Mighty Ships

 I was watching a show on TV about cruise ships. Each show detailed one particular ship and I was curious. I’ve never seen a cruise ship but gather they can be massive. I had a friend who canceled a cruise because she couldn’t do the walking.

The distance to areas on the ship were quite far apart but the worst, for her, was the walk to get to the exit off the ship, then the long walk on the pier beside the ship to get to their docked destination. 

In the show I watched the ship in length was the same as an eighty storey building.  There were so many levels I can’t remember. The side looked like an apartment building with narrow little balconies with glass doors. 

If I remember correctly there were 1500 employees and almost 4000 guests. The ship left Miami and was sailing for a week through the islands, stopping at a midway point in Mexico. The plan is to dock in the daytime so guests can disembark and enjoy the local tourist attractions. The ship then sails all night to their next location. 

On this episode there was a storm brewing as it was hurricane season. It was determined that they couldn’t reach their end destination of Miami and hoped they could shelter in one of the island harbours. The only other choice was to ride out the storm in open water.

They reached the island and were able to dock. I was in awe when I saw this huge boat manoeuvre its way into the docking space. First they have to enter the harbour where there was room for six ships to dock.

But they couldn’t just pull in, they had to back in, so first was to turn around. Turn around! The harbour was big but the overhead camera showed that there was not a lot of spare room. Once they were turned around they had to get in position to back up, with a long dock on one side and another cruise ship in the next parking space. 

I laughed when they showed the driver, pilot, looking in his rear view mirror. How much good can that be given the length of the boat. There have to be some very specialized electronics helping him as he slid that huge boat in with nary a miss and stopped her tight alongside the dock. 

And I have trouble backing up my van. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I was left with two thoughts at the end of the show.

One, who would book a cruise through the islands and the Gulf of Mexico in hurricane season?

And two, what do they do with all the waste generated by thousands of people in a limited space?  Interesting thought when you read about the pollution of our oceans.