After a less than sunny departure from the dock in Venice, we came into the open waters of the Adriatic and the weather improved steadily. So this morning we arrived with flat-calm seas and sunny skies at Dubrovnik for our ships call between 10.0hrs.  and 18.00 hrs.  We always call this Dubrovnik but only ships who anchor near the entrance to the old port are really in Dubrovnik. The dock is located about 15 minutes down the road at the other side of the hills in a place called Gruz.

And that brings the question: what is better? Anchor near down town and use the tender service or dock and take the (free) shuttle bus into town?  There are pro and cons for both. Where you go, depends on what you asked for and what is assigned to you.  For down town the pro is, with a regular tender service, you are in and out of Dubrovnik in 10 minutes and you have a beautiful scenic ride. The con is, the anchorage is not a very happy one, especially if you are a large ship. If the wind picks up, the ship veers behind its anchor and suddenly the rocks are very close by. Then you have to raise anchor, go further out and hopefully you will be able to get your guests back. Otherwise you have to sail around to Gruz and pick them up over there.

Downtown Dubrovnik. Although it looks quite wide, there is not much anchor space on either side of the green islands. Just look at the size of the speed boat leaving the port.

Gruz has a very long dock which can handle two large ships and one small one, if you look at the maximum sizes. Then there are three anchorages on top of that which are sometimes in use if it is high season. I have been to Dubrovnik with 7 cruise ships on call at the same time. Luckily we are today all by ourselves.  When docked in Gruz you use the shuttle bus to get into town which adds 15 to 20 minutes to the Journey.  Gruz has one major challenge and that is the Bora Winds. A few times a year in the early morning, if the weather circumstances are perfect further inland, a wind picks up which is called the Bora. It funnels down the mountain and through the river gorge which ends at the docks of Gruz. Not just a little bit of wind, but hurricane force winds, the vortex in that narrow funnel made by the river. If you are docked there is no problem, but if still in the process of arriving you cannot sail, as suddenly 65 knots of wind will catch your ship. Then suddenly the other side of Gruz comes closer very quickly.

This is the dock in the port of Gruz. It must have been designed by a sailor as it near perfect for docking there.

The pilots are alert to that, most of the time, and warn if the Bora is blowing. If so, you wait until about 11 am. and normally the wind will then die down. I have been caught in that situation once myself and the only thing I could do was to remain drifting with the nose in the wind until things went back to normal. We docked 3 hours late but we made it and because we were docked we could get everybody ashore very quickly. The ships in the downtown anchorage had to leave as well, although the Bora is a lot less strong there, and had to abort their tender service. And that is much more of an inconvenience to the guests. Holland America Line Captains prefer to dock in Gruz, simply because the anchorage can be very un-reliable and very tight if you go there with a larger ship.

Therefore we docked today in Gruz and we did not anchor. As it was a beautiful day the free shuttle bus ride was not so bad either as it gives a free tour through the Suburbs of Dubrovnik, something you otherwise would never see. Life on board goes on as well and we are now trying  to get the ships operation down to routine as quick as we can and thus my focus went to the safe working practices. In the past period I have been busy with a lot of security related matters and that is confidential, hence I have been rather quiet about what I was exactly doing.

When the crew starts working with the equipment on a new ship, such as the winches, the water tight doors, the lifeboats, or even the more complicated coffee machines, there is apprehension. They have been trained, they know exactly what to do, but now they have to push the button on a new toy. Remember when you bought a new car, you know what sort of a car it is, you know how to drive it but the first few times you are apprehensive about all the buttons and what to push until you grow more familiar with everything and get a bit of routine.  With ship people it is the same and then a wise an old man to give a little bit of support is always appreciated.

Tonight we sail at 18.00 hrs. and then we go around the south of Italy heading for Civitavecchia. The distance calls for a steady speed of 16 knots and based on that average we will be passing through the Straits of Messina late tomorrow afternoon. Stromboli should be around dusk and hopefully she will be a little bit active and we can see fire coming out of the cone.

Weather for tomorrow: partly cloudy 71oF or 22oC. Perfect cruising weather.

A sort of mixture and compilation of Chinese and Delft blue.

For those who are hooked on the Koningsdam art by now: Some more broken Crockery. This display is located on Main Deck in the Aft Guest Staircase.

