Behind the Scenes on Dawn Princess

Cruising offers fine dining and a relaxing getaway as you sample the cities along the way.  We took a behind the scenes galley tour onboard Dawn Princess and learned how Princess select each ingredient and skilfully prepare the mouth-watering dishes they are famous for. Firstly, there are two main galleys, one to service the two main restaurants, Venetian and Florentine and the other to service the Horizon Court. The shopping list consists of food from all over the world.  Fish and fine cheeses from Italy, England, Denmark and France, selected meats from USA, Australia and New Zealand, fresh fruit and vegetables from California and Florida. Each cruise between 80-85 tons of food is delivered to the ship and loaded on-board and is carefully stowed in storage rooms specially designed with temperature controls for the various types of food. On longer cruises the amount of food increases. The requisition list is prepared by the Executive Chef, Provision Master and Food & Beverage Manager. Ashore, a team of buyers visit local markets and contact suppliers to coordinate domestic and international schedules for delivery to the ship.  After the food is loaded onboard Dawn Princess the cruise can begin.

Different menus are offered daily in the dining rooms and a team of storekeepers, butchers, fish and vegetable preparation staff exercise their skills against a time schedule to ensure delivery of the correct amounts are delivered to the galleys on time. In the galleys the chefs, cooks and pantry staff turn this raw food into the fine cuisine we enjoy. The Fish Preparation are employs two staff who prepare the 246kg of whole fish, cleaning and cutting into portion to send to the galley daily. The Meat Preparation area’s two butchers, two assistants and two helpers defrost, slice and portion before sending 510kg poultry, 230kg turkey, 720kg beef and 200kg lamb to the galley where a team of six complete the preparation. The Garde Manger (cold kitchen) is where all the cold dishes and salads are prepared. Here ten staff work with mixing and slicing machines and refrigeration of prepared dishes are stored. This is where a hardboiled egg and an olive becomes a penguin, a carrot becomes a bird in flight and a radish becomes a rose with white petals tipped in red all to please the eye as a garnish. This area prepares 390kg lettuce, 9,000 fresh eggs, 9,600 cups yoghurt and 400kg watermelons. Next the Soup, Pasta & Vegetable area where fourteen staff prepare frozen and fresh seasonal vegetables, delicious pastas and tasty soups using 400kg potatoes (daily) and producing 1,590lts soup made daily. The Bakery is a constant aroma of freshly baked bread contains dough mixers, ovens, refrigerators and proofing ovens were seven staff create from scratch daily sweet rolls, croissants, bread sticks, pizza dough, bread rolls, vol-au-vents and biscuits using 450kg of flour each day.  The Pastry shop has twelve staff performing their craft in two shifts, nine in the day and three at night. Sweets and pastries are prepared daily where high quality almond paste is kneaded and formed into fruit shapes and skilled hands give special touches to transform the cakes into works of art. The pastry shop produces 4,050 pastries and 275 large cakes and pies using 150kg sugar each day. Next is the Fruit, Cheese and Coffee Pantry were a team of eight staff arrange assortments of fine cheeses and selection of crackers. They wash, slice and prepare the fruits whilst another seven staff in this area operate and control the coffee and condiment service, butter distribution and fruit juice dispense. Here they use 172kg butter, 2,204kg fresh fruits, 1,210lts coffee, 175lts coffee cream and 165kg sugar each day. Finally the Dishwashing area where thirty staff work continuously throughout the ship’s galleys pre-washing, sorting and feeding a constant stream of china, glasses, silver, pots and pans into the dishwashing machines. In the sculleries eight staff scrubs and polish all the oversized pots and pans and the silverware is cleaned and polished. Daily there are 50,100 dishes and 16,500 glasses cleaned with 227lts detergent.

In total 306 crew members are dedicated to providing an unforgettable on-board dining experience from the Executive Chef and Maitre d’ Hotel to the sous and pastry chefs, butchers, bakers and even an Ice Carver. Day and night these world class chefs create freshly prepared cuisine from scratch for the elegant specialty dining rooms to the theme buffets on deck.

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Is this all? Well not quite. You see this is not just to feed the 1,872 passengers but also the 840 crew members. The food must cater for the cuisines of the staff on-board which is made of 17 American, 99 Indian, 14 Portuguese, 42 British, 355 Filipino, 120 Indonesian, 27 Italian, 10 Romanian, 24 Serbian, 15 South African, 28 Thai and 14 Ukraine. The balance of the 840 are Australian, Brazilian, Bulgarian, Chilean, Czech, Dominican, Estonian, Fresh, Irish, Latvian, Mauritian, Moldovan, New Zealander, Saint Lucian, Slovakian, Swedish, Ugandan, Zimbabwean, Argentinean, Belgian, Canadian, Croatian, Danish,  Dutch, Hungarian, Macedonian, Mexican, Montenegrin and Polish.

