Logistics

 

We are on our way to Ushuaia. Two highlights for the day to report. 

First, today is my birthday and, this being a German cruise line, it was celebrated in style. We had dinner together with two pairs we have become friends with. At the end, a cake was delivered from the kitchen with much singing from the staff. 

Second, a special reception (I pretended it was for me) was held before dinner for the couple hundred guests in the upper decks. The ship’s captain, the cruise director, and the hotel director each took turns on stage relating to us their backgrounds and telling a memorable story or two from their experiences at sea. 

The hotel director’s tale impressed me. He is responsible for the kitchen. The complexity of assuring sufficient supplies of food of the expected quality to a ship underway around the world amazes me.  The ship must restock items at most ports, and the planning and execution takes months. 3 containers of fresh supplies were loaded in Buenos Aires, for example. 

Let’s talk about pineapples. They are grown in tropical regions (Brazil, for one) and shipped to Hamburg, where they are repackaged and shipped back to Brazil. Seems like double effort, but these long, well developed supply chains are reliable, in contrast to trying to supply pineapples directly from Brazil to our ship. The best locally grown fruit is exported to U.S. or Europe anyway. 

This generally works smoothly. But given the vagaries of ocean transport, the hotel director gets busy when a container ship has been delayed, for weather or other reasons, and the pineapples aren’t there on the pier. He has to find and get substitutes, hopefully without the guests noticing. Respect!

Next time I will tell you about the challenges surrounding liverwurst and mineral water.