It takes a staff of 2,400 people working day and night to keep Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas sailing. From tiny cruise-ship kitchens, chefs whip up 30,000 meals a day. All waste onboard is dealt with in secret, crew-only areas of the ship. And the engine room and captain’s bridge work together to power and move the floating city. We go below deck on one of the world’s largest cruise ships.
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00:00The 12 decks of the transatlantic giant named Symphony of the Seas comfortably accommodates
00:13six and a half thousand happy passengers.
00:16They will enjoy an incredible adventure, a journey around the Caribbean.
00:23This is a quiet and peaceful place now.
00:26You won't find pirates here, unless they're from the entertainment team, of course.
00:31Several days of unforgettable rest await passengers, but throughout their voyage, they won't ever
00:36see the hundreds of devices, machines, and sophisticated bits of engineering technology,
00:41nor the nearly one and a half thousand people on the lower decks of the ship that are part
00:45of a crew of more than 2,000 who will make their vacation truly comfortable and safe.
00:54Symphony of the Seas is in fact the largest passenger ship in the world today.
00:58It's even been recognized in the Guinness Book of Records.
01:00But what do we mean by the largest?
01:03It's not actually about the size when it comes to ships.
01:06Another liner in the same class, Harmony of the Seas, is longer than Symphony by several
01:10centimeters.
01:11But the Symphony has the largest displacement, the amount of water that is displaced by the
01:15ship due to its volume.
01:17Remember Archimedes' principle?
01:19While the Symphony has a displacement of 228,000 tons, that's equal to five Titanic's.
01:25A giant like this isn't able to enter just any port.
01:28In Russia, for example, there is only one that can accommodate this ship, in Vladivostok.
01:33While the most advanced places in this regard are countries in Asia, Europe, and of course
01:38the United States.
01:44Port Miami, Florida's major seaport, here is its cargo terminal.
01:48All in all, it has rather modest traffic figures, about a million containers move through here
01:53per year.
01:54So we've got maybe a dozen cranes and just a couple of ships docked here at the moment.
01:58This isn't what this port is famous for, of course.
02:00That would be something else.
02:02That I'll show you right now.
02:04Here is the world's largest passenger terminal for cruise ships.
02:08Here, behind my back, that's not a multi-story building, no, it's the stern of a ship named
02:13Symphony of the Seas.
02:156,000 people are boarding it right now.
02:18And in the span of just a year, 5,600,000 people pass through this passenger terminal.
02:24That's more than the entire population of Miami.
02:31It's not so much that Americans are particularly fond of cruises, as it's that Miami is ideally
02:36located.
02:37Mexico, Cuba, and the Bahamas are all just a few days' travel from here.
02:45That's why this port was chosen by several major cruise companies to be their starting
02:48points.
02:50You can see that right now, six different liners are all preparing to leave, and they
02:54belong to four different operators.
02:57But Symphony of the Seas immediately stands out from the others due to its incredible
03:01size.
03:05At about the same time when a shipyard in France began to build the ship itself, several
03:10thousand miles away from Europe, on a completely different continent, right here in Miami,
03:15they began to build this terminal.
03:17Again, essentially, it turns out that the ship wasn't built to fit the size of the
03:20port, but the port was built to fit the size of the ship.
03:26The main feature of this terminal, or maybe I should say the main art installation in
03:30this terminal, is these two rotating propellers, which are exact copies of Symphony of the
03:34Seas propellers.
03:36They each have a diameter of 50 feet, and the weight of the real ones is 200 tons each,
03:41but these are of course a bit lighter.
03:47By the way, the ship doesn't have two of these propellers, but three.
03:50They're mounted on potted propulsion systems, so-called azipods.
03:54Those are made up of huge pods which are suspended from the bottom of the ship at the stern.
03:58They are capable of rotating 360 degrees, meaning azipods provide the giant vessel with
04:04easy and quick maneuverability.
04:06I will show you in more detail how all this works in the second part of the episode, but
04:09for now, I will only say that these azipods were manufactured in Finland, and then sent
04:14by sea to the French town of Saint-Nazaire, the home of the shipyard where the vessel
04:18was built.
04:30In general, Symphony of the Seas is a huge construction set consisting of hundreds of
04:34thousands of parts which were manufactured in dozens of different countries located on
04:39different continents.
04:41So it began to unite people from distant corners of the world even before the first passengers
04:46of various nationalities ever stepped on board.
04:57Boarding a ship is very much like boarding an airplane.
05:01Even these gangways, well, those who often fly, they know that they are almost identical
05:05to those in airports, well, maybe these are a little wider.
05:09Only planes have a maximum of two such gangways, while the largest airliners might have three.
05:14But here there are five of them.
