23 March 2016; Marghera, Italy.

Another dry day to enjoy but it was overcast so it felt as a very chilly day in March. Last night we had another shipyard initiated Black Out with further tests to conduct by simulating an emergency. Once again we were booted off the ship as they did not want to have anybody walking through the ship while the closing of the fire screen doors was in progress.

Then today they locked off the outside decks as they wanted to sand down these decks and square everything away. Not that it mattered much to us as everybody was bogged down in training or in paper work for completing the ship. When not so occupied it was back to cleaning and delivering materials to the various locations again. Today many of the chairs came on board, thus far stored in the warehouse ashore.

Entrance to the Ships Recycling Centre.

Apart from “Above Decks” (Main deck and higher) below decks everything is progressing as well and today enough cabling had been removed for me to walk around without a Safety Helmet. One of the areas which has been delivered is the Recycling Centre or as we normally call it: the garbage room. It goes in as garbage and what comes out are recyclables.  In this area we can find, two incinerators for burning food waste and non-recyclable carton. Two shredders (to break up glass), densifiers (to squeeze plastic into small bales), compactors (to turn tin cans in to small aluminum bricks) and compactors (to reduce the volume of any item which cannot be processed in any other way). Dry carton is folded and flattened and then put on pallets for off loading. Glass is shredded into small pieces and collected in large canvas bags (4 x 4 x 4 ft.) and also given ashore.  What can be burned goes into incinerators and then we give ashore the ash for further processing. I do not know what they exactly do with this ash but there is a usage for it.   For all the recyclables we receive money and that money goes into the crew fund for activities.

Wet food rests and carton go into a drying tank = see the silver top = and is then later incinerated.

I finally managed to get into the Tamarind Restaurant which was not cluttered today with boxes or with technical inspections going on. Contrary to the Signature Class, the Tamarind on the Koningsdam is located looking aft over the Sea View Deck instead of over the Dome /Lido Deck.  Also a few changes have been made to the interior.

Sb. side Tamarind. In the background the Sushi Bar.

The separate bar, The Den, has been removed and merged into the Tamarind. On the Signature Class this bar was really under used and has now been reborn into a smaller bar in the Sb. Aft corner.  Opposite is a Sushi Bar for those guests who do not want the full Tamarind Menu but just Sushi. The centre of the area is then the Tamarind, surrounded by black lattice so it gives a private dining feeling.

When you enter the Tamarind you will be greeted by two Asian Lions. Who at the moment fully in accordance with the safety rules of the yard, wear a safety helmet.

In the Crows nest on Deck 12, Observation Deck, they have now removed the carpet coverings and are placing the furniture. The area is still setup in the same way as on the other ships. Captains Corner on the portside, the Crowsnest itself and bar in the centre and the Library and Internet Café on the starboard side.

Captain’s corner is receiving its furniture.

What is different: there is a staircase which goes from in the inside of the Crowsnest starboard sitting area to Deck 14, the sky deck.  It looks a bit quirky but they have hidden this staircase inside a Silver Egg. Rather different than what we are used to but it does forms a sort of focus to the area while at the same time hiding an ugly series of steps.

This Elephant can be found while walking up the staircase to the Tamarind.

The installing of the Art carries on day and night as the ship will be full of paintings and pictures and now they have also started with installing little sculptures. These will grace the centres of the Elevators Lobbies on the various decks and will break up the space in a nice way.  Again the name plates have not been installed yet and until that time it will be guessing what the artist was really meaning but that does not make it less fascinating to look at.

Small sculptures adorn the Elevator Lobbies.