Technician at Sea

Home for Christmas

2011-12-26T10:46:00.002-05:00

Well, my 3rd contract has come to an end and I am now at home and have been enjoying spending Christmas with my family (I was at sea during Christmas for the past two years). Christmas/New Years is a difficult time for all crewmembers on ships and I feel very lucky to be home at this time. It will probably be another 3-5 years before I can do it again.

I'm keeping myself busy at home installing an HAI smart home system in my mom's newly-renovated house. It involves using my technical skills which helps keep my mind occupied and that way I won't get too bored during my vacation which does sometimes happen.

Truly looking forward to my next contract, which will begin February 25. I know I have been slacking off in writing new posts but that is largely due to the fact that there is very little to write about because everything's been the same as every other contract. However, since the Voyager of the Seas will transit to Asia during my next contract I think there will be lots of news and both the transit and the new itineraries in Asia will provide lots of new experiences to write about. Also in conjunction with the move there will be a massive crew changeover to accommodate the language needs in Asia, in addition to many changes all over the ship in the products and services offered in order to meet the needs of our new demographic. It's going to be a fun ride. I think with so much going on, my next contract is going to fly by...

Nice day in New Orleans

2011-11-19T12:22:00.001-05:00

This morning I am in New Orleans at the New Orleans Convention Centre sipping some Starbucks peppermint hot chocolate and enjoying all the free wi-fi I can get. It's been far too long since I was on a proper Internet connection.

There has been lots going on recently but the biggest news is the Martina McBride concert taking place on Voyager of the Seas today. We loaded in a ton of equipment for them on Nov. 12 and 3 of their techs sailed with us during the last cruise so that they could set up overnight last night for the concert. Among their gear we had to carry a 900lb analog console from the stage to the sound booth, along with 2 effects racks. This begs the question-- why not just use our beautiful DiGiCo D5 Live console which is already there and available? It is digital, has double the number of channels, can do all the things those FX racks can do, and it is right there and waiting. But no, instead a massive wooden coffin was constructed around our very nice console in order to put this 900 lb beast on top. I'm just hoping that the thing doesn't collapse...

Should be a very interesting event. Apparently there will be free admission to all Crown & Anchor members which is a very nice treat/surprise for them. We will also be simulcasting the event in Studio B and as far as I understand that will be open to all guests. Myself, I simply hope to find room for myself at the back of the house so that I can keep an eye on everything. Sure they brought their own techs and what not but as Head Sound & Light I probably have a duty to be on hand in case I'm needed...

Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed last cruise, got off for lunch in both Cozumel and Grand Cayman, which was great and I expect to do so again this cruise. From what I have heard there is still very little for crew to do in Falmouth, Jamaica so I will continue to refrain from visiting there.

There is a lot more I could say right now but Wal-Mart is calling me so I must be going. I will try to post a few more updates before the end of this contract. Only 4 more cruises to go! Then I will be home with my family and actually being home for Christmas this year which will be a nice change.

Another cast install

2011-09-27T06:11:00.001-04:00

This has been a rather hectic month so far. To start with, 3 weeks ago we had our annual DNV audit. DNV is the company that certifies Royal Caribbean ships as being safe to sail. Only a few minor things came up in the production areas as issues and we were luckily able to fix them right away, but there were other areas of the ship where more work was needed. Nonetheless everybody worked hard to get everything resolved all over the ship and actually we did very well overall. The week after was our SQM audit. SQM is our internal regulatory system which governs how we operate internally as a company so they look at many of the same things as the DNV guys, with an added focus on overall management of the ship and how well we comply to company policies. Once again there were a few issues here and there, but overall everybody did quite well. At the same time SQM auditors came onboard, the new ice cast also arrived to start rehearsing Ice Odyssey for two weeks.

Now this week, I have my mother and a family friend visiting, while at the same time we have cast install ongoing, and also a large group who are using the theatre and/or pool deck almost every night for an event. It's just been crazy and it's not going to get better right away either. Next week we have a certain important person coming onboard and while I will not say who it is for their own privacy, suffice to say that it is an individual that is very important when it comes to Royal Caribbean's ice shows in particular. I have to work extra hard to make sure that all of my lights are in absolutely perfect order for next week. On top of that, next week we also have our next Lounge Technician coming onboard who is a re-hire (thank goodness) will have a one-week handover before our current Lounge tech signs off at the end of the week. Next week we will also have a new cruise director starting. All of this had made it a bit of an unfortunate time for my mom to be onboard because I cannot be away from work as much as I maybe could at other times of my contract. However, I have still managed to get away enough to visit Ravenna with her yesterday as well as eat dinner in the Dining Room. The second half of the week should be a bit better, except for the many ice show rehearsals that will be going and and will definitely get in the way a bit.

Only 80 days left til my vacation (by my estimate). So far I do not have a definitive replacement/sign-off date but I can definitely feel the difference in the length of this contract compared to the last one which I had extended by 5-6 weeks.

Also, anyone looking to cruise Asia next year needs to book NOW. My mom just booked her two cruises for next year and apparently the cabins are already slim pickings even though the Voyager Asia cruises opened up for bookings only 3 weeks ago or so.

Time is Flying By...

2011-08-27T10:19:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I'm already halfway through this contract. The past month or so has been quite busy for me. I received my new Road Hog console Aug. 13, so I spent the following 3 days working very hard on getting the rest of the showfile converted and was able to start using the new console that same week for shows. Since then,. I haven't had a single problem and programming anything has been a breeze.

As expected, I also ended up being promoted to Head Sound & Light technician, also on August 13. A few extra responsibilities and a bit more pay but otherwise nothing has changed. Things seem to be running smoothly so far though.

Itineraries for Asia have now been released internally so while I cannot say right now what is going to be available, I will say that there is going to be a lot of variety and we are going to be very busy I am sure as some cruises are as short as 3 days and as long as 7 so the schedule will be constantly changing and it is going to be a big undertaking to make sure that everyone is in the right places at the right times for shows and events all around the ship.

A new toy is on the way...

2011-07-25T11:35:00.002-04:00

I can't believe I haven't written anything in over a month... I guess nothing overly exciting has happened. Since my last post I have accepted an offer from our personnel scheduler to come back to the Voyager of the Seas for the Asia season in 2012, I am supposed to join on or around Feb. 18. This would mean I should be home for both Christmas and my birthday which would be really great. Also, when I return I will be in the theatre which is good news because as much as I love Studio B and the Ice Odyssey show, I will probably be pretty bored of it come the end of this contract. It will also give me more chances to program shows since I will be programming guest entertainer shows in the theatre.

