20 November 2018; Nieuw Statendam Building, 10 days to go.

During the night we had a cold front coming over with a shower and this morning we woke up to a real late autumn day. Overcast, gloomy and windy. But we have only 10 days to go so we will survive. Then the ship will move from the yard to the Venice cruise terminal and the next day our first cruise will start. Everybody is really looking forward to it. As with every (dry) dock, the crew likes it for a few days but then all the little chores are done and they want to go back to their real jobs: giving the guests a wonderful cruise. Although we are up to full crew complement already, still more crew members are arriving to help out with the initial startup and all the extra activities that this will bring. The total now stands at 973 crew + guest entertainers + not counted Hal-subcontractors and we are still expecting 30 more crew. So we will go well over the 1000 today if they are show up.

The Rolling Stones Rock room. It does not look different from the Koningsdam except that the Bar (not visible) has been remodeled.

More and more areas are being delivered and today there was no more work done on Deck 2 with on the portside Billboard on Board and on the starboard side the Rock Room. And so it goes for most of the ship. The Crows nest is completed apart from the installing of all the interactive TV’s and then all the furniture can be brought in. The crew is really roaring to go but can only take over an area when it is completely finished. Thus a lot of time is spent on cleaning, meetings, trainings, and standing in line. The latter when things have to be issued or keys are needed.

Waiting for keys. Because security is a top priority, this is a bit of a tedious affair as each card is printed in the presence of the owner so the owner knows there is only one and the Security Officer is certain the key went directly to the correct person.

It is not short of amazing what a cruise ship carries on board while cruising and what is needed to comply with the Rules and Regulations. As one small item, today the sailors were busy with loading life jackets in the tenders. Although I call them sailors as they belong to the deck department, their official title is Life Saving Attendants. These are sailors who are specialized in maintaining all the life boat equipment. A never ending job as all this equipment is constantly exposed to the salt from the sea. If it is up to them the ship would have a downpour each morning around sunrise to keep all the salt off. So they did not mind the rain from this very early morning at all. The other job they have is helping out with the rigging of the gangways and the tender platforms. So one of these guys is always the first person ashore in whatever port we visit.

The L.S.A’s  busy with loading life jackets. There are 6 life jackets in a box and thus the box is not heavy to pull up. It just takes a lot of boxes for each tender.

Life jackets are required in the tenders for the tender part of the boat. First and foremost tenders are lifeboats and can carry 150 guests. If used as such. The guests will have their own life jackets but when in use as a tender of course not. Because Tenders are lifeboats it is not easy to sink them, even when filled with water but still, we need life jackets as people can fall over board or might have to wade through deep water back to the shore if a tender would go aground. Our tender capacity is 150 when in use as a lifeboat and 120 when in use as a Tender. The latter number is smaller as guests will carry bags and shopping with them so we need a bit more space. When we conduct regular tender service we never go over the 100. But 120 is on the certificate and thus we need 120 adult life jackets on board. The law also prescribes that another 10% of children’s life jackets shall be on board and thus each tender (and we have 6 of them) received 130 life jackets.

The distribution of art also slowly continues but we still have a few pedestals empty in the main staircases where there is still too much traffic going on. They have now started hanging art in the various guest corridors as most cabins have been delivered and also the small repairs have been completed. Not everything is completed; as the story with my window still continues. This morning it was inspected by a team that said YES, followed by very painful looking gentleman on the balcony who clearly said NO. If this continues like this, it could be turned into a Soap Opera called “Finestra, Finestra”.

Tomorrow the clouds are expected to disappear and the wind to abate. The sun will lift the average temperature by a few degrees but it is still not flip-flop weather.

This installation is quite intriguing. In front of this display case is a vertical plank with a hole. If you look through the hole or stick the camera through it you get this view. A very famous inhabitant of Brussels showing his disdain for a  gentleman with a bowler hat.

However when you look at the side it looks more like a fruit plate.