I am quite happy to advise that the Italian weather forecast can be as wrong as in the rest of the world. Instead of a rainy day all day it turned into a mild and dry day with the sun coming out in the late morning. Almost too warm for shipyard purposes, when walking around with a hard hat on and coveralls. The Italians seem to think it is quite chilly as most of them are wearing some sort of body warmer or similar even when working in the ship in areas where the A.C is not yet working. I wonder how these guys dress up when it gets really cold here. Which can happen if the wind turns to the North. The snow capped mountains of northern Italy and Austria are not that far away. So in January it can drop down to around freezing.

Another Public Space nearly ready for delivery. As soon as they Crows nest has been handed over we can park all the furniture in there.

The work that keeps me busy at the moment is to produce a scenario for how to structurally search for missing people or reports of suspicious packages. This is an international requirement for all ships (and I also think for a lot of factory’s and office buildings shore side) and it can only be done once a ship is nearing completion.  Just copying the plan from the Koningsdam that I made in 2016 does not work because: A. the company is introducing changes based on the experience with the Koningsdam and B. the yard is never doing everything the same as before.  With the latter I mean is that I come across a certain amount of creativity.  In general everything is sort of the same, but I am no longer amazed that an identical locker on the Koningsdam now has another number on the Nieuw Statendam. Thus a locker which was labelled L.02.6. 04 (Locker deck 2 zone 6 number 4) on the Koningsdam is now labelled L 02.6. 06. While the locker that was L02.6.06 before is now L02.06.04 etc.etc. For the operation of the ship it does not matter at all but when you do a search, it is important that the checklist reflects reality. Otherwise we might miss a space. And thus I verify, check and double check and hopefully I do not miss anything.

The Lido Deck starboard aft of the pool. Once the deck is found to be laid well, the top surface is smoothed over with sanding and polishing machines.

While most of the areas of the ship are swept clean on a regular basis (we even have roving teams from our crew involved) on the higher decks it is a bit of a dusty affair. The deck covering has almost been completed and now the Sub-contractors are sanding to make the deck look nice and to remove all smudges, paint /glue rests and blemishes. Some of the deck covering comes from a Dutch company called Bolidt who in the 1990’s invented an artificial material that looked like teak wood but was much lighter and easier to clean.  Holland America started with an experiment on the Statendam in 1992 and has never looked back. You can now find it around all the Indoor (Lido) swimming pools on the ships and in other areas as well. Using teak wood is posh and beautiful but teak wood takes long to grow and it is harder and harder to source enough teak wood that has been grown in a sustainable way to really “pave” large stretches of ship with it.  In principle teak wood lasts forever but Bolidt decks are so easy to repair that even that argument is long gone. But they sand and shave the top layer before delivery and thus it is very dusty on the higher decks.

This is the area where eventually all sorts of torture machines will be installed, ensuring that those who worry about an “inch to pinch” during the cruise can regulate their calorie intake.

The same process was going on in the fitness area on Deck 9 forward. Because fitness people are not necessarily the quietest of the guests on board, special care is being taken against the impact noise of jumping guests or dropping dumbbells. Under the Fitness area  are no guests cabins but the Bridge and the staff officers cabins but also the Captain needs a quiet night; and with the impact noise of a dropping dumbbell that would not be the case. Thus there is a whole sound damping sandwich construction laid out under the surface to ensure as little noise as possible. If it will be sufficient? The Captain will find out during the Shake Down Cruise.

The Jacuzzi on Deck 5 Fwd. as seen from the Bridge.

The Jacuzzi Machinery Room right below on Deck 04.

Quite a few readers might have a Jacuzzi at home, similar in size to what we have on the forward deck 5. But I doubt if you have the same size Machinery Room to ensure that you get the best and safest experience possible. Health rules for Jacuzzi’s on ships are very strict, both for construction as well for maintenance and those requirements turn what is a little pump with a filter at home into a full blown engine room.

Tomorrow will be another day closer to the handover of the ship and hopefully the weather will hold. The weather forecast is still advising rain but the weather gurus have it scaled down now to a maximum of 43% with temperatures around 61oF / 16oC.

To make us all happy on this Monday morning, the day started with a deluge. Not just a rain shower but the “skies opened, bucket variation”. The first group of us was sitting in the training room and the trainer was nearly drowned out by the noise. We are going through our First Training Program of what will be a series of trainings and drills to get proficient with the Health, Environmental, Safety and Security aspects of our work. We call this the HESS induction and it is mandatory for everybody, even for those who are part of the building team. It seems peculiar to have to listen to a Fleet Trainer who explains what you have just explained to him a few days before. But that is the way the law works and what the auditors want: a list with all names and signatures.  Future trainings will be job specific but all the crew has to go through this initial HESS induction program before they are even allowed to work on board. Normally they do this when they join the ship in the home port and then it is split in two parts. One part to do before they are allowed to work and the 2^nd part within 24 hrs. when safely feasible. Now we have the luxury to do it shore side and with a bit more time on our hands and so we run with it.

The was the program for today. What happened to the days when being told where the bridge and your cabin was, was all you needed to start working ?