Wholehog II


Road Hog

My lighting console in Studio B (a Wholehog II) has developed a number of problems over the last month or so to the point now that it is no longer usable. Luckily we have a spare PC-based console on the ship which was on loan from head office in Miami while our Promenade console was away being repaired and we hadn't really gotten around to sending it back to them after we got the promenade console back. So for now I am using the PC console and so far there haven't been any major issues, just small tweaks needed here and there to keep things running.

I had sent an e-mail to our fleet sound, lighting, and rigging specialist in Miami to express my concern in repeatedly repairing our old consoles and to my surprise he responded that he had a Road Hog console just sitting around the office and offered it to our ship as a replacement for the old Hog 2. We should be receiving it sometime next month I would guess. It will be really nice to have a new toy to play with, with many added capabilities, not to mention something more reliable than the Hog 2 (ours are all 12 years old and each has SOME kind of issue). I sent my Hog showfiles off to the manufacturer today in order to have them converted into the newer format. Since the conversion process doesn't convert every last bit of the file, there will be some work still for me to do in order to get Ice Odyssey looking the same as it did before. That will not be a problem at all for me since I was present during the recent visit of our lighting designer in February and during that time I absorbed a lot of information about the show that I will be able to use to touch-up the show (in addition to videos from past shows, if needed).

So far there is still no real update on the itineraries for the 2012 Asia season, other than the crossing from New Orleans to Singapore. That will be one heck of a cruise and something I am really looking forward to. It will contain calls in the Bahamas, Azores, Spain, Egypt, the Suez Canal, Dubai, Goa, India, and Malaysia over a period of 6 weeks, broken up into 3 cruises.

Also, our current Head Sound and Light Technician is going to be signing off in just over 2 weeks and it sounds as though I am the most likely successor. It will be good experience for me to have, plus I am already contributing a lot to the overall running of all things technical as it is right now so I think if I am chosen I will settle into the position just fine.

Voyager of the Seas Heading to Asia?

2011-06-20T05:36:00.001-04:00

It's true. In May 2012 the Voyager of the Seas will be re-located to Asia, doing a few cruises out of Singapore, then the rest of the summer will be spent sailing out of Shanghai. In October, the ship will once again be re-located, this time to Australia and New Zealand. Voyager of the Seas will be the largest cruise ship in Asia, and the first with an ice skating rink and indoor promenade. It's odd to think that about how much we take this ship for granted as crew members, or indeed even as guests in Europe and North America. Being almost 12 years old, Voyager of the Seas is nothing new to anyone here, however when we become the first Voyager-class ship to sail out of Asia, this ship represents many firsts that have never been offered on a cruise ship in that part of the world before.

The itineraries have not been finalized yet, but it sounds like we will be doing a few cruises out of Singapore to start with, followed by spending the Summer sailing out of Shanghai, and finally being repositioned to Australia and New Zealand for the winter season. At this point it is not clear if I will be coming back to Voyager for my next contract or going to a different ship. Luckily enough though, our head office sent out an e-mail request to all production managers to ask if they would like to request any specific technicians to stay with their ship for more than one contract. The premise of this is of course to assist in building a knowledgeable team on board, which particularly for techs takes some time as we really need to know the ship bow-to-stern as it relates to our job; but of course it would work in my favour if I get to come back to sail to Asia. It seems likely that my Production Manager, Marie, will submit my name to have me return to this ship as everything in my venues runs smoothly (lighting-wise) while I'm here.

This past Friday and Saturday there was a press conference in Studio B that is part of a program to promote Voyager of the Seas to Italian cruisers while we are in Italy. Everything went off without any problem despite some lack of information being provided in some cases.

Right now I am saving up for a new laptop so I haven't really been out in any of the ports, except a brief couple of hours in Venice. I am looking forward to possibly taking a couple of tours as a Tour Escort. So far it sounds like we don't have any "dud" ports -- that is, ports where there is nothing to do-- on this itinerary, so when I do have the time and money to go exploring I will definitely do so.

Busy Back on Board

2011-05-30T04:44:00.001-04:00

Hard to believe I've been onboard for more than 2 weeks and have not posted anything yet. Just goes to show how busy it has been!

Coming back to the same ship is something I haven't experienced before. It's nice to see so many familiar faces, not just within the production team but all over the ship as well. The other 3 times I have signed onto a ship, I didn't recognize more than 1-2 people and it took some time to feel comfortable. This was not the case this time however, and as soon as I got onboard I immediately set about writing out plans for how I'm going to get my venues back in top shape.

Unfortunately there has been a lack of maintenance with some of my fixtures while I was away, leaving a bit of a pile-up for me upon my return. This, coupled with the double charter cruise we did last week, has lead to an extremely busy first couple of weeks... with no end in sight at this point. The charter was especially demanding on all of us. We had two 3.5 day cruises with a total of about 5000 guests between the two, and 100% of them were from France. It was very unusual hearing all of the usual announcements made over the PA solely in French. We were expected to compress many of our usual activities of a 7 day cruise into each 3ish day cruise. This meant doing 6 ice shows, 4 parades, 6 theme nights, 2 captains welcome receptions, and 8 production shows during a 7 day period where we would normally only have half as many (with the exception of the ice shows, of which we usually have 4 in a week).

A nice benefit of this charter was getting to sail into Istanbul on what is probably the largest ship ever to call there. Istanbul is one port where you definitely do not want to miss the sail-in. I went up to the Helipad while we sailed into Istanbul so that I would have the best possible view.

Istanbul

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

DOWNLOAD ALL

This week we started cast install in the theatre. Since my 4 follow spot operators in Studio B are usually dancers, this means I will have a bit more difficult time getting spot cues done correctly over the next few weeks as generally the replacements that are sent to me have not used a follow spot before. In a few weeks time they will have learned all their shows/events and then I will finally be able to start teaching them the spot cues for Ice Odyssey. It’s a difficult show when it comes to spot cues so it’s really important to consistently have the same people doing it every time. By the time they’re halfway through their contract, generally spot operators will have memorized all of their cues and I will no longer have to call them. Unfortunately for me, I missed most of the second half of the previous dancers’ contracts so I never really got to sit back and watch the show a bit without having to call the spot cues. The solution to this is to record the spot cues… which I will be doing sometime next month after I have the money to buy the equipment and software to do it. The beauty of buying my own stuff is that I can take it to every ship and use it over and over with different shows which will be great.

