April 2 – Sailing the Atlantic Ocean and a Behind the Scenes Tour

This was good day at sea.  First thing this morning we headed down to the Star Dust Lounge to catch a behind the scenes tour of some of the ship's operations.  

Have you ever taken a cruise and wondered what life was like for the crew members who work so hard and take such good care of you? Well, Crystal had a very special event for the World Cruisers...we got a behind-the-scenes (down into the bowels of the ship) tour. We have no idea what other ships are like but this was fascinating, interesting and enlightening.

They took the tours down in the Garbage Elevator...how funny.

This elevator let us out right in the area where the garbage and recycling is handled.  They had a massive trash compactor...

that, among other things, made compact blocks of crushed aluminum cans.

We stopped at the engine room,

the crew’s mess (from the posted menu it looked like the crew ate as well as the guests),

the officer’s mess,

the crew’s Bistro (similar to the passenger’s Bistro in that it is place to unwind and get a snack),

the crew’s lounge (had a bar, darts and slot machines),

the officer’s mess and lounge (another bar and more darts),

Probably the most impressive area for sheer size was the laundry...staffed by 15 crew members and equipped with lots of washers, driers, dry cleaning machines, sorting/folding tables and ironing tables. 

But the most impressive machine was one that looked like it could eat a person alive...you feed an entire bed sheet into it and the monster irons the entire sheet and then folds it down to an appropriate size to fit on a cart or a shelf, all in one operation.

There is a fully equipped print shop where all of the daily Reflections and other things are printed, 

a tailor,

and the florist shop.

We saw the large training room, 

a room with lots of computers for the staff's use, 

and we met the guys in the IT department.

We saw some of the offices and other areas.  Most of the offices were actually reasonable in size...certainly much larger than some of the office cubicles Mary and Paul worked in over the years.  

A company philosophy sign posted in a main corridor.

These lower levels and the operations are never seen by the guests.  It was a treat to get to see these areas.  The areas actually seemed pretty spacious and everywhere there seemed to be artwork and, where appropriate, carpets and nice furniture.  And it was good to see that the company has provided at least some comfort and diversion areas for the crew.    However, we didn’t get to see any of the actual crew quarters so have no idea what their individual sleeping/living areas are like.

Instead of the usual lectures today we had an Ocean Views panel discussion (really love these).  The panel members were US Ambassador Marc Ginsberg, South African Ambassador Tony Leon, Journalist Eugene Robinson, and White House Correspondent Tom DeFrank.  The topics covered a wide range of depressingly difficult worldwide topics.  But the opinions were interesting, thoughtful and thought provoking.

The evening’s entertainment was Italian vocalist Marco Romano.  He sang a variety of songs from opera, musicals and pop standards.  He has an amazing voice.