Right after arrival yesterday, the first guests boarded and a steady trickle continued until noon time today. Then at 13.00 hrs. it was time for the Guest Safety Briefing inaugurating our new system of indoor mustering. As I am living in a Guest Cabin, I followed the flow from my Cabin to find my Muster location. It is quite simple:  your cabin is assigned to an area and that area is split up in several sections.  In my case area D2 and section M. Both letters are indicated on the cabin key and on the safety notice on the back of the cabin door. 

As our public rooms run over two decks; Deck 2 Plaza Deck and Deck 3 Promenade Deck, the muster stations are also on both decks.  If you have to go to D3 you will find it on Deck 3 and if you have to go to D2 you will find it on Deck 2. The sections on each deck have different letters; A is in the World Stage and E in the dining room. As this a shakedown cruise, we are not sailing full and thus there was ample space and time to do a good check and see if everything worked. We even had one section C3 in the upper Queens Lounge do the crocodile line to the boat station and line up there.  In a real emergency, there would be no line up; everybody would walk directly into the boat.

When you leave your cabin, there are crew members in the corridors, in the staircases and at the entrance to the Muster Area, as here in the World Stage.

Guests are being scanned when they arrive at their muster station. Here they wait and they are rescanned again when they step into the lifeboat. For this purpose we have two crew members per life boat who have PDA’s and simply scan the bar code on your cabin key/ID card. The information scanned in, goes directly to Muster Control (Front Office) and they can see on a screen how quickly each Muster location is filling. They can also see which cabins are not showing up and then Evacuation Teams are being sent to check the outstanding Guest Cabins. Other Evacuation Teams sweep the public rooms to ensure no guests are left behind there either.  While you go to your Muster station there are plenty of crew around to show you the way, both in the staircases and in the Mustering Area. A lot more than I have seen with other companies who follow the same system. If you would have to go into the lifeboat, the Commander is coming to your location to collect you and guide you to his/her boat.

The ss Ryndam of 1951. She later became the cruise ship Atlas and ended her days as the casino ship Copa Casino.

Yesterday I posted the Maritime Paintings of Stephen Card. In the Captains corner there is one more nautical artifact, a very nice and detailed model of the ss Ryndam of 1951. Together with its sister ship the Maasdam (III) it caused a revolution in the shipping world as they were the first ships where the best location for everything was handed over to Tourist Class while the First Class only had a small area around the bridge. Quite shocking but it made sense as you can make more money from Tourist Class per square foot than from First Class.  These hugely popular ships which went on to cruising and survived long after the Trans-Atlantic sailings had been terminated.

Shore Excursions on Deck 1, Main Deck, in the centre staircase. Nice and spacious with multiple desk-stations for handling guests.

On this shakedown cruise we are doing only one port, Dubrovnik which is a late morning and afternoon call. From there it is straight to Civitavecchia/Rome where we will arrive in the late afternoon of the 7^th. Once there we will disembark all the Contractors and Service people we still have on board to ensure that by the next morning we are completely ready for our regular changeover of guests. This does not mean we are not running this cruise as a real cruise. Contrary we have to check if everything works and thus Shore Excursion is running tours both in Dubrovnik and in Civitavecchia. The Shore excursion office on the Koningsdam is really the best we have in the fleet, with ample space and back offices on either side for the Staff.  As mentioned in a previous blog the desks could also be used for check ‘ins on board and for other purposes.

Today we sail at 14.00 hrs. a nice prime time for a scenic sail away from Venice. It is over cast and a bit greyish but that should be an advantage for taking photos as the sun is not in the way and there will be no glare. It will take about an hour to get to open sea and then for the remainder of the day and night we sail south east towards Dubrovnik. It will be the first real work out for the Main Engines and the engineers are quite excited to find out how much speed they will give under normal operating conditions.

I call this the Broken Spilled Milk Jug.

I am ending again with a piece of art. On deck 1 in Forward and Aft Guest staircases there are corner displays in the same way as on the Vista and Signature ships. On those ships they have antiques, here we have art. The 4 display cases have been given over to an artist who specializes in using broken crockery to create something new.  I have to remember this, next time I am home and I break something I can just glue it back together in anyway I want and then it is worth more than before.

And this the Broken Butterfly Teapot.

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.

