chengkp75

When I worked in the engine rooms of cruise ships, I dehydrated myself badly, and presented myself to the medical center. Not only did they put me on IV fluids, they did the "squeeze the bag" to get me started rapidly. Two bags later, I was good to go, except for a kidney stone that resulted, but that is another story, but also dealt with onboard.

Just be aware that there are two systems of AC in each cabin. I was the Staff Chief on the Sky when it was the Aloha, so I know the system intimately. One system, that is controlled by the thermostat, merely recirculates the cabin air over a cooling coil. This cooling unit is located under the sink in the vanity, and any problems with this are typically a dirty air filter, quickly resolved. The other system is not controllable by you, it has a preset temperature, and supplies fresh air to a whole bank (30-40) of cabins. They both blow out of the same vent louver on the wall, one system in one half of the louver and the other next to it. No ships will guarantee a "cold" room, industry standard (cruises or hotels) is about 70-72*F.

No. There are two AC systems for each cabin. The one you control with the thermostat, and which shuts off when the balcony door is open, is the same as a window AC in your house. It only takes the air from the cabin, cools it, and returns it to the cabin. However, there is a second system, that provides fresh air to the cabins, and which balances out the air removed from the cabin by the bathroom exhaust. This system will supply air to every cabin on one deck, within a given fire zone (between the doors in the hallways), so maybe 40-60 cabins. This system is designed to supply slightly more air than the bathroom vent removes, and this keeps the cabin at a slight overpressure compared to the outside, or the hallway, in order to prevent smoke entering the cabin in case of a fire. When you leave the balcony door open, this is a very large opening, and the system cannot keep up with maintaining the overpressure, as the air flows outside through the doorway. Basic physics then says that the air flow in the system will take the path of least resistance, and send the majority of the fresh air supplied for the bank of cabins, to the one cabin where the pressure is slightly lower (yours with the door open), and so all the other cabins get less cool fresh air than normal. To see this in action, open your cabin door to the hallway while the balcony door is open, and hold onto anything light in your cabin, as the wind tunnel will blow it out the balcony door. This is how I found the balcony door offenders when we would get complaints about warm cabins, just walk down the hallway and listen for the wind screaming under the hallway door. This type of system applies to every cruise ship built within the last 30 years.

Hawaii does not have a "sales tax", they have a "General Excise Tax", which is levied on each company involved in the entire purchase chain of the good or service. So, the alcohol sold onboard has had GET paid by the wholesaler, the shipping company that brought it to the islands, the trucking company that delivered it to the wholesaler, and finally the retailer (the ship). Now, you will notice that this GET is levied against the business, but the state allows each company to decide if they want to roll their cost of GET into the sales price, or pass it on to the customer as a marked "tax". So, until a "good" has been sold, there is no GET, as the package (while a service), also depends on the sale of the "goods", so each drink is charged GET. This applies to anything purchased onboard the ship (shops, drinks, specialty dining), while the ship is within state limits (out to 3 miles offshore). The bridge notifies the purser's office when the ship leaves the 3 mile limit, and the POS registers are reprogrammed to not charge GET anymore. GET varies by county (island) and some municipalities, but runs about 4.5%.

This is BS. The Staff Captain will have a full set of every hard key on the ship, and the Carpenters have a key making machine to duplicate the one he has. Get on the Hotel Director, or Staff Captain directly.

All good advice here. The only bear attack I heard about when I was going to Alaska was a fisherman out at Nikiski on the Kenai peninsula, who had his salmon catch on the bank next to him, and the bear felt it was the Golden Corral buffet. So, remote areas, alone, and having a food source nearby are the big threats. That boar was not really following the sow around, but the cubs. As long as a sow has cubs, she won't go into heat, so boar bears have a nasty habit of killing cubs so the sow goes into heat.

Just a fine point, Ruth, there are no watertight doors on the Upper Promenade, nor do I believe there are any in passenger areas. The doors to the outside decks are "weathertight", not "watertight", the distinction being that the door is designed to keep rain, snow, and spray from getting inside, but are not designed to be submerged and hold back the water. Watertight doors require a sealing lip on the frame, a rubber gasket on the door, and a set of clamps around the door that clamp the door firmly into the frame. Watertight doors also do not go to the floor, but have an 18" high raised threshold (the well known "knee knocker" to Navy types).

