The Cruise Junkie

RCI has completed installing the test piles at the new terminal site.  I've attached a rather poor photo of the pile rig from the Port Director's monthly report.  The pile load testing will begin next week to determine the actual pile capacity at the site. RCI has some Pier 10 wharf repairs in their scope and they are issuing a request for bids on that work this month.  RCI and the Port of Galveston are continuing to hold bi-weekly project meetings. Things are progressing but it's typically a slow ramp-up in activity at first.

Meanwhile American Cruise Line is operating 6 of 13 ships now:
https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/24811-american-cruise-lines-has-six-ships-back-in-service.html
And has plans for full fleet sailing this spring:
https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/American-Cruise-Lines-US-ocean-cruises?ct=cruise
It's trick to license the ships under 200 passengers so they escape the CDC orders.
One ship has been sailing since March 13 and the sky hasn't fallen.
Proof again that ships can sail with protocols.
ACL has taken baby steps for us with their small ships and proven it can be done.  Time to step up to bigger ships.

Now we need Texas and Alaska to join the lawsuit, or file their own.  
 

Navigator from LA is open for booking!
 
APRIL FOOLS!!!!!

Tony from La Lido Loca has interesting take on this on his YouTube channel. The latest public health emergency order expires on April 21. If it is not renewed the CSO becomes null and void. Given Biden’s new goal of having 200 million vaccinations administered in 100 days there could be reason (both scientific and political) not to renew the public health emergency order.
This may be optimistic but has some merit and is an interesting consideration.

https://cruising.org/en/clia-action-center

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Help Restart the Cruise Industry! Yesterday, CLIA called on the Biden Administration and the CDC to lift the Framework for Conditional Sailing Order (CSO) and allow cruising to be on track to resume sailing in the U.S. by the beginning of July 2021.    Today, we get to work—and we need your help! Please visit the CLIA Action Center to email, call, and/or Tweet at your elected officials in the House and Senate and tell them to urge the Biden Administration to lift the CSO. Our announcement was a big step, and the journey is just beginning. We have our work cut out for us, but the facts are on our side.  • Since the industry’s voluntary suspension one year ago, cruise lines have been prevented from operating in the U.S. even as public health conditions have improved and other sectors have opened or continued to operate throughout the pandemic.    • Over the past eight months, a highly-controlled resumption of cruising has continued in Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific - with nearly 400,000 passengers sailing and additional markets scheduled to come online in the spring and summer.    • The industry’s enhanced public health measures are working, with fewer than 50 confirmed cases of COVID-19 onboard CLIA member cruise line ships since resumption started last summer, based on public reporting.    • More than 300,000 jobs have been lost in the US due to the suspension of cruises. The majority of those impacted are independent business owners or individuals employed by small- to medium-sized businesses.    • Restarting cruises as part of the broader travel industry will provide a much-needed boost to the U.S. economy - with the cruise industry supporting nearly 450,000 American jobs and contributing over $55.5 billion annually, prior to the pandemic.    • An early-July resumption is in line with President Biden’s forecast for when the US will be “closer to normal.”    • There is no such thing as ‘normal’ without cruise ships! The cruise community is a vital part of the travel and tourism economy and should be afforded the same opportunities to begin to recover from the devastating impacts of the pandemic.  It will take every single one of us to be successful. The Time is Now. Will You Join Us? JOIN US!    

Looking at Navigator going through the Panama Canal again.  It might be possible with some modifications.
The Bliss is the largest cruise ship to have used the new expanded locks of the Panama Canal.  We know her transits through the canal are timed for a low tide passage under the Bridge of the Americas.  All I could find is a stated air draft of 60m for the Bliss in reference to her clearing the Lions Gate bridge to reach the port in Vancouver.  
The Panama Canal has a published height limit of ~58m for normal transits but there is reference to special clearances being provided for up to 62.5m.  These are specially approved because it has to be carefully coordinated with tides and it means arranging other ship transits around the specially approved ship.  That disrupts the normal flow of other ships so it's not a rubber stamp approval.  Normally ships are maneuvered to space them out based on timing relative to the previous ship, not absolute time of day.
62.5m = 205'
In a promotional video the Captain of the Bliss states that they clear the Bridge of the Americas "with a few meters to spare".  This is consistent with her claimed 60m height versus the Bridge clearance at low tide. 
During a king tide the tidal change is ~4.5m.  If the normal height limit is 58m this additional 4.5m yields 62.5m which is the limit of the special approval process.  The Bliss clearing with "a few meters to spare" seems to fit the dynamics in play.
Freedom and Voyager class have an air draft of 210' according to a Florida port study.  
210' = 64m
So it seems Navigator would need to lose around 1.5m at a minimum but probably a little more to have any sort of safety buffer.
Looking at her stacks there is what appears to be decorative trim around them.

