Another day in our Venetian Paradise with sunny skies and not too warm weather. The ship is now so far with cleaning up that we now have the requirement from the shipyard to wear shoe covering when walking around. Security at the gangway is handing out shoe sleeves with the aim to keep the ship as clean as possible.  Thus we now wear a helmet to protect ourselves and sleeves to protect the ship.

This will be the Coffee Bar in the Crowsnest, opposite the Library. Two front panels had been removed as they were busy with connecting the coffee machines.

Everywhere in the ship there are now huddles of crew sitting together receiving instruction and training from their supervisor about the work in their future area. There are a lot of background things which have to happen before you will get your drink served in a professional way at your table. Thus we have Training, Training and more Training.  Safety Training, Orientation Training and Service Training.

Housekeeping is still busy with supplying materials for the cabins. Yesterday I received my Lifejacket and today I became the proud owner of an ice bucket, a fruit bowl, and a vanity cover for over the bed and the luggage protection cover.  Also the Elemis soap dispensers where installed. I am now waiting for somebody to fill up my fridge and then I can start the cruise.

A French Street scene adorns the wall of the Sel de Mer Restaurant.

With the wall protective covers coming off, more and more is revealed about the interior of the various venues.  The Sel de Mer has a distinct French Theme and the menu is A La Carte (priced per item) and the courses are similar to what you will find in a French Brasserie. The food,  especially the fish, will be sourced fresh daily from local markets and thus we will see one of the chef’s go ashore every morning to see what is available in a specific port for the evenings fare. The venue is not so big and thus it will bring the intimate sphere of a French restaurant.

The wall mural in the Pinnacle Restaurant.

Yesterday I blogged about wine today a few words about coffee. No we are not going to have Starbucks on board but we have Beukenhorst. Special coffee imported from Holland for the various venues. We have regular coffee service in the Dining Room and Lido but for the Crow’s nest and for the venues of the Music Walk special coffees are available. I do not drink coffee so I have no idea but as the Dutch know everything about coffee (at least they claim so, until you speak to the Danish, they claim they know it even better) an animated discussion ensued about Starbuck versus Beukenhorst.  When I left a consensus had not been reached yet and it probably never will. The Java Café we have on the other ships is on board the Koningsdam combined with the bar in the corner of the Billboard.

A few Italian Contractors testing out the Bar stools of the Grand Dutch Cafe.

As the Dutch are big coffee drinkers, the Grand Dutch Café serves coffee as well, apart from Dutch Beer and the company expects this to be a very popular coffee-quaffing-gathering place. Today the contractors were already testing the bar. As a little it-bit of information, the colors of the Café are blue and white. Why? because the Holland America flag is blue and white. The walls have the forms of Dutch Houses to get as close to the motherland as possible.

The painters touching up the ships hull. Perfect weather at the moment to do so.

As we are coming close to the delivery, the ship is sailing in only 9 days; the outside of the ship is now being spruced up. If you look at the stern of the ship you see it is not straight but has a sort of “balcony” below the Dining Room. This is called a Duck Tail and its purpose is to reduce fuel consumption and it also helps with stability. When the ship makes speed, the stern goes down, drawn down by the Azipods. This is called Squat and then this ducktail sits on the water. Then it acts as a sort of spoiler you also see on race cars where they use it to keep the car more glued to the tarmac. They say it can add about 5 to 6% to the speed and thus reducing fuel consumption and over a whole year of sailing 5% has a considerable impact on the total fuel bill.

I call this Smoke in a Subway station but the real title will only be revealed when the ship sails and the signs are on.

I am ending again with two pieces of art.  Apart from the large pieces in the staircases, all the smaller frames have been installed now.  The art is from a great variety ranging from classical to surrealistic. Whatever you are going to think about it all, one thing is sure, the various pieces will result in a lively discussion among our guests. And that is exactly what the company tries to achieve with the Koningsdam; Guests interacting with the ship in as many ways as possible.

Today I had to explain what this was to one of our youngest crew members. She had even heard about Cassette Tapes.

With the weekend behind them all the regular Fincantieri yard people streamed back on board to augment all the sub-contractors who kept working through the weekend. Again a lot of cables and wall covering disappeared and step by step it is starting to look like a ship. When walking around it does not look as if much progress is being made at the moment but there is. The last stages of fitting out takes the most time to accomplish and for the naked eye there is not much happening but the final touches to each area simply take time.

Hanging the Art continues anywhere where the work has been completed. This painting is called The Light Searcher.

The themes for the interior design of the Koningsdam are Music and Food & Drink. Hence we have the Music Walk and all the extra restaurants. I will come back to all of that in the coming days. Today a few photos of all the drink options.  There are bars in every public area but a few areas are special. An improvement close to my heart are cup holders in the arms of the seats of the World Stage. Always nice to enjoy the show with a good pint in hand.

