While the flames licked and the souls melted, it reminded me of a place where I don't want to end up, but I went there anyway - yep, back to the shaved lesbians site at www.cruisebruise.com. Now without turning this entire blog into a cruisebruise bashing page, I feel I cannot help myself but comment on the shite that the hairless dyke is publishing. This one is great, as she has come up with the idea that people can actually suffer sea sickness on land after being on a cruise. Now I can see the bottom feeding lawyers circling below, just looking for an opportunity to sue the cruise lines because of this, but wait a minute.... these people are off the ship...! They are sick because they are reading cruisebruise and paying attention to the single figure IQ drivel that is being spewed from the gullet of the lesbo. I get seasick at sea (even after all these years), but the only time I have had it on land is when I was shit faced in a bar in Southampton (great night). Go read about it. Let me know what you think.
Back to the engineering side. So, Alaska season is starting soon with very similar numbers of ships doing the rounds up there. I have done several contracts up there, and it really is a pretty place with nice people. The one thing that is getting too much is the polices of the Alaskan governments. Cruise lines go to extraordinary lengths to be able to comply with the environmental policies and restrictions that are in place in Alaska, and to be honest it does nothing except improve the awareness of the environment. Ships now are not like they were 30, 20 or even 10 years ago. All the big heavyweights have zero discharge polices, which are policed by the Alaskan government. To give you a taste of what we have to go through, here is a brief list...
1. Smoke from stack to have less than 20% opacity at all times, except when starting or maneuvering. In some Alaskan ports (Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan) the government employs students to sit on a mountain to watch the ships visible emissions, and to log anything over 20% opacity. This is measured by the human eye and is EPA approved method of measuring. The calibrated and certified opacity meters we have in the stack are however not approved. You be the judge. Engineering loses (legally), but we know we are more accurate, so engineering wins.
2. All overboard waste water is to be 100% clear, treated and stripped of all metals. The water we discharge is treated to a higher standard, and has less metals that the water running from the Alaskan mountains into the Alaskan oceans. This means that mother natures water is not good enough to be discharged in Alaska. Engineering wins.
3. Ocean rangers to travel on board throughout the entire season. From what I understand, most of the cruise lines agree to this, as the honest ones have nothing to hide. However from my experience with these people is that they are just Alaskan people being given a job, and have zero knowledge of waste water treatment and ships in general.
4. Alaskan government have to have a vessel position every hour to track back any unsightly discharges.
5. $50 per head per cruise tax on every passenger. From what I read and understand, this goes into the pockets of the government coffers.
6. Dock taxes, compulsory tugs, compulsory pilots, stevedore costs, port services, the list is endless, and now cruise companies are starting to realize that it is not so profitable to cruise up there anymore.
I read that one of the heavyweights (Royal Caribbean) is pulling a vessel out of of Alaska in 2010, and Princess is pulling out two vessels, along with Holland America to follow.
Firstly, let me clarify that cruise lines do want to cruise up there, however Alaska is going to get a big wake up call soon if they don't start relaxing the costs. Look what happened in Hawaii. Alaska depends on tourism (go and Google the figures), and this is a classic bullet through the foot if they do not wake up and smell the tea. Cruise ships are not big polluting beasts anymore, and I know from first hand experience that they spend MILLIONS to jump through the hoops of whichever organization decided to make up new rules. Our new engines, new waste water plant, new water producing plant, new piping, new separators etc etc, are all because of new rules and regulations (not only in Alaska) but around the world.
Anyway, if my company decide to pull ships out of Alaska, I wont miss the place. 7 years of cruising up here, is nice but there is only so much snow, mountains and ice packs you can take. The good thing about being up there is that the machinery runs cooler, and that means less work as the maintenance is less. However the grey hairs are showing after continually monitoring our emissions and hence escaping certain ass-raping prison sentences because some fat assed passenger sneezed into the ocean.