While walking from the training center to the ship I saw this scene. A gigantic hydraulic jack up truck moving completed sections of a ship’s hull. As far as I know this steel is for the next Costa Cruise ship that is in the planning and her construction will start as soon as the Carnival Panorama moves out of the building dock. Ships are nowadays built in modules and sections and thus the yard can already construct part of a ship while it is not ready yet for the actual building. Sometimes new sections are even coming in from other yards (on barge) if there is space in their schedule and eventually all these building blocks are welded together as one giant jigsaw puzzle.

Moving a complete deck section for a future ship.

On the ship we are not looking at a giant jigsaw puzzle, it is more a puzzle with a lot of very small pieces that have to fill the gaps as the larger part of the puzzle has been completed. Therefore we see very little welding on the ship anymore but an awful lot of painting the large sections of bare steel and small touch ups in area’s where the paint was damaged. And then the fitting out continues. Sheets of Formica  covering walls are put in place, deck coverings are being completed and sanded and a lot of remedial work is going on, there where the hand over inspections have uncovered details which are not yet up to standard.

Electricians installing the ceiling lights above the Shop Display cases in the Jewellery Shop.

As the ships nowadays depend on electronics, the number of service engineers in connection to this are increasing by the day. There were of course the electricians who installed the wiring and the operational panels on the Bridge and the Engine room but now we have the teams coming who will install the TV’s and the monitors and the computers and will make the network work in such a way that we can use it all before we leave the shipyard. And then more and more lighting is being installed. Nearly all of it LED lights, lights that do not get warm and also use very little energy.

All good for the fuel consumption as the company is forever focused on reducing our carbon foot print. We think we can still do a lot more than we are doing now but it all depends on the technology available; technology that we incorporate in a new ship whenever possible. Compared to the old steamships from the 70’s we have gone down by about 150 % in fuel consumption or so, but the Nieuw Statendam uses the same amount of fuel on a daily basis as the Nieuw Amsterdam from 1983; while the Statendam is 60,000 tons bigger and carries double the number of guests. One item that helps a little bit, but every little bit helps, is a Hotel lock in the cabins. This means that you insert your cabin key in a card reader and only then the lights in your cabin go on. When you leave pull out the key and all the lights go out.  One cabin does not make much of a difference, but a 1000 cabins, day in day out, in the course of a year does make a difference.

the Dining room chairs have arrived. As soon as all the finishing touches have been completed on the lower level all the chairs will be moved in position and the table linen will come out.

More and more stores and inventory is coming on board. Today the Hotel Department was loading frozen and non-frozen stores which will be needed as soon as the catering on board begins but also chairs and related arrived and the dining room now has it chairs in situ. The medical department received is first equipment and more crew cabins were prepared for 10 November when we go on board.

All this work will continue during the coming week and hopefully it will not rain as much as this morning. Although the weather gives a 40% chance of rain on average for the next two days. Luckily the temperature remains steady around 16oC /61 oF.

Although the scaffolding on deck 2 and deck 1 has not gone yet, Deck 3 of the Atrium is clear and today I saw for the first time the multi colored lighting reflecting itself in the stainless steel structure.

When the weekend comes, the yard slows down. At least the regular dock yard workers who are employed by Fincantieri. They work from Monday to Friday for a regular work week and there are only a few present in the weekend. Either to keep vital services going, such as power, security and warehousing or to support the Sub Contractors. They normally work the weekends as they are from all over the world and have to meet pre-arranged deadlines. Even the yard restaurants close down while they are also used by the contractors and us the ship people.

This is the Pinnacle Restaurant. Nearly ready for hand over. At the moment the light fixtures are being installed. The restaurants ashore are not as posh but still good.

There are two big restaurants at the yard, one inside the yard which is mainly meant for those who do not have the chance to change out of their work clothes. Such as the welders, painters and other functions related to dirty work. Then outside the yard there is a second restaurant which is used by those who can change out of their working clothes and can show up at least half clean. And that includes us. We go into the ship in coveralls and we will continue to do so until the yard stops working on board. But we can regulate our own working time to a certain extent and thus the coverall goes off and we walk over to the restaurant for lunch. The food is surprisingly good, and caters for all tastes and not only pasta. For 12 euro’s you have a full meal including water, a glass of wine or a beer.

While in the rest of the world it is frowned upon to have alcohol in the work place, in the more southern countries wine is a standard part of lunch and dinner. I kept an eye on this during the last week, to see how much of the good stuff was consumed but I never saw more than 1 glass being consumed. Still it is popular and they do not serve the wine from bottles but as draft, in the same way as beer. I do not drink during the day so I have not been able to test and find out if this wine is any good or can be labeled as Chateau Plonk (for the English) or as Chateau Migraine (for the Americans)

This is a standard Carnival outside cabin and the photo is taken through what will be the porthole. It is a mock up with no floor and only the desk and the Bathroom cubicle in place. While the ship is still in the steel stage, the owner can approve what has been done or still tinker with lights and other gadgets.