Today we had another overcast day but no rain and that made everybody happy. We are now letting it rain ourselves as with the shipyard people out of the way, the sailors are showing the world how to really rinse & hose down a ship. They had to be carefully instructed this morning of where to work as today we have over 4000 visitors on board, courtesy of the shipyard and related.  A big white Marquee was erected in front of the ship and a lot of security milling around. Attending today was the Minister for Transport and that would link in with the security.  We also have a lot of extra fire brigade around, many more than normal, but if that is in relation to a visit of Italian Politicians I do not know.  But the Fire brigade soon found the Lido Restaurant and where enjoying our versions of Italian Pasta.

A big marquee for welcoming the guests for today.

Tomorrow we will make the transfer from the yard to the Venice cruise terminal which will be a slow process as we have to sail through quite a narrow channel and then we have to have some photo opportunities with the ship and Venice as the backdrop.  Once we are docked, embarkation will start and will continue into the evening. The relocation of the ship from Venice to Rome/ Civitavecchia will take four days and is a shakedown cruise. A cruise where we will see if everything is working up to our standards. Thus we do not have regular guests on board but company employees and related and we can “shake” those as much as we want; and we most likely will. Everything will be tested and if not up to expectation we test again. And for some of those tests we need guinea pigs and now we have them.

The Safety Table and screen. It shows all the alarms, ships lay out, checklists, where all the safety teams are and we can call up any camera feed in the ship.

I have blogged in the past few days about all the trainings and drills we have been conducting to get the ship ready. We train for eventualities which will hopefully never happen but if they do then we want to be ready. If something happens, then everything will be coordinated from the Safety Centre behind the Navigation Bridge. The safety procedures are in the hands of the Staff Captain while the Captain keeps oversight and a very close eye on the Navigation. By means of regular updates he will stay abreast of the situation while keeping track of the safe navigation at the same time. So there is a connecting door and he can step in and out when needed. The staff Captain directs everything from a large Safety Table and what he does comes directly on the big screen. In front of him are monitors for stability, environment and safety assist and during a crises the safety center is also manned with a First Officer, a 3^rd Officer and the S.E.H Officer (In case there are Environmental issues) As there are many camera’s in the ship, they can be called up onto the big screen as well.

“Notes” with all the Whisky variations on display.

Most of the public rooms have now been completely furnished and the rest will go in as soon as the 4000 have left the ship. Thus today we could see for the first time what it meant to have over 200 different whiskies for sale. Varying from the regular Glenfiddich’s to a very obscure whisky which will go for $200 a shot as only 40 bottles were ever made.

I do not think a starry sky was the intention of the designer as the ship has a musical them, but it just came out that way.

Although every crewmember has his or her own favorite of what is the nicest space on board, my top favorite is the double level Lido deck, followed by the Queens Lounge. Apart from the color scheme, I am really impressed with the ceiling of the lounge which looks like stars and constellations when lit in the evening for dancing.

The forward part of the Ocean Bar. From the aft part the Piano and stage is just visible.

The Ocean Bar is a complete departure from what we had in the past. The Bar is on the side and then the area is split up in two parts. One part has a piano player for regular cocktail entertainment and the other part can double up as a waiting area for those who have a reservation in the Sel de Mer or the Pinnacle Grill Restaurants.

This is the aft section of the Pinnacle Grill.

A final new gadget for the ship is face recognition in the Photo Gallery. The plan is to have the machines working in such a way that they recognize your face and then search for the photos that were taken of you. I am really looking forward to find out how that works.  I cannot take any photos of this process but the Photo Gallery is a concessionaire and if we stay with concessions and stay with my routine of posting art; here is a photo of our Art Gallery, manned by Park West People from Miami.

Our Art Gallery. Just located forward of the Queens Lounge.

Today we had a grey morning followed by an overcast afternoon. Not the greatest of weather but at least it did not rain. The work of clearing up and final fitting out continued as per schedule.  Everybody is running all over the place/ship to fit the last small pieces of a gigantic jigsaw into place. Where are the keys, who has the keys, where are the glasses for this bar and why is this box here while it clearly belongs on another deck?

Mr. Antonio Quintano from Fincantieri hands over the ship to Mr. Orlando Ashford from HAL. The officers in the back show the new Event Staff grey & orange uniforms.

