Interview? Please?

Alright so I think I just made it through the last step before getting an interview.  This month has been very hectic with cast install going on and even though I have been doing a lot of work, the theatre PM has been very busy and therefore I didn't want to bother him about my promotion 'til it was done.  Now that it is, it sounds like we'll be able to get the cruise director to sign off today and hopefully e-mail the paperwork out to the Miami office tomorrow.  What remains uncertain is whether the people in charge of the interviewing are still in the office tomorrow or if they have started their vacation(s) already.  All that I'm hoping is that I have this interview and a final yes/no by December 31.  I had made it a personal goal to get promoted within 2010 and it looks like I might just barely make it-- as long as there is indeed still someone in the office to do the interview.

In the meanwhile, I'm sure I've mentioned before that it can be very difficult being away from family during the holiday season.  However, the black shirt team on Voyager has made it a lot easier.  We have been doing lots of Christmas decorating and also a secret Santa (with very late notice, I might add).  I also bought some decorations for my cabin at walmart 2 weeks ago which has helped a lot.  I recall on Explorer last year we did next to nothing for Christmas and it seemed to just come and go all in one day, and that one day we worked non-stop so I barely even remember what happened.

Anyway I guess my next post will be post-interview (at least I certainly hope so!) and I'm hoping I'll have some good news to share.

The Next Step

Glad to be back in the Caribbean.  It's so much more familiar.

This upcoming cruise will be the beginning of production cast install.  The current cast had their final shows last night (and I worked backstage for those shows because we are short 2 production staff this week).  It seems the second half of my contract is destined to be totally busy from beginning to end.

In other news, I have now been signed off on by one of our PMs, Darwin, for my lighting interview.  The next step is to approach the cruise director and get his signatures as well, then I will qualify for an interview.  Unfortunately this CD has only been on the ship since the end of the crossing and therefore I haven't been able to demonstrate my lighting abilities to him as yet.  Hopefully I will have an opportunity soon.

 We did have 2 major lighting maintenance sessions over the past 2 days.  We took down all of the Martin MAC 600s and Coloram II scrollers for a thorough deep cleaning.  This is in preparation for the upcoming cast install.  All technicians and stage staff participated in this and we got a lot of work done.  There were several repairs to be done as well since it looks like the prior theatre light technician had not done a lot of preventative maintenance other than changing lamps.

The Crossing

Well, here we are, halfway across the Atlantic.  Nothing in sight but water and sky for miles.  This actually doesn't bother me, and I've cruised from San Diego to Hawaii with my family before, so being at sea for days is nothing new to me.

It sure has been a busy cruise so far though.  With something going on during virtually every moment of every day in Studio B, we have been working much harder than usual.  I am still spending every possible moment doing lighting work in hopes that when the usual Studio B Production Manager comes back, I will be ready to get an interview set up.

It's weird not knowing when this contract will end.  If I go by my original projected sign-off date, I'll be leaving at the end of January.  However I did request to extend until the end of February and therefore it could be a month longer if that request was actually processed.  Then there's the possibility that I get and pass my lighting tech interview during the month of December and they need to transfer me to another ship and extend my contract a bit more.  So right now I don't even know if I'm halfway through or not.

Only time will tell, I'm sure I'll have at least some really good news in the coming weeks.

Finally getting to do some lighting work

After a frustrating year of trying to find a light tech willing to help me out with my lighting promotion (aside from Eric on Serenade), my time has finally come.  The new Light tech (and Head Sound & Light tech) in the La Scala theatre, Tennessee, has been very helpful to me as well as Thomas, a stage staff who is quite skilled in sound.  Last night, I fully programmed and operated lights for a headliner show for the first time and Thomas ran sound.  Both shows went quite smoothly aside from the house lights malfunctioning during both shows (not due to any error on my part).  It was great to be given an opportunity to show that I actually can do what I've been saying I can.  I've been told I am welcome to do any repairs that are needed as well... so that will allow me to demonstrate the other half of light tech skill requirements: maintenance.

Since Rey was promoted, he was to be transferred to the Vision of the Seas, so he left on Sunday.  Unfortunately, due to a visa problem, he ended up having to go home (for now) instead of to his new ship.  We didn't get a replacement stage staff for him and it appears we may not get one for a while (possibly .  Thomas transferred from Studio B to the theatre when another SS departed and we got one replacement SS in Studio B, Hine.  So for now Hine and I are the only Stage Staff in Studio B.  It'll be a little more work but really the only big pain is that the duty rotation will be every other week instead of every three weeks.

Just over 2 weeks left until the crossing.  I have seen the tentative schedule for the crossing to Galveston and there will be a LOT of activities going on in Studio B.  We will be very busy.  Somewhat dreading the 6 sea day stretch when we will not be seeing any land at all.

