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[likeomg]

Hello all,


I had thought about this topic idea for a while and it seems there will be some interest.


My name Is Liam, I'm currently onboard the "Odyssey of the seas" which we are due to take delivery of from the yard on 31st. I've been with the company since my cadetship starting in 2013 and currently working towards the sea time for my Masters license.


I have various experience, conventional & podded ships. Dry docks of some older vessels, New build of the Symphony and as a officer onboard for almost 3 years (current worlds largest cruise liner)
I've been here in Germany the past few months first inspecting the Odyssey, taking her on conveyance, inclination tests, sea trials and now final loading before we take delivery in a few days, I will sail with her once handover is completed for about 6-8 weeks which will see us end up in Israel for all crew Vaccinations. our contracts at the moment are longer than usual due to coronavirus and difficulty moving crew around I also was asked to stay longer again for training of the crew when our hotel staff arrive in about 3 weeks from now (they will do 2 weeks isolation onboard)


At the moment im in charge of everything navigation related, getting the bridge setup, correct publications, planning routes calculating required speeds etc. we have some fantastic tools which are making my life easier and easier there's lots of detail orientated things to take care of. There is no paper charts onboard anymore.


my watch is currently 12-4 and due to sea trials also being known as "no sleep trials" I will do my best to answer anything you may want to know. I do also have a ch eng for a farther with 30 years cruise ship experience spending about the last 10 dry docking our ships which entails anything from 50million - 180 million spent on 'revitalising' the ship.




Ask away... I can start off with maybe Conveyance ? the yard work was spent mainly walking around signing protocols things were installed correctly and worked.


for the Papenburg locks and the leer bridge I was on the starboard side bridge wing


Heres our official video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CSB2-Fnxt4


And some pics I took.



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[likeomg]

Please feel free to tell me they are also ugly boxes, I agree they aren't anything on the 20th century liners but there is little to no market for a liner these days.


This was how I spent most of my previous contract... at anchor I was onboard 7 months from the start of the pandemic.


This is the 3 largest ships at anchor near our private island. I'm also a keen drone pilot although this time I left it back in the UK unfortunately.


For perspective, that tiny blob in the bottom picture is actually a ship we recently sold, it's a little bit bigger than the King seaways ferry servicing Newcastle to Ijmuiden
showing you how big these things really are now..



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[Taranis]

Thank you for sharing and starting the topic.

[roycv]

Hi Liam, as I said previously I was on a cruise ship in 2016 and had my laptop with me but the cost of getting on the Internet was crazy!  Even when on it it was complicated and not easy to see that you had logged off.
Have things improved?
Regards
Roy

[likeomg]

For Wifi - We have our own dedicated satellite now in RCG, I don't know all the technical terms to it but I know on OY we are so far the only ones on the base station we run, the ship is capable of 600mb download again - I drive the thing, im not an It expert.


For guests, it's quick especially if you pay for the stream package.. is it cheap? nope. I don't really see the need too much when your on vacation, when in port you have data roaming...

I believe guests only have the option to buy it as a 24 hour block now, with discounts for purchasing for the whole cruise.



Although this is a very "hot topic" in crew welfare - crew wifi is actually even more expensive than what the guests pay... yes, 1 hour access for us is around $4. and this 1 hour expires after 24 hours if unused.... so its a massive money maker for the company and I will not express my personal feelings on a open forum...
 
the speeds for crew are also severely limited so as not to 'impact the guest experience'


When I first joined in 2013, it was $0.69 / min for crew during peak hours and I think $0.15 from 1am - 6am for crew? the ship didn't have all the fancy infrastructure we now have and the wifi was awfully slow.


So for crew it's more expensive and slower...    and some of them are at work for 9 months straight...

[derekwarner]

Morning Liam...........firstly, thank you for starting this thread........there will be many questions, hopefully not too many Tourist related 


1. the Convenience [32km] passage going astern........I found very interesting....is there a full Bridge Control station [replicating the Fwd Bridge] aloft the stern?,.....for such movements?....do the Fwd & Stern tugs use hard wired cables/hawsers?....does the vessel actually navigate those narrow passages?, or ar the tugs providing forced steering?