First let’s share a few photos from yesterday from the hand over. Public Relations could go where I could not and made sure the signing over of the ship was immortalized. Followed by the flag hoisting on the aft deck.

Dutch Glory. The Lady officer you might recognize from an earlier blog as she was in my school class, last September on the Westerdam.

And then life continued as described yesterday. Last night we had an appreciation dinner from Carnival Corporation for those from HAL and the Carnival new build team who helped build the ship. It was preceded by a cocktail party where Stein Kruse CEO Holland America Group, Orlando Ashford president of Holland America and Keith Taylor Exc. VP of the HAL Group spoke a few words. This was followed by dinner.

Brief speeches from Sr. Management. Apologies for the photo but Mr. Taylor is as bald as I am and then everything tends to reflect.

Although I was a very last minute addition to the team I was invited as well and had the honor and privilege of ending up at the table of the President of Carnival Corporation, Arnold Donald. What they had done was to park regular officers and Carnival Corp new build people at large tables and each of those tables was hosted by somebody from Carnival Corporation Head office. I could not resist taking the below photo as it showed the highest man (Except Mickey Arison who was sitting somewhere else) of the company at the table and almost next to him the newest officer on the Koningsdam, the Deck Cadet.

The Koningsdam Cadet to the left, his mentor the First Officer in the middle and the President of Carnival Corp to the right.

We were sitting at a table nearly in the center of the dining room and thus I could take this evening shot of the Grand Staircase which links the upper and lower dining room.

I am going to try this with my wife. Descending down the Grand Staircase on formal night. As it was once done during the Ocean Liner days in the 1930’s.

Then the Cast gave a 40 minute show called Off the Charts on the World Stage and it is really IMPRESSIVE.  I cannot post photos as they are still perfecting the show but if you make a cruise on the Koningsdam you are going to be blown away.

A cold and chilly performance on the forward deck with Mr. Orlando Ashford between the video team and the officers.

This morning there was a photo/video shoot and other related business all over the ship including a Video shoot on the forward deck where the Officers of the ship formed the background over the three Observation Deck levels.

400 Crew in the dining room. The guests will do the Safety Briefing without Lifejackets, to avoid accidents by tripping over straps and falling down staircases.

However soon all the glamour was forgotten and it was back to work. As the Koningsdam is the first ship with indoor mustering we are training very hard to get the crew into this different way of doing the Guest Safety Briefing. Today we did the “crocodile line”. Some other companies call the “conga line”.

Marching in a Crocodile line out of the Dining room.

We assembled 400 crew in the dining room and then had them march to their assigned lifeboat. Running a crocodile line is not easy as the ones in the front tend to walk too fast and then the last in the line cannot follow and the line breaks.

On the way to the boat station.

For that purpose we have one lifeboat team member at the front of the line, one in the middle and one at the end to regulate the pace.

The Koningsdam, lido chair assembly line.

Once that was done everybody had to race back again to their place of work. One of those areas was on the Lido Deck where now most of the garbage containers have been removed and replaced by the containers with the deck furniture. For some unknown reason everything came un-assembled and thus the deck boys set up their own Conga line: empty the container, take out of the box, flatten the box, connect the top and the bottom, put the screws in and stack the deck stretcher in a safe place.

I think they are Guitars..

I am ending again with a piece of art; Guitars (I think, or maybe juke –lilles) on the way to the amidships staircase.

So today was the big day. Although we could not do everything that was supposed to happen. A flag raising ceremony was planned with everybody being present on the Sea View deck aft, where you can see the Flag pole, but the deck had not been cleaned yet and work was still on going with the Glass Stairs. So it meant that the amount of “everybody” had to be reduced to the senior office people and the ships officers. That worked and the Italian flag came down and the Dutch flag went up. Hence it was hard for me to get some good photos but here is the flag hanging.

Here we are Holland Glory on top.

Thus what nobody saw wis the installation of the Builders plate with the shipyard name and the builder’s number of the ms Koningsdam. It is hanging on the Sb. side Lido deck a much more prominent place than is the case on some other ships.  Here at least the majority of our guests will be able to see the plate and see where the ship was built.

Fincantieri Buildiers Plate with our yard number 6241.