Transferring again??? ...or not

At the beginning of the month my Production Manager called me up to her office to talk to her.  In my experience, this is never a good sign; good news is usually delivered over the phone.  She said that shoreside had decided to transfer me to Adventure of the Seas, departing Voyager on Oct. 10.  It's amazing how everything can change so quickly with this job.  One minute you're thinking about future events on the ship and (in my case) working towards promotion on this ship.  The next minute, all of that is washed away when you're informed you're being transferred.  I dreaded the thought of packing up and moving again, not to mention the overweight luggage charge which would surely apply since I have acquired a few extra items since joining Voyager (especially my 19" LCD TV).  However, a few days later we received notification that I would be staying here on Voyager instead... was that ever a relief.

Our new stage staff, Thomas, arrived Oct. 3.  He's a new hire but is a very quick learner so there has not had to be any extra duty week(s) taken on by myself or Rey-- a nice surprise after coming off of 3 busy weeks.  Also, Rey was interviewed for the Lounge Technician position and passed the interview.  I'm very happy for him, he has worked very hard to earn that promotion.  So far he has not been assigned a lounge tech position but I'm sure that news will come soon.  Our PM, Marie, has just departed for vacation a couple of days ago, but when she comes back I am hoping that she will be able to arrange a light tech interview for me.  Just have to work at getting lighting hours in during the coming 7 weeks that she will be away so that I have some evidence of being ready for the interview when she returns.

Semi-charter cruise

A new experience for me this week:  we have a large group of approximately 700 people from the Netherlands on board this cruise.  They have booked Studio B for a few shows during the week, for which they have brought their own talent and technical team.  We are currently short one stage staff in Studio B until tomorrow.  Not sure why but it's got to be a scheduling glitch of some kind that made it impossible to bring the replacement stage staff on in Barcelona on Sunday.  Anyway, that means that myself and Rey (the other Studio B stage staff) are taking care of these events on our own without a 3rd person.  Since we just came off of ice cast install, this is now a 3rd busy week for us.  It's actually been kind of nice not being bored so much lately.  Also, it's keeping me from getting off the ship in port and spending money that I shouldn't be spending.

The Studio B Production Manager (Marie) here is great but unfortunately she leaves soon and at this point nobody seems to know who will replace her while she is away on vacation.  Hopefully we will get some news on that soon.  It would be unfortunate for her if she has to stay here longer due to not having a replacement available.  When she returns from vacation I will be following up on my progress toward light tech... she has said that as long as I demonstrate my knowledge over the next couple of months she would be willing to submit the paperwork which would (hopefully) result an interview.

Voyager Cast Install

Wow, nearly a month since my last post.  I guess that would be because not much has happened.  My family and some friends visited me on the ship a couple of weeks ago.  That was a lot of fun but also very exhausting doing my usual workload everyday plus shore excursions in most ports.  I found myself going to sleep at about 1am and waking up at 7:45 am for the next day's excursion almost everyday.

Ice cast install started on Sunday.  Haven't really had a chance to meet the new cast but I'm sure that will happen sometime this week.  I luckily managed to avoid being "on duty" this week and next which means I will miss most of the work involved with ice cast install (ice makes every couple of hours since they are constantly tearing it up).  Just a few tech rehearsals next week as they get ready to put on their first show for an audience.

2 weeks ago I purchased a TIM USB 3G Internet stick for my laptop.  It has turned out to be a great purchase because my ship ports in Italy 3x a week (TIM only operates in Italy for the most part).  Cost of about €63 to purchase and activate the card, which included 40 hours free for the first month.  Pay as you go cost of €9 per month which is also 40 hours.  Most Italy days I can be found in Studio B surfing the internet on my laptop now.  Speed is decent, with Livorno being the fastest (presumably due to having a lower population density than Naples and Civitavecchia, therefore fewer people using the service).

Getting a new roommate today.  I like to clear out of the cabin for a few hours to give the guy a chance to unpack without being in the way all the time.  So I guess I'll meet him later.

Settled in on Voyager

Now that it's been more than a week since I arrived, I am back into the normal routine of Studio B.  Sure it may be a different show than on Explorer, but everything else is largely the same.  The production team here has been great so far, and hopefully I will be able to continue working towards the light tech position.  An interesting part of working on Voyager of the Seas is that it has some weird quirks about it.  Since it was the first of its kind and as such contained many new innovations in cruising, there were of course some lessons that were learned after building Voyager which were used to improve on future builds.  This means that there are some aspects to Voyager of the Seas which do not match any other Voyager-class ship.  Those differences are among the very few things I've had to learn since I signed-on.

