The dry weather is holding and thus the yard is in full swing with what has to be painted or has to repainted. We normally wear hard hats in the shipyard to avoid being hit by “foreign objects descending from a greater height” but today the hat is handy to catch paint drips.  We also had our first introductory training in operating the lifeboat davits and lowering a lifeboat. As the technique keeps developing our lifeboat systems change with each class of ship we build and thus we have to be re-trained as well.

Not much Officer glamour & spivvy uniforms to see but here we have the deck officers gathered for Lifeboat Instruction.

Apart from painting outside, there is painting going on inside as well, with a lot of touch up in progress. Most of the inside of the ship was spray painted when the ship was only a steel hull and without most of the machinery installed. With those machines being installed and with over 2000 yard people milling around it is not all as pristine as it was in the beginning.  Thus suddenly corridors are blocked with plastic and a message in Italian exhorting everybody not to go through. Occasionally one of the shipyard firemen realizes this too late and his/her once fine red helmet has suddenly taken on another color. Another good reason to wear a helmet. First stick the helmet through a door before anything else.

This is the Grand Staircase between the Ocean Bar and the Casino.

More and more protective covering is disappearing and rooms are ready for the final installation of equipment and furniture. Today the Casino, Photo gallery, Ocean Bar and Queens Lounge took another big jump.  The Ocean Bar is getting its furniture installed and the photo shop is nearly finished. It is only missing all the paraphernalia the photographers install themselves. On this ship they have a dedicated Black Label studio an improvement on the “tents” on the older ships where it was a retro fit. The B & W studio remains the most popular part of all photography on board and hence a dedicated studio.

The Photo Gallery. Only the protective covering still needs to be removed.

For most of the public rooms it is now waiting for the final furnishings to arrive. Most of it is already in the shipyard but will only be brought on board once it is safe to install. And as most of this installing is plug_and_play, it will not take much time.

The Koningsdam is the first HAL ship with a bridge – cockpit – design. 2 Navigators in the front and Captain and Staff Captain on the 2nd row. The chair to right is for a pilot, if needed.

The bridge is now being completed as well. It has been operational since the Trial trips in January but then most of the safety systems for the ship were jerry rigged. Now the official panels and monitors are being installed. This is done by an Italian company called Martec who are now trying to get their software to speak to the various hardware in the ship. Last night they were testing the closing of the Fire screen Doors from the bridge and although announcements were made, it caught the occasional Italian un-aware and the person in question let the whole wide world very loudly know that he was not amused. Learned another few words which were not in my Italian Dictionary. With the complexity of the safety systems increasing there is now a complete separate Safety Centre behind the bridge. E.G. completely separated from the Navigation Bridge. In case the Captain needs to overview an emergency and oversee navigation at the same time, he will have to stand with one foot in the safety center and one in the wheelhouse. But it is better that way as it will not disturb the concentration of the navigators.

Most of the art still has to be installed but the flatter art work has already been put on the bulkheads in the corridors. The Koningsdam has a musical theme and some of the decks are named after famous composers. We have Beethoven, Gershwin, Mozart and Schubert and the corridor art reflects this. On navigation deck the art is related (surprise) to navigation and the captain will eventually see a man high Lighthouse painting when he walks from his cabin into the Guest staircase.  I do not know who pulls the protective covering off and I also do not know who puts it back on but when walking around you get different glimpses everyday  of what is mostly still hidden behind carton and wall paper.

What is also Art: but on a Grand Scale is the company’s logo on the funnel. The Koningsdam is the first ship that has switched from the old to the new.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another dry day, so the painting will mostly continue full speed as well. I had better keep my helmet on for another few days.

Thus today the migration took place of all the officers and crew who were scattered throughout Mestre (the town next to the shipyard in Marghera) to the ship. We were blessed to today with sunny but chilly weather, in other words a perfect day to move suitcases up and down gangways and stairs. The lifts are working but they are constantly full of all sorts of shipyard people and thus it is much easier to go 4 decks up the stairs. We are all scattered over the ship; some are on A deck and some like me are on deck 4. We have been put everywhere where cabins are already completed and accepted. At least that is the objective as one of the crew came back with the magic words “cabin still under construction”.  But there are plenty of cabins so he got another number and there he went again.  This time the bed had been installed and he was in business.

Crew starts to help out with cleaning up. It releases shipyard people for other areas. This is the Ocean Bar area.

The whole boarding process is organized by the ships officers. We already have the purser in the yard and the crew officer and the GRM, the three most important people to set new boarding crew safely on their way.  The plan is to have between a 100 and 140 crew joining every day and if this works out then we should be up to speed by Sunday. That will then give us about three weeks to get everybody molded into a smooth operating team.  As mentioned before, the most experienced crew is being transferred from the various ships and thus the actual work will just be a matter of finding the right routine. More work will be needed in the safety training of the crew as the Koningsdam has a different mustering system and everybody will have to get used to that.

