Cruise Ship Crashing Fad

[Totoro]

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Originally Posted by JoeWras Captains need to start reading the book.

The reviews are hilarious ...

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I think this book misses the bigger issue. We shouldn't be just avoiding huge ships. We should be confronting them. If we spend our lives running away, the huge ships win.

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As the father of two teenagers, I found this book invaluable. I'm sure other parents here can empathize when I say I shudder at the thought of the increasing presence of huge ships in the lives my children.

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The photo on the cover has clearly been photoshopped to make the bow appear larger and perkier. Promotes unhealthy ship image among captains and crew alike.

[NW-Bound]

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Originally Posted by Chuckanut I still enjoy travel inside or outside the country. But, cruising, at this time is not for me. An acquantance recently returned from a Mediterranean Cruise. As I listened to his stories of seeing this and that famous site I realized that he often spent as little as 5 minutes at some of these places. The Colosseum in Rome was literally a drive by "there it is" moment in time. Hit-and-run sight seeing is not for me...

My aunt and her husband told me they had been to Florence, as a day trip from a cruise ship. It turned out that they did not get to enter any museum or site. We spent 3 days and saw only a fraction of what our Firenzecard allowed us to see (72 museums).

That said, I think we will do more cruises in the future years when older, when we feel wanting to get off our rocking chair and have a change of scenery.

[Sunset]

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Originally Posted by NW-Bound My aunt and her husband told me they had been to Florence, as a day trip from a cruise ship. It turned out that they did not get to enter any museum or site. We spent 3 days and saw only a fraction of what our Firenzecard allowed us to see (72 museums). That said, I think we will do more cruises in the future years when older, when we feel wanting to get off our rocking chair and have a change of scenery.

Where a person goes on a cruise matters a lot, as sometimes ships stop far from the sites you want to see. Example Rome, the ships park about 1->1.5 hr travel time from Rome, so its hard to see things in detail.

However, at Dubrovnik the ships park a $5 taxi ride from the walled city so you can see a lot there easily.

[Nemo2]

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Originally Posted by Sunset However, at Dubrovnik the ships park a $5 taxi ride from the walled city so you can see a lot there easily.

We walked.....and even got to 'attend' a wedding on the way back.

[Sunset]

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Originally Posted by Nemo2 We walked.....and even got to 'attend' a wedding on the way back.

Yes I was going to say walking , but the cab was cheap, and I asked 2 other people if they wanted to share the cab, so 4 of us went for roughly $2 each.

It was a rainy day so we didn't want to walk.

[NW-Bound]

Dubrovnik is too easy.

In one RV trip, when we were at the Astoria Column in Astoria (where else?), Oregon, I was surprised to see some older couples there, who were cruisers who walked up from the dock. It was a 6-mile round trip, up a 600-ft hill. I was impressed.

[deserat]

I like cruises as they allow you to 'try' a place and if you don't like it, you haven't wasted too much time. If you like it, you can then plan a longer trip next time. This is we did for Santorini - our cruise ship docked there and we spent a few hours. We then returned several years later for 4 days. Whereas, we did not like Corfu as much, so the few hours there were enough.

Interestingly, I had wanted to go on a Caribbean cruise since I was a teenager. When I finally went on one, I was so bored as all the stops looked the same. I now will most likely not plan a long term trip in the Caribbean any time soon.

[Scuba]

My first cruise was to Eastern and Southern Caribbean islands. It was a great overview and made me realize I wanted to come back and spend a lot more time there, and I have done that on trips to numerous islands.

We considered a cruise for our trip to Greece, but were really glad we didn’t do that. Not enough time in the ports, and many of the really charming islands don’t even have cruise ship docks. We would have missed out on so much if we had tried to see Greece on a cruise.

[Badger]

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Originally Posted by deserat Interestingly, I had wanted to go on a Caribbean cruise since I was a teenager. When I finally went on one, I was so bored as all the stops looked the same. I now will most likely not plan a long term trip in the Caribbean any time soon.