My family and some friends are cruising with me next week.  That should be a lot of fun and the first time such an occasion has happened for me while working at sea.

Adventure to Voyager

I’m currently at a bar at St. Maarten airport, awaiting my 4pm flight to Paris, where I will connect on another flight to Barcelona, Spain.  It’s nice to have a brief break away from a ship and still get paid for it.  I’ll be arriving in Barcelona at approximately 10:00am tomorrow and I really hope I will be able to check-in right away because I don’t have a history of sleeping on planes.  Luckily I did manage to score myself an emergency exit row seat which is very helpful for me at 6’4” tall.
My last 5 days on Serenade were great as there was an overlap in scheduling my replacement and therefore we had an extra stage staff for 5 days, and that extra was me.  Being the extra meant that I was not scheduled for many duties and with that kind of free time I was able to run lights during shows for 4 days straight.  Since I didn’t get to run lights even once on Explorer in my 6 months, this was a nice opportunity for me.

8 days ‘til Voyager

Today I’m in St. Thomas, and as is usual on the Serenade, there are no other ships in port (on Explorer we were usually in port with at least 1-2 other ships). St. Thomas without 10K+ cruise ship passengers is a very quiet place, with long lines of taxis hoping for passengers when there are a limited number to go around.

Just 6 more days for me on Serenade of the Seas, need to start packing again soon.  It’s been a great (albeit short) time on Serenade for me.  I have had my own cabin so far (although probably my replacement will join me tomorrow in San Juan until I leave in St. Maarten), the stage staff team is quite good, and I actually ended up with a light tech I can work quite well with in the theatre (to help me work towards my long-desired promotion to a light tech position).  Light techs are an interesting breed, there are many of them who will not provide opportunities for others because they feel it is a very specialized profession and nobody else should be allowed in.  Over my time with Royal Caribbean, I haven’t encountered many of those (thank goodness) but I did have some trouble getting some of them to trust me doing lighting-related work, or sometimes appearing disdainful towards me when I came to a solution to a problem faster than they did.  The fact is, I know I have the knowledge to excel in lighting, but the process of proving myself to others in the field gets very tedious in the cruise ship industry when people change places so regularly.  As I said, the light tech on Serenade (Eric) has been great about giving me opportunities to use my skills and knowledge and seems to respect my opinion.  Hopefully on Voyager I can find a similar person to work with.

It has also been tough proving myself even as a stage staff.  We have to adapt to the ways of whatever ship we are assigned to and on top of that, we can be assigned to either the theatre or studio B.  In addition, Production Managers have shorter contracts than other production staff such as myself and therefore we have to adapt quite a bit to suit each manager’s style.  Unfortunately, some of them don’t realize this gap in working styles where we may need a bit of time and instruction to catch up, and therefore when we make a simple mistake, according to their preferences, they start talking down to us like we are working in theatre for the first time.  It isn’t that I don’t KNOW what my job is, or HOW to do it.  The biggest problem seems to be the way I express what I know or the way I do what I know how to do.  Even very minor differences in work processes can make a big difference to some people, and this can lead to some big problems if we aren’t on top of changes at all times.

I don’t mean to sounds like I hate my job, because I do enjoy my work, there are just some obstacles along the way. On the positive side, I am going to be in Europe for a while which will be a great change from being in the Caribbean for 8 months.  Also, a different ship means different people and you never know what you are going to get.  I am hoping for the best and I have heard for the most part that Voyager’s black shirts (tech team) are great.  At the very least, I know I’ll be going back to Studio B which means I’ll get slightly better work hours and fewer late nights.

Start of week 3

Getting into my 3rd week here on Serenade of the Seas, and therefore about halfway through my time here.  I have learned the production shows and been through my duty cycle a couple of times now, so I now know most of what there is to know about being a Stage Staff on a Radiance-class ship.

There are some big differences in the way the Stage Staff team operates on this ship compared to Explorer of the Seas.  The obvious one is that Serenade is a smaller ship and does not contain an ice rink, so that eliminates 3 Stage Staff, bringing the total down to 4.  The duty period on this ship is 2 days instead of a week, which so far seems to be a better way to do things but would probably only work on a smaller ship such as this one.  I’m only the stage staff on duty 2 days at a time (and the preceding 2 days, the Assistant stage staff on duty).  It’s nice not having to go a week at a time not being able to get off the ship in port.  The food runs (where the duty stage staff goes to the ship’s galley to get food for the production cast after shows) are also much easier.  Because there is no studio B, there are no stage staff NOT working during production shows and therefore we can only leave at the end of the show to pick up the food.  The process has therefore been delegated largely to the room service team and all I have to do is show up at room service and pick up the food directly from them in one place instead of from each individual prep area in the galley as was the case on Explorer (and on multiple decks might I add).

