chengkp75

How are her lawyers going to get the principals of the crewing agency from the Philippines to a court in the US? How likely is a Filipino crew member to have personal liability insurance, and while he may be physically in the US for a criminal trial and incarceration, forcing an insurance company (if there is one) in the Philippines to pay up would be difficult.

My experience with helicopters is 12 years of flying in the back, and commanding flight deck crews on offshore oil rigs, so I'm in no way in your league. I've never seen a "light on the wheels" on anything other than a large oil platform, so I'm just saying that it could be done, but as you say, not likely. The Dolphin weighs 6900 lbs empty, so even though the pad on the Edge would be large enough, I think it would be overloaded.

Viking has contracted with Wilhelmsen Ship Management to provide technical (i.e. ship operations, not the hotel side) and crew management, since the Oceans operations started.

There is almost no maritime power system less efficient than a steam plant. And that is due to simple physics, not any design flaws or things that can be designed out. That's why the world shifted from steamships to motor ships (diesel) after WW2, because fuel was expensive. But, in the US, fuel was always far cheaper than the rest of the world, so we retained steamships into the 1970's.

If you notice at the right of the helipad is a note "0,5 t", which means the helipad is designed for a weight of 1100 lbs (metric ton). That looks like a Eurocopter UH-72 (can't be sure), which has an empty weight (no fuel or crew) of 3900 lbs. This means the pilot is seriously overloading the deck, or is practicing "light on the skids" (creating enough lift with the rotor to not quite lift the helicopter off the deck). With any ship's motion at all, especially on the bow you would get a lot of pitching, this could cause the helo to come off the deck as the ship's bow goes down, and slam back into the deck as the bow comes up, before the pilot can react. Note the nearly flat calm seas in the photo. Only very small, "light class" helicopters have an operating weight under 1/2 a ton.

Since both of these are in the Philippines, she won't likely get anything there.

They can get off at any port they want to, subject to local immigration, though with crew that's normally not a problem. Some places, like the US, a crew member getting off the ship (whether quit or end of contract) has to be escorted from the ship to the airport by a bonded ship's agent. Yes, if they are not working while onboard, they get charged room and board. So, you can "quit" but keep working to keep getting paid until you get to port.

They pay their own way home.

First, the port charges are for all ports on your cruise, including the embarkation/debarkation (same) port, so there are 4 ports on your cruise. It is not true that there is only one port charge for two ports in a country. The port charges are for wharfage (essentially dock space rental), pilots, and other things, but they are not "country" specific, they are port specific. This would be like saying that NYC and Miami split the port fees for a cruise from one to the other.

Just the same as they have in the past, essentially not at all. Probably 25-30% of new hires either don't complete their first contract, or never come back after the first contract. No way to "vett" somebody as to whether they are compatible with shipboard life.

It's not a fine, but I know that RCI charges a fee for downline disembarkation, since it does require more paperwork for passenger manifests, and the fact that the cruise for everyone else actually returning to the US is no longer on a closed loop cruise, since the manifest changed since leaving the US embarkation port. Not sure if Carnival charges this fee.

While it could be flown as a drone, there still needs to be a paramedic onboard for patient care.

But, most of the helipads are not strong enough, or large enough for most SAR helicopters to land, though I suspect they could try to stay "light on the skids" to reduce weight on the pad.

Just like the little loop on the back of men's shirts, who knows?

Probably done to minimize the passengers out there with their cameras and flashes distracting the pilot.

And that helicopter does have aerial refueling capability, see the probe extending out of picture lower right.

The USCG helicopters don't have aerial refueling probes like some Army helicopters do, but USCG helicopters do practice an "aerial refueling" of a sort, where the helicopter hovers over the deck of a cutter if the helicopter is too large, or the cutter motion is too great for the helicopter to land on the cutter. Otherwise, the helicopter will land on the cutter and refuel. That doesn't look like a USCG helicopter, maybe Army, so maybe less range, hence the cutter to refuel.

I don't think you will be charged tax while in the Inside Passage, either.

You will be charged tax while in Vancouver. Alaska does not have a state sales tax, though some municipalities do, including some cruise ports, but I have not heard that they require that it be charged on the ship.

