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Cruise ships chopped in half are a license to print money

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Re: Cruise ships chopped in half are a license to print money

#61

Post by nolok »

pfdietz wrote: post #33

This reminds me of the case a British destroyer from WW1. This ship started as two Tribal class destroyers, HMS Nubian and HMS Zulu. In 1916, the first lost its bow to a torpedo (and then running aground); the second lost its stern to a mine. The admiralty decided to salvage the remains by joining them together into a new ship, dubbed HMS Zubian. https://www.twz.com/royal-navy-once-created-a-franken-ship-f...

In 2020 France did the same with an attack submarine. The Perle had a major fire in its forward half, ruining it. The Saphir was a submarine of the same class being about to be decommissioned. They cut both in half then fitted the forward from Saphir onto Perle, which ended up being way cheaper than rebuilding a new half.

(they're from an older class that is not being built anymore, but the Perle should remain in service a few more years until enough of the new class units are delivered)

https://www.naval-group.com/fr/naval-group-livre-le-sous-mar...

https://archives.defense.gouv.fr/content/download/611644/102...

Re: Cruise ships chopped in half are a license to print money

#62

Post by raldi »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #38

Cruise ships have a huge ecological impact everywhere they go. They burn colossal amounts of fuel, they produce lots of toxic exhaust, sewage, etc. A lot of destinations for these things don't exactly have a lot of regulations for any of this either. Just flying to your destination and staying in some nice place is arguably both better for the environment and probably a lot more enjoyable depending on your tastes. No…

They produce sewage that would otherwise not have existed?

Re: Cruise ships chopped in half are a license to print money

#63

Post by chengiz »

lbriner wrote: post #16
protocolture wrote: post #4

I worked on a cruise ship below decks, once, for 3 hours, and I swore I would never take a cruise. Take the dirtiest hotel you have ever been in, and then ensure you cant leave it for days at a time. It interests me that demand is increasing but I suspect thats just good advertising.

"Prices from $1,000" but shows the picture of the presedential suite to lure people in. "Oh yeah, $1,000 is a room next to the engine room with no window and a single bed" at which point people feel a bit embarrassed and accept that it is another $10K just to get a window. On the other hand, lots of people are returning customers so maybe there is something to be said for moving slowly across the ocean as your life e…

A lot of responses from people who have never taken a cruise, how typical. There is a lot of nickel and diming but floor plans and room views tend to be shown when you're buying. Even the interior windowless rooms are extremely well designed for space. The lack of windows does not really matter (for budget conscious travellers) since you're going to be only in there for sleeping and using the bathroom. Of course, no room is close to an engine.

Re: Cruise ships chopped in half are a license to print money

#64

Post by raverbashing »

chasil wrote: post #47
icegreentea2 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cruises hit a spot of: * All the fun and "not thinking" of an all-inclusive resort (though obviously only if you pay for the drink packages) on land * Generally cheaper than all inclusive resorts on mainland USA (I'm not as familiar with Europe) * Competitive on pricing with all inclusive resorts in the Caribbean/Mexico * Get to skip out on flight to the Caribbean/Mexico * Get to skip out out of the overt semi-coloni…

The big draw for me was that my phone wouldn't work. Peers had a habit of calling me for non-critical, non-production problems. The worst was Mardi Gras, where I'm on Bourbon Street for Fat Tuesday, and my operations head calls me with an analyst on the line and burns fifteen minutes with a problem that turned out to be development coding. My phone did occasionally explode with voicemails and texts when I got back to…

Airplane mode exists, as much as people don't pay attention to the security briefings anymore

Re: Cruise ships chopped in half are a license to print money

#65

Post by JKCalhoun »

raldi wrote: post #62
jillesvangurp wrote: post #38

Cruise ships have a huge ecological impact everywhere they go. They burn colossal amounts of fuel, they produce lots of toxic exhaust, sewage, etc. A lot of destinations for these things don't exactly have a lot of regulations for any of this either. Just flying to your destination and staying in some nice place is arguably both better for the environment and probably a lot more enjoyable depending on your tastes. No…

They produce sewage that would otherwise not have existed?

I assume they mean that sewage at home is treated.