Stage staff in the theatre operate spotlights during non-production show times.  Originally, the spotlights were in the light booth, which is the usual place to put them on ships of this size.  Unfortunately, there is a pathway right in front of the light booth in which guests would often stand or pass through, blocking the spotlights’ beams from hitting the stage.  A decision was made to move the spotlights up into the 2nd catwalk above the theatre.  Since they weren’t designed for this purpose, the catwalks are quite cramped and therefore very uncomfortable for me as a big and tall sort of guy.

Spotlight operator’s chair.

My view of the stage from the spotlight chair

Above is a photo of one of the spotlights.  Notice the lack of any leg or head room at all.  My head touches the ceiling and it took me a week to work out a position I could sit in without both of my legs falling asleep for the whole show.  It was quite painful for that first week.

It’s been great working in the theatre on Serenade and experiencing the difference work hours and a variety of guest entertainers, most of which have thankfully been very good so far.  However, the production manager here sent an e-mail to the voyager of the seas and found out I will be going back to Studio B on Voyager, which I am very happy about. Studio B has more of a laid-back feel usually and the hours are usually less which should mean that I will be able to put in more hours of lighting work (which I have not been able to do at all on Serenade, even though the light tech here is a great guy and would let me run lights if I had the time).  Not to mention, I’ll be able to get back to driving the Zamboni :).

I have to get going now, have a Rock wall shift starting in half an hour (weather-permitting of course).

Settling into Life on Serenade… But not for Long

Now onboard Serenade of the Seas, finished unpacking, and have completed the necessary training for this ship.  I will not be staying long, but more on that later.  I really like the size, layout, and decor of this ship.  RCI guests always rave about the Radiance-class ships and I can definitely see why.  So far, I can see it is also a great layout from a crewmember’s perspective: easy to navigate and not so huge that it’s nearly a mile-long walk roundtrip just to get a meal (which is very much the situation on Voyager-class ships).  I have now met all of my co-workers and everyone seems very friendly around the ship.

I got very lucky and (at least for now) have my own cabin.  It is an ECCR cabin, which is basically a spare cabin used to house crewmembers when there aren’t enough crew cabins of a particular designation (IE. by division and gender).  So this particular cabin is not in the same area of the ship as all the other production staff, but for me that isn’t really a problem.  The crew cabins on Serenade are a much nicer layout than those on Explorer of the Seas in my opinion.  I haven’t seen any other crew cabins on Serenade but I’d be willing to bet that all 2-person crew cabins on this ship are identical (Update: I was wrong about this.  My cabin is part of about 10% of crew cabins that are oriented with the door on the long side of the cabin.  The remaining 90% are the same layout as voyager-class crew cabins, but slightly smaller).  The interesting thing is, I’m pretty certain that the cabin itself is smaller than the crew cabins on Explorer and yet the layout still seems better to me.  I guess of all the interesting quirks to be found in this German-built ship, one of the things they got right was the crew cabins.  One downside however is that it appears all of the internet terminals which the crew cabins on radiance-class ships were fitted with, have been removed.  I guess they sustained some damage over time (not all crew members take good care of their cabin and its contents) and the company opted to simply remove them instead of replace them (which I can imagine would have been a huge expense).  There is still an internet cafe and I also discovered that by plugging my laptop into the now-available Ethernet port in my cabin (where the terminal was previously connected), I can access the ship’s internet service at the standard crew wi-fi rates.  This is pretty useful but could potentially become very expensive to have around.

So as I mentioned earlier, I will not be on Serenade of the Seas for very long; about a month actually.  After signing on yesterday, I received flight details to join Voyager of the Seas on August 8.  I will leave Serenade on August 6 in St. Maarten and fly to Barcelona (connecting in Paris) to join Voyager for the remainder of my contract, or at least until such time as I am promoted (hopefully).  Until November, Voyager does 7-day cruises out of Barcelona, Spain calling in Naples, Rome, Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Villefranche, and Nice.  About mid-November, Voyager relocates to Galveston TX for the Winter where it sails Western Caribbean cruises.  I’m looking forward to doing a European itinerary for a while but it means a quick and massive change of plans for my mom, sister, and some family friends who were going to come visit me on Serenade in mid-August.  Luckily I told them not to make too many plans ‘til I was on Serenade because I know these kinds of transfers can happen towards the beginning of a contract and if they had booked the cruise it probably would have been non-refundable and they would show up here after I left.

Anyway, that’s all I have to report for now.  I will try to post again sometime in the next week to report my progress this week after learning the two production shows and whatever else there is to know.

