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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

#251

Post by djtango »

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…

Yeah agreed. They're quite a solid and easy choice when you need to cater to the lowest common denominator (not meant at all in a derogatory sense!)

If you're planning a holiday for ages spanning 2-75 for 3-5 families. What other holidays will have food that satisfies everyone's particular tastes, has activities for all ages and has a full suite of excursions or equally ringfenced "nothing" time. Its also comparatively safe.

All without putting the onus on someone to organise a huge trip with lots of competing interests and spending habits.

Sure, there are probably alternatives but I can understand the appeal even though I'm still pretty happy planning my own adventures when its me and my wife.

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

#252

Post by akudha »

KetoManx64 wrote: post #246
akudha wrote: post #244

What can one do in these massive, employee abusing, law dodging, polluting piles of monstrosities that can’t be done on land? Drink, party, fight (Google cruise ship fights for some colorful stories)…? makes zero sense. If one is going to watch sea life, dive etc, then it makes some sense. I honestly don’t understand the appeal

Don't they typically stop at different ports in different countries during the trip? Other than that, I don't understand it either, especially since you're just stuck on the boat for the majority of the time.

Ye, they do stop. From what I have heard, these are short stops to do touristy things

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

#253

Post by jordanb »

vintermann wrote: post #145
bluGill wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try an alaska cruise. You are there for the views that cannot be seen from land and not the tourist traps.

This is a point, I think. Is it great with cruise traffic to Svalbard? Maybe not. Is it better than having all those people fly to Longyearbyen by plane, and wander around on guided tours in the wilderness? Definitively.

> Is it better than having all those people fly to Longyearbyen by plane, and wander around on guided tours in the wilderness? Definitively.

Don't see how you can make that determination. All those people are flying to Tromso or whatever anyway to get on the boat. And the boat is an ecological disaster. Plus the boat belching out 1000s of people into Longyearbyen is a mess for the people there. They don't stay in the hotels or go on the tours provided by local tour operators, hurting the local economy.

There's a reason why Svalbard is currently imposing sweeping regulation on cruise ships. They are not a plus for the archipelago or the community. Just like everywhere else cruise ships operate, they serve mostly to capture as much as the financial upside from tourism as possible while leaving as little on the plate for the locals as possible, while dumping them with externalities.

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

#254

Post by chasil »

NBJack wrote: post #177
chasil wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That certainly sounds like an express lane to burnout. Please take care of yourself, and consider the implications of peers who think it's OK to call you at these times. There are a lot of ways to say "no" without saying it.

I am within three years of retirement, so the problem will soon solve itself.

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

#255

Post by chasil »

School-Cotton wrote: post #52
chasil wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Why not just not answer your phone while on vacation?

Because I was enjoying myself on Bourbon Street.

That is time that I paid for that they took from me. I will never get it back.

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

#256

Post by TechDebtDevin »

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.

Ever worked in the back of a packed and popular restaurant? It's always hype/advertising hiding the reality of it all.

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

#257

Post by lttlrck »

nolok wrote: post #61
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 ser…

This is mentioned in the TWZ article.

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

#258

Post by reaperman »

robotresearcher wrote: post #191
paulryanrogers wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was the biggest shock when seeing Europe, their trains are so much better. Considering how sprawling the continental US is, it's a shame we don't have more and better quality trains.

It’s because the US is so sprawling that trains lost out to planes there. Almost all of Europe is accessible in a day on a train. Only planes can do that in the US. So the US trains don’t have their costs amortized over a large fraction of business travel as well as vacationers.

The EU is 1.5 million square miles of land area. The continental US is 3.1 million square miles of land area. Continental Europe incl. non-EU countries is over 4 million square miles of land area.

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

#259

Post by [deleted] »

lostlogin wrote: post #233
robotresearcher wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s because the US is so sprawling that trains lost out to planes there. Almost all of Europe is accessible in a day on a train. Only planes can do that in the US. So the US trains don’t have their costs amortized over a large fraction of business travel as well as vacationers.

> Almost all of Europe is accessible in a day on a train. Only planes can do that in the US. The US isn’t that much larger, I don’t think this argument holds. The geography and locations of population centres seem more of an issue.

[deleted]

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

#260

Post by davidashe »

davidashe wrote: post #69
verhaust wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I am being downvoted, wee:

https://www.dw.com/en/the-truth-about-working-on-a-cruise-sh...

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