I’m currently typing this from my cabin onboard. Using my TIM 3G USB stick I am able to get Internet in my cabin, courtesy of the porthole which I am very lucky to have (I believe there is only 1 tech cabin with a port hole).

Anyway, better get back to work.

How I know this job is the right fit for me

2011-04-03T09:47:00.000-04:00

I have been on vacation just about a month now and I have to say that although I love being home, I also find myself missing the ship. This never happened when I was a stage staff, but as a light tech I enjoy my job so much that even during my vacation I'm thinking about things I'm going to accomplish when I get back.

In the past few weeks my mom has both sold her current house and bought a new one, so my last few weeks of vacation are going to be spent moving and doing some wiring at the new place.

One last thing: I don't know if there are any first time cruisers reading this blog, but if there are MAKE SURE YOU SEE THE ICE SHOWS (if you are on an RCI ship that has them). I truly can't believe the number of people who never even get to Studio B until the last day of the cruise and sometimes those guests will ask me when the ice show is and it's painful to tell them that they're too late. The showtimes are advertised both in the cruise compass and by the cruise director at every possible opportunity. Even if you don't THINK you'll enjoy the show, just go. Give it a chance, what's it going to cost you, 45 minutes? It's worth it.

Almost There

2011-03-02T12:29:00.000-05:00

This will be my final blog post for this contract. It's so strange to think I leave in four days, and I know when I get home it will likely be quite similar to the end of my first contract. Driving away from the ship you feel the instant relaxation of knowing you have no schedule, no work, no commitments to the ship at all until the end of your vacation. Going from working 6-12 hours a day every day for more than 6 months to nothing at all is such a dramatic change but it is very satisfying.

As I mentioned in my last post, this week and last we have had the lighting designer for Ice Odyssey, Marcia Madeira, on-board to facilitate the replacement of some old lighting fixtures, as well as giving the show some much-needed TLC as after 6 years, the show file had been severely "tampered with" by previous light technicians. Marcia brought along her programmer, Chris as well and it has been great working with both of them. I certainly hope to still be on this ship when we get the next round of new lights (hopefully around September). It would have been better to have them here in the middle of my contract though, compared to now where I am days from leaving. Nearly everyone on ships suffers from "checked-out syndrom". As the end of the contract approaches, you start to become a little more lazy and not interested in making new projects on board. For me, the point where this happens is about the 1 to 1.5 week mark. Luckily since I have had Marcia and Chris here, it has made it easier for me to avoid thinking about going home and concentrate on the the tasks at hand. Since they are using the Studio B lighting rig every day for these two weeks, and everything besides the 14 brand new lights is 11 years old, it is a constant process of fixing lights as they break. I wake up every morning to a new punch list of things that broke the previous night (they program in the evening and into the night usually, since the room is available then).

Today I will be doing my laundry and probably starting to pack. Unfortunately my flight details have yet to arrive which is making me a little antsy, hopefully that will be resolved by the end of the day.

During my vacation I may post once or twice but otherwise I look forward to having new stories to share when I return in May. It should be interesting having Venice, Italy as a home port.

Three Weeks Left!

2011-02-13T11:23:00.001-05:00

I can't wait to get home. It's been such a long time... by the time I leave I will have been away from home more than 8 months. A few weeks ago I was asked to extend by an additional week because my replacement was not ready and I accepted, so my new sign-off date is March 6. Last week they sent another request, this time to extend 'til the end of March (once again, something to do with my replacement being delayed). I responded that it was not possible as I already have a plane ticket to join my mom in Aruba for a week starting March 12 and after 8 months away from home I am not giving that up. I have yet to hear back but hopefully they will be able to find someone else to fill in for me; I simply cannot do 9 months.

Last night we (finally) started a full ice melt in Studio B. This melt has been overdue since November but unfortunately it is difficult to schedule time to do it during 7 day cruises with so many sea days. We simply can't afford to be without a venue for ice skating and/or ice shows for 2.5 days. However we were able to work it out so that we would melt the ice on the evening of the last day of last cruise and then build the new ice over the first two days of this cruise. It is going to be a tight schedule this week. On top of the full ice make, our fleet head sound and light technician, Jeff, is going to be onboard Voyager this week. Definitely a good thing since it means we can get some maintenance and repairs done that may require a little more expertise, but it will make this week all that much more busy. In addition, the lighting designer for Ice Odyssey is expected to come sometime in the near future for a week or two to install some new lights we have onboard but cannot use them until the show has been re-designed for them. In preparation for her visit, I have been working very hard in Studio B trying to ensure that the lighting rig is in 100% working order (minus the broken lights that we are replacing).

My last few weeks are shaping up to be the busiest of my contract. I guess I'll certainly be earning my vacation now.

My New Position

2011-01-20T13:03:00.000-05:00

I'm now getting settled into my new job here on Voyager of the Seas as a Light Technician. All the paperwork is done, and I've also received my next contract offer. Leaving Voyager on Feb. 27 and coming back to the same ship (no surprises there) on May 1. It will be awesome to spend nearly 5 months sailing out of Venice, Italy. In fact, every port on the itinerary should be great. I'll have to try really hard not to spend all of my money in port next contract haha.

Now that I'm a light tech instead of stage staff, my duties have changed and responsibilities have increased considerably. My two main venues are Studio B (the ice rink), and the Royal Promenade (AKA the mall, the street, and whatever else guests call it the first time they see it). For the technically inclined, below is a list of fixtures in those venues (which I am responsible for repairs, maintenance, changing lamps, etc.)

Studio B

Ice Odyssey ice show

18 Lightwave Studio Color 575s
12 Martin MAC 500s
12 Lightwave Cyberlight SVs (half of which are to be replaced by MAC 700s which we already have onboard but cannot use until the show is redesigned for them in Feb.)
12 Martin MAC 250 washes
4 Martin MAC 250 entours
about 10 data flash strobes
8 "9-lites" with scrollers (AKA the biggest pain in my life right now), to be replaced by Elation LED ELAR216s (also in Feb.)
100 or so source 4s (combination of pars and ERS)
dimming for conventionals accomplished by about 280 ETC Sensor Dimmers in 3 racks
1 DF-50 Diffusion Hazer

all driven by a Wholehog 2 console... unfortunately (it's a really old system).

