Our Viking fleet has now been in warm layup, or hot layup as some call it, for a year. On a recent visit to spend time with our dedicated crew, we shared what the past year has been like—an unusual and challenging, hopefully once-in-a-lifetime experience that some of the crew would also like to share with you.
A hot layup means that we are able to move the ship. That's a minimum safe manning on board the ship. If we go to a cold layup with our ship, that means there would only be three or four people on board, and you would not be able to move the ship. That would take a lot longer to actually start up the operation again.
It isn't easy with the very minimum number of crew members on board. We have reduced manning at the moment. There are approximately 75 to 80 crew members on board, but all key positions are covered.
On the bridge, we are manned 24/7, so that means there's always an officer on board the ship who's actually on duty. They have the daily work as if we were in operation.
We are now in the heart of Viking Star, the control room, and the control room is manned all 24/7 with one engineer and one guy in the engine room all the time. Even in warm layup, warm layup is in many respects an optimistic approach to being ready. We are a 460-stateroom floating five-star hotel. As a matter of fact, my job remains that I should keep things ready for the word 'go.'
Normally, the provisions operations are the same. It's just that the volume of the food that we are issuing, the beverage as well as the consumers, are lesser than with the normal operation.
There's not much difference between the normal operation and layup period because, as public health officer, I need to ensure that the operation is running smoothly and efficiently in terms of all aspects of public health. The only difference is that, of course, Viking being known to always exceed expectations, being ranked number one in the world, being known to always be the first—the company has established all these new procedures relating to the current global situation. So with it, I have to ensure that all those procedures are in place, being implemented and effective, with the help of course of all the department heads. Everything is really working well to ensure the safety of our guests and crew on board.
What makes it possible to keep our ocean crews safe is Viking's scientific, multi-front approach that includes a step that no one else is taking.
We have a lab on board, which is the first ever PCR lab at sea, which is unique. We are so proud of it that we are the first ship to pioneer into this territory.
By having the PCR lab on board, I feel much safer. We are the first ship in all the world that has a PCR test laboratory on board, and we are proud of it.
Yes, exactly—a new addition to the Viking family, with their three lab technicians working in the laboratory here on board.
With the PCR lab on board, it manages to give us a sense of confidence that we are able to remain safe on board, and then life gets to return to some kind of normality. It takes a little bit of getting used to when you come in from the outside world and then you sort of see that we can have a kind of normal bubble on board the ship. There are social distancing protocols that we're bringing in, but at the moment, while we are insulated and protected from the outside world, we are able to share our spaces very comfortably and safely.
UV robots have helped us add yet another layer of safety, especially when combined with UV light that treats all circulating air.
We are known to be meeting or exceeding expectations. We are known to be ranked as number one in the world, and we are known to always be the first in the world. It is pretty obvious that we really are the gold standard in the travel industry.
In the unique world of the warm layup, creativity and leadership make all the difference.
Well, in the normal operation we have 101 crew members inside of the galley. At the moment we are seven. We try to do as much as we can with what we have on board and try to make everybody happy. I think that food is a very important part of having a warm layup for the crew, as that is what crew also looks forward to—to have their breakfast, have a nice lunch, and have a nice dinner. That helps already half a day.
There is no Saturday, Sunday, Monday for us. Every day is Monday. Our tasks go like this, for example: Monday is public health inspection. Tuesday is all public areas inspection—these are inspections that take hours, so we go meticulously into every area of the ship and check them as a team together. Third day is a drill followed by cabin inspections—we check all crew cabins. Fourth day is checking all guest cabins. Fifth day is checking outside the ship, such as open decks and open areas. So we have a set schedule. We still have this routine. We still have these regular meetings, and we get up every morning and still wear our uniform, observe our proper grooming standards, even though this is an extraordinary time.
Beyond their regular duties, everyone pitches in to help. At the moment we're a little bit more multitasking. I'm covering the position of staff captain, chief officer safety and security, and chief officer maintenance. Right now we are only a small amount of people, so we need to help out each other. We're helping with the safe life-saving appliances and firefighting, washing the ship, cleaning, scraping the rust, painting the ship, greasing the equipment, etc.
I stack the cups, the cutlery, the glasses, and the plates, trays, wipe the table, sanitize, mop the floor, segregate garbage. We're doing cabin cleaning, corridor vacuuming. We have been doing everything on board. When there's a big task, we all come together. We don't work for any department anymore—you don't work for the galley, you don't work for the restaurant, you don't work for housekeeping.
These stripes don't matter because my job is also flushing—flushing toilets, flushing taps, flushing galley water. We need to flush. I can tell you I've flushed more toilets in the last nine months than I've done in my whole life, I think. Why are we flushing? It is to keep the water flowing. Stagnant water can have bacteria. We flush water so we keep our system clean. These are always important—that we have a healthy environment on board.
Basically, if there's something that should be done and there is help required, we are all as a team—we're pitching in and we are helping. That's one thing I love most working at this company. The stripes, the positions, those are just designations to know who should lead the team, but once you are here, you would never feel that someone is above you because everyone treats everyone with respect, as if you are in one family.
By being on board and actually having touched other departments' responsibilities, that also means that what we can bring back to normal operation is the respect of other people's jobs on board the ship. I think that's something that we have learned in this hot layup period.
The difference between regular and the hot layup now is with the crew welfare—they're always arranging for some crew welfare so it will not be boring. We have yoga classes together, we play bingo together, ping pong is very popular, and so is foosball.
Foosball is a serious game. It becomes like a real battle between us. This is one of the highlights in a day.
Most of the time my hobby is—I usually go to the gym. Or I cannot live without—my hobby is watching movies. Karaoke—that's every Saturday from 8 to 10. I've been reading a lot, and also we're using the computer and the recreation.
There are actually quite a few ways to pass the time, including the inter-departmental favorite: bagel.
So what is this bagel? Not many have heard of what a bagel is. Bagel is something that is interesting too, and we have bagel competitions between departments. We split them as tech, engine, and hotel, and it's highly competitive.
It's funny to see how people just come out of their shells and they love that, right from chief engineer, captain, general manager, and so on—everybody's involved in it.
Keeping the crew active and inspired during this extended warm layup has required a lot of creative thinking.
It's very unique to see us sit in a place and we get snowed on, and we accumulate a lot of snow. We also have skis and snowshoes that our crew have been trying on.
I like the snow. This is my first time in snow. My first time experience. I'm very happy. I'm running on the ship, playing out with snow, building snowmen.
