Bridge Tour

[philw1776]

Taken over a dozen Viking cruises.  As an engineer I asked for Engine room tours and was told no, safety. No Ocean Bridge tours either. Unlike the infamous Viking mod/fan on MyFace, I must be persona non grata on Viking.  

[duquephart]

I think it's up to the the captain as to what's allowed.

[tarhoosier]

I paid for a "behind the scenes" tour on a Celebrity ship. Laundry, kitchen, crew quarters, storage and recycling (oddly interesting) plus bridge and engine room. For bridge and engine room portion a male and female security officer gave us a wand surveillance and soft pat down and we signed some paper and they accompanied us to the two locations. They directed us where to stand, do not approach employees, wait for them to come to us for questions, touch nothing, etc.They stood between us and the staff at all times in these two locations. Same as any secure location in factory, airport, and so on.

edit: this was a ship with 1800+ passengers, for comparison. Tour group was ~10.

Edited May 24 by tarhoosier

[CDNPolar]

We have been on WheelHouse tours on River, and Bridge, Engine Room, and Galley tours on Ocean.  We have asked on some sailings and were told no tours, and never questioned further.

 

We are doing a TA cruise in October and we hope on sea days that we will be able to do the lot...

[Jim Avery]

We got to see the bridge and behind the scenes on Neptune.  Part was the Engine Control Room.  Most definitely not the Engine Room.  Years ago before all the "rules" I went to an engine room tour on QE2.  We went all over including the rudder room and the shaft alley.  I actually touched the huge polished spinning shaft while we were making 30 knots in the North Atlantic.  Sad that "safety" has prohibited so many things as the engine space is very interesting.

[chengkp75]

2 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

Sad that "safety" has prohibited so many things as the engine space is very interesting.

Per ISPS, the engineering spaces are off limits to 90% of crew.  When I was with NCL, each entry door to the engineering spaces had a keypad lock (those PINs were limited to certain engineering staff only) or card swipe locks that would only allow engineering or senior officers admittance.  But, also with the "graying" of the cruising public, letting folks climb up and down the near vertical "ladders" in the engine room becomes a serious liability issue.

[Jim Avery]

That’s my point Chief. It was a totally different world back then.

[Mike07]

4 hours ago, tarhoosier said:

For bridge and engine room portion a male and female security officer gave us a wand surveillance and soft pat down and we signed some paper and they accompanied us to the two locations. They directed us where to stand, do not approach employees, wait for them to come to us for questions, touch nothing, etc.They stood between us and the staff at all times in these two locations. Same as any secure location in factory, airport, and so on.

edit: this was a ship with 1800+ passengers, for comparison. Tour group was ~10.

 

 

 

Interesting... when I did Viking's tour, it was like a group of 30 allowed on to the bridge, no  paperwork was signed, no wand, and no security was present. We were in open waters, too, though you didn't specify if X were in port or open water.

 

I think I might have left the bridge early b/c I was bored.

Edited May 24 by Mike07

[Mike07]

4 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

We have been on WheelHouse tours on River, and Bridge, Engine Room, and Galley tours on Ocean.  We have asked on some sailings and were told no tours, and never questioned further.

 

We are doing a TA cruise in October and we hope on sea days that we will be able to do the lot...

 

 

Ask about a galley tour. To me, that was far more interesting than the bridge tour. I don't think I've been on a river ship bridge tour, b/c the bridge is right there.

[CDNPolar]

45 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

 

 

Ask about a galley tour. To me, that was far more interesting than the bridge tour. I don't think I've been on a river ship bridge tour, b/c the bridge is right there.

 

Yes, the galley tour is very interesting.

 

Yes, the bridge is right there on the river ship, but being inside of it with the Captain and having him/her explain all their equipment and gadgets is interesting.

[janetcbl]

On a recent Viking Cruise, the Chief Engineer gave a presentation, with video, of the Engine Room and  the activities at a program in the Aula (?) for everyone. Other Behind the Scenes programs in person that we had were the Kitchen, Bridge and Laundry.

[Twitchly]

I would love to watch a documentary about the behind-the-scenes life on a Viking Ocean ship.

[Heidi13]

On 5/24/2024 at 8:32 AM, duquephart said:

I think it's up to the the captain as to what's allowed.

 

The determining factor for Bridge visits is first and foremost the Ship's Security Plan (SSP), which is a requirement of the ISPS Code. If the SSP provides any restrictions on Bridge visits, the Master must comply, lest s/he is committing a serious non-compliance.

 

On many ships, Bridge visits are restricted to when the ship is in port. The Viking SSP obviously gives the Master significantly more latitude in approving Bridge visits. Therefore, provided the SSP does not prohibit them, every visitor to the Bridge is at the Master's discretion.

 

Having been brought up on pax vessels and having conducted Bridge visits every 1/2 hr on sea days, I was always comfortable having pax visit. However, many Masters were not so comfortable.

[CDNPolar]

11 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

The determining factor for Bridge visits is first and foremost the Ship's Security Plan (SSP), which is a requirement of the ISPS Code. If the SSP provides any restrictions on Bridge visits, the Master must comply, lest s/he is committing a serious non-compliance.