I'm also responsible for Royal Promenade lighting:

The Royal Promenade on Country Western night

12 Martin MAC 600s
12 Martin MAC 250 Entours
4 Martin MAC 500s
4 Martin MAC 250 washes
8 Chauvet Colorado1 LED wash lights
about 20 Source 4 ERS and PARs
1 rack of ETC sensor dimmers
3 DF-50 Diffusion Hazers

all driven by a computer running Hog 2 PC (on loan from shoreside, the Hog2 for this venue is not working)

and the Vault Nightclub:

The Vault

12 Martin Mania SCX700
4 Martin Mania SCX500
8 Martin Smart MAC

Controlled by Martin LightJockey

That's 112 moving fixtures that I am responsible for, plus a bunch of other lights and associated equipment which also require maintenance. It's a job that never ends, but I'm glad that I'll be coming back to this ship because it means I get to benefit from all of the work I'm doing right now when I come back. Many of these fixtures have been left for more than a year without proper maintenance and therefore I have created a new maintenance schedule for my Production Manager both to track my own maintenance work and to ensure that my replacement (for my 2 month vacation) takes on a couple of maintenance tasks as well so that I do not come back to a totally broken ship (lighting-wise).

Now, off to go work on the Vault so that I can hopefully get it back to what it looks like in the photo above... it certainly doesn't look that way right now haha.

Surprise! You're a light tech.

2011-01-06T19:47:00.003-05:00

These past few weeks have been quite eventful. First, we had 2 very successful cruises over Christmas and New Year's, with especially high praise regarding the new year's eve festivities. All of us on the "black shirt" (production) team worked like crazy (I was up until 5am on new year's eve programming the lighting for that evening). We filled 2 25' balloon drops, 2 50' balloon drops, and installed rigging for a mirror ball drop in the "occulus" skylight above the promenade, with another 500 or so balloons placed around it. The countdown was quite spectacular and I was impressed that everything went off without a single glitch that evening. Some people had their doubts but we pulled it off and everyone loved it. I will try to post a few photos soon.

On another note, I had some interesting news on Saturday night. The Studio B lighting technician resigned from the company at about 9pm that evening, to depart the ship the following day in Galveston. I had a brief meeting with the 2 production managers, who informed me that I would be officially placed in the position on a temporary basis until I after I had my interview. From that point I had a few hours to gain whatever additional knowledge I would need from the departing light tech in order to take on the position, and that was that. The next day (Sunday), I was no longer a stage staff. It has been great to be able to finally take on the position that I have been training and waiting so long for. It was all truly worth it, and I am quite a bit happier with my job now. Since then I have been doing my best to assess the maintenance needs of Studio B and the Royal Promenade and I believe I have everything sorted out now, so I can continue to tackle maintenance projects over the coming week.

Today I had my interview with Amy and Paul from shoreside. It was somewhat brief, I think they asked me about 5 questions pertaining entirely to my experience in lighting fixtures and control, both on and off the ship (but mostly on). They have said to expect an official answer either tomorrow or early next week as of course this is an unusual situation I am in on Voyager right now, and obviously they would want to make sure a qualified person is filling the position. If the decision is made to promote me, I think it is quite likely that I will be simply converted to a permanent light tech (instead of temp) and kept on this ship until the end of my contract. Conveniently, the last day of my contract is the exact same day as the previous light tech's sign-off date, so I think this will all work out quite smoothly. Certainly much easier than moving to another ship for my last 2 months of this contract.

I moved into my new single cabin yesterday (exactly the same layout as my old one but with the bunk beds ripped out and replaced with a double bed). It feels good to be doing what I've been training for years to do. I also have to admit that there are parts about being a stage staff that I won't miss if I get the permanent light tech job.

Update Jan.7:

Just got the news that I passed the interview have been accepted for the position. :)

Interview? Please?

2010-12-20T13:44:00.000-05:00

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

2010-12-03T13:50:00.000-05:00

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

2010-11-15T09:54:00.000-05:00

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

2010-10-29T08:15:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-12T09:06:00.000-04:00

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

2010-09-28T09:09:00.000-04:00

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

2010-09-15T05:37:00.001-04:00

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

2010-08-19T07:54:00.000-04:00

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

2010-08-06T13:49:00.002-04:00

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

2010-07-31T12:41:00.001-04:00

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

2010-07-19T13:21:00.001-04:00

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

2010-07-05T15:00:00.001-04:00

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

2010-07-04T06:05:00.000-04:00

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

2010-06-25T20:48:00.000-04:00

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

2010-06-10T08:45:00.000-04:00

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

2010-04-27T17:45:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-04-10T13:06:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-23T13:15:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-02T14:41:00.000-05:00

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

2010-01-28T11:39:00.000-05:00

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

2010-01-18T12:13:00.002-05:00

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.

View Full Album

Dry-dock

2010-01-08T20:48:00.010-05:00

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.

They aren’t like others I’ve seen on TV which are at sea level at all times and when they want to empty it, the doors are closed and the water is pumped out. The Freeport dock is different, it’s a floating dock. The tanks of the dock are filled with water which causes it to sink. The ship is then positioned into the dry-dock and the dock lifts the ship out of the water (very slowly). The process took about 8 hours before the ship was completely out of the water. Many crew including myself were moved to guest cabins as the water has been turned off to some of the areas where crew cabins exist to facilitate plumbing repairs. The distribution of cabins was random and unfortunately for the sake of viewing the process of coming out of the water, I got an inside cabin. My co-worker however got a deck 6 balcony hump cabin so I was able to get a great view from there, including seeing a little bit of what was going on below the ship.
The whole production team has been working very hard during dry-dock. We have contractors onboard to install new lighting and sound gear in many of the venues in addition to performing refurbishments and repairs in many different areas. Personally, my work has involved printing drawings for the entertainment systems in all the different venues, cleaning band gear, cleaning lights, repairing cables, and many other tasks. We are also melting the ice in Studio B during dry-dock and making fresh ice before we leave Freeport (making ice while the ship is level is much easier).
The new sound mixer has been installed in ~~Studio B~~ The Palace theater. Explorer now definitely has the nicest sound console in the fleet except perhaps Oasis. It’s a DiGiCo D5 Live. It’s a larger job than just replacing the mixer itself as there is a whole lot of back-end equipment from the old sound console that was removed and lots more gear going in. There are also brand new Shure UHF-R microphones and a new system ~~to replace the DA-98 tape decks~~ to provide personal monitor mixes to every musician.

