Original subtitles

The MSC Seaside,

is one of the biggest cruise ships in the world.

Built at a cost of over 1 billion pounds

and weighing in at 160,000 tons,

it's home to more than six and a half thousand people.

Three, two, one.

With 2,000 guests rooms and 800 staff cabins,

it's a giant floating hotel.

We can go through 20,000 eggs per day.

A glamorous holiday destination.

Everything is so much fun

and everything is there for you.

This is the event you've all been waiting for.

And an astonishing feat of engineering.

This is one of the most huge generator in the world.

But how does this city at sea really work?

With exclusive access to a luxury Caribbean voyage,

we explore the ship's hidden secrets.

This is huge.

Without the laundry, nothing can happen.

We're feeding the fish, it's recycling in a nice way,

isn't it?

It's quite amazing.

All these mechanisms have to work together.

And the hidden army of people

that keep this extraordinary ship running.

Any cruise ship this size

is the biggest food operation in the world.

This is "The Secret Life Of The Cruise."

It's 7:00 a.m. on Saturday

and the gigantic MSC Seaside has just docked in Port Miami,

the biggest cruise ship terminal in the world.

In just 12 hours time, this floating city is heading off

for a week long cruise,

traveling more than 2000 miles across the Caribbean.

But before then, it needs to be transformed.

There are over 2,000 rooms to clean,

5,000 passengers to disembark

and 15,000 pieces of luggage to come off

in just a few hours.

Then the ship needs to be refueled, restocked and refilled

with passengers all over again.

In the cruise business it's known as turnaround day

and the clock is ticking.

Many people think that we coming in the day before,

we stay overnight, we take a rest

and then the next morning they come on

and they see the ship.

So many people ask me, "when did you arrive?"

And we say, we arrived this morning.

But how can the crew do so much

in so little time?

Of course our turnaround day is very hectic

but this is a dance because everything has it's timing

and it's like a choreography.

The day is a complicated ballet,

where every crew member needs to remember their moves.

But this complex dance

relies on something a bit more mundane,

one very long corridor.

Down on deck four,

a secret crew passage runs the entire length of the ship.

It's known as the I-95, it's the only way to move people

and cargo quickly around the ship

and it's crucial to the entire operation.

How many elevators are we using, only one?

Guys hold on the elevator.

First thing in the morning,

the I-95 is packed, as a hidden army of workers

take 15,000 bags off the ship

through just two doors, in less than two hours.

Of course, you'll see

that we have our pool attendants helping us

with the luggage because on turnaround days

all hands on deck, we need all the manpower available.

Please align all the big one right now, please.

And it's just as busy port side,

where a separate team of dock workers have to work in tandem

with the ship's crew.

We normally have about 13 forklifts

and 57 quarters working in a given day.

It's extremely hectic.

It isn't just luggage coming ashore.

Over the last week, the ship has accumulated

some unpleasant cargo, 50,000 gallons of human waste.

Today, five tanker loads of poo

will be removed for disposal.

For the turnaround machine to work,

the ship has to be loaded

at the same time it's being emptied.

This morning it needs to be stocked

with enough food and drink to last the entire week.

This is for the scones, this for decorations.

Ben Mohammed is in charge of the operation.

Oh! this one is .

Every week I'm taking is a chaos,

but the chaos have a limit .

In six hours,

Ben and his team will load 160 tons of food onto the ship,

worth over a million dollars.

Throughout the morning, lorries arrive

from a complex network of warehouses and suppliers

that stretches across the world.

It's a very complex.

We used to be not more than 1200 guests.

The ships are bigger and bigger and bigger.

Today is more sophisticated

and it's a lot of area to control too.

Of course it can work like one old machines,

like a Swiss watch machine, okay?

All of this food needs to be loaded

onto the ship through a single door.

To prevent a backlog, it's delivered immediately

to one of 48 separate food stores.

Everything has a place and every crate has to be loaded

at a specific time.

One late delivery can threaten

to disrupt the entire machine.

You are late again, very bad.

I don't like it.

This is catering on a massive scale.

In one week, the ship's passengers will

15 tons of meat and 47 tons of fruit and veg.

Every item must be checked rigorously

before it goes on-board.

Nothing can go back on board without the sticker of K9.

If the coast guard come

and it goes on-board without the K9, that's trouble.

As well as safety,

Ben and his team have to check every item for quality.

This is halibut that's come from Alaska,

salmon for the sushi, look how beautiful.

This is a rib-eye steak, a 20 ounce,

this is our biggest protein product.

Blackberry, this is for pastries.

Then the strawberries we don't want them big,

we don't want them small.

Every week, the checks throw up some surprises.

You see what's happened to the pineapple?

This is a freezer burn and what's happened is softness

and ruined the product.

Even if it's one case, we send the whole lot,

you have to give me a new product.

In the next two hours you have to bring me pineapples.

I will call the vendors now and I will tell him

that all the pineapples have to be returned.

Moving luggage and food

is only half the battle,

the most important job on turnaround day

All passengers have to be off the ship by 11:30 a.m.

This moment is known as the zero count.

If any guests are still on board,

it means that none of the new passengers can get on.

What's the 10:30 count if you have it for me, please?

On board 500, 5-0-0 on board at 10:30.

Thank you very much, Ms. Ruby.

Let's get them out quickly.

New passengers are already arriving

at terminal F, where the Seaside is docked.

