16 March 2016; Marghera, Italy.

Today, another day in paradise, even if it is called Marghera and there is a very sharp and cold wind blowing from the Alps. But is dry and sunny and the shipyard motor is spinning at full speed and everybody is busy with the finishing up touches in a lot of locations. Whole sections of cabins have been delivered now and locked up. Unless they are of course filled up with material to be delivered to the cabins later.

Tulips from Amsterdam ???

Once a section of cabins has been handed over, the protected covering is removed for a little while, so the yard people can check if everything in the corridors is still in good order and do the necessary touch ups. Remove scratches and replace damaged wall paper where necessary. Where the carpet covering was removed it revealed the corridor carpet. Most appropriate we are still a Dutch company, so tulips are a nice touch.

Even the Cleaning Ladies wear helmets while on board. Safety is a high priority for the shipyard.

The shops which were already mostly finished have now all received their lighting and that means the cleaning ladies are having another go at removing stains and dust from all the glass displays. Looking at lighting it is now appearing in more and more areas.

Ceiling lights in the form of Octagonals in the Upper Level World Theatre entrance.

Ceiling Panels have been installed, nobody is walking around anymore with long ladders and thus the ceiling and other lights can be installed. Thus all the lighting in the Queens lounge is now there but also the lights in the top of the Show Lounge have been unveiled. Most of the show lounge is lit by spot lights but the entrance to the lounge has a very nice ceiling display.

This is one of the bunker stations. The brown hose delivers the water to the ship. all connections are color coded to avoid mistakes. Green is cooling water, Blue is potable water. Grey is sewage and black is oil. Finally Red is a separate connection for water pressure on the ships fire system.(Orange is a cover over a connection not in use)

We are still a building site and we still receive all the water from the shore side. Electric Power now comes from our own engine but we cannot make our own water yet. For that we need more engines on line and that will only happen when we sail. I do not know where Venice gets its water from but it is quite chalky and that makes the men from our coffee machines very unhappy. We buy most of our coffee from a special supplier in the Netherlands and they also deliver special equipment for the cooking and pouring of a perfect cup of coffee. Thus they are here on the ship to attach and test their equipment. They are not happy with pure water (distilled) as it does not bring out the right taste, they want a little bit of chalk in the water but not too much and they also do not like the chlorine we will have in the water once we sail. It does not seem easy to pour the perfect cup of coffee. I am glad I only drink Green Tea where a perfect cup is much easier to achieve.

Four big plugs can provide the whole ship with electricity from the shore side.

While we are on the subject of power from shore, in port most of our ships plug into the shore side Grid, so they can switch off the engines completely. The thought behind this is that the shore side can produce electricity cheaper and cleaner. Our ships are still as clean as possible (We burn low sulpher fuel, we have scrubbers to remove all the soot particles from the exhausts) but we still produce some exhaust. Thus connecting to the shore side makes sense. In principle it is a very simple affair. We just plug a very large electric plug into an electric socket and then the shore power is slowly synchronized with the ships main switch board and once balanced the engine is switched off. Then about an hour before departure it all goes the other way again without having a blackout or anything stopping to work.

Another batch of 40 from the 1036 crew going through the initial safety indoctrination.

The training of the crew goes on, day after day. Each crewmember gets an initial indoctrination when coming on board and a ships tour where the Training and Development Officer explains the difference between the Koningsdam and the other ships. Part of it is a small safety training just to refocus them on what the HAL routine is and most importantly what is different while in the shipyard, which is a basic but important thing, until we sail, do not call the bridge during an emergency but call the Front Desk. The bridge is still unmanned as the safety center is still being tested but the Front Office has all the relevant shore side telephone numbers including the one for the Shipyard Fire brigade and the Shipyard Ambulance.

For those who find this important, the Casino is ready for Operation.