Upon arriving in Freeport, we joined Holland America Line’s Princendam (their smallest ship) and the Carnival Fascination just arrived recently. Princendam is in dry-dock as well, and Carnival Fascination is awaiting our departure to use the dock we have been occupying. I can tell the Carnival Fascination is undergoing extensive work as they appear to be adding additional balconies on each side and at the aft (shown at right). From what I have heard, they will be in Freeport for about 30 days.

Additional Photos (click the photo to enlarge):

Arriving in Freeport	Our dry-dock before entering	The other 2 docks (fully raised), Princendam is on the left.
Arriving in the dock. Current depth: 32’	Fully positioned	Starting to lift out of the water, 26’ to go.
10 feet to go	8 hours later, finally dry	Lights down for cleaning
Containers on the deck	The Royal Promenade, no passengers	Work on the pool deck

New Years on Explorer of the Seas

2010-01-02T21:23:00.001-05:00

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

Counting down the days ‘til dry-dock

2009-12-24T12:27:00.001-05:00

Today is Christmas eve but I have to say it definitely doesn’t have the same feeling as at home. I’m going to talk to my family on the phone tonight so that should help but in many ways it’s just not possible to replicate the home Christmas experience. Many of the crew members on board have children at home and I can’t even imagine what it must feel like to be away from them at this time of year. Christmas cruisers expect everyone to be at the top of their game and they expect a great deal of extra activities, a tall order when so many crew members are missing their families.

Explorer of the Seas will be presenting a Christmas variety show on Dec. 25 (tomorrow) featuring the Ice and Production casts and the Cruise staff. In terms of crew activities, Christmas dinner will be served in both the crew and staff/officer messes. Following that, there will be crew ice skating offered in Studio B and then a midnight party on the back deck. It should definitely be a fun night.

In addition to the chaos of the Christmas and New Years’ cruise dry-dock also looms, starting January 3rd. Many supplies have been brought onboard already and we’ve all been briefed on the procedures of dry-dock and what to expect. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to hear that we should be working about 8 hours a day (9-6), I had been thinking more like 10+ hours per day just because of the shear amount of work to be done in only 10 days. Nearly every entertainment venue on the entire ship has SOME form of work planned, many receiving new lighting and/or sound equipment. It’s going to be a lot of work for us.

I should also add that I’ve definitely been taking advantage of the free room service for 15 days that I won in the crew auction. It has been great being able to relax in my cabin and have dinner brought to me for once.

Crew Auction

2009-12-14T10:26:00.003-05:00

Last night we had a charity crew auction, run by our art auctioneer John. It was pretty well-attended which was good because large crew events can be very much hit-or-miss. There were a number of items/services/people up for bids and the proceeds all go to a children's charity in Dominica. Among the many things up for auction were:

Various Crew members volunteered to be put up for auction for a dinner for two with the winning bidder at Portofino.
Bridge tour
Engine Room tour
Learn to drive the rescue boat (we have two small rescue boats on board)
Eat at Windjammer free for 15 days (excluding breakfast, since it's very busy)
Various art pieces donated by Park West to be auctioned for charity
24 hour Room Service free for 15 days
A Balcony guest stateroom for one cruise (only if one is available)

Most of the items got surprisingly high bids, the highest bid for the night was $1000 for one of the two balcony staterooms. I bid on a small number of things and ended up winning the Bridge tour and Room service for 15 days for $150 each. A rather large purchase for my pay bracket but I know the money is going towards a great cause (and on and island we visit so that we can see some results).

The Bridge tour is no ordinary Bridge tour. Rarely do our guests get such an opportunity and even then they get the same Bridge tour that every crew member gets when they join a new ship as part of safety training. Apparently I'll get to sit in the captain's chair, blow the ship's horn, and other things that can only really be offered on a private tour. As a technical kind of guy I think it will be very interesting and a great experience. Once the 15 days room service was bid up to $175, the auctioneer made an offer for anybody who will pay $150 for it to bid that much and he would give it to all of us, so that is what I did. I think it will come in very handy on the upcoming 14-day Christmas and New Year's cruise as it's a very busy time for all who work onboard and having some meals delivered to my cabin will be a real treat... not to mention my coworkers all want in on it too haha.

In addition, all who registered bid cards were entered in a raffle to win some art pieces and I ended up winning one of those too... the one I won was my favourite of those raffled so I think I'll enjoy it. Park West is going to ship it home for me free of charge.

That's all I have for today... I start duty again tomorrow and then we go into the Christmas cruise, then right into Drydock. There will likely be another post before Christmas and a couple during drydock with some pictures of the work going on around the ship. It's possible that the ship may not have Internet access and I may not have time to take my laptop ashore to post them so rest assured that I will type them up during drydock and post as soon as I can.

Update:

As I published this post, John started his daily crew announcement and informed us that the total raised by the crew auction was in excess of $10 000, not a bad donation at all.

Lighting, Lighting, and More Lighting

2009-11-30T13:49:00.001-05:00

I am just coming up to the end of my second month here on the Explorer of the Seas. It’s been an adventure so far but definitely an enjoyable one. I’m thinking it’s likely I’ll stick around on ships for at least a few contracts, if not more.

For the past few cruises I have been doing as much lighting work as I possibly can, so that I’ll be a good candidate for promotion to light tech when I get close to the end of my contract. So far that has involved doing lots of maintenance and some repairs on automated lights, and reading the control console manual cover to cover. A new light tech is working in Studio B now and I’ve been working closely with him whenever possible to get more lighting experience. The Studio B light tech has (from what I can tell) the largest responsibility for maintaining lighting fixtures (as opposed to the light tech in the Palace Theatre), because they are responsible for 3 different venues: Studio B, the nightclub, and Royal Promenade. All of those add up quickly when you look at the number of fixtures (each of which must be thoroughly cleaned out and re-lamped (change bulb) every 3-6 months).

