Behind The Scenes Of Celebrity Cruise Ships

Well stocked buffets, spotless state rooms, flawless dinner service- these are all the things you see and expirience while aboard a cruise ship on vacation. But unbeknownst to most behind those service doors is a well oiled machine of crew members and maintanence organizing everything from laundry and room service, to keeping the ship running smoothly and of course steering it in the right direction. Celebrity Cruises was kind enough to let us take a peek behind the scenes of what most cruisers don’t get to see and share with you some things you may not know about your floating vacation.

Officers at the Bridge

This is the Bridge where the Captain spends most of his time. The bridge serves as the navigational, command and control center of the ship.

Navigational Map at the Bridge

View of the Bridge while arriving at port.

View of controls at the Bridge.

Here are some pictures of the engine control room. There are over 5000 alarms in the engine control room. The engine stretches the entire length of the ship filling up 10 compartments. The ship is equipped with backups for everything including backups for the bridge with phones, radios, backup generators etc.

Engine Control Room

Gauges and garlic in the engine control room.

Did you know that cruise ships are superstitious? Apparently having garlic in the engine control room is a good omen or something. I never could get a straight answer on that.

More engine control room

Laundry is something that is often overlooked when it comes to a cruise vacation. Mainly because you are on vacation and you don’t have to think about it! But you got to wonder… a cruise ship has got to produce a lot of dirty laundry what with all the sheets, table cloths, napkins, towels, etc. And how big does this laundry room have to be to take care of all this laundry? On average a cruise ship does about twenty loads of laundry a day. This doesn’t sound like a lot but when you factor in the the fact that one load of laundry can be up to 250 pounds- that’s an intense washing machine. That means about 5,000 pounds of laundry a day.

One intense washing machine.

Laundry press for sheets and table cloths.

Crew uniforms fresh from the dry cleaners.

Did you know that most cruises have a dry cleaning service available aboard? It’s fast, easy, pretty inexpensive and you don’t have to worry about losing your ticket because they will deliver it right to your cabin.

Cooks in the kitchen preparing food.

On average a person on a cruise ship will gain a pound per day. That means if you go on a seven day cruise you should expect to come home about seven pounds heavier. Now you know why I was trying so hard to lose five pounds before my vacation. And we can owe it all to these guys- the chefs and cooks for preparing all that delicious food. Oh and all the excessive trips to the buffets before and after dinner.

Lots of plates.

More food preparation.

You’re probably thinking… man when I go on a cruise I stuff my face silly! How much food does a cruise ship go through? Well on average a cruise ship will go through 400-800 eggs a day, 200 pounds of strawberries, 82 pounds of cookies, 1,000 pounds of potatoes, 25 gallons of ice cream, and 6,895 liters of milk. Safe to say that’s a lot of food. The most popular ingredients used on the ship are flour, garlic, onion and salt. Most food is picked up at your original place of embarkation but they pick up fresh fish along the way.

One last tidbit of information before we say adieu- You know one of the best parts of any cruise? The outstanding service you receive from the international (and national) crew. Aboard the Celebrity Mercury there were over 55 nationalities represented and over 800 crew members aboard. So remember to take a look at their name tag and take a look at where they are from.

I hope these pictures and accompanying information helped satisfy your craving for a look behind the scenes of a cruise ship.

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What You Need to Know About Cruising Carnival

Tips for Cruising with a Baby