The Sapphire Princess was quite a remarkable ship and quite able to handle gale force winds and rough seas. The crew of 1,000+ did a superb job of managing an outbreak of Norovirus while at the same time providing great food, entertainment, and services. With a length of 946 feet and width of 123 feet and eighteen stories tall, the Sapphire Princess looked like a city within the cities where it docked. Built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan and registered in Bermuda, the ship and it’s international crew, operated a significant business on the sea. The 61,000 ton ship used two diesel electric turbines to power the propulsion electric motors which produced 20,000,000 watts of power. The fuel capacity is 750,000 gallons. One gallon of fuel was enough to move the ship fifty-two feet! .
Between the Internet Cafe and the Library, there were quite a few PC’s available for use of the Internet. For those with their own laptops, WiFi service was available in the Library and the Reading Room. The satellite connectivity was generally good although the bandwidth was not consistent. The cost was thirty-five cents per minute — expensive if you used it a lot, but inexpensive compared to $4.95 per minute which was charged for any satellite phone calls. The obvious alternative for phone calls would have been to plug a headset into your laptop and use Skype or Teleo for VoIP. The cost would have been only an additional two cents per minute! I suspect the people reading books in the library would not have appreciated it though.