A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch
I’ve been cruising! You may or may not know that I’ve been busy relaxing with the Mrs. on one of our cruise vacations. This is our eighth time. When other passengers ask if we like it, I usually tell them “No, but we’re going to keep trying until they get it right. By the way, I’m writing this article on the ship.
I thought I’d take a few minutes and talk about the technology that I’ve noticed aboard the ship. The first thing I that was new was the ship wide WIFI at a decent 54 mps. The internet junkies can get their fix for a mere $0.75 per minute. Of course, you could always sign up for the 480 minute plan and pay only 33 cents per minute. I found it amusing that there was also a $3.95 sign up fee the first time you used the service. Personally, I’m just fine with waiting until we enter port. I’ve always been able to go ashore and find free WIFI somewhere. That gives me a chance to check my email and do a little browsing. It’s not a big thing. After all, I am on vacation.
One of the things I’ve done differently this time is that I didn’t bring my laptop. I’m writing this article on my Nexus 7 tablet with my bluetooth keyboard. Several people (both passengers and crew members) have stopped to talk to me and ask about my setup. I think I may have converted some people from their iPad and Kindle products. They are mostly impressed when they see everything the Google machine can do. By the way, this months Mind Bender was done completely on my Samsung Galaxy Note II. One of the things you find on every cruise is trivia contests. I just recorded the Q & A and later transcribed them into the puzzle. It was easy to do with split screen multitasking on my Pocket PC.
Walking around the ship, I’ve noticed that hardly anyone is reading a book anymore. There are a lot of tablets and e-book readers in sight though. The problem is that not many of them can read in the bright sunlight. Good thing there are a lot of shady spots on this ship. It probably won’t be too long before you hear me say, “A book? How quaint!.”
The shops, bars, internet cafe, coffee bars, etc. do not take cash aboard the ship. Your room key not only electronically unlocks the door, but it is also your on board credit card. It only takes a matter of seconds before your purchase is charged to your account. Interestingly, the casino takes either cash or your key card. If you use the card, there is a 3% service charge. Go figure!
The key card is also used as a passkey to get off the ship in port. At the start of the cruise, a web cam is used to take each passengers picture. When going ashore, you just stick you card into a machine that looks like an ATM. It beeps and you get off. Coming back aboard is the same process, except for a Security Office checks your face against the picture on the file. I was thinking that it would be fun to shave my beard while I’m ashore and see what happens.
We took the ships “Behind the Scenes” tour. This was a guided four hour journey through various crew only areas of the ship. Technology was in abundant use throughout.
We didn’t get to see the engine room, but we got to walk through the Engineering Control Center. It was about the size of our meeting area at Village Green. Two officers are on watch at all times. In addition to the engines, all of the ship’s auxiliary systems such as the water distillers, sanitary disposal tanks, fuel tanks, electricity generators, etc. are monitored and controlled from this station. They kept a close watch on me as I studied the setup.
In the galley (kitchen), there was a monitor at nearly every piece of cooking equipment. The displays had instructions for the cooks telling them what to cook and when to cook it. A computer in the head chef’s office allowed him to input his instructions into the system. He was also able to order supplies from the storage areas.
The crews living areas had berthing, recreation and galley facilities. They had their own cooks that used the same system as the passenger areas. There was a large room with two or three dozen internet capable computers for crew use. Many crew members had their own computers which they could also use. Another thing that was available for the crew is college credit courses via the internet. I don’t know if there was a fee or not.
By far, the most technology was visible on the bridge. The first thing you see is a huge monitor displaying radar for several miles. The ship’s location is accurately displayed with GPS coordinates. Another screen displays up to date weather data and the forecast. Several other stations had monitors with vital ships information. Almost all of the sailing is done by auto pilot. The Captain gives his orders and the crew enters the data into the computer. About the only time it is done manually is for practice in case the systems go down.
Almost all of the technology I saw had a backup system that was the exact same as the original. It was interesting to see two computers with the same data on the screen. Now that I think about it, there was one system that didn’t have a backup. I guess we can only hope that the windshield wipers on the bridge don’t fail.
Thanks for reading.