I think Carnival got burned when their cruise liner was dead in the water near Yucatan Peninsula some years back and many onboard were having QSO explaining issues.
My wife and I cruise at least once a year on the Disney Cruise Line. They've been very good about allowing me to use a 2m/440 handheld from the ship. Once I was on a cruise off the Southern California coast and was able to check into my club's nets from the ship. Lately, however, I'm more inclined to just leave the radio at home and enjoy the cruise. Last cruise we went on, I never took it out of the stateroom.
Cut it out will ya? I got to laughing so hard I think I wet my dang pants. Seriously I've heard tell of families having their FRS handhelds confiscated.
I was on board the Carnival Inspiration today and at the tender boarder area there was large poster about banned and restricted items, dated November 4th 2016. The last bullet point of banned items included - satphones and ham radios, however I noticed several passenger openly wearing the cheap PMR type handsets. Incidentally drones were also on the list. TGY
Maybe only on some of there ships. For more information you can contact Debbie - N5DSR looks like she has the answers. ---------------- Some information from Debbie - N5DSR Bio page. https://www.qrz.com/db/N5DSR We have just returned from a 7 (+1) day cruise on the Carnival Breeze out of Galveston, Texas, January 8 through 16. The Ports of Call were Jamacia, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Our arrival back in Galveston was delayed due to fog which gave us another 24 hours of operating time! We had a total of 89 travelers of which 59 were Amateur Radio Operators! Not only were there many contacts, many new friends were made with great conversations around both operating positions. We only ran 75 to 100W, but the 'salt water amplifier' combined with the 1000' steel hull created many pileups. Thanks to all the amateurs who worked us!!!!
Well, in my case I had zero problem getting permission from the Captain of the Carnival Elation, he was a ham, himself (from Italy). Took some time to actually "find" him, but once I did, he granted permission immediately.
I was I was working and mostly too busy to make inquires about the company policy from the security staff or officers and given that their first language(s) weren't English I don't know how accurate their interpretations of the rules would be. I did ask if I could take a picture of it with my phone and they said no! TGY
First, there is the question of a ham radio if you are traveling by yourself and there is all of this crap that you can do. Significant other along ... right! Single, and you wonder why you are single? Second, isn't a cruise ship just a floating 3 star hotel? Why do it? A 5 star at least has butlers that knock on your door looking for some thing to do for you.
It sounds like the hams take the ham radio specific cruises. They set things up ahead of time so you can operate but they retain control of it. What they don't want are people with their own communications they can't shut down if needed. Leave all your electronics at home if you go on one.
We returned a week ago from a five day visit to Walt Disney World, followed by a three day cruise to the Bahamas (not long enough.) I didn't take a radio with me at all and I didn't miss it one bit. Our cruise next year will be two weeks long and I will decide when I'm packing whether to take a radio or not.