I can understand folks from the cold inland north in winter looking forward to some sun in the islands but since I live a couple of blocks from the beach in Fl and a port is only a couple of hours drive we have been on a number of cruises to the Caribbean. After the first one we were bored. Too many people on crowded beaches (lots of pasty white people coming back with bad sunburns), lots of people getting drunk at the popular chain bars, and multiple tourist shops with junk to buy. I can get just as good if not better prices on watches, jewelry, and cameras at home so that is not a draw for us. The highlight of the evening is when people come back from a day in the sun while drinking large amount of alcohol. Just imagine them trying to run back in that condition before the ship leaves. Run Forest Run!



We have taken cruises after that when the price was too cheap to stay home for the week but on a ships that had a non-smoking cabin area next to the fitness center, with unlimited use of restricted entry to steam rooms, a huge indoor hot tub and a semi-private area with couches where we could relax with some lemon water and read a good book or play games. We never got off at the ports and enjoyed an uncrowded ship. But now that is getting old so we are going to take some barge and bike trips and river cruises for a change. Maybe later an ocean cruise to Norway



Cheers!

[Nemo2]

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Originally Posted by deserat Interestingly, I had wanted to go on a Caribbean cruise since I was a teenager. When I finally went on one, I was so bored as all the stops looked the same. I now will most likely not plan a long term trip in the Caribbean any time soon.

My first ever trip on a ship, (or anywhere, for that matter), some 59 years ago, we stopped in Port Said, Egypt.....there were a few 'older' passengers in the lounge playing cards.

They said they'd 'Been there, done that" and weren't disembarking....I was astounded...how could they not want to get off?

Nowadays, on transatlantics that start or end with Caribbean ports, DW & I feel pretty much the same way. T-shirts and taxicabs.

[Teacher Terry]

We always get off in the ports but there is usually a tour we want to take.

[aboatguy]

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Originally Posted by candrew Wow! I imagine that there must have been no lights, no phones, no motor cars. Not a single luxury!

Like Robinson Crusoe?

Primitive as can be??

[aboatguy]

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Originally Posted by ransil That has been going on for years, just lately started back up as the Russians are getting back out to sea.

Concur
Somewhere I have pics from a US DDG trying to ram a Soviet Krivak Class Frigate that tried to block a US conventional carrier during an unrep….


However, from the little bit I know of the rules of the road the guy showing the red running light has the right of way...….

[LivelyFL]

I was on a Holland America cruise a few years ago and there was a murder one floor below me. Yikes!

[NW-Bound]

^^^ There was a murder-suicide case in 2015, when a Holland America ship was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

[LivelyFL]

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Originally Posted by NW-Bound ^^^ There was a murder-suicide case in 2015, when a Holland America ship was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Yes, that was the ship I was on. When we were getting off the ship for the day in Puerto Rico, the ship was crawling with FBI.

[Maidensong]

Once a cruise ship approaches a port, a harbor pilot takes over, but the captain is still responsible. The captain on our 2018 World Cruise said he'd not hesitate to belay an order given by a harbor pilot if he felt it unwise or take over if necessary. The buck definitely stops with the captain.

[sengsational]

My nephew and his family were on one of the two ships that collided at the dock today in Cozumel.


They were on the one that didn't get much damage.


I wonder what was happening in the dining room at the time. Either there wasn't anyone sitting there, or it happened slow enough for everybody to get out of harm's way. The times involved are in the many second range (apparently there's a video, but I haven't seen it). I imagine from first touch to when they stopped converging was more than 5 seconds, so some time to run.



EDIT: Just saw the video, not many seconds to run! [

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9a1oF4z4LM]

And notice that the stern thruster was engaged, pushing the stern right into the bow of the other ship. Tsk, tsk. Don't blame the wind, or the sun in your eyes. I wonder if the port's harbor pilot or one of the ship's personnel (captain) was at the controls.

[ExFlyBoy5]

That Cozumel port is nuts; they park some very big ships in a pretty small area.

[HFWR]

Nothing new under the sun...


https://youtu.be/4XFYMjkFYPg