Chapter 24
Captain’s Corner

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Right as we left breakfast, we saw another whale out the portholes, so we rushed up to Deck 4 to catch a glimpse in the open air. Again, it was SO difficult to capture these beauties in pictures, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that the little black thing you can sort of see in the middle of the water was actually a tail.

We were starting to make our way up to Deck 10 because Jimmy’s “very pleasant good morning” announcement this morning had told us all about how Captain Fabian was going to be doing a Q&A session known as “Captain’s Corner” up at Outlook Cafe, starting at 10:15. Anxious to get as much out of this first experience on board a ship as possible, we thought that hearing what the captain had to say might be a good idea.

After ordering our now-usual latte, we found seats upstairs and enjoyed the excellent views from the Outlook. As I was up at the bar getting our coffee, Sarah—one of the cruise staff cast members we’d gotten used to seeing all over the ship by this point—also came up to the bar to order a cup of water for the captain. When the barista responded that Fabian never drank the water even when it was supplied, Sarah insisted that she knew he wouldn’t drink it, but the one time she had forgotten to get water had been the one time he’d wanted it, so she had to cover her bases. It made me laugh just overhearing this small exchange and thinking about all the politics and drama that must go on backstage on a ship like this. I can’t even imagine being in such close quarters with your coworkers for months at a time. One part of me thinks it would be so much fun to work on a Disney cruise ship, but the other doesn’t know if I could handle it.

In a totally unrelated anecdote, Tracy and I actually found several members of the cruise staff team on Instagram from their #DCLAlaska hashtag photos and have been following them since we got off the ship—Sarah included. She recently posted from the Wonder’s eastbound cruise back through the Panama Canal about how they were in a hurricane and everyone was getting sick with something like 7 sea days left ahead of them before their next port of call. Oof.

Anyway, back to Captain’s Corner. We took our seats and Fabian came in a few minutes later. After giving a little spiel about our current speed and the conditions and everything, he started to field questions from our group of about 30 attendees. You could tell that the folks interested in this talkback really ran the gamut in terms of interests. Several of them were like us and had pretty basic questions, but others were older men who had obviously served on ships in the armed forces and were interested in much more technical aspects of the Wonder.

Fabian was just a very personable guy, and he was excellent at putting almost all of his answers in terms that we laypeople could understand. I have no chance of remembering all the questions and answers, but here are a few factoids that stand out in my memory.

The ship always stays about a nautical mile away from any other ships that we might need to pass to ensure that safety is paramount.

Several of the narrow spots we’d passed through as we entered the Northwest Passage on the first few days are only deep enough for the ship to traverse in the very center of the straits.

The reason why Disney is able to employ such an international staff on the cruise line is because the ships are registered in the Bahamas and fly a Bahamian flag. If the ships were registered in the U.S., they would have to employ Americans only—which I think would greatly diminish the experience. We loved how every cast member we met on board seemed to be from some exotic land.

There are three decks below Deck 1 where the crew lives.

The length of time spent on board the ship before getting some time off depends on the person’s job. The captains have it “easiest” with a schedule of 10 weeks on, 10 weeks off. Other crew members might have schedules of 4-6 months on, followed by 2 months off.

When the ships are first built, they go through extremely rigorous testing to prove that they can handle pretty much any sort of weather as well as intense accelerations and sudden stops. After that, however, the crew tries to avoid ever having to stress the ships that much again. As a result, they will sometimes have to re-route cruises to avoid hurricanes and other bad weather rather than putting passengers through the unpleasantness of sailing through really rough seas. (Of course, the experience those Panama Canal cruisers must have had proves that it’s not always possible to stay away from bad weather).

There are always several officers on the bridge, which is how the captain is able to do events like the meet-and-greets (and also how he’s able to sleep). He will get called in, however, to make any tough calls and navigate through any tight spots.

Specifically focusing on our upcoming experience today, we learned a little more about the journey into Tracy Arm. After reiterating a lot of what Jimmy had told us in his announcements the previous night, Fabian also explained in more detail how we would actually navigate through the icebergs that we were going to encounter.

Smaller bergs (I think he said up to about 10 feet across) can just be nudged with the ship because they aren’t likely to go down as deep. The larger bergs, on the other hand, tend to have most of their total area below the water, and the ship needs to avoid them in order to prevent damage (again, he reiterated that nothing we would be encountering could possibly lead to a Titanic situation).

We also learned a little about the ship’s stabilizers and how they fill with water to keep the Wonder as level as possible at all times. Later, in the Tracy Arm part of the discussion, the captain also explained how these same tanks can expel water as another mechanism to help push away the ice.

Some of the questions that went over our heads related to the actual machinery driving the ship, but Fabian tried not to linger too long on those sorts of questions because he seemed to know that most of the group wouldn’t understand what he was talking about.

I think one of the most interesting things to learn was just how much of a hand the captain has in every component of the ship’s operation. From the departments you would expect—like navigation and guest experiences—to departments that you wouldn’t even think about like finance and human resources, Fabian oversees everything.

Captain’s Corner actually ran a little overtime because Fabian really wanted to make sure we all got a chance to ask our questions, but when it was done, he went off to start preparing the ship for entry into the Tracy Arm Fjord.

We were really glad that we had taken the time out to learn more about the ship from the man in charge, and I would highly recommend anyone taking a Disney Cruise (especially a longer sailing like this one) take advantage of similar opportunities.

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