Soon as the flag was up work continued in a frenzy as there is still a lot of cleaning up to do. I have not posted any photos yet from the Crow’s nest and the Children’s playroom. Main reason is the fact of the furniture not having been delivered but which is taking place at the moment. Although Holland America does not tend to have that many children on board, except with Thanksgiving and Christmas but those who will sail with us will enjoy it. It is a large area split up in toddlers, teens and tweens and each as an outside deck area as well, screened off from the rest of the ship. The parents can be very happy. My experience is with Club Hal and the kids is for the first day; they are reluctant to go but as soon as they are there, you cannot get them out again. Much to the upset of the parents who want to take “little Johnny” to dinner in the evening and little Johnny much more prefers to eat pizza with the rest and create mayhem behind the Club HAL door. But it is the first step in creating a platform which will bring little Johnny back when he has become a Big John.

Kiddie Furniture arriving and being installed.

The ship is now really gearing up for the start of our cruising life but first we have to get through the all the formalities of being a new ship. Tomorrow around 4000 guests are  expected, invitee’s of the shipyard. I wonder if we will be able to cope with the amount of cookies as the Grand Dutch Café has now opened for business and there are a lot of nice cookies and pastries on display which can be had free of charge. They also have Dutch “drop” or liquorice which of course has to be paid for.

Another piece Art and this one really attracts me as I find it really clever what the artist did. Transforming piano keys into zebras

Today was also the last day of the pre sailing audits which the ship had to go through and the Captain is now a happy man as all the certificates, which will enable him to sail, are being issued now. A funny part of this inspection was that these Auditors were being audited themselves. Lloyds carries out all the ships inspections on behalf of the Dutch Government and the Flag State has to ensure Lloyds is carrying out the inspections according to the standards set by the Flag State.  The question now remains, who audits the auditors who audited the auditors??

Panorama Bar. Not a bad spot to watch a movie from in the evening on the big screen.

This is the first ship of the fleet where we have a double level Lido Deck. Lower level is around the pool and the up upper level is a sort of balcony overhang with white leather benches. This means we also have two Lido bars now and the upper level the Panorama Bar appeared today from behind all the protection. It is located on the starboard side deck 10 and the regular lido bar is on deck 09 port side.

If you still have a old sewing machine and an old record, then you can make your own art.

Not all that is going on is hard work. Tonight there will be a party for all the officers to thank them for their hard work and tomorrow there will be a similar one for all the crew and for that purpose the yard has hired a public area down the road from the yard and they will throw a party organized by Heineken.  Most crew has been working long and irregular hours in the last days to get the ship ready. Often irregular hours as they had to work around the activities of the yard. So a thank you is appropriate and no doubt a free drink will be appreciated.

The weather gods are really favoring us here in Marghera. Today we had another dry day with a little bit of sunshine which took the chill away but at the same time did not make it too warm. Perfect weather to finish a big cruise ship. And thus we did, at least we work towards it. The crews working in the public rooms have now started with training the proper serving in the restaurants and using themselves as the guests. So we could observe the rather strange situation of half the Pinnacle Ladies and Gents having High Tea while being served by the other half of the Team. Similar things were going on in other locations including the Bars. (Although here the bottles were not opened) Orders are now ship wide being taking by means of a tablet which forwards each order directly to the point of issue. It reduces the walking a lot and it should also speed up the service.

The piano players are sitting opposite between two grand pianos. In the far background the testing of the beer pumps is in progress.

On another level, but with the same objective, are the rehearsals of all the Entertainers who will work the Music Walk. Today the dueling pianos in the Billboard were in action and in five minutes time I learned that it is not so easy to have two pianists sing together and make a show out of it. Billy Joel sounded good to me but the Musical Director / Trainer was reviewing line by line the tune and so it took a long time before the song came to an end.  With all the yard people still milling around they were not short of an audience. In the same way the Bar Personnel could follow it as well. They were getting training from a specialist Dutch Trainer in how to draw a correct “kleine pils ” and a “grote pils”. If you decide to serve Dutch draft beer then it has to be right. Two fingers of foam and not more; also not less.

Shops on Board. almost ready for opening.

The shops are also under full steam and the displays are being filled and display cases arranged. This is only partly done by our own shop staff. For the initial, perfect setup, expert widow display people have flown in who take care of arranging everything in such a way that everybody should be enticed to enter the shop instead of walking by. These people do not only do new ships, they also sail with the ships when they are changing cruise area. E.g. when we go from Alaska to the Caribbean and vice versa.