We are not the only ship being constructed at the moment; next to us is the Carnival Panorama which is not much more then a steel skeleton with some electric wires pulled though. She is 40% bigger than the Nieuw Statendam coming in at 133,500 tons and is scheduled for service in autumn 2019. What is of interest is to see in what way the yard is getting an agreement with the owner about the layout of the cabins. For that purpose they create mock ups and they are somewhere tested and inspected by the owner’s representatives. The yard had two on display next to our ship but then they were packed up and send off to somewhere unknown. Every company has its own way of figuring out how to make a cabin the best available. There is a nice little anecdote in the Industry; that when celebrity started with the Celebrity Eclipse, they “locked” five designer ladies up in these cabin mock ups and let them sleep and shower in there with clothing for a 14 day cruise, and then had them sort out what was needed. The result was cabins full with extra drawers and the life jackets in little baskets under the bed. Holland America did it different with the Koningsdam. The office of Orlando Ashford asked everybody on the ships what would be an improvement and of course they checked all the COB’s. (Comment on Board evaluations filled out on the computer after the end of the cruise). I am quite proud of the fact that I reminded them to install little USB ports next to the bed so when you use your phone as an alarm clock, it charges at the same time. I don’t know if I was the first one to come up with the idea but the Koningsdam has it and all our other ships are now retrofitted with them.

The Bill Board On Board. At the moment it looks more like the United Nations Security Council round table  but once the protective covers are gone and the Piano’s have been rolled in it will all look much better.

More public spaces are handed over as all the work is nearly completed. We now see mostly carpenters doing remedial work and electricians installing light fixtures, as that is always one of the last things to be done. This to avoid them getting damaged from passing ladders and long poles and planks. Only light fixtures that are very high up, go up early as nobody can get at them. And that accounts for the lights in the dining room, the show lounge (main stage) and the Queens lounge already being in position for quite a while. My personal favorite are the Queens Lounge lights as they really give a fairy tale impression. But to see them really well, you have to dance with your head up in the air and that is not always advisable with a full dance floor.

The Ceiling of the Queens Lounge. The view is still a bit marred by the scaffolding but in a few days from now it will be the most beautiful lounge on board.

Tomorrow the company is making a beginning with the training of all the crew that is already at the shipyard. With the Koningsdam we used a ships meeting room as everybody was already on board but now we have a lecture room at the shipyard, a few blocks away from the ship. So all day we will see clusters of crew moving to and from our “indoctrination location”. And guess what, after a beautiful and dry weekend it is going to rain……………………

One of the issues during a new building always is, where does the new owner come in, what is the company allowed to do and where does the yard = the ship-owner, say Stop and keep your hands off my property. A simple example is the lifeboats; we do not get our hands on them until the ship is taken over as the yard does not want to have any damage.  Thus during inspections the boats are handled by yard people but we cannot use them to go tramping around Marghera.

The starboard Aft side of the Casino. Slowly but steadily machine by machine is installed, completely checked inside and then started up. Although not in use they are being left on to see if no component burns out or malfunctions.

At the same time, the ship has to be started up and made ready and most of the items installed on board are “Owner Provided” and thus the yard has to give permission for company technicians to start tinkering around in the ship. Hence we already have IT network specialists in situ for starting up the connectivity between the ships computer servers and the rest of the ship. And a very good example is the Casino.  All wiring and pedestals are all Shipyard supplied and installed. The machines come from Carnival in Miami which is Holland America’s Casino Concession. Those machines have to be connected and once the yard has supplied the correct electrical cable for the power supply, the rest is up to the Casino technicians.  They need nearly a month to get the whole Casino going as the machines nowadays are very complicated and network connected. The days that you just plugged a slot machine in (Fruit Machine in the English Language) and started to push buttons are long gone. The technique now ensures that a player is protected against malfunctioning and some machines are also connected to other slot machines under the Concessions Control. So the jack pot is not limited to the maximum of one ship. We see on the ship regularly photos on display with a lucky guest receiving 50 or 60K in dollars due to a combined fleet wide pay out.

The Ships Hydro pool. This is part of the Spa complex on deck 9. It is already filled with water so the engineer can check for leaks and if all the pumps are working. Normally you cannot see this pool unless you have a Wellness ticket or if you take the tour on embarkation day.

Another thing that takes much time is delivering everything to USPH standards. Every country has its own health standards and every country does it differently. Most countries have a point system and you have to reach a minimum score to pass the minimum standards. This does not mean that you are not safe and hygienic if you would fail, it just indicates that there is a higher chance that you would not, if you do not score the minimum because there might be a lot more wrong than what the Inspector found. While at the shipyard, Holland America invites USPH (United States Public Health) over for construction inspections; apart from what the Hotel Staff does themselves. These are not operational inspections as there is not yet anybody cooking and serving food but pure equipment construction compliance inspections. Part of the contract with the yard is that the yard guarantees that the ship will be delivered “to the satisfaction of the Inspector”. To get to that level takes some doing as not every Italian pipe fitter, and electrician or other installer is fully aware what USPH wants. Thus there is a 3 day inspection cycle which generates a work list and all the details get corrected then. Good examples are the pools and Jacuzzi’s on board. There are construction requirements for temperature, water flow, water cleaning and the min & max of the chlorine level. We invite USPH over, as for 6 months of the year we sailing from the USA and have to comply with their rules. If we were permanently sailing in other parts of the world that would not be necessary but the USPH standards are in general high enough that we do not have do too much extra or different to comply with Dutch, British or Australian rules and to be in compliance with everybody.

