19 November 2018; Nieuw Statendam Building, 11 days to go.

Another dry and sunny day but it is getting chillier and chillier as the temperature keeps dropping. Even in the sun it was not that great if you were standing still. The crew who ventured out last night to Venice and Mestre were not happy campers as most of them were not dressed for the weather. Quite a few still have a hard time to get their head around the fact that Venice is not in the tropics. At least not in the late autumn and winter.

With a happy Sunday behind them, the yard people re-appeared on the ship again and with them the loud conversations and the shouting in the corridors. Their numbers continue to dwindle as more work is finished. Still some minor challenges remain. A few days ago I received a new balcony window, this morning there was a technician scratching at the seals on the outside and later in the morning a whole committee inspected the window and declared it not good enough. They obviously did not like his scratching. So now we wait for the next development.

First photo of our Lido open for business. With no guests around yet, it was almost one on one service so I felt quite privileged.

But those are minor things and part of delivering a large and complicated ship. Today the Lido opened for the first time for lunch and officers and staff were there to test and see if they could collect food faster than the Lido Galley could replenish. Then tomorrow the dining room will be open for breakfast and dinner to get the routine going there as well. With the shakedown cruise there will be a larger number of Guests on board and thus the working pressure on all the venues can be increased step by step until we get the paying guests who can then expect the regular Holland America level of service.

Deliveries to all venues in the ship continue as more and more space is handed over by the shipyard to the ship. Today the storing of the Bo ‘sun store went full pelt and the same was going on downstairs in the vast storage spaces of the Engine Room. My cabin was adorned with fancy pillows (those big ones more for show than use) and the bathroom received its soap dispensers in the shower. Nothing in it yet, it goes step by step. Also the lifejackets arrived and a new remote control. The original one was removed (the one with all the buttons) and replaced by the simple hotel version which you can also operate without first having to obtain a degree in TV-onics.

The complete group of the MAT present. As you can see there are quite a few but then the Nieuw Statendam is a big ship.

For the ship in general, the main focus of today was the full drill in the afternoon. We had one two days ago, yesterday was a partial drill and today we did the whole sequence again, fire, assembly, and lowering away. The Nieuw Statendam is an indoor mustering ship and thus we have a lot of teams dedicated to get the guests to where they have to go. One of the teams that is not so well known is the MAT team, or the Mobility Assist Team. Guests only see them when they come to the gangway or the tender platform. They are the crew who wear the blue vests with a wheel chair on the back. In a real emergency it can be expected that we have a number of guests on board who cannot run the marathon anymore and will thus request help. When a cruise starts we already collect information about all the guests who have a physical or mental challenge and might need support in an emergency. The MAT will then be ready to support where needed. This group assembles in the Orange Room and will be dispatched when needed to the right location. With the aid of the list, they will know the challenge and can dispatch the right number of supporting crew.

Lining up for the Crocodile line, going to the lifeboats. For those who can not walk the stairs, there are exists on ground level in the World Stage, Emergency Elevators and the MAT to help.

The other thing is, when you are at your muster location, you have to get from there to your lifeboat. To ensure that is happening in an orderly way, we use the “crocodile lineup” also known as a “Conga line”. However before you are ready to teach and help the guests to do this, you have to know yourself what it is as not every crewmember knows what a crocodile line is. Thus we also practice that. We will continue to exercise all the evolutions in the drill sequence until everybody can dream his or her duty and can react in a flash.

For the weather it will remain cold, windy but dry.

The daily piece of art. The wall covering in the Sel de Mer has appeared. On the Koningsdam it is a Parisian scene by Lautrec and I assume this is also by an impressionist but I do not know his name.

The wall decoration in the Sel de Mer has appeared. As the art on the ship does not come with name tags, I have no idea who the painter might be.