Beyond - Engine Room Tour

[spammie]

Hi.  My hubby and I are leaving next Monday for a 9 night cruise in the Retreat on Beyond.  We are Elite Plus and celebrating my hubby's 70th birthday.  I was wondering if they offer a tour of the engine room?  Hubby would absolutely LOVE this if it's an option.  Thank you so much!

[cruisestitch]

I don’t think they offer a tour that just goes to the engineering area. There is a complete ship tour which you can purchase.  Consult Guest Relations once on board.

[Charles4515]

4 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

I don’t think they offer a tour that just goes to the engineering area. There is a complete ship tour which you can purchase.  Consult Guest Relations once on board.

I have been on Engine Room tours on Celebrity that were not complete tours but they did not let anyone into the main area.  We saw the engine control room. Interesting but no engines. Not likely they would allow passengers inside. There would be liability issues. 

[chemmo]

50 minutes ago, spammie said:

Hi.  My hubby and I are leaving next Monday for a 9 night cruise in the Retreat on Beyond.  We are Elite Plus and celebrating my hubby's 70th birthday.  I was wondering if they offer a tour of the engine room?  Hubby would absolutely LOVE this if it's an option.  Thank you so much!

As cruisestitch says there is a full tour which your husband may like. We have done this and enjoyed.

 

We have visited just the engine room but that was when we were in a higher suite and invited by the Captain after dining with him. I don’t think it is generally in the places sometimes offered to suite guests or higher CC members (galley tour, theatre tour, bridge tour) . As I side note I was unimpressed…The ‘engine room’ is a control room full of dials and readouts not the actual engines I had imagined. I am not sure exactly what I expected. Certainly not men shovelling coal but I had expected some machinery!!!

 

Nothing to loose by approaching the Captains Club host on boarding, you never know…

 

Sincere best wishes to your husband for a fantastic 70th birthday!

Edited November 9, 2023 by chemmo

[Torfamm]

If you look at shore excursions offered on sea days you should see a ship’s tour offered. It includes the engine control room and and bridge along with many other “behind the scenes” areas. It doesn’t visit the actual engine room though. I don’t believe that passengers are allowed in that area.

[prmssk]

The engine control room on the behind the scenes tour does include a few video screens of the actual engine room but that is as close as you will get.  It’s an interesting tour that we really enjoyed.

[Tyler414]

On the Behind the scenes tour is just the engine control room, just some monitors and keyboards, I did it on Apex, glad I did it, but would not pay to do it again.

[cruisestitch]

I don’t remember which ship this was

 

[zgscl]

The behind the scenes tour is wonderful and visits the bridge, engine control room, laundry, waste disposal area and kitchens. You are not able to go in the engine room but can see it on the cameras in the engine control room. It is about 2 or 2.5 hours and is well worth it if you are interested in how things work.

[hcat]

the Behind the Scenes tour on EDGE was wonderful.  Small group.. mini presentations at each area, headphones.     

 

It is a long tour with alot of walking including interior stairs..although they have some spots where elevator is possible.

 

Well worth the time and money!

[go.without.you]

@cruisestitch Could it be Silhouette? I did that tour in December and that model ship looks familiar. Unless they have one of those in every engine room...

[D. B.]

He will See the Engine Control Room Never the Engine Room itself.

 Too Bad as being gearhead I would Love to get in there.

 If he likes getting close to Real  Moving ships propulsion then have him Visit the SS Jeremiah O'brien in San Francisco.

 A Seaworthy, Operating 440 foot long WW II Liberty Ship maintained by a Volunteer Crew 

 It's Giant triple Expansion Steam Engine is a  mechanical work of Art in Motion and You can Stand 5 feet from the complex moving parts!

   The Ship Sails 4-5 times a year (2 days during Fleet Week in October) and on certain  days of the month the Main Steam Engine is run while the ship stays tied to the Pier.

 Modern Ships have electric motors powered by Huge Diesel Engines or Diesel Generators or Steam Turbins that are all covered up and are not much to look at.

 If you saw the Movie Titanic you saw the Steam Engine of the SS Jeremiah Obrien.

 Google this www.ssjeremiahobrien.org (not .com).

 

[SusieAV8R]

On 11/9/2023 at 11:10 AM, spammie said:

Hi.  My hubby and I are leaving next Monday for a 9 night cruise in the Retreat on Beyond.  We are Elite Plus and celebrating my hubby's 70th birthday.  I was wondering if they offer a tour of the engine room?  Hubby would absolutely LOVE this if it's an option.  Thank you so much!

 

On 11/9/2023 at 11:10 AM, spammie said:

Hi.  My hubby and I are leaving next Monday for a 9 night cruise in the Retreat on Beyond.  We are Elite Plus and celebrating my hubby's 70th birthday.  I was wondering if they offer a tour of the engine room?  Hubby would absolutely LOVE this if it's an option.  Thank you so much!

Is hubby retired military?  Pre-covid, in our party of 4 was one retired 2-Star Admiral & one Commander.  We all were in CS (so not upper benefit suite)  I mentioned this to our Retreat Concierge and asked if a private tour of the engine room could be arranged and those 2  retired military folks were indeed given a private tour of the engine room.  (Apparently a lengthy discussion ensued between  the cruise ships' engineers and these 2 military folks about the engines, construction etc.)..So as a 70th birthday gift to your DH, think about how you quietly want to convince the Retreat Concierge to arrange such a private tour, if it's possible.

[peterde]

How many people are usually on the behind the scenes tour excursion? There must be a maximum number allowed. I wonder what that is. 

[SusieAV8R]

On 11/10/2023 at 10:46 PM, peterde said:

How many people are usually on the behind the scenes tour excursion? There must be a maximum number allowed. I wonder what that is. 

 

On 11/10/2023 at 10:46 PM, peterde said:

How many people are usually on the behind the scenes tour excursion? There must be a maximum number allowed. I wonder what that is. 

DH and I have not done scheduled "Behind the scenes" tours in years.  Since restart and 6+ cruises, I have quietly spoken to the Retreat Concierge (yes, we have only only cruised in suites on X since 2008), about specific behind the scenes tours we are interested in and generally found it to be tours of 6-8 paz. 

[chemmo]

On 11/11/2023 at 3:46 AM, peterde said:

How many people are usually on the behind the scenes tour excursion? There must be a maximum number allowed. I wonder what that is. 

I think the ‘scheduled’ tour we were on was about 10/12 people. 

[chengkp75]

An engine room tour would be noisy (about 110dB, or a rock concert level), hot (90-130*F depending on where the ship is), and arduous as the "stairs" (called ladders on ships) are at the angle that an extension ladder would be leaning against a house (about 70*).  In the actual engine rooms where the diesels are running (and at sea there would be 2-4 running between both engine rooms), you would not be able to hear a word said.  Marine engineers are quite good at lip reading, and hand gestures.

[mayleeman]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

and hand gestures

 

Aggressive drivers are good at those, too!