Touch up around the hull. As all the dirty work (e.g. welding sparks) is nearly out of the way and with very little wind, it is a great opportunity the touch up the paint work where there are blemishes or not sufficient cover. The large windows are from the Dining room and the white gratings are the “Anti Piracy Gates”  of the aft mooring deck.

Being Holland America means we have our ships registered in Rotterdam, our official home port, where we once began as a small emigrant carrying company back in 1873. So it was good to see that the painters installed the name on the stern of the ship after they had finished touching up the blue hull.

Today was a very nice and sunny day as we expect from an Italian autumn. We should have the same tomorrow but then for the next four days we should have rain and drizzle. Not nice but what is important is that the coming weekend is forecast to be dry again. Important as next Saturday we have to lug all our suitcases up the gangway as we will start living on board.

Maybe it was because the yard people had a day off yesterday or maybe just because there was a lot of work already scheduled or maybe because it is weekend tomorrow but everything seemed to go a bit faster than normal. As the English say, they all had a spring in their step. And thus we saw a rushing to and fro from all the officers going hither and dither to the areas where more and items were handed over to the Owner. Handing over has to be seen in context. The ship remains the shipyards responsibility until it is handed over but when Owner and Yard agree that something is completed then we get some influence. Prime examples are the cabins. I mentioned in the past days that we are now using Guest Cabins for storage and that is only possible after the agreement of completion.

Normally a cabin is checked several times. During the first one or two inspections things might be found and then a list appears outside the door for the technician to work on. Once the work has been completed a supervisor arranges the next inspection and that will continue until everything is perfect.

The cabins are partly worked on by the yard and partly worked on by sub-contractors. So for the outsider is looks a bit chaotic in the way it is done. It goes by section. So Zone 4 Deck 8 might be completed, while zone 4 deck 7 is still in progress. And thus you see people working everywhere as they cannot all work in the same location.  Once the walls were in, the upholsterers move through and once they are gone the electricians moved in for the light fittings and now I see a lot of people walking by with mirrors. And it makes sense to do those last. Yard workers are normally not known for their “gentleness” in work procedures. The final item to be fitted by the yard will be all the Televisions.  The latter is a major task for the HAL AV team that we have with us. Because the televisions are interactive, each TV has a dedicated address for the two way information exchange. All these connections have to be tested and get a number assigned. And that is done manually. Our TV people celebrated yesterday the fact that they had programmed 50% of all the interactive TV’s on board (so 1200 of the 2400 or so). Maybe boring work but very important as our guests love all the movies (250+ of them) and the fact that they can stop and start again whenever they want to.

A Laundry man is only happy when he sees trolleys full of laundry to work with.

Once the cabins are finished Housekeeping gets a section key and they can start cleaning the cabins. The yard has a whole armada of lovely Italian Ladies who clean each cabin before hand over. But it is the same as with buying a house, dust free delivery is not the same as spotless. Holland America used to have the title of the “spotless fleet” in the 1920’s and 30’s and we still have that tradition. But as the guests are coming later than the crew, the current focus of Housekeeping is on getting the crew cabins clean and ready. So today everybody was on A, B, C deck, getting linen and towels in and making the beds. Crew normally makes their own beds but in this case all the cabins will be ready for when they board on the 10^th.  All crew except Sr. petty officers and officers share a cabin and each cabin has a toilet and a shower.  All crew have their favorite ship to sail on but the one thing they all like on the new ships is the interactive movie TV. They can receive the guest channels but we also screen crew movies of what is popular at home and the stop and re start option is the best invention ever for those who work shifts.

This is a standard crew cabin for two. Please note the number of sockets, both in European and America plug size and in 220 and 100 voltage.

Before the all the linen goes in, it is washed and ironed. And we can do that because the ships laundry is fully up and running. Once the crew linen is out of the way, they will start on the guest linen and by that time also the crew will be on board and will start sending crew-laundry and uniforms down. Doing it this way the pressure for turnover in the laundry will go up step by step and everybody will have time to get adjusted to the routines again. The Laundry Master will be tinkering with his setup for quite a while as the yard just delivers everything as ordered and in working condition but figuring out the best flow, is up to the ships complement.

There is still some scaffolding left in the ship. Polishing work on the Atrium sculpture takes a long time to reach 100% without blemish.

Today it was drizzling all day long. A day of “farmers delight” just enough rain to let it soak into the soil at the same time. Weather for tomorrow is overcast according to the forecast and the temperatures are going up. 19oC / 67oF. Not ideal for us, as parts of the ship do not have A.C. yet and thus it can get a bit toasty inside in certain areas.

