A Tour of the Bridge

                        We received a letter in our Stateroom.

It was from the Captain.

He was requesting us to come to the Bridge for a kind of meet and greet. It also asked us not to speak about this to anyone as he could not have all 3500 passengers asking to visit the Bridge.

As it was, we needed to have Security (two officers) meet us outside the Bridge Entrance on Deck 14. After passing through several locked checkpoints we were led onto the vast Bridge where the Captain was waiting for us.

                                                Backstory.

                                    In the beginning of the Cruise I had sent a letter (handwritten) to the Captain informing him of my desire to have a meeting with him to discuss his ship-handling experience and to see if he needed any of mine.

                                                No I didn’t!

                                    I did send him that letter though. In it I requested a visit, and it was handwritten! We received a short note in return informing us that we would receive another letter later on informing us of the time and date when we would be able to come to the Bridge.

                                    Back in the day a visit to the Bridge was not that big a deal. Along with a visit to the Engine Room they were fairly common and usually occurred while still in Port. Enter 9/11 and all bets are off.

                        Finally, our invite came. It was the day before yesterday and the visit was to occur at 10:00 the next morning. Paula needed to exchange her At Sea Bridge (card) Game for an At Sea Bridge Tour.

All I needed to do was show up.

But…. we did not go empty-handed.

A few days before in Ushuaia I had taken a photo of the Majestic Princess with the background being the two identifiable mountains, Mt. Olivia and Cinco Hermanos. They were visible behind the ship. No one else got this photo as it was Gaby, our TBL Guide, that got us to this vantage point. Princess Cruises doesn’t even have this pic! (They do now as I gave the file to our Cruise Director). Anyway, I asked the Photo Dept. guys if they could help me out as I wanted to give it to the Captain. They rushed the order and on our way to the Bridge we picked up an 8×20 wood-block print that we could give to the Captain. It’s the one at the top of this page.

The Tour

                        The Bridge is gigantic! It is 150’ wide inside and obviously spans the entire width of the ship and then some. This is essential because the Captain needs to be able to see directly fore and aft and straight down when he is docking the ship. Yes, The Captain is the one with his hands on the controls when coming in or out of port.

                        The “Watch’ is comprised of four personnel, the Officer of the Deck, the Assistant O.O.D. and two lookouts who spend their entire four-hour watch gazing at the waters around the ship. Yes, even though there are numerous types of radar running at all times, there is no substitute for two pairs of eyes scanning manually.

                        I was allowed to take some pics, but no videos were allowed. The following will describe most of everything.

                        When our Tour was finished we showed the photo of the Ship to the Captain and told him that it was for him and that it was just taken a few days ago in Ushuaia. He appeared to be genuinely grateful.

                        Maybe that will be my “Get Out Of Jail Free” card the next time they want to throw me into the Brig.