INTRO
Alyssa and Andrew dropped the $130 per person for the Behind the Fun Ultimate Tour onboard the Carnival Firenze. They don’t allow any recording equipment on the tour but do you want to read what I learned while taking it? Let’s go!
You read that correctly. You are not permitted to take any recording equipment on the tour. This includes cell phones. Not even if they're turned off and in your pocket. They will confiscate them. They do wand you multiple times during the tour.
So I took the little pad of paper and a tiny golf pencil from our room and took extensive notes for you!
They claim the tour is 3 and 1/2 to 4 hours depending on how many questions are asked but I feel like our group actually asked a decent amount of questions and we came in just under 3 hours
Pastries, coffee, and juice are offered at the beginning of your tour during the pre-tour meeting where you learn the rules and receive a hat and a lanyard but they take back the badge that hangs on the lanyard after the tour. You also have to fill out a health questionnaire proving that you're not sick.
Shannon, one of the HR directors on board the ship, was our tour guide and she was amazing.
THE GALLEY
One of the tour stops is the galley.
I found out they go through 120 gallons of soup per day, 3,000 lb of chicken on a 7-Day cruise, and approximately 3,000 lobsters on lobster night.
There are approximately 184 chefs, 3 butchers, and five cooks that help them.
There was a watermelon cutting demonstration where they were able to cut beautiful decorations into the watermelon in under 3 minutes
I-95
Another spot on the tour is the goods storage area. This is also called I-95.
The I-95, on deck zero, is the only unobstructed pathway from forward to aft and it is busy like a freeway during embarkation day.
Here I learned they take on 450 pallets of goods at every embarkation for a 7 day cruise including drinks, food, toilet paper, and more.
They maintain three additional days of reserves for beverages and food items in case an emergency comes up and we cannot return to our port of call.
The reason you don't find a lot of trash cans on board is because they have a very extensive recycling system and if all the trash goes into one bin then they have to spend extra time sorting it. Whereas if a waiter just comes and picks it up from you they can sort it right off the bat.
We also got to go to the guest laundry rooms where they do any guest laundry as well as all the linens. It was very hot, humid, and loud.
THE ENGINE CONTROL ROOM
We also got to see the Engine Control Room.
The engine control room is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with four teams total, each working a 6-hour shift.
While there are more engines for the ship, they never ignite more than four at a time because that would be a waste of fuel and four is plenty to carry a ship of that size at 21 to 23 knots.
CREW OFF TIME AREAS
We were able to check out several crew offtime areas
The crew mess is no longer rank-based. You can eat in either of the crew mess dining rooms regardless of your seniority on the ship.
The crew bar is only open from about 5:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., meaning people that work during those hours do not have a crew bar that they can go enjoy a beverage at. Crew are however allowed to have up to six cans of beer and one bottle of wine in their state room at any given time. They are not allowed to have hard liquor in their state room. The only hard liquor they can consume must be purchased from the crew bar during those hours or from a guest bar that’s closing, which must be taken back to their state room.
The crew does their own laundry, free of charge. Their laundry room is located next to their relatively small gym, the morgue, and the brig on a lower deck. The crew can also have their uniforms pressed free of charge by other crew members that work guest laundry.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Part of the tour includes sitting in the Human Resources conference room to have a question and answer session as well as to see photos of crew quarters, since they cannot allow us in to tour one for obvious reasons.
Here I learned the ship has a staff of over 1,400 on board and only eight of them are Americans. This is likely because crew work 7 days a week for 7 to 9 months straight without a day off and as an American I can say I would be unwilling to do that.
Human resources on board the ship are in charge of making sure that the crew is happy and satisfied so they can in turn do the same for their guests. This means there are many crew raffles, bingo games, parties, events, and acoustic nights where they can win prizes that might exceed their annual salary
We also found out that if you are dating or married to somebody and you both work for Carnival, you can sync up your contracts and your accommodations so that you can live together while on board the ships.
While most crew are employees, the casino is a subset of the Carnival corporation, whereas crew like retail workers are outside contractors from a third party.
THE BACKSTAGE AREA OF THE THEATRE
We have often been invited to do backstage tours on previous ships given our background as theatrical stage managers. This is always a pleasure and I was happy to see it was a part of this tour.
The shows you see onboard are actually run by a relatively small crew given their scope.
There are Emergency stop buttons located in various areas backstage in the event something goes wrong, a cast or crew member can push it to cause a total show stop. We did find out they have been hit accidentally before.
THE BRIDGE
The part of the tour I was most looking forward to was seeing the Bridge.
The bridge is manned 24/7 with teams working 4-Hour shifts and has three control stations and control of the ship can be passed from station to station as needed.
When in foreign ports, they always bring on a Pilot Captain but they do not hand the con over to the pilot captain. However, when in US ports, they do hand the con over to the Pilot Captain.
You get a free photo with whoever the On Duty Captain is up on the bridge and you can pick that up at Pixels Gallery after 6:00 p.m.
CLOSING
Overall, we found the tour very educational. We do wish that they allowed us to at least carry a bottle of water or offered snacks midway through the tour. We were offered some tap water partway through the tour and one bathroom break.
Some of the spaces they take you to are really loud and you have trouble hearing the crew members talking to you and explaining what they're doing. Specifically, this happened in the galley as well as in the laundry room.
You get free mimosas at the end of the tour when they return your phone and collect your tour badge.
We feel as though the tour is worth doing at least once in your life if you are interested in the inner workings of a ship. Plus, when we returned to our room hours later, we found a lovely plate of treats from the executive chefs as a thank you for taking the tour.
That’s all the highlights I learned on the Behind the Fun Ultimate tour onboard the Carnival Firenze. If you liked this post, check out the companion video on YouTube and give us a subscribe while you’re at it!
Thanks for reading and we’ll see you on the next adventure!