Have You Seen It All?

[Boytjie]

I have been on a few tours of the ship not available to most passengers. I have not been to the regular crew quarters, the captain's (and other senior officers) cabins or the engine room.

 

 

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[sail7seas]

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On Maasdam, the bow was always open except after dark and if the weather was poor. I won't swear that this is true on the other ships, but I think I remember reading that on the boards more than once. I'm sure others with more experience on different ships can chime in on this.

 

As for original question, someone already nabbed my answer--the morgue. Although I'd really like to see the bridge and the engine room too.

I've3 bewen to the bow on Noordam, Maasam, Oosterdam and I can't recall Chief Engineerstook him............. :) He all e nthused what he had seen.

 

We also enjoyed a number of ivisits to Hotel Manager/ Hotel Director's cabins as well as Captains and ChirfEngineers.

Edited October 8, 2016 by sail7seas

[3rdGenCunarder]

Gosh, based on what others have listed, and what I can think of on my own, I've pretty much seen it all.

No, I have never been in the brig, nor the engine room. Nor have I visited the morgue. :eek: I have been in Club HAL, and the teen retreat, although it was touring with the grandgirls to show them around---I was not playing there. :p

 

Not on a HAL ship, but on another line I even was in a crew lounge once upon a time.

 

When we did the behind-the-scenes tour on Zuiderdam about 4 years ago, they said they didn't have a morgue on that ship. If they needed to, um, store someone, they used the flower storage because it's a cold room.

[3rdGenCunarder]

This was last Feb. on the Oosterdam, during the class we did a salmon entrée and Pepper pot chicken . The chicken dish was delicious as was the salmon. Quite abit of salmon was left on plates as this was the second entrée. Perhaps this is why they are now serving just one for the actual meal. In the class they did two starters and two desserts also We had two of the ships chefs perhaps they were trying to out do each other.

 

I think you were the "victim" of competitive chefs. We were on Oosterdam in January and did a 3-course meal. We had a guest chef, and the recipes were hers.

[Ineke]

I think I may be one of the few people who has visited both the engine room and the bridge BUT thus was wayyy back in 1959, when we were on the HAL's Groote Beer, when emigrating to Canada. We, and as many as signed up, got to tour the entire engine room, which had what seemed to be miles and miles of iron stairs and catwalks, lots of noise and heat; another day we toured all of the kitchen, and yet another day the bridge! I even have a picture of my youngest brother proudly 'steering' the ship, with the captain resting a helpful hand on his shoulder :). Of course that was back in the days that you could also tour all of the Hoover Dam. Great memories!

[wander]

Ineke,

One may be showing their age with my comments - but in the "Old Days", One could always find open Bridge days where we could get a tour of the Bridge. Basically every cruise, but 9/11 stopped that. Also, on longer cruises it was usually possible to sign-up for the engine room tour, that stopped before 9/11 as I recall. On whatever ships I got to go on an engine room tour, we had to walk through the crew (stewards, deckhands, etc.) quarters seeing their cabins (a number with doors open), crew mess hall, and social areas. We saw them as we walked though, there was no commentary on the crew areas.

 

Anyhow, I saw both areas several times in the "Olden" days, as I am sure did a number of others still on CC. Now you get to actually tour most areas of the ship, except the engine area, some for free (galley tour, backstage tour), some for a fee.

[erewhon]

We don't know anyone at HAL HQ. We were invited by the ship's security officer, whom we do know. I would never presume to ask a favor of that magnitude of anyone, but I will accept a gesture of kindness when it comes my way:)

 

We appreciated an invitation by a kind security officer to visit on board the Amsterdam when the ship was in NZ waters earlier this year. It was indeed a kind gesture.

We thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

[3rdGenCunarder]

We did a tour of the engine room on a HAL ship on one of our first cruises. It would have been late 70s early 80s, Statendam or Volendam. Steam, not diesel. They offered one tour, only about 8 people because of tight spaces. DH and I signed up right away. I was the only woman on the tour, and got some lodd looks from men on the tour (not the guy who took us around) then ooks of respect when I asked a few intelligent questions. (Somewhere inside the biologist in me, an engineer must be lurking!) I took lots of pictures to keep myself distracted from the heat, noise, grease, and the thought of slipping off the catwalk as we walked along that turning drive shaft. :eek:

 

I suspect safety/insurance stopped tours like that before security was such a concern.

[AV8rix]

we did a tour of the engine room on a hal ship on one of our first cruises. It would have been late 70s early 80s, statendam or volendam. Steam, not diesel. They offered one tour, only about 8 people because of tight spaces. Dh and i signed up right away. I was the only woman on the tour, and got some lodd looks from men on the tour (not the guy who took us around) then ooks of respect when i asked a few intelligent questions. (somewhere inside the biologist in me, an engineer must be lurking!) i took lots of pictures to keep myself distracted from the heat, noise, grease, and the thought of slipping off the catwalk as we walked along that turning drive shaft. :eek:

 

I suspect safety/insurance stopped tours like that before security was such a concern.

 

Lotsa big grins

<don't know why the emoticons aren't working>

Edited October 8, 2016 by Av8rix