Tour on a large modern ship Viking Grace.
Immediately start with the emotions. This is a very cool ship! I love technology, and this kind of enterprise in the world of ships. Still probably saw the photo or live huge multi-decked ships moored in ports, larger than many houses.
I was lucky enough to be held in sailing on such a ship a whole day to explore and see all that is possible to visit the bridge and machinery space, and notably to hang out at night, of course. That is to say, a full test drive of the ferry Viking Grace has carried.
Photos and text by Martin
1. Finnish shipping company Viking Line created by captain Gunnar Eklund in 1959, carries out passenger and cargo transportation in the Baltic sea. The first ship of the company started regular traffic on the route Galtby — Mariehamn — Grade and became the first connecting Finland and Sweden with avtoproma. And now the Viking Line fleet consists of 7 vessels, the newest of which is environmentally friendly Viking Grace, commissioned in 2013.
The new ferry Viking Grace, operating out of the Finnish city of Turku to the Swedish Stockholm and back, can accommodate 2800 passengers and is one of the most modern technologically advanced and environmentally friendly ferries in the world.
2. Terminals at Turku and Stockholm were upgraded, due to the size and large passenger capacity Viking Grace, so they can take the increased number of passengers. The ferry departs daily from Turku at 20:55, arrives at the Aland Islands, at 01:05 and 5 minutes later on its way to Stockholm.
Almost all the ships company, in addition to the new Viking XPRS and Viking Grace, have women’s names ending in “ella”: Gabriella, Mariella, Amorella, Rosella, Cinderella. The fact that the wife of the company founder’s name was Ella.
3. Existing routes Viking Line:
Turku — Mariehamn/Langnas — Stockholm;
Helsinki — Mariehamn — Stockholm;
Mariehamn — Kapellskär;
Mariehamn — Stockholm;
Helsinki — Tallinn;
Tallinn — Stockholm (summer).
4. Ferry Viking Grace has 12 decks, and all the residential cabins are located on decks 5 to 9. In total the ship 880 cabins of different classes: Suite, Premium, cabins with window, 2-and 4-seater, family cabins, cabins without Windows in the options for 2-4 persons, cabins economy class, as well as cabins for Allergy sufferers and people with disabilities.
5. Just talk about the most interesting. The price of the cruise ferry Viking Grace starts from 30 euros per cabin, even with the current exchange rate is very inexpensive. Importantly, in the cabin can choose between 2 or 4 people depending on availability and booking.
6. I lived in the Seaside Four cabin that has 4 beds and window with sea views. If you want, you can buy all the whole cabin and live alone, you place quite a lot of turns.
7. In the Seaside cabin Four has a TV, hair dryer, toilet and shower. Version of the same cabins for four, but without the window, will be cheaper. Basically, if you decided to go out the weekend on the ferry Viking Grace, the window will not be necessary, because in the cabin with friends you will just sleep.
8. The toilet and shower in my cabin was not very big, but quite comfortable.
9. When walking around the ship, sometimes it seems that you are on some huge entertainment space with a cool design and layout but should be on the deck and galleries or the open deck, so once you understand that it’s a real short trip. Although can’t see at night, night should be hanging.
10. With parties on Viking Line everything is perfectly in order, because the evening is the whole ferry turns into one big party. On the ship there are 4 large restaurants and 4 bars, two-storey nightclub Vogue, designed for 1,000 people, with a 50-foot screen, as well as SPA.
11. Most of the Viking Grace on the night are spaces for entertainment and recreation, and the day turn into cafes and restaurants where you can enjoy delicious and nutritious to eat after a stormy night.
12. Each ship Viking Line is several restaurants with different concepts, which should meet the tastes of passengers of different nationalities and speakers of different culinary cultures. All meals, with rare exceptions, are cooked on Board, fresh food loaded on a ship every two days.
13. The most popular among the passengers enjoy meat dishes. In second place — fish and seafood, recently their popularity is growing, and the third vegetables.
