RCVoyager

Looking at cruisemapper.com or marinetraffic.com, I'm surprised so many ships are moving around.  It's been that way since all this started, and it continues.  I thought there would be some movement for logistic reasons right at the beginning of the stoppage and then a little more at the end, and ships basically sheltering in place during the bulk of the stoppage.  Not the case at all.  Lots of ships moving around all the time.

4 hours ago, twangster said:

The difference being that Florida as the capital of all home ports realizes much greater benefits. 

Hotels, bars, restaurants that feed guests about to board a ship.  Port Everglades on it's busier days boards nearly 26,000 cruise ships guests - that's one day.  Port of Miami even more.  Think of what all those guest drop into the local economy, paying state and local hotel taxes, eating in restaurants before boarding.  Taxi, ride-share drivers and shuttle bus companies.  How many shuttle buses coming and go all day long for each ship? 

Think of the supply chain filling hundreds of ships week after week.  Truck drivers, food and booze suppliers, fuel distributors.  Taxes on those supplies we love to consume each cruise are revenue directly to the state coffers.  Port employees, security guards, terminal contractors.    Thousands of cruise line employees across multiple brands that live in Florida and pay Florida taxes, contributing to the economies of local communities. 

All those companies that support cruise lines and allow them to sail week after week hire employees and they pay state and local taxes. 

Everyone knows how cruise ship visits to a port of call floats many island nation economies but that dwarfs in comparison to the contribution of the cruise line industry to the state of Florida and the economy of so many parts of Florida.

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you...

Maybe the cruise lines will rethink the number of stops they make on some of the islands going forward.  Maybe they will take a ship or two from Florida and move them to TX or NO or somewhere else that is cruise friendly.  Florida has so many advantages over most other places, but they have got to be more welcoming when there are problems.

But in these trying times, this kind of stuff is everywhere.  I look at how my wife's company has treated its employees during this time and how mine has.  It's night and day.  The wheat has been separated from the chaff.  If my company goes out of business, I no longer care.  I'm vested.  My coworkers are too.  They have shown who they are.  Let them live on the crumbs they kept from falling through the cracks.  It's the same across every industry right now including cruising.

25 minutes ago, DunkelBierJay said:

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is one of my favorite books telling the story that included Beck Weathers and everyone else who was on the mountain that year -- back when I was fit enough for some hiking/mountaineering...there are LOTS of videos on YouTube documenting it, and when there's time to kill while we are stuck at home, it's a nice break from watching PTZTV of Port Miami and Port Everglades. I hang on every word Beck Weathers utters when he is interviewed. He is a good man.

I'm not an avid reader, I simply don't have time.  But I do read when I can.  With that said, Into Thin Air is the best book I've read.  The happenstance of putting a great writer into the middle of an unfolding disaster, as it happens, is in and of itself a perfect storm for writing a perfect book.  

One of the critics called it "written to within an inch of it's life".  That pretty much sums it up.

All this talk about ships being flagged here or there is important.  But there are many facets of this story.  Until today there were two ships that still had passengers and crew on them, and they were in need.  Thankfully, finally they have docked in Ft. Lauderdale.

Here's another part of the story:  I read someplace today that RCCL and Carnival have offered idle ships to US cities in this time of need.  The ships have been cleaned front to back and top to bottom.  In an emergency, we need to help each other.

I for one, am glad both of the things mentioned above have happened.  We are at our best when we give our last dollar.  My life has been such, that I've been on both sides of this equation.  

We can sort out the need to reflag these ships and place blame after lives are saved.

Off topic a bit, but not really:  I am reminded of the story of Beck Weathers.  He was a very rich very well connected doctor from Dallas, TX.  He was high on Mt. Everest on May 10, 1996 when a storm struck.  Many people died that day and many more lives hung in the balance including Beck's.  He would need to evacuated by helicopter from above the ice fall, an altitude above 20,000 feet.  It had never been done before and if anyone ever dared try it there is no way that pilot would temp fate a 2nd time.