This depends. Has the ship taken water in port? If so, it is municipal tap water, and not further "filtered" by the ship. However, the Pur water filter, nor any consumer water filter will remove the calcium carbonate that is added to the water produced onboard. The ship has filters at water usage points (water dispensers, water fountains, ice makers) that will filter out the calcium and chlorine to prevent scaling of the equipment. This is accurate, but can be accomplished without the use of a filter, simply by filling a pitcher with water and leaving it on the counter or in the fridge for several hours, and the chlorine will dissipate naturally.

There is really not a lot of difference in size between the Epic and Prima.

When Kilauea was flowing to the sea (in the early 2000's) all three NCL ships sailed around the south side of the big island. The ship was stopped, and rotated on the thrusters so everyone got a view. We couldn't get too close, as we had to monitor the sea temperature and if it got too high, the engines would start to overheat. But, I think the flow into the sea stopped in 2008-2009, and they went with the shorter northern route around the Big Island.

Are the cups disposable? Which has more potential to get thrown into the trash and be sent over the side? That is what it is all about, discharging plastic into the ocean, it has nothing to do with the general debate over whether or not plastics are a good thing, or are or are not biodegradable. The maritime industry lives under a whole different set of laws than those on shore.

Yeah, I've posted a lot of things to do here in Portland on other threads, really wouldn't do any cruise line tour. To see Portland Head Light from a different perspective than 95% of photographs of it, get up early on arrival (0530-0600) to see the lighthouse from the sea, as the ship will pass close by.

You don't see a problem with sorting the trash, because you've never done it to know how much time it would take. Until you've seen the organized chaos of the dishwashing stations during meal operations, you don't know how much these folks hustle. And then, everyone would start complaining about the slow service caused by the bus staff taking the time to sort out the trash. They already do the best they can with it, but some still gets through. And yet, Carnival and RCI are operating under vastly different environmental oversight conditions. Note that I didn't say different regulatory conditions, because they are the same, but that Carnival, due to its failures in the past to improve on environmental compliance have third party inspectors making inspections throughout the year, and checking records for periods between these inspections, and since Carnival has been cited repeatedly for not separating plastic from food waste, they are particularly sensitive about this, and subject to more scrutiny than RCI is. RCI is basically hoping that they don't get caught sending the occasional "biodegradable" plastic straw over the side with the food waste (because the law doesn't care how "biodegradable" the plastic is, you can't dump plastic in the ocean). This is true only if you disregard the 800 lb gorilla in the environmental room called methane slip. Yes, LNG reduces SOX and NOX emissions, and reduces CO2 emissions over other marine fuels. However, methane slip (the amount of methane released during pumping from the well, transporting in pipelines, trucks, trains, etc, at the liquifaction plants, bunkering the barge and then the ship, and then the unburned methane from incomplete combustion in the engine of the ship) releases methane into the atmosphere, and methane is 200 times more harmful as a greenhouse gas than CO2, and tends to linger in the atmosphere about 20 times longer than CO2. LNG has its merits, but there are drawbacks as well. And, anyone thinking that the switch to LNG was done for environmental reasons is truly naive. It was done for cost reasons. Why do you think that Carnival is only bringing LNG ships to the US market (disregard the other lines in the Corp)? Why not Europe, where there is far more LNG bunkering infrastructure? Because in the US there is a considerable price difference between LNG and bunker fuel or diesel fuel. In Europe, that is not so much the case, so there is no incentive to switch. And, Asia is even less attractive for LNG, as the price there is more than conventional fuels.

Sugar based.

Until they wet down the tablecloths to keep the dishware from sliding and serve the soup in cups, it ain't rough.

Because this is a cruise line sponsored excursion, the cruise line sets the requirements for handling the fish to ensure it meets food safety requirements, and that the excursion provider obtains the fish in an approved, sustainable manner, so it is allowed onboard. But, if it is from an outside excursion provider, they will not allow it. One of the main requirements is that the provider documents the temperature of the protein regularly, and ensures it is within the safe zone at all times from being caught to being delivered to the ship.