Today it is a national holiday in Italy; All Saints and thus only the non-yard people are working as these sub-contractors normally have different working arrangements. We are also working as usual as All Saints is not a National Holiday in the Netherlands. Then there is the blur of when we really work. The core HAL group at the yard has been working Monday’s to Friday’s with the weekend off. The additional persons who are now coming in, which includes me, are already on a ships contract and thus work 7 days a week in the same way as we do on board. That makes it all a bit vague but as we have only 10 days to go before we go on board the issue will soon be null and void as we then go full time to the ships routine based on 24/7 watch routines. The engineers have already started their watch keeping activities as the yard has one engine running and more and more systems are coming live and are being delivered as completed. And while a yard engineer is still pushing the buttons it does not do any harm to have a HAL engineer looking over his/her shoulder to observe and learn.

A peek in the engine room. This is the sewage treatment area and as you can see all the equipment is in place. It just needs a bit of cleaning up and giving the floor plates a final coating.

As I blogged about before, the Pinnacle Class with the Koningsdam, The Nieuw Statendam and later also the X-dam, have been designed with the STRP philosophy in mind. Safe Return To Port. The idea of the IMO (International Maritime Organization), the SOLAS regulator, is that the ship becomes its own lifeboat if something major goes wrong. If that really works can be argued about, but any improvement made to a ship will always help if there is a major calamity.  With the STRP the ship is to a certain extent redesigned and if there would be an engine room fire, the other engine room would not be affected. If the main navigation bridge would be out of order, then the backup navigation bridge could be used. To test the STRP, the shipyard has to simulate an emergency, basically by creating a black out in one engine room to see if the surviving systems will work. With the ship nearing completion you cannot simply stop everything at any given time and thus these tests are being done at night, when there is hardly anybody on board. Some of these tests were done this week and thus far everything works as the manual told it should and thus the Chief Engineer was a happy camper.

The 2nd (emergency Bridge) of the Nieuw Statendam. All the basic equipment is there but it is completely enclosed against calamities such as fire or anything else.

Because the bridge does not have any windows and thus the Captain has to go back to the old ways of sailing, standing in the open air and relay his orders to a navigator inside behind the controls. The good old days with men of steel bracing the elements on an open bridge might yet come back.

Back to the good old days. This is the Rotterdam (II) from 1881 and the captain and officers on the bridge are fully exposed to the elements at all times.

What is becoming more and more apparent is the fact that none of the art has arrived yet. During the fitting out of the Koningsdam it all appeared while work was still going on everywhere but as now most of the major work has been completed blank patches on the walls can be seen everywhere. Same for the art in the staircase lobbies, the pedestals are there and we are awaiting the art.

The back wall of the Lido behind the service stations. Here the art is a sort of wall paper photo material which will eventually appear when the art guru’s arrive at the yard.

In the meantime the crew keeps bringing supplies on board and today the focus was on Restaurant supplies from the store rooms on board to the Guest Cabins and Housekeeping supplies (linen and towels) from the ware house and containers onboard and into the store rooms. As there was very little yard activities today it was a great day to do it and the crew was racing to and fro with trolleys without being hindered by Yard work. How do we get it all on board? Either by crane or by fork lift. On regular intervals there are balconies installed on the side of the ship. They are not welded to the ship but hooked on where ever there is an option to do so. These “balconies” are used by the cranes to deposit small containers or boxes on. It eliminates the need for difficult maneuverings into or over the ship and the crew on the inside can simply roll off the items delivered or manually lift them off and into the ship.

Several of the contraptions hanging outside the ship for making it easier to get materials in and out of the ship.

The weather remains a mixed bag of happenings. The rain came early today and not as much as expected but instead of drying away it will keep drizzling until Saturday. Luckily there are no strong winds expected and that will be good news for the residents of Venice.

Today we had a sunny day and everybody at the yard perked up. Our Italian friends are normally already quite noisy but the ships corridors noise level has now returned to normal levels. If there are two Italians arguing about why something is not the way it should be, then it is not advisable to stand very close. Plus we never know when it is an argument or when it is a friendly discussion. And today a lot of discussions were going on as more final inspections were taking place and more was handed over to the owner. Guest cabins but also the Ships Hospital was under scrutiny. Our Sr. Doctor has arrived together with one nurse and they want to get going but nothing can be started up until it all has been handed over. Most medical supplies are already waiting in the warehouse and the earlier they can start the better it is because it is a lot of equipment and each item has to be checked; because with humans involved we cannot just pull a spare part out of the box and assume it will work.

All the Deck and Engine Officers together in the HAL yard office at o8.00 hrs, getting ready for the next day.

For all those final inspections, the company has a whole army of officers on standby. Each morning they receive the schedule for the day and around 09.00 they all march off to their own area of expertise. Nowadays technology is so complicated that each item needs a person who is fully submerged in the topic. The Staff Officers keep the oversight but they can only act if they get the detailed information from the officer in charge. For items such as AC Stations (located over all the decks), Lifeboats (climbing in and out of 22 of them), or looking at over 400 Fire Screen Doors it includes a lot of walking and thus there are no officers in the yard who have not lost a few pounds here and there.

