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.
No comments:
Post a Comment