chengkp75

So, would you go to guest services and ask whether someone really needs their mobility scooter or not, since it bothers you having them run into your ankles all the time? A service dog is a medical "device", just like a wheelchair or scooter, and should be treated as such by the general public. It is the business owner's right, and only the business owner's right, to question whether a dog is a service dog or not. The only right a customer, or a passenger on a cruise ship has, is to complain if the service dog is not meeting the proper code of conduct, but again it is the business owner's decision whether to do anything about the complaint.

If you're thinking that asking about a person's disability and whether a service dog is a service dog is pertinent to HIPAA, that's not the case. According to the ADA, there are only two questions a business can ask about a service dog: "is that a service dog", and "what service does the dog provide?". Anything else, or asking what the owner's disability is, is prohibited under the ADA, not HIPAA. HIPAA deals with medical professionals disseminating your medical records, it has nothing to do with businesses.

Where do I get my payment for the information he took word for word from my posts here? 😁

Sure it's possible, but as the poster you are responding to says, in the US, the ADA has been in effect for 30 years, and the Supreme Court ruled 20 years ago that the ADA in some circumstances applies to foreign flag cruise ships, but in that time, Congress has not decided that this is a sufficiently important problem to revise the ADA. So, while it is of course possible to change the law, in over 2 decades US lawmakers have not had the political will to do so, and it does not look like they ever will.

Unfortunately, with the exception of the immunization proof you mention, all of the things you suggest are illegal for a business to request. The only way to enable what you suggest is to have Congress change the ADA. Since businesses cannot legally ask for certification of service animals, whether from a local doctor or the internet, having them "band together" to "reject certification" doesn't make any sense, and would only open that "band" of businesses to class action litigation.

When the Polar Code came into effect in 2017, existing ships were grandfathered in, until their next renewal, meaning the time that the ship's class certificates are renewed, which happens every 5 years. The Black Watch was built in 1972, so her next renewal after 2017, would have been 2022, and that is when her grandfathering ran out. The main reason that existing ships don't meet the Polar Code is as I've said, there are structural requirements that are just not economical to perform on an existing ship, especially one that does not spend full time in the Polar regions. Yes, the requirement for Polar regions is to use diesel fuel, but any cruise ship afloat today, can use diesel fuel (called Marine Gas Oil in the maritime) as well as residual fuel (called "heavy" or "bunker" fuel). You just have to purchase the right fuel in the right amount for your time in the Polar regions.

While this is true of the past, it is not true now. The IMO's Polar Code went into effect in 2017, and requires significant changes from the past for ships operating above 60*N or below 60*S, virtually no ship in operation in 2017 could meet these conditions, so only new builds after that date would comply, if they specifically were built to meet them, and they add quite a lot to the building costs, so only smaller expedition ships are built this way. The Odyssey does not have a Polar Class certificate from DNV, so there is no way she will be landing passengers on Antarctic soil. Without a Polar Class certificate, I'm not even sure she can do a "drive by" that most mainstream cruises do now of Antarctica, sailing offshore past some of the South Shetland and South Sandwich Islands. Without a PC certificate, she is not allowed to operate at all below 60*S, which rules out the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. She needs at least a Polar Category "C" certificate, and a Polar Code "7" rating to go below 60*S, which she doesn't have, according to her file in the DNV database. And, even with these minimum ratings, she could be held out altogether depending on the current ice conditions.

And, if I remember correctly, this was found prior to Olsen laying the ship up, and was one of the reasons for not restarting her. And, that would not have started 4 years ago, to get to the point where the structure needed replacing, that started long before she was laid up. Again, this is a long term problem, not something that happened because the ship was laid up for 4 years, or because it was not maintained for those 4 years. My feeling is that Olsen knew of these problems (the steel thickness gauging is done every 5 years in drydock), and they have a record of how the corrosion is progressing, and can know when it will be due for renewal. They didn't want to spend the money to do the repairs, so they let the certificates lapse, which required VVR to apply as for new certificates, not renewals. Olsen was lucky to find a sucker to buy the ship without any real surveys prior to signing on the dotted line.

Is there general opinion that she is more uncomfortable than other ships? I don't know her history. Yes, smaller ships will pitch more than larger ships, heavier ships will move less than lighter (smaller) ships. Hull design has improved over the last 30 years, but I never thought of ships like the Norwegian Sky (25 years old) as particularly uncomfortable seekeeping). Stabilizers are stabilizers, their size is determined by the size of the ship. And, as I've said before, many times, (not sure if I have on this thread), but stabilizers do not stop a ship from rolling, nothing short of a "wing" the size and weight of the ship itself could do that, but a stabilizer merely is designed to slow the roll period (time from one end of the roll to the other end) down to make it more comfortable.