Corner of the Explorers Bar and Wine Display.

In the main part of the Music Walk there is the Lincoln Center with in the corner the Explorers Café. Here we find a nice display for wine bottles. The logic is of course that classical music is even more enjoyable while savoring a good glass wine. Right opposite is NOTES, this is a circular bar/sitting area for Whisky Tasting and the plan is to have 130 Whiskies on show/available. A lot of guests enjoy a good whiskey and there is much more out there than just Johnny Walker.

NOTES. Whisky Display in the centre of the Music Walk.

There is no bar in the Queens Lounge but the Ocean Bar is nearby.  The Ocean Bar has now a large lounge area with a Piano Player. The best dance floor is of course in the Queens Lounge which is much bigger. In the Atrium we have in the sweeping surround of the staircase a large wine display to serve the Pinnacle and the Sel de Mer Restaurants.  Over 2000 different bottles will be available to choose from while dining in the two Restaurants.

Difficult to photograph but this wine display curves with the Atrium staircase.

Then we come to the Culinary Arts Centre. Here is a dining option as well. This is called from Farm to Table and of course a good glass of wine will not go amiss while enjoying the chef’s creations. For that purpose there is a wine display in the corner.

Wine Rack for the Culinary Arts Centre.

Right opposite we have the Wine Experience which we call the Blend. Here you can mix your own wine to find the perfect blend for your specific taste.  Once you have created your own perfect wine, you can have it served with dinner in one of the restaurants, or if you cannot wait to drink you own creation, take it to the cabin.

Soaring through the whole height of the Dining Room this wine tower forms a real focus point for all the diners.

Finally we come to the Dining Room. The anchor of the curved upper and lower level is a two story wine rack. Not just for display but operational.  It will give the option to have a look first at the bottles instead of just choosing from the Wine Menu.

What better way to get your Guest Room Lifejacket delivered than with a smile?

While I was dreaming of wine bottles and opening them work went on without let up.The crew are busy with carrying amenities into the cabins, storing up the dining room or huddled in trainings & meetings. Meetings for Safety but also the preparations for work. The attendants for the Pinnacle and the Sel de Mer have to learn the menus and to figure out the best way of serving and moving around the tables. And that is just a small example.

Forward Staircase. Three composite photos of well known musical artists.

I am ending again with a piece of art. This photo/painting is made up from computer keys and I think it is Jimmy Hendrix in the picture, but I am not certain as the signs are not in place yet.

By the time we are finished the whole crew will speak fluent Italian.

Another dry day today but on the chilly side. Work in the ship yard slowed down a little bit today as there were a major number of area’s which were going through their final delivery process.  Then you cannot have every 5 minutes somebody barging through and it seemed it was all planned that way.

Although a lot of work was still going on, especially in the Guest Corridors and on the lower decks, the biggest impact today was made by our crew members. We have still crew coming in but they are the last groups to complement what we already have on board. All that crew needs to be trained and we start each crew members life on board with a ship’s tour and some basic safety information. For the ship’s tour we have two Training and Development Managers on board who take group by group on a nearly 2 hour tour through the whole ship. So they know what the ship looks like and they will start taking ownership of the Koningsdam. It is their ship from now on and if they understand how it all works, what the musical theme stands for, and why certain rooms are laid out in a certain way, then they will be able to answer the questions of the guests. Getting a 1036 crew through this process is a lot of work but it is worthwhile the effort as everybody is really starting to take pride in what Holland America is bringing to the World.

Chris the Training and Development Manager on yet another tour. About 850 crew have done the tour thus far.

As we have a lot of crew on board now, work gets done in groups and sometimes in very large groups. Today all the boxes with Dining Room crockery and cutlery came out of the Galley and went into the Dining room itself. The upper level has been handed over to the ship and thus we can make it ready for the guests.

A long line all the way from the Galley to the aft dining room.

Of course you can use a trolley to bring all the boxes from A to B but if you have over a 100 dining room stewards available, you can also make a Conga Line and go hand over hand. It goes faster as well. Today the boxes were moved out and then the unpacking will start. A similar process was going on in the Culinary Arts Centre where the lockers have been delivered and thus the crockery could be stored away.

Club Hal consists out of the Childrens play area, the Teens and the Tweens area’s. Then on the port and starboard side behind the indoor spaces are open air area’s as well.

An area I have not mentioned yet is the Club Hal. Our Youth Centre, located midships above the Lido Deck. The shipyard has now cleared part of the area and the outfitting the toys and things will shortly start. This is the Childerens playroom for the smallest on board. Note the low wash basin. Holland America is all about washing your hands often.