Built specifically to handle this ship,

it's the biggest terminal at Miami port

and it's already getting busy.

We're actually about 120 people left on board

and we already have about 200 people checked in.

This is probably the most nerve wracking point of the day,

when you're right between getting people off

and getting people on.

At this point, we start searching people,

looking for them in the rooms, around the pool,

the open bars and just making sure we get down

to zero people as quickly as possible.

Port side provisions master Ben,

has had some good news.

In less than two hours,

his network of suppliers have come through.

As you can see,

I showed you this morning the pineapple return

by 11 o'clock the replacement was here.

The vendor's here, we have a good relation with them

to supply us what we need.

Georgil listen, I thank you very much,

it just arrived now I see the pineapple coming out.

Thanks Georgil, thanks, have a good day.

The ship is also being stocked

with everything else it needs for the following week.

From 7,000 rolls of toilet paper

to replacement engine parts.

The technical part, the medical part, just name it.

For a seven day trip,

the ship also needs more than a thousand tons of fuel.

Back above deck,

the last of the passengers are finally making their way out.

All crew, all crew, zero count, we have zero count.

Start the embarkation, zero count.

Brilliant!

With the holiday makers gone,

it's the only time in the entire week

when there are no passengers on board.

Cruise director, Gene Young, uses this time

for a quick motivational speech.

Well, attention all crew, attention all crew,

this is your cruise director, Gene Young, speaking,

congratulations on finishing another incredible voyage.

I put the challenge out to you my friends,

my family members, this cruise,

let us say hello to each other.

Let us be the best that we can be

because you are the best, you are wonderful

and our guests love you.

Let us do it, let us do it great and let us do it again,

thank you.

The respite doesn't last for long.

Five minutes later, it's time for boarding.

So stand by for boarding.

And the week starts all over again.

By mid day, the front desk is checking in

up to a thousand passengers an hour.

The holiday makers are already exploring the ship.

Oh, wow!

Hello. Morning, how you doing?

Such a nice impression.

Wow, just wow!

Wow! Yeah, shiny, bright, can't wait to go

and have a look around.

So we are about to go into our room.

It's open.

Oh my gosh!

This is nice. This is nice.

Oh! Wow!

What a massive mirror.

Downstairs on the I-95,

another group of people are getting their first glimpse

of the ship and things look very different down here.

You're new, enjoying it?

Yeah, where are you coming from?

Honduras. Honduras?

Yeah, Philippines. Philippines, Philippines.

How are you?

Welcome on board.

Yeah.

On every cruise,

there are up to 200 new members of staff.

As up to a 10th of the crew leave for holiday

or to work on other ships.

This room is that we are receive our crew members,

we're gonna make all the paperwork for immigration.

We're gonna sign them on, they get the cabin assignment.

At the onboard uniform store,

they have to keep uniforms for every job in every size.

Just one tiny part of a hidden world,

but crucial for keeping this ship running.

On turnaround day,

everything has to be perfectly choreographed.

But there's one factor that's out of anyone's control.

Ooh! That was not fun,

there's a bad thunder coming.

At the cruise terminal

bad weather can have major consequences.

The storm means planes aren't able to land at Miami Airport

and many of these planes are carrying passengers

bound for the cruise.

There's an American airlines flight

that was scheduled from Boston was diverted

to Fort Lauderdale, 39 passengers.

Hold on, come again, 39 passengers?

Oh! Lord.

All right, I'm coming up.

But how do you keep tabs

on more than 5,000 passengers arriving

from all over the globe?

With the clock ticking,

the terminal team are in constant contact

to check how many passengers are missing.

The British air flight that's been delayed all day.

Okay.

It's still in the air right now.

Oh, gosh! Okay. There's eight on there.

Okay.

And American Airlines 207, that's four guests.

It should be that one, is still circling.

Okay, so 51 people in total.

Correct.

So that means they won't be here before seven.

Yeah. Right on seven.

Right around seven. Okay.

The storm clouds don't last for long.

It's time for the captain

to make his final preparations for departure.

It's always exciting now to be a commander

of such huge, modern and beautiful vessel.

But how do you even begin

to move a vessel of this size?

Okay, aft position, advise when you are ready.

The key lies downstairs in the engine room.

Before departure,

the ships engineers have to ready

the ship's for giant engines.

So let's start the third generator

and let's go in maneuvering mode.

The engines stir into life,

transferring 80,000 horsepower

to the six meter high propellers at the back of the ship.

With the doors about to close, Patricia has some good news,

her passengers have arrived just in time.

They're made it, they're all here, they're checking in.

Oh! How exciting.

We have green light, we have all guest on board.

Good evening, gentlemen and madams,

we'll be leaving in 15 minutes, 1-5 minutes.

With all passengers on board,

the ship is ready for the final act of turnaround day.

Even if you do exactly the same,

maneuvers they are always different from each other.

Every single day is different.

Okay port side clear, very good.

Hidden beneath the water line,

the ship engages its thrusters,

smaller propellers built into the side of the ship.

All seven thrusters are in operation,

we can advise the bridge now.

Bridge, all thrusters clear.

All thrusters clear, forward.

Going forward, all thrusters clear.

The ship is equipped

with seven of these thrusters in total,

allowing the 160,000 ton vessel to pull away

from the dock with inch perfect precision.

After five minutes,

the ship is safely in the middle of the channel.

The propellers engage and the Seaside begins to make its way

forward into open ocean.

