2019-05-14: Games and All Access

The sound of the alarm we set woke us up at 7:30am this morning (yuck!). It was a cooler day today. It was mostly cloudy with a high of about 15 Celsius. We followed our normal routine of getting cleaned up and heading up to Windjammer for breakfast. At 9:00, the kids ran up to Adventure Ocean and the adults headed for the champagne bar for an all access ship tour we booked.

We signed in with one of the shore excursion staff who would be our guide for the tour. She was from China and spoke “chenglish” as she put it. She handed us an “All Access” pass on a lanyard and a headset so we could hear what she was saying. A few minutes later, we were on our way to deck 0 which is two decks below the guest area. Our first stop was the laundry facility. The do all the towels, linens, guest laundry, and crew uniforms in this facility. The crew have a different laundromat type area for their personal clothing. They have a bunch of different washing machines, dry cleaning, pressing, and folding machines for the various types of items they’ll be washing. There is a huge tumble washer and drying system for the majority of the items. They try to recycle as much as they can. The water from the washing machines goes into holding tanks and then is used for the water to flush the toilets.

Our next stop was the bridge on deck 10. After being scanned by a couple of security guards, we entered the bridge. We had a chance to talk to the Captain, Staff Captain, and a couple of other bridge officers. We were able to see the ship controls up close. They also keep all the flags of places they’ve visited on the bridge. It’s surprising how little space it takes to control a 90,000 tonne vessel.

We left the bridge and headed down to deck 2. There is a large corridor behind the guest area that is called I-95. It’s where all the luggage, food, and supplies are loaded/offloaded. There are also various crew offices located on this level. There are deck plans and emergency post information all over the walls.

We made our way to the engine control room. The power generation and propulsion systems are controlled from this room. Again, it’s smaller than you’d expect. A third engineer from the UK spoke to us about the room and the ship. The systems are monitored by second engineers who work 2 x 4 hour shifts throughout the day. If they notice any issues, they dispatch the third engineers to check them out. The ship has two gas turbine engines that generate most of the power (25 MW / 34,000 HP each). They also have a diesel generator that generates 10 MW/13,000 HP of power) and a steam turbine that generates power (9.45 MW/12,850 HP) using the exhaust of the gas turbine engines. The gas turbine engines are the most efficient and environmentally friendly, but are also the most costly to run. While in port, they use the diesel generator for power. Apparently the newer big ships are only using diesel generators due to the cost savings. The ship is propelled by two 5 bladed, 18 foot propellers mounted on azipods that can rotate 360 degrees to steer the ship. Each azipod can generate 20 MW / 27,200 HP of propulsion power. They also have fresh water generators that use evaporators and reverse osmosis to generate up to 1650 tons of fresh water daily. The dirty water goes through a waste treatment plant where the solids and dirt are removed before the water is released into the sea. The solids are offloaded when the ship returns to it’s home port.

We also saw the garbage/recycling area. All garbage is sorted by hand and they recycle whatever they can. They have can and bottle crushers to reduce the space required. Trash is shredded and burned in an onboard incinerator and the ashes are offloaded the ship. Food waste is shredded and released into the sea where it decomposes and feeds the fish.

Our next stop was the food storage and preparation area. We saw several different coolers and freezers where the food is stored for the cruise. It is all separated by type (beef, poultry, fish, ice cream, etc). The meat is prepped in this area before being sent up to the galley to be cooked. For a 12 night cruise, they store enough food for 15 – 17 days in case of emergency. The ship has 2200 guests and 850 crew on board. At every meal, enough food to feed 600 people for that meal is wasted, so 1800 meals per day. Either through people not eating the food they order/take from the buffet or because the food passes the 4-hour mark on the buffet line and has to be removed for safety purposes. Some stats on food usage for a typical 7 day cruise:

• 8450 eggs
• 13,249 Litres of milk
• 5,350 pounds of beef
• 549 pounds of lobster
• 5,000 pounds of potatoes
• 3,650 pounds of sugar
• 4,750 pounds of rice
• 556 pounds of coffee
• 31,345 pounds of chicken
• 12,500 pounds of fresh vegetables
• 11,580 pounds of fresh fruit

Our final stop of the tour were the galleys on decks 4 and 5. The galleys operate 24/7 getting food ready for the different restaurants. The galley is broken out into different sections such as dish washing, bakery, grills, etc. Amanda really liked the bun making area. They have a machine that takes a loaf of dough and separates it into bun sized portions. The portions are then put on a baking sheet and cooked in an oven. The process of separating the dough into individual portions took about 10 seconds. The dishes at dinner time are lined up along a large serving table so the waiters can grab what they need, put it on a tray, and bring it to the tables.

The tour took about 3 hours which is longer than we expected. We stopped by the room after our tour. There was a lovely plate of chocolate goodies waiting on the desk. We picked up the kids from Adventure Ocean and went back to the room for a few minutes. The ship’s time jumped forward another hour at noon. We headed up to Windjammer and the Doghouse for some lunch. The kids played some ping pong while we finished our lunch.

After lunch, we went to the arcade where the kids spent all their arcade credits. We played a game of shuffleboard on the deck outside the arcade before feeling chilly and heading back indoors. Patrick headed back to Adventure Ocean but Michael wanted to try out our new game called Uno Flip. We found a quiet area and cracked open the game. We played a few rounds. Michael really likes the game.

We headed back to the room and relaxed for a bit before Patrick joined us at 5:00. We got ourselves ready for dinner. Tonight was our second formal night on the cruise. We got a couple of photos taken by the ship photographers on our way to the dining room. It was also lobster night in the dining room. Darrell and Amanda both had yummy lobster tail for dinner.

After dinner, the kids went back to Adventure Ocean as usual. Darrell and Amanda headed to the evening show. Tonight was a magician/comedian by the name of Leo Ward. He was entertaining but not the best we’ve seen by far. We walked around the ship for a bit and walked through the shops before picking up Michael from the Adventure Ocean. Patrick went to see Leo Ward’s later show with one of the kids he has befriended on board.

Once Patrick returned to the room, we called it a night.