An inside look: how the world's largest cruise ship functions

Do you know how boys' dreams should come true? Even after half a century... After all, they are not erased from memory, you never forget about them, they constantly whine. But during your life, to whom do you admit this?.. I have two of them recorded in my memory. I was born by the sea, by the very blue, and spent the most romantic youth years next to it. Even then, working as a programmer at the Black Sea Shipping Company and calculating the computer routes of our valiant cargo and passenger ships... - what did I dream about, looking into the distance of the sea?

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

You will not believe. But I dreamed that someday I would steer the world's largest ship. Even if I don’t have any marine education ... Neither experience, nor practice ...

Many, many years have passed.

And here I am standing on the bridge and the helm of the world's largest cruise ship “Symphony of the Seas”

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

The ship is the newest, launched in March this year. 21 deck, 6800 passengers, 2200 crew members and 230 000 tons tonnage.

Of course, in principle, it is not difficult to get on this ship. But is it only interesting?

But how to penetrate into his inner "organism"? And see how he acts from the inside? In the engine room, on the captain's bridge, to the kitchen ...

In general, can you imagine that every day they are on the ship preparing 68 000 dishes? And from ordering in a restaurant to serving, 10 minutes go by ... But you need to feed 9000 people at the same time. And on the way nothing cools. And everything is fantastically delicious!

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

How do they manage to provide this? Not a single failure.

And wash 20 000 daily with sheets, towels, pillowcases and napkins?

And to make it so that 0% smoke comes out of the pipe. No waste - a full cycle of recycling ... It's so interesting!

So (according to the principle: I see a goal - I see no obstacles), I wrote to the captain of the airliner the day before and asked if it was possible to see and touch everything inside the ship, where everyone is forbidden to enter !?

“Why not,” was the answer...

They attached me a badge, which says "Access to all places." They put a security guard just in case.

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

And here I am in the very Presam brain center, on the captain's bridge.

He, of course, not the same as half a century ago. There is no round wheel, as everyone is accustomed to ... Instead, a joystick, and control of six engines - handles. You touch one handle, and the whole machine in 230 000 tons obeys you like a feather.

I stood behind this joystick steering wheel and froze.

I instantly flashed in my memory, as a boy I was running away from my lessons, and looked from the shore at a white steamer in the distance, which floated past, like an unattainable dream.

As a child, that ship on the horizon seemed terribly large (“when the trees were big”), but perhaps not the largest in the world.

- But there is somewhere the largest ship in the world!? - then I thought...

I even imagined how he could look - luxurious, with five pipes, with flags ... And I, the captain, at the helm: left handlebar, right handlebar ... Full speed ahead! .. It was like in a dream, and it was my inner secret.

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

And here I am on it now steering.

But, of course, the coolest and most fantastic here, on the bridge, are two red buttons. Very very Red! It's like, you know, in a red bag.

If you simultaneously press them, then ... In general, I will not tell you what will happen if you press them ...

I'm just standing in the captain's cabin, looking into the distance.

And the ship sails.

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

How I washed the sheets and cooked on the biggest ship in the world, “Symphony of the Seas”

The most interesting thing on such a liner is, of course, not the number of decks (21! - skyscraper), length and displacement (230 tons), the gigantic number of passengers (000), but something else, special.

I so wanted to see how everything is arranged inside on this huge liner! ..

And I made my way to the place where everyone is not allowed to enter.

I immediately went to the engine room - look at the management, power plants and artificial intelligence.

Engine room. Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

For example, smoke does not come from the pipe of a ship. Complete 100% waste fuel disposal.

The liner is not tied to fresh water, it does not need to fill up its tanks on land. He has his own powerful desalination plant. The 4 propellers each have 7500 horsepower ... 6 powerful engines.

All of this huge plant is managed by one shift engineer, looking at 50 monitors.

After the engine room I went to the laundry.

There, the 20 000 units of sheets, towels, duvet covers, pillowcases, tablecloths, napkins are washed daily ...

They asked: “Do you want to do the laundry?” - "Of course I want!"

They brought me to a huge unit - I inserted a sheet - and it left, a minute later - dry and ironed.

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

Well, I became friends with the chef there. I ask: “How do you endure 8 months at sea, 16-hour workdays every day?”

He says: “This is so cool! Can you imagine – preparing 68 dishes every day! And everything should be tasty and fast!”

And what, I ask, the most difficult?

He thought and answered: “People - cooks, waiters, kitchen workers - cannot live on a ship forever. Therefore, every 3-4 months they go ashore and go home for leave. And then the worst thing begins! New shift workers arrive... And they all need to be trained again! Yes, so that no one notices the substitution.”

And then he asks me: “Maybe you want to cook something???”

Kitchenette. Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

I was numb, thought it over, and already, it was, I wanted to blurt out, that I could sbat ... plov-fingers-lick! ..

But he did not let me finish and, laughing, patted on the shoulder, like, it was a joke. Here on the ship to experiment is not accepted.

And he says: “We have wild standards for products and dishes here - the highest that exist (American ship - American standards). But!!! Every port has its own nightmare! In any port of a country where we enter, our products must meet their food standards, that of that very country. And they come on board their sanitary and epidemiological station (!) and thoroughly double-check everything using their own “patterns”. Try to please them all!”

- And how do you get out?

“We take them straight to our kitchen, the one that you photograph so carefully here all the time.” And we ask: have you seen such beauty somewhere else?

And they pour a ton of water (!) into a titanium ball for soups - and after 10 minutes the water boils!

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

... What can I say ... A huge city on the water. Displacement 230 000 tons. 362 meters long, 65 meters wide, 25 nodes. 24 elevator, and never queues at elevators.

6800 passengers and 2200 team. 2800 cabins, 20 restaurants and bars. Walking paths in the city. Children's aqua-hill height in 10 decks.

From entertainment - a real giant three-story theater with exclusive Broadway performances ... Ice Arena for figure skaters and hockey players ... Aquatheater with water (Cirque du Soleil) performances. A land slide where you go down the inner tube from the 16 deck immediately to the 6.

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

Photo: facebook.com/vspivakovsky

In the flowering parks on the ship 1200 live trees and plants grow.

I met people there who settled in this city for a year. Why?

They say that this is paradise. Every day, new cities, countries and interesting interlocutors, from ordinary people to celebrities, to which absolutely free access.

I stand on the upper deck, looking into the distance.

And the ship sails.

The original column is published on Vladimir Spivakovsky’s page. Facebook.

ForumDaily is not responsible for the content of blogs and may not share the views of the author. If you want to become the author of the column, send your materials to [email protected]

Read also on ForumDaily:

Why Americans love cruises so much

Adults Only: what the new Virgin cruise liner looks like

Personal experience: impressions of an adult from a cruise on a Disney Magic ship

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.