14 hours after arriving in Miami,

the MSC Seaside is on its way again.

For most of the next week, the ship will be at sea

with six and a half thousand people on board,

but what keeps this sea bound city afloat 24/7?

This is one of the most huge generator in the world.

It's day two

of the MSC Seaside's Caribbean cruise

and the ship is powering through the Atlantic Ocean.

Over 300 meters long and weighing 160,000 tons,

the vessel is part of a new generation

of monster cruise ships.

If it was on land,

it would be one of the 50 biggest hotels in the world.

Ladies, .

There are over six and a half thousand people

on board.

Okay, .

Sexy, sexy, sexy.

This ship is huge, we're losing the kids,

we're getting lost all the time.

You can't find the same bar straight away.

We're looking for each of them.

When we first got on the ship in Miami,

we were just...

How big it was, describing the floating hotel

but it just seemed more than that when you see it.

20 stories high, the ship has nine restaurants,

11 bars, shopping plazas, a gym, a thousand seat theater.

A spa, a nightclub, a bowling alley,

a full sized basketball court

and one of the biggest water parks at sea.

This ship is not like a ship, it's like a city,

it's got everything, it's unbelievable.

But this floating city needs a vast amount

of electricity to function.

So how does the ship get all the power it needs?

The secret lies here buried in the depths of the ship

in the engine room.

Noisy and boiling hot, it couldn't be more different

to the glitz and glamor above deck.

But the engine room is the Seaside's beating heart.

Here, four massive engines work

as supersized electric generators.

If you love engine generator, this is the best place.

This is our big generator, we call it the Big Brother.

It has 14 cylinders.

This is one of the most huge generator in the world.

Combined,

they produce 80,000 horsepower in total.

This raw power is then converted to electricity.

The engine gives the mechanical power.

All of the mechanical power is transformed

in electrical energy by the alternator system.

Just one generator right now we are giving electricity

to the whole ship.

The engines can produce enough electricity

to power 50,000 homes

and they also drive this ship across the ocean.

Two giant propeller shafts run all the way

through the engine room to the 26 ton propellers

at the back of the ship.

There's something so special when you just thinking

through this shaft, all the power of the ship are going

and just on the other side, you have the propeller.

The engine room is also the key

to another vital commodity that the ship needs

in bucket loads, water.

On board there are 30 swimming pools and jacuzzis

and more than 3000 showers and taps.

And every department on the ship

from the galleys to the engine requires a constant supply

of clean, fresh water.

Ready to go, three, two, one.

In total,

the ship needs 250,000 gallons of it every day.

So how does it quench this thirst?

This is one of the most huge and big system

of a fresh water generator production in the world.

So what we do?

We take the seawater here

through this pipe comes 600 tons of water per hour.

Under water,

huge pumps are constantly sucking in water from the sea.

Then in two industrial desalination machines,

waste steam and heat from the engines, boil the seawater

to remove the salt.

Once treated, the distillated seawater

is clean enough to drink, it's pumped throughout the ship.

This water come out from our shower or from our handwash

and for swimming pool, jacuzzi,

everywhere you see water it comes from this system.

The system can produce 3,000 tons

of fresh water a day,

enough to fill 400 of these swimming pools.

But this floating hotel doesn't just rely on secret systems,

it also depends on a hidden army of people.

Every day, 60 cleaners are constantly at work,

cleaning the ships 20 stories of staircases

and 10 kilometers of corridors.

Meanwhile, a team of 112 cabin stewards have to strip

and make more than 2,000 beds.

A thousand of these linen bags are filled every day

but how does the ship deal with so much laundry.

Hidden away on deck three,

another department is absolutely crucial

to the smooth running of the ship.

Oh! This is huge,

without the laundry the ship is not operational.

Everybody thinks the housekeeping

and the dining room without the food cannot be operational,

no, without the laundry nothing can happen .

Almost everybody on board

relies on regular deliveries of clean laundry.

In one day they have to process 14,000 pool towels,

10,000 sheets and 60,000 napkins.

Everything come down to here.

If you're looking at the hotel in Las Vegas,

they have 2,000 rooms as well.

The difference is in the hotel,

they have different laundry operations

that they bring it to them every day

and they collect the dirty ones in here,

everything is in-house

and so everything is need to be connected

within your operation.

If one thing broke down, I'm already on a crunch time

because the restaurant cannot operate

without their tablecloth and the napkins.

To get through

this never ending deluge of linen,

the laundry is staffed round the clock

by a team of 28 people.

Again, the ship's engines play a vital role

in powering this department.

They produce huge amounts of waste, heat and steam,

which is harvested before being piped here

to the massive machines.

This tunnel washer alone is capable of cleaning

up to 1,000 sheets every hour.

After the washing cycle, a robotic arm moves the material

to one of four huge dryers.

This is the only thing

that can accommodate the needs of the ship.

Without this, we can never meet the expectations.

Once the laundry is washed and dried,

another machine presses and folds it into perfect squares.

Make sure you get the end to end like this,

then you have a quality linen coming out

on the other side, see?

Well pressed, see that?

Okay, continue what you're doing and you need to be faster.

The next person just have to collect the finished products

and goes into the storage place.

Very, very impressive how this machine is designed,

it's very beautiful.

With a turnaround time of one hour,

the newly cleaned, dried and pressed laundry is ready to go.

I'm very proud to manage this beautiful operation,

I am just as proud as a cow .

