A Feast For Your Senses: Fuel for your sense of wonder and sense of humor: A special invitation to go Behind the Helm

For those staying in a Sky Suite, a not so widely publicized surprise you may experience is getting an invite to visit the ship's bridge. These visits are scheduled at the Captain and their officers discretion and timing so be prepared to rearrange your schedule if such an opportunity arises. Such a visit is always fascinating and can differ from ship to ship. Most often, your tour will be led by a bridge officer rather than the Captain but you still can learn a lot about what goes into driving a cruise ship.

Those who booked the Conjurer's Package for the Magic Castle Conjurer's Cruise also received a bridge invite. We received that letter in our cabin near the end of the cruise. We opted not to attend as we had already had our experience. We expected this visit to be more of a large group and appreciated our more private visit. After our tour, we ran into the other Sky Suite couple we'd met on embarkation day as they had been scheduled for the following hour. It was really nice to see that Princess had even split up the Sky Suite tours so they felt more personal.

We received a form letter signed by Captain Paolo Arrigo in our cabin inviting us to attend a bridge tour scheduled for the next morning at 9AM. The letter instructed us when and where to meet the security officers. Once there we signed in next to our names so they could keep track of who was visiting the bridge and when. We were allowed to bring still cameras/phones but not any bags, video cameras, food or drinks. The security officers called ahead to make sure the bridge was ready for us. Then they led our small group consisting of Dad and I, two travel agents who worked together, and the couple who seemed to be hired to document events during the Magic Conjurer's cruise, down the corridor to the bridge.

We were welcomed onto the bridge by Bridge Officer Federica who was wonderfully kind and thorough in her explanations and answering everyone's questions. We were encouraged to take as many pictures as we wanted.

I loved seeing how many female officers were working on the bridge. The other officers also answered any questions when they could. When a question came up about having to sit for so long in their chairs, one officer demonstrated her love for a new motorized chair that can move around and change positions with the touch of a button.

Every ship bridge has a glass panel in the floor on the wing so the officer maneuvering the ship against the dock during a port arrival can look down and see where the side of the ship is relative to the dock.

Looking back at the ship from the bridge windows:

The Sun Princess bridge was designed with a separate glassed in room so that other officers not currently on watch can perform their duties such as monitoring routes, weather conditions, holding meetings etc without the distraction of any noise from the main bridge area.

Federica went over each section of this huge bridge pointing out what all the computer systems and buttons do. She is a great asset to the Princess Cruises brand. She would be great as a mentor for upcoming future officers.

The ship has two horn buttons on the bridge. One for the standard horn you'll hear used on every cruise ship, and a separate button for when they want to play the Love Boat TV Show Theme horn. I resisted the urge to ask to press the button.