Talking with the Captain of Celebrity Mercury

This week we take another look at Celebrity Mercury and who better to speak about her than her captain?

Captain Komstantinos Patsoulas, a veteran of the Greek Navy, joined Celebrity Cruises in 1997. “Everything has changed - - the ships, the people, the opportunities for careers. Everything has changed for the better.”

However, as Captain Patsoulas pointed out to me, there is still a place in Celebrity for the 12-year old Celebrity Mercury. According to the captain, she is a “real ship.” Moreover, her crew tries hard to achieve an atmosphere of hospitality and friendliness. As a result, many guests still prefer this medium sized ship. My interview with Captain Pastsoulas is posted at http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Mercury-art-captain.html

In a second article, we go onto the Mercury’s bridge to take a look at the ship from a nautical point of view. While there, I spoke with the ship’s navigator, Irene Cop, about how they drive the ship, the equipment on the bridge, the bow thrusters, the stabilizers and the engines. This article appears at http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Mercury-art-bridge.html

The Revitalization of Caribbean Princess

Although I had greatly enjoyed my last cruise on Caribbean Princess, I was somewhat skeptical about going back. In 2008, she was a nice ship with good food and lots of things to do. However, in January 2009, she went through a major refit project. Why mess with a good thing?

The aim of this project was to give Caribbean Princess some of the same features as her younger sisters Crown Princess, Emerald Princess and Ruby Princess. I was familiar with these ships and the features that were to be transplanted to Caribbean Princess such as the Crown Grill specialty restaurant and the adults-only Sanctuary are indeed very nice but would their importation spoil the character of Caribbean Princess. I am a believer that every ship has its own character and thus attempts to make one ship the same as another are misguided and bound to fail.

Fortunately, Princess was able to defy the rule. The new features do indeed enhance the cruise experience on Caribbean Princess. Plus, due to physical constraints and some wise thinking, the new additions are slightly different than on the other ships. Thus, Caribbean Princess has the advantages of the new features while still retaining her own character.

The changes to Caribbean Princess touched many areas and as a result, I have extensively revised my photo tour and commentary for the ship. It now starts at http://www.beyondships.com/Princess-CB-Tour-1a.html. In addition, I was able to sit down with Captain Marco Fortezze and Passenger Services Director Peter Hollinson to find out their inside views of the project. http://www.beyondships.com/Princess-CB-art-Revitalizing.html I have also added new menus, Princess Patters, deck plans and other information to the Caribbean Princess profile page. http://beyondships.com/Princess-CB-Profile.html

Turning to items in the news, Cunard announced this week that filmmakers Griffin Dunne and Gary Winick will be lecturing on Queen Mary 2’s 11 November transatlantic crossing. Dunne will discuss “Practical Magic,” starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock; Winick will screen his feature film, “13 Going on 30,” starring Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo. Such discussions are often quite interesting, not only for film buffs, but also for people who are interested in hearing beyond-the-scenes insights. I was on a transatlantic crossing this summer in which film director Baz Luhrmann screened his “Moulin Rouge” and enjoyed the lecture perhaps more than the film.

Cunard has always been quite good about attracting Hollywood stars and other celebrities to its transatlantic crossings. Quite a few have been there to give a talk about some project they were involved with but others have been there just as passengers. I recall exercising in the gym and noticing that the fellow at the next machine was Rod Stewart. He walked about the public areas and most people respected his privacy.

On another voyage on QE2, there was a man who everyone agreed looked like David Bowie. Oddly enough, no one said: “That is David Bowie.” Rather, he would be seen here and there about the ship and it was a running joke amongst the passengers that “there is the Bowie-guy again.” Later, a senior officer confided to me that the supposed look-alike was indeed the man himself. I have often wondered what would have happened if the “Bowie-guy” had entered the karaoke contest in the Golden Lion Pub. Probably, everybody would have agreed that he did not sound a bit like him.

Princess has released the results of a study that concluded most Americans do not lead balanced lives, i.e., they do not balance the demands and stresses of everyday life with free time. Residents of Chicago were determined to have the least balance in their lives while residents of Miami had the most balance. Interestingly, there is a direct correlation between these findings and the number of ocean-going cruise ships homeported in each city - - a lesson there for city-planners.

In New York this week was Fred. Olsen Cruises’ Balmoral, the former Norwegian Crown and Crown Odyessey. She had been visiting Canada and was about to head back across the Atlantic to England. While she has been stretched and refurbished since leaving NCL, she retains much of her original attractiveness. I will be adding a section to Beyondships about the Balmoral in the not too distant future.

Cunard's Queen Victoria as seen by Captain Chris Rynd

I always feel that I have learned something after talking with Captain Christopher Rynd. His career has coincided with the development of the modern cruise industry and his commands have included the original Pacific Princess (i.e., the Love Boat), Princess’s small R-class ships, mega-cruise ships such as Sapphire Princess, the Queen Elizabeth 2, the Queen Mary 2 and most recently Cunard’s new Queen Victoria. With such a resume, Captain Rynd has a wide variety of experiences to talk about. Moreover, he had to have had great seamanship skills and ability to command in order to have obtained those positions.

Captain Rynd is one of the most hands-on captains I have seen. Standing alone at the bridge wing console of QM2 with his hands on the controls, he maneuvered the great ship away from the pier like a mater musician working the keyboards and stops of a pipe organ.

He does not lecture, however. Rather, an interview with him is a conversation. His officers tell me that that is the way he trains young officers. He sets a problem or task for them to complete and then converses with them in Socratic-style to let them work through the issue themselves.

