So Princess Cruises (one of my Alma Mater) is doing something REALLY cool.
They've got a ship in dry dock.
That's not what's cool. That's pretty normal. You see, ships go into dry dock every few years for major renovations, updates, hull painting, etc. (Just to keep them feeling fresh and with the times.)
Princess Cruises is broadcasting daily video updates of the Grand Princess' current dry dock. Each day you can see a new clip containing some very cool footage of the dry dock diary. I'm kind of in love with this feature.
Dry docks are a TON of work. Sometimes if minor repairs or issues need to be fixed a short dry dock will be scheduled. During those periods, contracted crew members will actually stay onboard and help as needed. The sucky thing about that is that during dry dock, ship functions are reduced basically to life support. Water and power are not run all of the time. There is no Air Conditioning. So imagine being stuck in the belly of a giant ship with no windows and no AC in the Bahamas... yah, HOT. I've heard tales of crew members dragging their mattresses up to the top decks at night to sleep. Ya do whatcha gotta do, right? Support staff on shorter contracts are usually scheduled around dry docks, so Cruise Directors, Cruise Staff, Youth Staff and other entertainers will go home (on vacation) for a few weeks and then join a different ship. After dry docks generally a large number of new staff will join the ship. It's a time of huge transition, not only for the ship itself, but for everyone running it.
The Grand Princess is undergoing a MAJOR renovation. The atrium is being gutted and updated, turned into a "Piazza" to resemble more current ship design trends. (Grand Princess is around ten years old now, which is middle age for a cruise ship... this renovation is kind of like a mid-life crisis.)
I worked on Grand's two sister ships: Golden and Star, which are the same design as Grand. The three ships feature the night club at the back end of the ship, on a structure that looks a bit like a spoiler. The result is a really unique night club, super high above the ship. The downsides to this structure are: 1. The nightclub is kind of scary. I was never comfortable spending a lot of time up there, I always felt like the night club was going to take off and detatch from the ship. 2. The ship is hugely fuel inefficient. A spoiler on a ship is a huge drag and costs Princess $$$$$$$ extra in gas money (as compared to other ships). On the bright side, I loved the spoiler, even though it was scary. Okay. Mostly, I liked the big long plank-like walkway up to the spoiler. (There were flat escalators to ride up and down on and also you could bypass the walkway and take the elevator.) On really rough days at sea one could run from the top of the walkway down, jump with a wave and catch a good amount of air. *Ahem* I'm not saying I've done it... but, it's really, realllllly fun.
Well, the spoiler is going to be leaving Grand Princess. It will be lopped off. It will be replaced with a new, built up structure that is much more gas efficient.
To view Princess' ongoing video diaries of Grand Princess' dry dock progress, click here:
http://www.princess.com/granddrydock/index.html
Enjoy!
They've got a ship in dry dock.
That's not what's cool. That's pretty normal. You see, ships go into dry dock every few years for major renovations, updates, hull painting, etc. (Just to keep them feeling fresh and with the times.)
Princess Cruises is broadcasting daily video updates of the Grand Princess' current dry dock. Each day you can see a new clip containing some very cool footage of the dry dock diary. I'm kind of in love with this feature.
Dry docks are a TON of work. Sometimes if minor repairs or issues need to be fixed a short dry dock will be scheduled. During those periods, contracted crew members will actually stay onboard and help as needed. The sucky thing about that is that during dry dock, ship functions are reduced basically to life support. Water and power are not run all of the time. There is no Air Conditioning. So imagine being stuck in the belly of a giant ship with no windows and no AC in the Bahamas... yah, HOT. I've heard tales of crew members dragging their mattresses up to the top decks at night to sleep. Ya do whatcha gotta do, right? Support staff on shorter contracts are usually scheduled around dry docks, so Cruise Directors, Cruise Staff, Youth Staff and other entertainers will go home (on vacation) for a few weeks and then join a different ship. After dry docks generally a large number of new staff will join the ship. It's a time of huge transition, not only for the ship itself, but for everyone running it.
The Grand Princess is undergoing a MAJOR renovation. The atrium is being gutted and updated, turned into a "Piazza" to resemble more current ship design trends. (Grand Princess is around ten years old now, which is middle age for a cruise ship... this renovation is kind of like a mid-life crisis.)
General Atrium design before:
Atrium now:
What will it look like when it's finished, I wonder?
I worked on Grand's two sister ships: Golden and Star, which are the same design as Grand. The three ships feature the night club at the back end of the ship, on a structure that looks a bit like a spoiler. The result is a really unique night club, super high above the ship. The downsides to this structure are: 1. The nightclub is kind of scary. I was never comfortable spending a lot of time up there, I always felt like the night club was going to take off and detatch from the ship. 2. The ship is hugely fuel inefficient. A spoiler on a ship is a huge drag and costs Princess $$$$$$$ extra in gas money (as compared to other ships). On the bright side, I loved the spoiler, even though it was scary. Okay. Mostly, I liked the big long plank-like walkway up to the spoiler. (There were flat escalators to ride up and down on and also you could bypass the walkway and take the elevator.) On really rough days at sea one could run from the top of the walkway down, jump with a wave and catch a good amount of air. *Ahem* I'm not saying I've done it... but, it's really, realllllly fun.
Well, the spoiler is going to be leaving Grand Princess. It will be lopped off. It will be replaced with a new, built up structure that is much more gas efficient.
The Skywalk (minus some windows on top... during de-construction) and Skywalker's night club (The "Spoiler")
The Skywalk Interior
Here's what Grand looked like before dry dock:
To view Princess' ongoing video diaries of Grand Princess' dry dock progress, click here:
http://www.princess.com/granddrydock/index.html
Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment