Are cruise ship pools heated? (2024)

chazz

Guest

Are cruise ship pools heated?

We've never been on a cruise before - thinking about a Carnival cruise from Galveston in February.<BR><BR>Will the pool or pools on the ship be heated?<BR>

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Paul Therault

Guest

Hi Chazz,<BR><BR>I do not know of any cruise ship that has a heated pool except for the spa pools and the jacuzzis on deck. There is no outdoor spa pool on Carnival. As a matter of fact, if you are going on the Celebration or Jubilee, I do not recall any jacuzzis on deck. <BR><BR>Paul

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Peter

Guest

chazz - only the Jubilee sails from Galveston, not the Celebration and its not a seven night cruise - only fours and fives. The Jubilee is one of the oldest ships that Carnival has sailing and beware they are decorated like Las Vegas in the sixties. They use these ships for the training of new personnel so their service is below average for a below average Carnival line.<BR><BR>The reason they don't have hot tubs on deck is they were built before those were popular.

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Tom

Guest

Chazz: I've sailed Carnival many times, including the Jubilee. For your first cruise you'll have a great time and the prices out of Texas on Carnival are among the best you'll find anywhere. For some reason there's a certain number of people who love to pick on Carnival, but they are a good buy and I've gotten to the point that I rarely travel with others.<BR>Now, to answer your question. On this and most ships the pools are not heated. Cruise ships don't like having that much (water) weight on board so every night they simply drain the pool and cover the opening with a net. The next morning they re-fill it (almost always with sea water). So, the water you are swimming in is the same as at the ports when you go swimming. They do not heat it, and depending on the weather when you are sailing you may or may not want to get in the pool. If you are far enough south the pool will be very busy on hot days when people want to cool off, on overcast or cooler days people tend to use the pool for swimming less.<BR>Enjoy your cruise!

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Peter

Guest

Tom - I don't know where you get your information, but you don't know what you're talking about. <BR><BR>&quot;Cruise ships don't like having that much (water) weight on board so every night they simply drain the pool and cover the opening with a net.&quot;<BR><BR>Most cruise ships carry sea water as balast and actually convert that sea water to their potable as they cruise. The &quot;weight&quot; of the swimming pool water is inconsequential. The lines that drain their pools at night are doing so simply to discourage the midnight swims. Princess (of course you wouldn't know about them as you sail Carnival almost exclusively) uses fresh water in their pools and don't drain them at night. Get your facts straight before you post.

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Anthony

Guest

To add to Peter's post, Princess also heats their swimming pools. I was on the Sun Princess in July for a Alaska cruise, and all the pools and hot tubs were heated. It was an odd sight when we were at Glacier Bay, all bundled up and viewing the icebergs, while you had kids swimming and playing in the swimming pools.

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chazz

Guest

Thanks for the info.!<BR><BR>We're looking at the Jubilee because we only have 5 days available and they coincide excatly with the cruise dates. Plus we can get to Galveston (Houston)fairly cheaply.<BR><BR>Usually we do land-based trips to the Caribbean but this cruise happens to fit our difficult schedule this winter. I figure Galveston in Feb. is not very warm, hence the pool question.<BR>

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CaribbeanGreen

Guest

Just to clear some things up:<BR><BR>The Celebration DOES also sail from Galveston, along with the Jubilee, and has for quite some time. It's being refurbished in March, as the Jubilee was earlier this year.<BR><BR>The Jubilee DOES have hot tubs, two of which are adults only and located on the deck above the main pool midships.<BR><BR>The Jubilee is moving to San Juan in Fall '03, and the Elation will be replacing her in Galveston to do 7 night cruises, while the Celebration will still do 4 and 5 from Galveston.<BR><BR>While she is an older ship, I found the Jubilee to be in fine shape and the crew to be excellent, several very experienced workers who were very friendly and went above and beyond in many cases. It's all depending on the cruise and the cruiser, I suppose.<BR><BR>Hope this clears some things up.

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Peter

Guest

CaribbeanGreen - If the Celebration DOES sail from Galveston in February, none of the on-line booking engines show it. You should send an email to CCL and inform them that if they're having trouble booking the February dates, they need to contact Expedia, Cruise411, uniglobe, cruises.com, etc and have them update their databases.<BR><BR>Hopefully this has cleared some more things up.

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#10

CaribbeanGreen

Guest

Peter,<BR><BR>Was that attitude REALLY necessary?<BR><BR>I never mentioned February specifically. Your statement that &quot;the Celebration does not sail from Galveston&quot; to someone who is THINKING about cruising at a certain time was erroneous, as were your statements about hot tubs on deck, decor like Vegas in the 60's, and the staff being used as some sort of &quot;training crew&quot;...<BR><BR>So when you can't get one fact straight, don't resort to your grade school tactics. It's getting very tired, doesn't help anyone, and the anti-Carnival anti-TA tone of each and every post is all too predictable.

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#11

Alan

Guest

Peter: Perhaps you need to get your facts straight and back off on your know it all tone. Tom is correct. The amount of water weight carried in the pool is tremendous. Every ship will drain the pool for this reason when approaching rough weather. Water that is turned from salt water into drinking water is brought in in much smaller amounts since it passes through boilers and only the distilled pure water is then pumped into holding tanks. Ballast water is held VERY low in the ship and those tanks are exactly opposite (bottom of the ship) than the swimming pools (top deck of the ship). Again, please stop posting if you don't know what you are talking about!

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#12

Ric

Guest

Peter: Both Tom and Alan are correct. As a retired captain in the Navy I can tell you that you do not understand the science by which a ship operates. The &quot;ballast&quot; you point out is kept in the lowest part of the ship to add weight and make it stable in rough water. Drinkable water is also held in tanks in the lowest part of the ship for the same reason. The higher up in the ship you put water the more top heavy it becomes and in bad weather this can be dangerous. When you raise this weight higher in the ship you make it less stable. Water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon and if the pool holds only 50,000 gallons that 400,000 extra pounds (200 tons) shes carrying on the highest possible deck. No Captain wants it there and will get rid of it as soon as they can. The other reason they drain salt water pools is so that they don't have to treat them with chemicals to keep the water fresh. Hope this helps and sorry chazz that Peter seems bent on interupting threads with his opinions.

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#13

Peter

Guest

First, chazz was asking about carnival cruises from Galveston in February - I pointed out that Paul was wrong about the Celebration being a possibility for chazz because it doesn't sail in February.<BR><BR>Second, Tom was telling chazz that they empty the pools every night because &quot;they don't want that much weight on board&quot; - not just when rough weather is expected. I pointed out to chazz that that's not true - they don't drain the pools every night and the &quot;weight&quot; doesn't have much to do with it as they carry significantly more &quot;weight&quot; in their fresh and waste water tanks.<BR><BR>Third - Paul was the one who said the Celebration didn't have hot tubs on deck, not me.<BR><BR>Fourth - if you want links to pictures of the interior decor of the Celebration or Jubilee, just ask - and you can bet they'll look like the MGM Grand from the sixties (and if you've sailed her, you know this).<BR><BR>Fifth - most every experienced cruiser knows that all of the cruise lines re-deploy their older ships to the three, four and five day voyages and use them to train their brand new assistant waiter and cabin stewards.<BR><BR>Sixth - you're the one who started the attitude thing with the CAPS for &quot;are you crazy&quot;.<BR><BR>Finally - Captain ric - I can only guess as to why you're retired. The average cruise ship makes over 1/2 million gallons of fresh water per day. It will hold over 4,000 tons of fresh water and 8,000 tons of fuel. This is all the practical ballast it needs. With the ship displacing more than 60,000 tons of water, the inconsequential gallons of water in the swimming pools has no bearing on the stability of the ship. Thats preposterous! Ask Paul if on any of his 78 cruises that the pools on any Princess vessell was drained because of rough seas. I've been on several in rough waters where half the pool water was emptied from the ships motion alone. If you're a retired Captian, I'm Paul Therault.