I shouldn't say that .

Upstairs, the ships army

of cleaners have another important role to play.

Every day, they need to dispose of all the rubbish.

With 6,500 passengers and crew living on board,

you can imagine that how much garbage

being generated on a daily basis.

So how does the Seaside deal

with this growing mountain of waste?

Down in the ship's onboard garbage room,

an army of sorters have to painstakingly separate it all

by hand.

When the crew member come on board I take a class,

each person being trained

how we need to separate the waste on board

and it is their responsibility.

Only after it's been meticulously sorted,

can the waste be processed.

Every day this room receives 10 tons of garbage

including 2,000 cans.

And 3,000 glass bottles.

We do not want to pollute the sea,

we don't want to discharge to the sea.

This is one of the most eco-friendly ship in the world.

80% of the waste generated on the ship

can be recycled,

the rest is taken back to Miami.

Just keeping this ship afloat takes an army of people,

but perhaps the biggest task

is keeping everyone on board fed.

You're dishing up too many at a time, okay?

And dealing with the consequences.

Three, two, one-

It's day three

of the MSC Seaside's Caribbean cruise

and the ship is on course for Jamaica.

Party over here on pool deck,

there's gonna be an amazing party that you don't-

On board,

5,000 passengers have settled in to cruise life,

relaxing, drinking

and perhaps most importantly, eating.

Can you make sure that they don't put it

on top of each other?

They need to put it nicely like this.

People always ask me how many meals you serve a day?

And I say, well, most passengers they have on only one meal.

They start in the morning and they finish at night,

they eat continuously.

It's only one meal for them, right?

But how do you go about feeding the 5,000?

The key is sheer manpower,

800 people work in the food and beverage team.

That's more than half of the entire crew.

Together they cook, plate and serve 15 tons of food a day.

Every evening, passengers eat two massive restaurants.

Capable of serving 1500 people at a time,

they run three separate seatings a night.

First seating, very quiet.

Second seating very busy

and extremely busy on the third seating, okay?

Let's go and get 'em, huh?

Thank you, guys.

At 5:00 PM, the team kicks into action.

With 250 well drilled crew members working

in two huge galleys,

Thomas has to make sure everyone is up to standard.

Don't cook too much fish in advance, okay?

Pieces like that don't need to be on there, right?

Don't serve that, okay?

You make sure you're decorating the food

with chopped parsley or something all the time.

Any cruise ship this size

is the biggest food operation in the world

because it's not like a hotel.

A hotel may also have 5,000 beds

but half of them don't eat in the hotel.

Here, they have no choice,

there's nowhere else they can go.

But the galleys are only one part

of a vast catering operation.

Behind the scenes, there is a hidden labyrinth of stores,

fridges and freezers stretching over 15 floors.

24 hours a day these supply lines

have to constantly replenish the galleys above.

Nobody really understands the scope

of what we do on board unless you've been part

of this industry before.

Imagine 6,500 persons, diverse multinationalities,

multilingual and a wide array of exquisite taste

and we have to accommodate to each one

of these tastes as much as possible.

Each one of the stores is specially dedicated

to a certain product, so there's no cross-contamination.

This is just for ice cream, just for ice cream.

And you also have a little weird fever, guava hazel,

I mean who would have that?

Have you ever had that?

Alright, so we're gonna go over to the cold room,

I need a coat to go into this room,

it's like being in Alaska.

All right, let's do this.

Okay, so this is a fish room.

Look at these guys, they're big,

they're nice, they're juicy.

Yeah, this is what we talking about.

The net weight of this bag is two pounds,

just to let you know in a night, yeah,

we can consume over 1500 pounds of shrimp,

just in one seating, yeah.

It's the same like when we do eggs,

we can go through 20,000 eggs per day,

easily 20,000 eggs.

Every item in these freezers

needs to be defrosted at the exact right time.

Too early and the food will spoil in massive quantities,

too late and there won't be enough to serve.

Although the cruise only last seven days,

the ship must keep enough for two weeks

in case of emergencies.

We are sailing in North America

and we encounter a lot of hurricanes,

a lot of unfavorable weather conditions

and we may or may not miss a port.

But if we do, we do have enough stock on board

to take us past for a couple of days.

And guests don't just need to eat.

With 11 bars on board,

the alcohol stores are some of the best stocked on the ship.

One of the first priorities is ensuring

that we have the nectar of life, the nectar of fun,

which we all know to be alcohol.

So we got the cordials, the liqueurs, the beers,

the water, you need to rehydrate and then you repeat.

In one cruise,

thirsty passengers will go through 2,000

8,000 bottles of wine and 10,000 liters of beer.

We're not a party boat, it's a boat that caters

for everyone's individual thirst .

Good food and lots of alcohol

aren't the only ways to keep the ship's passengers happy.

From dance groups, to shopping sales, to weddings.

I give you this ring.

I give you this ring.

As a symbol of my love.

The crew lay on hundreds of activities a day

to entertain them.

And there's one man in particular who's responsible

for keeping the party going.

All right, stand by, tape rolling, segment one.

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen,

I'm your cruise director, Gene.

And I'm your cruise manager, Kevin.

And welcome back to the morning zoo.

Ladies and gentlemen, we hope you had a nice couple days

here on board MSC Seaside,

we've had a wonderful time .

So we can introduce ourselves, but first good evening?

Gene Young is the ships cruise director.

