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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

#341

Post by tssva »

kqr wrote: post #296
ghaff wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally speaking, I wouldn't do a cruise except somewhere like the Galapagos where it's pretty much the option. But I did do an Atlantic crossing after semi-retiring. I paid for a minor cabin upgrade and it wasn't really worth it. I'm not sitting on a balcony crossing the Atlantic anyway and I'm not spending time in my cabin.

Huh. Maybe these things change with age or I misunderstand the premise but sitting on a balcony over the Atlantic and just reading and writing for days on end sounds like a dream vacation for me. What made it unpleasant?

Transatlantic cruises tend to be re-positioning cruises. The cruise companies are moving the ships to or from the European market at the beginning or end of the European cruising season. This usually means April, early May, late October or early November. These are also times when the Atlantic tends to be chilly and the seas rough. Sitting on a balcony is often not comfortable. When I have done a couple of transatlantic cruises. On one I did have a balcony but it was only useful the first and last couple of days.

Transatlantic cruises tend to be mostly child free and most cruise lines cap capacity at about 2/3rds of a normal cruise, so there are plenty of quiet indoor places with a view of the ocean that you can use for reading.

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

#342

Post by ghaff »

tssva wrote: post #341
kqr wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. Maybe these things change with age or I misunderstand the premise but sitting on a balcony over the Atlantic and just reading and writing for days on end sounds like a dream vacation for me. What made it unpleasant?

Transatlantic cruises tend to be re-positioning cruises. The cruise companies are moving the ships to or from the European market at the beginning or end of the European cruising season. This usually means April, early May, late October or early November. These are also times when the Atlantic tends to be chilly and the seas rough. Sitting on a balcony is often not comfortable. When I have done a couple of transatlan…

Queen Mary 2 in particular does have its share of real crossings but I agree with your comments in general. It's not especially kid-friendly, doesn't have a lot of the accoutrements that many people expect on regular cruises, is pretty formal in terms of dress, is mostly an inside experience with a walk now and then, and is really for someone with time to burn, especially is their alternative is a business-class flight.

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

#343

Post by DrNosferatu »

Diesel555 wrote: post #273
DrNosferatu wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big economic blocks like the EU and the US should force the cruise ships to operate sustainably and not pollute the literal sh*t out of the port cities they stop at.

"We should properly tax/negate negative externalities" in accordance with microeconomics. It's at the core of basic economics and both conservative and liberal economists would agree with this statement. It's a well studied field. The problem is policy. I often post this, but I really wish microeconomics was a required course in high school or primary. I find it to be one of the least understood of the well-establish…

And the consequence of that would be?

Please elaborate.

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

#344

Post by DidYaWipe »

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #328
DidYaWipe wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my girlfriend's family's sake, I've taken cruises the last two years. One Royal Caribbean, and one Norwegian. Decades ago I took a couple of Carnival cruises. Things are not better now. What a shitshow. Royal Caribbean sucked, but Norwegian was a new low. The only word that describes both the en-route experience and the destinations is DISMAL. At least Royal Caribbean had a pleasant food-court type of dining area…

> Then there was the smoke. WTF. We had an upper cabin with a balcony. Doing 20 knots on the open ocean, we couldn't hang out out there because it was continually inundated with cigarette smoke... and not even from the immediate neighbor. Did you notify staff? This would almost certainly get remediated or result in reimbursement.

It wasn't possible to identify the source.

Now that you mention it, though, I wonder what they would have done. Late at night before bed, when you want to hang out and look at the ocean, isn't the time you want to call the steward and wait for someone to come up into your room.

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

#345

Post by DidYaWipe »

jesterson wrote: post #292
DidYaWipe wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my girlfriend's family's sake, I've taken cruises the last two years. One Royal Caribbean, and one Norwegian. Decades ago I took a couple of Carnival cruises. Things are not better now. What a shitshow. Royal Caribbean sucked, but Norwegian was a new low. The only word that describes both the en-route experience and the destinations is DISMAL. At least Royal Caribbean had a pleasant food-court type of dining area…

Not sure where you have gotten your experience from. If there is a smoke just complain and it will be taken care of. Been cruising for many years and loving it.

On Norwegian, the casino straddles the entire width of the ship on multiple decks.

Which line do you prefer?

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

#346

Post by EnigmaFlare »

kolinko wrote: post #290
shreddit wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do-it-yourself https://youtu.be/6bqBsHSwPgw?si=fWO5-pYa6kPYKLZO

You can also buy this from Alibaba - just the real thing, not the LCD flat panels. (the real ones are 10-20cm deep). I got a few two winters ago, and they are amazing for dark and gloomy Polish winters. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Circle-Artificial-Sun...

That's awesome, but the most powerful one is 9000 lumens from a 1200x600 mm panel, which is 10000 lumen/m^2. I don't think that's good enough for a proper sun effect since sunlight is 100000 lumens/m^2 and even outdoors in the shade is brighter than these devices. But it's certainly a step in the right direction and no doubt much better than natural light for you.

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

#347

Post by giantg2 »

lupire wrote: post #313
giantg2 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, depends on the people and the quality of the vehicles. Motorcycle trips tend to work well as convoys.

Riding a motorcycle is not a substitute for sitting at a pool or restaurant. It's different.

We're talking about road trips. What are you talking about?

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

#348

Post by dredmorbius »

j-a-a-p wrote: post #235

You might think, welding a ship together: what could possibly go wrong? The first ships that were welded would suddenly break in two. These were the liberty ships used in WW2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_ship

If you're ever looking for inspiration, consider that your own foul-ups could launch an entire new field:

These incidents are what led to the creation of the field of materials science.

(Wikipedia link above.)

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

#349

Post by AlbertCory »

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #326
AlbertCory wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"dozens"?? is that one dozen? Two? More? how do you know all these patients? Or you just made them up?

Why are you being so skeptical? I know dozens of people that have gone cruising and I don't exactly belong to the stereotypical cruising crowd. Assuming and a accusing a commenter is lying directly breaks HN guidelines.

I think you've got it 100% backwards, so don't be quoting Scripture at me like it means anything.

I know three people who've come home sick. He's the one being skeptical and quoting a well-known meme:

https://tenor.com/search/there-are-dozens-of-us-gifs

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

#350

Post by cdchn »

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.

I used to live near a cruise ship port in San Diego and I can't believe people roll the dice on cruises either. Ships would have mass disease breakouts ALL the time. Not to mention how many people just go missing. Our collective memories must be really short and everybody forgot what happened on cruise ships when COVID broke out.
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