Travelogue No. 4 - Day at sea and the Ultimate Ship Tour

TRAVELOGUE NO. 4
PACIFIC COASTAL CRUISE LOS ANGELES TO VANCOUVER

TUESDAY, May 11, 2010 – Day at Sea and the “Ultimate Ship Tour”
Today was a special day because we signed up for the “Ultimate Ship Tour” – something that has not been offered since 9/11. One of Cruise Director’s Staff escorted a small group of 12 of us for this tour. The cost of the tour is $150 and worth every last penny; because we actually got down into the belly behind the scenes of the ship. It was fascinating!

Our first stop was in the Princess Theater where we got to actually go up on stage and look above us five floors where lights, sets, and costumes where suspended and would be pulled down when needed. As you can imagine, the floor is wooden and also has an elevator lift that takes dancers and singers down underneath if the production number requires it right from the center of the stage. We then proceeded back into one of the several dressing rooms where we met two of the dancers. Each dancer has their own make-up station and a large number of attendants who help them dress, buckle their shoes, touch-up their make up and fix their hair. There is a cleaner rack with the push button mechanism in there that they will push and recall whatever costume they need for the next dancer. Just like getting your clothes from the dry-cleaners.

From the stage we went down to the Medical Department and met the Doctor who has a staff of three nurses. There are three exam rooms and they have a full pharmacy if needed to dispense prescriptions to the staff and the passengers. They have the ability to do small surgeries such as fix a broken arm but most major surgeries would have to be done on land and so the passenger would have to be air-lifted off the ship and taken to the nearest hospital. The Doctor could not emphasize enough the importance of purchasing travel insurance for this very reason. She said that the cost of the air-flight helicopter is a whopping $50,000!

We went to the galley next where we actually got to go through one of three galleys on the ship. The chef’s were all busy preparing soup in huge 10 gallon drums. Looked like tomato bisque to me! There were some prep chefs dicing and cutting vegetables. The galley has “stores” where the different types of food are kept. We went to the “produce store” the “fruit store” and we actually even got to go inside the freezer where the meat is in one section, the chicken in another and the fish in another. I have to tell you that I truly felt like Lucille Ball when she got locked in the meat locker on I Love Lucy! It’s cold in there! Then we went over to the “Bread/Bakery” Department I found the perfect machine that anyone who entertains must have! Of course, it would not look very nice in your kitchen, but what a great thing to have! Once your dough is made and raised, it is put through this machine on a plastic paddle that looks much like an oversized deviled egg tray. You turn the machine on – it jiggles around and Whalla! Out pop 24 perfect dinner rolls! There’s no rolling, kneading, patting, or weighing to make the perfect size – the machine does it all for you! After that we were treated to some 2” size chocolate covered strawberries and small decadent butter cookies along with punch in a tall; fluted glass complete with umbrella, orange slice and cherry on top!

The Print Shop was our next stop. Here they print everything for the ship from the daily restaurant menus, to the Princess Patter (our daily newsletter) along with information about the ports we are going to visit, shore excursion information and also the daily sales from the ship’s stores. We were each given a 5 X 7 pad of paper that said Ultimate Ship Tour and had each of our names on top.

Once we left the print shop we went to the laundry. Every department on the ship works 24/7 with three shifts of 8 hours each to keep everything running smoothly and efficiently. The laundry is no exception. Here I found another couple of machines that I would love to own but would not have the room to put them in my house nor would they be pleasing to the eye – but what a fabulous job that do! One of the greatest was the presser for the napkins and table cloths. The operator will put a slightly damp table cloth into the machine and when it comes out the other side, it is pressed beautifully and folded! They have another machine like this for towels! Fabulous! And, everything comes out perfect! This is also where the crew has their clothes cleaned and the Captain and his staff have their uniforms dry-cleaned.
From there we went down to the engineering control room. There’s four diesel engines and one turbo engine. The big turbo engines on the top of the ship serve no purpose other than they look cool up there.

Going to the Bridge was the highlight for everyone, as you can imagine. We met Captain Dino Sagani who was born in Trieste on the North East Adriatic coast of Italy. He is proud to tell you that he is Captain of the “largest” ship in the Princess Fleet – the Sapphire Princes weighs in at 117,000 tons. Although she does not carry the most passengers, she is 5’ wider than the Grand Princess and the Golden Princess. Captain Sagani showed us the “joy stick” and the steering wheel, which is the size of a steering wheel you would expect to see on a Ferrari. It is not much bigger than about 12 inches at most. There are two officers with binoculars standing at the front of the bridge constantly watching the horizon, and there are three more behind the center console. There is a separate control station on both sides of the bridge out on the wings which go out beyond the side of the ship about 5-6 feet. This gives the Captain the perfect view he needs to pull us perfectly alongside the piers without touching them.

Our Ultimate Ship Tour was ended with a glass of champagne and more chocolate covered strawberries. Pictures were taken of us in each of the departments with the staff. After the tour, we were each handed a folder with copies of all of the photos. Along with our personalized paper pad, it was a very nice gift. But, Princess went above and beyond and gave each of us a beautiful Princess waffle robe and chefs apron on top of everything else. It was really the “ultimate”.