Mariner - Fall 2007 - (Page 18)

scenes behind the In Holland, ﬂ ower capital of the world, it’s not unusual for children to dream of becoming ﬂ orists. Ferry van de Mortel, though, wanted to be a ﬂ orist on a cruise ship, and he wasn’t put off by the fact that there was just one cruise line that had ﬂ orists on board—Holland America Line. All the other cruise lines that had live ﬂ owers brought them on at the beginning of a cruise and just let them fade. It took a lot of talent, persistence and a serendipitous encounter on an airplane, but van de Mortel realized his dream. And today he thrives in his job of creating fresh ﬂ oral arrangements at sea. Arranging ﬂowers is just one part of the job. Depending on the ship and itinerary, van de Mortel may be responsible for 800 to 1,500 arrangements each week. That’s in addition to ordering the ﬂ owers, maintaining live plants on board and refreshing all the arrangements every few days. On Grand Voyages there are two ﬂ orists on board, but on others it’s just one ﬂ orist, two or more pallets of ﬂ owers every week and a whole lot of vases to be filled. Flowers must be ordered at least five days before they’re needed, and sometimes the ship is simply too far away to ﬂ y them in from Holland, forcing van de Mortel to source local ﬂ orists, markets or growers. Once, in Fiji, all the markets and ﬂ orists were closed, so van de Mortel went door-to-door asking if he could buy ﬂ owers from residents’ lush tropical gardens. “The people were so pleased,” he says. “They were just happy to help and even picked me fresh mangoes and bananas. It was really fun.” Designed to impress. You have to be able to create virtually any kind of arrangement to pass muster as a ﬂ orist on Holland America Line, but each ﬂ orist does have some specialties. For van de Mortel, it’s arrangements using natural materials—pieces of wood, roots, branches, shells. “I also always ask the company to look for unique vases for variety,” he says. He adds, “A lot of repeat guests can tell which ﬂ orist is on board because each has their own style. Dutch guests know I can do ‘Dutch style’ arrangements, which use more greenery and only a few ﬂ owers, unlike the more colorful American style.” It’s not just colors that must be considered either. According to van de Mortel, “I like to work with alliums but you can only use them in larger rooms, as the cut stems smell of onion. Lilies are also very attractive but they can be overpowering in a small room, and you can’t place them in walkways as the stamens can drop pollen on passing clothes.” Unique among cruise lines, Holland America Line gives guests the opportunity to order custom ﬂ ower arrangements on board and van de Mortel is often called upon to create arrangements for birthdays, anniversaries—even entire weddings. A touch of elegance. “Flowers seem like something that is just in the background,” van de Mortel concludes. “But I’ve been on ships when there are no ﬂ owers on board. When you bring in the ﬂ owers, the ship seems to come alive, and our guests really appreciate that.” 18 Holland America Line

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Mariner - Fall 2007

Cover Table of Contents Street of Dreams Ancient Assets Island Cuisine Life in Old Gatún Tales of the North Coming to Life in Antarctica A Thousand Miles from Nowhere Maritimes 2007/2008 Best Cruise Values Behind the Scenes Mariner Values Mariner at a Glance

Mariner - Fall 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.