River boats are wider and longer than an equivalent ocean going ship so that the displacement (the hole in the water caused by the ship) is spread out over more waterplane, and therefore they can be shallower for the same weight ship. Not really challenging me, they have heard things I've heard too, but that are incorrect.

Just look at any cruise ship, or freighter or tanker, sitting on the keel blocks in dry dock. Flat bottoms. Yes, the "pointy end" isn't really flat, because its narrow, but directly behind, where the hull is 10 feet wide or more, its flat. A V-hull is for speed boats, to get them up out of the water at speed, resulting in less resistance in the water. Flat bottoms have not much to do with reaction to waves, that is a function of the bow shape. The finer the entry (the longer from the pointy end to the full width) the better to pierce waves (like the QM2 compared to most cruise ships). Also, things like the newly "fashionable" reverse bow (that leans back from the waterline) pierces waves better and causes less pitching than conventional bows, but they are "wetter" (they tend to take more green water over the bow). A conventional "flared" bow is designed to ride over the waves, as when the bow starts to dig into a wave, the bow gets wider, so there is more buoyancy, and this brings the bow back up out of the wave, causing pitching, but keeping the bow drier.

Not in the last century. Besides, a rounded bottom boat rolls more than a flat bottomed boat, due to the hard angled chine (where the side meets the bottom, its like having two keels, one on each side.

Every ship has a flat bottom.

While I agree that it is taking a long time, you just can't go out to your pool equipment store and buy a pump, filter, or chlorinating equipment. It all has to be class approved, and there are still lingering supply chain issues from the pandemic.

I can categorically say it wasn't anything to do with the incident. The maritime industry has grown out of the "blame" culture, and now looks for the "root cause" of the incident. If the Captain, and his officers followed all Safety Management System (SMS) procedures and policies, as set out by the company in it's SMS manual, then no blame will be accorded to anyone. In searching for the true root cause of the incident, it is found that people involved will give a more accurate statement of facts if they know there is no blame to be apportioned. Finding the root cause allows the company to amend their SMS as needed to prevent the incident from happening again. Secondly, as part of the SMS, the Captain is given "overriding authority" to make decisions regarding the safety of the passengers, crew, ship, and environment, as the person in charge, onboard, at the moment. This means that no corporate officer can question the decisions made in the moment of danger.

POA spends so little time at sea, that she is constantly bunkering water in every port, from docking to undocking. In Honolulu, I remember using two or three hoses all day.

Okay, didn't know she was in dock now. November is within the window for the Jan 2025 docking, so this should be it until 2029, with an underwater survey in 2028-2027.

Well, she is due for dry docking in Jan 2025, and as that is a renewal dry dock, there isn't a lot of leeway in scheduling, though they may be able to slip to Feb/Mar.

So, you can tell from wandering around the guest areas that the ship is functionally different, mechanically, from other ships? I've worked on ships for over 4 decades, and wish I could do that? Want to tell me how to do it? And, in those 750 weeks, how many times has the ship gone into shipyard for maintenance? How many of those weeks were dedicated to that maintenance?

Would love to know how the environmental lobbies measure the pollution that a cruise ship actually puts out. Do you know, or do you take their word for it, whether they are scientific or not?

Yeah, makes no sense, since we all know that emergencies will happen when it's cool, and we won't be crowded together. Wouldn't want you to get in the habit of bringing the life jacket when there is an emergency, would we? It's also fortunate that emergencies will start on time, and end at a pre-determined time. This is the worst condemnation of the new muster drill I've heard. So, you didn't even go to the muster station? Wow, just wow.

I've never heard of a Berliner in the US, but when I was growing up in the Midwest, there was a rectangular jelly doughnut that was called a "Bismark".

Referring to those as Berliners, reminds me of JFK's famous quote "ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a jelly donut), when he meant to say "ich bin Berliner" (I am from Berlin) ☺️

Not sure what your point is. You seem to say in your first post that replacing carpet and curtains is doing it "on the cheap", so what would you think is a "real" refurbishment? Or, if your complaints are about bad carpets or curtains, and you seem to say they are planning on replacing those, then what is your complaint about doing it "on the cheap"?

I am constantly amazed by how posters here on CC think that cruise ships need to be completely renovated every 5 years. Are resorts or theme parks renovated every 5 years?