chengkp75

Well, if the manufacturer's tech reps are booked solid for a year, which they likely are, due to deferred maintenance during the shutdown, you might have no choice. Also, while there is some grace period in maintenance, you can't do this indefinitely, without affecting your certificate of class, particularly for a major maintenance like a total overhaul (most likely a couple of months, if their planned maintenance system is typical, but they may have already deferred this overhaul during the shutdown). Typically, there is one or two manufacturer's reps and 4-6 contract machinists brought on for an overhaul. And, there is no guarantee when the parts for the engine under repair will show up.

This is the problem I've seen with the ships that have 4 large engines. If one is down for overhaul, and another has a failure, the speed is massively affected. Those ships with 5 or 6 smaller engines give better flexibility for routine maintenance.

This is most likely the problem. All of the engines (this is not an azipod problem), are completely overhauled every 12,000 running hours (about 1.5-2 years). These overhauls take about 3-4 weeks to complete. These overhauls are undertaken while in service, and generally passengers have no idea that one engine is out of service for a month, as the itineraries are formulated allowing for the one engine being out of service. Many ships can make full speed even with one generator out of service, it depends on the number of generators and their size. It seems that they didn't set the itineraries properly in the first place.

Well, when the USCG, as port state control, and the classification society surveyor, acting as insurance underwriter and representative of the flag state say that a repair is satisfactory, and they operate to the latest statutory and industry best practice standards, you believe it. "Slapping some metal in place", what do you think the hull is? It's steel plate, welded together, just like the patch plate would be. And, typically, this produces a "stronger" area, since the original hull plating is behind the patch, and is fully welded back after the patch plate is installed (if there was a breach). As I've said, there are many ships (including many cruise ships) that have dents and wrinkles in the hull plating under the waterline, that are not severe enough to warrant replacement, and while noted on the ship's certificate of class, it is noted as "not required to be repaired" for the life of the ship, and the ship goes to the scrapyard with those dents and wrinkles.

And those temporary generators are not connected all the time. When needed, they need to be connected to the distribution bus before they can power anything.

While this was the first solution presented after the Triumph fire, and there were temporary generators installed on deck, that was only until the final fix was made. And, that fix did not include a "backup generator". What it entailed was rerouting the power cables from the forward engine room outside the aft engine room to the main switchboard, so that a fire in the aft engine room (as with Triumph and Splendor) does not knock out the forward engine room as well. It was found to be vastly more expensive to try to carve out space for another generator, and then reroute "essential" power circuits to this generator (and the new switchboard, with transfer switches), so they went the easy, cost effective way and segregated the engine rooms, as they should have been from newbuilding. Carnival ships have an emergency generator, as all ships do, but the power assigned to it is limited by law to that power needed to evacuate the ship, not toilets, AC, or galley.

Didn't actually scroll down enough to see the other photos or video. The black marks on the hull are from the tire bumpers that tug boats use, or dock fenders, not an iceberg. I guess the rust at the hawsepipe is evidence of damage.

Yeah, if those photos were the "evidence", then they lost a little paint. As you say, likely some damage was done, but I question whether it was actually a breach in the hull or merely a dent, and I would discount any third hand report from a "repair person" to a passenger. Even if merely dented, they could weld a plate over the area just to relieve pressure on it. If there was a breach anywhere other than the forepeak ballast tank, there would have been flooding in the engineering spaces (those run the full length of the ship from aft of the forepeak tank to the rudders) or a fuel leak from the fuel tanks. The forepeak tank is designed to accept this kind of damage and not affect the stability of the ship, so it might have been breached, can't say without more visual evidence.

Deck and engine officers must be 100% US citizens. Deck and engine crew must be 100% either US citizens or Green Card holders. The total crew can be no more than 25% non-citizens. NCL did get a waiver in 2006 to allow NRAC (non-Resident Alien Crew) to work on POA. So, if there are Green Card holders in the deck/engine departments, this limits the number of Green Card or NRAC crew in the hotel department (when I say "hotel" department, this is all departments other than deck and engine), and the US officers limit this as well, since it is the total crew that must not exceed 25% non-citizens. The NRAC crew must have worked for NCL for 10 years prior to working on the US flag ship (at least that was how it was when I worked there, it was for senior hotel supervisors), NCL had to obtain a work visa and assume sponsorship of the crew member while working in the US, the crew had to obtain the same documentation from the USCG and TSA as the US crew, and paid US taxes and Social Security (and while the taxes could be recouped, if they filed a US tax return, the SS was lost money). There was also a time limit for NRAC crew, I believe you are correct in 36 months. And, when you say "non-licensed", while this is correct, there is a difference between a merchant officer's "license" and his merchant mariner credential. All seamen, whether deck, engine, or hotel (and this includes all departments onboard), must have a mariner's credential. In the deck and engine departments, these are called "ratings" (think enlisted men in the navy), but the officers have a license from the USCG that makes them legally responsible for their actions and the actions of those working for them, like a doctor's or lawyer's license. Every hotel or entertainment crew on POA, even the Hotel Director, is considered a "rating" by the USCG.

No, meals are provided. If an officer, or a crew member with a special pass, wants to eat at a specialty restaurant, they have to pay the upcharge.