The decision as to whether to use a helicopter for evacuation or divert the ship is made by committee. That committee consists of the ship's doctor (what condition is the patient in), the ship's Captain (what is the risk to the ship, crew, and passengers, the helicopter flight crew (are weather conditions or distance okay to make it safe), and the USCG flight surgeon (is there more risk in winching the patient off the ship and spending an hour or two with sub-optimal life support (this is a helicopter, not an ER), or is the patient stable enough with the life support systems on the ship to make the diversion). All of these decisions put together are what determine whether a helicopter evac is warranted. If the distances that the helicopter has to cover are great, USCG will deploy a fixed wing aircraft to supervise the scene, in case things go sideways, they can deploy lifesaving equipment. The helipads on cruise ships are almost never used for landing, and being on the bow, they are difficult to use for winching operations. The ship must continue to move, in order to remain as stable as possible, and so the helicopter is forced to make a "moving hover" (staying stationary over a moving spot) with the front of the ship in his face while backing away. For this reason, most winching is done from an upper deck, around midships. This presents problems as well, as the thermal updrafts from the ship's exhausts are near, and can cause problems with hovering. No commercial helicopter (certainly not a MediAir type) company trains for hovering over a moving ship, nor winching exercises, nor even landing on a moving ship (ship would still need to be moving to maintain a stable helipad), and no Captain would think of allowing a commercial helicopter anywhere near his ship. Some countries do outsource their SAR responsibilities to private companies (Holland for one, I think), but these are typically ex-military pilots who do train for these operations.

No more than you would with bringing a six pack of root beer. Go for the Dark and Stormy.

I don't think anyone disputes that the ship should not have been where it was, it would be interesting to see if the Sailing Directions and the Port Entry Guide for Kauaii have the information regarding the exclusion zone. Those would be the areas where the shipboard crew would learn about the zone, unless it is marked on the chart, which I don't think it would be, as it is not a federal requirement.

Staff Captain, who has to be a licensed Master, the same as the Captain.

Fuel quality issues are a large, and growing problem in the industry, but over the last 20 years or so, we've come up with ways to minimize the risk, but nothing in life is without risk.

The ISM model of safety management uses a "likelihood/consequence" matrix to make decisions on actions that are not automatically approved by the SMS. This is a matrix with "likelihood" on the vertical (how likely is the result of the action to happen), and "consequences" on the horizontal (what happens if the worst happens). So, for each action (say, running aground on the Na Pali coast), you assign a likelihood (rare to almost certain) and then a consequence (from insignificant to extreme) that may happen (if you do run aground). Crossing the likelihood with the consequence gives a risk assessment for the action, from low to extreme. Your actions should never be in the high or extreme risk areas, moderate is allowed with permissions and mediating methods, and low is best. You then think of the mediating actions that can moderate the risk (having bow thrusters running, going slowly, etc), and assign an effectiveness rating to these mediating actions, to determine how much risk there is after you've done all the mediation actions you think can help. So, long story long, yes it is a sliding scale of risk, and the risk assessment matrix allows you to find where the risk isn't acceptable anymore. Edge could have gone closer (baring any legal restriction) should the risk matrix allowed it (which would depend on things like weather, water depth, obstacles, etc) Actually, while the cruise ships may be maseratis, Navy vessels are the Corollas, and 95% of merchant ships are the "dump trucks". Most Navy vessels have multiple propellers and multiple rudders, while most merchant ships have one diesel engine bolted to a propeller shaft driving one propeller, and having one rudder. While Navy vessels most often use tugs, merchant ships (other than cruise ships) will always use them, as they are so unmaneuverable. When a merchant ship Captain transitions to cruise ships, it takes a few hours to become comfortable with the systems, and amount of maneuverability. In the "old days" he learned by doing it (docking the cruise ship under the Captain's supervision), but now simulators are so good that some ships even have one onboard for training/refreshing/casualty training. Again, not trying to marginalize the ex-Navy Captain's experience, but it is similar to someone who has a private pilot's license and learned on a single engine Cessna, comparing their comfort level to sitting in the flight deck of a 777.