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).