Cruise to Bermuda - Day Five - June 21, 2017

After yesterday's full day of hiking and swimming, let's just say we slept like babies last night.  I woke up early (5:30 a.m.) and decided to go out on our balcony and see the sunrise.

Sunrise on the 1st day of summer.

I took a couple of photos of the ship just to show some of the fun of it, but i obviously did not get enough.  We plan to return and do this cruise again, so maybe then.

This is a completely robotic "bar."  You used the computers to enter
your drink order and the robots made your order.

This wall lit up with different messages.

This section was like being at an up-scale
shopping mall.

Dave had an 8:30 Hunter Douglas meeting and then we both had a 9:30 all-access ship tour.  I'll try to give some highlights.  It was very interesting.  It also was three hours on our feet.  We were pretty tired from yesterday's excursion and we were ready to sit down after this tour.  

Here are some facts that I heard - There are 2090 state rooms, roughly 1600 crew members.  Our ship's statistics are in the photo below.

6424 total on board; yet it never felt that crowded.

There is a "galley" for every single restaurant.  Room Service has it's own galley.  There are 17 galleys aboard the ship.  They are all set up the same so that the workers can be familiar with each galley as they don't always work in the same galley.  The chefs have to have had 3 to 4 years experience in a 4 or 5 star restaurant before they can be hired.  Once they are hired, they go to further training before getting a contract.   If the chef has a "yellow scarf," this is his first contract (usually 8-10 month contracts.)  You get a "blue scarf" after the first contract.  And the supervisor has a "red scarf."   

See the red and blue scarves?

We then went to the "bakery" section.  It smelled delicious.  There were desserts of all kinds setting out.  They can use up to 32,000 eggs in one day and 200,000 pounds of flour.  Holy moly.

Just some of the desserts.

We then went down two floors to the production area.  It was the area where they loaded the ship.  Only production workers were allowed in this area.  When we dock in Bayonne, New Jersey tomorrow, these workers will unload 500 pallets in 7 hours.  The wooden pallets can not come on board, so the workers unload the pallets and transfer the food.  Our tour guide, Angel said these workers do not have to work out at the gym.

Production Area

There are 12 coolers on the ship.  The 1st day of the cruise there is hardly room to move in the coolers.  The ships are 25% overstocked in case of an emergency.  The Production manager stocks the ship according to the demographic of the passengers.  If there are a lot of kids, he has a lot of burgers/fries/sodas, etc.  At the end of our cruise, the items in the back of the cooler will be moved to the front of the cooler following the FIFO method (First In, First Out).

We learned about the I-95.  It is the busiest corridor of the ship.  It runs from the front of the ship to the back of the ship in the "crew" area.

I-95

We were taken to the engine control room and the "bridge."  I have to admit, I was pretty tired by now, but I know Dave found these areas pretty interesting.

The bridge has two captains and one lookout.

Until next time!

I can also tell you a lot about trash and about laundry.  I know we walked away with a much greater appreciation of what it takes to run an operation like this.  It was very detailed.  

We've been sailing all day and the weather is definitely cooler as we head back to New Jersey.  It's a nice "rest" day though as we prepare to travel back home tomorrow.  

I hope you have enjoyed the updates.  This is a great way for me to "release," and then to also have documentation of our trips.  Until next time this is the Deters' Dynamic Duo signing out.