Double Bunks, a desk, a TV on the Wall and a Bathroom at the other side. This is a standard crew cabin.

Most of the crew share two to a cabin with their own private facilities on C, B, A and Main deck. Most of the Officers live on A deck and Main deck aft and the Captain and the Ship’s Staff live behind the bridge. Everybody is quite close to the Mess Rooms and the Recreational Facilities with the exception of the Officers Bar which is located all the way forward on A deck. Quite a walk to go from the stern to the bow to get a drink. But at least the Bar is out of the way and there is direct access to the Forward Open Deck where there is also a Jaccuzi for the Crew.

Also today  the first Art appeared in the ship. Some of the art which is integral to the wall paneling itself had been installed a long time ago but now the art which comes in picture frames is being put in position where the work has been completely finished. As the ship has a musical theme there are large number of paintings and other decorations which follow that musical theme. So it is not surprising to find on Beethoven Deck (deck 4) art representations of Beethoven.  On the deck, not named after the composers, there is a variety of art which links into the ships theme on a different level.

Deck 4 Beethoven Deck.

Hanging in the Forward Staircase. An example of this is a painting or collage from old Floppy disks which make up the back ground for a ladies face.

I am quite impressed with how the artist combined various media including floppy disks to make this portrait.

Spring might be in the air as we had another sunny and hazy day a today and you could walk outside without a coat on. The coverall and helmet was sufficient to “brave” the weather. It also makes the shipyard works happier as they can do their dusty work outside.

A long queue entering the HAL ware house to comply with the labor law of daily logging the working hours.

And the crew was very happy as we are still living in two places and we have to leave the ship regulary. Some of the offices are still off the ship as the computer network is not yet fully up to speed. This means for the crew there is a daily pilgrimage to the shore side office of the Crew Officer to log in their hours from yesterday. Then it is in parade back to the ship for receiving the job orders for the coming day.

The Asst. Housekeepers handing out the daily orders to the Cabin Stewards.

While the weather gods are keeping things dry, it is now the shipyard who are making things wet. The promenade deck with the lifeboats has been completed and they have started hosing down the bulkheads and the boats. Then there will be some more touch up with paint again and then all the protective covering will be removed from the lifeboats. Everywhere the lifeboats are touching the davits arms there is still padding and plastic in place.

This is what a sailor likes to see: hosing down the decks and making it nice.

The lifeboats are already in use as the 2^nd officer Training has organized a Lifeboat Boat Assistant course for those who are part of the lifeboat crew. The Commander and Asst. Commander get official training and certification shore side and need on board only refresher training. For the other lifeboat crew, in depth training is given on board and they also will receive a certification. As the crew has been coming from all the other ships they were not necessary involved with lifeboats there and thus they still have to go through this training. It takes about 14 days with theoretical and practical, followed by an exam.

Finally the dance floor in full view. It will still need some TLC before the first dancers can twirl away.

Today most of the protective material was removed in some of the lounges which now are ready for final cleaning and putting in all the Hal material. Thus the floor of the Queens lounge was revealed which will now be the focus of attention for the polishers.  Billboard and Lincoln Centre are now completely clear and the Grand Dutch Café is nearing completion.

Housekeeping has taken over the cleaning of the shops. The cleaning ladies from the ship yard have now started on the corridors and the Shop Staff are busy with getting boxes on board.

In the show lounge, officially called The World Stage, things went differently this morning. Unlike in the past days when they tried to switch on as much as possible to see if it all worked, today they switched off as much as possible. Better said they switched off everything. It was a sort of “black-out morning”. Purpose was to check if the whole lounge was indeed black and no light was coming from anywhere to disturb the show.  Luckily most of us now have a cell phone with a flash light option and we did not come un-stuck when suddenly all the lights went out, and then out again. But I can guarantee, it was dark, pitch dark, leaning towards pitch black.

A small selection of at least 20 pallets with various greenery and flowers.

That the ship is nearing completion came with a strong hint today; the plants and flowers came on board. Holland America is famous for having more greenery on board than with any other cruise company and that fact was re-emphasized today. It made us feel at once a bit more ship-like.  Some plants have already been put in place and the rest will follow shortly. It will really bring the ship alive. I am personally  waiting to see how green the Culinary Arts Centre will be as there is a whole wall section devoted to the on board growing  of all sorts of herbs. Luckily garlic does not smell much when it grows otherwise it would be an interesting area to walk through. Or is garlic not an herb??

The Front Office Guest Desk is in its final outfitting stages.

As explained yesterday, with the pyramid example, today there was not much delivered or cleared away from other areas. Some lounges where having a heady mix of carpenters, electricians, tile setters, cleaners and other technical folk trying to do their job all at the same time.