05:16And another interesting peculiarity, those who fly know that boarding of an aircraft
05:21starts about an hour before departure and stops 20 minutes beforehand.
05:25But since 6,000 people have to go through here onto the ship, boarding begins six hours
05:31before departure, so that everyone has time to make it on board.
05:38This is why cruise ships almost always depart in the evening.
05:42All day long, passengers come on board, get used to their cabins, and then closer to sunset,
05:47the gangway is finally pulled back, the doors are all closed, and the ship rolls away from
05:51the quay wall.
05:56Thanks to those azipods that we mentioned earlier, and an additional tail rotor, Symphony
06:00of the Seas completes this difficult maneuver by itself without the help of any tugboats.
06:05Only a small Coast Guard patrol boat moves ahead of it, dispersing small pleasure boats
06:10and ferries out of the liner's path.
06:12This moment, already routine for the crew, is always quite exciting for the passengers
06:16who at the moment of departure always pour out onto the upper decks.
06:20After all, the sea and even more so these calm oceanic waters aren't anything like
06:24railroad tracks, and these gigantic ships are actually seen off in a very different
06:29way from trains.
06:33However, the passengers will hardly have time to feel any separation woes on the ship.
06:40This giant floating city is designed to be fun and entertaining.
06:49The liner is 1,053 feet long, more than three soccer fields.
06:53Its width is 216 feet, and in this huge space there are 28 restaurants, 3 swimming pools,
07:0010 Jacuzzis, a theater equipped with the most complex Broadway machinery, an ice rink, a
07:06tropical park, a water park, a fitness center, a casino, and many shops and boutiques that
07:11constantly keep tourists in a state of shock and awe and continuous happiness.
07:16It is somewhat reminiscent of something out of a fairytale, a place where you need only
07:20eat, sleep, and drink.
07:25When you look at the map of the ship, these are posted everywhere here, you get the feeling
07:28that the ship is some kind of toy.
07:30Yes, there's 12 passenger decks, yes, it says 2,750 cabins, but what do all these numbers
07:37mean?
07:38You only start to get a sense of it right here, in the elevator atrium.
07:42Just take a look, six high-speed elevators transport thousands of people to a height
07:46of 229 feet around the clock, and at the same time, all of this is now moving at a speed
08:03of 30 miles per hour in the direction of Mexico, incredible.
08:11Even more incredible is the fact that the ship is directly controlled by only three
08:14people while it's in motion, and among them, there is no boatswain, no skipper, no helmsman.
08:22Even the captain himself isn't on the bridge all that often.
08:28Today, the people who control the ship from here, from the captain's cabin, are no longer
08:35what you might imagine, sailors with tough, salty, weathered faces.
08:39They look more like office workers, and this place resembles some kind of control room
08:43or something.
08:44And here's my biggest disappointment.
08:47This is the captain's chair.
08:49There's no steering wheel.
08:51The ship is controlled by two special joysticks, they're called anti-mice.
08:56In general, everything is technologically advanced, safe, highly scientific, and completely
09:01lacking in romance for heaven's sake.
09:05The width of the ship, I will remind you again, is 216 feet, therefore, side mirrors
09:11here clearly wouldn't cut it for parking.
09:13So when parking, well, when mooring that is, they use a special mooring console.
09:18Here it is.
09:20By the way, it sticks out from the side of the ship a bit, you see, it kind of hangs
09:23over the side for better sightlines.
09:27There is a second, identical control panel on the other side of the liner.
09:31Either the left or right one can be used, and that's determined by which side of the
09:35ship approaches the quay wall.
09:38The compass and binoculars found here are likely more of a tribute to maritime tradition
09:43than anything else.
09:44Mooring here, again, takes place with the help of space satellites and GPS.
09:51When the ship finally gets into the correct position, it is, you might say, tied to the
09:56pier with special ropes.
09:57This is almost the only step of the whole docking process that looks pretty much the
10:01same today as it did several centuries ago.
10:05The huge ship is held in place by means of 22 of these extra strong ropes, each about
10:115 inches in diameter.
10:13Right now, they're stretched like piano strings, they even vibrate a little.
10:16And here's something amazing.
10:18If you knock on the rope, you'll have to take my word for it, it's very solid, it feels
10:22like there's some kind of metal core inside.
10:25But in fact, this is not the case.
10:26The rope is woven from a variety of synthetic threads.
10:30They're very strong, they have a high elasticity coefficient, they're able to handle the highest
10:34levels of stress.
10:35But at the same time, as you can see, the rope is already quite frayed, despite the
10:39fact that it's less than a year old.
10:41It'll be changed soon.
10:44Previously, mooring ropes, or to be more nautically accurate, mooring lines, were woven from hemp.