For the technically inclined, here is a summary of the lighting-related equipment in those 3 venues (note quantities may not be exact but are very close):

Studio B

18x Cyberlight SV

12x Martin MAC 500

16x Martin MAC 600

14x Martin MAC 250 Wash (4 of which sit on the ice during shows)

30x ETC Source 4 ellipsoidal (most have Coloram II scrollers)

8x 9-lites (with Coloram II scrollers)

18x ETC Parnels

16x Martin Robocolor 400 (powering fibre optic star cloths)

6x Wildfire Long-throw UV lights (with scrollers)

4x Snow machines

4x Antari ICE low-fog units

2x MDG hazers

several of strip lights which will be replaced with LED strips in dry-dock (these light the edges of the ice rink)

Wholehog II control console

Richmond ShowMan show control

Royal Promenade

18x Martin MAC 600

16x Martin MAC 500

8x ETC Source 4 ellipsoidal

10x Chauvet Colorado II

2x hazers

Wholehog II control console

Richmond ShowMan show control

The Chamber (nightclub)

6x Martin MAC 600

14x Martin MAC 500

8x strobes

a bunch of non-functioning DJ lights that are all being replaced with Martin SmartMAC and Mania fixtures in dry-dock

Martin LightJockey controller

When you add all that up, it’s quite a large responsibility. But, it’s also a great opportunity for me to get my hands on as many fixtures as possible because it’s important for me to have that experience.

In addition to maintaining and repairing fixtures, I am also about to start working on programming shows and learning about ShowMan show control. It’s great that stage staff have a few more hours of free time than many other positions because it enables me to spend this time learning about the position I want.

Last cruise the ship started to get decorated for Christmas. As my job involves trips to the galley on occasion, I had an opportunity to watch the production of the gingerbread houses that make up the gingerbread village which I have seen on a previous Royal Caribbean cruise vacation. It’s a big job and I could tell many different chefs were pitching in to help, not just the pastry team. The huge Christmas tree was also installed in the Royal Promenade.

Rough Seas

2009-11-13T10:47:00.000-05:00

Last night was definitely an adventure. While I was speaking on the phone with my mom yesterday I mentioned that we had fairly rough seas the previous day coming back from Bermuda. I felt bad for the passengers on that cruise because it was pretty rough on the way to and back from Bermuda. it’s unfortunate that many people lost 1 or 2 days out of a 5 day vacation due to seasickness, but it could have been prevented by taking some Gravol or similar medication ahead of time… don’t take chances. Little did I know, that weather coming back from Bermuda was NOTHING. It’s days like yesterday that make me very happy to be on a larger ship because I know how much worse it truly can be. Last night we had waves over 20 feet high and winds at 60 knots gusting to 70 knots. It should be noted that this was the first time since I’ve been on this ship that I felt seasick. Took lots of meds though and I felt better in minutes. The worst weather started right around 9pm, and we had the sail-away parade coming up at 10:30. As should be expected from such a situation the parade audience was pretty dismal and some of the performers weren’t looking too well. I would recommend anyone sailing out of Bayonne during the winter months to take something to prevent seasickness. Don’t wait until the ship starts rocking, as that is sometimes too late (and it’s right around dinner time too).

The production manager for the Palace theatre returned today so Leslie is back with us in Studio B and Junior has headed back to the Mariner. In a couple of weeks things will change up again as Jamie joins us in Studio B and Leslie heads out for her well-deserved vacation. On land a stage manager would stay with a particular show/theatre for months or even years, so it’s interesting having 3 different people in the same month running the same show.

That’s about all there is to write about for now… Oh! I get paid tomorrow, so already I know that tomorrow will be a great day.

Halloween on the Explorer

2009-11-04T16:06:00.001-05:00

As someone who has cruised several times as a passenger before, I have to say that I never considered what a Halloween cruise would be like. It just never occurred to me, really. I’ve been on several new years’ cruises, so I know what those are like, but never Halloween.

In addition to decorations around the ship, the cruise staff organized two large Halloween events: a costume parade and a dance party. Both were extremely well-attended. Anyone who dressed up for Halloween was given the opportunity to be in the parade, and many opted to do so. At least 200 passengers in addition to several crew and staff members participated in the parade, and I would estimate over 1000 were there to watch. The parade started at the forward end of the ship and headed toward the aft, and down the Centrum staircase into Studio B, where the dance party was to take place. This resulted in a very full dance party as we just kept sending folks down the stairs into Studio B. The party only lasted about an hour but I was astonished by the level of attendance.

I got a few photos of both the parade and the party, but of course the lighting was fairly dim so the quality of the photos is not the greatest (click the photos to view full-size). Some of the scenery for “Spirits of the Seasons” came in quite handy for this party.

St. Maarten

2009-11-02T13:53:00.003-05:00

Today is one of those days when it hits me again that I love my job. There are parts to my job I dislike, I think everyone experiences that to some extent, but the fact that I'm living on a ship that visits warm caribbean islands every week is still sinking in. I'm used to going on vacations to a caribbean destination one or two times per year, but getting used to being here almost once a week is a bit different.

Had a lazy day so far today. Only had to wake up to work at 11am, and even then all we had to do was take down the dashers along the ice rink which are used for passenger skating sessions. The next thing I'm scheduled for doesn't happen until 7:15pm, so I have plenty of time to just wander around St. Maarten. So far I had a lunch consisting of conch fritters, jerk chicken and ribs, and 2 wonderfully strong drinks.

Unfortunately I'll be going on duty again tomorrow, which means I won't be able to get off the ship for a week. But at least the Blades install is over, so I won't be called upon to make ice at all hours of the day.

New Roommate

2009-10-27T15:21:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-21T11:36:00.001-04:00

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

2009-10-13T15:04:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-07T20:43:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-06T12:43:00.001-04:00

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?

2009-10-05T12:22:00.004-04:00

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

2009-10-03T13:37:00.001-04:00

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

2009-10-01T18:00:00.000-04:00

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.

2009-09-30T22:58:00.001-04:00

So me and my luggage are all in Newark and checked-in to a hotel for the night before boarding tomorrow. Apparently I’m supposed to be getting a roommate for the night but so far nobody has shown up. Since the latest flight into Newark arrives around 11:15pm, I’ll assume that it’s unlikely anyone will show up after midnight.

