Shanghai: it Begins.

The past 2-3 weeks we have been sailing out of Singapore, with calls in Port Kelang, Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, and Phuket, Thailand.  Singapore was an amazing experience and I definitely plan to go back some day and spend a decent amount of time there.  Everything is new, clean, and just done right in Singapore.  Plus the selection and quality of the food there is amazing.  I really only visited a handful of Singapore and quickly realized how I would easily be able to spend days.

While in Singapore I visited the Marina Square mall at the Esplanade, and it was a very nice mall with the kind of shops that I could actually afford to purchase things in.  We had some amazing Korean BBQ for lunch there, and the only way I could imagine that it gets better is to have it in Korea.  The next turnaround day myself and the theatre sound tech, Doug, went to explore the Marina Bay Sands complex, including the mall and hotel.  The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands is the name of the mall and they had mostly high end brands of everything.  Not a lot there that I would be interested in buying but just going and wandering around is quite an experience in itself.  Everything in that mall is just beautiful and new looking.  I can't even imagine the cost.  Just the fountains and lighting displays must have cost millions of dollars on their own.  Upon leaving the Marina Bay Sands hotel we ran into the ship's Schooner Bar entertainer, Matt Yee.  We ended up spending the rest of the day with Matt and his cousin (who lives nearby).  The highlight of this day was the Singapore Cable Car which we rode end to end, stopping for Starbucks in the middle.  Then we made a quick trip to Chinatown and headed back to the ship.

Unfortunately I never made it to Kuala Lumpur  in Malaysia as the schedule during the day just never allowed enough time to get out there.  Luckily, in Port Kelang there was a little food court outside the terminal with delicious Asian cuisine and free (very slow) wi-fi.  I got fried calamari, Chinese fried rice, and a huge mango smoothie for only about $12 US which was very reasonable considering the portion sizes.

In Phuket Doug and I headed out with Matt Yee for an awesome meal at Tunk-ka Cafe.  The restaurant is located at the top of a hill, has spectacular views and the food was incredible.  We all shared about 7 different Thai dishes including curries, noodles, and a whole fish with lemongrass sauce.  If you only have a few hours to spend in Phuket, I would highly recommend visiting this place.  The view and the food, coupled with very decent free wi-fi internet ended up being a very worthwhile way to spend the little time we had free that day. 

Along the way to Shanghai, we had an overnight in Hong Kong.  The port time was a little unusual as the ship was to spend the first day from 4pm til midnight tendering, and then move to a pier and open the gangways at 7am.  I only had the first day available as I was to be on duty the next day, so I headed out at around 8pm, and Doug intended to take the next tender and meet me at the terminal.  Unfortunately he got tied up doing something onboard and didn't end up making it ashore until much later.  So I headed off with some other coworkers who happened to come off another tender.  We ended up going to the Temple Street Night Market.  We took a taxi over, and what an amazing place that was.  Vendors selling all manner of different things but there was something for everyone.  There were numerous electronics stalls for me to look at, and I did end up buying a few items to bring back with me.  We also stopped for a quick meal at a local seafood restaurant which was very tasty and also very very cheap. 

Anyway, here we are now in Shanghai, China.  It has been a very long time coming to get from New Orleans to our main home port for the summer.  Today marks the end (mostly) of any English-speaking guests onboard.  Now that we are in China, 98% of our guests will be Chinese and speaking mostly Mandarin only.  In fact, most of our cruises here are resale charters sold through various travel companies around China, so on those cruises especially it is going to be Chinese guests only, with a handful of guests from nearby countries such as Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia.  It's going to be a more challenging environment for sure but I think we're up to the task.  The ship now has about 75% Mandarin-speaking staff onboard, and they are filling the majority of the front-of-house positions. The best strategy us non Mandarin-speaking staff really have is to just avoid guest areas when we don't need to be there.

It is definitely going to take some time to get used to the culture over here.  We've all been through cultural sensitivity training for our cruises in Asia but of course actually putting it into practice is something completely different and that is what we are getting to right now.  There are some things Westerners are just not accustomed to.  To give a simple example, last night during the welcome aboard show (which was actually one of our production shows, Music in Pictures), the audience talked quite loudly throughout the entire thing.  In western cultures that is quite unheard of and of course usually would be considered rude behaviour.  However in China it is quite commonplace and this is the sort of thing where we (as the outsiders) have to take a step back and go "OK, this is normal, just accept it and move on".  There was also a constant barrage of flash photography, another expected occurrence.  It was like there were more flash bulbs going off in the audience than I had lights onstage.