10:52The use of polypropylene fibers is a more recent development.
10:56These ropes turned out to be much stronger, and what is even more important, they don't
11:00absorb moisture, so they're much lighter.
11:02Curiously, on these ropes from the 21st century, these shields from the 16th century, if not
11:07earlier, are still put to use.
11:10They're called rat guards, and are needed to keep rats from the shore from running up
11:14the mooring lines onto the ship.
11:18Today, this small Mexican port has a real full house.
11:27Three cruise liners arrived here at the same time, and all the berth walls are occupied.
11:31Here, Symphony of the Seas, 6,000 tourists, Norwegian Dawn, about 4,000.
11:37And lastly, a ship called Celebrity Reflection, there are about 5,000 more people on it.
11:44In total, about 15,000 people are coming ashore all at once.
11:48This, by the way, often becomes a serious headache for the staff of the ships.
11:53In the evening, when tourists come back here, relaxed, we'll say, after sampling some tequila,
11:58they have a bad habit of trying to board the wrong ship.
12:03But there haven't been any cases of someone sailing away on the wrong liner, not yet.
12:07The stewards and representatives of the Port Logistics Service work like clockwork and
12:12don't drink tequila, just like the other 2,000 crew members of Symphony of the Seas,
12:16who, unlike the passengers, don't go ashore when the boat docks.
12:24While tourists are exploring local attractions, on the lower decks, preparations for the main
12:28task of the day are underway, cooking dinner for 6,000 passengers before they get back
12:33on board.
12:34And for this, you first need to bring up several tons of products from the storage area to
12:39the galley.
12:49Usually, the entire selection of products for the crews is loaded onto the ship at the
12:53port of departure.
12:54The liner can only take water on at interim stops, and even then, only bottled water.
12:59They are very afraid of the possibility of food poisoning here.
13:03Since thousands of people live compactly on the ship, a simple case of E. coli can turn
13:07into a real epidemic in the span of just a few hours.
13:11And even putting that aside, not all countries can provide products of the high quality that
13:16Symphony chefs require.
13:19Milk, meat, seafood, vegetables, frozen products, fish, all of that and more is stored in the
13:30dozens of other refrigerators.
13:32Anything and everything that might be needed to prepare the 350 different dishes that can
13:37be found on the ship's restaurant menus.
13:40Of all the foodstuffs stored on the ship, only two products are honored with having
13:44their own private refrigerators.
13:46Well, simply because they are the most consumed items.
13:48First, we've got bananas.
13:51Here are plenty of boxes with yellow ones, and there are also boxes with green ones.
13:55They will finish ripening during the cruise.
13:58And the second product is the most popular.
14:00What do you think it is?
14:01I'll show you now.
14:03Eggs.
14:04More than 120,000 eggs are eaten on board every week.
14:07Moreover, bananas and eggs are, as economists and logisticians say, goods of inelastic demand.
14:14Their consumption rate, and hence the required planned amount, is easy to predict.
14:19Things are more interesting when it comes to the rest of the products on board.
14:22A specially developed computer program analyzes the number of passengers and their nationalities
14:28even before setting sail.
14:29And depending on that information, it gives recommendations on how many of this or that
14:33product you need to take with you on any given voyage.
14:36For example, if there is a large number of Latin Americans on board, more meat and spicy
14:41foods will be added to the menu.
14:43If there are more Asians, they'll reduce the amount of dairy products.
14:46And if Indians are prevalent, they will increase the number of curry dishes, but at the same
14:50time they will bring less beef.
14:58One of the main delicacies of any Haute Cuisine is of course the Atlantic Lobster.
15:03Here he is, such a handsome guy.
15:05This dish, by the way, is not cheap, therefore it is very rare.
15:09And even here it's cooked, well, not all that often.
15:12It's a one-of-a-kind item, one might say, made 6,000 times every day.
15:22Each of these workers, there are mostly Filipinos working here, shells about 500 lobsters a day.
15:31Those of you who have ever shelled, for example, crayfish, can imagine how much work this entails.
15:44On just three decks, more than 1,000 people are employed in this huge floating kitchen,
15:49250 of whom are professional restaurant chefs.
15:52They fry, boil, flambe, sauté, and whip around the clock and in shifts.
16:06Take breakfast rolls, for example, 12,000 of them are baked here every day.
16:13In fact, the responsibility of the cooks here is enormous.
16:17The clients on the ship are very demanding, the products are expensive, and the cooking
16:21portions are gargantuan.
16:23Therefore, the slightest mistake in the proportions of ingredients can cost tens of thousands
16:28of dollars.
16:29Well, for example, tomato soup, 160 liters of it.
16:33If it's a little bit overcooked or under-salted, that's it.
