Cruise forums are a great place to ask questions and share information directly with other cruisers. Usually organized by cruise lines, you can often get very specific information about details on a particular cruise ship from someone who has just sailed. Not only are these threads hugely informative (and tremendous fun for the armchair cruiser), they’re one of the things that Cruise Critic’s members do best. Some of the most detailed threads even start long before departure, and can give members a look at a new ship or an unusual itinerary, like a 77-day voyage aboard Holland America’s Volendam with member WCB, or member kwokpot’s 30-day transpacific crossing aboard Carnival Luminosa from Seattle to Brisbane. In addition to asking questions, you can also use Cruise Critic’s unique Roll Call feature to connect with folks onboard the same sailing as you – all before you’ve ever set foot aboard your ship.
Cruising Message Boards / Cruise Forums
Our editorial staff maintains a presence on the boards as well and try to answer questions about upcoming trips we have. (I got my start on Cruise Critic in 2005 – as a community member as well – before embarking on a career in cruise journalism). Looking to plan your first-ever cruise, or simply curious about a ship you’ve never tried, a line you’ve never sailed or an itinerary you’ve been interested in?
Specializing in ocean, river, ultra-luxury, small ship and expedition cruises. Cruise Addicts, founded in 1999, is one of our favorite cruise forums sites. Here you’ll find lots of active discussion boards, as well as videos tips and other information. Our members range from first-time cruisers to veterans with hundreds of sea days under their belts. These include cruisers who almost exclusively sail with a single line, along with those who jump around from ship to ship and line to line. One of Cruise Critic’s defining features since its inception in the late 1990’s has been its Message Boards.
Make the Most of Cruise Critic’s Message Boards to Plan Your Cruise
A place for experienced and would-be cruisers alike to mingle, share information and ask questions, our Message Boards have roughly 2 million members – a number that continues to grow to this day. All of the content (with the exception of the cruise news) is lovingly hand written by our travel writers.Our journalists may be provided some complimentary products or services in return for their uncensored reviews.If you wish to use this content, please contact us. Receive insider offers directly from the cruise lines.
You can read any board you’d like simply by signing up to become a member and can post and ask questions anywhere you’d like. How do you get the most out of Cruise Critic’s cruise message boards? All Things Cruise is dedicated to the joy of travel.
We would love to have you subscribe for travel updates, news and great offers directly from the cruise lines!
Cruise Critic’s Message Boards are the place to start. Consider sharing your journey with your fellow Cruise Critic members as-it-happens by posting a live thread detailing your cruise. Individual forums are available for every major cruise line, from German-language brand AIDA Cruises to adult-only newcomer Virgin Voyages.
Cruising Message Boards / Cruise Forums
Read thousands of Holland America Cruise Reviews from real cruisers.
We would love to have you subscribe for travel updates, news and great offers directly from the cruise lines!
This month, one of Cruise’s top competitors, Waymo — owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company — expanded its driverless vehicles into Los Angeles amid growing concern. But there were other incidents that also prompted investigations, including an accident in August when a Cruise vehicle got in the way of a firetruck, causing a crash and injuring the Cruise vehicle’s passenger. The day after that crash, the DMV announced its investigation into the vehicles and said Cruise would roll back the size of its fleet. The cars sport turquoise lights on its rear-view mirrors, headlights, and taillights to let law enforcement and other drivers know when the car is operating autonomously. Drive Pilot is only available on select models that have the built-in hardware, including a sensor at the front of the car and a camera in the rear windshield.
Electric and hybrid vehicles could lose California carpool access. What you need to know
Perhaps Cruise did those tests and they did not reveal these problems—no simulation is perfect—but if so, they should examine why that was. Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that would require AV companies to only use electric vehicles starting in 2030. Spokesperson Navideh Forghani said Cruise representatives met with the DMV on Oct. 3, "in which we showed them the complete video multiple times. They later requested a copy of the complete video, which we provided to them."
