BEHIND THE SCENES

We had a tough time opening our balcony door and reported it to maintenance.  Upon arrival, the maintenance man realized the rollers were not working properly so he returned at the agreed upon time and removed the enormous glass door (probably 5’ x 8’) by himself, removed and replaced the rollers, and reinstalled the door.  All that in 20 minutes.  Back home, you’d never be able to get a fix-it guy in that amount of time.  

I’m always interested in the “behind the scenes” workings of a cruise ship and incidents like the rollers makes me realize there must be a room somewhere on the ship that contains hundreds and hundreds of different parts that may need replacing sometime during the cruise.  Unfortunately, they haven’t figured out a way to fix the sorbet machine in the dining room – the only dessert Michael likes. 

Our cabin steward was out of commission for about two days with some type of sinus or allergy problem.  The doctor informed him that it was probably due to his working in the “flower room” which has no windows.  I never thought about it, but there has to be a “florist shop” somewhere on the ship which holds all the fresh flowers that magically appear on our dining room tables and when someone orders roses for a special occasion.  Never thought of it.

The other afternoon, we were met in the hallway by two crew members pushing, what I thought was a trolley of tissue boxes.  As we approached, the trolley itself looked quite heavy and the crew stopped and waited for us to pass.  I remarked about the blue and white “boxes” on the trolley only to be told that they were ceramic tiles for the galley.  They were strung together and I guess somewhere in the galley needed repairing. 

The other evening, the Captain came on the intercom in our rooms at midnight saying there was an emergency and they were looking for blood donors with Universal O negative blood for a passenger.  Next day, we were told the passenger was taken off the ship but not before 4 passengers came forward to donate blood.   Nice to know there are decent people everywhere. 

On February 7^th, we had the opportunity and pleasure to have dinner with the ship’s Environmental Officer which was a real treat.  I was seated next to him and I was able to “interrogate” him and ask lots of questions.  He is the compliance officer onboard and reports his findings directly to the Captain.  I found out some really fascinating information:

One of my concerns has always been the waste of food aboard these ships.  I love going to the Crown Grill, Princess’s specialty steakhouse onboard, but they don’t serve steaks smaller than 8 oz.  I’ve asked on each occasion if I can get the filet mignon halved (4 oz. of beef is more than enough) and am told the same thing each time, “no, Madam.”  The Officer assured me that the leftover steak does not go to “waste.”  The leftover food is separated into two groups, but I can’t remember the exact names he used.  In essence, one group is “edible” and the other group consists of pits from fruit, bones, fish skins, etc.  All this is ground up and processed.  That which can be eliminated from the ship, according to maritime environmental laws (e.g., nothing can be dumped in the Great Barrier Reef), is dumped and basically becomes fish food. 

He talked about the desalination of sea water onboard and, also, told me he is subject to continuing education in Amsterdam where he is required to pass certain tests in order to remain in his position.  It was interesting to discuss with him the fact that the jumbo cruise ships are built to accommodate the necessary equipment to comply with all the current maritime environmental laws, but that Princess has renovated and, basically remodeled, this ship to similarly accommodate the new equipment, an amazing task as far as I’m concerned because of the difference in size.  It is definitely a credit to Princess to keep the Pacific Princess in its fleet considering the extremely expensive accommodations that need to be made to keep it in compliance. 

As an aside, after we sat down to dinner and the Officer was introduced to us, the first question the person across from me asked him, “What did you think of the State of the Union Address?”  ??????????

MICHAEL’S OBSERVATIONS:  The Environmental Compliance Officer, Elio Lucic, has great responsibilities for the ship.  He is required by maritime law to keep logs of his testing and compliance with environmental standards.  At any port, he is required to present those for inspection.  As an example, when the ship takes on fuel, his job is to make sure that the sulphur content is at a level which can both power the ship and discharge the vapors through the ship’s filtering system.  In other words, he must insure that the ship does not pollute the environment.  This is one of the many responsibilities of which he is in charge.  I found it fascinating that he just doesn’t fill up the tanks and burn up the fuel.  He has to make sure that the fuel is safe for the ship and safe for the environment.