Wednesday – March 11, 2026 – at sea to Manila day 2
There is no featured photo today. Since we didn’t have a chance to take an excursion to the Great Barrier Reef on Monday, we booked excursions to see parts of the ship. Today we were scheduled to visit the bridge and the control room beginning at 10:00 am. Both areas do not permit any photos. In fact, if you had a cell phone with you, it had to be put in your cabin before you could take the tour.
We began our tour by gathering in the Topazio Bar. The tour group was divided into 2 groups – ours with English and Spanish and the other group with Germans. The German group headed to the control room on deck 4. Our group took the elevator to deck 12 and went down the hallway near our cabin to enter the crew cabin area and finally the bridge. Once on the bridge we received an explanation of the various equipment and personnel. There is a crew of 6 on the bridge at all times. They work 4 hours, are off 8 and come back for another 4 hours. For a complete day there are 6 4-hour shifts manned by 6 crew – so a total of 18 crew during a 24 hour period. There are over 50 crew who work on the bridge which means they have plenty of “spares”.
There was no large wheel that is used to steer the ship – but there was a wheel slightly smaller than an auto steering wheel. Lots of displays with navigation information, an auto-pilot to guide the ship, a human lookout to be sure we don’t run over people or things that don’t show on radar, controls on port and starboard “wings” used during docking and lots more. While the 1st officer was explaining the docking controls we heard “Mike echo deck 4 control room”. Mike echo means medical emergency. Turns out one of the passengers in the German group fainted while on the tour. As a result, our visit to the control room was postponed until 2:15 pm.
Since our tour was cut short Jan was able to make it to World Games to get a few photos of the game today. The challenge was to move a paper cup along a maze laid out on a tabletop by blowing air from a balloon. There are a few photos showing someone doing that. Air did not place first today but neither did we place last.
We had lunch in the dining room and at 2:15 assembled in the Topazio Bar for our tour of the control room. The control room was explained by the chief engineer. He has been with Magnifica since she began service in 2010. We met his daughter on our excursion the first day in Sydney. She is a French interpreter. Again, no photos. We learned that Magnifica has 5 generators run by diesel fuel. The ship only requires 1 generator to operate when we are docked. While at sea under “normal” circumstances only 3 are required. This arrangement makes it easy to schedule maintenance on all 5. The generators power 2 electrical engines that drive the propellers. The propeller shafts are approximately 1 meter in diameter and over 7 meters in length. The blades of the propeller are 2 meters, so the total diameter of the propellers is 5 meters (15 feet). At the time we visited, the propellers were turning at around 150 rpm. The ship has 5 thrusters – 3 in the bow and 2 in the stern. These are mounted parallel to the keel and can be adjusted like the blades of a helicopter. The thrusters are used primarily during docking and can be used to rotate the ship in tight spaces.
At the end of the explanation by the chief engineer, we were allowed to ask questions. Jan was the one who asked how many generators are required when we are docked. When I asked a question, the chief engineer said he remembered us from the 2025 cruise. Don’t know why he would have done so because we didn’t remember any interface with him. Magnifica is his “baby” and he appears to know all her warts and blessings. We were not allowed to enter the rooms where the generators and motors are mounted (watertight decks 1-3) but could view them on closed circuit TV. The tours of bridge and control room were interesting – we learned much about Magnifica.
Don’t know why but the theme this evening was German Night. Jan and I both chose sauerbraten as our main course. It was OK but not close to the meal that Jan prepares at home. They didn’t serve potato pancakes which are one of the sides we all look forward to at home.
Today’s photos can be found here.
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