The Chef preparing a dish for the camera only.

Public Relations has also descended upon the ship; to document and announce what is happening with the ship as soon as it will be ours. Part of the activities form the filming of what happens in the various food outlets. Today they were busy in the Culinary Arts Center and documenting in close up how the CAC chef is making a dish. This is a long and drawn out process as what the chef does IS professional but if the shot is not correctly taken, then it does NOT necessary look professional on the T.V. and thus it is a long and drawn out process. A sort of cooking in slow motion so to speak.

All the equipment is there. All the Electrics in place. Now the all important moment of making the right connection.

Controlled chaos is still reigning in the Microsoft /Digital Workshop where the technicians have to make all the computers talk to the main one of the Instructor and also ensure that all of them have a good link with the internet. As computers mean basically unpacking boxes and plugging in the cables, the clutter created does not mean that much. The preparation until the monitors can be plugged in is what is taking the longest.

Here we are with the Dining Room Complete, ready and with all the tables set.

Today the dining room was setup completely and now the stewards are getting familiar with how to use the steward stations in the most economical way; how to walk the quickest from their station to the kitchen (especially if guests  have pushed the chairs back a bit more) and they are getting familiar with the menu’s. Apart from knowing the menu’s by heart they also have to know what is in each dish and whether it might provoke an allergy etc. Thus in short bursts of training the dining room managers go through all the entries and step by step everybody will come onto the same page.

In real life the eyes are looking at you in a different way than seen in the photo. Very strange.

I am ending again with a piece of art. A little bit of an unsettling one for me this time. To my amazement the eyes in the picture came out differently on the photo taken with the camera than when looking at directly. Very strange and I have to have another look at it in the coming days.  There must be something in the frame of the cover glass which is causing it.

Tomorrow is the big day. Between 12.00 hrs. and 13.00 hrs. the captain will get the keys of the ship and it will be ours.

Again it was a very small world this morning, dense fog, when the shipyard awoke. But the sun came out and it burned away later on.  Nice, sunny and dry is exactly what we needed as we had the official inspection of the crew drills today. 5 Representatives from Lloyds Register had arrived on board and were witnessing our Fire Drill, Emergency assembly of Guests (simulated) and Crew and the lowering of the boats. Every company has a different system to comply with the SOLAS regulations and thus the Inspectors are more concerned with the flow of the operation and the crew knowledge than looking into: how we exactly do it and achieve the required result.

The Back of the house – front office turned into a crisis handling centre. All phones are manned for reporting and coordinating. (This is only one 3rd of the whole area)

The major challenge is on a cruise ship is to get everybody accounted for.  Thus we have roll calls but also search parties to look for people who fail to show up at the roll call. Then we have to take into account that telephones and the public address system might fail (unlikely but………………) and thus we have messengers and back up groups. The accounting, the Mustering, of everybody is controlled by the Front Office under the leadership of the Hotel Director and the Guest Relations Manager. Assisting them is the full Front Office and Pursers department which is a group of over 20 people. They monitor the movement of everybody on board from the moment the Captain orders a General Mustering until everybody has embarked into the lifeboats and in the life rafts.

In the meantime we are only being 28 hours away from the handover. On 31 March 2016 at noon time, the ship will go from: Fincantieri New build 6241Nassau, to Koningsdam HAL, Rotterdam. Then we still have a few days to finish things off but by noon time on the 31^st. we will become responsible for the ship. For this purpose the big bosses (BoBo’s we call them in the Dutch language) are arriving. Apart from our top man Orlando Ashford and top – top man Stein Kruse also Mickey Arison is expected and any higher it does not go. So housekeeping is all over the place to make the ship as much shipshape as possible. It is still a frustrating struggle as one area has just been cleaned and then a Yard person shows up to complete another minor detail and makes a mess of it again. In the past few days the direct management of the HAL Group already arrived on board in the person of Keith Taylor the Sr.VP and with them several other V.P’s who are all part of the hand over process and the final review to see if everything has been delivered as expected.

Cleaning the Elevator deck display. The housekeeping uniforms have turned a shade darker than they were before.

