We were looking forward to a lazy day at sea, with a sleep in followed by an exploration of all the eating venues that we hadn’t tried yet.  However, we signed up for the 3 hour Ship Tour, and discovered it started at 8.20am.  So it was another early start.  However we weren’t going to miss this, as they only run the tour once, and it would be our only chance to see “behind the scenes” – including the bridge.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos.

The tour began by going backstage at the theatre.  We were met by one of the dancers who showed us how the costume changes work, and we also saw how some of the automated staging and set moves occur.  It is all very precisely controlled. I’m not sure how the performers actually sing or dance, there is so much else going on and so much pressure to be in exactly the right spot at the right time.  The theatre, like everything else on board, is state of the art.

The Medical Centre is a mini hospital and they can handle pretty much anything on board except actual surgery; heart attacks are one of the more common emergencies.  There are also two paramedics on board.

Next we visited the galleys and food preparation areas.  This was mind boggling.  They have dishwashers that wash 750 plates a minute!  Everything is spotless and systematised.  They have separate areas for preparing hot food, cold foot, meat, vegetables, and bread.  Nearkly everything is made from scratch on board, even the icecream.  Perishables are shipped in from the US, ordered months in advance.  Fresh food comes on board in Warnemunde.  They repack everything into their own containers and sanitize it all before storing it.  With up to 3,900 passengers and about 1,300 crew members, food is a major operation.  We decided that we didn’t want the job of vegetable chopping (though potato peeling is automated).

Laundry is another huge undertaking.  Besides washers and dryers, they have automated presses, and an enormous machine that presses and folds all the linen!  We watched two people feeding in damp creased sheets, and they emerged completely dry and correctly folded, ready to go back onto our beds.  Like food prep, this is a 24/7 operation.

We were taken to the engine control room, where we met Leonardo, the Chief Engineer.   There are four engines and at least one is running at any time to power the “hotel” functions, (e.g. lighting and aircon).  Turn on two more engines and you can propel the ship at about 16 knots with the final engine brought online to get the ship up to top speed of about 22 knots.  There are 6 thrusters which are used to move us sideways when docking or undocking.  We are surprisingly stable and highly manouverable, as we saw last night when the Commodore (Captain) executed a neat 90 degree backwards turn as we left Nynasham.  The ship holds enough fuel for 2 weeks at a time; it refills in St Petersburg at a cost of about half a million dollars.

Next we were shown the mooring area, where the anchors and massive mooring ropes are stored and operated from.  Our final stop was the best – we were taken up to the Bridge on Deck 14, and greeted by the Commodore (ie the Big Guy in charge).  Besides champagne and nibbles, we had ample time to be shown everything and to ask lots of questions.  The view from up there is amazing, and I could have spent hours watching the ocean.  We could see other ships, islands, and huge ocean based wind farms.  Each watch is four hours in length, and besides all the computerised equipment, they are required to maintain a manual lookout at all times.  The Bridge Resource Management System is very similar to that used by airlines.  All the charts are electronic, although interestingly, they still carry and use signal flags.

The compliance manager in me was 100% satisfied on all levels.  All equipment and technology is state of the art; everyone knows their job, and safety is top priority.  The tour was fantastic, and I would recommend it to anyone; it was worth every cent. Plus we got free bathrobes.

We had a lazy afternoon and evening trying to win trivia contests – in the musical quiz we reached the tiebreaker but didn’t win.  At the comedy show, we thought we’d sat enough rows back to be safe – but the comedian was big on audience participation, and he called Ian up on stage for some improv.   Ian did pretty well and got lots of laughs from the audience.

After 6 days we have adjusted to cruising life.  It took a while to get the hang of where things are, when things happen, and how things work.  We still get geographically confused several times a day, and we can’t convince the room service people to put the fresh soap on the right side of the basin, where we prefer it.  But the decadent lifestyle is one you can become easily accustomed to.  We are very isolated from real life – we’ve barely seen the news, or the Olympics. Probably just as well we are getting off in a few days, before we become habituated.