You say you need a bigger boat?
 

" JimH" jimh_osudad@yahooDOT comREMOVETHIS wrote in message
...

"P. Fritz" paulfritz ATvoyager DOTnet wrote in message
...

" JimH" jimh_osudad@yahooDOT comREMOVETHIS wrote in message
. ..

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
JimH wrote:
They don't get much bigger than this one:

=========================
http://tinyurl.com/98p9k


Tuesday, February 07, 2006
John Pain
Associated Press
Miami

-- Royal Caribbean International on Monday ordered the world's largest
and most expensive cruise ship, a $1.24 billion vessel that will hold
up to 6,400 passengers. It's the latest step in the industry trend of
supersizing ships, which delight many passengers but are too crowded
for other guests.

The ship, dubbed Project Genesis, will be 220,000 gross registered
tons when it is delivered to the world's second-largest cruise
operator in fall 2009 by Oslo, Norway-based shipbuilder Aker Yards.
Gross registered tons is a standard way to measure a ship's size and
is a unit of volume equal to about 100 cubic feet.

The ship will weigh about 100,000 tons based on displacement. A
Nimitz-class aircraft carrier comes in at about 97,000 tons.

=====================



Just what I want to do...go on a cruise on a boat with 6,400
passengers.
Must be like a week in Las Vegas at one of the new monster hotels,
except you're stuck on a boat.


Embarkation will be a nightmare.

Or finding a taxi once you did.







I think you are thinking "debarkation"....

Yeah...not enough coffee this morning........debarkation would be just as
big a pain

......getting off the
ship........but maybe not as you might need a taxi to get around that
ship. ;-)

You say you need a bigger boat?
 

wrote in message
oups.com...

Harry Krause wrote:


As much as I hate flying, if I were heading for Tahiti, I'd go there on
a plane, so I could get there and enjoy the islands. Being cooped up on
a cruise ship way offshore for a week is not my idea of fun.

Now, a cruise that hugged the shoreline on the way to Alaska I might
enjoy. Lots to see.

Several cruise lines make weekly departures from Seattle and do 6 day
cruises to AK and back.

The industry is considered a mixed blessing in some of the small towns
in AK. Yes, the folks from Hoboken and Omaha bring a lot of welcome
cash with them- but a lot of the shops that are set up nearest the
cruise ship docks are owned and operated by.....guess who....the cruise
ship companies. The money that gets brought to town by the ship's
passengers leaves town the same night in the purser's safe. At best,
the industry creates a few seasonal, mini-wage jobs for retail clerks
and benefits those businesses just beyond the cruise ship's "inner
circle" capable of competing with the cruise company's business model
or offering something truly unique. (Some of the cruise ship company's
"native craftwork" is made in China. I guess that if you live in China,
you're a native-- of China.)

Some of these "cruise ships" are about 20 stories tall. They look out
of scale moored in Elliott Bay in front of the Seattle Skyline, so of
course they tower over every shoreside structure and literally blot out
the sun at some of the smaller towns up in SE AK. When the cruise ship
hits town, the population literally doubles or triples for a day.

One of the biggest challenges has been pollution from these gargantuan
monsters. They have holding tanks the size of Olympic swimming pools
and when you dump a million gallons of raw sewage it really doesn't
matter if you're 3.1 miles from shore, or not.

All in all, however, the Inside Passage to AK is stunningly beautiful
and a cruise ship makes as much sense for most people as trying to
charter a boat. Probably less expensive, and if one isn't used to some
of the "isms" of our regional waters there would need to be a lot of
time spent every day with the Coast Pilot orother resource and
extensive chart work to make a safe passage.


My wife's aunt and uncle have mad a couple of trips up the inside passage.
They go on small cruise ships. About 80-100 passenger.