The Officers and Crew are edging more and more towards trying to get the shipboard routine going. Deck and Engine are starting up the regular watch system although they are not allowed to push any buttons until the 31^st, noon time and the Hotel Department has been issued their uniforms so now we can recognize who is doing what. The Koningsdam is the first ship where a complete new uniform –line is being rolled out. You will see that it is quite a break with the past but what has been designed goes very well with the new setup and coloring of the various Hotel Operations. I will post some more photos in the coming days, “when the dust has settled”.

Something is being rehearsed here involving a picnic bench. The rest will be revealed when the ship sails.

Now we are so close to sailing time, the preparation for the guests is becoming more and more important. To the shock of some people who were completely engrossed in the new building details, we happen to be a cruise ship and our purpose is to carry Guests. So slowly but steadily we now see entertainment coming to the foreground and intensifying their training and upping their readiness. What they are all going to do is still a surprise.

The Globe on deck 3 in the main staircase. The grey bucket is NOT part of the official setup.

The art people are relentlessly continuing to cover each and every blank space on the bulkheads of the ship and if you appreciate art then you now need a 14 day cruise to have sufficient time to look at each item  in a little bit of detail. So today two items, they just installed globe on deck 3 main staircase and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The globe is the firm favorite of all the Italian contractors. If I would get a dollar for each selfie taking with the globe, then I could cruise all year for free. The Burtons were a bit difficult to recognize, I had to stand at a distance to take the photo. I have no idea though who the other two are. Any art specialists out there???

On the Sb side The Burtons. But who is the couple on the left ???

The drilling and training of the crew continues un-abated as we are nearing the moment for the Inspectors to come on board and who deem if the ship, and all of us are safe and are able to keep it safe. Every ship has a Passport which has to be issued by the Flag State. This passport is made up of a number of main certificates which cover a plethora of smaller certificates (Literally 1000’s of them) but a few of them are very important. The two most important ones are: The PSSC, or Passenger Ship Safety Certificate and the ISM or International Safety Management Certificate.

The Koningsdam by night on Easter Sunday Evening.

The first one is the cover certificate which states that we are in compliance with all the Solas regulations or Safety at Sea and the second one covers the way we comply with the rules. Under the ISM code the Inspectors have to be very focused on compliance with requirements under the MLC 2006 convention. These rules cover the way the crew work and live and how they are treated by the company. As not every shipping company is as focused on these aspects as they should be, the IMO (International Maritime Organization) places much emphasis on scrutinizing these aspects. Thus the crew cabins are built on board in accordance, or exceeding the MLC rules and similar regulations apply to the general wellbeing on board, food, health, basically everything which could affect the proper living circumstances of the sailor. We have nothing to worry about here of course as HAL looks extremely well after its crew but it has to inspected and checked.

What was cleared from under the plastic was the Barber salon in the Green house Spa. We men are now finally equal to the Ladies and have our own dedicated area.

The most important inspection is however the PSSC. Do all the safety systems work and does the crew know how to use them? The shipyard has to ensure that everything is working but we have to ensure that we know how to use the equipment in a professional and safe way. The most important thing is to get everybody safely off the ship and for that we need 1036 crew marching to the same tune and thus we drill.

With indoor mustering you report to an area in a public room that corresponds with your cabin number. There is crew in place to guide you all the way from your cabin to your assigned waiting area. Banners indicate the section you belong to.

The passenger mustering (Guest Safety Briefing) is completely different on this ship compared to the rest of the fleet as the Guests will now muster inside. So we have to retune the thinking of the crew completely to achieve this. It is not a matter of just marching from your cabin and then directly to you lifeboat. No from your cabin you go to your muster station, which is a public area, and then when your lifeboat is ready, you march from the Muster area to the lifeboat and walk straight into it. A sort of waiting comfortably for your taxi to arrive/be ready and when it is there, get up and hop in.

At the entrance of your mustering area there is a crew member who scans your cabin key card and then another crew member guides you to your seat.

Thus while the shipyard continues with finishing off the ship we run around with fire hoses and lifejackets. After each drill there is a debriefing which involves all the stake holders and which can take up to an hour to ensure we do not forget any small details which might turn out to be the virtual spanner in the wheel.

When you enter the dining room you will see this on both levels directly to starboard inside the entrance.