Hopefully I’ll be well-rested tonight and all set for tomorrow… something tells me it’s going to be a long day… followed by a long 2 weeks. lol

The Adventure Begins

2009-09-30T12:51:00.002-04:00

So here I am at Toronto Pearson International Airport. I came way earlier than necessary because I expected there was a high likelihood that I would be lead into some kind of back room and interrogated… but no. The US Customs/Immigration officer was unexpectedly personable, and after a couple minutes checking that everything was in order, he sent me on my way. Of course that was going to happen, because I made extra time available in case it did; that’s how life works.

Anyhow, I suppose it’s all for the best that things have gone smoothly so far… I hope that they continue to go that way. As long as my flight to Dulles doesn’t get delayed, I’ll be fine. If it is late… all hell might break loose. I have a 50 minute connection and two suitcases containing my entire life which might not make it to the second plane if this flight is late.

Other than that… not much else to report at this point. I’m glad to be finally on my way.

Update:

Here is a photo of my sister and I before I left for the airport:

Just a few days now

2009-09-27T21:41:00.002-04:00

Only 3 more days until I join the ship, I can't wait. I REALLY need to get my packing done tomorrow; I don't think I'll be doing anything else but packing all day.

As much as I would love to update everyone as soon as I can about how things are going once I've started, please understand that any new crew member's first two weeks on board are usually taken up by intensive safety training (when not working their usual job, that is). As soon as I have a reasonable amount of free time, I will do my best to get the blog up-to-date on how things are going with my job, etc. In the meantime I will probably write posts on my laptop before bed or something and then post them in order when I have the opportunity to get myself to an internet connection.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to being able to actually get on with writing about my experiences on board Explorer of the Seas.

A side-note for Cruise Critic members:

I can tell by looking at my site statistics that approximately 90% or more of my blog traffic so far has come from Cruise Critic. Please be advised that for the duration of this contract, and any subsequent contracts with Royal Caribbean, I will abstain from posting on Cruise Critic and similar message boards as it is considered a conflict of interest. However, anything that I feel is appropriate to post about the Explorer of the Seas I will do my best to write about it here on my blog. Also, remember that anything I post here is to be considered unofficial.

Two Weeks!

2009-09-15T11:36:00.002-04:00

Wow, and here I was thinking that these last few weeks were going to be the longest of my life. Time has actually been passing fairly quickly for me as my departure date approaches. For the past couple years I have been doing some freelance work, in order to earn an income while I was at college. Let me tell you, nothing brings in a flood of last-minute work like telling your clients you'll be out of the country for 6 months. So I've been plenty busy with that.

Last week I passed and submitted my medical exam, so there is no more paperwork left for me to submit at this point. All I have to worry about is how to get my entire life for the next six months, packed into two suitcases weighing less than 50lbs. each. Luckily I'm well-traveled and know how to pack, but it's still going to be tough. I've just learned that United Airlines has no weight limit on carry-on luggage, so I'm going to be packing my small carry-on suitcase denser than a lead brick in order to ease off the demands on the other two suitcases.

The excitement is building as September 30th draws nearer, only 15 more days!

It's Official

2009-09-02T15:03:00.003-04:00

Today I received all my official paperwork that outlines my specific contract, the method for joining the ship, and what to bring. I didn't even know it was coming soon so it was a nice surprise. I looked through all the contents of the huge envelope and was left with every single one of my remaining questions answered. Despite being a somewhat complicated process, Royal Caribbean and my hiring agent have been very thorough in the information and paperwork provided so I should have no troubles when I head down to Newark on September 30.

There is a lot of paperwork involved in the hiring process. I must have mailed at least 3 envelopes containing multiple forms to the hiring agent since April. Luckily all that's left is to complete my medical exam, which should be ready to submit by this time next week.

My Letter of Employment states that my contract will last 6 months, 3 weeks. By my calculation that would have me disembarking the ship on April 15, 2010.

I figured I should make my address available for any family/friends that might want it. I know that nobody sends anything by snail-mail these days, but just in case my mailing address on the ship will be:

~~Ryan Holliday~~
~~Explorer of the Seas~~
~~P.O. Box 019026~~
~~Miami, FL 33101-09026 USA~~

I guess that's all for now. I look forward to starting work on the ship and being able to post lots of information on ship life, the ports of call, and anything else that happens to me along the way.

Third time's the charm?

2009-08-18T16:20:00.004-04:00

While I was working today, I got another phone call... my ship assignment has been changed. After first being given an assignment, then the date changing, and now the ship AND date changing, I certainly hope everything is sorted out.

I will now be working on Explorer of the Seas, sailing out of Cape Liberty in New Jersey. My contract will start on October 1st (so I'm back to the original date). Explorer of the Seas sails several different itineraries. I'll be starting in Canada/New England and Bermuda, and then as the weather gets cooler the ship will move to Eastern Caribbean routes. Explorer of the seas is part of the slightly smaller (compared to Liberty) Voyager class of ships.

Unfortunately, my mom and my sister had booked a cruise on Liberty of the seas for Christmas week so that they could be with me for the holidays, and then they were going to spend a week in Aruba which had already been planned. Now the cruise has had to be canceled. There is no cruise on the Explorer that they would be able to visit me on because the cruises are mostly 10-14 days in length as opposed to a week. It was extremely lucky that it happened today though as today was the last day my mom could get the deposit back on that cruise. The flight on the other hand is costing a lot more money now that they are back to flying straight to Aruba instead of spending a week in Miami first. I guess we've learned our lesson now not to book any cruises to visit me until I'm actually ON the ship.

Although I will miss seeing them for a week, I am very happy with the new routes I'll be sailing as there is a lot more variety. Also, the cruises are longer so I can only hope that means a greater variety of on-board shows and guest entertainers.

I have spoken to the cruise hiring agent and they have informed me that Royal Caribbean is going to be paying for my new air ticket to New Jersey (since I had a non-refundable ticket to Miami). So that's great news.

More details

2009-08-14T18:00:00.001-04:00

Alright so there was a minor screw up with my start date. The day I got my ship assignment, I headed to the Royal Caribbean website to see what itineraries it sails. It struck me as odd that the ship was not in Miami on October 1st at all, which left me wondering how in the heck I was supposed to be joining that date. I sent an e-mail back to the hiring partner to find out what that was about. Turns out that I'm actually supposed to be boarding on the 3rd of October... good thing I checked before booking a flight that would have been 2 days too early. Goes to show that if something doesn't look right, don't be afraid to speak up about it!

I'll be flying down on October 2nd and they will pay for my overnight stay at a hotel. I even have my flight booked already.