No, because it does not have anything (like the semi-conductors in a surge protector) that provides a potential path from power to ground. The electronics in it are very similar to those in your USB charger that takes 100-240v and converts it to 5v.

Quite common on European cruises, where there are two homeports, and the cruises overlap each other.

And even those "inside a cruise ship" shows on TV that show the organized chaos of the meals being prepared and carried out to the passengers, you never see the dirty side, the pot washing stations, or the dishwashing stations. Hand hygiene is critical. In addition to not allowing the same person to work both ends of the dishwashing machine, if waitstaff has touched a dirty (used) plate, bussing it off the table and back to the galley, they need to either wash hands or re-glove before touching the next course going out. Rinse and repeat.

While many have done galley tours, they never see what a madhouse it is when meal service is in full swing. There is almost a constant line up at the counter dropping off bus pans full of dishes, and the dishwashing crew are in constant movement just trying to get the dishes into the machine in the proper orientation for cleaning, and sorting out the silverware, etc. And, these are the "dirty hands", these people are not allowed to touch the dishes that come out of the machine, there are those who have only touched clean dishware to do that. Then, the bus staff have to wash their hands before going back on the floor. Putting a couple of more people standing there to separate out trash would clog things up completely. Even though I was required to be touring the galleys during meal services (not every day), to see how USPH standards are being maintained, and to see how the equipment is working, I really had to work at not being an intrusion on the dishwashing staff, as these guys were going full out for the entire meal service, and then had to tear down the machine for cleaning. Do you see these waitstaff standing around with time on their hands? I haven't. So, taking the time to sort out the trash, and they already try their best to do so, would require again more personnel to make it happen.

I do want to repeat the warning that you can't always get on the next trolley when you arrive at a stop. If it is full, it will simply drive by, and you wait for the next one that has room. It can get pretty hairy in peak season.

Unfortunately, many of the restaurants that give our town it's foodie reputation are not open for lunch, so unavailable to cruise passengers. Check out restaurant rating sites to see what appeals. There is the Victoria Mansion, Longfellow's House, the Museum of Art (Winslow Homer and the Wyeths), the Portland Observatory for views of Casco Bay, an antique fire truck tour of the town, schooner sails around Casco Bay, and the above mentioned "mail boat run" that brings not only mail but supplies to the island community (they grocery shop on the mainland, and the food is delivered to the ferry for palletizing by island, and dropped off and the families come down to the pier to pick up their groceries).

The problem that Carnival and HAL are having is not separating plastic from paper that can be incinerated, it is separating plastics and paper from food waste, which is merely ground fine and pumped over the side. Most of that trash/food waste comes from the plates and glasses brought into the dishwashing stations in the galleys, where the food is sprayed off into the garbage disposal. This disposal is connected in a continual loop to a collecting tank in the engine room, where the food waste is stored until it is possible to pump it over. This trash never gets to the "garbage" area of the ship. Food waste is the only thing that can be sent over the side, and it must be food waste only. Even a couple of plastic straws would qualify for a fine up to $5000 just for not reporting it, and up to $25,000 for each occurrence. The fines are paid to those individuals who are "whistleblowers" for the infraction, or if no whistleblower, then to the "Abandoned Seafarer's Fund".

https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiqt5aRxIP5AhWPjcgKHT5iDWwYABAOGgJxdQ&ae=2&sig=AOD64_2TIK0Wf9f2DteH_qMigecFgRKZ_Q&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwjZq4qRxIP5AhUKk4kEHbEbAa0Qww8oAnoECAEQPg&adurl= We've come a long way. But this uses electronics to convert voltage, not a transformer, which is why it is not for electronics, as the wave form is altered by the electronics in the converter. Yeah, a 2000w transformer is still around 10 lbs.

I don't know, I found a 2000w converter on Amazon that is $32, and weighs 5oz, while a comparable dual voltage dryers (1800w) are about the same price, and weigh twice as much.