These are the signs we will (hope to) see more and more of every day,

Today I came across the first two modifications compared to the Koningsdam. The Koningsdam has a green bunny as the center piece of the Cabana area on deck 12 behind the Crows nest. That bunny is so out of place there, that everybody loves it because it is so unusual. But apart from generating a smile, it does not do very much. Here on the Nieuw Statendam it has been replaced by a Jacuzzi with a halo above it which acts as an umbrella for shade. The setup is somewhat similar to the Cabana area on the new Seabourn ships. Also there the focus point of the deck is the Jacuzzi. I loved the bunny but this is a very good idea to give the Cabana people an extra perk.

The new Jacuzzi on Cabana Deck with the Halo / round thing above it is to provide shade.

The 2^nd change observed is in the Tamarind restaurant. On the Koningsdam there is a small Sushi bar in the ps. aft corner and because sushi is becoming so popular on the ships this bar has now been doubled in size for the Nieuw Statendam. There is also a seating area next to it with little booths for those who do not like sitting at the Bar. The rest of the Tamarind restaurant has remained the same and will no doubt prove to be as popular as ever.

The new Sushi Bar in the Tamarind restaurant. Guests can now sit in a square instead of in a straight line.

In the meantime you have to be careful walking around the ship as everywhere there is painting is going on. In some places it is just a touch up for where the paint got damaged but in the Fan rooms and on the outside decks, the final coating of white is applied. And the applying of the paint is not done in a “touchy – feely” way. The painters are completely suited up and their vision from behind their air (read fumes) tight goggles is not that great. So while they move their nozzles around in large arcs to get an even covering they cannot see if somebody is coming around the corner or is sticking their head inside. Of course there are warnings signs but they are in Italian but not every contractor in the yard speaks and/or reads Italian. Thus quite a few of them who did not have a white coverall before, now have one.

Not everything is finished yet. The more elaborate show items such as the big ceiling lamps in the staircases are only now being put in position. And if you ever wondered how many Italians it takes to get a light bulb in, the answer is:  three.

For the outside decks our ships Bo ‘sun is one step behind them as with the first layer of white paint applied, he can see if the steel surface is smooth enough to make the ship shine when the 2nd layer of white paint goes on. If not, then a remark goes to the shipyard and the surface first has to be sanded down to create a smoother surface and after re-applying a primer, a second try with white paint is attempted. Our Bo ‘sun is Indonesian but he has picked up a large number of Italian Phrases, nice and not so nice, to get his point across. It will be quite some time before he will be completely happy but he wants his ship to look nice and so it shall.

Tomorrow the routines noted above will continue as we have less than a month to go before delivery. Also tomorrow we will have more rain which is not a problem for us here in Marghera but it could be a problem in Venice. The weather forecast is quite pessimistic:

Quote:

More unsettled weather is on the way for Venice and surrounding parts of Italy as a storm arrives from Thursday into Friday.

A brief period of southeasterly winds could result in renewed flooding problems Thursday into Thursday evening corresponding with high tides.

Rainfall of 13-38 mm (0.5-1.5 inches) will accompany the gusty winds and further elevate the risk for flooding.

Unquote:

So we can only hope for the best.

I mentioned the bad weather yesterday and it was even worse than expected. Water level reached the 4^th. highest level ever seen in Venice (according to experts in the shipyard) and it resulted in a lot of damage and some very wet tourists. As in this case the water did not only come from above but also from below. The water came more than 1 foot over San Marco Square and that is not very nice.  In Marghera at the ship yard we did not have any problems. The land is higher here as Marghera and Mestre are located deeper into the Laguna and the dock at which the ship moors, which is also the surface level of the shipyard, is quite high. Yesterday afternoon we had the wind push the waves into the yard area but we still had several feet of height to spare. The ship will not even move in hurricane winds as the way she is moored is much more secure than normal. Courtesy of the fact that there is no crew, no engine power and nobody available to do anything. Even the tugboats have to come from far away. So the yard is not just using a regular mooring ropes configuration (which will stay once the ship has been handed over to us) but also heavy steel hawsers on which drums and mooring tackles can keep the wires tight at all times.

Safely docked against the weather. The white mooring ropes are the normal way the ship is kept alongside. All the steel wires are extra and there are at least six of them, on top of the 8 regular ropes.

Now the weekend is really over and the day of meetings (Monday) is out of the way, the tests and inspections for delivery continue. So the deck and engine officers are running all day long between ship and office to record their findings after another test of delivery has taken place. If something does not work, or what mostly happens…… not work as expected, then a quick report is written. The shipyard then follows up and a few days later there is another inspection. There is not much that goes wrong but with a big ship, a few items compared to the size is still a lot and it keeps everybody on their toes. (Anybody volunteering for testing 3000+ telephones ??) We have 400 fire screen doors on board and those are “always in the way” of those working in the area, so when one has been tested and found ok by the installer, it does not mean that it still closes perfectly when the official inspection happens a few days later. If it is just a small adjustment, then it can wait until all the yard workers are gone, if it is more major then it will be fixed now while there is still time.

