Now THAT'S a booger too, Bill. While hams are probably not even a percent of Princess' whole business it would be nice if they would have an open mind/ear about it, unless someone(s) didn't follow rules and messed it up for the rest of us. But those things never happen...
Anyway I'll sure make a note of it on our customer satisfaction survey.
I suppose that the person I was ultimately dealing with, "Ronnie", is the guy you are referring to? While we never spoke directly, he is the one who received my requests and from which I expected the fax/response. And who dropped the bomb today. Given what the agent said that he told her in the email, I think he's quite happy being a [sorry].
Maybe I would be slightly less bummed if I hadn't bought a new HT for the trip, like you with your station setup, it's more of a kick in the butt when you've invested so much in what turns out to be a waste of time. Do you recall if the prohibited items included ham radio when you sailed? I just wonder when that got on the list...
Jerry Buxton, NØJY
On 5/24/2017 21:38, Bill wrote:
Hi Jerry,
Don't feel bad. My wife and I booked a 15 day Princess cruise out of San Francisco to Hawaii a couple of months ago. The itinerary had 4 sea days going and 4 coming back which would be great days for operating time. So three months before the cruise I started the permitting process. Got a permit from Bermuda to operate aboard in a few weeks and then after several weeks, after submitting the requested documentation (my license and authorization from Bermuda) received an email authorization from Princess Cruises permitting operation from the balcony ONLY. But I was to check in with the electronics officer once on aboard before operating. So after loading up the gear and my nifty HF and 145/435 MHz balcony antennas in a separate carry-on along with the authorization paperwork, off we went. Cleared boarding customs without a problem. The next day I requested customer service to put me in touch with the electronics officer which was done. I showed him the paperwork from Princess along with the licenses and he said he would run it by the Captain. Hours later, customer service calls the room to tell that the Captain was denying permission to operate on his ship.
Well, what made matters worse after being resigned to just receiving and after setting up the HF antenna and listening, the bands were usually hopping. I guess that big salty sea really helps antennas.
So I guess we can cross off Princess as being Amateur Radio friendly.
I do have the email address for the chap in their Santa Clarita office who is/was responsible for Amateur operations if you want to get a further read on the matter. To be sure, he got a not too friendly email from me when we returned. It went unanswered.
Bill - N6GHz