TOURING THE BRIDGE ON THE ENCHANTED PRINCESS

Saturday, January 24, 2026
Enchanted Princess, At Sea
77F, sunny

Sweet TK took this photo

Thanks to Brian K, some of our group had a great tour of the Bridge this morning. This was only my second such tour and the Captain and First Officer really took their time with us.  I wrote some details down but could not capture everything they said.

When Captain Di Martino speaks, everybody listens! 

Capt. Raffaele Di Martino, a native of Naples, Italy, started out as a green hand on ships and worked himself up to Captain of such a large vessel!  He has been with Princess for 21 years. His favorite port this cruise is Antigua, but his all time favorite port is Naples and his family lives a half hour away.  The captain is ALWAYS in charge of the ship. The one exception in cruising is when a pilot is onboard for the Panama Canal—then that pilot is in control of the ship.

 

Our gang on the tour

About 1/3 of the Bridge---some of the monitors

in back

Of course, there are four six-hour watches just as on the U.S. Brig Niagara, the ship where I was humbly part of the crew.  Ninety per cent of the time, computers operate the ship. While we were there, there were at least 4 officers on the bridge.  Many monitors show indicators, camera feed, and the electronic navigational system with radar. We could tell there were many cameras that were focused on the ship’s exterior, fore, aft, starboard, and port.

 

At sea, the ship is steered using the track-pilot system with a small joystick giving instant control of the heading and the radius turn.  Across the entire ship are thousands of smoke detectors, Hi-Fog sprinklers, fire doors, watertight doors, and flooding sensors, all linked to the safety management system and control system in the safety center. The Captain and other officers can manage any emergency situation the ship would encounter. No Titanic here.

 

Monitors galore

Another monitor

Captain Di Martino said that we were currently in the North Atlantic, with a water depth of 15,000 feet and that we were sailing at 19 knots per hour (10 a.m.).  He said that the seas have been rough but stabilizers make a big difference.

 The First Officer, aka Bridge Manager, then spoke to us. There is a brig on board, as well as a morgue.  One exciting time was when they rescued 7 fishermen whose boat had capsized in the Caribbean.   He told us he has never seen anything odd in the Bermuda Triangle, which we are passing through twice on this cruise. 

 

First Officer and more monitoring equipment

Captain Denise G!

First Officer with us

More monitoring equipment.

I tried to take a photo of the "tiny" joystick

that steers the ship

Cruise ships always avoid hurricanes and he said awhile back they had to turn around and stay two extra days at sea so they did not encounter a hurricane.  I do hate to report this, but he said the ship uses 700 gallons of fuel per hour.  The 16 page brochure we were given, Engineering Onboard Enchanted Princess, was far more detailed than I could understand.

Examples:

This was the easy stuff---

Date of Delivery: October 2020 (so this ship is relatively new)
Guests: 4450
Crew: 1380
Length:  1004 ft.
Height: 216.5 ft.
Breadth:  125 ft.
Max speed: 22 knots
 

The following information is above my pay grade---

4 main engines using heavy fuel or diesel oil
Gray water system
Thrusters
Hydraulic Power Pack
Oil/Water Separator
Electric Drive Motor
Propulsion System
Shaft Line Functional Arrangement
Stern Tube Seal
Bilge System
Centrifugal Bilge Water Separator
Static Bilge Water Separator
Daily Oily Bilge Pumps
White Box
Advance Waste Water Treatment System

That was an easy way to make the blog look longer and more intelligent. Maybe my engineer sons will understand the brochure!

It really was a great tour and I was fortunate to be on it!  Both the Captain and First Officer were very cordial and friendly. 

 After the tour, TK and I went to the Pub Lunch in the Amalfi Dining Room for yellow split pea soup and fish n chips. When the Captain made his usual report at noon, we learned we were ove the Puerto Rican Trench, the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean--28,000 feet!  We are 391 (450) nautical miles from Antigua with 773 nautical miles (890 miles) left to get to Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale. 

A new thing in the photography studio is taking photos of one’s irises. I wanted to do that and can’t wait to see the photos tomorrow. 

Tonight was another Formal Evening, so we put on our best duds and joined our gang for dinner—beef tenderloin and lobster. That was very good, but too much!

TK’s Takes:  He spent his non-refundable onboard credit on a Tommy Bahama long sleeve shirt. He was not outside the ship much today. Pub lunch was so-s0. The lobster at dinner was small, but good.