20 March 2016; Marghera, Italy.

By the time we are finished the whole crew will speak fluent Italian.

Another dry day today but on the chilly side. Work in the ship yard slowed down a little bit today as there were a major number of area’s which were going through their final delivery process.  Then you cannot have every 5 minutes somebody barging through and it seemed it was all planned that way.

Although a lot of work was still going on, especially in the Guest Corridors and on the lower decks, the biggest impact today was made by our crew members. We have still crew coming in but they are the last groups to complement what we already have on board. All that crew needs to be trained and we start each crew members life on board with a ship’s tour and some basic safety information. For the ship’s tour we have two Training and Development Managers on board who take group by group on a nearly 2 hour tour through the whole ship. So they know what the ship looks like and they will start taking ownership of the Koningsdam. It is their ship from now on and if they understand how it all works, what the musical theme stands for, and why certain rooms are laid out in a certain way, then they will be able to answer the questions of the guests. Getting a 1036 crew through this process is a lot of work but it is worthwhile the effort as everybody is really starting to take pride in what Holland America is bringing to the World.

Chris the Training and Development Manager on yet another tour. About 850 crew have done the tour thus far.

As we have a lot of crew on board now, work gets done in groups and sometimes in very large groups. Today all the boxes with Dining Room crockery and cutlery came out of the Galley and went into the Dining room itself. The upper level has been handed over to the ship and thus we can make it ready for the guests.

A long line all the way from the Galley to the aft dining room.

Of course you can use a trolley to bring all the boxes from A to B but if you have over a 100 dining room stewards available, you can also make a Conga Line and go hand over hand. It goes faster as well. Today the boxes were moved out and then the unpacking will start. A similar process was going on in the Culinary Arts Centre where the lockers have been delivered and thus the crockery could be stored away.

Club Hal consists out of the Childrens play area, the Teens and the Tweens area’s. Then on the port and starboard side behind the indoor spaces are open air area’s as well.

An area I have not mentioned yet is the Club Hal. Our Youth Centre, located midships above the Lido Deck. The shipyard has now cleared part of the area and the outfitting the toys and things will shortly start. This is the Childerens playroom for the smallest on board. Note the low wash basin. Holland America is all about washing your hands often.

Double Bunks, a desk, a TV on the Wall and a Bathroom at the other side. This is a standard crew cabin.

Most of the crew share two to a cabin with their own private facilities on C, B, A and Main deck. Most of the Officers live on A deck and Main deck aft and the Captain and the Ship’s Staff live behind the bridge. Everybody is quite close to the Mess Rooms and the Recreational Facilities with the exception of the Officers Bar which is located all the way forward on A deck. Quite a walk to go from the stern to the bow to get a drink. But at least the Bar is out of the way and there is direct access to the Forward Open Deck where there is also a Jaccuzi for the Crew.

Also today  the first Art appeared in the ship. Some of the art which is integral to the wall paneling itself had been installed a long time ago but now the art which comes in picture frames is being put in position where the work has been completely finished. As the ship has a musical theme there are large number of paintings and other decorations which follow that musical theme. So it is not surprising to find on Beethoven Deck (deck 4) art representations of Beethoven.  On the deck, not named after the composers, there is a variety of art which links into the ships theme on a different level.

Deck 4 Beethoven Deck.

Hanging in the Forward Staircase. An example of this is a painting or collage from old Floppy disks which make up the back ground for a ladies face.

I am quite impressed with how the artist combined various media including floppy disks to make this portrait.