16:39Eat it yourself, since no one else will.
16:44Seating and serving several thousand people in the liner's restaurants at the same time
16:48is a separate logistical task, and they strive to make it so that customers don't have to
16:53wait more than 15 minutes for an order.
16:56Several hundred waiters of 50 nationalities cope with this task, each of whom must speak
17:00at least three languages.
17:03And bartenders should know at least five.
17:06Well, technically there was an exception made to that rule.
17:11In general, everything on this ship suggests that this is a high-tech structure, created
17:16according to the latest leaps of science.
17:19For example, in this bar, drinks are mixed, well, probably in the most progressive way
17:23on the planet.
17:24All you have to do is make your choice on the tablet screen.
17:30So yes, we confirm, and that's it.
17:35We go up to the bar, and that's it, enjoy it.
17:38Another high-tech installation, though it doesn't seem like one at first glance, is
17:42a huge park with its own microclimate, which is laid out in the central part of the liner.
17:52Here, among the shady alleys serenaded by the songs of specially brought in crickets
18:02and frogs, it's easy to forget that you are actually somewhere in the middle of the ocean.
18:09In this park, not many, just no less than 10,000 plants have been planted, from rose
18:14bushes and orchids to lemon trees, and all this grows here, blooms and flourishes.
18:21What's the secret?
18:22I'll show you.
18:23Here, for every plant, maybe I'm not being generous enough, well, for almost every blade
18:27of grass practically, there's a special tube placed next to it, which from time to time,
18:32now you will probably see it, yes, fresh water is sprayed out, and not just water, now I'll
18:37show you the irrigation station.
18:40Here, through these pipes, four tons of specially prepared water are pushed every week.
18:47Here's the main secret, here, in this blue barrel, fertilizer is kept in here.
18:52Water passes through it, carries away some of the fertilizer, and carries it to the plants.
19:01So thanks, in fact, to this seemingly unremarkable little device, this whole huge blooming park
19:07exists.
19:13Another secret of the permanently green park is its honeycomb structure.
19:19There is no solid ground here, all the plants, from the trees to the grass, are inserted
19:23into special cells in separate segments, small plastic boxes.
19:28It turns out to be something like a huge puzzle.
19:31If one of the segments suddenly starts to get sick or dry out, it's simply changed
19:35out for a new one upon arrival at the home port.
19:39This wall of vertical landscaping in the ship's central park follows the same principle.
19:44The gardener, who turns out to be a bit of an industrial climber as well, simply climbs
19:49in the bucket and changes out the parts of the wall that he doesn't like, and discards
19:53the old segments.
19:54There is no time for sentimentality, nothing should prevent people from enjoying their
19:59time here and being filled with joy.
20:01Remember what I said at the beginning, that this episode was about a cruise ship without
20:04romance and without leaving anything out?
20:14In the next episode of Monster Machines, why doesn't the ice on the only floating ice
20:20rink in the Caribbean melt?
20:22Well, you know, it tastes like the most simple ordinary Russian snow.
20:29How can 1,500 sheets be washed and ironed in one day?
20:34I want one of these for my house, only thing is, I'm afraid it won't fit in my laundry
20:39room.
20:40Does Symphony of the Seas have enough lifeboats in the event of a disaster?
20:44How are the engines of this liner, which consume 3 tons of fuel per hour, arranged and how
20:49do they work?
20:50Fifth grade physics at work on the largest ship in the world.
20:54What is a 19th century telephone doing on a super modern ship?
20:58Hello?
20:59Bridge?
21:00And how can 30,000 plates get washed in two hours?
21:05Mr. Clean would be impressed.
21:07See all this and much more from the anatomy of the world's largest cruise ship in the
21:11next episode.
21:16In the first part of our look at the anatomy of the largest passenger liner in the world,
21:20we told you about and showed you, why is Miami the home of this monster?
21:26Essentially, it turns out that the ship wasn't built to fit the size of the port, but the
21:30port was built to fit the size of the ship.
21:33Who are the people who run this giant and why is there no helmsman on the ship?
21:38This is the captain's chair.
21:40There's no steering wheel.
21:42What room on the ship is the most secure and guarded?
21:46Here it is, the holiest of holy of Symphony of the Seas storage areas.
21:51And how many cocktail recipes does the least talkative bartender on the largest ship in
21:55the world know?
21:56You're not much of a conversationalist.
21:59All this was in the previous episode and now we have even more about what's hidden inside
22:03this monster, a cruise ship without romance, but with science.
22:26And what could be less romantic on a ship than the machinery room?
22:30In the lower part of the ship, where tourists aren't allowed, day and night there's the
22:33roar of machines working in the semi-darkness and these are what makes this entire giant
22:38city on water move.