2. Inclination trials.....[I have been on a baby 5,000 ton Warship in dock completing these after refit] so yes, a baby compared to your 169,000 GRT
So with the Warship, various steel/concrete mass weights are loaded outboard on deck to simulate the vessels inclination & I understand all this, but how do the Naval Architects and Surveyors conduct such trials on a massive enclosed vessel such as the Symphony?


3. being in the Standard 12 to 4 watch, also denies you the Staff cheap rate for Internet which is a bit of a raw deal


4. so a vessel the size of a big City & many 100's of Staff would need certain Resources........is there any HR type Senoir Staff person on board that you could apply to, to have your internet log in altered to the [lower] Staff rate, or is your Contract so binding to the degree that there is literally no flexibility?


Keep the stories & images coming, they are certainly appreciated 


Derek
 

[Taranis]

Also while you have such a fantastic view point any pictures of tug boats would be greatly appreciated at every opportunity 

[likeomg]

Morning Liam...........firstly, thank you for starting this thread........there will be many questions, hopefully not too many Tourist related 


1. the Convenience [32km] passage going astern........I found very interesting....is there a full Bridge Control station [replicating the Fwd Bridge] aloft the stern?,.....for such movements?....do the Fwd & Stern tugs use hard wired cables/hawsers?....does the vessel actually navigate those narrow passages?, or ar the tugs providing forced steering?


2. Inclination trials.....[I have been on a baby 5,000 ton Warship in dock completing these after refit] so yes, a baby compared to your 169,000 GRT
So with the Warship, various steel/concrete mass weights are loaded outboard on deck to simulate the vessels inclination & I understand all this, but how do the Naval Architects and Surveyors conduct such trials on a massive enclosed vessel such as the Symphony?


3. being in the Standard 12 to 4 watch, also denies you the Staff cheap rate for Internet which is a bit of a raw deal


4. so a vessel the size of a big City & many 100's of Staff would need certain Resources........is there any HR type Senoir Staff person on board that you could apply to, to have your internet log in altered to the [lower] Staff rate, or is your Contract so binding to the degree that there is literally no flexibility?


Keep the stories & images coming, they are certainly appreciated 


Derek
 

Hello Derek,


1. Everything was controlled from the port side wing, we had both pods and varying levels of thrusters online for the conveyance, the tug boats provided most of the thrust, going astern kept the pods in the centre of the channel - sounds a bit daft but one of our contingencies is to always run aground with the bow if you have no other choice... pods are expensive and easily damaged bow is just a bit of steel plating to be replaced.


I forget the name of the steel things attached but we had a special cradle around the bow for the tug to connect too and the same on the stern which the tugs were fixed too.


2. inclination was done in Eemshaven just after conveyance before we sailed to Bremerhaven same as you probably did it, measured all the weights around the ship, big pendulum suspended in one of the elevator shafts and using our heeling tanks. we can pump almost 1000t of fresh water side to side in these tanks.


3. As we are in the new build stage and also for out of service (coronavirus) the company allowed all crew free wifi... but this will disappear once we resume operations. (the cheap rate is now gone its just fixed at $4 / 60 mins) being in Europe also, I have data roaming.


4. We have a full HR department, think there's about 7 of them on this ship, they help with crew movements, events, and the usual HR related issues...






And Taranis - we tend not to use tugs at all, I see plenty but the idea behind us having such powerful thrusters and pods is to negate the need for tugs, in some ports a large tug is $10,000 a hour.


I will try and remember to take some pics of passing tugs tho.

[Bunkerbarge]

So what fuel are you using, have you gone over to LPG yet?

[likeomg]

We are traditional, we have a new class which are pretty game changing like oasis was in 2009..., these will be LNG having seen the drawings it’s pretty impressive.


At the moment we use lshfo 0.5 with scrubber system[size=78%] to 0.1 and also mdo depending on requirements. Diesel will also be scrubbed to 0.1... [/size]
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[/size][size=78%]My names down for this new ‘icon class’ hopefully I will go 6-8 months before delivery but not confirmed yet.. [/size]