Re: Cruise ships chopped in half are a license to print money

#66

Post by throwawayffffas »

dewey wrote: post #53
djhworld wrote: post #20

I watched the videos embedded in the article, annoyingly they don't show the cutting process just the splitting part but still. One thing I always appreciate about watching these sort ofs things is how much work and people goes into it, like the people repainting the hull and sides of the ship, looks like real hard but honest work and probably comes with a great sense of satisfaction to boot seeing the results of you…

The "Silver Spirit Lengthening Video" video in the article has a big segment on cutting, with both the matchine-assisted cutting and the human-cutting. https://youtu.be/bhZHhDrVQ2Q

None showed any shots from the cutting or the joining from the inside though. That would be the most interesting to see.

Re: Cruise ships chopped in half are a license to print money

#67

Post by rhaps0dy »

ajb wrote: post #41
frognumber wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Regulation is non-existent in the cruise industry. You shop for the venue with the most lax regulations of the ≈200 countries in the world. * The equivalent is insurance. Insuring a $2B ship carries pretty good due diligence. A ship simply failing is rare. Of course, ship insurance doesn't care about employee rights, safe food, medical care, or other things one might expect to keep people safe. It's about protectin…

Very informative, thanks. "none having to do with the ship sinking Titanic-style." It's rare, but not nonexistent. The Costa Concordia springs to mind. Schettino ended up with all the blame, but it did seem to be that there was some degree of institutional incompetence as well. But not with the construction AFAIK

The Costa Concordia ship was basically beached and turned. It did not sink, rather it collided with some rocks near the coast.

This is very different from "sinking Titanic-style".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia_disaster

EDIT: oh hm, maybe you're right; like the Titanic it collided with something and water began to pour in, unlike the Titanic it was close to shore so the whole ship did not sink.

Re: Cruise ships chopped in half are a license to print money

#68

Post by lowkey »

EnigmaFlare wrote: post #21
ge96 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tape an ipad to a wall, loop an ocean scene... Window

Parallax, sunlight intensity, directionality, heat. It's a pity we don't have affordable (or even any?) artificial windows that even emulate the sun. Just think how much more economically buildings could be made if they had effective fake windows.

You know, I co-founded a smart LED lighting company well over a decade ago and we considered this market.

It seems like the potential applications might make this viable now. Cruise ships are a tiny market when compared to all the dead commercial office space in downtown cores that people wish to convert to residential but can’t because of lack of sunlight and similar reasons.

Re: Cruise ships chopped in half are a license to print money

#69

Post by davidashe »

verhaust wrote: post #44
jajko wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many ways to enjoy seas, cruise ships are by far the worst. As per people who worked on those, they are mostly for people who simply don't know how to enjoy life well but have money, are quiet alcoholics, and/or suffer massive loneliness. You can do amazing traveling experiences for less, you are in control of your own life and what happens next and you will feel like spending much more time when discoverin…

I don't get this kind of vitriol toward cruise goers. I like to plan trips as an adventure like you and 6 years ago had zero desire to ever go on a cruise. I ended up going on one because my in-laws wanted to do a European cruise with extended family for their retirement celebration. They don't drink, they enjoy their life and got to celebrate with family so no loneliness. They are just older and don't have the physi…

Look into what life is like for the staff.

A previous commenter mentioned that cruises (paraphrase) “lack the colonial feel of mexican resorts” which is a testament to the power of consumerist illusion.

Re: Cruise ships chopped in half are a license to print money

#70

Post by VoodooJuJu »

icegreentea2 wrote: post #40
protocolture wrote: post #4

I worked on a cruise ship below decks, once, for 3 hours, and I swore I would never take a cruise. Take the dirtiest hotel you have ever been in, and then ensure you cant leave it for days at a time. It interests me that demand is increasing but I suspect thats just good advertising.

Cruises hit a spot of: * All the fun and "not thinking" of an all-inclusive resort (though obviously only if you pay for the drink packages) on land * Generally cheaper than all inclusive resorts on mainland USA (I'm not as familiar with Europe) * Competitive on pricing with all inclusive resorts in the Caribbean/Mexico * Get to skip out on flight to the Caribbean/Mexico * Get to skip out out of the overt semi-coloni…

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