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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

#81

Post by GJim »

msrenee wrote: post #55
School-Cotton wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just not answer your phone while on vacation?

Presumably because of pressure from superiors. If they know you're in cell range and ignoring them, they'll be pissy. If you're simply unable to receive communications, that's just the way it is. It shouldn't be like that, but it is.

> If they know you're in cell range and ignoring them, they'll be pissy.

Frankly, I'd be "pissy" if my superiors tried calling me when I'm on holiday and I would have no qualms informing them of that fact.

But then I'm not American.

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

#82

Post by msrenee »

frognumber wrote: post #9
quibono wrote: post #3

I'm amazed that these welds can hold ship sections like that. I wonder if this is regulated in any way? E.g. class and quality of welds required etc. On another note, a 2 billion investment to build a ship seems absolutely crazy. How long does it take to make that kind of money back, and how long does a ship need to sail to pay itself back?

* 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…

>Welds are quite strong -- it just extends the metal. This is especially true when the baseline quality of the metal is not high.

This is not the case at all. A weld almost always weakens the base material. And you don't just use whatever steel is the cheapest to build a ship. You use what is appropriate to the use case. There are cheaper and more expensive options within that category, but you make it sound like you can just grab whatever is cheapest in the yard that day.

There's so much that goes into material selection and handling that this comment confidently hand waves away.

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

#83

Post by GJim »

djtango wrote: post #17
lbriner wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

I don't much like cruises but I do really enjoy being out at sea and would be more than happy to "raw dog" (in gen z parlance) some trips out at sea.

> "raw dog" (in gen z parlance)

I had to google that......

I'm afraid 'raw dogging' means something very different in Blighty!

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

#84

Post by nullstyle »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #57
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…

> all-inclusive resorts... And these have zero appeal to me as well. As someone who road trips all across the U.S. with the wife, the highlights have of course been the serendipitous ones.

There’s a different kind of serendipity that comes with Cruise vacations as opposed to road tripping, but it’s still very much there. Furthermore, I can’t really have a road trip experience with 16 people in my travel group; If we want to be together, we’ll be stuck, packed into a van. I can have a great cruise experience with a group that size on a cruise or at a resort.

I say this is someone who had taken multiple motorcycle trips across the US. Coast to coast on one of them and another down Baja.

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

#85

Post by pfdietz »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #78

After owning small cruising sailboats for about twenty years my wife and I did the calculation that we could sell our last boat and go on two of three cruises a year. The big cost of cruising, by the way, is not so much the ship but expensive shore excursions that sometimes take you away from the ship overnight. I get all the complaints people have against cruising but for us we have seen so much of the world in rela…

We went on a river cruise last year (Viking, on the Danube). I thought of it like a bus tour of that part of Europe, except the hotel moves along with you.

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

#86

Post by dmd »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #78

After owning small cruising sailboats for about twenty years my wife and I did the calculation that we could sell our last boat and go on two of three cruises a year. The big cost of cruising, by the way, is not so much the ship but expensive shore excursions that sometimes take you away from the ship overnight. I get all the complaints people have against cruising but for us we have seen so much of the world in rela…

It's also possible to do this on "cruise ships" that aren't "cruise ships". My wife and I toured the Dalmation coast (Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece) on the https://www.yachtcharterfleet.com/luxury-charter-yacht-48957... ten years ago - a cruise, but a cruise with ~30 other people, not ~6000. It's a big difference! The ship itself was, as you say, really just the way to get there; everything happened on-shore.

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

#87

Post by tharkun__ »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #73
raldi wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They produce sewage that would otherwise not have existed?

We don't normally dump our sewage straight in the ocean.

No, sometimes it goes directly into Lake Ontario and the river.

    Plans put in place by previous administrations over the years said that by 2038, waste water dumped into the lake would finally be as close to zero.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-storm-water-w...

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

#88

Post by ayewo »

janfoeh wrote: post #37
EnigmaFlare wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There is an Italian company called Coelux which builds something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ4TJ4-kkDw

That’s pretty neat, thanks for linking to Coelux’s video.

Apparently the video was recorded in 2014 so they’ve been around for at least 10years now.

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

#89

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

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...

I used to have a car like that - relative in car business specialized in buying late model cars that had one end (front or back) in good shape, and other end wrecked, and would use the two good halves to make a new car. He used a jig to get the alignment precise, and claimed it was as good as factory. The car seemed fine - there was no way to tell.

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

#90

Post by zenoprax »

bosie wrote: post #74
scarab92 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find I get somewhat anxious being at home and not doing anything, whereas it’s just psychologically easier in the middle of the ocean. I’m happy to pay the cost to be in an environment that I can actually relax in.

Hear me out but maybe spend the cruise money for getting coaching from a psychologist/therapist to help you with feeling anxious at home? That doesn’t sound like a great overall attitude, having stress responses at home and work related

In a less serious way there is the possibility (and therefore a potential expectation) of being 'productive' when at home. Chores, errands, unfinished projects and all the other daily life that surrounds you.

For me, any time off spent away from home has a different timbre of rejuvenation and I say that as someone who loves being at home.

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