Blog Board member and Director of Newbuilds Pieter Rijkaart told me that the wood used for the walking deck is green teak wood from Bali, Indonesia.

Holland America is one of only a few that still has a full walk-around deck. Guests enjoy this deck for a leisurely walk, resting or reading in a teak deck chair.

It’s also the deck where guests participating in the On Deck for the Cure walk, which raises money for breast cancer research in partnership with the Susan B. Komen Foundation.

One more factoid: Three times around the Eurodam’s Promenade Deck equals one mile.

The ship is berthed portside alongside the fitting-out quay and there are three massive cranes almost constantly putting loads of materials on board and taking garbage off. Two of these cranes can reach the highest decks. An additional crane is positioned near the stern to service the temporary loading platforms that are attached to certain rear-facing balconies.

These are the two cranes that can reach the highest decks.

Here is the aft crane and the temporary loading platforms.

We hope these photos will satisfy avid reader Ben’s recent request for some new exterior shots of the ship.

Also, be on the lookout for an update of the header photo …

Blog Board member Frank de Vries just sent us this photo of Captain Jeroen van Donselaar stepping on board his new ship for the very first time. Captain van Donselaar joined Eurodam today in the yard. We’ll be posting his first impressions of the ship in the next week or so.

For our first video posting, we have a brief clip from Chief Engineer Frank de Vries of shipyard personnel painting Eurodam’s hull. This is from a couple of weeks ago when Eurodam was in dry dock prior to the final phase of sea trials. The hull was cleaned and repainted with a nonpolluting epoxy to help it slip through the water and meet contracted speed requirements.

Blog Board member Frank de Vries sent us this photo taken today of Dan Grausz, senior vice president of fleet operations for Holland America Line, visiting Eurodam (third from left) at the yard.

He’s on deck with (left to right) Henry Veringa, blog board member and project manager, HAL; James Moore, new build manager, CCS; Grausz; Pieter Rijkaart, blog board member and director of new builds, HAL; Ed Ramaekers, senior superintendent, HAL, and Koos van Beesten, chief housekeeper, HAL.

Chief Officer Andre van Schoonhoven sent us this photo of just some of the thousands of items that are arriving at the yard as part of the owner’s supply to make the ship operational.

He said the material includes “flammables lockers, ropes, pilot ladder, luggage X-ray machines, you name it — and that is just the Deck Department stuff.”

Of course, along with all the cool new stuff comes lots of paperwork. Third Officer Aafke Bergsma is shown here checking purchase orders and cross-indexing them with the invoices.

Blog Board member Pieter Rijkaart just sent us these photos of the Deck 9 pool area on Eurodam. Despite the rain, the ship is coming together quickly.

The magnetic compass has been installed on the deck above the Crow’s Nest. Thanks to Chief Officer Andre van Schoonhoven for the photo.

Nonetheless, we prevailed upon Chief Officer Andre van Schoonhoven who graciously went out and took a photo of the exterior of one of the scenic elevators. There will be four of these external glass-walled elevators on Eurodam.

The elevator looks a little ratty, with its protective plastic coating in tatters. Andre explained that the yard had just finished what he called the hose test, which enables them to determine whether the glass-walled elevators leak.