Passengers who booked trips have been told refunds will be issued in monthly installments

Life at Sea Cruises’ first three-year sailing was announced in March and promised passengers willing to fork out at least $29,999 per year

    • psmgx@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The problem isn’t the ships it’s the insane amount of diesel they suck down. We already run giant ships powered by nuclear reactors.

      • Burninator05@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Honest question: do the use diesel? A lot of big ships when they are not in a nation’s waters burn bunker oil which is significantly worse.

        • towerful@programming.dev
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          While googling this, it seems like there is an international cap on marine fuels for 0.5% sulphur.
          https://www.cruisemapper.com/wiki/752-cruise-ship-engine-propulsion-fuel
          A lot of ports and shipping areas require 0.1% sulphur content.

          A lot of places I’ve read say things along the lines of “cruise ships run on diesel, specifically MDO or MGO”.
          E.g.
          https://luxurytraveldiva.com/what-does-a-cruise-ship-use-for-fuel/

          Here’s a thing about MDO and MGO.
          https://maritimepage.com/what-are-mgo-and-mdo-fuels-marine-fuels-explained/
          MGO is 0.1% sulphur content.
          MDO is 2% sulphur content.
          For comparison, car diesel sulphur content is like 0.001%.
          Best source I can find for bunker fuel is 3.5%. So, MDO/MGO are better than bunker fuel, I guess. Feels like a rebrand with minor improvements, so everyone can say “yeh, it’s just diesel. Not bunker fuel”.

          But 2% MDO is still a 40% improvement over 3.5% bunker fuel.

          Seems like there is a lot of changing and outdated information on this.
          And it being related to international trading, laws and standards… There doesn’t seem to be a reliable definitive source on it.

          My takeaway is “yeh, it’s not bunker fuel. It’s diesel. But it’s not diesel as we know it from driving cars, trucks, tractors and other plant”

    • Pipoca@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Cruise ships are pretty big polluters, yes. Cruise passengers have about 8x the emissions that they’d have from a comparable land-based vacation.

      But when people talk about ship pollution, they’re usually talking about non-carbon pollution.

      For example, ships often burn heavy fuel oil, which produces tons of sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain, and NOX, which depletes the ozone and causes smog and asthma.

      Cruise ships are bad for the environment, but there’s honestly bigger fish to fry. Gas power plants are way, way worse for the planet.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        From the comparisons I’ve made in the past, they’re also relatively cheap compared to land based vacations. For some reason, it’s cheaper to make your hotel float.

        Then there’s places where ships are more inherent to the experience, like transiting the Panama canal, or coastal regions of Alaska or Norway. Places that are too remote to get to by most other means.

        But fuck Caribbean cruises. That’s a boat taking you from one tourist outdoor shopping mall to another.

      • Locuralacura@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        We’re already forced to burn oil to power air conditioners so our elders don’t die in heatwave. Just imagine the inside of a giant Vegas casino without electricity.

          • Locuralacura@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            You said we will still use oil because it’s profitable. I said that we can’t stop using oil, because our earth is too hot, because we are too much burning oil. How am I off topic?

            My point is, it’s not economically viable for an elderly Texan to spend 500 bucks on inflated energy prices during a heatwave, but it’s not like there is a choice. We’re gonna burn it all up because we don’t know how to stop.

  • blazera@kbin.social
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    Cruises oughta be banned for how polluting they are. Rich folks can have em back when theyve cleaned up their climate mess.

    • Maeve@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      No they may not. We acknowledge they’re filthy, rife with noro and other viruses, and aside from other pollution, dump raw sewage into open water.

      • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Acquaintance went on a cruise. I made “covid cruise” jokes before he left. Well he came back and guess what.

        • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I went on a cruise before COVID. The cruise line stressed washing hands to the point that it became annoying. (They have a “washy washy happy happy” song that they sing.) They had good reason to even before COVID as norovirus spreads like wildfire on cruise ships.

          Overall, my cruise was a fun experience, but I don’t think I’d do it again - even setting COVID concerns aside. I’d rather go to some destination and walk around seeing the sights than be trapped on a giant boat with all those people.

    • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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      when theyve cleaned up their climate mess.

      Ah, a doe eyed optimist, I see.

      This oligarch party ain’t stopping until everything that can burn does. At this point hope is irrational, a side effect of rational despair.

      No one tells the wealth class anything. They tell us, and we obey like good lil capital generating livestock.

    • tankplanker@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Apart from the areas others have mentioned they are also absolutely terrible for the local environment due to the number of tourists they drop on an area. We should ban them for that alone

    • interceder270@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Nations won’t stop using oil as long as it is economically viable.

      Banning cruise ships doesn’t matter if we still burn up the oil anyways.

      • JustMy2c@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        You are correct. Not using oil in one place, will only make it MORE AFFORDABLE for China and other mega pollution providers.

        • Maeve@kbin.social
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          Except 1) we sent our rubbish there and dumped it in the water, air and dirt, and it doesn’t stay put, 2) it doesn’t stay put, 3) we sent manufacturing there to avoid paying people minimum, let alone livable wage. How shallow thinking is amazes me.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            we sent manufacturing there to avoid paying people minimum, let alone livable wage

            This is a good thing for the people of both nations tho

              • SCB@lemmy.world
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                It very objectively is. Their people stop subsistence farming and our people get cheaper goods.

                It’s not like we’re hurting for jobs.

                • Maeve@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  Now they get suicide nets and we get three jobs and a side hustle. That’s so disingenuous and just because fash lite party said it doesn’t make it okay to parrot it.

          • JustMy2c@lemm.ee
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            What the h does that have to do with anything?

