24 June 2019; Tromso, Norway.

Today we are in Tromso docking at the regular cruise terminal from which we can see the town next to us and also the outer part of the town opposite the river. That part has the famous Arctic Cathedral (Domkirk in the local language) and is claimed to be the most northern one in the world.

Tromso Cathedral all lit up for the festive season. (Photo courtesy https://www.ishavskatedralen.no/en/the-arctic-cathedral/)

It does dominate the landscape, something that a church normally does but in this case with its modern design even more. Tromso is split up into two parts and they have a modern bridge to connect the two sides. A high bridge so that coastal ships still can go under it. As a result it is not so easy to just walk from one side to the other side as the bridge span is long and drawn out. Hence to see the cathedral you need to take a taxi or go on a tour. Because of the inclement weather (four seasons in the hour, except snow) I decided to stay on board having seen the place in the ancient past. Sun, wind and rain changed the weather by the hour and that made it a challenging day to be a tourist.

Thus today very little about the port. I am in the process of publishing photos of the various groups on board, today the cooks are on the list, and that needs a bit of explanation as the Royal Viking Sun / Seabourn Sun / Prinsendam is not so straight forward where cooking is concerned. Royal Viking Line had a one sitting dinner. Seabourn had a sort of open sitting system and Holland America went to two sittings. The dining room as designed took up most of deck 6 and there was not much else at all. A large section in the back, a large section in the front and a small section on the starboard side were the dining room warped itself around the serving galley.  Then there was a second full size galley on deck 4 which was the main preparation galley.

The way it was with Royal Viking. Holland America with its two sitting system took away the forward part of the dining room and installed the Pinnacle Restaurant and the Ocean Bar in its place.

To deal with 700 hungry eaters and serve them in style (silver service) the system had to be ready to churn out 700 main courses in a short amount of time. The food was prepared all day on deck 4 and then the final touches would be done on deck 7 and that made it possible to keep a quick service going. Holland America has not changed the system very much as it would mean that the whole galley system would have to be rebuilt; by keeping it the same it did result in the fact that the Prinsendam galley has the most elbow room for the dining room stewards collecting the meals from the order counters in the deck 7 galley. This speeds up the delivery of course which in turn enhances the service.

The Cooks of the Main Galley.. To the right the Executive Chef Mr. Pedro Lontoc and to the left the ships Food & Beverage Director Mr.  Kantharaju, Rajesh. When I took the photo they were just adding the finishing touches to the cold starters for the evening meal. Once complete all the plates go into coolers, to maintain a safe temperature, and then the dining room stewards can collect them directly from the cooler when they have an order. As you can see to the left, more and more ladies are entering the cooking trade and thus shipboard life.  

Silver Service went out of the window longtime ago. SS means serving each part of the course ordered from silver plates; steak, potatoes, vegetables and condiments all came one by one, scoop by scoop onto the dinner plate. For years Silver Service was a requirement to be considered a six star ship and /or company. USPH and other Health Authorities did not like this system very much as it was very hard during the serving period to keep the food warm enough. This did not mean that if the temperature dropped under the USPH limit that the food should not be consumed anymore but more as a failsafe against serving food that had been left out too long and then could become a danger. But to do silver service you need space. Space to setup the trays, space to collect them and large walkways to carry the wide silver trays into the dining room.

The Lido has a separate serving and cooking team. Looking after the Lido, the Canaletto Restaurant and the table service in all areas.

Hence the two galleys on the Prinsendam separated by several decks. On our newer ships, starting with the Vista Class we have two levels of galley as well but there we serve two levels of restaurants with a lot more guests/meals.  The split Prinsendam Galley setup was and is as far as I know unique in the world, in relation to the ships size and the number of guests it caters for.

What is often forgotten is that while those who create the food are in the spotlight, there are those who have to all get it cleaned up again. Not only what comes back from the guests in the Dining Room but also what the cooks in the galley themselves use.  Baking plates, soup cauldrons, grills, deep fat fryers, pots and pans it all needs to be cleaned as well so it can be used for the next cooking cycle. So here a tribute to the un-sung heroes of the Galley’s: the  General Galley Stewards or with other words the Dishwash and Sanitation team.  Know to us as the “blue boys” due to the blue pants they are wearing. To the left their team leader Chief Steward Mr. Vladimir Singson.

Tomorrow we are in Narvik: And the weather looks slightly better than today. Still showers in the morning but reducing to a 40% chance at lunchtime and 20% in the afternoon. Temperatures 12oC / 53oF at noon time. I am hoping for even better as Narvik is one of those few places in the world I have never been to. (At least I think so)