Interview: Figma’s CEO on life after the company’s failed sale to Adobe
She said operations in other regions would not be affected by the California suspension. The suspension does not affect Cruise’s permit for testing its autonomous vehicles with a safety driver behind the wheel, according to the DMV. Cruise officials, in a statement to The Times, denied that they did not share all of their video with investigators. The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday suspended Cruise's deployment and testing permits for its autonomous vehicles, effective immediately. San Francisco officials, including transit, police, and fire departments, have expressed serious concerns about driverless vehicles intruding on emergency scenes, blocking intersections, and impeding other traffic.
'Serious concerns' about driverless cars
"When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits. There is no set time for a suspension." "This incident raises many serious concerns about the safety of these Cruise driverless vehicles," reads a San Francisco Fire Department report on the March incident published by Mission Local, a San Francisco news site. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved a measure to let robotaxi companies Cruise and Waymo massively expand deployment of their driverless vehicles on San Francisco streets. Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Cruise citing pedestrian safety concerns.
Vice Motherboard reported yesterday that Cruise’s email summary of the accident said the car “hard-braked but was unable to stop” before hitting a pedestrian. The company had planned to launch a commercial robotaxi service in San Francisco in 2019 but failed to do so, and it has yet to publicly commit to a new date. San Francisco in August became the first city in the world to let two self-driving taxi companies – Cruise and Waymo – offer paid rides 24 hours a day. The decision comes after a contentious vote by the California Public Utilities Commission in August named Cruise as one of two self-driving taxi companies approved to offer paid rides 24/7 in San Francisco. “Our teams are currently doing an analysis to identify potential enhancements to the AV’s response to this kind of extremely rare event,” she said.
Updated California's Department of Motor Vehicles has rescinded GM-owned Cruise's right to roam the streets with its self-driving cars, citing public safety and accusing the biz of withholding information. The Investigative Unit reached out to Cruise to explain why its own videos and descriptions of the incident released to reporters failed to include the "pullover maneuver," which the DMV now says "may have caused further injury to the pedestrian." Cruise vehicles are approved to operate between 10PM and 6AM at a maximum speed of 30mph and can even drive in “light rain and fog.” Waymo vehicles can operate on public roads in parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties at a maximum speed of 65mph. Waymo and Cruise, two of the leading autonomous vehicle companies in the US, received permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to offer rides to passengers in their robotaxis. The DMV says Cruise representatives initially did not disclose or show footage of the vehicle's pullover maneuver after its initial stop, which "increased the risk of and may have caused, further injury to the pedestrian."
California DMV pulls permits for Cruise's driverless cars over safety concerns - Los Angeles Times
California DMV pulls permits for Cruise's driverless cars over safety concerns.
Neither company has been found to be at fault in a death, while San Francisco and many other cities have struggled to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries caused by humans. And a suspension could seriously impact the company’s ability to scale to new markets. Cruise has been under pressure from local authorities to do a better job of interacting with first responders and pedestrians.
Enforcement against Cruise raises questions about the fate of competing driving automation programs, such as that of Waymo, as well as less-capable assists such as Tesla's Full Self-Driving. Tesla specifically faces a court case regarding the performance of its Autopilot system, which is expected to be sent to a jury Tuesday according to Reuters. In addition, other companies watching this situation should now go back and run their own track tests and digital simulations to assure they do well in this situation.
Vehicle Industry Svcs. Resources
13 CCR §228.20 (b) (6) - Based upon the performance of the vehicles, the Department determines the manufacturer's vehicles are not safe for the public's operation. In time they should set standards on all of these factors, and more, to decide what sort of action to take. NHTSA’s safety recall system, for example, is a slow process, though in the future it’s not impossible that they could decide there is a safety problem with a car so severe that all the cars should be remotely disabled. In the past, remote shutdown wasn’t even possible, but there are a few car models today where it is. Cruise then halted robotaxi operation, later expanded the pause to include supervised and manually-driven Cruise trips for safety review.
Any discrepancies or differences created in the translation are not binding and have no legal effect for compliance or enforcement purposes. If any questions arise related to the information contained in the translated website, please refer to the English version. The content currently in English is the official and accurate source for the program information and services DMV provides. If any questions arise related to the information contained in the translated content, please refer to the English version.