 Is that combined with modifying her stacks to retract enough?

It's hard to judge but there appears to be at least 10' of room to be gained if such modifications can be made.
It would still require a transit at a new or full moon and special approvals by the Panama Canal.
Conclusion
Without modification Navigator does not appear to fit through the Panama Canal if the Florida port study is to be believed.
If they can modify the stacks or funnels of the ship it may be possible to gain enough clearance to fit through the Panama Canal.  They would need to apply for special approval and the transit would need to occur based on tide tables.

Another 3 months... no real surprise.

Live ?

I had heard since neither Explorer or Allure (who also was at PC this week and had containers loaded) didn’t get their “makeover,” that they would receiving some changes at sea. 
 
I’m guessing it’s stuff in response to Covid changes. Ventilation, food service, barriers etc. 

Like many ports, Port Canaveral realizes a good amount of revenue from cruise ship traffic.  Port Canaveral benefits from both being a home to a number of ships and Port Canaveral also functions as a port of call for some ships departing from the U.S. Northeast.  
Like many companies and organizations impacted by the pandemic they need to deal with the financial impact the virus has caused. 
When they last prepared their budget this past summer they had estimated that cruise lines would begin sailing in January with one ship each.  Under that projection the loss was projected to be around $37M.  With the date used in that projection proven to be unattainable they've had to revise the budget projection.  Under the new projection the loss is now estimated to be around $43M for the current budget year.
The good news, if there is any of that to be found is that their projection is based on what they now foresee as a worst case scenario.  Under this worst case scenario they are estimating cruise lines will each have at least one ship sailing by July even though current data suggest ships will sail before that.
The revised dates were arrived at independently and are not based on any cruise line statements.
 
In projecting that the major cruise lines would not resume sailing from Port Canaveral until July, “we decided to rip the bandage off” in projecting a worst-case budget scenario, Port Canaveral Chief Executive Officer John Murray said. But, based on their most recent announcements, Carnival, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean will not be sailing until at least May, and Disney will not be sailing until at least April.
The port, though, now is taking an even more conservative view, projecting that those four cruise lines will resume sailing from Port Canaveral with one ship each in July.
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2021/01/26/port-canaveral-now-projects-43-million-loss-for-current-budget-year/

Great Pics Twangster! It is awesome to have RCG ships back in PC even thought that may just be for a few days as usually for the past month its been just DCL ships off the coast.
  
 
 

Good to see you !  I see you’ve lost the “all caps”.  It was your “signature” !

IT'S (NOT) CRUISE DAY!!!


Longshoremen and everyone on the pier are all masked up.


WJ looking like it's be cleaned, bagged and stowed.  Balcony railing looks like it's been covered to keep the sun from burning off the varnish presumably.

Up, up and away...




Everyone is wearing a mask on board.



No idea what the packages contain.  Any guesses?

Other than the mess on the pool deck and covers removed from the hot tub shades she looks like she is in great shape.  Didn't see a lot of rust on the hull. 
I'm ready, let's go cruising!

Source cannot be disclosed, especially on message boards, due to privilged information.

Source?

Duh!  #teamOasis class!
What can possibly beat Central Park, the Aqua Theater, and Deck 17??
I love anything Oasis class, but if I had to pick one, it would be either Harmony or Symphony.  The are both so similar.

I’m glad I got to sail on these ships before they left the Royal fleet.

We all have looked down at a pier and have watched dock workers driving trucks and forklifts around.  This dock worker in Seattle proceeded to serenade the ship with his saxophone as we pulled away.

A passenger had a service dog with her.  Rumors were it could detect an oncoming medical condition and was trained to react.
The thing is she let the dog up on the loungers and walked it off leash.  It was often 30' or 50' ahead of her.  
Very strange to see a dog walking around a ship by itself. 

When the SeaSide first crossed the Atlantic she stopped in Antigua.  We were across the pier.  This was her first sailing and she hadn't stopped in America yet so the SeaSide had a larger than normal number of Europeans on board.  Out of the blue an older, somewhat large lady walks onto her balcony in full view of everyone on our ship completely naked placing some clothes out to dry on her balcony.  She took her time oblivious to another ship across the pier.  Somethings can't be unseen.  

I Found this great video on youtube from one of the crew onboard the Quantum OTS so I thought I would share. 
 

Someone at the CDC is right now at this moment saying this to a coworker... "I told you so, now pay up".
 

I can't remember which ship, only that it was somewhere in Europe. A group of choral singers decided they would "perform" in the atrium area, near guest services. All well and good, but instead of performing to the other passengers in the atrium, they formed themselves into a circle, all of them facing inwards towards each other. It was as if they wanted to show off their skills but were too embarrassed to show their faces, so they effectively turned their backs on their prospective audience. It was the weirdest thing.

People talking out loud to their phones held at arm's length.