Skift Take
As any experienced cruiser will tell you, it is the crew that will make or break a sailing, and their labors often mean more than how many flat-screen TVs are hoisted up in the newest sports bar on board the ship.
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- The laundry for passengers and crew gets a 48-minute rub-a-dub-dub on deck 2 of the Norwegian Getaway. All photos by Dennis Schaal
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- A dryer helps handle 10,000 pounds of laundry in eight hours on the Norwegian Getaway.
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- Shirts get pressed.
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- Pants get their wrinkles steamed out with a combination of steam and air.
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- Laundry bags full of clean clothes headed back to their owners.
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- The crew irons pants.
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- More pants handled by the “pressing crew.”
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- This sheet, once folded, will be headed toward a bed of the exact right size.
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- More sheets in the Mangler machine.
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- Once washed, the towels will get dried and folded.
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- The crew readies sheets and towels for automatic folding.
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- Aha. The towels are ready to reunite with passengers.
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- The winter jackets being prepared for guests headed into the ice bar.
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- Flat sheets for suites, duvet covers for suites, flat sheets for double beds…They are all stacked once cleaned, dried and folded, bound for the appropriate guest cabins on the Norwegian Getaway.
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- Flat sheets have their appropriate location in the laundry once they are ready to go back into appropriate cabins.
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- The galleys on deck 6 of the Norwegian Getaway.
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- The galley crew has its hands full with 3,000 dozen eggs and 10,000 pounds of chicken on board the Norwegian Getaway.
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- Anthony Pearson handles food and beverage, and flatware, on the Norwegian Getaway.
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- Meat freezers on the Norwegian Getaway hold 10,000 pounds of chicken, 3,000 dozen eggs, and more than a few cases of french fries.
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- A crew member prepares some of the poultry on the Norwegian Getaway.
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- The bridge on deck 14 of the Norwegian Getaway on a preview cruise before it goes into service in February 2014. The ship runs on autopilot, although the crew feeds it the appropriate navigation.
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- A view on the bridge on deck 14 of the Norwegian Getaway.
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- Crew members of the bridge of the Norwegian Getaway have a great view of the ocean through walls of windows.
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- Communications equipment on the Norwegian Getaway bridge.
There’s a meandering walkway for the crew known as I-95 that runs the length of deck 4 on the Norwegian Getaway. Passengers don’t get to see it, members of the press on a tour of the ship weren’t allowed to take photos, and it is the lifeblood of the 3,969-passenger ship, Norwegian Cruise Line’s newest.
The 1,640 crew members traverse the corridor 24 hours per day, to and from work assignments, and then on their way back to living quarters. On the morning of January 28, I-95 had a quiet, business-like vibe to it as crew members in a variety of uniforms walked along its blue floors, carrying trays and ladders, and passing by a wall of fame for outstanding crew, religious notices for Christian crew members, and one worker from their ranks touching up a handrail with a coat of fresh, white paint.
Although travel agents and members of the media on this January 27-29 preview cruise were being urged to “cruise like a Norwegian,” meaning relax and go freestyle in their decisions on what to see and do, the crew members rumbling along I-95 obviously had to go about their labors with a bit more programming to make this ship operate efficiently.
A vacation sailing for 3,969 passengers or so means work and wages for a crew charged with making things go behind the scenes.
Whether it is the laundry and its washers, dryers, and folding and pressing machines, the connecting galleys where cooks are capable of handling 3,000 dozen eggs and 10,000 pounds of chicken on a typical sailing, or the bridge where the crew monitors the ocean’s obstructions and welcomes port personnel to help them enter or exit each port, there are numerous areas of the ship that get short shrift from oblivious passengers, who hardly ever get a glimpse of these out-of-bounds areas.
However, you can take a look at the gallery above to see some of the things that go on out of view.
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Photo credit: The Norwegian Getaway will be Norwegian Cruise Line's first ship to homeport in Miami. Norwegian Cruise Line