As the public face of the ship,

he has to be happy at all times.

They're looking for a Disneyland experience.

Everything is so much fun, everything is there for you.

The city of fun, the city of pleasure.

I define the excitement and I define it

because it is there that can be defined

to the look how wonderful this is,

aren't you having such a neat time?

But what's the secret

to keeping more than 5,000 passengers happy?

The first rule is to be very nice to everyone.

I like your bikini, that's nice.

I've studied people, studied their emotions,

how to drive their emotions.

As a cruise director, I specifically try to figure out

what are people thinking?

What brings them anxiety?

What brings them joy?

Hi, how old?

It's gotta be-

The second rule is to practice.

I hate to say it, but it is rehearsed spontaneity.

I rehearse, trying to make sure

that they can relax so they can enjoy

and so it's something that I rehearse all the time.

The ship's huge restaurants are coming

towards the end of their first seating

and in the galleys a dedicated team of workers

are slicing and dicing a mountain of produce.

They're helped by some industrial sized equipment.

It's basically washing up fruit before we process them.

A machine like that, you probably would only find

in a commercial plant where they make a canned fruit

and things like that.

We've got one here, beautiful.

It's just the right length for me .

I have my jacuzzi now .

Wait and actually have a spin dryer in there,

when you have a different kind of fruit,

almost like a clothes spin dryer.

This is probably the cleanest pineapple

on the ship right now that we have.

Together, these machines can power

through 300 kilograms of fruit and veg every hour.

In all my time of working on cruise ship,

this is the first time

that I see this kind of technology on a ship,

it's the state of the art stuff.

The chefs also need

some supersized kitchenware.

Some of these boilers,

they hold about 300, 250, 300 liter some of them

and this is what we need here.

When we make tomato sauce, I make 300 liters every day,

just tomato sauce every day

and it's gone at the end of the day.

Even the dish washing

is an industrial operation.

After each seating, every single plate needs to be washed.

They're just the clean side of the operation

comes out here, gets dried, piled up

and pushed back into the operation.

We actually need everything for a second seating

and the third seating.

The food has a rest after the first seating,

we replenish the line but these guys it's continuous.

As soon as all the crockery is washed,

the galley has to gear up for the second and third seating.

You're dishing up too many at a time, okay?

do half and then take them off,

put them into the cooler and then do the next one.

As the restaurant gets busier,

the team work like clockwork.

This is now very well organized.

From now on foward until the end of the service.

So everybody has their food, it's well organized,

very good team I have here 'cause they never stop.

Over four hours, this galley will cook,

plate up and serve 14,000 plates of food.

But at the end of the last service, the work isn't over.

We have night shift and a day shift.

So it's a 24 hour operation.

Almost half of them actually working overnight.

So when the culinary team comes back in the morning,

everything is nice and clean, floor, ceilings.

We do a total wash down every night.

And cruise ship catering has one more secret,

every day a ton and a half of food

is left over by passengers.

That's enough to feed another 500 people.

So what happens to all this waste?

In each galley giant, grinders crush the leftovers

before it drops three floors below

where it's stored in tanks,

then went out at sea the ship discharges this waste,

as fish food.

Sometimes on a day

when we're allowed to discharge the food waste,

you can spot some dolphins out here

and they following us because of that.

So we're feeding the fish,

it's a recycling in a nice way, isn't it?

And all this eating has other consequences

with six and a half thousand passengers and crew

downing at least three meals a day,

the ship sewage system works hard.

But this city at sea can't have normal sewers.

So how does it deal with all the poo?

It all happens here in the bowels of the ship.

All the human waste on the ship,

come in here in this room,

this is a advanced waste water treatment.

Every day,

this secret sewer has to treat 30 tons of human waste.

On board, it's known as black water.

When I come, first day,

when I feel the smell I didn't like

but day after day, this is normal.

Nobody like the work here because of the smell,

also it's very hot, but what can you do?

Somebody must keep the system in good condition.

The Seaside

has its own specially developed system

for processing the waste.

First under huge pressure, the solid is separated

from the liquid in a pressing machine.

The liquid coming here and going to stage one,

solid, coming here and going down in slurry tank.

The solid waste is removed every week in Miami.

The liquid needs further treatment.

This is stage one, inside it's very dirty.

2,000 gallons a day filters down

into these tanks.

So now I show you how the water is in the beginning.

You can see the color, it's very, very, very dirty.

The black water is filtered

until it's almost as clean as drinking water.

Water pass the filtration, separation pass

from this membrane and comes here into this tank.

You can see this is final product.

Can you drink?

Yes, if you want .

This water, doesn't get drunk.

Some of it is siphoned off to cool the massive engines,

the rest is safe enough to be discharged into the sea.

The cruise is reaching its halfway point

and tomorrow the captain and his team

face one of the biggest challenges of the entire trip.

You risk to create a serious damage to the ship.

There are no margin of mistakes.

7:00 a.m. on the bridge of the MSC Seaside,

she's traveled almost a thousand miles from Miami

and in one hour is due to Donkin, Ocho Rios, Jamaica.

But the port throws up

some particularly difficult challenges

for a ship of this size.

So this is the port, I mean here is just a big coral reef

that we enter from this direction,

as you may see, a vessel is docked here, reefs are here.

If you just delay a bit,

the moment that you start to change your route,

you can easily hit something

or if you don't control your speed,

you can easily ground, which is even worse.