The likes of www.cruisebruise.com are very uneducated (and luckily it shines through to the not so stupid people). Fuck you Janet, and the double dildo you rode in on.
]]>I was cruising through my usual bookmarks on the net tonight, and one that I have not been to for a while was www.cruisebruise.com. There are many cruise bashing websites out there on the net, but this one I am going to pick on - purely for its entertainment value. Its hilarious. A bit of a background on this before we go any further
Many people cruise, and I honestly do not know the industry numbers as a whole (I only know what my company runs at occupancy wise), however it is huge amounts of people. Most, and I really do mean most people who cruise have a great time and usually come back for more. Being an engineer, I am not on the front lines with the passengers, but we do mingle occasionally - mostly to get away from the monotony of the Officers bar and mess. Anyway, you meet some great people who are all out having a great time, but then you come across one person who is just outright miserable for whatever reason. This person is usually pissed off because he/she got locked out of the cabin, lost money in the casino, had an argument with spouse etc etc (you get the picture), but anyway usually gets over it after a day or two by the pool.
Then there is the editor of cruisebruise.com
Take the most miserable, negative, half empty type person you can think of, and then add a chip on her shoulder the size of Africa and you are no where near how miserable and sad Janet Huggard is. Apart from looking like a shaved lesbian, this women has a serious issue with the cruise industry - enough to have a website dedicated to her passion of cruise bashing. Anyway, I am not going to have a go at Janet, as I do believe in the right of free speech. I am however going to direct you to the website so you can see for yourself the bias and of course the "Fox News" type journalism which has serious comedy value. (For those not familiar with Fox News, think of crossed with reality television news and you have the level of journalism).
I am not one to get mad - or even a little cross come to think of it, but I cant help feeling my blood temperature rising when I read some of the information Janet has on this web rag. Any Engineer, Deck Officer, Petty Officer, room steward, cook, waiter etc who has sailed on ships can see right through the crap she is spewing, however what concerns me the most is that a lot of people read that crap - and to be fair most intelligent people will also see right through it - but there is the paranoid minority who will actually take her very wrong statistics at face value.
In case you are reading Janet, here are some facts from the CDC and USPH.
1. Cruise Ships are held to standards nearly 5 times higher than that of a hotel on land.
2. You could never be a pretty lesbian.
3. Norwalk (and it mutations) are brought on board by passengers.
4. 97% of drugs found and seized on board are brought on board by passengers.
5. Cruise ships are safer than Llandewi Breffi in the middle of the day (There is one gay in the village, but he is male so he wouldn't interest you)
6. We have a large security team on board - to protect the passengers and crew.
Anyway, I could go on, but I won't. Suffice to say, cruisebruise.com is unique in the way that is it unbalanced to the point that it is clear to see even with an IQ barely in double figures. What scares me is the fact that it is usually the single figure IQ people who make all the noise when they trip during boat drill or burn themselves on hot coffee, and then write into Janet and tell her that the cruise was an absolute nightmare and that no one should ever ever take one unless wrapped up in cotton wool and escorted by 4 chisel jawed SAS.
God Bless Free Speech.
]]>Without going into too much detail, I have been sailing on Cruise Ships now for over 12 years, and am now in a Senior position for one of the largest Cruise Ship companies in the world. Technology changes FAST, and sometimes I see and hear members of Joe Public getting the wrong idea about Cruise Ship technology, and what we (as Engineers) are required to comply with when carrying passengers.
From what I read on the net (and there are some very amusing sites regarding Cruising - more on this another day), Cruise Ships are getting a bad rap because there is very little information out there as to what the role of the Marine Department is. This really jacks me off, as most Marine Engineers work extremely hard, are HIGHLY qualified and very knowledgeable. I say most, as I am sure fellow Engineer Officers reading this all have a story to tell about the Cadet who stayed a Cadet.
So, I hope to be able to jot down here over the coming months and years, some notes from my fragile mind.
Are blogs supposed to be educational?
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