Power Strips on Alaska Cruise

[Lizzie68]

Thanks, Tights for that heads up. I did the "chat" with them again and this was the result:

 

Customer: Hello, Katie. We are sailing on the Noordam Sept. 29 and yesterday I chatted here with Nora who stated that power strips with or without surge protectors are allowed on board.

Customer: today, however I heard that a passenger last week on the Noordam had her power strip with no surge protector confiscated. Could you please confirm what the policy is, I don't want to bring one and have it taken away. Thanks

Katie: Unfortunately, power strips are not onboard. If you need an extension cord, you would be able to request one by e-mailing the ship coordinator, Shane at smacomber@hollandamerica.com.

Customer: OK, odd that I would receive two different answers from HAL personnel.

Katie: I am sorry about the misinformation.

Customer: Thank you, Goodbye

Katie: Thank you for contacting us. It was my pleasure to assist you today, and I hope that I have been able to answer all of your questions. If you have any more questions always feel free to call or chat with us again.

 

So I guess at HAL policies are dependant on who you are asking.

 

Sorry for temporarily leading anyone astray.

 

(Bolding mine). That's the way it is with HAL. I have personally called three times with the same question, got three different people and three different answers. I tend to believe the experiences reported by regular cruisers on here.:rolleyes:

[CaveDiving]

Just off the Westerdam there was a power strip in the drawer it had a surge protector it was stamped property of Holland Americia with the logo.

Just saying.

 

I believe you are mistaken here. HAL does not have power strips that contain surge suppressors. Undoubtedly what you saw was a power strip with a dual line circuit breaker (not a surge suppressor,) but you believed it was indeed a surge suppressor. I say again, HAL does not have on their ships, power strips containing surge suppressors.

 

I was on the Noordam last week, had a 4 outlet power strip, no surge protector and it was confiscated,

We managed with just our adapter but not impressed

 

First, I need to ask how you knew that your power strip did not contain a surge suppressor. There is often no marking on the power strip and probably over 95%-98% of the power strips manufactured (my assumption here but probably realistic,) do indeed contain them. In fact, it takes a bit of hunting to find a power strip that does not contain a surge suppressor. And second, unfortunately the people doing the confiscating often don't even know what a surge suppressor is. Since power strips with surge suppressors can potentially get hot and possibly start fires, the ship personnel have been instructed simply to confiscate any power strips they come across. They may miss bunch of them but those that they do find, they will confiscate.

 

We were on the Westerdam last week and they confiscated our power strip. It wasn't even a surge protector strip, just an ordinary one. It was returned to our cabin the last full day of the cruise.

 

I need to repeat here what I just said to “Tights” previously. As an aside, the power strip you show in the picture could well contain a surge suppressor and probably does. The only way to know for certain would be to open the power strip and look for the presence of a MOV (Metal Oxide Varistor,) which is the active element in a surge suppressor. It would be a pillbox shaped or cubical object, probably between ¼ to ½ inch in dimension, with electrical contacts on two opposing flat surfaces; one contact would be connected to the “hot” electrical lead (the lead connected to the smaller of the two flat blades in the 110 volt electrical plug ,) while the other contact would be connected to the “Ground” electrical lead (the lead connected to the round blade on the 110 volt electrical plug.) And oh, if there is an on/off switch or circuit breaker in the power strip, it will be connected in series between the MOV and the “Hot” blade in the electrical plug.

 

The reason for not using any device containing MOVs is because under the influence of a ship’s electrical distribution system, in certain circumstances, they may tend to get extremely hot and potentially cause fires. This is not true for typical land based electrical distribution systems.

 

By the way, I am making these statements with a very strong background in electrical theory and devices.

 

Scott & Karen