The Back Office of the Front Office is already in full swing. The Guest Relation Manager is preparing with her team for the first voyage.

So I finish today with another picture of behind the scenes; our bakery is working! And it is churning out fresh bread and desserts for breakfast, lunch and Dinner. But our Baker was not a happy man this morning, just while his dough had risen, somebody switched off the power to the Oven. His whole team had to run and move everything upstairs to the warming cabinets in the main Galley. But he got it done on time and we had excellent rolls for lunch time.

Beautiful cakes and pastries in the Oven. This time the power remained on.

Today we are enjoying another sunny and beautiful day in the shipyard and without it being too cold. We are now moving from a period of “controlled mayhem” to a period of “controlled confusion”.  This does not mean the people do not know what they are doing, but they just have a hard time finding out when to do it. 

The fitting out of a cruise ship is similar to a pyramid model. In the beginning (the wide base) everybody can do their own thing and work progresses on multiple fronts.  Then more and more items are completed but not everything. Nowadays everything is interconnected and it all revolves around electricity, Wi-Fi and networks and when one item is not available, the other one cannot work or progress with work.  Thus the whole Sr. Management is busy with managing the 1000 and one little things; sometimes it all hinges on a misplaced key for one door and are thus busy with “putting out little fires” as they call it. A lot of people are now waiting for each other so each and every one can add the final touch to an area to make the delivery complete.

The liferafts for the crew are being installed. This had to wait until all the welding and painting was completed.

One of all these Top of the Pyramid items is the final connection of all Audio and Visual equipment. For a TV / monitor you need brackets, Cabling, a Control location, Software and finally the people who will operate it. Today all those items came together in the Queens Lounge and the big screen above the dance floor went on for the first time. Somebody had connected it to the surveillance camera for the dance floor and so you could see yourself walking around. Quite a nifty idea, seeing yourself dancing during cocktail hour.

The big screen above the Queens Lounge Dance Floor. Scaffolding is still in place as they are cleaning the lamps.

One item which is not so obvious but which is an intrinsic part of our security, are piracy gates. Ever since the troubles in Somalia started the aft mooring deck has always been considered a danger area. It is a little bit lower that the other access decks and thus the logic was for pirates to use this area to board a ship. With cruise ships this chance is remote as it is still too high above water to just jump over and the ship travels too fast to try for a skiff to come alongside and climb on board but it is still a lower deck. Thus to close the whole mooring deck area off, while at sea but also in port, we now have piracy gates. When the ship is docking and undocking they are hinged open and the rest of the time they close off the mooring deck.

Piracy Gates. On the aft mooring deck. These are made of stainless steel but not yet painted and thus easy to recognize.

We now have nearly all our crew on board, there are still new people boarding but it is down to a trickle, and training is in full swing plus the movement and collecting of Stores, Provisions, Spare Parts and Inventory. We have at least 10 trainers running around varying from USPH to Firefighting to Lifesaving and a plethora of other items. With much more to come. In between the crew goes back to storing and cleaning. Our Italian shipyard men are getting quite a kick out of seeing all the small Filipina Ladies carrying big boxes and or pushing big trolley’s, while wearing a safety helmet at the same time of course.

Nearly all the Gym Equipment has arrived and only needs securing and assembling.

All through the night the delivery of pallets and equipment has continued and then during the day time it can be put in place. Either by the Shipyard or by the ships complement. The logic which is followed here is mostly, if it needs a screw or a clamp or a nail, then the ship yard does it, if I can just be placed in place, then it is normally company stuff and the crew are doing it. And thus the regular crew is mainly in action with three things. Cleaning the various areas completed, carrying boxes from one place to another or (especially today) moving cabin. All the crew who came on board last week went into guest cabins, now the crew cabins are finished, so they can move and the Guest cabins can be prepared for the first voyage.

Not everybody is involved with loading. The catering for a 1000 crew goes on as well. Here the Sr. Butcher is supervising the preparation of the meat for tonights dinner.

For the wine lovers I can report that all the wine displays and the Wine Experience have now been completed apart from the TV monitors. They will be installed at the last minute to reduce the chance of getting damaged.

The Wine Barrels are in place from where you will be able to Tap & Mix your own blend.

Last night we were all ordered off the ship again for our second planned black out happening. This time they wanted the ship completely empty to see if all the Fire screen doors would close and then stay closed without anybody still walking through them. The Cruise Director had organized a movie in the Canteen of the shipyard which is large enough to accommodate the complete crew. Still many went to the little café outside the gate again and it almost burst out of its seams with at least two crewmembers per square foot of café floor space. I am now sure the proprietor can retire early after a few more of these Black outs. And he/she still has the Seabourn Encore, A Carnival ship and the TBA-dam coming after us, all with their required blackouts.

