Feb 15 - A Visit to the Bridge

SANDY SHORE : We received a surprising invitation to tour the Bridge and meet Captain Georgio Pagano. He’s been with Carnival for 30 years! Captain Pagano is from Genoa, Italy. He is a lovely man… we spoke of my home in the Monterey Bay area after he showed me pictures of Genoa on a Bridge computer. He said that when he lived in San Francisco for three years, he used to often drive to the Monterey Peninsula often because it felt like home to him. We have many Italians living in the Monterey area as our climate, soil, agriculture and available seafood are pretty similar to much of Italy. I have always enjoyed the Italian influence in our community.

The views from up here are truly spectacular as they would have to be since those in control of navigating these incredibly large ships need to have as much vision as possible out on the high seas and in particular when arriving in ports of call. There are even glass windows in the floor of both sides of the Bridge where you can look straight down many, many, many feet to the water and/or pier below. I refused to walk on it… just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

We were offered cappuccinos and espressos by the handsome officers who wear their whites well and enhanced our viewing pleasure up on the Bridge!

DONNA KAY PHILLIPS : Yesterday evening we were invited by Captain Georgio Pagano, a long time friend of my father's, to the bridge to watch him navigate throught the tight channel out of Rio. My father appealed to us not to arrive in our usual 15 min late fashion and we obeyed by arriving 15 min early only to find he and my step-mother, Diane, "no-shows." After waiting a full 1/2hr we nervously knocked on the door of the bridge to be greeted by the Staff Captain and various assortment of Italian Officers. They informed us that the Captain had not yet returned from his tour, we surmised the same was true for my father and step-mother.

About an hour later everyone arrived and we were welcomed onto the bridge with espresso and capuccino. I have been on the bridge of many cruise ship's in my life and I continue to be in awe of the vast expansive space, the amazing view as well as the intracacy of the navigation equipment. The computer monitoring systems are extrememly sophisticated. The bridge essentially maintains control of every working system on the ship.

Now days, there are levers in lieu of a ship's wheel; they are located in the center of the bridge as expected but also on either side of the wings of the bridge that just out from the side of vessel. There are windows in the floor of the wings that are used by the Captain when docking the ship against the pier. With the help of the side thrusters, these massive ships's can now dock in a myriad of tight scenarios without the aid of tugboats. They can move independently in any direction required. I have watched from our balcony as the Captain literally "kisses" the side of the pier bumpers - a stellar example of the precise control that this new bridge design affords.

On Carnival Cruise Lines uses Italian officer's and captain's exclusively; I am not sure why, it's just the way it has always been. I am told that Italy trains some of the best sea captains in the world and in my 40 years of sailing, this has always held true. In fact, we have done some fancy manuevering in and out of some of these channels and it astounds me how the Captain can get this ship to respond.

Aside from my parents, our traveling companions also include Pietro Dodero and his wife Natalie. Pietro, 90 years young, is from Genoa, Italy - also the birthplace of Captain Pagano and the Carnival Splendor. Pietro was the Chief Engineer for Carnival back when the company had only 1 small ship. He and my father worked side by side on each new ship as they pushed the boundaires of functionality vs. design. When the designer dreamed up split level dining rooms, my father had to work with Pietro to design an on board escalator that would allow the servers to easily traverse the two level expanse from upper dining room back down to the galley, multiple times per day.

These types of stories pour forth from Pietro nightly at dinner. I will share more of them later in this log as they are profoundly interesting. Needless to say, that this trip is also a very special chance for me to gain insight on my father's life aboard these ships when he was away from home during my childhood. As a business owner, I am realizing how much of my values came from his example, even though we did not see each other often. I see now that Carnival and the cruise line industry IS my father's home and his second family. He is very happy and content on board discussing the challenges of the day, it warms my heart to see him in his element again. - dkp