Even if the ship was stopped, waiting for fog to clear, and the videos don't show a lot of fog, the growler could still have struck the ship, it is moving as well. This has happened before. Not at all like the Concordia. Big difference between a free floating chunk of ice and an outcropping of Italian granite. And people lost their lives for one reason only, and it wasn't that the ship had torn a hole in the side. It was because Schettino acted in a completely irresponsible manner, and did not muster the passengers when he knew the ship was sinking (about 7 minutes after striking), and could have had the passengers and most of the crew away long before the ship grounded again on Giglio Island (which is when she started to roll over), which was an hour and three quarters later.

The hotel workers are under the Seafarer's Entertainers and Associated Trades Union (SEATU), that is a subsidiary of the SIU (Seafarers International Union). When we first started the US flag operation in Hawaii, NCL basically said "here's the manning list, and here's our crew budget, you work out how to make it work". It came about that the deck/engine ratings were getting $0.35/hour less for overtime than they were for straight time. That is allowed if there is a collective bargaining agreement. We couldn't get anyone to work overtime, so they had to go back and renegotiate to 125% of straight time for overtime. But, the hotel workers are still paid less than the technical crew. For the unions, its all about the number of jobs (so they get more dues payers), rather than caring about the union members' welfare.

All crew, in all departments have to be US citizens, or 25% Green Card holders. The major problem is that each and every one of the crew need to get a TWIC (transportation Workers Identification Card) and a Merchant Mariners Credential from the USCG. These all take time to obtain the required safety training, FBI background checks, and medical processing. When NCL hires someone, it can take about 3-5 months before that person is documented to join the ship. Crew contracts on POA are for 4 months. The hotel staff and the deck/engine ratings get one month paid vacation for every 4 months worked. The deck/engine officers get 2 months for every 4 months worked. As far as pay goes, the entry level crew make about what you would make in McDonalds, slightly above minimum wage, which in Hawaii is just over $10/hour. Wages are set by collective bargaining agreements, as all crew (except hotel supervisors) are unionized.

Since they are still in North America, they wouldn't do anything to "open up cruises" that Ensenada doesn't do already. It would still have to be a closed loop cruise.

Fairly common on turn around day, they are washing the balconies, and drag a hose from one end to the other. That way, they don't have to tromp through each cabin to get to the balcony, and upset the cabin stewards' routine.

In most cases, it is at the Captain's discretion as to whether to allow dividers open or not. This depends on the Captain's personal risk tolerance, as the dividers provide fire protection.

Interesting that these two ships have openable dividers, as typically ships built before the Star Princess fire in 2006 don't have them.

While I agree with this, a bird is a solid object in air. Radar cannot see below the water, nor can sonar see above the water. The water surface is essentially a solid surface to those waves, so objects in the zone of the surface cannot be discriminated from the surface.

Even forward looking sonar would be downward pointing, looking for the bottom coming up to meet the boat. Surface clutter would likely not even show up. But when a piece of ice, which has a similar reflective effect to the surrounding sea water, is not significantly higher than the water level, or the wave tops (each wave creates a new target), it becomes virtually impossible to detect. Radars and sonars have clutter adjustments to remove unwanted reflections, but that doesn't discriminate against objects of the same size, even if they are of different materials.

The Captain and by his authority, the security team onboard, represent the law enforcement of the flag state. If a US citizen files a complaint with NYPD or USCG (FBI), then they can investigate the incident, and make arrests on the ship (with the Captain's concurrence), or off the ship in the terminal. Serious crimes that happen on the ship against US citizens can be prosecuted in the US. The overlap between port state and flag state jurisdictions is one of the largest gray areas in maritime law.

Your USCG escort was not due to the brawl, it is a random escort done routinely for cruise ships. The USCG would have no jurisdiction over a fight on the ship, unless a US citizen called them or local LEO to swear out a claim, and even then, nothing would be done without the Captain's approval for LEO to board and make arrests, except to investigate the incident afterwards.

Even the one "news" outlet that has run the story did not claim anyone "ordered" the ship to dock. And, anyway, until the ship docks, and to a large extent, even then, what happens on the ship is under the jurisdiction of the flag state, not the port state.

Actually, the Amundsen is rated PC6, which is the second lowest polar class rating, and is designed to only operate in areas of medium first year ice, which may include old ice inclusions. She is no more designed to plow through growlers (multi-year ice, which requires a PC2 rating for year round operation), than a PC1 ice breaker. An ice breaker does not push ice aside, it rides up on it, and uses the vessel weight to crush the ice. But, they still worry about the ice as it flows down the sides of the ship, and gathers at the stern. Why don't you ask someone with unlimited funding, like the US Navy, why their radars and sonars cannot filter out surface clutter any better than commercial ones.

No, the ships don't have sonar. And, anyway, a growler would be lost in the "surface clutter" of waves, even for the most advanced sonar out there. Just as waves give false echoes to radar, they do the same for sonar, which is essentially the same principal. What the Titanic brought about was SOLAS, with mandatory lifesaving equipment, and as far as icebergs, better watertight integrity to mitigate a strike. Titanic did not sink because she struck an iceberg, she sank because she was not designed to survive one.

Well, the cruise line takes the fare and says, "this much is what we will pay a travel agent commission on, and this much we won't". Then the travel agent is free to advertise the commissionable portion as the "base fare" and move the non-commissionable portion to "fees". It's been a practice for years.