When I interviewed him last year, we spoke about his career at Princess and then his experiences commanding QE2 and QM2. We spoke briefly about Queen Victoria. It had been announced that Captain Paul Wright and he would be commanding the new ship during her first year but at that point, she was still in the builder’s yard. Subsequently, Captain Rynd took command of Queen Victoria for a large portion of her first world cruise and later during part of her regular summer itinerary. Naturally, I wanted to get his views on the new ship.

Queen Victoria grew from the design of the Vista-class cruise ships used by Holland America Line, P&O Cruises and other lines. However, she is not just another cruise ship. Cunard made certain modifications to the design which, Captain Rynd explained, have affected her sea-going properties. Thus, while she is not an ocean greyhound like QE2 or QM2 designed for heavy seas, she does have unique abilities which set her apart.

What is of greater importance to most passengers is that Queen Victoria’s public spaces capture the feel of the great ocean liners of the past. As Captain Rynd pointed out, that was what her interior designer set out to do and through attention to detail and at considerable cost, Cunard succeeded. Thus, while Queen Victoria’s character is still forming, she already has an atmosphere that while different from QM2 and QE2 is one that past Cunard passengers recognize and approve.

My interview with Captain Rynd appears at http://beyondships.com/QV-Rynd-1.html. I have also added new photos, daily programs and menus to the Queen Victoria section of the Beyondships site. http://beyondships.com/QV.html

Captain Attilio Guerini of Caribbean Princess

The stereotypical image of a cruise ship captain is of a man who spends the bulk of his time standing on the bridge of the ship navigating the ship from one port to the next. However, while the captain is ultimately responsible for the safety of the ship, he is not merely a ship driver. Instead, his role can be thought of as more like that of the CEO of a business with other executives reporting to him. As ships become bigger and bigger, this role becomes more and more akin to the management of larger and larger enterprises.

On most ships today, the captain is at the top of a pyramid composed of three departments. The hotel department, which provides services to the passengers including the accommodations, entertainment and dining, is headed by the hotel director (sometimes called the passenger services director or the hotel manager) and has the largest number of people in it. The engineering department is concerned with making the ship go and the technology involved. It is headed by the chief engineer. The staff captain is responsible for navigation and actually sailing the ship. In addition to heading the deck department, he is also the second in command. All three of these officers report directly to the captain.

Captains still rise up through the ranks of the deck department. As such, their expertise is in navigation and sailing and they take a particular interest in that area. Indeed, many captains like to have their hands on the controls of the ship when docking or leaving a berth. They do not have direct knowledge of how to cook a dinner for a thousand people or of fixing the ship’s fresh water system. However, in order to become a captain, a deck officer must keep his eyes open while coming up through the ranks so that he knows the problems and issues that arise in the hotel department and the engineering department.

When I was on Caribbean Princess recently Captain Attilio Guerini spoke to me about his approach to being a captain of a mega-cruise ship. Beginning with Sitmar Cruises, he has gone on to command ships for Princess and its affiliate Ocean Village Cruises. His style is relaxed, affable and low key. Our conversation is at http://www.beyondships.com/Princess-CB-Guerrini.html

Captain Standal of Explorer of the Seas

During my recent voyage on Explorer of the Seas, I was invited up to the bridge as the ship was leaving Bermuda. Explorer is a big ship, 138,000 tons, and thus cannot dock in Hamilton or St. George’s in Bermuda. Consequently, we were at the King’s Warf pier at the former Royal Navy dockyard.

Seemingly, one could just pull away from the pier from Kings Warf and head directly out to sea towards New York. Once you are clear of the dockyard area, there is just water extending to the horizon. However, hidden just below the surface are numerous rock outcroppings that surround the island. Consequently, cruise ships have to follow a narrow channel and make a circuit around the island before heading off in their desired direction.

At one point not all that far from the pier, the channel narrows down so that it is not much larger than Explorer’s 155-foot width. Because of the narrowness of the channel, any sideways drift would lead to disaster. Therefore, the ship would have to put on a burst of speed in order to pop straight through the opening.

Just beyond the opening, the Costa Fortuna sat waiting for Explorer to pass. The new second pier at King’s Warf was still under construction and so the Costa ship had to wait until Explorer vacated her berth.

The rocks on either side of the opening just below the turquoise water were clearly visible from the bridge. Captain Erik Standal and the Bermuda pilot stood at the center console while the Staff Captain was over by the port side bridge wing so that he could observe how closely the side of the ship was to the rocks. Explorer accelerated, not to her full speed, but to a speed much faster than the normal lazy pace that cruise ships follow going in and out of port. With seemingly only a few feet to spare, Explorer shot through the opening. The water was pushed back from the rock outcroppings and then surged back, swirling in Explorer’s wake.

Once the ship was out into open waters, I sat down with the Captain for an interview. Explorer’s glass enclosed bridge runs the width of the ship and extends out over the water on either side. The computerized technology used to navigate Explorer does not take up much of this vast space so there is room for an informal conference area with comfortable chairs and a sofa. As a result, the Captain was able to keep an eye on what was going on on the bridge as we spoke.

Captain Erik, as he calls himself in his daily announcements to the guests, is a quiet but approachable person. His youthful appearance gives no clue as to his substantial sea experience. Similarly, his easy, informal manner gives no clue as to the perseverance needed to go from working on ventilation systems shoreside in Norway to commanding one of the world’s largest ships.

I spoke with Captain Erik about his career, commanding Explorer and his thoughts about cruising in general. The interview is posted at http://beyondships.com/Explorer-Standal.html