New Roommate

It's another busy Bermuda cruise, although thankfully the second-last one until April. A lot of effort goes into packing a lot of the same things from the longer cruises into a short 5-day Bermuda cruise and in addition to that I'm booked on several nights in the theatre to teach the shows to our new stage staff in the Palace theater, Rex.

Rex is my new roommate, he is from the Philippines and it sounds like he's been with Royal Caribbean for a number of contracts now. Other than the slight language barrier, it's been quite easy teaching him the 3 palace shows he needs to learn because he's so experienced as a stage staff. As soon as I get him to understand my description of what he needs to do, he's able to do the whole show start to finish.

I did some lighting maintenance in the Palace theatre yesterday, going to try to as much lighting work as I possibly can because getting promoted to a lighting technician is a high priority for me. I'd say I'm pretty good in my role as a stage staff but it isn't really stimulating at all. There's no creativity to it, just a matter of getting tasks done over and over each cruise. It's interesting to me that it seems so many of my stage staff coworkers are happy where they are and don't seem to have a desire to move up. I guess it is a fairly easy job so that must be what they want.

I saw something interesting in the crew area this past call in Bayonne; stacks and stacks of LCD TVs. Perhaps a sign of good things to come for Explorer passengers?

End of a busy week

This was my first week as the stage staff “on-duty”.  It was quite busy but good to know that it won’t usually be any worse than that.  Being on duty means that I could not leave the ship for the week and had to carry a wireless phone and pager and so that if anyone needs a stage staff at any time, that’s the phone they’re going to call.  It wasn’t too bad, just difficult hours; Shifts starting as early as 8 and ending as late as 1am.

This week a choreographer is onboard to teach our ice cast the new show we will be doing starting late November, Blades. That was a large contributor to my very early and late working hours as I had to make ice every few hours as the skaters were on it.  It looks like it will be a good show, I’m interested to see what I’m going to be doing for that show.

Another thing that has been keeping me very busy this cruise is learning all the shows that my current room mate, Ryan does in the Palace theatre.  Since there is no “hand-over” period (where the staff leaving teaches their job to the staff signing-on) for stage staff, I need to learn Ryan’s tracks in the Palace in order to teach them to his replacement who will be joining the ship next Bayonne.  It’s a challenge because he does 4 different shows in the Palace and I’ve only just learned my own show in Studio B, so I'm taking  as many notes as I can in case I don’t remember everything.

Yesterday I decided to treat myself to a lobster lunch in Halifax, NS.  I went to McKelvie’s, which after a quick Google search turned out to be the highest rated restaurant in the area for seafood.  I had the crab bisque and a 1.5lb lobster.  It was a great (albeit expensive) meal and I would definitely recommend that restaurant to anyone looking for a great seafood meal in Halifax.  Try the crab bisque, you won’t be disappointed.

Well, today is payday so I need to go down to the financial office very shortly.  Now that I’m not on duty I’ll try to get a few more blog entries in as I know that I’ve gotten a bit behind.

Edit, Oct. 30, 2009: Just want to clarify that Blades is not actually a new show for Explorer of the Seas, but rather new for all of us crew and the ice cast. Blades only runs during the months of the year when we do 12 day cruises (so, for the winter months). Basically that means that although the scenery is all stored backstage year-round, nobody knows what to do with it each fall because there is usually a new set of staff and a new cast that have never done the show before.

Zamboni

Today I drove the Zamboni for the first time.  I wasn’t really expecting it at all… Junior (another Stage Staff) drove it onto the ice so I went to get my shovel to do my usual duty of cleaning up the snow, when he gets off and tells me to get on and go for a couple dry laps (no scraping/water) just to get the feel of driving it.  It was important that I do some practice first because first of all, you can’t stop and start during ice cutting/making (Once you start, you must keep going until you’re done; otherwise it makes the ice uneven) and second: the rink is surrounded on 3 sides with glass dashers.  I presume the glass is fairly strong, but it’s not plexi and I can tell that some of the panels have been smashed and replaced because the glass colour is slightly different from the others.  When cutting the ice, you have to get quite close to those glass panels so would be very easy to collide with them if inexperienced.

The whole thing went a lot more smoothly than I had hoped though.  After those few practise rounds, they told me to put the blade down and start cutting the ice.  From then on I think my Canadian blood kicked in and it was smooth sailing (no pun intended).  My production manager was pleased and said I was a true Canadian, haha.

