NAGOYA-Nic Cabañero and his teammates in men’s 3×3 of basketball has been staying at the massive cruise ship Costa Serena moored at Nagoya harbor for at least a week on Thursday.
Nagoya and Aichi prefecture don’t have enough hotel beds to accommodate more than 11,500 athletes-not counting officials and families-for the 20th Asian Games and opted to utilize the cruise ship that could billet 5,000 individuals.
Obviously, the spaces are cramped inside the ship and have to navigate through standard long and narrow hallways-the quarters are compact and provide the essential comforts needed for recovery.
It didn’t take much some time for Cabañero to get used to cruise ship accommodation and any discomfort doesn’t show at all as his teammates-De La Salle’s Luis Pablo and Doy Dungo and University of Santo Tomas’s Koji Buenaflor-played in the quarterfinals against Chinese-Taipei on Thursday.
Tall as they are at 6-feet-3 average, there seemed to be no problem at all.
And the waves?
‘We don’t get nauseous, we just got used to the environment,’ said Cabañero, who’s playing out of Binan Tatak Gel in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League. ‘When your inside your room, it doesn’t feel that you’re inside a ship.’
The only downside, Cabañero said, is that there are no potholes in their room.
‘On our side of the ship there are no potholes, but the cabins on the other side have,’ he said.
Inside the cabin are a functional vanity and desk area with a flat-screen television, a telephone, kettle and counter space, while the sleeping areas are cozy with twin beds covered with white linens separated by a small nightstand under framed artwork.
Space is highly utilized with the athletes’ bags-including the unmistakable red ‘Team Philippines’ hardcase luggage emblazoned with the iconic yellow sun-filling up the floor area around the beds.
Despite the tight squeeze, the setup provides a vital resting sanctuary after intense, high-stakes competitions.
Besides the Costa Serena, athletes are billeted in what is called the Athletes Villa, not Village, which consists of wooden cabins.
There are 100 Filipino athletes who are alternately billeted at Costa Serena depending on their competition schedule and Doha was the first to utilize cruise ships as accommodation facility in the 2006 Asian Games.