With more teak decking than any other passenger ship of any size at sea it was vital to ensure the quality and look of the wood. With this in mind, I visited the factory that will be installing our teak decking, gratings, hand rails and other wooden structures.The factory lay some 120 Kms east of Venice towards Trieste. We were greeted on arrival by the Owner who took great pride in showing us his facility. It was very impressive. There are machines galore to fashion the wood into any shape and size from gratings like in the photo above that will cover the water scupper areas to the all important planks that will cover the pool deck and other spaces. The attention to detail was really amazing. There was a computer controlled routing machine, shown below, that is used to cut even the most intricate of shapes. Complete with a rotating head holding 14 cutting blades of different shapes and sizes. I had no idea that teak work could be so interesting.
You may remember a few days ago that a tent was being built over the main swimming pool ready for the installation of the beach structure. Here it is now.
This is what it looks like inside.
It’s really hot in there. It is like one of the hot houses at Kew botanical gardens in London. The beach has been welded in place as have the steps down into the pool.You can just make out the small silver strip around the pool top which will contain the water on the beach about to be welded into place.
On my way back from the office to the ship I passed through one of the fabricating sheds where the big lego blocks are made ready to be lifted into place.
They are simply gargantuan. I could not estimate the size of these places. Suffice to say that they must be the largest structures I have ever seen. Bigger than any aircraft hangar I have been into. The photo above is only one quarter of it.There is another bay of the same size on the other side of the crane gantries to the left and same again behind me. Simply enormous.
Once the blocks have been made two equally enormous cranes each sitting on 56 wheels on rail tracks lift the blocks into position. Each crane can lift 400 tonnes.Anywhere you are in Mestre or Venice you can see these cranes. If you get lost find the cranes.
In this photo one of the cranes is lifting an accommodation block of 350 tonnes into position on the new Carnival ship under construction in the next dock
So another week in the shipyard draws to a close. Each day I can see more and more of the ship coming together. Work on the public rooms is coming along quickly now. The structure into which the decorative panels will go have been erected. This is what it looks like. These shiny alloy structures to the left will be some of the treatment rooms in the spa. You are standing in the corridor outside the rooms looking aft.
A lot of the pre-panelling is in place. Over this will go the sound insulation, under panelling and finally the decorative panels once all the heavy work such as welding and so forth have been completed. Dont want the decorative panels damaged!
This is just forward of the main dining room.All this panelling went up in the space of 2 days.It is covered in a double skin plastic protection board. The big green pipe provides ventilation.