Word got to his wife in TX and all the right calls were made.  Sure enough a pilot was found who dared to try it in his completely stripped down copter.  1 chance and 1 live would be saved of the dozen or so who needed to be saved.  But, Beck was connected.  Sure enough the pilot landed that copter on the makeshift helipad and just as Beck was prepared to be loaded, word came that a sherpa was sicker than him.  Swelling on the brain and would be dead within the hour if he didn't get to lower altitude.  Imagine a copter at full throttle but barely able to get 2 or 3 feet off the ground in the thin air and then dropping almost out of control until it finally felt the bite of denser air below.

In the end, it was Beck Weathers who made the call.  A man he never met would be given the helicopter that was sent for him.  If there wasn't enough heroism that day, somehow the pilot, whose name I don't recall, found the courage to come up the icefall a second time to take Beck to safety.

I haven't read the book in 10 years, so some of the details may be a little fuzzy.  But that is a true story and a lesson for us all.

8 hours ago, Matt31 said:

I think there needs to be some level of compassion for those that truthfully need an ER/ICU. Can anyone truly just say sorry can't help you? I'd say at least bring the critically ill off the ship because it's the right thing to do and quarantine the others on the ship. Then proceed with determination from there. 

Those two ships are now docked in Fort Lauderdale.

I noticed today that cruisetimetables.com has a pretty good handle as far as I can see as to what is cancelled and what is not.  It may be better than the cruise lines themselves.

I know this is a RCCL based website and some of you don't care what Carnival is doing.  In my opinion, it is an indicator of where RCCL is likely headed.  Carnival's list is below:

• All ships sailings through and including May 11, 2020

• All Alaska sailings through and including June 30, 2020

• All San Francisco sailings through 2020

• All Carnival Radiance sailings through and including November 1, 2020

• All Carnival Legend sailings through and including October 30, 2020

Without looking, I think the Radiance and Legend are in the Mediterranean.

2 hours ago, Chadster said:

Aft JS snagged for my 6/4 cruise on Adventure for an extra $102. I'm gonna call that a good deal.

I hope you get to go Chad.  With Carnival cancelling through May 14... and it's still March, we could lose all of June before it's over.  Good luck to both of us (we're scheduled on the 6th).

It seems to me that once you get East of the jet stream that runs North/South east of FL the temperature is pretty similar year round.  The water may be a little cooler, but not much.  In short, if you go out of San Juan and go east or south, you will be fine.

We also cancelled during the time between when Carnival opened up to changing but before the cancellations.  I was surprised... shocked actually... when they issued us the $600 per stateroom obc that was offered after all cruises were cancelled.  I feel really good about how Carnival has treated us.

No surprise.  I hope that's the end of it, but I'm starting to think otherwise.

7 minutes ago, twangster said:

For $90 the double CAS points may be well worth it.  

Slightly larger cabin, walk in closet (most ships),  bath tub (most ships), priority boarding on day 1.

Corner aft is nice,  center aft is also very nice.

+1 100%

Under no circumstance should anyone book an aft balcony on any ship.  As a service to all of mankind, when I cruise, I will think of the other person first and take the aft balcony off of someone else's hands.  It's a heavy price for me as just one humble individual to pay, but someone's got to do it.

TIC of course.  Aft balconies are the bomb.

The peak of hurricane season is Sept 10 with a secondary peak Oct 10.  The ships for the most part can adjust to avoid storms.  Sometimes your Eastern Caribbean itinerary will become a Western Caribbean itinerary.  As long as you are ok with that you should be fine.

The only usual real problem is a hurricane that hits the  home port on change over day.  Can't avoid that.

Somewhere around here I have an 8 X 10 of my brothers and me with the 5 members of the Barenaked Ladies.  They took a studio photo with each party that came on board the ship that day.

Something I've been thinking about with regard to America helping a cruise industry that is foreign flagged but affects American interests.

How about rebates to Americans through the cruise lines to be paid at cruise check ins?  Sure it may result in higher cruise fares, but the instant rebates would more than make up for that.  The competition would be fierce, and we, as the users, would benefit.