Day 1

Today I finally join Serenade of the Seas after a long 3-month vacation.  My flights to San Juan were uneventful... well at least there were no negative parts.  I did manage to score my own exit row (that's right, the whole row) on both flights, which was quite nice.  I'm sure in both instances the flight attendant saw how uncomfortable I was (I'm quite tall at 6'4" and as such, need some leg room) since they only offered the move after I was seated.

It took quite a bit of time to get checked-in at the hotel this time.  They kept saying they needed to do my paperwork before they could issue the room key -- whatever that means -- which resulted in approximately 30 minutes of sitting around.  And that's when I realized exactly how much of a hurry-up-and-wait process joining a ship is.  In my experience so far, there isn't really a part about sign-on that moves quickly.  Last contract I was waiting in the crew terminal (tent) for 1.5-2 hours before I got on the ship at all, and during that time all that I accomplished was handing my paperwork over to HR and Medical.  Then there was more waiting once I got on the ship after that, but luckily I really hauled ass when they finally did take us on the ship which led me to the 3rd or 4th spot in the line (of probably 40 crew).

Last night I got some rather unfortunate news from my mom: one of our close family friends passed away yesterday.  An unfortunate part of working on a ship is being away during others' times of need without the means to do very much about it.  Compassionate leave is offered but only for immediate family members as far as I know.  Even then, the process is a hassle for everyone else because during the 1-2 week leave, there is no replacement for the missing crew member.

Anyway, at 8 am today we (the crew at the hotel, probably 30 or so) are being picked up and taken to the pier to go through the usual ritual of nothing much happening for a while, then off to do pre-departure safety training and meet my new coworkers.  I've already met someone I should be seeing quite often.  My roommate here at the hotel is a musician (sax) in the orchestra on the ship.


I shall report back sometime in the next few days how the whole process of getting myself settled in on board works out.  Since it's a new ship layout for me, I'll be spending the next few days just trying to get myself oriented.

1 week left

As my vacation is coming to an end, I'm now looking forward to meeting my new coworkers on Serenade of the Seas.  I've wanted to get onto a Radiance-class ship for a long time so I now finally have my opportunity.

Although I was given an unusually long vacation (2 months is about average, but I got almost 3) I don't think I would have had any problem going back after 2 months.  There's a limit to how much you can do other then rest, relax, see friends, and make a little money on the side.  There is also a point when cruise ship crew learn that being at home doesn't mean all your friends at home will suddenly be able to stop what they're doing and hang out.  Despite that you've been away for months, you'll probably only see eachother 2 or 3 times. Aside from those days here and there, it can get really boring.

Now it's getting close to the time where I need to start packing.  One of the other realizations that apparently it's only possible to make after a first contract is how little you should bring along.  I read over and over again from experienced crew on numerous websites exactly what I should have packed and yet I still went over the limit of what was necessary.  Until you've worked every day for six months, it's just difficult to believe that you'll only need 1-2 sets of casual clothes and the rest just uniforms.  I've learned that now though so I should be travelling a little lighter this time around.  Another lesson: do not bring luggage that will not fit under the bed.  You will be sorry because you will have to live with it in your cabin for 6 months and tripping over it constantly during that time is just frustrating.


Well, time to get on with enjoying my last week of freedom.  I'll try to post again from San Juan next Saturday but if I don't get around to it, my next post will be from the ship.

Less than a month

Less than a month now until I'm back at sea!  I hadn't realized that it had been so long since my last post; I guess it's easy to get distracted at home.

Right now I am in Fort Lauderdale FL for the last day of my 3 day training session at Martin Professional, which manufactures about 75% of the lighting equipment RCI uses in their ships' entertainment spaces.  Actually getting my hands on some of the most modern equipment from Martin while being trained by their most experienced technicians has been a great experience.  In addition to the Wholehog 3 training I got in April, I think I'm going to be set to really move forward with this light technician thing.  My goal is to get a light tech position by the end of this year.

Only 3 weeks left at home.  It's been a really nice extended vacation.  After so long away, I'm starting to wonder what lies ahead for me this contract, 3 months is a long time to be away.  I could get a call tomorrow to say they want to change me to a different ship, or maybe I'll get on Serenade and be told I'm being sent off somewhere else before the end of my contract.  With a dynamic environment like a ship, you just never know.  I'm sure many crew movements have been disrupted by the volcanic ash over Europe.  Interruptions in crew travel, resignations, terminations, medical leave, these are all just a handful of the possible reasons that I could experience a surprise change in plans in the next few weeks.