Here are some details about the ship I will be working on, Liberty of the Seas.

Gross Tonnage: 160,000
Maiden Voyage: May 19, 2007
Passenger Capacity: 3,634 double occupancy (approx. 4,300 fully-loaded, plus 1,300 crew)
Godmother: Donnalea Madeley
Length: 1,112'
Max Beam: 184' (width)
Draft: 28' (height of the portion of the ship which is below sea level)
Cruising Speed: 21.6 knots

Liberty of the Seas is a Freedom-class ship, which is currently the largest size of cruise ship in the world. This will change about a month after I board when the latest largest ship in the world, Oasis of the Seas, is scheduled to go into service.

Ship Highlights

	FlowRider®
	H2O Zone
	Cantilevered whirlpools
	Rock-climbing wall
	Ice-skating rink
	Royal Promenade
	Extensive WiFi capabilities and connectivity for cell phones
	Full-size, flat-screen TVs in every stateroom
	Themed bars and lounges
	Adventure Ocean® youth facilities
	Fitness Center and Day Spa
	Full-size Everlast boxing ring

	Casino Royale^SM
	Presidential Family Suite
	Sports Pool
	Full-size sports court
	9-hole miniature golf course
	Johnny Rockets® '50s-style restaurant
	Portofino Italian Restaurant
	Chops Grille
	Ben & Jerry's® ice cream
	Vintages wine bar
	Boleros Latin-themed lounge
	Sorrento's pizza
	Vitality Wellness Program

Contrary to my initial posting, LOS sails both Eastern and Western itineraries, and even those change up a bit themselves... so I shouldn't be getting bored of the ports too quickly.

My contract will last at least 6 months (6 is the minimum for my position), however I have not been informed of my exact date of departure from the ship at this point.

That's all for now. I'll post any new information when I receive it. Until then, it's time to get my life in order before I leave :).

Good News!

2009-08-10T13:47:00.002-04:00

I have just received a call from Cruise Services with my first ship assignment. It's on Liberty of the Seas, starting October 1st. The itinerary is Western Caribbean. I'm so excited.

At least there will be lots of time to get my life sorted before I start.

Should anyone want to send me letters or anything like that ;), I'll be posting the ship's address at some point soon.

Waiting

2009-07-21T14:59:00.005-04:00

You know those moments when you've written out the majority of a message, and then your hand slips and you accidentally press a key combination or something else that makes it all disappear? I just had one of those moments.

Anyway, right now I'm still waiting for a ship assignment with Royal Caribbean. It's been a slow journey so far. I've resubmitted my resumes to the other cruise lines just in case they have something sooner. Unfortunately, nobody has called me for an interview since April.

The American economy is doing me no favours right now. Since jobs are so scarce, cruise ship employees who are in positions such as mine are extending and renewing their contracts when they otherwise maybe would have decided their career at sea is finished.

On a more positive note, I've joined a local gym to try and lose a few pounds in addition to getting in shape a bit. No point in sitting around doing nothing all the time. So far it's going well but it's only the first week so I guess I'll see what happens over the next month or so. The gym has agreed to allow me to pay for training bi-weekly so that I can easily leave the gym commitment without losing money should I get that oh-so-important call from the cruise line that they need me.

Update

2009-06-22T22:54:00.002-04:00

After hearing back from some of my forum posts, it looks like Technical Stage Staff are used on the radiance class of ships as well, bringing the potential ships to be hired on up from 8 to 12. Hopefully I hear something from them soon, I can't wait to get started.

Hired & Waiting

2009-06-21T16:24:00.003-04:00

Why I created this blog:
I've had a look around the internet and it seems many people have created blogs to document their experience working on a cruise ship, especially when doing their first contracts. Since internet on board is so expensive, blogging is a fairly cheap way to keep everyone up to date because you can write a very detailed message in notepad or word, and then when it's ready it can be posted where everyone can read it. Much more convenient than individual e-mails. On that basis, I decided to start this blog to write about my experiences working at sea and maybe one day someone will find this info useful in their career search, just as I have found the information that others post online to be beneficial to mine.

In April I was offered a position with Royal Caribbean cruise lines as a Technical Stage Staff. I accepted it right away and I'm really excited about getting started working on a ship. I've cruised enough times to know that it definitely is the right place for me, so I don't have that unsure feeling that I would imagine many people get when they first start out working at sea.

Unfortunately right now I don't know when I'll be starting, where I'm going, or what ship I'll be on. What I do know is that the technical stage staff position only exists on the larger ships (voyager class and larger) so I'll certainly have plenty to do no matter which ship I end up on. Unfortunately, this also means that instead of 20 possible ships to be hired for, I am only eligible for 8 of them (9 when Oasis is ready). That will make it a bit of a longer wait but I think it's going to be worth the wait. Cruise lines install the best of the best equipment available in the theatres on their ships and working on the largest ships also means working on the newest ones. I can't wait to get started working with that stuff.

Another thing about working at sea that has me excited is that It'll be a completely new and different experience, not only in terms of the work I'll be doing but also the lifestyle and surroundings. I'll be meeting many new people from all over the world and gaining a ton of useful knowledge and experience.

Right now all I can do is sit back and wait (and take any freelance work that comes my way) until my day comes. By my estimates, that will probably happen about a month from now.

Studio B	18x Cyberlight SV 12x Martin MAC 500 16x Martin MAC 600 14x Martin MAC 250 Wash (4 of which sit on the ice during shows) 30x ETC Source 4 ellipsoidal (most have Coloram II scrollers) 8x 9-lites (with Coloram II scrollers) 18x ETC Parnels 16x Martin Robocolor 400 (powering fibre optic star cloths) 6x Wildfire Long-throw UV lights (with scrollers) 4x Snow machines 4x Antari ICE low-fog units 2x MDG hazers several of strip lights which will be replaced with LED strips in dry-dock (these light the edges of the ice rink) Wholehog II control console Richmond ShowMan show control
Royal Promenade	18x Martin MAC 600 16x Martin MAC 500 8x ETC Source 4 ellipsoidal 10x Chauvet Colorado II 2x hazers Wholehog II control console Richmond ShowMan show control
The Chamber (nightclub)	6x Martin MAC 600 14x Martin MAC 500 8x strobes a bunch of non-functioning DJ lights that are all being replaced with Martin SmartMAC and Mania fixtures in dry-dock Martin LightJockey controller