You see the vessel in the end finishes very close,

there are no margin for mistakes.

So how do you navigate something this complex?

While out at sea, the ship travels on autopilot

but as they approach land, the captain assumes full control.

Okay, we can keep proceeding

with this course and speed, no problem.

Okay.

Now, if anyone on the bridge

makes a navigational error,

the ship's computer will not correct it.

As the Seaside enters the narrow port,

the key is to slow down as much as possible.

Midship the wheel. Midship the wheel.

Yes, midship.

It approaches first at three, then two knots.

Any faster and the 300 meter long ship

will be almost impossible to control.

Thrusters 30% to starboard.

By this point,

the ship has less than 200 meters from another vessel

and 150 meters away from surrounding reefs.

It now needs to pivot 45 degrees towards the dock

without any forward movement.

The ship is so big that the team move to the bridge wing.

Underway the wheel.

Underway the wheel.

Takeover the wheel on the starboard wing

and takeover all the controls.

Here, they have a better view of the pier

while maintaining full control of the ship.

Underwater, the ship's seven thrusters kick into action,

rotating the vessel towards the dock

with inch perfect precision.

That's the most complicated moment

because the vessel weighs 160,000 tons.

The water around is not really very much,

just a few meters water under the keel.

The ship is so close to the seabed

that the thrusters force the silt to the surface.

Any more speed and the ship could sink lower in the water

and run a ground.

This last part of the job, is the most delicate

of the entire job.

Slowly, slowly, softly, softly.

Despite the fact that maybe you have a residual speed

of zero point few knots, 0.5,

if you hit with that residual speed, any concrete things,

you risk to create a serious damage to the ship.

Meters away from the pier,

all the thrusters stop turning and inch by inch,

the ship drifts into position.

You should really land softly

with zero residual speed.

In practice, they used to say, it's like kiss the pier.

Four zero five clear, we are in position.

While most of the passengers are off the ship,

the crew have a vital duty to perform.

Every week, the ship's officers run a full emergency drill.

Check on aft part, aft part.

During maneuvering we hit the pier

on the compartment approximately four and five.

Today, the officers have come up

with an emergency scenario to test all the crew.

Captain, we understand the compartment affected

are five and four.

Safety officer, Marco,

is dispatched to assess the extent

of the imaginary damage.

Bridge, I'm closing down on compartment number four

by the vertical escape.

For speed,

Marco uses the ships vertical escape ladders.

Bridge, Bridge .

Hidden passageways

running from deck one to four.

Bridge, you are on deck one, the compartment number five.

We have two meters of water on deck one,

compartment number five.

Compartment number five, we have two meters of water.

The ship is divided into 10 verticals zones.

In an emergency, they're designed to be watertight

to contain any breach of the hole.

For today's drill, two of these compartments

are supposedly taking on water.

Charlie Alpha, Charlie Alpha.

Charlie Alpha.

As soon as the bridge sounds the crew alert,

every member of staff has to drop what they're doing.

All the crew members on board, they have second duties

in case of emergencies.

They can be people in charge of the evacuation,

people in charge of medical team,

people from fire team, lifeboat preparation.

They have many, many different duties all around the ship.

The safety officers check

that the crew are confident with their duties

by pretending to be lost guests.

Can I stay here?

No.

Why? You need to go through.

I want to just book with you, a few minutes.

No, sir, lease carry on your way.

We try sometimes to scare them, to give them pressure

in order to maybe feel what can happen in a real emergency,

it's the only way.

What are you doing?

You are waiting there?

Yeah, remaining calm.

Yeah, of course.

When you can leave your position?

When it's over.

No?

Never.

No.

A few of them aware they are under pressure

during the test.

We need to work that we improve their performance,

but it's okay.

The drill is over.

The drill is complete.

This is a good day.

With the drill over,

the crew can return to their normal jobs.

But what's daily life like for the 1500 crew members

living on board?

Hidden within the ship, there is a second city.

One that passengers never get to see.

Here, in a maze of corridors,

there are three crew restaurants, two

Come in, come in.

And 740 crew cabins.

So this is my cabin.

I'm a senior officer.

So it's a larger cabin and I don't have to share it,

which is a big perk on a ship life.

But you can see, really,

it's not the biggest space in the world either

but on a big ship, this is all that I get to call my own.

The offices are lucky.

This is our corridor.

Most of the crew

live in less luxurious surroundings.

Here we are, home sweet home.

When you're in these cabins, you're a bit like stuck.

You feel a bit stuck and confined.

Yeah.

Beds, Jess is on the top bunk,

I'm on the bottom bunk.

I miss waking up and looking outside of the window.

It's a bit strange not having a window here

and we don't really see daylight for quite a while.

Then when you do go outside,

your eyes are a bit like .

But then when we want to have a nap,

it's gorg. It's great.

Because it's pitch black in the rooms.

There is the bathroom, sink, toilet and then the shower.

For us guys, the only real time we're here

is when we're sleeping.

Well, it's just a base, you don't-

We're rarely in here.

I think crazy is the word I would use

to sum up this whole experience.

Yeah, crazy.

It's like living in a little bubble.

We call it a ship bubble, don't we?

Ship bubble, yeah.

You mean, your complete own little world.

We work together, eat together, we do everything together.

And life on a cruise ship can be a lot of fun.

It's so nice.

So nice.

All of us entertainers are getting off.

Hey.

This is the privilege of doing a cruise, guys.