Thus begins my Asian experience on a ship.  Hopefully there will be a lot more news to come.  So far I have had some incredible experiences here and I'm looking forward to what's still to come.

Finally in Asia

OK, so a lot has happened in the past 6-7 weeeks. It's been way too long since I last posted anything. I don't even know where to begin really...

In the last 6 weeks, we have completed the 3 transition cruises from New Orleans to Singapore (New Orleans > Barcelona > Dubai > Singapore). During that time the Voyager of the Seas underwent some serious refurbishment in preparation for her new life in Asia. Here are just a few of the things that were done:

• Massive casino refurbishment and change of layout. We now have a lot more game tables and a lot fewer (maybe half as many) slot machines.
• Cigar bar was converted into a VIP Casino.
• Carpet replacements all over the ship extending to public areas, guest cabins, crew cabins, and more. Not all of it was replaced but certainly a large amount was.
• Lots of upholstery work all over the ship.
• The previous Royal Caribbean logo shop has been converted into two new shops: a perfume shop and a Dreamworks/RCI logo shop.
• The previous Perfume shop has been converted into a watch store.
• All staterooms received new 22" LED TVs

The installation of the Dreamworks Experience program was completed, which includes: Dreamworks 3D movies in the theatre, a new Dreamworks parade that replaced Party Around the World parade, Dreamworks family photo opportunities, Dreamworks family breakfasts, and a few other things


The production show Music in Pictures (previously named Music in Motion) has had some big changes. Most of the original second half of the show has been re-worked or replaced. The new version has been very well-received so far. It now features Jai Ho as the finale Bollywood number, among several other changes. This change was scheduled during a cast install so we have now installed the cast for Music in Pictures and for Broadway Rhythm & Rhyme.

The transatlantic cruise from New Orleans to Barcelona was fairly uneventful. Very typical, and the sea conditions were very calm. I managed to get off the ship in a few of the ports, something very unusual for me. Usually on a transatlantic I am stuck onboard the full 14-16 days. Following the transatlantic my mom came on in Barcelona to cruise for two weeks which was nice. I was able to go out in Cairo, Egypt with her for a full-day excursion and spent time with her on the ship on all the other days. It was a busy time but manageable. She departed the ship in Dubai and thankfully I managed to get a few hours in Dubai myself. I went to the Dubai Mall with Doug, the theatre sound technician, and we did the At the Top experience at Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. I knew it would be busy there so I booked our tickets online the night before. Dubai is amazing and even though I only visited the mall and the tower, I still got a very good understanding of what the city is like. I will definitely try to come back sometime in the future and see more. Heck, I could even end up working there one day; I hear good lighting technicians are in high demand in that area.

Following that cruise we lost our Studio B light technician. A new one has not been able to be brought out to the ship until June 2nd (hopefully). As a result, I have been running lights in almost all venues onboard by myself. It's been a little stressful but I'm trying my best not to think too far ahead. Just thinking a few hours ahead about what I need to do next is helping to keep everything in perspective.

Of course, while I've been doing everything by myself that is normally done by 2 people, we have also been going ahead with cast install in the theatre, doing all the changes to the Music in Pictures production show, and installing the Dreamworks parade on the Royal Promenade. I'm definitely ready for a break now, so I'm really hoping our new tech will show up in 2 days as planned.

In addition to everything else going on, we are also installing a long term magic show onboard. This is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time because lighting magic shows tends to be a lot of fun but also a challenge. Unfortunately time has been rather tight for me so I've been having to program at night when time permits. His first show is tomorrow and I still have lots of work to do so I'm thinking tonight is going to be yet another late night for me.

We still have 2 more cruises out of Singapore and then we move on to Shanghai. I really want to be able to go out in Singapore but so far that hasn't been a possiblility with all that is going on. Unfortunately the job does come first so I haven't been out yet there; the view from the ship is incredible though. Hopefully I'll make it out there.

Following Singapore we head north to Shanghai and will be doing many cruises there all of different lengths. Many of them are resale charters and for those I don't really know what to expect, although I hear it will mostly be business as usual with few changes.

Anyway, time to get to work... Hopefully I'll have more updates soon.