Bright and early we arrived at the pilot station and slotted into the parade of all the approaching ships. The sequence worked out as follows:
Galaxy first. Then delay for all due to an out coming car carrier. Ferry next, followed by us. Followed by Disney Magic, Oceana, Thomson Celebration, Seabourn Legend and then another number of ferries. This all in the time span of 90 minutes. Disney has a ship in Europe for the first time this year and they have installed one of those big TV screens over the top of the swimming pool. As the Magic was docked ahead of us, my quartermasters spend the morning watching cartoons, while on standby on the bridge. Mickey Mouse and Goofy are also appreciated by the people from Indonesia. By having a bridge window open, they could also hear the sound. If we could hear it over 2000 feet away, it must have been very loud over there on the deck.
An exciting piece of news was an email from our President and CEO Stein Kruse that arrived on board this morning. The building option for a second Signature Class ship has been exercised so we are getting a sister to the Eurodam. Completion date will be in fall 2010. No name has been given yet, but as the Euro-dam is named after Europe, it would be my guess that this ship is going to be named after another continent. Let’s wait and see. The ordering of a second Signature Class ship does indicate that there is a strong interest by our guests in the Holland America product. Again this ship will feature a number of inovations including an 2nd specialty restaurant, this one located in front of the funnel. With a capacity of 144 seats it will serve Asian Fusion Cuisine. The company is sticking with the concept of building medium size class ships, 86000 tons, and is not planning to go to mega carriers and high density ships. The Holland America guest likes space and lack of crowds. Thus the ship will carry a maximum of 2000 guests while a comparable size ship from another company would carry 2700 or more.
It was a beautiful windless day and a great but hazy evening while we waited for our guests to return from Rome. Departure was delayed due on bus coming back very late. The bus had to wait for two guests who had somehow decided to return to the bus much later than everybody else. We try very hard not to leave guests behind who are on HAL organized tours, however it is very irritating as it has a great impact on the shipboard operation. The Lido restaurant has to stay open longer and the crew involved in the departure has to hang around for an extra 30 minutes, while they could do something else or be in bed. Then the ship has to make up the lost time by going faster through the night, what costs extra fuel. This delay in sailing cost me approximate $ 3000 in extra fuel costs. I was still lucky that we pulled out at the time we did, another 20 minutes later and I would have had to wait another hour, as this was the ferry departure period and they go first. If that would have happened then we would have arrived too late in St. Tropez and that is where we are going next.
June 13, 2007 at 4:31 am
Maybe they should start charging these guests who cause the delay in the tour busses arriving back to the ship on time. I am sure they won’t do it again.
A number of years ago we nearly left 2 fellas at Tulum – even their wives said “go without them – it will serve them right”. We all boo’d them when they returned to the bus and they couldn’t have cared less.
People are very inconsiderate of their fellow passengers.