The Sel de Mer Restaurant. All finished. Now waiting for the decoration (See the white wall) and the chairs, table linen and cutlery which are all owner supplied.

Hotel is active on another level as they have to get ready to load the ship with all that we need, I explained the process yesterday. Also they face the challenge of getting all the 900 crew on board and processed. We have currently about 150 crew already on site (bused every day to and from the hotels) but they all have to be changed from a “yard worker” into a crew member. Thus tomorrow we start with handing out crew ID cards and that means standing in line to have our mugshot taken. After the 10^th. we are expecting about 150 crew joining each day, who will all need to be processed and then given, helmets, safety shoes and coveralls as long as yard work is going on.

Same for the main Galley. Most of the work has been done and the yard has now started installing the Owner supplied Ovens and other operational equipment. See  what is standing on the pallet, still ina  carton. It is a sort of oven for keeping food warm while waiting to be served.

Also the Fleet trainers arrived and they will be busy with training each crew member in his/her safety function. About 400 crew have sailed on the Koningsdam so they are familiar with the size and layout of the ship but as a vacation time tends to wipe everybody’s (safety) memory clean, we will start all over again. Plus we are facing at the moment a relentless flow of new regulations coming in as the nautical world keeps changing faster and faster. Auditors are now running the world and if something has happened anywhere, we can rest assured that in the near future an auditor will investigate if our procedures are so watertight that whatever happened, cannot happen with us.

The Main Dining room. The carpet is covered with wood as painting is still in full swing, but for the rest, already for the Dining room Manager to move in.

I have started in the same way as I did with the Koningsdam, reviewing the security implementation. While the Security Officer is busy with his CCTV and ensuring that the yard workers and the crew will follow the rules once the ship is ours, I am looking at the flow of activities for when, if all the crew are called to stations to help out with any security scare we might have.

The weather improved today and will continue to do so tomorrow. So we will be fine, but the Venetians will be busy pumping out cellars and removing the debris brought in by the floods. I hope it will work out for them as on Thursday, more rain is expected, although not all day long.

Here I am at the shipyard and ready to help out with finishing the ship. I have been parked in a hotel just outside the town of Mestre and everyday there is a whole Armada of Buses and cars moving towards the ship in the morning and back again in the late afternoon. Mestre is the district town in this area, with Venice to the North and Marghera (where the ship yard is located to the South East)

Here she is. Almost ready to set sail across the Oceans. Tucked away behind her is the Carnival Panorama which is still in the building dock as she is still in the steel construction stage.

The group of officers who oversaw the construction from the beginning live in apartments in this area and the second wave including Yours Truly, stay in various hotels in the area. The rest of the crew will arrive after 10 November and they will go directly on board. It would be nearly impossible to accommodate all this crew in hotels as most of the hotels here also do a roaring trade with sightseer’s going to Venice. A golden tip for those who want to see Venice and not pay the heavy prices of the Hotels in Venice itself; book a hotel in downtown Mestre opposite the Station and take the bus or train into Venice. The train takes less than 10 minutes and they run at least every 30 minutes.

This is Mestre on a Sunday morning. Not much happening as they were all still in church or at the Marathon.

As the shipyard was closed yesterday I took the opportunity to have a good look at Mestre. I have been to Venice many a time and if heading that way, I would be very tempted to go to a very good 2^nd hand bookshop there and make a major investment in the local economy. The problem is I am not going home anymore until 19 December so I would have to fly all my purchases back from Fort Lauderdale. Thus I went to Mestre. Nice little district town with some old houses and a tower in the middle and a beautiful market on Saturday morning. On Sunday they had a marathon going from Mestre to Venice (They can run along the train and car track to Plaza Roma where all traffic halts). Our chief engineer participated in the half marathon, he did not win, but he made it home again.

For those who followed the Koningsdam getting ready in March 2016 (or want to re-read it in the archives) you will recall that that ship was way behind schedule. Not caused by Holland America but by organizational issues from the ship yard. Only when they moved one new building to another yard they were able to free up sufficient labor to get rolling. Still Holland America had to postpone delivery by three weeks and even then it was all hands on deck to make it a success. But Holland America people do like a challenge and so we did make it a success.

With the Nieuw Statendam it should be less of a rush as the ship is nicely on schedule. Work inside is consists of mainly finishing off, installing the last pieces and testing to see if everything works. Most public rooms are ready or nearly ready as far as paneling is concerned and the while the Koningsdam was still a horror show of wires, cables and ventilation pipes everywhere, all has been nearly removed on this ship.

This does not belong in a store room but is used in the galleys and the pantry’s.

Because of the advanced state of progress, the crew who have arrived are nearly all drawn in with getting the owner-supplied-contents on board. There is a system for that; all is received in the warehouse and signed off. Then it is brought on board and temporarily stored in the ships store and provision rooms. The Cold rooms are not cold yet, so every room can be used. From there it is separated and item by item is stored in Guest rooms. (Quite a few of them have been delivered already and are complete except chairs and bedding) As soon as the public and work areas are handed over, the materials for that specific area comes directly from the one specific cabin and can at once be stored where it belongs without having to be sorted again. A very good working system as it ensures that the Ware houses ashore have enough room to keep receiving more goods for the ship and it gives the crew enough time to separate everything on a timely basis.

