Ship Tour

 On one of our last days, we took a tour of the ship, a sort of behind the scenes tour. We started off backstage in the dressing rooms. 

The dressing rooms were small and crowded. There were racks for hanging costumes on. The girls usually come about 3 hours before the show for hair and make-up and prepare. The guys usually come early to bug the girls.

There's a small area just off the stage where the stage manager stays where he can make changes as he needs. 

All 12 of us guests then crowded onto a single elevator to go up to the bridge. There are usually 4 people on the bridge, an officer, a navigator and two spotters. The steering wheel would make Captain Jack Sparrow very sad as it is very small and doesn't turn all the way around. Here the captain is talking with us. You can see the wheel in the middle. Sad, huh.

On each side of the bridge, they also have another full control panel. Plus what they call the promotion hatch which lets them see directly below the ship when they dock.

The captain has his cabin just off the bridge along with a couple other officers. They also have a small galley and living room. Home away from home.

We weren't allowed to take any pictures below deck in the engine control room. I think it was because they had a wonderful rubber ducky collection above the control panels that they didn't want everyone to know about. They could take control of the whole ship if needed down there. However, they only have one small porthole window.

We then went down to the food and beverage storage areas, the recycling center, and crew areas. Their cabins are near where they work, as much as possible. There's a galley and cafeteria down there for them. All the pasteries and breads are baked on the lower level as well. I almost lost Jack there. They were baking his favorite bread. This was just dry storage. They had another room for beverages. 

We checked out the laundry room. They get about 500 bags a guest laundry a day. Plus there's crew laundry, naptkins, tableclothes, towels and bedsheets. They work 24/7 there with big industrial washers and dryers.

The washer

And dryers

We then got to tour one of the galleys. There is one for crew, one for pasteries, one on the second and one on the third floor. The lido deck has food brought up to them. There's only the small grills behind the counter for their use. The galley's are long areas with cooks on one side to cook and plate things and the waiters on the other side to receive and deliver. 

 

Chef Willem is in the bottom right. He gave me his secret for great mashed potatoes. Have the butter and milk mixed together and boiling when you add them to the cooked potatoes. Makes them fluffy.

Jack's favorite part of the tour