Full trolley, just in the shop.

Stocked up.

Oh! No, it's not TV.

This is.

Little ladder for stupid little people.

Cowards over there.

Going back to the ship.

Back to the ship.

Back to our little floating home.

After a few hours off the ship,

it's back to work.

Then, with all passengers and crew back on board,

the Seaside sets sail again and heads out into open ocean.

With one of the biggest live theater shows at sea,

what does it take to entertain 5,000 passengers three times,

every single night?

Costume after costume,

hair dress after hair dress.

Trees, we have tress.

Oh! Wait, hold on .

Early evening on the MSC Seaside,

while the passengers enjoy the last of the sun,

the ship's in house theater company

are in the midst of rehearsals.

So let's check now, take your position now.

Tonight is the premiere of a brand new show

and there's some last minute work to do.

Ladies and gentlemen, you've been watching "Timeless".

We are the dancers of MSE Seaside

and we're part of a cast of about 40.

We live more in the changing room

than we do in our cabins.

We spend more here than anywhere else.

Yeah.

Like everything on this ship,

the entertainment comes super sized.

Every single night,

the company performs to up to 3,000 people

across three shows.

That's a bigger audience

than in any theater in London's West End.

There's a full scale lighting rig,

a state of the art sound system

and a dedicated backstage team.

Even the props and costumes have been specially commissioned

for the ship.

And here we are greeted-

This is Ruben's dad.

By the dinosaur, Dino.

Dino the dinosaur.

There we go, that's an idea.

And it has a camera so the person goes inside.

Who's inside...

Oh! Wait, hold on .

That is spiky.

His eyes move as well.

Guys, it has a little fan in there.

There's a little fan in case it gets hot.

Crazy.

These are some of the costumes.

Yeah.

And it's just like costume after costume,

head dress after head dress.

Trees, we have trees.

This is like how do we get

from one side of the stage to the other quickly.

Sometimes-

Our secret secret passage, that's what we call it.

Nobody, all of you in the front-

The cast rehearse for up to seven hours a day

then go straight into performance.

We usually work around 60 hours a week.

Long hours.

Long hours.

Hard work.

Get ready, warm up.

It's just been a continuous rehearsal.

But we do it 'cause we love it.

Yeah.

Nine and remain there.

That's good.

With rehearsals over,

the cast have just over half an hour

to get ready for the premiere.

I get nervous but I think I've always been like that

but it's like good to have a bit of nerves.

Still a little bit of time before curtains up

you might need a little wee.

Why am I so late?

They we're excited.

Yeah.

I'm looking forward to it.

We've worked for it.

Do you know what I mean?

We've worked so I feel like it's finally time

to show an audience.

We think the new ones, like gonna be amazing.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is "Timeless".

Once the show begins,

the biggest challenge isn't the dancing,

it's four costume changes in half an hour.

After the show, the cast have no time to celebrate.

There are two more shows tonight.

One down, two to go.

Yeah.

Once we finished our makeup, again,

redoing that makeup is straight to the show again.

15 minutes later, it's curtains up again.

By 10:00 PM, the last show is over.

The cast have been on the go for 12 hours straight.

Yes!

No sleep.

Nah, I'm having a drink.

Couldn't help it.

Eight stories above, on the bridge,

the atmosphere is very different.

The vessel is still motoring through the ocean at 22 knots

but the captain can't work 24 hours a day.

So who's in charge?

Throughout the night,

three man teams work shifts on the bridge.

Their job is known as the watch.

We are just outside the bridge.

I'm first officer and I'm head of the watch.

The bridge must remain pitch black at all times

throughout the night.

The first five minutes are not easy

because it is all black, you cannot see nothing.

Each shift lasts just four hours.

Any longer and there's a risk

that the watchers could lose their concentration.

The current is pushing to north.

I'll take the charge of the con, okay.

The bridge is equipped

with millions of dollars worth of modern equipment.

But at night,

the watch relies on some much simpler technology.

We are watching the other vessels moving,

so with the binoculars we can see their lights,

especially with a small boat, a fishing boat,

that many times are not plotted on radar screen.

Looking after this billion pound vessel

is a huge responsibility.

We have 5,000 passenger and 1,000 crew member.

So if we can make any mistake on the bridge,

there are many people here

and our job is to let them feel safe.

The bridge isn't the only place

that has to operate throughout the night.

Across the ship, a secret nighttime army is at work

making sure the Seaside runs smoothly 24 hours a day.

Four floors of outside decking needs to be scrubbed.

Every restaurant's given a deep clean

and every public space hoovered from top to bottom.

On board, more than 100 staff work through the night.

And one department in particular is a hive of activity,

the ship's in house bakery.

Fresh bread has to be made from scratch

all night, every night.

At the bakery, working 24 hour.

The night people come in at eight o'clock,

preparation all bread for breakfast.

Crossaint, Pain-au-chocolat,

all the breakfast is night people.

All the bread you eat on board is fresh.

In one night shift,

this bakery will make 5,000 croissants

and 3,000 Pain-au-chocolat.

And that's just for breakfast.

Over the course of a week's cruise,

the bakers will produce 7,000 donuts, 10,000 pizzas

and 70,000 bread rolls.

To make life easier for the crew,

the bakery is stocked

with state-of-the-art equipment like this,

which cuts cakes using a high pressure water jet.

It can slice more than a thousand cakes every hour.

Everybody collaborating.

