Life on Board

The All Access Tour is a tour to look at various parts of the ship not normally accessed by passengers. It was available when we were having a few “At sea” days, however unlike P & O where the tour is free, this tour cost US$89!

Starting in the galley we saw food preparation for the 2,250 guests. It is located on Deck 4 behind the main dining area (Reflections). The galley services all dining locations on the ship. There are other assembly stations for fine dining venues and crew meals.

Cooking todays chicken..

Dinners on the menu are assembled for selection by the table staff

Chief chef/Leading hands wear a red sash; blue is worn by leading hands and yellow worn by new staff.

We then met the head pastry cook, a lovely lady who is in charge off all baking on board.

There are 127 from 65 countries working on board and all work a minimum of 10 hours a day and 7 days a week. 15,000 meals are prepared daily

Soup and most sauces are made fresh every day.

All the food and drink is stored downstairs on Deck 0, which is below the water level.

The galley and all bars are sent supplies 2-3 times a day.

Multiple room deep freezer (-18deg C) stores are used.

Three butchers prepare all the meat, each cut portion is weighed if used as a single serve.

We walked to the front of the ship on Deck 0 on a central passageway named Route 66.

The environmental officer explained that all rubbish is sorted and recycled wherever possible.

Cardboard is compressed and held to be sent to approved contractors

Glass bottles are sorted into colour and pulverised and held until the crushed glass can be unloaded ashore. This ship produces one tonne daily, larger ships in the company fleet 3 tonnes each day at sea.

A furnace burns any suitable waste that cannot be recycled, the ash is held and despatched to specified contactors in port.

Before entering the control room, we were again security checked.

This area controls all power, electricity, air con, water manufacture and disposal. The only area it does not control is IT.

Two jet turbine engines just like on a large jet plane, provide all the propulsion.

Power generation and hot water use some exhaust gases to make steam. Diesel generation is also used.

Some potable water is made from steam condensation but the majority is membrane filtration.

All food waste is pulverised and digested in special tanks with bacteria that digest this mixture. It is then filtered and pumped out to sea; this water is potable quality. Similarly all sewage and grey water is treated with bacteria and then expelled into the ocean, the quality of this water is excellent.

Back along Route 66

The mortuary holds up to 4 bodies.

Next the laundry:

4 people work 15 hours a day doing all ship laundry and guest laundry.

 (guest laundry waiting to be sent to passenger cabins)

This large machine washes about 3 tons of towels and sheets on a continuous feeder system that takes about 30 minutes. There is a loader feed tray system on the right of the picture.

The dryer takes 30 minutes per load.

The folding machine only does sheets. It needs to to feed it and on to collect the folded sheets at the other end.

All guest laundry is washed in smaller commercial size machines and double-checked before being sent to the cabin.

Finally we went to the bridge, after being security checked again.

All controls (joystick and speed etc) are on both sides of the bridge in addition to the center. The old wheel seen in days of old is no longer to be seen.

This is the view through the glass floor from the bridge that overhangs the side of the ship to all visual confirmation of the ship position when docking (Bow wave & foam  can be seen here)

The dashboard instrumentation

Radar and GPS navigation

And the offices…

Always a crew-member is on watch; visually checking the sea ahead.

The AllAccess tour gave a greater appreciation of the hard work and dedication that is required to make such a large ship operate and service all its passengers.

We wouldn’t be making applications to work in the laundry.