"It's very important that it's realistic," Husted says. There are even virtual "binoculars" that will give you a close-up view of what's on the giant screen. After only a few minutes I felt a little woozy.Įverything about the sim - the controls, the displays, the furniture and even how long it takes to walk between the different control stations - is just how it would be on a ship. Though the room isn't moving an inch, your mind plays a lot of tricks when the horizon dips on a screen that almost surrounds you. The ship is rolling in the heavy seas or at least feels like it's rolling. Suddenly, we're in the middle of a stormy English Channel with whitecaps on the water beneath brooding skies. Once the lights are off, though, and the program is running on the 220-degree screen beyond the windows, it all gets much more exciting.
The sim's most prominent feature is dark windows wrapping around three sides of the space that reflect the harsh ceiling lighting. Removable panels like those that cover office ceilings around the world are overhead and a dull patterned carpet straight out of an airport terminal is beneath my feet. "They're huge vessels, so we wanted the to be huge."ĭespite the glowing computer displays and radar screens that dot its interior, the sim is decidedly underwhelming when I first walk in. "We wanted to give the impression that when you come onto a simulator, you come onto a huge cruise vessel," says Technical Director Lars Husted.
Unlike a typical airplane simulator that moves on hydraulic jacks, the bridge sims are stationary rooms built to match the bridge size and layout on two of the company's ships, the Royal Princess that took me into Sydney and Holland America's Koningsdam. But CSMART's most impressive attraction is the four bridge simulators (or sims) where officers can sail to ports around the world on any of the company's 101 ships. The building, which stands in a pancake-flat polder reclaimed from the sea 60 years ago, is so new you can smell the fresh carpet. I had an hour of classroom-based lessons followed by three hours in the bridge simulator and a demonstration in an engine room simulator that copies the design and equipment of actual ship engine rooms. My day and a half at CSMART was an abbreviated version of the weeklong training session that a student officer would experience. "When those competencies interact, you create safety." "You always have to plan carefully and assess risk ," he says.
Before newly employed officers can work on a ship and then once a year during their tenure, they come here for lessons on not just operating a massive ship, but also how to work and communicate as a team, make decisions and follow procedures both in routine and extraordinary circumstances.Ĭombining those skills is at the core of Carnival's training, says Hans Hederstrom, the center's managing director. Opened last July, CSMART is where Miami-based Carnival trains the bridge and engineering officers for the 10 cruise lines it operates worldwide (besides Princess, the company's brands include Holland America, Cunard, and of course, Carnival). I'm 10,000 miles away in an office building just outside of Amsterdam on a full-size bridge simulator at Carnival Corporation's Center for Simulator Maritime Training Academy ( CSMART). I'm not on the Royal Princess at all, and I'm not even in Australia.
It's a breathtaking sight and I have to remind myself: It's not real. There's even an early morning ferry from Manly taking commuters to Circular Quay.
Against a brilliant orange sky, I can make out classic Sydney sights: the captivating sails of the Opera House, the iron arch of the Harbour Bridge, and the island speck of Fort Denison. I'm on the bridge of the cruise ship Royal Princess as we pass The Heads, the two rocky promontories that form the harbor's entrance. Nothing quite prepares you for the experience of sailing into Sydney Harbour at dawn.