22:40Symphony of the Seas' six diesel engines have a total power capacity of more than 100,000
22:44horsepower.
22:45For a point of reference, that's approximately the power capacity of 1,200 cars.
22:50However, not even close to all of this energy is spent directly on moving the vessel.
22:55The ship consumes colossal amounts of electricity.
22:57For example, for lighting, there are about 140,000 light bulbs on the liner.
23:02Also, electricity is spent on the operation of air conditioning systems and on the production
23:07of large quantities of water vapor.
23:09Yes, yes, despite the fact that steamers and steam engines are a thing of the past, modern
23:14liners still use steam.
23:15A lot of steam.
23:16No, it of course no longer rotates the turbines as it did, for example, on the Titanic, but
23:21steam is needed for more domestic purposes.
23:24It's a simple method for heating the water in showers and bathrooms, and it also heats
23:28different spaces when necessary.
23:30However, those aren't its main function.
23:32Steam is necessary for the heating systems for the huge fuel and oil tanks, and it's
23:37also used in fuel-oil separators.
23:39It's consumed by the turbo drives of some pumps, and, well, if it's necessary, for
23:43several other important machines on ships.
23:46It's consumed by the turbo drives of some pumps, and, well, it's still necessary for
23:50several other important machines on ships, even in the 21st century.
23:54Moreover, it must be perfectly clean so that impurities don't build up on the walls of
23:58the steam lines.
23:59Therefore, it is created from distilled water.
24:03But where do they get such large amounts of distilled water?
24:06It's produced right here on the ship using giant distillers.
24:09Here they are.
24:10There are three of them.
24:11The principle of operation is very simple.
24:14Well, it's basically a big tea kettle.
24:16This is where water from outside comes in.
24:18Here it's boiled, steam accumulates in the upper part of this chamber, and if the sea
24:23salt settles down at the bottom, so after a while, overheated steam, there's a lot
24:28of it, enters this chamber.
24:30Here it condenses, and as a result, the finished distilled water is drained through the pipe.
24:36And the leftover salt?
24:37No, it's not used in the kitchen, they just throw it back into the sea.
24:41Several tons every day.
24:46In the end, the resulting steam is used for its intended purposes.
24:50Moreover, part of it, when it condenses again, is sent back to the boiler.
24:53This is the so-called reverse cycle.
24:57But most of it is irretrievably lost, and therefore the reserves of distilled water
25:01have to be replenished all the time.
25:07It's also needed to freeze an actual skating rink on the ship.
25:10Here you can skate during the day and watch an amazing ice show in the evening.
25:14That includes a number of Russian figure skaters.
25:19And, by the way, the ice here is of a very high, one might say, Olympic quality.
25:34The ice on the rink measures in at about 3.5 inches thick.
25:37While surely many of you have seen an ice resurfacing machine on TV, or maybe even in
25:41person, they've got the exact same kind here, though maybe it's a little smaller
25:45than typical ones.
25:47By the way, since this ice is frozen from desalinated seawater, it doesn't freeze
25:51quite as well.
25:52And according to the skaters, this ice is softer than that on which they are used to
25:56performing on land.
25:59To be honest, it's hard for me to imagine how ice could be soft, but what is absolutely
26:03certain is it's incredibly clean, distilled, I even gave it a taste, but it was really
26:08nothing miraculous, just your typical snow.
26:15The total weight of the ice in the arena is several tons and a refrigeration unit is needed
26:20to freeze it.
26:21Again, it's about the same as the one used on professional skating rinks and professional
26:25arenas.
26:26Well, this one might be a little smaller.
26:28It's located, as you would expect, in the area under the stands.
26:32The principle of its operation is very simple.
26:35Through special pipes, here they are, wrapped in thermal insulation, water and refrigerant
26:40with a temperature of 14 degrees Fahrenheit are pumped to the arena.
26:46This freezes the ice layer by layer.
26:47It takes about five days to prepare the entire ice rink.
26:54The owners and designers of Symphony of the Seas claim that this ship is not only the
26:58largest in the world, but also the safest.
27:01There are so many different safeguards in place in its control system that it is argued
27:05it's almost impossible to leap a liner into disaster, even if you were to deliberately
27:10try to do so.
27:12Still, in the event of an extreme case, there are means of evacuating the ship on board.
27:16They have to accommodate the evacuation of all passengers and crew if something were
27:20to happen.
27:21These lifeboats, to match the ship, are the largest in the world.
27:24Each has a capacity of 370 people.
27:31There are 18 of them on the ship.
27:32Moreover, they are kept fully prepared at all times.
27:36Their fuel tanks are filled.
27:37They have a cruising range of about 155 miles.
