03 April 2016; Marghera to Venice, Italy.

Today everything was about the transfer from Marghera to Venice. There is an indoor route but we went first to open sea for a helicopter photo shoot and entered Venice via the regular Lido Entrance to the sail past San Marco Square. We were blessed with sunny, and more important, nearly wind still weather. The latter enabled the captain to get slowly used to the ship as it was the first time he touched the handles since the Trial Trip some months ago.

The exit channel is twice the width of the Koningsdam but with occasional obstructions which make it even smaller.

The challenge for this transfer was the departure from the building dock as the channel is quite tight. Not as tight as sailing into the Panama Canal locks but it felt the same as nobody was familiar yet with how the ship would be behave. And she behaved very well. Every thing worked as it should and by 10.30am we were in open waters to slowly sail toward Venice, giving the helicopter pilot the chance to choose the right angles and shoot some photos. This was repeated while were inside the Laguna, taking the traditional shots of a Fincantieri new build against the backdrop of ancient Venice.

Passing the San Marco area with a tug in the front.

For this first transfer we had tugboats and apart from wanting to have a safety net for the first time, the local regulations also require us to have tugs in case the steering would fail while traversing trough Venice. It would not do if Holland America suddenly had a Hotel-Koningsdam parked with the nose embedded in San Marco square.  Hence a safety tugboat to steer from the bow and a safety tugboat to break at the stern.

Down town Venice as seen from the ship. Everything which is not white or water are people milling around.

Entry on the other side was at noon time and with a bit of hazy Sunday afternoon we sailed through Venice. It is Sunday today and this most likely counted for San Marco’s place already being choc-a-bloc with people. I thought it would not be the case yet as the tourist season has not yet begun. Thus we had a good welcome with thousands of cell-phones clicking away and a lot of selfies being taken from the vaparetto’s which were criss crossing from island to island.

And this is a shot from the other side. The Koningsdam passing by. (Photo courtesy Mr. Michael Smith VP for Hotel Operations)

We were not the only ship in port; the Costa Deliziosa was docked at the same dock as us. We were behind the Costa and we also had to dock stern in thus a good training exercise to start the career of the ship. Docking stern in had to be done to be able to have two gangways out and to have room for storing the ship tomorrow. We have two gangways as there is one for the crew and one for the guests.

This is what a sail through looks like on the sea chart. A nice sharp bend right in front of St.Marcs Square.

And those guests started to board as soon as the ship was cleared by the local authorities. The latter seems a bit strange as we were coming from the same town so to speak but we went outside into open waters and thus we had to be cleared-in again. In this case it was a formality but the law has to be observed and complied with. As mentioned before, now coming is a four day shakedown cruise with guests on board made up by company employees and related. I think it is a good idea to run a pre- cruise like this because there are always bugs to be ironed out and it is better that we as employee’s “suffer” from an inconvenience than our guests.

The glass bottom of the portside stairs leading up to Panorama Deck.

One of my readers enquired about the glass staircase which connects the Lido Deck with the Panorama Deck.  Last night the covering was removed and now you can see what it exactly is. When you stand in the middle of the stairs, you are outside the ship and look straight down into the sea. Not a good spot for people with vertigo. But you can imagine that you are on the bridge of the Koningsdam as there we have the same thing, a glass bridge wing floor, which helps with docking the ship.

The Aft bulkhead of the Captains corner in the ps. Crowsnest. Two Stephen Cards paintings on the wall and to the left (not visible) a very nice model of the Ryndam II from 1951.

As usual I will end with a bit of art. Thus far I have been showing all sorts of art; art which has nothing to do with ships, the sea or Holland America. But the tradition still continues with two Stephen Card paintings in the Captains Corner of the Crows nest. One is of course an artist impression of the Koningsdam and the other shows the arrival of the ss Rotterdam V, in Rotterdam as seen from under the bow of the Statendam IV.

We will now stay overnight in Venice and then sail tomorrow early afternoon for our first port of call Dubrovnik. I am leaving you with a little secret: Who was our pilot for the sail to Venice: Mickey Arison. He has now been on so many of his new ships sailing into Venice that he was by far the most experienced man on the bridge………….. l.o.l

Chairman of Carnival Corp. Mr. Mickey Arison in the Navigators chair surrounded by the Bridge Team.