When I’m the Studio B duty tech for the first time next week set up my camera and film the ice resurfacing process.   The duty tech is the person who gets called when things go wrong and it rotates between the 3 of us stage staff each week.  They are also responsible for doing most of the ice scrapes & makes as well as doing food pick ups.  Essentially food pick ups take place on nights when the ice or dance cast will be performing late.  Since the dining areas will be closed before they finish the late show, we pick up food for them from the galley and deliver it to the theatre for them so that they can eat there when the show is over.  So that was something a little surprising about my job, that I will be visiting the galleys on a regular basis.  I just hope I can find everything when it’s my turn to go.  I went with Leslie last night and he showed me where I need to go to pick up each item.  They have about 10 things on their list and we have to visit 6 different areas to pick them all up (and then have to hope that we can get to the theatre with the hot items still hot).

As my first week has drawn to a close, I’ve decided that I will definitely enjoy this job.  It looks like I’ll have plenty of free time to work on training to be a lighting technician in the future (I’m really hoping we don’t have much to do for dry dock… that seems like an ideal time to sit in the lighting booth and get some learning done).

Waiting for the ice to melt

Currently doing a mini melt on the ice in Studio B, and decided to visit the crew internet cafe to pass the time. What's a mini melt you ask? Exactly what it sounds like. We crank the temperature up and let the ice start to melt, then scrape/sweep the ice and water off the top layer. It's rather fun actually and it meant I got to finally wear some spikes on the ice so that I wouldn't fall and break every bone in my body. It's bad enough walking on ice in running shoes, but then when you melt the ice a bit and get the ship rolling... it isn't a good combination. So I strapped some spiky things onto the bottom of my shoes and for the first time was able to work on the ice surface without fear of injury. I think I'll start wearing those things more often.

As I mentioned above it's been a bit rough at sea today, the worst so far this cruise. Luckily I don't get sea sick but it sure makes it interesting trying to work a show (or worse yet to be one of the skaters trying to perform on the swaying ship).

Tomorrow we're in Boston and I have to wake up at 7am and get to immigration. After that I'll have my I-95 and be able to go ashore in US ports in the future. We also have crew boat drill, which everyone hates but I know it's for the safety of everyone on board. It'll be nice when I have a more interesting job to do though, unlike what I do now which is just go to the bow and wait for someone other crew to need assistance. That isn't too likely to actually happen unless we were in a real emergency.

Well I think that should have been enough time for the ice to melt some more... time for round 2.

My Cabin

I don’t think I’ve said much about my cabin on Explorer yet so I’ll share a bit of info and some pictures of it today.

My cabin is located on Deck 1, Portside Forward.  Most of my department lives in the Deck 1 Forward area so we don’t have to go too far to visit or to share information when necessary.

 

Above are photos of my cabin taken from the entrance and beside the beds (excuse the mess… we’re guys and it can’t be helped most of the time).  I sleep on the top bunk… not the easiest thing to get to but when I stand on the chair I can get up there without too much effort.  The beds themselves are actually quite comfortable.  I don’t know if maybe the mattresses are the same as those in passenger cabins but I’ve been sleeping even better than I sleep at home.  Clearly it is best for crew to be well-rested when performing their duties so it only makes sense to make the beds comfortable.  As you can see it isn’t a large cabin but there is plenty of storage in closets, drawers, and shelves so I was able to find homes for all of my belongings.  There is also a TV, DVD player, refrigerator and two small safes in all the crew cabins.

Of course, if the cabin is that size then how big can the bathroom be?  Well the answer is that you can stand in the same spot and use all of the facilities at the same time.  I don’t know if that is meant to be a selling feature or not but I’m going be positive and say that it is… at it comes with a complimentary all-too-friendly shower curtain. I don’t have a very good wide-angle lens but I think you get the idea from the photo below… not a large space.  There is a sill on the floor to separate the shower from the rest of the room… but it is mostly for show as the water doesn’t seem to know which side is indeed the shower.  It also means that any time you want to use the toilet… you can’t help but have one foot in the shower.

 

So that’s about all there is to know about crew cabins.

On another note, I finished the last of my safety training today.  Only a few more days until the rest of the training is finished as well.

We are in Halifax, Nova Scotia today with Queen Mary 2.  It’s the only ship I’ll be seeing anytime soon which dwarfs this one.  That is… until December 15 when we will be in St. Thomas with Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas; I can’t wait to see that ship.