14. On Board the Viking Line ships have theme restaurants with American and Italian cuisines, pizza and burgers, dinner, 7-course, outdoor wine bar, restaurant a La Carte gourmet and traditional Breakfast buffet. On average, during the month on the same ferry spent about 250-300 tons of food. Viking Line has partnered with well-known winemakers and offers visitors to its restaurants traditionally a wide selection of wines.
15. Restaurants in the buffet or snack bars located on each ship. In addition to several types of salads, appetizers, main dishes, side dishes and desserts, there are many delights and children have their own menu.
16. On short-haul routes passengers are offered snacks, delicacies, salads, pasta and sweets. Beer, wine, soft drinks, tea and coffee included in the price, and their quantity is not limited!
17. The buffet menu is updated four times per year: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In developing the new menu brings together all of the chefs of the company.
18. Technically, the ferry Viking Grace the kitchen for all the restaurants and cafes are located on the same logical space. Well conceived and organized for simplicity and speed the delivery of products to the kitchen warehouse and refrigerators.
19. The restaurants A La Carte offers a classic European menu, including seasonal specialities and exotic dishes from distant countries, and a bottle of any wine can be purchased at a price Duty Free shop, which is 25% cheaper than in the stores of Finland.
20. All the products are on the ferry Viking Grace is loaded with a special lift, further distributed to specific warehouses and refrigerators. Everywhere clean and tidy. Vegetables and fruits are so tasty that the right wanted to take and eat out of the box, but you can’t.
21. Okay, enough about food and the pleasures in the journey, move to the control center of the ship to the bridge. The coolest part is that the entire path is actually a ferry Viking Grace he goes on autopilot, and the commander just controls the rate.
22. For active stabilization of a vessel is used system pull-out stabilisers and “hydrofoils”, driven by hydraulics. Excitement sensors transmit a signal to the control system in real time, which advances and retracts the stabilizers, changing their angle while pitching up to 90%.
23. All the equipment for the bridge are made of the shipbuilding division of the company Rolls-Royce.
24. The length of the vessel Viking Grace is 218 meters, width of 31.8 meters, maximum draught of 6.8 meters, a weight of 5,000 tons, a displacement of 57,600 tons, a speed of 21.8 per site, or 40 km/h.
25. From the bridge, all controlled by the main door on the ship.
26. The photo below clearly visible work of the autopilot. The ferry was moving full-time course in the port city of Turku, but all of a sudden on the route were two fishing boats marked with small white triangles around the red dotted line. The navigation system of the ship noticed the disturbance, calculated the probability of collision or collision course, paving the bypass path, and turned our boat to the right.
27. The number of personnel on Board varies from 200 to 250 people, depending on loading. Basic vehicle inspection system are duplicated. Remote control separate engines and all systems directly involved in movement of the vessel, taken separately, being located closer to the actual power plant and engines.
The ferry is equipped with 4 eight-cylinder engine Wärtsilä 8L50DF with a capacity of 1,325 horsepower on one cylinder, running on compressed natural gas. Engines are the power plants that generate electricity to drive two electric motors.
28. The total capacity of power plants — 30400 kW. This is enough to drive two electric motors which bring the ferry Viking Grace in movement, and screw maneuvering.
29. Now look to living rooms. Premium cabin with sea view — double bed and a sofa bed for children up to 18 years. There is a TV, telephone, Hairdryer, refrigerator, toilet and shower.
30. Flow Suite cabin with sea view. A double bed and a sofa bed for children up to 18 years. There is a TV, telephone, hair dryer, refrigerator, two toilets and a shower. Area — 41 square metre.
31. In Suite Flow the whole living room or bedroom to hang out there.
32. On Board korablya is the biggest floating Duty Free shop.
33. On the ferry to different places, you can find entertainment room for children with play station games, small rides, swings and playgrounds, a swimming pool with balls.
34. Internet on the ferry Viking Grace is delivered through four powerful antennas (the round thing on the roof), connected to 3G networks and LTE. On all the decks you can catch Wi-Fi, the speed of Internet access changed during the movement of the vessel, but remained quite acceptable all the way.
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