Well, I better get over to Martin for my last day of training.  Today they are going to "sabotage" the fixtures we were working on yesterday by creating one or more problems with the fixture and it's up to us to solve them.  Oh, and did I mention there are also 2 light techs from RCI here for training as well?  Always good to meet fellow ship-types.  Of course, unlike them, I'm getting this training on my own dime.

Training at High End Systems

Today I had my Wholehog 3 console training at High End Systems in Austin, TX.  It was a great experience and I think I will definitely be well-prepared for promotion some time during my upcoming contract.

The day started out with a tour of their manufacturing facility.  I didn't realize that they build everything in-house: consoles, fixtures, servers, everything.  It's quite a big place and I wasn't expecting to see so much.  It was really cool to be able to meet some of the people who build the products I was learning about.  I also got to see a demo of all their latest lighting fixtures.  Now, I had seen the exact same demos as videos on their website, but that doesn't come close to doing justice to the live experience.  The fixtures I saw today (Showgun, Showbeam, Showpix, Cyber 2.0, and DL3) are MASSIVE-- some of them requiring up to 4 people to lift, with road cases nearly as big as a Smart Car (I know that's not saying much for the car, but it DOES say something about the size of these fixtures).  They also pack a serious punch to match their size.

The training itself was mostly what I expected.  The material of the course is designed to be done over the course of 2 full days but I was in and out in about 6 hours today (including a 1 hour lunch break and the facility tour), because of my previous experience with the Wholehog consoles on the Explorer, as well as my own self-teaching at home on my computer using a simulator.  Nonetheless, I picked up some very useful tips and shortcuts that will be very helpful to me in the future.

Life back at home has been quite busy indeed. I've been taking care of various tasks around the house requiring my technical know-how, as well as doing some additional paid work on the side.  The first couple of days back home felt almost surreal, I simply couldn't believe I was home.  Ship life consumes you 100% and it can be easy to feel like you've left everything behind and it's never coming back.  However, when I came home nearly everything was the same as when I had left.  It's like living two completely separate lives.

Well, that's it for now, time to go explore Austin with my remaining time (the rest of today and all of tomorrow).

Good-bye Explorer!

I made it!  6 months and 10 days, not the longest contract there is, but I'm glad to have made it through my first one.  Accomplishing that means that I will be able to do more in the future, as was my plan all along.  As much as I am glad to be finished, and particularly to be getting a different ship, I will definitely miss all of my coworkers as well as several other staff that helped to make my first contract a particularly easy and memorable one.  However, this is ship life, and people move around between ships all the time.  You never know whom you'll meet again on several contracts in the future, and who you'll possibly never see again.

Now I sit at the airport, hoping to get on an earlier flight because the one I was booked on leaves at 5:25pm and since I got to the airport at 10:30am, it's a damn long time to be stuck here.  I've already had one failed attempt at standing-by on the 12 noon flight, now I'm standing by for the 3:15pm.  I can't wait to finally be home.

There will probably be a post or two while I'm on vacation, but in the meanwhile I intend to spend a lot of my free time catching up with my family and friends.

New Ice Cast

I'm in the final days of my contract here on the Explorer.  Of course, they couldn't let me leave without throwing a couple of hurdles in the way.  One of those was expected: we were due for an ice cast install.  I have known that for a while so I was prepared.  It means a lot more ice makes and generally more work for every stage staff.  The other problem is that last cruise, one of the stage staff had to take an early vacation due to a visa mix-up.  It's very unfortunate because I know he was really enjoying working on Explorer and it must not be a very nice feeling to get news mid-cruise that you are leaving at the end of the cruise.  Because it was such short notice, there was no time to arrange for a replacement stage staff to join the ship for this cruise and the start of the ice cast install.  The result is that we have only 6 stage staff during one of the busiest times of the year.  The good news for me is at the end of the install, when I'm exhausted and wanting to leave, I'LL ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO. :)

The process of the ice cast install is quite different from that of the production cast (singers and dancers).  The production cast has about 2 months worth of rehearsals with the choreographers and directors at the RCI productions facility before they even get to their ship.  After that, they travel to the ship with the production team (choreographers, directors, and the like).  Then once they get onboard it's all about getting used to the space, motion, and the sets and equipment, but they already know the shows.  In contrast, the ice cast will meet with the choreographer for the first time on the ship. If they have not been in the particular ice show before, as far as I know the only knowledge they will have of the show is a DVD copy of the ice show which I am told is sent to them before they join the ship.  After joining the ship, they have about 2 weeks to learn the show from start to finish.  It's not a lot of time and certainly seems like a very intense process for them, not to mention the additional work for us production staff.

