March 26, 2012—At Sea
We woke up to a bright sunny day and smooth seas with just a
touch of white caps. We had only had one
day where I could feel the ship moving and even then it wasn’t rocking very
much. So far, the entire cruise had been
very smooth which I know my parents appreciated, especially my mom.
I settled into my usual morning routine of having cappuccino
in the Lobby Bar while checking emails and Facebook. It really was nice to be able to connect to
the internet without having to worry about using up minutes. But by tonight, we would not have internet
connectivity. We had been told that as
we entered Japanese waters, the internet would be shut off until we left (from
approximately 10:00pm tonight until early Wednesday morning).
I spent the morning chatting with several of the folks on
board including Al, the comedian, who said I should attend his show that night
since it was not a repeat of the last show he gave.
At one point, I had returned to the cabin to find an invitation
to dine in Sabatini’s the next night. I
saw my mother in the casino and let her know.
I also played for a little while, but lost.
After a light lunch of finger sandwiches in the Lobby Bar, I
met the tour group for the Ultimate Ships Tour which I had signed up for once
again. I had done this tour on my first
Sapphire Princess cruise in April of last year and even though the Diamond
Princess was a twin of the Sapphire, I wanted to go on this tour again. I like hearing about ship’s operations and knew
that I would enjoy hearing about the ship and touring the behind-the-scenes
areas.
There were eight passengers signed up and strangely enough,
they were named, Donna, John, Donna, John, John, John, Rick, and Kim—four Johns
and two Donnas. We started off on the
tour in the Princess Theater accompanied by the assistant cruise director, a
photographer, and a member of the security staff.
The next stop was the Mooring Room where Paolo met the
group. We talked a few minutes before
the rest of the group gathered, then he gave almost the same briefing as he had
on the Sapphire. Afterwards, he told me
that he thought he had not said anything that I didn’t already know. But after the short briefing, one of the
passengers asked about the tensile strength of the mooring ropes and why they
were not steel cables, and he explained the reasons—so I did learn some things. Another passenger asked about our approach
into Shanghai
the day before and said he thought we had been going very fast. Paolo tried to explain that the ship had
actually been going only around 13 knots which wasn’t all that fast, but that the
current increased the speed although the engine rpm’s were set low (similar to
ground speed versus airspeed I assumed).
He also explained that if the ship slows down too much, she settles
deeper into the waters than when she is moving.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the passenger understood at all, although
it all made perfect sense to me. As we
left, Paolo said he would see me on the bridge.
We then visited the medical center, the galley, the engine
control room, the laundry, and the print shop.
The tour ended on the bridge where we were welcomed by the captain, Bob
Oliver. He then turned us over to the
third officer who briefed the systems on the bridge and explained how the
various systems worked. Paolo had joined
us by then and stood off to the side.
The passenger who had asked about the ship’s approach speed spoke to the
third officer saying that they were told by someone that if the ship slows too
much, she settles lower in the water and asked the third officer “what’s that
all about” in a tone that conveyed he thought the person who told him that had
no clue what he was talking about. Paolo
then spoke up saying, “that was me who told you that and that it was based upon
mathematics and the Bernoulli formula and that perhaps if he (the passenger)
wished to know more, he could look up the Bernoulli principle on the internet
as it is complicated.” Then the captain
came back on the bridge and the other passengers went to speak with him
again. I walked over to Paolo and said,
really, Paolo, do you think passengers will read about Bernoulli’s principle of
fluid dynamics—to which he replied, you did (of course, I’m probably not the
typical passenger). Paolo and I talked
for another 20 minutes, but since all the other passengers had left the bridge,
I said goodbye and headed back to my cabin.
It was after 5:00 pm and we had dinner reservations at
5:30. When I got there, my parents said
they didn’t feel like going to the dining room and that there wasn’t anything
on the menu that looked good. I had seen
the menu as we toured the galley and some of the items were escargot and frogs
legs—definitely not the usual fare.
Since the tour had gone much longer than advertised and I really didn’t
have much time to get ready, I said that I would just cancel the reservation
and also let David, the headwaiter, and Jerry, our waiter know that we would
not be there the next night either since we would be having dinner in
Sabatini’s.
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