Thus far the crew has only been dry-sweeping. Today it was bucket day issue for Housekeeping and now the real anti dust battle starts.

Today we had a glorious day. The cold northerly wind disappeared and the sun shone making it a beautiful early spring day. All the yard people took advantage of it and moved their cutting and sawing work to the outside where they were not hampered by the dust flying around.  Although large areas of the ship are now so far advanced that there is only fine tuning work going on, but in some areas there is still work done with wall panels and the fine dust penetrates everywhere. Every time Housekeeping thinks they have things under control, they have not and the cleaning starts all over again.

This is a state of the art LED screen and can be seen under nearly every angle.

This morning was also the first time I saw the large screen in the Lido Pool area being switched on. Not much more than a lot of red but it is working. Eventually there will be Movies under the Stars screened here and as the Lido deck has two levels with dedicated seating area’s I think it will be a great success. With Gelati’s (The ice cream parlor), Dive Inn (Hamburger Bar), New York Deli and a Beverage Bar on each level it has the potential of becoming a very popular spot on board.

The Low Level Lighting Monitoring Panel on the Bridge.

What is a lot more technical and on occasion causing some loud Italian noises is the installation of the Low Level Emergency Lighting.  In case of a black out or other mayhem which will cause the regular lights to fail, the LLL will come on and clearly indicate the escapes routes to safety. Every corridor and every staircase has these strips and the sub-contractors who are busy with installing them have to work through the locations where everybody else is working. As you cannot coordinate the progress of everything all the time, there is occasionally a “discussion” going about who should be here and there first or later. As the LLL is a very important safety system it is controlled from the bridge. Not so much to switch it on, it does that by itself when the pertinent alarms go off, but to keep an eye on which sections might fail. With trolleys in the ship, water being spilled and strips being hit, there is nearly always a section under repair and then it is handy to have a screen which tells you where the fault is located.

I thought I will do a Selfie this time. This is the room dedicated to things related to Sit & be Fit. etc.etc.

Today also the installing of the Green House Spa on Deck 09 started. During the night all the torture equipment for the Gymnasium was lifted on board and now it is being fitted to the deck. Also the spa Ladies are starting to bring their treatment potions and everything else on board and that will keep them going for quite a while as it is a very large area. There are in total 16 treatment rooms for massage/ facials /body treatments  etc. and then we have all the other areas such as the Hair Dressing Salon, Sauna’s, Steam Rooms, Wellness areas, etc. etc. For the first time we will also have a dedicated Barber salon on board with a licensed Barber.

One of the serving stations in the Lido. The decoration is now being installed.

The Lido Restaurant is nearing its final outfitting stages. It is now called the Lido Market and for a good reason. There are now a large number of stations which each are specialized in serving one item. Not just Hot & Cold, but under names such as Homestead, Breadboard, Wild Harvest (salads), Etc. Etc.  I am greatly in favor of these stations as it reduces the standing in line enormously. You just go to the section that you fancy and get served straight away.

This is smoke with a Capital S.

A thing which we only see in dry dock or as now during a new-build is a Smoke Extraction Test for the Atrium. Although an Atrium is beautiful to have, from a safety point of view it is a difficult area. As it goes up three or more decks, smoke can freely travel from one deck to another. If this would happen in an emergency then there is a Smoke Extraction System which sucks away the smoke making it possible for people to still use the escape routes around it. So today at noon time, the Atrium was filled up with Stage Smoke until nothing could be seen and then the Smoke Extraction System was switched on. It worked well, after a few minutes we could see three decks down again.

And this is the same photo location after the Smoke Extraction fans did their work.

Today, another day in paradise, even if it is called Marghera and there is a very sharp and cold wind blowing from the Alps. But is dry and sunny and the shipyard motor is spinning at full speed and everybody is busy with the finishing up touches in a lot of locations. Whole sections of cabins have been delivered now and locked up. Unless they are of course filled up with material to be delivered to the cabins later.

Tulips from Amsterdam ???

Once a section of cabins has been handed over, the protected covering is removed for a little while, so the yard people can check if everything in the corridors is still in good order and do the necessary touch ups. Remove scratches and replace damaged wall paper where necessary. Where the carpet covering was removed it revealed the corridor carpet. Most appropriate we are still a Dutch company, so tulips are a nice touch.

Even the Cleaning Ladies wear helmets while on board. Safety is a high priority for the shipyard.

The shops which were already mostly finished have now all received their lighting and that means the cleaning ladies are having another go at removing stains and dust from all the glass displays. Looking at lighting it is now appearing in more and more areas.