I got my flight info on Saturday, but there was a little mix up in the dates (flights booked for June 4, but my contract doesn't start until July 4).  Sort of a big problem but luckily I caught it early and have been told the request has been made to re-book the ticket so I should find out the result of that in a couple of days.  At the very least, I now have my ticket to return home on the 10th of April which is the thing that matters to me the most right now.  It's hard to believe I am only a week short of spending 6 months on the ship.  I didn't know if I would even make it, but here I am.  Even made it through a dry-dock.  Oh, speaking of dry-dock, I meant to check if there would be one on the Serenade while I'm there.... guess I'll do that now.  Nope, thank goodness for that.  I wouldn't be against the idea of more dry dock experiences, but preferably I'd like to avoid doing them on consecutive contracts.  It's a lot of work.

Since I am scheduled to join Serenade of the Seas on July 4th, I guess it will be quite a hectic day since it'll be in a US port (San Juan, Puerto Rico) and also I would expect the majority of passengers to be American.

That's it for now but I'm sure I'll do at least one more post before I leave Explorer for home.  Time to go enjoy the rest of my day in St. Thomas and the precious few hours off that I get today.

Next Contract

Wow, what a month.  Was I ever right about it being the busiest.  Everyone is now mostly settled in.  We ended up getting one brand new stage staff in Studio B, and one that transferred from Liberty of the Seas, so it was a better situation than I expected (2 new hires).  The final new stage staff came on last Bayonne.  He is a new hire but only filling in until one of our regulars comes back in April, then he goes to Oasis (yes, I'm very jealous).  Interestingly, although I expected the experience to be totally different when working with a different team of stage staff, I've discovered that not only does it not change very much, but actually the "black shirts" as a whole have been getting along much better since the change of staff.  Of course, the only person left to go on vacation at this point, is me.

On the upside, in the last couple of days I received and accepted my next contract.  Unfortunately for all the Explorer regulars out there (and I know there are many), I will be going to Serenade of the Seas starting on July 4.  Since I leave Explorer on April 10, that leaves almost 3 months of vacation!  I better start seriously saving some money.  Serenade does exactly the itinerary I wanted for my first contract, so I'm very excited to have that itinerary for my next contract.  Below are the two most common itineraries for the Serenade in 2010:

No more annoying trips up the east coast of the US to get to Caribbean ports!  Yes I know there are many people who like to sail the Explorer just because it leaves out of Bayonne, NJ to avoid the need to fly, and I can appreciate that.  But it sucks for us crew, all of whom endure up to 10 severe climate transitions every month.  It's difficult to deal with,  because the human body simply isn't built to handle that kind of rapid change all the time.  Not to mention, there is a lot more motion up and down the east cost of the US in the winter months and I'm certainly looking forward to leaving that behind.

As I am only about a month and a week away from the end of my current contract on the Explorer, I met with my production manager once again to discuss my progress toward lighting technician.  She suggested that it would show great initiative on my part to go out and get training on the Wholehog lighting console at the manufacturer (High End Systems) during my vacation.   Unfortunately, there are no training classes available during my 3 month vacation, but I have instead opted for a private training session at their Austin, Texas office.  It is a bit more expensive than the shared class but I'm very much looking forward to having private instruction so that I can ask all my questions and soak up as much knowledge as I possibly can.  Then I will continue my lighting maintenance on the Serenade as I have been doing on the Explorer and hopefully after a few months I will be able to submit my paperwork for promotion and get an interview for the lighting tech position.

On another topic, during our last visit to Labadee, Haiti I helped to offload 150 mattresses for the people in need after the earthquake.  There were also several pallets of medical supplies and food.  The next call to Labadee (two days from now) will see more medical supplies offloaded as well as 29,000 servings of food, the latter paid for exclusively from the proceeds of crew events.

I will continue to post as often as I can think of something to write about.  Many thanks to those blog readers who have come up to say "hi" to me during their vacations on Explorer of the Seas in the past few months.  It's great to know that so many people appreciate what I write.

Big staff changeover

Today marks the start of what I expect to be the busiest month of my contract.  Due to an unfortunate alignment of several production staff contracts, more than half of our 15 staff (8 of them) have left or will leave by Feb. 23.  This includes both of the other Studio B stage staff, the Studio B production manager, and the Studio B sound technician, in addition to several people from the theatre.  Both of the incoming stage staff in Studio B are new hires so I expect it to be busy for me, being the only person with all the know-how of how we operate.  Today we're in St. Thomas and those two studio B stage staff have supposedly already signed-on to the ship, which is lucky for us I suppose because we were only expecting one to come onboard today.   This means Leslie the current stage staff who is leaving in February, will be able to train his replacement before leaving.  That should make things a little easier on me.