T.he remainder of the crew is busy with bringing more and more furnishings into the ship. Materials which were all stored away in Guests Cabins. What did also continue throughout the weekend, maybe because it was so quiet, was the installation of more art. Framed artwork is being hung in all the public spaces on the public room decks 2 and 3 but also larger items are being unveiled.  My “Art piece of the day” is a sculpture which rises through the deck from the lower level dining room up to the upper level. This piece is in the forward part of the dining room while the wine tower, which also rises through the two levels, is in the aft part of the dining room.  As all the labeling is still missing I cannot exactly explain what this is but it is quite fascinating.

As it was a nice and sunny day yesterday and nearly windless we paid the price for it this morning. A white woolen blanket descended upon the shipyard. It was not until 11 am. before it slowly started to lift when the air warmed up a little bit. As can be expected close to the delivery of the ship, cleaning is becoming more and more a focus. Maybe because it is Easter which is an important Roman Holiday or maybe for other reasons but the number of Italian Cleaning Ladies has gone down and are now replaced by Polish and Romanian. Two languages I had not heard on the ship until today. We have contractors from everywhere, depending on where the specialized equipment was bought and thus we hear voices from Scandinavia, Germany, UK, Spain and a lot of other countries as well.  But East European I had not heard until today. With all the different nationalities of crew thrown in the mix, we have a nice international situation on our hands.

This is a shot from the upper level sb Queens Lounge looking aft.

Cleaning ladies mean the clearing up continues on a relentless pace and more and more becomes accessible and in more and more areas the final fittings and furniture are being put in place. With everything cleared away the beauty of most of the public rooms is now clearly visible. The Centre piece and universally liked by everybody is the Queens Lounge which design forms a nice bridge between the more traditional ships of our fleet and the modern Koningsdam. This lounge will be one of the focus points in the ship.

The Front Desk is very open and also with an open Back Office behind the pillars. Then there is a closed off administration part on the stern side of the Atrium.

The hotel department is slowly getting in its stride of really being a hotel department. The Front Desk is now open and all queries are being directed there now. It all helps with building up the necessary routines for when we have a full house. So I took the chance to do something all lot of guests do, I made a complaint. Not really for the ship but to be passed on to the shipyard. For some unknown reason they changed my bedside lamps and now the new one does not work. Thus I did what every crew member who lives in a Guest Cabin has to do, report it to the Front Desk.

The first Pasta ever served in the Lido Market. Penne Carbonara.

What also is happening now, the main dining room upper level has opened for service and is offering Breakfast Lunch and Dinner in addition to the Lido Market and the Crew and Officers Mess. Just runing the operation it is still the best way to find out if everything works, even if it is on a smaller scale with less people. More and more stations in the Lido are being opened as well and today I had the honor to order the first pasta ever being served in the Koningsdam Lido. Note the date 27 March 2016……………….. Maritime Historians will later on record this in their books as a very significant date in the delivery process of the Koningsdam………………….lol.

Where is that ‘darn’ box.

To supply all those restaurants the store rooms are now full to capacity apart from the Perishables and fresh vegetables and fruit which are stored depending on the number of people on board. So this morning we could observe a crew member trying to find a box somewhere hiding in all the pallets of 1000’s of boxes which have not all yet been placed in their normal location for easy retrieval.

The Koningsdam Officers Bar.

Quite quickly since we came on board the officers and crew went to their assigned cabins and the mess rooms came in operation. What was not finished yet and is now complete and waiting for delivery is the Officers Bar. On most ships this is in the style of an Irish Pub but here on the Koningsdam the design has been kept in tune with the overall lighter colors of the ships interior.

The Top of the Aft Boiler, which is a vertical one and rises through three decks. Here water is turned to steam for the various operations on board.

This morning I also made a little tour through the Engine Room where the supply cabling from the shipyard has been removed and only final delivery work is still going on. And that will take a while as each piece of equipment needs to be calibrated and mostly likely be recalibrated once it is fully operational. As a Deck officer I have the greatest respect for engineers for two reasons; A. I find it amazing that they can work somewhere where it is hot, noisy and there are no windows and B. They manage to keep all those pipes apart and can always find the right pump and closing valve.

Thus I am ending my blog today not with art but with a highly romantic picture of a section of one of the pump rooms, where the oily bilge water pumps and the fire pumps are located.

This is one of the pumps rooms on board. All the green round things are pumps and the ones with the red top are the Fire Pumps.