Ceiling lights in the form of Octagonals in the Upper Level World Theatre entrance.

Ceiling Panels have been installed, nobody is walking around anymore with long ladders and thus the ceiling and other lights can be installed. Thus all the lighting in the Queens lounge is now there but also the lights in the top of the Show Lounge have been unveiled. Most of the show lounge is lit by spot lights but the entrance to the lounge has a very nice ceiling display.

This is one of the bunker stations. The brown hose delivers the water to the ship. all connections are color coded to avoid mistakes. Green is cooling water, Blue is potable water. Grey is sewage and black is oil. Finally Red is a separate connection for water pressure on the ships fire system.(Orange is a cover over a connection not in use)

We are still a building site and we still receive all the water from the shore side. Electric Power now comes from our own engine but we cannot make our own water yet. For that we need more engines on line and that will only happen when we sail. I do not know where Venice gets its water from but it is quite chalky and that makes the men from our coffee machines very unhappy. We buy most of our coffee from a special supplier in the Netherlands and they also deliver special equipment for the cooking and pouring of a perfect cup of coffee. Thus they are here on the ship to attach and test their equipment. They are not happy with pure water (distilled) as it does not bring out the right taste, they want a little bit of chalk in the water but not too much and they also do not like the chlorine we will have in the water once we sail. It does not seem easy to pour the perfect cup of coffee. I am glad I only drink Green Tea where a perfect cup is much easier to achieve.

Four big plugs can provide the whole ship with electricity from the shore side.

While we are on the subject of power from shore, in port most of our ships plug into the shore side Grid, so they can switch off the engines completely. The thought behind this is that the shore side can produce electricity cheaper and cleaner. Our ships are still as clean as possible (We burn low sulpher fuel, we have scrubbers to remove all the soot particles from the exhausts) but we still produce some exhaust. Thus connecting to the shore side makes sense. In principle it is a very simple affair. We just plug a very large electric plug into an electric socket and then the shore power is slowly synchronized with the ships main switch board and once balanced the engine is switched off. Then about an hour before departure it all goes the other way again without having a blackout or anything stopping to work.

Another batch of 40 from the 1036 crew going through the initial safety indoctrination.

The training of the crew goes on, day after day. Each crewmember gets an initial indoctrination when coming on board and a ships tour where the Training and Development Officer explains the difference between the Koningsdam and the other ships. Part of it is a small safety training just to refocus them on what the HAL routine is and most importantly what is different while in the shipyard, which is a basic but important thing, until we sail, do not call the bridge during an emergency but call the Front Desk. The bridge is still unmanned as the safety center is still being tested but the Front Office has all the relevant shore side telephone numbers including the one for the Shipyard Fire brigade and the Shipyard Ambulance.

For those who find this important, the Casino is ready for Operation.

Last night we had an “official” e.g. planned, black out from 20.00 – 22.00 hrs. Everybody was advised to leave the ship as there would absolutely no light available in the cabins. The two hour black out was meant to test the Emergency Generator and the Emergency Batteries under load. If there is enough power from there then the emergency systems can continue to work and it was tested extensively. The Emergency alarms were beeping and bleating through the whole ship without stopping until everybody was nearly going nuts. But it is an extremely important test and thus it had to be done. A lot of the crew descended upon the only café directly outside the Gate and the owner did very good business. I think he would not mind a few more blackouts.

The Grand Dutch Cafe is nearing completion. The time for Bitter balls and a Heineken is not far away.

The stocking/loading of the ship continues at a steady pace but the ware house is not getting any emptier as more and more trucks are arriving. Today we had a 40 foot container with large Audio /visual panels and monitors for the public spaces. Some of them were crated up and so large you could never have walked away with them but others where regular size TV boxes and could be prone to be picked up by “Collectors”. These sorts of things go straight on board and are locked away in completed Guest cabins where the door goes on double lock. A lock can always be by-passed of course but only with brute force. If the door would be opened with an electronic key then this entry can be verified by the Security Officer and key & owner identified.  There is a very good security system in the shipyard both with security at the entrances to the ship but also with roving fire patrols who apart from checking safe work practices – so there will be no fire- are also continuously checking if the doors to occupied cabins are completely locked. I moved cabins today and while moving my suitcase into the new cabin, I left the door ajar and 30 seconds later I had a Fire Guard poking his nose in. Into the ship there are three entrances, the forward one for HAL personnel only, and the other two for the yard people. Everything that comes OFF those two gangways is very carefully checked.  Ours is less of an issue as we live on board and thus only take things on board and not off the ship.

The whole ceiling of the Dining room is now visible and the tables are in place.

