{"id":4432,"date":"2010-11-05T01:00:49","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T08:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/?p=4432"},"modified":"2010-11-05T01:00:49","modified_gmt":"2010-11-05T08:00:49","slug":"carnival-ecstasy-bridge-visit-port-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/?p=4432","title":{"rendered":"Ciao! Ecstasy Bridge Visit the Best"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It began with a simple request. Would it be possible for two intrepid reporters to spend a few minutes with the captain of the Carnival Ecstasy<\/a>? The answer, from Guest Relations Manager Enrique Acupinpin, was non-committal. When it was committal, it came with an invitation to meet the captain on the bridge.<\/p>\n

This would not be our first trip to the bridge of a cruise ship, but this one was special. We would be there as the ship left port, to see first-hand how hard or how easy it is.<\/p>\n

Captain Andrea Viacava (left, above with No. 2 in command Sergio Tommasi, right, and a pilot from onshore) maneuvered the Ecstasy up to the pier that morning \u2014 like he was parking a Volkswagen in an over-sized space. Seamless it was. Now it was late afternoon, time to leave. To cruisers without a clue, like us, leaving would seem to be easier than parking. For them, maybe it is.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We’d been led to believe ships today are virtually operated by computer, and that the people are there only if something goes wrong. Computers play a big part, to be sure, but the instructions from captain to quartermaster, from junior officer Michele Schiano di Colella (left) to engine room, probably haven’t changed much over the years.<\/p>\n

“Hard starboard.”<\/p>\n

A lot of that bridge-speak is Greek (or Italian, for reasons you will understand later) to those of us unfamiliar with nautical terminology, but even we knew Captain Viacava wanted a hard right turn as the Ecstasy was being aimed for the narrow channel \u2014 marked by buoys and seven miles long \u2014 out of Progreso<\/a>, Mexico. There is, however, a little difference between a hard right in a Volkswagen and a hard right in a vehicle that’s longer than two football fields.<\/p>\n

There are seven officers on the bridge during the procedure and two more below \u2014 one at the bow, one at the stern \u2014 one deck below what passengers can see. They make sure, with their eyes and not computers, that the bow and stern of the ship miss the buoys or anything else afloat as the ship swings its 70,000 tons of machinery and people into position.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Andrea Viacava is an Italian, which is no surprise because all of Carnival’s captains are. He was born in Portofino<\/a>, near Genoa. He has been a seaman all his life, and a captain with Carnival<\/a> for 21 years. He has seen the evolution of technology aboard cruise ships and it’s interesting to see that with all the bells and whistles of today, there is still a flag out front to help them see which way the wind’s blowing and there is still a steering wheel in the middle of the bridge, although it’s probably a tenth of the size you think it will be.<\/p>\n

“There is always a wheel,” says the captain, always on the bridge when the ship enters and leaves a port, and even in the middle of the night is just around the corner in his home\/office. “I am here when I am needed.”<\/p>\n

As the Ecstasy reached the end of the buoys marking the narrow channel, the flag comes down, the officers acknowledge another successful departure and the captain presses the button that sounds the horn.<\/p>\n

“That is good-bye,” chuckled Captain Viacava. “They’re supposed to answer.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the bridge, it is time for cappuccino. Of course.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It began with a simple request. Would it be possible for two intrepid reporters to spend a few minutes with the captain of the Carnival Ecstasy? The answer, from Guest Relations Manager Enrique Acupinpin, was non-committal. When it was committal, it came with an invitation to meet the captain on the bridge. This would not… Continue reading Ciao! Ecstasy Bridge Visit the Best<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,31,19,15],"tags":[388,389,154,390,51,86,102],"class_list":["post-4432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","category-ports","category-ships","category-stories","tag-bridge-of-cruise-ships","tag-captains","tag-carnival","tag-carnival-ecstasy","tag-cruise-ports","tag-cruise-ships","tag-mexico","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}