How a Cruise Ship Is Operated

This time, 13 lucky individuals were given a four-hour tour of the ship’s interior…

We visited the engine room, the kitchen, the crew quarters, the laundry room, the repair workshop, the storage areas—and practically every other auxiliary facility on the ship. We also saw where the crew members lived. The tour ended on the bridge. I’ve already written about what a cruise ship looks like inside and what activities one can do on it; today, you’ll learn about things that passengers usually don’t get to see…

Our cruise ship was built in Venice at the Fincanteri shipyard. It is the fourth ship in the Halland-America Line’s fleet to bear the name New-Amsterdam. In other words, when a ship becomes too old—usually after 25 to 30 years of service—it is sold to another cruise line, and a new ship with the same name is built instead. Our tour began in the crew quarters. Every evening, two performances are held in the main auditorium on board; they are put on by professional actors who live aboard the ship full-time…

All the actors are hired in Los Angeles, and the casting process is as rigorous as that for a Broadway musical…

None of the shows are repeated during the entire cruise, so all the props and costumes for each performance are stored behind the stage…

The lower decks of the ship are divided into five sections by heavy bulkheads… In an emergency, these bulkheads can be closed, making it impossible to move along the deck. You can only move up or down between them. The bulkheads are opened and closed slowly from the bridge; if you get stuck behind one of them, it will close immediately, crushing you. For safety reasons, these doors are always closed at the port when the ship is docked or leaving…

The uniforms for the entire crew, including the captain, are made on board the ship…

Tons of bedding and passengers’ clothes are washed every day on board. For this purpose, several large washing machines have been installed in the lower decks during the ship’s construction…

If one of these machines breaks down, it can only be repaired by making a hole in the ship’s hull…

On our ship, the crew consists of 798 members, including officers. There are also 1,869 passengers aboard, so there is one crew member for every two passengers. The ship is equipped with a doctor, a traumatologist, and a nurse. The crew has its own kitchen, bar, and recreation room where they play video games and other activities… All the crew members on the Halland-America Line live in double cabins that are fully equipped…

The officers, however, live alone…

All the garbage is collected in a special area where it is sorted by hand and then sold for recycling. The money generated from this is shared among the crew members (the officers do not receive any share of it). Every effort is made to recycle as much garbage as possible instead of dumping it in landfills…

Old clothes and books are donated to the homeless. Whenever a disaster occurs somewhere in the world, these items are among the first things sent to those in need. The best stewards who help sort out the garbage in the cabins are given extra days off or free bus tours in the ports they visit… It is clear that environmental protection is taken very seriously on this ship. One of the four senior officers aboard is specifically responsible for environmental matters…

The Engine Control Room is the heart of the ship…

It is from here that the ship’s engines and all other systems are controlled. Remember how, in “Titanic”, the captain would pull a special lever, and the stokers would add coal to the furnaces? Nowadays, everything is controlled by computers…

Only one person is in charge of monitoring all these systems…

Notice the switch in the middle; it is currently set to “Bridge” mode, which means all control functions are located on the bridge…

Our ship does not have reverse gear. Instead, there are two propellers mounted on azimuthal thrusters that can rotate 360 degrees. When reverse is needed, the thrusters are simply turned around…

From the Engine Control Room, it is possible to check the temperature of any device on the ship—for example, the temperature in my cabin…

These are the ship’s air conditioners… But they definitely wouldn’t fit on my balcony…

Our ship is equipped with four 16-cylinder and two 8-cylinder engines. All of them have a V-shaped configuration, as you can see in this picture. Can you imagine how large they are?…

The diesel fuel tanks are located beneath the engine room. The ship is not refueled at every port; instead, it is filled up every couple of weeks. Our ship can travel only 22 meters per liter of fuel…

The roaring noise of the engines is extremely loud… Under the blue cover, you can see a spare engine piston…

These devices are installed throughout the engine room; they are used to wash your eyes in case of an emergency…

Here is the repair workshop…

Fresh groceries are delivered to the ship every 12 days. Some items are bought at local ports, but most of them are imported from the United States…

All the bread is baked on board. Six bakers work around the clock in the kitchen. In total, there are 798 crew members on the ship; 334 of them, including the waiters, work in the food service area…

During dinner, these shelves are filled with plates of various dishes. The waiters take orders, go to the kitchen, and bring the prepared food to the passengers…

The menu options are displayed on the wall. The most expensive dish is “Surf and Turf”: a piece of tender beef and a lobster on the same plate. Serving this dish costs the cruise line $7,000 per passenger…

Before dinner begins, the required amount of each dish is prepared based on past statistics. Once an order is placed, the information is immediately displayed on the central monitor, signaling to the chefs that they need to prepare that number of dishes…

The captain’s cabin is located right next to the bridge…

The bridge is very spacious, quiet, and almost empty. Besides the navigators, there are also crew members who constantly watch ahead for small boats or wooden vessels that may not be detected by the radar…

Our tour guide was a tall Dutchman… Why are all Dutchmen so tall, anyway?…

The ship can be controlled in several ways that complement each other. Most often, it is controlled using this joystick; with it, you can perform any maneuver imaginable. It’s hard to believe that such a complex system can be operated by such a small control device…

As I already mentioned, our ship does not have reverse gear; instead, the propellers are turned around 360 degrees to achieve backward movement. Each of these propellers is controlled separately…

The captain is always on the bridge during docking and departure procedures. A pilot is also aboard at each port; however, the pilot only provides advice—the actual control of the ship remains in the captain’s hands…

Here, you can clearly see the five bulkheads I mentioned earlier. The round device on the window is a special type of wiper—even in heavy rain or when waves splash against the front window (which is located on the 8th floor), it ensures that you can still see what’s happening ahead…

All the systems on the ship are redundantly designed, so it is possible to control the ship from anywhere on the bridge…

Even though we live in an era dominated by computers, international maritime practices still require keeping a ship’s log and plotting routes on paper maps. This is done to facilitate the investigation of any accidents that may occur…

Before parting, we took a photo with the captain, and he gave us a bottle of red wine signed by all the senior officers…

Tomorrow, I am flying to Ireland to visit a secluded castle where some of the world’s most influential people get married. Stay tuned!…