A lot of boxes which are now opened contain the furnishings for the lounges. Chairs for the Music Walk areas have arrived and also the tables and chairs for the Main Dining room. We are still waiting for chairs for the Pinnacle Grill and Explorers Lounge where there is still panel work going on. But give it one or two days and that will also be finished.

The full ceiling of the Queens lounge is now visible. Quite a feast for the eyes.

Although the Queens lounge is almost finished, scaffolding has gone up again as now the Sound and Vision guys are doing complicated things with speakers, lights and the Operators Booth. This Queens Lounge is basically a smaller version of the show lounges on the other ships with this difference that the Dance Floor is a lot bigger. This will be a great venue for the New Year’s Celebrations although it cannot hold 2500 people.

This is the Digital Workshop which is just waiting for the chairs.

Our painting friends are still making everybody’s life difficult, they are either in the way, or something is wet from paint and if not one of the two then we can smell the paint everywhere. The AC is running for the whole interior of the ship and our friends are of course also painting the grills which protect the fan room intakes. Luckily it does not go on continuously otherwise we would all eventually be walking around very happy from the thinner smell.

This is the walkway along the Culinary Arts Centre and a Lady Crew member is cleaning the Stainless Steel window frames.

We now have nearly all the crew on board and those who work in certain dedicated areas such as the Greenhouse Spa have been issued cleaning material and are starting to deep clean their own work areas. The ship is delivered dust free but there is a bit of a difference between what a ship yard considers dust free and what Holland America considers Spotless. We used to have the nickname in the 1920’s & 1930’s of being the “Spotless Fleet” and that ethic is still very much present in our today’s ship culture.  Thus I observed several cabins being open this morning and in two of them a crew member was happily sitting on the toilet and slowly removing paint splatters from the inside bathroom door. In another I saw two legs sticking out from under the bed and I thought……..that this  was taking it a bit too far in cleaning but it turned out she had lost an ear ring.

And thus shipyard life continues at a steady pace. There is still some big work being done on the upper decks such as the Centre Lido Area and the Crow’s nest but also there all the paneling is nearly in place and the fitting out is starting.  As long as it stays dry, things will go very fast.

While I am writing this, sitting in the Captains conference room, I am in the middle of a whirl of very nice Italian Ladies who are busy with cleaning the staff officers cabins while at the same time singing out loud to the background music. (Same tape as two days ago, so now we know exactly what is coming and we all can join in) This is the first day of the new work week and the number of yard people has increased again. A lot of finishing off work is carried out on the large cabins on the higher decks and the Officers cabins in the area behind the bridge.  The cabins which are finished are immediately tackled by the cleaning Ladies and then locked up for the final delivery.

The Kitchen has turned into “Box City” with all the equipment arriving.

For the ship side the storing process goes on relentlessly and the whole main galley has now been blocked by boxes, which are slowly but steadily unpacked and the crockery coming out is stacked on the shelves. Eventually it will have to be prewashed before it can be taken into use. That will be more than a full day’s work.  The Main dishwashers have not been handed over yet so it will have to wait until such time.

Carefully does it. HAL crockery is not cheap and a plate is easily dropped.

Another section nearing completion is the Culinary Operations Centre which has been greatly developed from what we were used to. On all the other ships the CAC is part of the Queens lounge or in the Movie theatre; here on the Koningsdam it now has its own dedicated area. It consists out of the Cooking Demonstration Area, an open Kitchen area where you can see the Chef really cooking and then a restaurant part where people can have dinner in the evening as well. Then there is a herb section in a sort of window display, where live herbs will be cultivated which are then used in the various cooking adventures.  The CAC is wedged in between a large wine display and the Wine Experience corner and that makes it possible to have mixed food & wine sessions.

The Culinary Arts Centre. The decoration on the walls, including the lights all have a cooking theme.

Looking out of the window I saw there was suddenly another Dutch ship in the port, the ms Heenvliet, not be constructed but to unload parts for another new build. We have now the Koningsdam and the Seabourn Encore fitting out but construction has already started on a next ship and a lot of steel sections/parts were unloaded. They were obviously constructed somewhere else and then brought by ship to the shipyard for further assembly.

A Dutch Coaster in the process of delivering to the yard. The listing is caused by the unloading of the sb. side first.

In the show lounge testing is also in full swing and yard people have been replaced by techno wizards who are sitting frowning over their laptops trying to figure out why something does not go beep when a button is pushed.  This is now the world of experts who speak in computer code instead of normal English that I can follow. But the first test movies are playing on the screen, split up onto three screen sections and it looks very impressive.  It is a total break from the traditional show stage as the guests sit in a 270o circle but I think it is going to blow their minds away. The other ships are already being outfitted with LED screens in the back of the stage but this is taking it to a completely higher level. It definitely has the WOW factor.