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#14

Grumpy

Guest

The question was &quot;are cruise ship pools heated.&quot; The answer is &quot;depends--some yes, some no.&quot; It's that simple!<BR><BR>So why all the discussion on the weight of water in a pool, and whether it is drained to reduce weight. Not the question.<BR><BR>So why is Peter on his horse tilting at windmills, looking for a dragon to slay?<BR><BR>Let's just answer the questions and stop being crabby boxes.<BR><BR><BR>

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#15

Paul Therault

Guest

Good to know that Princess heats the water in the pools. I thought since the pools that have a roof over them and it is not sea water it is always at room temperature. So maybe they are not heated afterall.<BR><BR>If Peter says that the Celebration is not sailing out of Galveston I know an awful lot of people that are going to be mighty disappointed because they think they are sailing out of Galveston. There's one reason to be weary of booking over the net. <BR><BR>I did not say for sure the Celebration or Jubilee has jacuzzis. I said I do not recall. I would have to go to my videos and that takes work. I certainly believe CaribbeanGreen in stating there is one. I am sure it will be heated.<BR><BR>Interesting information about the water and ballast. Weight is an important factor on higher decks. When the Grand Princess was first sent out for its sea trails it leaned over dangerously during emergency manuevering. The upper decks had to have most all steel removed and replaced with fiberglass. I imagine the pool water also was an important factor. <BR><BR>This is an interesting thread.<BR><BR>Paul

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#16

Asham

Guest

Peter: I can see why you get yourself into so much trouble on this board. Once you say something you stop listening and start getting defensive. Ric was not talking about just the weight of the water, but WHERE ITS LOCATED! Simple math will tell you that by moving the water that high up in the ship it has seriously more leverage on the stability of the ship. Also, water in storage tanks is different than in a pool. In one its contained and more controlable, in the other its not. I've been on several Princess cruises where the pools have been drained in rough weather.<BR>I also don't appreciate you slamming a military man who devoted his life to protecting our freedom.<BR>Take a chill pill ... PLEASE.

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#17

Peter

Guest

Paul - are you saying that the Celebration IS sailing out of Galveston in February, 2003????

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#18

Peter

Guest

Anyone wishing to know the name of Paul's travel agency - just ask. I doubt too many people want to be serviced by a man who, after repeated attempts to educate, continues to profess facts that are wrong. If anyone out there is busily planning a cruise on the Celebration out of Galveston in February or March of 2003 -please stop.<BR><BR>The Celebration will be in dry dock for 71 days. The last voyage will be 1/18 and the next one won't be until 4/7. All of the .coms know this, the Carnival website knows this and I would guess all of the genuine &quot;brick and mortar&quot; travel agencies know this.<BR><BR>I imagine at 2:00 am we will see a post that says something like - &quot;gee, I was thinking Jubilee but wrote Celebration&quot;.

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#19

Paul Therault

Guest

I'll put my money on Peter too. I did not do an investigation. I do not have the time or the reason. I imagine if I called to make a reservation and it showed &quot;closed&quot; that means it would have been chartered or some other reason.<BR><BR>All I know is that the Celebration is sailing all of 2003 out of Galveston. That is what the schedule shows. Nothing has been published about the dry dock or what is being done to the ship or the costs as yet.<BR><BR>Paul

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#20

Paul Therault

Guest

Peter, I always listen to what others have to say but I never listen to you. I doubt if anyone listens to you in social situations. Do you find that people change the subject when you are talking or walk away.<BR> <BR>The Carnival brochure prints that the Celebation is sailing throughout 2003 including February. So be it. If someone decides to book, that is the time to find out if it really is sailing or something has changed. Stop making such a big deal about every little thing.<BR><BR>Same thing happened when I described a beautiful hotel in Athens where I stayed. Others agreed with me Well.... I imagine you called the hotel to see if you could refute anything that I stated. You found out that the hotel was closed for renovations. Who in heaven's name would know this unless they called. I didn't and I had no reason to. Let the person who is interested in staying at the hotel make the call.<BR><BR>Paul

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