"One of the first things that strike me about the OceanMedallion, is that all you have to do to make it work, is wear it. “There’s no on/off button, no charging, no associations, no configurations; you can wear it in the pool or hot tub. It just works.” Padgett explains. That’s key when the average age of the person taking cruises today is 46 and older and doesn’t fall into the “early adopter” category. “The last thing our passengers need on their vacation is frustration, and that includes the frustration of trying to figure out a new gadget.”

When you sign up for a cruise and establish your likes and dislikes – your basic vacation profile that includes your choice of the ships’ restaurants and excursions, among other things – you can opt-in to use the OceanMedallion free of charge. The company sends it to you a few weeks before your trip, along with a lanyard to wear it in.

Each medallion is equipped with the latest Bluetooth and NFC technology, which allows the ships 7,000 sensors, scanners, and crew e-readers to recognize each person individually, no matter where they are on the vessel. It unlocks your cabin room door when you walk up, no keycard needed; it lets you buy whatever you want on the ship and charges it to your account; it shows your photo, name, and keeps track of your past orders, so that bar and dining staff can greet you personally; and it makes boarding and disembarking as simple as walking past a fancy sensor."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2019/04/09/travel-tech-could-make-your-vacation-cruise-whole-lot-easier/3382323002/

"According to court filings, the court-appointed monitor found that Carnival and its subsidiaries have repeatedly falsified records while on probation as recently as September 2018, when a second engineer on Holland America’s Westerdam ship falsified maintenance records to make it look like he had cleaned and tested equipment when he had not."

During a ship audit in December 2018, according to court filings, monitors found the Carnival Elation ship had dumped plastic overboard; the plastic wasn’t being separated from the food waste. Auditors also found plastic wasn’t being separated properly on the Sea Princess ship in December 2017, the Ruby Princess ship in February 2018, and the Carnival Dream in August 2018."

https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/article_1096304e-5c02-11e9-b298-73ef49c7b9d7.amp.html

"The cruise ship industry is taking steps to try prevent seabirds getting stunned by bright lights at night and dying.

Young seabirds are most of risk of crash landing on cruise ships during the night, DOC says.

In a dramatic incident in Auckland last year, about 60 seabirds ended up on the deck of a cruise ship after being attracted by the vessel‘s bright lights.

Some died because they were boxed up together and became distressed."


https://milbankmonitor.com/cruise-ships-to-dim-lights-and-keep-sea-birds-safe/12/04/2019/

"Judge Patricia Seitz says she wishes she could send the board chairman and president of Carnival Corporation to jail. “The people at the top are treating this as a gnat,” Seitz told the Miami Herald. “If I could, I would give all the members of the executive committee a visit to the detention center for a couple of days. It’s amazing how that helps people come to focus on reality.”

What Seitz is referring to is Carnival’s noncompliance with environmental monitoring that’s required under a five-year probation that began in 2017. That, along with a hefty USD$40 million fine – the largest ever imposed by the U.S. for intentional vessel pollution – is part of a court-ordered penalty after ships in Carnival’s Princess Cruise line were caught dumping oil in the ocean for eight years.

They were finally stopped by a whistleblower, a new crew engineer, who in August 2013 reported the oil dumping in UK waters to the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). The crew member got off in Southampton and quit, while the UK and U.S. authorities worked together to build the case.

Now, more than five years later, Carnival’s top company executives didn’t even bother to appear on April 10 for the hearing on their probation violation, and Seitz warned that she expects them to be there when she makes her final ruling in June. If she makes good on her threat, Carnival ships will not be allowed to dock at U.S. ports."

https://www.sustainability-times.com/environmental-protection/judge-threatens-to-ban-polluting-cruise-ships-from-u-s-ports/

As time permits it will be done.

Can anyone who gets the advanced excel spreadsheet for the 2020 Winter (Christmas) North Americas itineraries please post?

thank you so much in advance.

"A large crane has collapsed onto the Oasis of the Seas cruise ship during dry dock at the Grand Bahamas Shipyard in Freeport Bahamas."

https://www.cruisehive.com/crane-collapses-on-one-of-worlds-largest-cruise-ships/30888

For slow Internet just cruise on the Emerald Princess etc.

"At the moment Princess Cruises has a total of five vessels on order with two of them under construction and including the two ships in today’s announcement. Sky Princess is in the final stages of construction and will be the fourth Royal class ship arriving this year. Enchanted Princess will be the fifth Royal class ship and will join the fleet in 2020. The final yet to be named sixth Royal class vessel is scheduled to be delivered in 2022. The royal class ships are currently the largest in the fleet at 143,700 gross tons."

https://www.cruisehive.com/princess-cruises-completes-order-of-two-new-mega-ships/30779