27:41If there was a special supply of dry rations and water on board in special sealed boxes
27:46in the event of a disaster, there would be no time to bring it all from the ship.
27:52In general, everything is thought out to the smallest detail.
27:56This unsinkable and waterproof plastic jar, for example, contains signal flares.
28:03In addition to the huge boats, there are also many rafts that inflate themselves in the
28:07water and several of these high-speed rescue boats.
28:11They are used to coordinate action and quickly help people who find themselves in the water.
28:15The crew must participate in evacuation exercises at least once a month.
28:20This vessel has never seen a real red alert, but thanks to constant training, 2,000 crew
28:25members are ready for any turn of events, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
28:39The ship also has its own waste recycling plant.
28:42Here it is.
28:43This, for example, is a machine for pressing cardboard packaging.
28:48Here cans are collected.
28:52Then they are all crushed into these large bricks.
28:59Sulphane is processed here.
29:01At first glance, it is a little paradoxical how they deal with glass bottles.
29:05I'll show you now.
29:07They are simply broken into little pieces so that they take up less space, and they
29:11are sorted as follows.
29:13Here we have a big bag with dark glass.
29:17Here we have broken transparent bottles, and here we have green glass.
29:21And here's what's surprising, as is everywhere else on the ship.
29:25In this waste recycling shop, everything is kept perfectly organized, there isn't even
29:30an unpleasant smell here.
29:36The creators of this ship seem to have a thing about cleanliness and environmental friendliness.
29:41In a good way, of course.
29:42For example, the liner's engines burn several tons of diesel fuel every hour.
29:47But at the same time, not black, not even blue, but exclusively white smoke comes out
29:52from the symphony's exhaust pipes, all thanks to scrubber cleaning.
29:57While if to simplify it as much as possible, the exhaust gases are washed with seawater.
30:02This dirty water is then maintained and stored in special tanks until the ship arrives at
30:07a port, and only carbon dioxide with a minimum amount of soot and impurities is released
30:13into the atmosphere.
30:15Scrubbers and engines are managed from this control room.
30:18It's located in the very center of the ship, almost at the waterline itself.
30:21Therefore, there are no huge windows to be found here, like on the captain's bridge,
30:26but there are 51 monitors which display thousands of different parameters.
30:32The largest touchscreen control panel even had to be hidden in the ceiling.
30:36Here it's already pretty cramped without it.
30:39There's a special emergency phone in this control room, well, there's a telephone
30:46for singular emergencies.
30:48Its peculiarity is that it will work in any case, even if, say, God forbid, of course,
30:53all systems here completely fail and all power is lost.
30:56By what means, I'll show you now.
31:02This technology, well, I don't know, it's probably around 120 years old, and it's
31:08very strange to see it on this ultra-modern ship, but technology such as this is sometimes
31:13the most reliable.
31:15Hello, bridge?
31:18Apart from that, the equipment in this control room is of a quality comparable to NASA's
31:23Flight Control Center, and the whole vessel is practically a spaceship.
31:26Sure, they're not jet, but diesel-fueled V-engines, but each weighs about 200 tons.
31:32Two of them are 16-cylinder, four more are a bit smaller with only 12-cylinders.
31:41These giants were made in Italy, and then they were sent by a special convoy, first
31:45along blocked-off roads, and then delivered by sea to a shipyard in the French town of
31:50Saint-Nazaire.
31:52Exploring each of the six fiery hearts of this monster was such a difficult technological
31:56task that we decided to show it to you in more detail.
32:00That's why we're taking the reverse path to the engine, from the Caribbean Sea and
32:04Miami through France to the Italian industrial port of Trieste.
32:13The company that makes the world's largest marine engines in Italy is actually from Finland.
32:18It's called Vyartsylja.
32:21It got its name in honor of a small Finnish village where this business once originated.
32:26It's curious, but today the urban-type settlement and the Vyartsylja station of the October
32:31Railway are part of the Svartavala region of the Republic of Karelia, a typical Russian
32:36single-industry town with a modest budget.
32:39At the same time, Vyartsylja has an annual revenue of several billion dollars.
32:47But back to the engines.
32:49Each of them consists of several thousand parts.
32:52Some of them are made right here in Trieste.
32:54Some come from subcontractors.
33:03Cast and forged blanks, for example, are sent from a metallurgical plant in the Czech Republic.
33:09The so-called connecting rods come here to the plant in this form, crudely forged, very
33:14coarse to the touch.
33:16Later they are then installed in these machines.
33:18They each weigh 330 pounds, by the way.
33:21Many of us when we were kids, not everyone of course, in shop class did something similar,
33:25carving out various objects.
33:27It's about the same here, only the size is much larger and the accuracy is very high.
33:33As a result, the connecting rod is worked to, well, just to a mirror shine.