            Fact of the current global economy is: you buy less oil (etc), other will snatch it up very quickly.

              • JustMy2c@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                Sorry, but facts remain facts. Lots of good things you can do for nature but spending less oil just for the heck of it will probably mean some other country WITHOUT FILTERS IN THEIR CHIMNEYS will use it, at Lower price.

                • Maeve@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  And that’s an old paradigm that must die. I rebuke your negativity. We have the power but some would deceive us into thinking we’re bound. I rebuke that too.

    • SCB@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Rich folks

      Cruises are often cheaper than just going on vacation.

      My honeymoon cruise was less expensive than if we’d just flown to the Caribbean and stayed at an all-inclusive hotel.

  • Chicory [Ohio]@midwest.social
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    1 year ago

    Refund paid in monthly installments seems like a huge red flag too…yikes. Hopefully these passengers can come out of this mostly okay at least.

    • Maeve@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Was wondering if I floated a bad thousand dollar check if my restitution would be allowed in monthly installments.

      • Dran@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        (with a few extra steps) yes

        Wage garnishment, repayment plans, etc. The difference is for you it typically requires litigation before you’re “allowed” to. Technically it’s probably the same for them if someone challenged it, but they have the benefit of litigation costing less than all the paid lump sums, where your proverbial thousand-dollar check would not.

    • jasondj@ttrpg.network
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      Idk man. You go hang out on a cruise for a bit you will find some old people who have made cruising their entire retirement plan. Basically just staying on boats going from port to port until they die.

      Which actually doesn’t sound all too bad. I’d think it’d get old after the first few weeks (I never heard Cupid Shuffle so many damn times in one week), but hey, whatever floats your boat.

    • Neato@kbin.social
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      It’s cheaper than a lot of retirement homes in America. Cruises outside of Caribbean voyages in peak season are like 90% retirees. It’s a more viable option for a lot of people. If this 3yr cruise was a lot cheaper per day, it would make a lot of sense for them.

      • Lophostemon@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        Plus if you tick that little box, you (your estate/ descendants) save on funeral fees with a ‘navy burial’ at sea. The cabin boy-things garb your corpse in whatever finest they discover in your wardrobe/suitcase and slip you off a Teflon-coated plank into the gentle deep and sharks.

        • Ikelton@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Is this real? I know nothing about cruises, that seems so insane and yet so… Practical.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The article said $29k/yr, and cruise prices generally include food. That’s cheaper than living most places

    • Salamendacious@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Not my idea of a good time either but it was appealing to some people. Cruises are incredibly popular. I’d only go if it were free and I was unable to sell the ticket(s).

      • Joelk111@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think I’d go if it were free. I have other things - productive things I could be doing.

      • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        But you’d still go? Like… if I bought you a ticket on a shitty cruise, you’d go just because you have to use up free things?

        • SomeoneElse@lemmy.ca
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          Who’s saying no to a free holiday? I went away this year for the first time in a decade and it was heavenly. I’d never chose to go on a cruise, but I’d jump at the chance for a new experience, some sun and relaxation - especially over winter when I having to chose between heating and eating ffs.

        • Salamendacious@lemmy.worldOP
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          If you bought me a ticket on “Unkle Sal’s Discount Cruises” I would not go. If you bought me tickets for Carnival Cruises… Yeah I’d probably go.

      • Joelk111@lemmy.world
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        I don’t think I’d go if it were free. I have other things - productive things I could be doing.

  • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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    So… if I wanted to do a scam… and I’d sell tickets to a cruise ship for 3 years, upfront payment of $90k… let’s say I sell 2000 seats for $180mil.

    Is that enough money to disappear forever and live under a false identity?

    • TAG@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The article itself seems quite factual and straightforward. The comment section on the other hand…

    • SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml
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      Even at $30k per year it was ridiculously cheap. I have a friend of a friend that was going to do this for his retirement. $2500 per month for a room and board that allows you to spend your life sailing from port to port is actually a great deal, and if/when you need more medical care you simply move back off of the ship. The idea was that passengers could just buy another ticket and keep sailing for as many years as they wanted.

      I called this one.

      1. It sounded too good to be true. I had a feeling that they wouldn’t launch and if they did it’d be a floating Fyre Festival except with senior citizens who would not be able to escape.
      2. Cruise ships are Petri dishes as it is. The idea of a cruise consisting of mostly elderly people who stay on board and mingle with crowds in the various ports of call sounds like a death cruise. Just imagine a viral outbreak on that ship that was killing passengers, resulting in a lockdown.
      3. It was basically someone watching Wall-E and deciding that the dystopian part was actually a pretty idea.
      • edric@lemm.ee
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        To be fair, 2.5k a month is what some people spend on rent+food+utilities. Assuming all food onboard is paid for, it’s sounds like an ok deal for someone who actually wants to temporarily live on a cruise ship and has the income/savings to pay for all of it upfront.

          • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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            It does kinda sound like a fun way to spend 3 years, but it will probably suck. It’s not going to be a good room. You’re gonna get sick no matter what you do. And unless you actually have money leftover, you’re not going to be doing much in the ports. Also, you’ve got no storage for 3 years of souvenirs.

            Oh and if you miss the boat, you’d have to fly to the next port to get back on.

    • Fal@yiffit.net
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      Even 30k a year seems way cheap. Most of these “live at sea” “cruises” are orders of magnitude more expensive.

      • money_loo@1337lemmy.com
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        I personally hate boats but yeah I could see people like my lil bro loving this sort of thing, he cruised at least once every couple years and loved it.

    • Sami_Uso@lemmy.world
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      Because headlines are for clicks in 2023. If that headline gets you interested in clicking at all, then they’ve succeeded.