For example, one people make the dough,

one people work in the table, one put the proving,

one put in the oven.

When it coming outside,

I want to see the bread is perfect.

The final task of the night,

to prepare the decks for another busy day.

Then as the passengers begin to get up,

the night team heads to bed.

Another shift finished on the ship that never sleeps.

The ship is on its way back to Miami

but there's one final challenge to face.

They all agree that this is one very narrow,

very fast, crazy place.

It's the final evening

of the MSC Seaside's Caribbean cruise.

But as the ship heads back to Miami,

the crew still have one major event to put on.

Party night.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, a very good evening

and welcome to our .

Tonight is the main event of the cruise.

We're gonna be dancing 'til the early hours of the morning.

This is the event you've all been waiting for.

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight is all white party.

Here we go.

It's the biggest night of the cruise

for the guests

and for the ship's tireless 12 person entertainment team.

They're kind of like the front line.

They're the ones doing all the events

and they're the ones that are pretty much responsible

of making sure that all the guests have an amazing holiday.

With crowds of up to 2,000 people,

the Seaside's White Night

is one of the biggest parties at sea.

Guys on my team are incredible.

They work really hard to do it for eight months straight

every single day, no weekends off.

It takes a special person make that happen.

And if they are happy then all the guests are happy.

In just one week,

the ship's 5,000 passengers and 1500 crew

have eaten 160 tons of food and drunk 8,000 bottles of wine.

On the way, they've used 100,000 pool towels

and thrown away 70 tons of garbage.

And the huge ship itself

has used more than 1,000 tons of fuel

and 2 million gallons of water.

Three, two, one.

But the journey isn't quite over.

After all the passengers go to bed,

the bridge team have to prepare

for perhaps their most difficult challenge yet,

how to bring 160,000 ton ship

into one of the narrowest ports in America

in the pitch black night.

By 4:00 a.m, the ship is one mile outside the port of Miami.

They might have all the latest technology on board

but to get into port safely,

they need some expert local help.

Captain John Nitkin is a Miami port pilot.

It's his job to guide these massive cruise ships

safely into dock.

This morning, he's meeting up with the Seaside.

MSC Seaside, good morning.

We are outbound to you now.

What side is your pilot ladder?

Port side.

Okay, we copy.

Port side, very good.

We are headed to you now.

We always ask the captain, have you been to Miami before?

And if they say no,

we tell them you're in for quite a ride.

And after, they all agree

that this is one very narrow, very fast, crazy place.

There she is, she's a beauty.

She's the biggest one in Miami right now.

First, the most dangerous part

of the whole maneuver for John.

He has to jump from his moving boat up onto the Seaside.

There have been a lot of accidents and pilots lost

climbing that ladder.

Port side, midship.

The giant cruise ship has to make sure

it holds its course precisely

so it doesn't smash into the smaller boat alongside.

Safety.

Okay, we hold this course.

Once on board,

John heads straight to the bridge.

Hello, good morning.

Where's my captain?

How are you?

Nice to see you here.

Here you are.

Happy to see you.

Good to see you.

Every port has its own pilots.

They're the world experts

in their own small piece of the ocean.

We know the waters here and the conditions

better than anybody.

On the bridge, John takes control of the con,

the movement of the vessel.

Thank you, captain.

You're welcome.

Excellent.

Pilot is like the conductor and it is one big symphony

and everything has to be timed just right.

But bringing something this size into Miami

isn't easy.

Port Miami is very narrow.

When I started 30 years ago,

we didn't know what is the capacity,

the largest ship that the port can handle.

We're now there.

Starboard five.

Starboard five?

Yes.

On the surface,

Miami port easily looks wide enough for the Seaside,

but beneath the water, it's a different story.

To allow these huge ships to enter the port,

a shallow channel has been dug out of the rock seabed.

But it's only 100 meters wide,

leaving very little space either side.

John has to get it right

or the massive ship will run into the side of the channel.

The ships have grown and changed.

The thing that hasn't changed

are these narrow rock channels.

In these ports like Miami, everything is feet and inches.

The huge ship is also susceptible

to small changes in wind conditions.

A cruise ship is a giant sail

and they call each balcony

with the little partitions, parachutes.

They all catch the wind

so when the wind is on the side of the ship,

the big challenge is keeping these ships safely

within the channel boundaries.

John has to make sure

that the vessel stays dead straight

to avoid hitting the side of the channel.

Then over 20 minutes,

the Seaside has to execute a perfect 180

before it can come into dock.

The weight of the responsibility is really heavy.

Everybody's watching me do this.

It doesn't look that hard.

That's 'cause we're doing a good job.

It takes a lot of patience, skill

and you have to have pretty much ice water in your veins.

As the ship approaches the dock,

the officers have one final job to do.

Five meters.

Five meters.

Safety officer, Marco,

has to line up the ship perfectly

We are moving just there,

we are almost in position.

Half a meter.

Half a meter .

Inch by inch they guide the Seaside home.

At 5:15 precisely, the ship docks.

Marking the end of its 2,000 mile journey.

Then as the sun comes up over Miami port,

the ship's hidden army readies itself

for another turnaround day.

Another 5,000 passengers.

Another week at sea.

The cruise comes to an end and then the guests go home.

The guests reembark and we do it all over again.

Just big satisfaction

to know that okay, its done again.

Okay, now we go.

It's the beginning of another week

in the secret life of the cruise.