 

On many ships, Bridge visits are restricted to when the ship is in port. The Viking SSP obviously gives the Master significantly more latitude in approving Bridge visits. Therefore, provided the SSP does not prohibit them, every visitor to the Bridge is at the Master's discretion.

 

Having been brought up on pax vessels and having conducted Bridge visits every 1/2 hr on sea days, I was always comfortable having pax visit. However, many Masters were not so comfortable.

 

I can understand why the Master would be hesitant to conduct Bridge tours while sailing, but we were hoping that we would have the opportunity on our upcoming TA sailing.

 

On Viking, other than embarking and disembarking for excursions, I have never really ever seen "security" on board.  Would the Master have enhanced security on the Bridge during tours?

 

 

[CCWineLover]

14 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

The determining factor for Bridge visits is first and foremost the Ship's Security Plan (SSP), which is a requirement of the ISPS Code. If the SSP provides any restrictions on Bridge visits, the Master must comply, lest s/he is committing a serious non-compliance.

 

On many ships, Bridge visits are restricted to when the ship is in port. The Viking SSP obviously gives the Master significantly more latitude in approving Bridge visits. Therefore, provided the SSP does not prohibit them, every visitor to the Bridge is at the Master's discretion.

 

Having been brought up on pax vessels and having conducted Bridge visits every 1/2 hr on sea days, I was always comfortable having pax visit. However, many Masters were not so comfortable.

Totally understand.  We recently had Csptains who didn’t want bridge tours and others that did.  We just had a wonderful bridge tour on the Mars while at sea, given by the Captain.  He was so proud of the Mars!  He was at the building of it and was the inaugural captain in May 2022.  Nice to see his pride!

we were gathered by the Viking escort in the guest services area and given masks to wear immediately and throughout the tour, as well as covering all the rules, do’s and dont’s.  Some were reticent to Don a mask but all did comply finally.

Edited May 26 by CCWineLover

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

I can understand why the Master would be hesitant to conduct Bridge tours while sailing, but we were hoping that we would have the opportunity on our upcoming TA sailing.

 

On Viking, other than embarking and disembarking for excursions, I have never really ever seen "security" on board.  Would the Master have enhanced security on the Bridge during tours?

 

 

 

When providing access to the Bridge while underway, I don't see a need for enhanced security measures. Normally visitors would be provided some basic guidelines prior to the visit, which can include don't touch and don't distract the actual watchkeepers.

 

Bridge visits will normally have the Master or an additional officer conduct the tour, as the watchkeepers remain focused on navigation.

[tarhoosier]

I posted above about the security on the Celebrity engine control room and bridge tour part of the "behind the scenes" tour. Perhaps it is relevant to my post that this cruise was early 2022 and the first outing for the ship in two years due to the Covid quarantine. It was parked off shore San Diego for some months before traveling to Vancouver and some circling in the Pacific off Washington state prior to our departure. Perhaps new protocols were deemed necessary.

[chengkp75]

I know with NCL, that every behind the scene tour was accompanied by one security officer, and has been for quite a while.  As Andy says, different ISPS protocols for different companies.

[BlairsvilleCruiseGirl]

20 hours ago, Twitchly said:

I would love to watch a documentary about the behind-the-scenes life on a Viking Ocean ship.

Smithsonian Channel has a program called "Mighty Cruise Ships" and they featured the Viking Sea, the Viking Star and the Viking Gefjon.  Lots of behind-the-scenes!  

[Mike07]

19 minutes ago, BlairsvilleCruiseGirl said:

Smithsonian Channel has a program called "Mighty Cruise Ships" and they featured the Viking Sea, the Viking Star and the Viking Gefjon.  Lots of behind-the-scenes!  

 

 

Fantastic show regardless of what ship they are actually on. Whether it's RSSC or MSC, the behind the scenes is not that different. Though, the larger the ship, the more chaos and things that can seemingly go wrong.

[chengkp75]

7 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

Though, the larger the ship, the more chaos and things that can seemingly go wrong

Actually, the larger the ship the more intricate the planning becomes and the more choreographed it becomes.

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Actually, the larger the ship the more intricate the planning becomes and the more choreographed it becomes.

 

That's my experience as well. The larger vessels were all way more organised than smaller ships.

[Twitchly]

9 hours ago, BlairsvilleCruiseGirl said:

Smithsonian Channel has a program called "Mighty Cruise Ships" and they featured the Viking Sea, the Viking Star and the Viking Gefjon.  Lots of behind-the-scenes!  

Good to know, thanks! We don’t have cable; I’ll see if I can find it on the internet somewhere.

[LindaS272]

1 hour ago, Twitchly said:

Good to know, thanks! We don’t have cable; I’ll see if I can find it on the internet somewhere.

Smithsonian Channel is on Paramount +

[wine-wine-wine]

58 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

Smithsonian Channel is on Paramount +

You can also buy one episode at a time on Amazon streaming.