An example of engineering, good or bad?

Kindred_Spirit

Kindred_Spirit

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This vessel, Freedom Of The Seas, Fantastic engineering.

Doesn't hold an interest for me to travel on it though, too many people!

Has anyone been aboard her?
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Fantastic engineering, perhaps... But doesn't it look a bit... well... top-heavy? /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

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yes, I heard they don't alow Americans on the top decks for safety reasons! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Saw her last year when I was on another cruise boat we were both in Barbados at the time, yes it is fantastic engineering. I was on Carnival Legend and what was amazing that in the middle of this ship there is an atrium going up 14 decks with a glass roof to it. Incredible that only the lower 5/6 decks and the cabins ouboard of the atrium hold the 2 halves of a 930 ft long ship together as the entire center section is hollowed out.
Interestingly, I would have agreed with your comments about too many people before I tried a cruise, My first was with 200 friends from the states and I don't know if they locked the rest of the 3000 passengers in their cabins but I hardly saw more than the group I was with, and even then not all of them at the same time. The most I saw at any one time was in the theatre where you expect to see a lot of folks.
These ships are so big that you can be on it a whole week and not discover all of the restauraunts and decks.
 
I had read the post earlier in the year, just thought after 7 months if anyone had had a go on her?

Can you imagine the buzz the skipper must feel?

"Ok let go for'n;aft--------------Half ahead both------------- Port control, just wondering if you could fit us in for the night?"

But still, I couldn't be on a vessel with that many people.

T x /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
We had a cruise out of Miami a few years ago on a sister ship Legend of the Seas
I was a bit wary before we went of being cooped up with so many americans for days but I can honestly say it turned out to be one of the best holidays ever.
The boat was faultless, food superb, accomodation spacious and clean and the service immaculate. The shows were of West End standard and the boat was large enough such that it never felt crowded
We got a last minute web booking and only paid a few hundred dollars each for 5 days full board
Try it you might like it
 
Do you what Martin, I'm wavering to shut up and stand up!!!

I'm interested in the fact that so many of you have had good experiences aboard one of these cloud scrappers.

I am bending towards giving it a go. I could then give it a fair crack of the whip. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Keep talking me into giving it a go. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Which liner is recommended the most?

I could start a poll! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Where is going to be the best?

Not interested in the ten ports in ten days thing, more a cruise with every other day or so to touch land.

T x
 
Beauty in the eye of the beholder and all that, but sorry, that ship is no prettier /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

If you want to talk of beauties, the Stella Polaris gets my vote
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Is that the Reina del Mar? If so it takes me back a few years. Back in my distant childhood mum and Dad took us on a cruise aboard her. Canaries, Azores and Portugese coast if I recall correctly. I can remember proudly being one of the very few turn turn out for dinner during the Biscay crossing. Most of the passengers, including my family, were laid low with the mal de mare.

I think the boat had served her time as a refrigerated cargo vessel (Union and Castle Line?) before being converted as a cruiser. None of your floating tower blocks then, hey what?
 
If you fancy a cruise, you're destination will often decide the majority age group of people on board, if you go with Carnival in the caribbean you're gonna get lots of low fare paying american families, so lots and lots of kids and hi schoolers going to get drunk, baltic tends for more mature people as does alaska and the med, RCCL P&O, Cunard and Princess are considered to be among the best, Carnival a bit budgety but they do have a branch called Seabourne for which you'll pay a lot and get 1st class service, small boats though.
 
As a punter on one of these ships are you allowed to visit the only bits that interest me, namely the bridge and the engine room. Or are you only force fed food like a goose being prepared for pate de foix gras?

Beats me how that ship stays upright in any beam sea.
 
Aye, they don't make them like they used to:
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"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"
 
The answer is thought in the industry to be "yes, very probably", and cruise ship operators have plans of their own, involving, depending on which security firm your chosen ship's operators use, either ex Royal Marines/MI types or ex Mossad types, assorted hardware and standing arrangements with armed forces wherever they operate. You won't see evidence of this on the ship unless you look very carefully, but its there.

And that's about all you will hear on the subject.
 
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As a punter on one of these ships are you allowed to visit the only bits that interest me, namely the bridge and the engine room. Or are you only force fed food like a goose being prepared for pate de foix gras?


Beats me how that ship stays upright in any beam sea.

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No not since 9/11, very much no go areas /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif,
When i was a kid of 15 or so I was on the QEII, and was allowed on the bridge with the Captain, just me and my Dad, they let me steer for a while, and even put the stabilisers in reverse phase, now that was good fun, went down the engine and fire control rooms too, amazing places.

Recently been on the Oriana, and Arcadia, and the most amazing thing these days is the way they handle them in port, just using a hand held joystick stood on the bridge wing sometimes, no tugs just computers I guess, turn in their own length and traverse sideways, not at all like my old Hurley used to.
 
A few years back, my father went to the West Indies and back as a passenger on a Banana Boat (great fun, by all accounts). Though his qualifications are somewhat lapsed, he's an ex-Commander RNVR, held a commercial mate's ticket and is an experienced sailor. In mid-Atlantic, the captain asked Dad if he'd mind holding the fort on the bridge for a couple of hours because he (ie the Captain) wanted to have a fire drill and fancied appearing in the middle of it, when the crew would expect him to be on the bridge, and scare the living s**t out of them.

So, Dad was left in charge for a couple of hours, loving every minute of it and no doubt making the helmsman's life a misery. He was under strict instructions to call the skipper if anything appeared on the radar, mind you. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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