Princess passengers can get an exclusive glimpse at the behind the scenes action on-board with a Princess Cruises Ultimate Ship Tour. This 3 hour tour is conducted (for a fee) on a sea day and is restricted to approx 15 passengers and is accompanies by the ship’s photographer as no photography is permitted. After signing the disclaimer passengers explore the foc’sle (anchoring area), galley, food production and storage areas, engine control, medical centre, print shop (yes, they have their own print shop to produce the Princess Patter, menus, etc), laundry, photo lab, backstage on the Princess Theatre and other areas typically seen only by the ship’s crew. The final stop of the tour is the ship’s Bridge, the command centre and chart room where passengers meet the Captain and have a photo taken with him, enjoy special refreshments and take in the dramatic views from the bridge’s wraparound windows.

First it was to the bow and the Foc’sle (anchoring area) where we were shown the huge chains that hoist the anchor, huge line ropes and the anchors. Next the Galley and Food Production Area we met with the Executive Chef who explained the process of providing thousands of passengers’ meals and saw the inner working of the ship’s kitchen whilst being served a glass of French Champagne with caviar canapés. We got to peek into the food storage and production areas.

In the Princess Theatre we entered the Back Stage Area and got a glimpse behind the glitz and glamour of the sparkling stage productions scenery, costumes and lighting and sound.  We got a good insight into what goes into making sure the shoe goes on night after night and got meet the cast, production staff and enter the dressing area and got our picture taken on stage. We found the Engine Control Room fascinating, the centre of the ship’s mechanical and electrical system, where the technical team monitor everything from the operation of the ship’s propellers to the water supply in our stateroom. We met with the Chief Technical Officer who explained the numerous functions they oversee and an explanation of the process to generate the vast amount of power to operate the ship.

From here we went into the Print Shop where they not only produce the Princess Patter, but all the menus and tour information.  We saw the printing equipment and heard about the production of the ship’s stationary.  The group then meets with the Photo staff at the Photo Laboratory and get a run down on the photo lab with the latest digital printing equipment and operation of the thousands of pictures taken and printed each day.  Next onto the Main Laundry where tons of passenger and crew linen, towels and clothing are laundered 24 hours a day. This area is where we met with the Laundry Master who oversees this impressive and noisy operation.

Finally, the tour concluded at the ship’s command centre, the Bridge, where we met with the Captain and his team, learnt about the state of the art navigational equipment and all the safety systems on-board the ship. The view from the wrap around window was breathtaking, just spectacular and the Captain posed with us for a final photo.

Participants received a variety of themed mementos at many of the stops along the route and some interesting facts printed for us. As well as the photos taken along the way we received the picture of our group with the Captain in a frame, a chef’s jacket, personalised stationary and a luxurious plush bathrobe as worn by the passengers in the suites all in a take home Princess bag.

This was a tour I really wanted to do and was not disappointed with our glimpses of areas reserved for staff only.

Rene Klingohr from the Customer Service desk provided me a wealth of information on the Dawn Princess and I have shared some of it with you. Dawn Princess is a twin-screw diesel-electric vessel designed for worldwide cruising. In addition to two main fixed-pitch propellers, she has two rudders, two bow thrusters, two stern thrusters and two stabilising fins. The hull and superstructure are of welded steel construction.

She was built by Fincantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani Spa in Trieste, Italy and christened 7^th May 1997 in Port Everglades by the original cast of the “Love Boat”.  Her maximum capacity is 3,194, 2,272 passengers and 922 crew. Her total displacement is 39,997 tons and she is 261.3 in length. I was given details of the Main Propulsion Motors, Generators, Engines, Stabilisers, Propellers, Evaporators, Boilers, Air Conditioning, Engine Control Room an Black & Grey Water (all of which you can learn about on a comprehensive ship’s tour) but I will reduce to some interest facts.

Each main engine piston weighs 310kg

Each crankshaft weighs almost 15 tons

The cubic capacity of each cylinder is 70,370 cm3

The cubic capacity of each engine is 1,125,920 cm3

At full speed Dawn Princess burns about 2,300 gallons an hour; this is one gallon every 55 feet

Each stabiliser fin is 5.4 meters long and generates a maximum lift of 88 metric tons

The main swimming pool on Riviera deck holds 88 metric tons of fresh water

The total generating capacity on-board is 44.5MW (59,675HP), enough to light three quarters of a million table lamps

We were provided with extracts of the Ship’s Official Log Book, with the entries recorded by the Officer of the Watch on the Navigational Bridge. The Bridge is manned 24 hours a day by two Officers working four hours on, eight hours off, in a three watch system. The Bridge Command and Control Team are made up of Captain, Staff Captain, Senior First Officer, First Officer, Senior Second Officer, Second Officer, three Third Officers and two Deck Cadets.

So as you can see a lot goes into making the cruising experience and Princess certainly live up their slogan “The Consummate Host”.

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Have you been on an ultimate ship’s tour? What was your favourite area of the ship to see? Or are there other areas you would like included on the tour?

*All opinions and photos are our own and we were not financially compensated for this post.

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