And thus we are back on board again and shortly back at sea again. This morning I boarded the ms Eurodam for a 3 week visit. I never know what sort of cabin I will get as it depends on how full the ship is. Holland America is doing very well with its cruises at the moment and the Eurodam is full to capacity. As a result I was assigned to the pilot cabin which is located right behind the bridge. The typical thing about pilot cabins is, that most of them are inside cabins. In general this has the full agreement of the pilots fraternity as pilots look enough out of the window while being on the bridge so their interest in having a window or porthole in the cabin is of very low priority. What a pilot wants is a quiet cabin, quiet 24 hours a day so he/ she can sleep when needed and an inside cabin will also ensure that it is dark 24 hours a day to obtain a good sleep. For the same reasons I am always quite content to stay in a pilot cabin but will opt for a guest cabin if there are extra navigators on board. It is more important for them to be close to their work than for me.
MS Eurodam as seen departing from New York earlier in her career. (Photo courtesy Holland America Line)
The ms Eurodam is a sister ship of the ms Nieuw Amsterdam and together they form the Signature Class of the company. These ships are an evolution of the Vista Class and in the same way as the Koningsdam, being the first of the three Pinnacle Class ships has a lot of features which have proven successful on the Signature class. It also goes backwards as the music concept developed for the Pinnacle Class has also been introduced on the Eurodam. Thus the ship has the Lincoln Centre for classical music and the Billboard on board for the duelling piano’s. Also the Northern lights disco has been removed and the Gallery Bar put in its place.
Our schedule for this cruise.
The Eurodam makes a variation of East and West 7 day Caribbean cruises and today the ship will sail with a full house toward Grand Turk Island, San Juan, St Thomas and then on the way back call at our private island Half Moon Cay. Then the next cruise is a West Caribbean cruise. The good ship is under the command of Captain Werner Timmers, who I have known since 1984 as he joined the company three years after me. He will have to wriggle the ship out of Fort Lauderdale today and I use the word wriggle as the port is filled to capacity with cruise ships. When I arrived with the taxi this morning, it was an advanced form of controlled mayhem in the port with a rush hour flow of traffic to get all the guests, crew and supporting people in and out, not to count the provisions, supplies and recyclables.
Because we are actually not in Fort Lauderdale but in Port Everglades, this whole headache inducing organization is being controlled and streamlined by the Sheriff of Broward County. I assume they now have a sort of dedicated and very large Cruise department in their organization as there are always a very large number of patrol cars, motor cycles and even one or two patrol boats out from the early morning to late evening.
In port today in the cruise ship line up is : Eurodam, Carnival Conquest, Freedom of the Seas, Harmony of the Seas, Celebrity Summit, Island Princess, Royal Princess and then last but not least the local cruise ferry the Bahama Express. If all ships would be full then a rough count would indicate that there would be some 24000 guests coming and going today in the port. I wonder how the airport is coping as Ft. Lauderdale airport is a very nice one but the check in area’s are a bit tight for such an influx of guests.
But as usual the port will work its wonders and all the ships will sail today as per schedule. I will spend the rest of my day talking to captain, staff captain and training officer to get my own show on the road and to see where my activities will assist the ship in the best way possible. The weather looks good and we should have a nice start of the cruise.
February 18, 2017 at 5:48 pm
Welcome back Captain A. We look forward to your tales from the sea.
Regards,
Roger T
February 18, 2017 at 7:10 pm
Welcome Back Captain Albert! You have been missed.
You mentioned that you will be speaking to the “training officer” aboard the Eurodam during your first day aboard. I wonder: what rank does such an Officer hold? A Second Officer? Or what?
February 19, 2017 at 3:33 pm
Ah, all these officers have secondary titles depicting the work they do off the bridge.
First officer = safety officer
2nd officer 1 = navigation officer
2nd officer 2 = training officer
3rd officer 1 = assistant safety
3rd officer 2 = assistant life saving
3rd officer 3 = administration
etc.etc.
Best regards
Capt. Albert
February 18, 2017 at 7:55 pm
Welcome back. I think I saw your ghost last night aboard the Veendam. We are in route to Rio and the Amazon before returning to Ft Lauderdale. I looked up your blogs of 2008 (and 2006) remembering you were in command as the Veendam returned from Alaska and did the Amazon before returning to us in Tampa those years. If you have any advice especially for the Amazon portion, I shall pass it on!
February 19, 2017 at 3:30 pm
My advice: Do not see it as a nice cruise, see it & experience it as a fascinating cruise. As it is totally different from anything else.
Safe Sailing
Capt. Albert
February 19, 2017 at 8:33 am
Welcome back. Hope you got your chores at home finished.
February 19, 2017 at 4:21 pm
As always Captain, welcome back, and above all thanks for being back. I really can’t go happily with these very long absences. Your apartment building must be fixed by now (as you were managing that), so it doesn’t appear you have many reasons to be absent for this long.
I tried to embed a picture of a 28″ model I made of the MS Noordam in the mid to late 90’s, but the reply system won’t allow that, and that makes sense I guess. Anyway, I’m looking forward to your posts on this stint…………Ruud
February 20, 2017 at 3:52 pm
Thank you I would love to see that model, can you send a photo to CaptAlbert1@aol.com ??
Best regards
Capt. Albert
February 19, 2017 at 7:56 pm
Captain Albert,
Many thanks for taking your time to reply to my question.
February 20, 2017 at 4:52 pm
Welcome back Captain; Broward County Sheriff indeed has jurisdiction over, and patrols, huge Port Everglades. The majority of their fleet assigned to PEV has “Port Everglades” stenciled to the bottom of the vehicle doors. What I never knew was that the fire engines and paramedic rigs also belong to Broward County Sheriff as opposed to Broward County Fire; always interesting to see a bright red fire engine respond to the ship with “Broward County Sheriff” written on the side 😉 Safe travels on EUDM and regards, if you happen to come across him, to her S/O, Doug, the former USCG “Coastie” 😉
February 21, 2017 at 7:40 pm
Ditto, Captain. That is, “Welcome back”. Hoping that there is no shortage of chewing capacity?
Out West we have been slightly out of joint by surprising loads of snow. Love it. Still showing off what I bought in Finland and Estonia putting it to good use. It might have somewhat taken the wind out of my sails, though.
Your blogs will, as usual, recharge my engine room and will look forward every day what’s on the menu.
Looking forward very much to having a chance again to see you in person on 9 July (if the Captain gives you the OK to come around the Bridge window). The weekend after that there is a big event going on in town, and I will be attending there.