Behind the Scenes Tour

[Haljo1935]

1 hour ago, AV8rix said:

I am a retired engineer and naturally there were quite a few of us on the tours I did (I did them every chance I got -- so much to learn!!).  All of us engineers agreed that we'd be willing to pay a lot extra if a tour were to be offered for engineers.  We didn't care about visiting the entertainers dressing rooms or the cold storage, etc.  But we loved talking to the guys in the HVAC dept, the water (and even garbage!) dept, the bridge and -- of course -- the engine control room.  Hope I'm not too old to cruise when (if?) the tours are resumed.

I did one Sept '23 on a Carnival cruise. It lasted about 3 hours. So, if you really really want to do one... 😉

[Crew News]

Here is a link to my Behind the Scenes tour on the Ms Oosterdam that included the engine room:  Ms Oosterdam Behind the Scenes.

 

Of particular interest is a single person cooking all of the Room Service items in a very confined area, video cameras only on the liquor storage room door, the clear floor on the bridge that allows seeing just how close the ship is to the pier, the cooled flower storage room can be converted to a morgue for deaths at sea, the laundry steam pressing shirts and pants, and plating photos for all MDR meals.

[asebastian]

Behind the Scenes was offered on the Zuiderdam in July, Viking Passage. I didn't book it in as I've been on these a couple of times already. Again, by registering in advance at Guest Services only. The Captain also mentioned it (inadvertently I thought) during his Meet the Captain talk.

[3rdGenCunarder]

8 hours ago, asebastian said:

Behind the Scenes was offered on the Zuiderdam in July, Viking Passage. I didn't book it in as I've been on these a couple of times already. Again, by registering in advance at Guest Services only. The Captain also mentioned it (inadvertently I thought) during his Meet the Captain talk.

 

Maybe that's another thing only offered on the longer cruises. 

 

For anyone hoping to do this, ask at the front desk on the first day. If they are offering the tour, it will fill quickly.

[Torquer]

11 hours ago, asebastian said:

Behind the Scenes was offered on the Zuiderdam in July, Viking Passage. I didn't book it in as I've been on these a couple of times already. Again, by registering in advance at Guest Services only. The Captain also mentioned it (inadvertently I thought) during his Meet the Captain talk.

That is fantastic news!  We really missed them since covid and asked the Neptune Lounge concierge about them on every cruise (the tours used to be free for Pinnacle Suite guests).  The reason for not having them in the last year or so didn't really make sense, of trying to keep the officers healthy.  After all, on recent cruises you see them regularly around the ship interacting with guests.  It was not like right after the restart where they isolated themselves on the bridge and the officers areas of the ship.

[DanielNL]

I’ll will ask on board the Rotterdam when I will board the ship. I’ll ask the staff at the guest services and I will let you all know what was the answer! 

[asebastian]

5 hours ago, DanielNL said:

I’ll ask the staff at the guest services

If you get a denial or a blank look, come back in an hour and ask someone else at Guest  Services...guy from the cabin next to me said he asked in the Zuiderdam and he got a non-committed response! Good luck.

[mljatsea]

On the Rotterdam in June they offered a behind the scenes event in the theater that was superior to the in person ones we've taken on other ships. Representatives from different departments augmented excellent videos.

 

[3rdGenCunarder]

33 minutes ago, mljatsea said:

On the Rotterdam in June they offered a behind the scenes event in the theater that was superior to the in person ones we've taken on other ships. Representatives from different departments augmented excellent videos.

 

 

I think that's the "City on the Sea" presentation. The video has been around for a while, but I think inviting crew to participate is new. When I saw it this winter, the best comments were from the front desk people. When asked what people lose/leave behind, they said glasses, sunglasses, various kinds of chargers, cell phones, teeth. Yes, someone left behind a set of dentures! 

[hankandteri]

Sister line Princess offered a free galley tour (basically a walkthrough) on our Panama Canal cruise this spring. Pre-COVID, I did the paid behind the scenes tour and it was a lot of fun. Celebrity offered the full tour during sea days on our TA last fall, but I didn’t do that one. 

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, hankandteri said:

Sister line Princess offered a free galley tour (basically a walkthrough) on our Panama Canal cruise this spring. Pre-COVID, I did the paid behind the scenes tour and it was a lot of fun. Celebrity offered the full tour during sea days on our TA last fall, but I didn’t do that one. 

The free galley tours have been around forever...typically on the first sea day on HAL. Not even close to the Behind the Scenes tours.

[Torquer]

15 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

The free galley tours have been around forever...typically on the first sea day on HAL. Not even close to the Behind the Scenes tours.

But even the galley tours have not been given post-covid, at least on any cruise we have been on since 2022.  Both these and the small-group Behind the Scenes tours stopped with covid.

[asebastian]

17 hours ago, Torquer said:

But even the galley tours have not been given post-covid

Seems to be dependent on the ship's captain...and length of cruise, the longer ones seem to offer and not the short 7-day ones, plus it's almost always on sea days.

[Kay S]

My SIL always goes on those tours when offered.  He loves them. Problem for us is that we have to hear all about the technical details on every other cruise we take. 🙂