This month, the company said it would modify its response times to detect emergency vehicles earlier. In a brief statement, the DMV added that it had informed the General Motors subsidiary what steps it needed “to apply to reinstate its suspended permits,” but did not explain what those precisely entail. 13 CCR §228.20 (b) (3) - The manufacturer has misrepresented any information related to safety of the autonomous technology of its vehicles.
One of those has since been sold, which marks the first sale of an autonomous Mercedes in California, according to the DMV. Select Mercedes dealerships in Nevada are also offering the cars with the new technology, known as “level 3” autonomous driving. Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced it was investigating Cruise after receiving reports of incidents where the company's autonomous vehicles not using proper caution around pedestrians in roadways. "Ultimately, we develop and deploy autonomous vehicles in an effort to save lives," the company said in a statement. There is one spot of good news for Cruise; cars with a human safety driver behind the wheel can still operate. However, that rather defeats the whole point of the biz's self-driving vehicle project - getting rid of the driver - although useful training data can be gathered while roaming the streets of California cities with a person at the wheel.
The Department added, "the manufacturer has misrepresented any information related to safety of the autonomous technology of its vehicles," describing Cruise's AVs as "not safe for the public's operation." "The behavior of the vehicle raises concerns that vehicles operated under Cruise's driverless testing permit also lack the ability to respond in a safe and appropriate manner during incidents involving a pedestrian," the DMV's suspension order reads. "Until the department can make a determination regarding the safe operating of the vehicles, the continued operating of Cruises' driverless test vehicles on public roads poses an unreasonable risk to the public." California is ground zero for AV testing in the US, with over 50 companies licensed to operate autonomous vehicles for testing purposes in the state. A handful of companies hold permits to test fully driverless vehicles, without safety drivers behind the steering wheel. And an even smaller number have been approved to pick up and drop off passengers as part of a commercial pilot service.
Meanwhile, robotaxis from Alphabet’s Waymo and GM’s Cruise operate at level 4, meaning cars drive autonomously in most conditions without human interference. But these companies currently don’t sell vehicles to consumers, and Cruise recently halted its service after California’s DMV suspended its license due to an incident in which a car dragged a pedestrian under its carriage for 20 feet. "Public safety remains the California DMV's top priority, and the department's autonomous vehicle regulations provide a framework to facilitate the safe testing and deployment of this technology on California public roads," the DMV said in a statement. If a large fleet with good overall statistical safety is shut down, the switch to human driving will probably harm many more people than are protected. The DMV’s order of suspension, which TechCrunch has viewed, states that Cruise withheld video footage from an ongoing investigation, prompting the agency to suspend its permit. The DMV said it met with Cruise representatives on October 3, one day after an incident that left a pedestrian, who had initially been hit by a human-driven car, stuck under a Cruise robotaxi.
The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit has spent the past few months reporting on safety concerns surrounding autonomous vehicles and back in August aired an in-depth report delving into the industry's record of crashes across the state. Regulations in California require driverless car companies to self-report each collision involving an autonomous vehicle. Transportation documents, obtained by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit through a public records request, showed autonomous cars have been in involved in at least 532 collisions since June 2018. Of those crashes, 42 were truly driverless – with no safety driver inside the vehicle. Currently, 60 companies have an active permit to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver. "When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits. There is no set time for a suspension," the DMV continued, adding that it has provided Cruise with a path back to approval.
The DMV, which regulates autonomous vehicle testing and deployments in the state, said Cruise must meet a number of steps to reinstate its suspended permits, which the agency will not approve until the company has fulfilled the requirements to the department’s satisfaction. This decision does not impact the company’s permit for testing with a safety driver, the DMV added. Citing public safety concerns about Cruise‘s robotaxi line operating in San Francisco, California DMV officials announced Tuesday that the agency had suspended permits for the driverless cars deployed by General Motors’ autonomous vehicle subsidiary. Public safety remains the California DMV’s top priority, and the department’s autonomous vehicle regulations provide a framework to facilitate the safe testing and deployment of this technology on California public roads. When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits.