33:42Everyone who has ever gone over the engine of their car, seen the pistons, immediately
33:46recognized them.
33:47Well, this one, believe me, is exactly the same.
33:49Well, a little bigger, this weighs about half a ton.
33:53And the volume of the cylinder in which it works is 6.5 liters.
33:57That, by the way, is a bit more than the total volume of my car's engine.
34:01Well, by the way, using the crankshaft as an example, you can easily understand the
34:05principle of operation of a piston engine.
34:08Look, in this position, for example, the piston would be in the upper position, and this crank
34:12pin is also up.
34:14At the same moment, the other piston is in the lower position, and the crank pin, respectively,
34:18is at the bottom.
34:19Thus, the pistons move up and down, and the shaft rotates.
34:23Everything is very simple.
34:24But the most amazing thing is that this particular shaft weighs 25 tons, its length is 26 feet,
34:31and it's made of one single solid piece of metal.
34:35Just unbelievable.
34:40By the way, there are only a few metal lads in the world that can carve a 26-foot item
34:45like this from a multi-ton bar of high-strength alloy steel.
34:49The Turner's worst nightmare here is to screw up even one detail.
34:52The crankshaft is worked on for several weeks, and it costs more than a million dollars.
34:58Ultimately, after numerous checks and tests, the crankshaft and thousands of other parts
35:04are sent to the assembly area.
35:11In a few more weeks, the engine is finally ready, and now tests await it.
35:19If everything is in order, the engine is rolled back onto the ship, all technical fluids are
35:24drained, and it's checked again and again.
35:31In the testing chamber, the engine has already been checked out by numerous automated computer
35:35systems, sensors, and so on and so forth.
35:38But no one has done away with the good old visual control test.
35:42Everything here, again, is like in a car.
35:44We open the hood and look inside.
35:49Perhaps the most important difference between this engine and a car engine is that there
35:53are 12 of these hoods, or rather, viewing windows.
36:01Behind each of these windows is one of the cylinders and valves, connected by a connecting
36:05rod to the crankshaft.
36:07If you wait for the oil to drip down from the parts, you can simply see with your eyes
36:11if any jams or other metal defects have formed during the tests.
36:15When at this stage, the inspectors give the go-ahead, the only thing left is to pack up
36:20the engine and send it to the customer.
36:24But that's easier said than done.
36:28Anyone who has ever, well, transported, say, a dresser, knows that the most necessary thing
36:32to get that done are duct tape, some styrofoam, oh, here we have some, well, and a lot of
36:40bubble wrap.
36:41When moving a finished engine, everything is about the same.
36:45All protruding parts are carefully wrapped with these foam corners, sealed with tape,
36:49cling wrap, and so on and so forth, while in general, everything is the same as when
36:53moving furniture.
36:54There is a slight difference, though.
36:58The weight of this dresser is 180 tons.
37:05It takes a week just to get it ready for transportation.
37:08By the way, at the same time, road services and a special platform, the only one in Europe
37:13that can support such a weight and size, are being prepared for the giant's move to
37:17the port.
37:19Only here, at the very end, in the finished goods warehouse, can you begin to understand
37:24the true scale of this giant engine.
37:26Its height is about that of a three-story building.
37:29It weighs several hundred tons and generates the amount of electricity that would be needed
37:33for a small Moscow neighborhood.
37:36The actual biggest mechanical heart in the world, of the world's biggest cruise ship.
37:43And, let me remind you, Symphony of the Seas has six of them, and although at the same
37:49time, even at full speed, usually no more than three of them are working, the fuel consumption
37:54is still massive, and that's why the company that owns the ship uses a little trick.
37:59At the starting point of the journey, in Miami, they take on board only as much fuel as is
38:03needed to reach the next port, where fuel is cheaper, and when they're already in Uruguay
38:07or Mexico, for example, the liner is filled up, with diesel, all the way.
38:12Thanks to this, the ship owner manages to save several million dollars per season.
38:17Uh, however, there is one caveat.
38:19For some reason, the fuel from these countries often contains water.
38:23By accident, of course, I'm sure, but this is unacceptable for the engine, therefore
38:27all fuel is cleaned directly on the ship before being fed into the combustion chamber.
38:32But how can several tons of fuel be cleaned per hour when moving at full speed, too?
38:39And here, centrifugal force comes to our aid.
38:42Fuel enters these separators, which are in essence huge mixers, and it's spun at a
38:47breakneck speed.
38:48What happens in there?
38:49Water, which is heavier, is forced out to the walls, and the oil product, as the lighter
38:54portion, accumulates in the center and then enters the engine.
38:58Fifth grade physics will work on the largest ship in the world.
39:03At the same time, the fuel in the separators is also heated.