That’s about all I have to say about today… I’ll post photos of some of the staff/crew public areas when I get a chance.

When will it end?

The training so far has been taking up every single one of my mornings (and some afternoons too). While my co-workers are sleeping in 'til noon, I'm up at 7:30 every day to get ready, eat breakfast, and get myself to the training room. I know it won't last forever, but it's exhausting at the moment.

Today I completed the last portion of my PAIE (Person Assisting In an Emergency) training. It was definitely the most interesting so far... probably because it was the most interactive. Two days ago I had my firefighting training and we all had a chance to try out the fire hose, shooting water out the back mooring deck. I'm sure the people on shore must have been quite puzzled about this water shooting out the rear of the ship. Then today I had life saving training which included learning about all the life saving equipment on board, getting into a life raft, and a tour of the bridge.

Tonight we have a late-ish ice show (around 10pm). I'm not really sure why since the average passenger age on this cruise is probably 70. The older crowd doesn't tend to attend late activities so it might be a fairly empty studio tonight.

Anyway, time to leave for my next training section, simply entitled "New Hire Training", real specific.

Training

My training has begun, and wow is it ever just as intensive as everyone said it would be.  I’m technically supposed to be off today (minus a half-hour shift at 9:30pm) but instead I’m spending most of the day in training.

I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather today and yesterday… I think I must have caught some kind of mild URI on my first day.  My co-workers have been great about it and told me to get lots of rest.  I do feel much better today than I did yesterday so the rest must have helped.

Getting around the ship as a staff member definitely takes some getting used to.  I’m managing because I have always had a good sense of direction, but even I was totally lost on my first day.  When these ships are designed, priority is obviously given to the passengers and therefore they are given very easy routes around the ship.  For the staff and crew, it’s more tricky.  We aren’t allowed to use passenger elevators unless accompanying a passenger to a specific location.  There are lots of crew elevators but most of them don’t stop at every floor, so you have to pick and choose in order to get on the right one.  Fortunately the route from my cabin to studio B is only a brief walk up I-95 (the main corridor on deck 1 which runs the length of the ship) and then up one set of stairs.  That’s going to come in quite handy when it’s my turn to have a rotation as duty tech in a few weeks (duty techs are responsible for taking out the trash, locking up the venue at night, and most importantly: making ice).

Well, it’s time to head back to the training room.  I have no idea what this particular one is for… my schedule says something about FF training.  I’m guessing FF is Fire Fighting?  Should be interesting.

Welcome Aboard

Today was quite the exciting day.  The bus from the hotel took drove me and 5 other crew members to the pier, where we had our paperwork checked and handed over our passports.  From that point it was probably about a 45-60 minute wait until we got on the ship.  Once onboard, went directly to the crew office and signed my employment and checked to make sure all the info they had on file for me was correct.

The dance captain from the main theatre met me at the crew office and took me to my crew cabin (my roommate’s name is Ryan… so I guess it shall now be known as the Ryans’ Cabin), followed by a brief tour highlighting a couple important areas of the ship such as my emergency station, staff mess (cafeteria), and staff bar.  Then I was introduced to my Head Stage Staff, George (who was only today promoted to Head Technical Stage Staff).  He showed me around the crew areas a bit more and then took me to my venue, Studio B.  Studio B is a multipurpose room featuring an ice rink which is used for 2 different ice shows as well as being available at certain times for Passengers to skate.  Since I work Studio B and not the main theatre, my schedule will probably be a bit more relaxed and I will also get to drive the Zamboni when we make ice (which seems to happen quite often, 3-4 times a day.  At Studio B I met the other 2 stage staff there: Leslie and Junior, and my Studio B supervisor: also Leslie.  I have met the entire technical team at this point including all from the Palace Theatre and from Studio B.  Everyone seems quite friendly and positive, so I think this is going to be a great experience.

I’m all unpacked now (I can’t believe I’m already done) and the cabin has a surprising amount of storage considering its size.  I’m on the top bunk, but it’s not as bad as I had expected it might be.

I think I’m going to go for a walk now.  I haven’t really been up to the passenger areas today, and since I am allowed to use them, I think I should.

Tomorrow I will have a 3 hour safety training session first thing in the morning.  I’m not looking for ward to it.  On the positive side though, I will get my crew ID card tomorrow which means I will be able to start charging drinks to my onboard account.  I think that will make up for the training.