One of the guest cabins being stuffed with parts for in the ship. We have cabins full of chairs, crockery, cutlery, linen etc.etc. All waiting to be re-directed to the correct location.

So things are looking good and the main focus point of everybody in the coming days is to get everything  that it’s  owner supplied installed and squared away; and then focus in the last 14 days is to get the ship cleaned, everybody trained, and completely ready for the shakedown cruise.

The Petty Officer  Mess ready and completed. Only the chairs have to be delivered.

The only thing that is wrong, badly wrong at the moment, is the weather. Since last night we have torrential rains interspersed by Strong winds due to a weather system lying over the center of Italy. On the west side of the country it is so bad that they closed the port of Civitavecchia today. I think two ships were supposed to come in today for a turn around, so there will be lot of unhappy campers. (Or happy campers as they get a day extra at sea if they not do have to go back to work or fly)

Today we are in Livorno and for me this is a crazy port. It is a large and very modern port but then they have a medieval entrance which requires a 90o degree turn to get into the port. All the ships go via the south break water opening. There are two openings and I assume that in medieval times the idea was to enter via one entrance and to leave via the other. But the north entrance / exit has silted up and is now only useable for small craft.  Dredging does not seem to give a permanent solution as A. it will silt up again very quickly and B. if too much mud is taken away then the breakwater wall seems to collapse. So even the bigger ships, not built for this old 90 degree turn have to be squeezed in and that is not always possible. So port calls at Livorno are cancelled with a greater frequency than would have been the case if they had a more modern port entrance.

Livorno from the air. The black line shows the maneuver the Captain has to make to get to the dock. Also notice in the photo the sand/ mud banks around the breakwater on the lower left hand side.  On a windy day is happens that a swinging ship comes too far south and puts its nose into the mud. Soft mud, so no bump, no damage and with a kick astern all is well in the world again.

Because of all the squeezing and the swinging in the inner port and the amount of traffic, we docked half an hour later than scheduled. Not that it makes a difference for arrival in Civitavecchia as it is not far away so 30 minutes can easily be absorbed. But it is not ideal for the early morning tours as they will be knocked back as well a little bit. Still the weather was as forecast, over cast but with a nice temperature and hardly any wind, so I think the guests will have enjoyed themselves. Either in Livorno, Pisa, Florence or anywhere else in the interior as the company has a large number of tours going there. This is the area where the Italian Renaissance started and it is visible. When I walk around here I always get the impression that the Romans were not even finished building, before the Renaissance builders knocked them over the head to take their place.  So it is a wonderful area if you are into antiquities and history.

To the left the Aida Stella with the bulbous bow and to the right the Aida Prima with the new X-bow design. In the back the ferries to Sardinia and Corse.

In port with us today, a lot of ferries which sail to the nearby islands and two cruise ships, the Aida Stella and the Aida Prima. They belong to our sister company Aida cruises of Germany in the same way as we have a joint venture with Princess and Seabourn in the HAL Group, Aida is combined with Costa Cruises and they have a combined Operations headquarters in Rostock Germany. Aida’s product is totally different to ours as they cater for Germans  with a very casual style of operating. I would call it Buffet Style as the emphasize is (of course) also on food but a bit more easy going in the set up than with HAL.  What they have as a trade mark, is a full size brewery on board where they make their own German Beer while sailing.  I find that a great omission on the Hal ships…………….Maybe HAL should go that way as well as the Craft Beers that we sell on board (we have at least 12 brands going now) and we see increasing sales year by year and thus there should be a market for it.

The Ttanic had a straight bow. And the unkown artist made a nice bow wave. You can see the chop along the hull, with a more modern bow that would not be there.

But the reason I mention these two ships is because they were docked nose to nose today and gave a clear indication of the changes in ships –bow – design. Ship architects have been tinkering with bow designs as long as there are engine powered ships. It went from a straight bow (until the 1920’s), to Maier Bow (late 920’s), then to the angled bow (1930 – 1970), then to Bulbous bow (1970 until now). Then the Axe bow was developed for the offshore and now we are entering the era of the X bow a sort of modification of the Axe bow. The later one has now been installed on the Aida Prima. All these efforts are made to reduce the friction of the ship (called drag) through the water and thus reduce the fuel costs. The Koningsdam still has a conventional bulbous bow and so will the Nieuw Statendam. What the third ship of the Pinnacle Class will have is anybody’s guess so we will see.

Our beautiful Statendam of 1957 had a rake bow.

This is my last blog for the coming week. I leave the Koningsdam tomorrow in Civitavecchia and then fly home until 26 October. Then I will be on board Nieuw Statendam from that date onwards until December 19. That period will include the finish of the newbuilding, the startup of all facilities, the shakedown cruise and then the maiden voyage. Pending connectivity there will be a blog everyday as usual.