39:07That makes it more runny, and it therefore burns better.
39:10By the way, the liner has an electric drive.
39:12No, its powerful internal combustion engines do not directly rotate the ship's propellers.
39:18They spin generators that generate electricity.
39:20And then, along the high voltage lines hidden in the bowels of the liner, the current travels
39:25to the electric motors, which spin the propellers.
39:28This diesel-electric circuit makes the vessel more maneuverable.
39:33After all, an electric motor, unlike a piston one, can stop and change the direction of
39:37rotation almost instantaneously, and it doesn't need a gearbox.
39:41The motors, together with the propellers, can also rotate 360 degrees around their axis.
39:47Therefore, it becomes very easy to operate the liner.
39:50However, even the most high-tech devices and numerous automatic safety systems are
39:56not able to 100% protect the ship from basic human error.
40:00Three weeks after we filmed this episode, in the same Mexican port where Symphony of
40:04the Seas stopped for an afternoon, two cruise ships managed to collide.
40:18Oh my god!
40:20Oh my god!
40:25There were no casualties.
40:27Both ships even continued on their voyages.
40:29But still, this situation once again reminded me that regular emergency evacuation drills
40:34on the ship are not at all excessively precautionary.
40:40However, maybe no less dangerous than a collision with another ship would be a situation in
40:45which 6,000 passengers were left hungry.
40:47They almost seem to fear this even more here.
40:50The 350 exquisite dishes on the menus of 28 restaurants will satisfy even the most
40:55demanding customer.
40:59We already showed you how this monstrous kitchen works in the first part of this episode, and
41:03perhaps at this point the question occurred to you.
41:06How can you quickly wash a large number of plates, mugs, glasses, and cutlery after dinner?
41:13On this ship, in general, all technological processes that can be, are built on the principle
41:18of a conveyor belt.
41:19Well, this is logical, of course, because this is one of the most effective forms of
41:23labor organization.
41:25And here, in the kitchen, the dishwasher is also one huge conveyor machine.
41:30Come with me, I'll show you.
41:31Sorry, dirty dishes are being loaded from that side, and clean ones are already coming
41:35out here.
41:36The whole process takes less than one minute, extremely fast.
41:40Mr. Clean would be impressed.
41:46There is no other choice, because after every dinner, about 50,000 dishes have to be washed,
41:52and that's not counting the kitchen utensils.
41:54Though it may seem like less than a critical machine, the dishwasher on the ship is actually
41:59such an important unit that it has a twin backup in case the main one breaks.
42:05Another one of the liner's important machines is the washing machine.
42:08It was built to special order, and installed in the bowels of the ship at the time of its
42:12construction, at the shipyard.
42:13A whole two technical decks of Symphony of the Seas have been given over to laundry.
42:18Here, about 10,000 towels are washed every day.
42:21They also try to automate this process as much as possible.
42:25Housekeepers collect dirty towels from the rooms, sort them by color, and send them to
42:29the laundry decks.
42:31Here, they are loaded into this receiving bin.
42:33Homeowners know that the most difficult thing to iron are sheets and duvet covers.
42:38It's really quite time-consuming to do with an iron, but here you have to iron 2,000 sheets
42:43every day.
42:45And that's why they installed this machine here.
42:47It not only irons the sheets, but also, this is the most amazing thing, I'll show you now,
42:52it folds them.
42:53Look, in an ideal way.
42:55Not just anyone can do that.
42:57In short, I don't want to do this.
43:00The laundry employs several hundred people.
43:04There's more than a thousand in the kitchen.
43:06Dozens more are in the engine room and on the bridge.
43:09A huge army of the crew invisibly makes every second of the stay of the passengers on this
43:13ship unforgettable, comfortable, and safe.
43:16And yet the passengers themselves will never see most of them.
43:19They are not allowed to leave the ship.
43:21They are not allowed to leave the ship.
43:23They are not allowed to leave the ship.
43:25They are not allowed to leave the ship.
43:27The passengers themselves will never see most of them.
43:30Only service personnel who are in direct contact with tourists are allowed to climb up onto
43:34the passenger decks.
43:35That includes waiters, maids, bartenders, salespeople, hairdressers, and other staff.
43:41Others, sometimes for several weeks at a time, don't leave the depths of this monster and
43:45go out into the sunlight at all.
43:47But keep in mind, first of all, they are well paid for it, and second, at the end of the
43:51day, they work on the largest cruise ship in the world.
43:55And although they can't take in the incredibly beautiful sunsets of the Caribbean Sea from
43:59their own balcony, behind the walls of their cabins, which are located on the lower decks,
44:04you can hear the rush of water.
44:05Yes, I promised that it would be a story without romance, but still.