For the next week, I’ll be radio silent as I set sail on a Steampunk Cruise.
Okay… not actual sail. Maybe diesel. STILL, it’s a cruise and it’ll be full of lots of people in pretty, pretty clothes. Yes. I’ll take photos.
This will be my first cruise. Have you gone on one before?
Well, the Diesel engine was developed by German inventor Rudolf Diesel in 1893 so that makes it steampunk.
I wish you a gret time.
A *great* time.
Can’t spell today.
Sounds like fun. What’s the name of the ship? It might be a steam-powered vessel: they’re still common enough, though increasingly outnumbered by diesels now.
Bob, the hover-over on the sidebar names the ship as Royal Caribbean’s “The Navigator of the Seas”. As I understand most modern cruise liners, they are diesel-electrics; the engines run huge generators, which power enormous electric motors found in swivelable pods hung under the hull that turn the screws. This combination gives the boat almost unbelievable low-speed maneuverability. I once saw (from the deck of one cruise I was on) another cruise liner move _directly_ _sideways_ nearly four times its beam to get out of a crowded dock space, before starting forward at all!
> This will be my first cruise. Have you gone on one before?
My wife and I have cruised several times, always in circumstances similar to yours (i.e., a professional convention being held on-board). On one hand, it’s like a enormous floating hotel / casino, but without anyplace “outside” to escape to. On the other hand, there should be many lovely little nooks to cozy up into, most with views of The Sea. Which is nice if you like sitting on the shore and looking out over the water, etc.
Since you are an experienced con-goer and -presenter, this will all seem very familiar. The actual “being on a boat” is essentially unnoticeable after the first couple of hours. (No, neither one of us had any issues with motion sickness, not even a little, not even going to bed. But take it easy on the alcohol the first day, most especially if you have taken any anti-nausea drugs.)
Enjoy!
Your ship has come in. Or is going out. Or something. 🙂
Have fun, take pictures!
Hi John, thanks. Yup, the Navigator is diesel-electric with Azipod propulsion.
Hopefully your experience is better than mine. I spent most of the first day in my cabin alternating between fearing I would die and that I wouldn’t. But after one of the most miserable nights of my life I woke up the next day more or less better and was mostly free of nausea the rest of the trip.