Vegetable Cold Room. For the time being one corner will suffice for serving the crew.

In the meantime a lot of finishing touches are being made on the lower decks. The cleaning ladies and the painters have moved in and miles and miles of temporary cabling is being removed. With 2500 guests and over a 1000 crew coming storing is in full swing but it will take a while before the store rooms are filled. One 40 foot container full of provisions does not make much of an impression. Some is done by the yard but more and more crew is being assigned to help speed things up. Ever thought about how much time it takes to get over 3000 matrasses on board? They are all the special Sealy matrasses that HAL uses and it takes sometimes more than 2 people to handle one of those things. They sleep heavenly but they are heavy to handle.

Store room Alleyway. It almost looks like a ship already as most shipyard material has been removed.

The ship is running on its own power and light, electricity, hot and cold water as everything is now produced on board.  I have been parked in an outside cabin (with balcony) and everything is working perfectly. Currently they have started with tuning in the televisions and as these are fully interactive they all have to be programmed / software uploaded one by one.  The A/V boys will not be lacking work in the coming days.  A nice touch is that we have usb ports on the sides of the bed so you can charge your cellphone while using it as your alarm clock during the night.  The vanity desk has 5 electric plugs, 2 European, 3 American and another usb port which should be able to take care of all connectivity needs. One task each crewmember has been given is to completely check each cabin and push each button to see if everything work. For this they have a form to be handed in as soon as all checks are complete. Everything in my cabin works; it just needs more dust removal / cleaning. That will be done by our own cabins stewards once they can get at all the cabins.

Painting the piping is always the final touch when work has finished. This area in the Engine Room we call the Pipe Tunnel (for good reason) and connects  the Fwd part of the ER with the Aft part by leading in between the Potable Water Tanks.

What is an annoying part of a new building is the constant alarm testing. Each cabin, each speaker, each smoke detector, etc.etc. has to be tested individually before a certificate of completion can be issued. As a result we are now listening to a constant cycle of 7 short and 1 long beep on the alarm system with in between (coffee and lunch time) Ramazotti (Italian pop singer) and Michael Jackson (who seems to be world famous here in the shipyard as I have not heard anything else in English yet) Luckily the Captain has decreed that by 7 pm. it should stop so people can go to bed on time as the yard is getting back in action every morning around 05.00 hrs.

A constant flow of Matrasses, until over 3000 will have been brought on board.

The weather is supposed to hold over the coming days which will be good for the boarding crew. By the weekend we should be in full swing. More and more crew coming on board, and less and less yard people on board when the various projects are completed one by one.

With the cruise industry being so popular and there only being three major shipbuilders (with several subsidiaries) at the moment, shipyards are churning cruise ships out as if they are building cars. This means there is the advantage of cost reduction through standardization but also the challenge of still delivering a ship which can be identified with the company that ordered it and is hopefully still unique among all the other ships coming out around the same time.  Holland America with its new building program is of course right in the middle of it.

The standardization part is taken care of by Carnival Corporation. They have a large office in each Fincantieri shipyard and these people ensure every ship is built to not only the same legal standards but also the same company – corporation- standards. Where possible the same equipment and material is used. Thus a bow thruster in a Carnival ship will be the same as a bow thruster in a Holland America ship. This does not have any influence on the guest experience and thus it does not need to be brand specific. The same goes for a myriad of other things. For the ships interior and the operational side things differ and then the company’s needs are built into the specification. Interiors are unique and it is up to each company to use a preferred designer. The actual installation work is carried out by sub – contractors and they can be arranged by the yard/carnival office but they can also be company preferred.   We have now contractors at work, who both work on the Koningsdam and on the Seabourn Encore which is docked behind us.

The Queens lounge as seen from Balcony level. It still looks a mess but it only needs the protective covers to be taken away.

The big puzzle is now for the shipyard, for Carnival office and for the Hal people at the yard is how to get all the work done in the right sequence. As long as only the hull is being constructed, it is not as complicated but as soon as the fitting out starts it does get complicated. A simple thing as installing a door will involve several different companies.

A. somebody builds the frame work: B. somebody delivers the door: C. somebody installs the door: D. somebody installs the door lock: E. somebody installs the safety notice on the inside of the door.  F. somebody installs the door number, and during the whole process there are several somebodies who are constantly checking is it is being done and if it is being done according to specifications and without damage. ……………. And that is only something as simple as a door.

What is almost finished is the Jewelery shop. It still needs some cleaning and the inventory and we are ready for business.

This all results in constant meetings and questions (everybody on their cell phones!!!) in order to streamline the work as much as possible and to avoid parties being in each other’s way. It is not unknown for one contractor to barge over or through a freshly painted area or new installed tiling belonging to another contractor. All the officers and staff assigned to the new building are in between this all, as in the end they have to check if everything is really “their ship” and if it works and if they can work with it.