This photo does not give the right impact of the what is on the screen. Showing Whitney Houston.

What does not have the wow factor are our painting friends who have now descended upon the crew staircases and are painting the railings while traffic continues to go by. We have all been trained to always hold on to the railing while going up and down the stairs (One hand for the ship, One hand for yourself, as the saying goes) but today we learned very fast not to do this until there are no pots of paint insight anymore.

Apart from storing the ship, the crew is starting to be immersed in their safety trainings. We have a number of safety trainers on board who are a consultancy for Holland America and they will take care of the in-depth training of the specific crew members who will have to operate the assigned safety equipment.  We will see a lot of lifeboats going up and down in the coming days.  I am still working on the search plans for the ship as it has to fit in with the structural difference of this ship and the different mustering system. By now I know every locker and space by heart and how to get there the first way, now the challenge starts to find out who will be in charge of each and every locker on board.

The dry weather is still holding but it is chilly in Venice. Which is not a bad thing as with all the testing the A.C. is working but not always blowing cold air.

Today we had a reduced work force on board the ship again but it did not mean a reduction in noise as the General Alarm Testers were having a go at it. Today they lacked an English Announcer and we had to do with the pre-warning being in Italian but if an announcement is followed by the piercing 7 short beeps and 1 long one, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what it is all about. Hence today a larger number of crew could be observed walking around with ear plugs in.

Housekeeping in full swing with handing out boxes full of uniforms to a long line of crew standing just outside the door. The Uniform store is about triple the size of the tailor work area you see here.

A new contingent of crew arrived again today and apart from the compulsory safety indoctrination their first activity was to go to the Tailor Shop to get uniforms and (safety) shoes. This area is located deep in the dungeons of the ship on the lowest deck: C deck fwd. It is located there as the Main Ships Laundry is next door and also the very large linen and uniform stores.  In the past days the tailor shop has been stocked up with all the boxes from the warehouse. Some of these boxes, such as all the shoes, come directly from the manufacturer but most uniforms have been made on board the other ships and have been sent over to the Koningsdam warehouse. Every ship was asked to help out with making some sort of uniform and when I was recently on the Nieuw Amsterdam their part in the supply chain was making the black uniforms in use. These are made in three standards sizes: S.M.L. and then adapted to the exact size of the future wearer when handed out.

Laundry Master and troops putting the laundry machines through their first paces.

Another part of the operation which is now being started up is the Main Laundry. We are living on board now and thus we have towels, linen and bathmats which are changed in the same cycle as if the ship was already in operation. It is still only the crew living on board hence some of the laundry crew is still helping out with other chores in the ship.  In the coming days the work will increase here when the full crew is on board, and then a lot of cleaning material will come down as soon the major cleanup starts before the first guests are arriving on April 4^th. Holland America tries to use as much fabric cleaning towellets as possible instead of throw away material. Washing with water made on board from the waste heat of the engines is more environmental friendly than using boxes and boxes of –one-time-use-only.

Shorex Service Desks in the Lower Atrium on Deck 1 – Main Deck. The mural on the back wall has a nautical theme, which is continued on various panels in the hallways.

In the ship the sub – contractors are still working and some areas are receiving the finishing touches. One such an area is the Shorex –excursion desk on Deck 1- Main deck in the Atrium. It has been setup in quite a clever way as it can double up as a check – in counter, incase this has to happen on board and not in the terminal. On this deck is located the main entrance door to the ship. It is also in the open Atrium and you can look up to the Front Office itself which is located two decks higher on deck 3 – Promenade Deck.

Service with a smile. This is the first time in my life to see cooks working with hard hats on.

In the meantime with almost a 1000 crew on board or due on short notice, the catering also is taking on a more elaborate meaning. Officer’s Mess, Petty Officers Mess and Crew Mess are full to capacity during breakfast, lunch and dinner hours and the Culinary Operations Dept. is trying to make something special out of it. Warm meals are cooked A la Carte and the cold parts are on the buffets. Looking at the operation, the cooks are really enjoying this as they can be as creative as they want to be. The normal menu cycle is not in place yet and so they can cook. We often forget that the life of a supervising chef is nowadays more paperwork, food & cost control and ordering, than really doing the cooking.

As it is Sunday, the Cruise Director has organized a soccer field for those who want to play a game and there is a Coach going to the local shopping centre for those who forgot to pack their toothpaste. There are no shops in the close proximity of the ship so this is a great service.

Tomorrow the ship will be full again with shipyard people who had the weekend off and the fitting out will continue at full speed. I think that by the end of the coming week most public rooms will be ready, although they will only be officially delivered during the last week of March.