The Shore Excursion Desk - as you have never seen it before!During refit we have to establish a communications centre/'one stop shop' as a focal point for ship's staff, contractors, yard workers and superintendents. To this end we wrap up the Shore Excursions Desk in a wonderful shade of hardboard to protect the wonderful marble tops and fill the new 'package' with our able Passenger Services staff. The Front of House staff are joined by the Librarian and Communications Assistant to provide 24 hour coverage. We have contractors embarking at various times of the night and day - all have to be 'checked in' and provided with cabins and put in touch with the relevant people responsible for the work that they are here to do. It is a very busy place!
And what news of the aft end? Well the below photographs illustrate how much the work has really progressed over the last week or so.
This is the starboard side of Lido Deck looking aft with the Aquarius Bar behind the boards on the left. The boards have been erected to add more protection for the work going on behind. The brown, 'primed' deck 10 'wing' is clearly visible above the bar. The covering above is to protect the new teak decking being installed.
Fitting out of the bar is marching on and all to schedule. I am hugging Jane as I am cold by the way!
You can see the new bar front here - very 'aquatic' surprisingly enough! Bottom right you can see where the stools will be fixed - they will extend along the full length of the bar. The cabins beneath are taking shape nicely and I hope to include some updated photos very soon. Looking at the photos above you may be forgiven for thinking how it will ever be ready. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly all of these projects come together and, as I've said before, the 'cosmetic' nature of the cruise ship is brought home all the more when you see sights like this. Get the protection off and a butterfly emerges from the chrysalis!
I can't sign off without making reference to The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing shows on telly last night. More tears - but no tantrums it seems. The 'fluffy slipper' brigade joined me with fresh tortilla chips and dips, cheese and bread....no chocolate (believe what you will!). What on earth was that Strictly All Dancing result about please? Numerous text messages ensued to see if anyone watching the same thing unfold back at home had any idea why the result was all three couples going through. Why anyone in the UK was expected to provide any explanation of the same thing we had witnessed in Germany escaped me - but Vodafone must have been happy. My friend Steve (Bar Manager) joined us all for the results of The X Factor. He is not one to stand on sentiment and couldn't understand what all of the fuss was about with the extended families of total strangers bearing their souls on national telly. I believe he said that the whole show was excruciatingly, toe-curlingly embarrassing - we couldn't see what he meant of course. I resisted making reference to Liverpool's performance against Hull the same afternoon. There would have been either a very long silence or an expletive or two......but then it would have been 'Match all square'.
Take care. Until next time........
Ian
Current thought: Men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. Henry David Thoreau
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7 comments:
Good pictures - looking forward to seeing it in real life in May 09.
Re the Strictly Come Dancing result: apparently the BBC have had over 200 complaints, but they have explained that as the two girls tied first and each scored 3 from the judges, whatever the public voted, it would not have made any difference to Tom Chambers. The maximum he could have got would be 1+3=4 points and then would automatically have been in the dance-off. So (probably mindful of the recent problems with rigging public votes, etc) the producers decided to solve the dilemma by letting all three go through to the final next week. They are carrying all votes cast through to next week and presently refusing to refund the cost of the calls.. Hope that makes it as clear as mud!
Michele C
Thanks for the regular updates & pictures Ian. It is really interesting to see the progress on Arcadia and to hear about the lengths you are all going to to keep warm :-)
Andrew & Tony
Ex J816
Hi James interesting blog. When will she be sailing for Southampton for J824?
We like the pics and the update news Ian, but one area of the ship seems not to have had a mention so far. I mean the launderettes. Are they being enlarged during the refit or shall we still have to 'negotiate' over the solitary ironing board? What other hidden gems await us in January?
John & Janet
is it all done yet? the ship should be on its way home and the blog is not very up to date...
Why have my two previous comments reharding lack of updates been deleted? What is the point of this blog if true remarks 'disappear'???
Jimmy
Jimmy - I don't know how to delete comments - it's all I can do to reply to them....... Ian
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