What is complete and ready, pending the storing of the inventory, is the Ships Infirmary.

As a result of all these conflicting interests and requirements some areas are further towards completion than others. In the end it will all come together but at the moment it is not yet visible. Then there are some area’s which look incomplete but what is only missing is the lighting, the props and the furniture.

Getting things together is taking on an even greater urgency as tomorrow we are supposed to go on board and start living on the ship. March 10 is stipulated in the contract and the yard wishes to stick to the contract. Cancelling at the last minute is really not an option as the leases for the apartments expire and for the hotels arrangements end and all the new crew coming to the ship will then go directly on onboard.

So tomorrow is the big day when the ship goes from a building site to being a passenger ship, although the passengers are for the moment officers and crew. The weather gods seem to favor us as tomorrow is predicted to be a sunny day with temperatures around 14oC / 58oF.

One always connects Venice with sunshine and gondola’s lazily moving through the canals as a perfect example of Italian “La Dolce Vita”. Well, today it did not look like it at all. It was miserable and grey with a constant drizzle coming down when I arrived at the shipyard. Not really a place you associate with cruise ships. But then Venice has a very large industrial hinterland which we do not think off as we say Venice. But the shipyard is located in Marghera and this one of those areas considered to be part of greater Venice.

Some decks are nearly finished, apart from the art/decoration in the corridors. Hence it being possible for the officers and crew to live on board by the end of this week.

As there are only 3 days to go before the crew is going on board, I have been parked in a hotel in the nearby town of Mestre. Not an exciting place either but there is a big shopping Centre just across the road which makes the crew very happy.  For a few days now the first regular crew are arriving and they are staying in  various hotels in the area including mine. The officers who are part of the new building team have been here since last September, or even before, and they live in apartments in the area around Marghera. Marghera is the actual name of the town where the shipyard is located which is just south of Venice. Hence you always see the ships going through Venice itself when leaving the shipyard. It is at the moment the only way out although the local authorities are thinking about a canal which will provide a direct connection with the sea and which will then alleviate the need of having very large ships sailing through the old city. Not so nice for the cruise ship guests but much better for the islands of Venice as the ships wash  can affect /erode the swampy land upon which the whole of Venice has been built.

The two story high Lido deck. Fairly quiet as far as work is concerned as they were busy with laying the deck covering.

But leaving is still more than three weeks away and this morning Captain Emiel de Vries, Master designate for the Koningsdam, picked me up from the hotel and plunged me directly into the “controlled mayhem” of an Italian shipyard.  I have worked in French and German shipyards so I know what hectic is but here this is taken  to a new level.  The closer a ship comes to completion, the more people are milling around to finish everything off and I have never seen more workers per square yard as I saw this morning.  One always observes in a shipyard more chiefs than Indians (or at least a number of people acting as chiefs) but with the arrival of the Cell-phone this seems to have been taken to a whole new level.  Everybody is working hard; everybody is on the phone at the same time which then results in directing everybody else who happens not to be on the phone at that same moment.  I just wonder if everything would come to a grinding halt if the cell phone network would stop all of a sudden.  Better not, as the ship has to sail on April the 4^th.

There are things in life which a simple sailor will never understand. But these balloons have something to do with the eventual installing of the art on this pedestal.

My immediate task in the coming days is to study & learn the ship in detail and create search plans for the ship. These are plans which the Master assists in being able to arrange a fast, comprehensive and in depth search of the ship in case it is needed. Guests missing, property lost on board, stowaway reports etc. etc. These plans are normally made by a very experienced person who understands how a HAL ship operates, how all the sub departments and fiefdoms work; and who can figure out of who is exactly in charge of a particular locker, space or corridor. So while I am doing my familiarization of the ship, I might as well create a checklist at the same time and do it all from the perspective of the Captain. It will take a fair bit of walking around as the Pinnacle Class (Koningsdam & TBA-dam) is considerably different than previous Signature class. More about this in the coming days.

The show room at sea is nearly finished and the testing of the 270o digital background is in full swing.

With the arrival of the first crew there is now manpower to start storing the ship. All the cold rooms are filled up and other store room areas are slowly being taken into use as well. The company has a large warehouse where everything is received and from there distributed to the ship. Except for perishables; they go directly from the delivery van to the cold rooms. After the weekend more and more of that will happen as with sufficient crew available, more and more can be received directly on board.  I just hope for the local weather to improve.

We are not the only ship that creates a lot of fuss and Italian excitement as behind us lays the Seabourn Encore which recently was floated out from dry dock.  For this ship the finishing off is now starting as well and two ships nearing their finishing stages do create for a lively atmosphere.

Weather for tomorrow: Rain and overcast in the morning and then clearing in the afternoon and then Thursday should be a sunny day.