Posted on 01/04/2024 5:56:53 AM PST by zeestephen
The world's largest cruise ship has made its way to Puerto Rico...The 20-deck vessel, five times larger than the ill-fated Titanic...The massive ship, which cost cruise-line company Royal Caribbean $2 billion...[Photo in Comment #1]
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Really? I'm an old Army guy who knows nothing about the Navy but I'm having trouble picturing that. How would they deliver them? From an F-18? If they did have nukes they must have been pretty small and light. The planes launched from the deck have trouble getting airborne as it is!
Thanks for the tour!!
ya I dont do crowds... i dont even like to fly because of it.
Same here.
YES!! Been on 100 cruises, all good sized ships, and 99.9% of the time it feels like you’re in your living room it’s so smoothe. I hear you can really feel the ocean motion much more on small ships.
Then there was the cruise ship that only caters to the upper crust, “The Magic Christian;”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRI4KeWGGc0&t=40s
Starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, it’s Monty Python meets the Goon Show. Several great British comedy legends in this. Raquel Welch plays the “Priestess of the Whip” and Christopher Lee plays the ship’s vampire.
It was the go-to movie for showing off your home theater in the 1990s. I’d built a modest one on my own using a Panasonic projector.
You can often get cheaper fares and enjoy less crowded ships if you shop for repositioning cruises.
Towards the end of COVID we did a repositioning trip on Viking Ocean from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere. Sixty five passengers total on a 13 day cruise. Big Viking fan.
Another of my favorite movies, based on the very funny novel by Terry Southern.
I’ve long thought of one day doing a northern cruise on a boat that only carries 100 self-controlled people.
We will need her as a troop ship to carry our boys to the fronts in Europe and South America. WW III is still on track! The War to end all Wars! To Keep the world Safe for Plutocrats.
Been on 2 cruises with Carnival. Long time ago. One of my memories being that the ship smelled like bleach. I think they do a fantastic job. keeping these ships as clean as possible.
Isn't this only for foreign-flagged vessels? And the same applies to foreign flagged cargo ships, as I recall.
I would imagine that this cruise ship is foreign flagged so you would be correct.
I remember in my youth growing up in the Detroit area that the Boblo Island ferries were Canadian flagged, and had to make a stop in Windsor, Ontario, between their stops in Detroit and Boblo Island. (Boblo was a huge amusement park, now gone.)
There's also a 'cruise casino' in New Port Richey, FL, that just goes out into the Gulf into international waters, floats around for a few hours, then returns to New Port Richey. It must be American flagged, however.
If they did have nukes they must have been pretty small and light. The planes launched from the deck have trouble getting airborne as it is!
—
They were loaded on supply boats out of Indian Island, WA then transfered at sea. I have no idea of the deliver mechanism.
Yes, F-18s are incapable of delivering a bomb load and are used mostly for show and tell.
FYI: nuclear warheads are no all that heavy. The B61 weighs only 290 lbs. Both F-18F and F-18 E can carry nuclear bombs/missiles.
Yo-Yo wrote: “Isn’t this only for foreign-flagged vessels? And the same applies to foreign flagged cargo ships, as I recall. I would imagine that this cruise ship is foreign flagged so you would be correct.”
Royal Caribbean, like most cruise lines, are foreign flagged.
There is at least one line, American Cruise Lines, that is US Flagged.
US flagged ships must pay union scale which makes them very expensive. Plus US flagged ships must be built in US shipyards. There have also been complaints about the quality of service.
Norwegian has one ship that sails around Hawaii that is union scale which means it can sail between US ports exclusively.
Only US flagged lines may transport passengers between US ports without making a stop in a ‘distant’ foreign port.
For example, cruise lines sailing out of Seattle will make a stop in Victoria Canada. Usually just a short stop.
Lot’s of short cruises out of Florida will visit the Bahamas.
These rules were instituted to ‘protect’ the US maritime industry. The result of this ‘protection’ was the movement of the US maritime industry to foreign flags. It has also decimated US ship building.
Lifeboats have gotten bigger too. Icon could probably handle very large ones.
Out and back cruises are against the law. A cruise ship leaving a port in the US must stop at least one foreign port before returning to a US port.
Cruise ships built outside the US have to stop at a foreign port. But there are no cruise ships built in the US.
Except this one was partially built in Louisiana
MS Pride of America is a cruise ship operated by NCL America, a division of Norwegian Cruise Lines, to sail itineraries in the Hawaiian Islands.
A special exemption on the part of the U.S. government allowed the modified vessel and the mostly German-built Pride of Hawaii to attain U.S. registry since they had parts that were built in the United States (Pride of Aloha was also given an exemption, despite being completely built in Germany). Since Pride of America is registered in the U.S., she is subject to U.S. labor laws and is staffed by a mostly U.S. crew. This is in contrast to most other cruise ships, which are registered in flag of convenience countries and have mainly foreign crews. In addition, Pride of America has no casino onboard, because she never leaves U.S. waters. The U.S. registry allows the ship to travel solely between U.S. ports, unlike all other foreign flagged cruise ships that must abide by the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886.
Steven Scharf wrote: “Except this one was partially built in Louisiana MS Pride of America is a cruise ship operated by NCL America, a division of Norwegian Cruise Lines, to sail itineraries in the Hawaiian Islands.”
Yes, you’re correct and your comments are consistent with mine.
NCL originally had or planned to have three US flagged ships. There are reports (which I’ve not been able to confirm) that NCL planned on advertising these to US unions in an attempt to corner the cruise market for union members. Didn’t work out due to having to pay union scale. Also reports of quality of service.
However, the Hawaiian Islands are a unique situation. If you wanted to sail to Hawaii it would involve maybe five sea days. By being US flagged Pride can offer Hawaiian cruises without the sea days.
Natural gas electric actually
A giant Hybrid.............
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.