Our first cruise after dry-dock went exceptionally well in my opinion.  Dry-dock is a big job and gets everyone out of their usual routine and instead doing work that is often more physically demanding and exhausting.  Given that scenario, it's easy to expect that the first cruise after dry-dock might not go so smoothly if the crew are all tired out and maybe not up to their usual standard.  Our crew ranked very high in guest satisfaction in 2009 though so I suspect that had to do with the first post dry-dock cruise going smoothly.  If you have a great team to start with, they will usually still come across at least as a "good" team when they're worn out.

I also found out this week that my contract may not be as long as I was expecting.  My original contract had a projected sign-off date of April 24, 2010 but since my replacement is coming on April 10 (and he has worked in B on Explorer before), I will probably sign off on that day.  Great news for me... except that it really puts the pressure on to get my lighting experience in a shorter period of time if I still hope to be promoted to lighting tech.

Well, that's about all for today.  I need to get out and enjoy sunny St. Thomas (after 6 exhausting sea days).

Dry-dock: Dock Tour

This was something that no passenger could pay any amount of money to get, it’s crew-only and that’s all there is to it.  Whether or not we would even get a dock tour was still undecided right until the last day of dry-dock.  Management had said they would try to get us a tour but obviously as there are so many unknowns during dry-dock, it could not be guaranteed.  The main thing naturally was that most of the work on the hull of the ship would have to be near complete so that we could be down there and not get in the way of dockyard workers and vehicles.  Well, on the last day of dry-dock the call came at 2:30pm that if we went down to the guest relations desk at 3pm, we could have a dock tour.
We were required to wear hard hats and safety goggles for the tour and were escorted down the long staircase from the top of the dock to the bottom.  The staircase is on the exterior of the dock and the drop is about 40 feet down.   The tour was conducted by the first officer and we were given a thorough tour all the way around the bottom of the ship and were encouraged to bring our cameras to take photos.  Since it was the last day, almost the entire hull had been cleaned and re-painted.  We got a chance to get up close and personal, including walking right underneath the ship.  This was definitely the highlight of being in dry-dock for me, and absolutely something you don’t see every day.
Click View Full Album below to view the photos from the dry-dock tour.

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Dry-dock

I’m not sure whether to consider myself lucky or unlucky to have a dry-dock during my first contract.  It’s definitely good experience to have but it’s also a lot of work.  For anyone who doesn’t already know, dry-dock is when the ship is removed from the water for a period of time for maintenance of the hull, propellers, and anything else under the waterline.  Of course since we don’t carry passengers to dry-dock, we are also able to carry out a wide variety of maintenance in all areas of the ship.  There are many things that ships go through every dry-dock such as replacing carpet, re-upholstering furniture, and re-finishing wood surfaces. We left Bayonne on January 3rd as early as possible, as I recall about 11:30am and arrived in Freeport, Bahamas 2 days later at roughly the same time.  There was some wind which delayed the process but we were into the dock by about 1:30pm.  Next the position of the ship was fine-tuned and then we started to come out of the water.  There is an interesting tidbit about the Freeport dry-docks that I didn’t really realize before we arrived. 

New Years on Explorer of the Seas

It was an adventure getting set up for new years’ eve on Explorer, which started on Dec. 30th when nearly the entire cruise division (approximately 100 people) gathered in Studio B to start blowing up balloons.  A number of passengers asked me how many balloons we put in the balloon drops.  I didn’t have an answer then and I don’t have an answer now.  It was a LOT.  100 people equipped with 32 diving tanks full of air, an air compressor, and a connection to the ships air can churn out an astounding number of balloons in a short period of time.  To put it simply, I left Studio B for 8 minutes to take care of something else.  Upon my arrival, the entire floor of Studio B was covered with balloons (the floor was brought on, covering the ice).  Those balloons were then put in large balloon drops (nets, basically) and we spent the rest of the day hanging them.
New Years on any voyager-class ship is a busy time, and this cruise on Explorer was no exception.  The photo to the left shows the crowd at about 11:25pm.  By midnight, the whole promenade was overflowing with guests.  The large balloon drop at the top of the photo is actually a pool net which we filled with balloons.  I was one of two people tasked to drop the balloons at midnight.  I’m really glad there was an alternate crew-only route to get from where I took this photo to where I had to stand to pull the rope or I might not have gotten there at all.
Then of course we had a crew party in the back deck with drinks supplied by the ship.  I stopped by just after 12:30 but then had to go help remove the balloon drops from the ceiling of the Royal Promenade.  It took a while and when everything was packed up, a few of us stage staff decided to head back to the crew party, uniform and all.  It had been such a long day that none of us really felt like getting dressed for the occasion.  It was a fun evening though after the work was finished.

The Royal Promenade, Just after Midnight

Taking down the balloon drop at 2am