Today I went on a 'behind the scenes' tour of the ship. It was run by Callie, who is on the entertainment staff and has recently been promoted to Deputy Cruise Director. We were also accompanied by a photographer who took group photos in a number of places and by a security guard who kept an eye on us everywhere we went. Here are my notes about the places we saw - it was really interesting!
Medical Centre - Dr Ryan. Showed us the main areas including the intensive care unit. They can do a really broad range of medical treatments on board, although there are limits, for example if a woman goes into labour, or someone needs surgery, they'd much rather find a way to get them treated onshore. The crew also use the same medical centre; he said on an average day they'd see 10-12 crew and 12-15 passengers. He also said that the passenger who was taken off the ship at the Panama Canal is still quite ill, but slowly improving, so that was good to hear.
Bridge - Captain Binetti. Explained what we were seeing on the bridge, showed us a ship off in the distance and how it appeared on the radar. Answered - before we could ask - a lot of the regular questions that people ask him. Point of interest - as far as he is concerned, the only place where a pilot *actually* takes the con (has control of the ship) is in the Panama Canal. Another point of interest - in some of the busy ports, they have to be incredibly exact with where the ship is located; he mentioned having to move the ship 4 inches to make sure it's in the right place!!!
Mooring Deck - Staff Captain and Bosun were there. They showed us the mooring lines and how they work. We also saw the gigantic chains that the anchors are attached to (we couldn't actually see the anchors). Point of interest - the anchors alone aren't enough to hold the ship in place; once they drop the anchors they need to drop another 300 metres of chains for each one in order to hold the ship by the anchors.
Galley - spent quite a time here being shown a number of the work stations. This was the main galley which is on deck 5 and 6 behind the two main dining rooms. There's an escalator for the waiters to use to get between floors quickly. There are 9 galleys altogether - each of the other main dining areas (eg Horizon Court, Sabatini's etc) also has one plus there's a separate one for room service. Here we were given snacks - a chocolate covered icecream and strawberry and a delicious fruit drink. We got to see a cold room and a freezer and he spent a lot of time explaining about where they get supplies, how they get onto the ship, how they decide how much food to order etc. Point of interest - just for steaks there are four cooks - one cooking the medium rare, two doing medium, and one doing medium-well and well-done. Another point of interest - someone asked him how much the food supplies for a cruise would cost - he said he couldn't tell us that, but if we thought along the lines of buying one or two relatively nice houses we mightn't be too far wrong!
Princess Theatre. We got to see how the lift on the stage works - it's a long way down, but the dancers who were there assured us that it doesn't scare them. We also got to see the dressing room and some of the costumes. Point of interest - they do actually have 'dressers' - people who help them change costume particularly when a quick change is needed - however they're volunteer staff from other areas, not specifically employed as dressers.
Rubbish / Recycling area - we had a quick peek into this room. They recycle as much as possible; waste they can't recycle is either incinerated (in which case the ash is kept on board and then correctly disposed of at the end of the cruise) or simply sorted and kept until they can move it onshore. All around the main crew walkway (the M1, which goes the length of the ship - passengers aren't usually allowed to see it of course) we saw large boxes / bags etc, labelled with their contents such as "mixed broken glass", waiting to be offloaded.
Print Room - they do all their printing on board, although the format of all the documents is closely controlled by the Princess management.
Photographer Office - the photographers take about 21,000 photos in a cruise of this length. Every photo is run through a 'photoshop' style of software to correct errors and they also check each one manually and sometimes do manual corrections (eg if the camera was held a little on an angle, they'll fix that)
Engine Control Room - the Chief Engineer talked to us about the engines, including the gas turbine. Lots of facts and figures, most of which I immediately forgot (they gave us a handout with a lot of that sort of detail). He did emphasise the trouble they go to in order to meet all the different environmental standards of all the different countries they visit. In the case of the USA, there are also different standards for different states. Basically the way they deal with this is to constantly meet the 'greenest' standard, which is the one for Alaska.
Laundry - Hotel Manager ran the tour along with the man who manages the Laundry (the hotel manager is also responsible for the room stewards, the florist and a bunch of other people and services). The machinery in the laundry is amazing - a washing machine that's like an enormous conveyor belt which can do hundreds of sheets or towels at a time (including feeding them into dryers) without anyone needing to touch them; a sheet ironing and folding machine, a towel folding machine - the list is just amazing.
At the end, we went to one of the bars and got a few free drinks and chatted for a while, and Callie answered lots of questions about working for Princess. The tour was meant to run for about three hours but it ended up taking just over four. Definitely worth the money.
Oh, and over the next couple of days, I got the 'free' gifts that came as part of the tour:
* a proper Princess bath robe (which weighs almost 2 kilos - lord only knows how we'll get it home)
* a picture frame
* a bunch of photos taken along the way
* a genuine Princess chef's jacket
* some personalised note-paper
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