One of the problems I see in the Scientific community is that you can't believe them anymore.  If a guy can get Government funding because he says it was caused by bats, then he can get more Government funding to say it was caused by pigs and an HIV positive human in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Then he can get more Government funding to say the combination was actually engineered purposely.

The best example of this is global warming... err climate change.  It's all based on modeling.  The guy with the biggest hockey stick gets all the money.  The fact that the weather don't come anywhere near what the hockey stick says just means the stick is longer and more angled than was previously thought.  We need more money to properly research this but we better change the name to climate change since the reality isn't warming.

Makes it hard to believe anything... even if you see it with your own eyes sometimes. 

Nice topic Dan.  

My favorite ship specifically is the Adventure of the Seas and generally is the Voyager Class from RCCL.  I've been on Voyager Class ships several times.  The layout is great and the size is perfect from my view..

My favorite cruise is without a doubt January of 2007 on the Carnival Legend.  It was Ships and Dips 1 (Barenaked Ladies Cruise).  I've written about it here before.  The Barenaked Ladies remain a favorite of many in my family and they gave an up close and personal experience to the passengers on the ship that week.  There was the Barenaked at Sea photo, and it was there that my brothers and I met the band Gaelic Storm, a band that is not just our favorite band... a great band, but has become friends to our family.  A band that is played at every family party.  My parents, who are in their 80s, saw them live last year and loved it.  My mom said she had to see them and meet them to thank them, specifically Patrick Murphy the front man, for their friendship and care during my brother's illness and ultimate passing.  Bands and celebrities don't care, but Gaelic Storm does.  Go see them live.  It is unforgettable.

How about the following in lights:  "$500 in OBC" ?

I believe that is the Breeze in Port Canaveral.

On 3/19/2020 at 7:31 PM, PurdueFlyer said:

+1

Hey Purdue Flyer.  Boiler up.  I have a brother and sister-in-law (husband and wife) who are grads of Purdue Flight School.  That experience led to an amazing life for them and their family.  Sadly, we lost my beloved brother to ALS a few years ago.  Purdue was good to them.

10 hours ago, Baked Alaska said:

Very excited about this news! So excited that we changed our Serenade July 2021 sailing to the Quantum out of Seattle! This change leads me to wonder if QOS will receive a refurb/update besides the laser tag to appeal to the American market. Since this ship has been in the Asian market for quite some time, it has a noodle shop among other Asian specialties and interests. Does anyone have any idea? Heard anything? Granted, we will still be in the #teamCK crew as we will be Sky Class, but just wondering about some of the other offerings. So Psyched! Now, if we could get that intern to show up again! 

Thanks Sharla at MEI for making this happen!!

I'm a little surprised RCCL is taking these huge ships into the small spaces the Alaska experience is.  I didn't think they'd ever take anything bigger than a Voyager class up there.  Would be a site to see for sure.

8 hours ago, twangster said:

Unless you live in a land locked state.  I re-certified in Colorado and it was a terrible experience.  Most PADI classroom is done on a tablet at home now.  Losing some pool time on sea days would have been so much better than my land experience.  Plus your open water certification dives in the Caribbean are like getting a mini-free dive excursions.  

I'd much rather take a cruise and make it all about PADI certification with a dive excursion tacked on the end for a first real open water dive.  That way the purpose of the trip is to become certified.  

My classroom and pool work was at the local YMCA which was new at the time and very nice.  My open water dives were at a nasty gravel pit in Muncie, IN.  While I think it best to do the certification at home, 20 years later I think I'd take a pass on that gravel pit.

I guess piggy backing on your idea Twangster, get everything done at home except the two open water dives.  You could do those in the Caribbean.

It really is good to be certified.  Do it at home before your trip if you can.  As Sonny mentioned, vacation time is sacred.

The band is Gaelic Storm.  The name of the song is:  'The Night I Punched Russell Crowe In the Head'.  It's a true story.

If you see Russell Crowe today, don't tell him about the song.  Gaelic Storm is afraid Crowe will sue Patrick (the front man).

Funny stuff.