varied in length by the observed catch.

That depends on whether it is a soft shell or hard shell. Soft shell is a new, bigger shell on a lobster, so lots of room to grow (and it's full of water), but hard shell is nearly time to molt.