Carnival Breeze Bridge Tour and Interview with the Captain

cruise ship bridge

Bridge on Carnival Breeze

Where inside a cruise ship has a view forward, backward out both sides, and down below?  Most passengers never get to see this area of the ship, and if they do may be so interested in everything else they don’t notice, but the best views on board from anywhere inside the ship are found on the bridge!

cruise ship bridge crew

bridge crew at work

I’d imagine that is a good thing.  The captain, officer of the watch, or whoever else may drive the ship needs to see everything around them far more than the passengers do.  Of course the ship has all sorts of electronic gadgets to assist the bridge crew in their navigation.

cruise ship steering wheel

big ship, tiny steering wheel

Every cruise ship bridge we’ve seen had a very tiny steering wheel, almost lost among all the other navigation equipment on the bridge.  Unlike the ships of yesteryear steered with their large wheels, modern ships hardly use them.  Manual control is usually done with more of a joystick instead.

cruise ship bridge

docking station on Carnival Breeze

The front window extends the width of the ship and beyond.  The beyond part is what offers the views to the sides, back, and below.  Yes, there is a window in the floor.   The extensions on either side of the bridge allow the captain to dock on either side of the ship with a good clear view.   Both sides have identical navigation stations.

window in the floor of the bridge on Carnival Breeze

window in bridge floor

This window aids the captain in docking the ship.  With a cruise ship, the captain has a very lot of ship to dock.   It’s a good thing ships that large can move sideways (by use of thrusters) as well as forward and backward.

cruise ship captain

Captain Stefano Battinelli of Carnival Breeze

Captain Stefano Battinelli had the honor of taking Carnival Breeze across the ocean on its very first transatlantic cruise.  He took the time out of his busy day to show us around the bridge and we even had a cup of tea with him.  Cruise ship captains are real people, although they do have far more responsibility than the average person.

Interview with Captain Stefano Battinelli

We did this interview somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on our transatlantic cruise.  While looking out the front window we noticed a hitchhiker on the bow.

bird resting on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean

hitchhiker on Carnival Breeze

cruise ship bridge

Look up – more control panels above on Carnival Breeze Bridge

bridge on Carnival Breeze

A cruise ship bridge covers a vast area

cruise ship diagrams

diagrams of the ship hang on Breeze bridge wall

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14 Responses to Carnival Breeze Bridge Tour and Interview with the Captain

  1. cindy knoke says:

    I have never done any of these cool things and I have been on 20 some cruises…….

  2. I was fortunate enough to be invited to the bridge on a cruise. It was one of the highlights of my trip. The other highlight was waking each morning to hear the Italian Captain Stefano say “Gooda Morning Ladies anda gentlemen” Very nice. ,

  3. I enjoyed both these candid images inside the ship’s bridge (something I would have called the cockpit in the infinity of my ignorance) as well as the video interview you shot with the very personable Captain Stefano. But, was someone whistling “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” in the background or was I experiencing an aural hallucination? I love that bird perched as a lookout, too!

  4. Chris Beath says:

    Thats a lot of blue in that bridge. The floor is blue the celing is blue the consols are blue and outside the water is blue too.

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