A little (OK a LOT) about how this unfolded... a few weeks into January I was still on the Oasis of the Seas, browsing Facebook, and got a message from a fellow ship technician about a rumour he had heard from other techs. We got into chatting and he mentioned that he had heard through a couple of people that Sound, Light, and Lounge Technicians would be losing the privilege of single-person cabins throughout Royal Caribbean's fleet. I thought this couldn't be possible, surely such a change would cause a major uproar among techs. Not having to share a cabin has always been a big draw and a retaining factor for technicians with Royal Caribbean. Not all cruise lines offer this, but those which don't all pay a considerably higher monthly salary. Technicians who choose to work with Royal Caribbean over other cruise lines have generally done so because of a few factors: working some of the best shows at sea, working with some of the best equipment available in the market, and also the single cabin has been a very big factor with almost every technician I have ever spoken with on the subject.
Now, like I said, this was a rumour. I asked where he got the information from and he said that several technicians were talking about it at that moment. Within fewer than 10 minutes, I also had 5 or 6 chat windows pop up on Facebook from other techs asking if I had heard about this. So within minutes this went from one of those ridiculous-sounding rumours that couldn't possibly be true to something that could be all too real. Within the next half hour I received confirmation of this rumour. A fellow technician shared a leaked powerpoint presentation he had received through a friend of a friend which outlined a plan through which Royal Caribbean was to recoup some of their losses in having contractors, shore-based employees, and sometimes ship crewmembers taking up guest cabins for weeks at a time (for instance, while an incoming technician was in handover with an outgoing technician). Instead they would free up crew cabins to become ECCs (extra crew cabins) and keep those individuals out of the guest cabins. This would be achieved by converting some existing single crew cabins to shared (bunk) cabins, and on some ships also converting existing non-cabin spaces into a handful of new shared crew cabins. Additionally, hundreds of "Travelling positions" were cut so that there would not be so many people to fill these beds. These are the folks throughout many departments who move from ship to ship to oversee operations and ensure the fleet is consistently maintaining the same standards. While I will not share the actual yearly dollar figure that was mentioned within the presentation as the amount of loss caused by the occupation of these guest cabins by crew, I will say it would be a big number for most individuals, but it was peanuts for a company as large as Royal Caribbean. And so there it was, plain as day, that this was no rumour, this was reality, and it was happening SOON. March 2013 to be exact, was when this privilege loss would take effect on paper. All of this coming from a casual "have you heard" rumour an hour prior, and none of it coming direct through the company itself, but through a leaked document.
This wasn't the only change to come. Upon reading through the entire presentation, I learned that not only was this cabin privilege change affecting entertainment technicians, but most 2-stripe officers throughout the fleet. This means folks throughout the Hotel and Marine departments, for example: Assistant Systems Managers (IT guys), Deputy Security Officers, Supervisors throughout F&B, and many others. All 2-stripe positions were evaluated and only a select few were to keep the single-cabin privilege, and generally the deciding factor was how many crewmembers reported to each position. Another factor was very specialized positions such as the Rigging Specialists, who were to keep their single cabin status (I would argue that while Rigging Specialists do hold the lives of performers in their hands while performing their job (and received specialized training as such), ALL entertainment technicians undergo specialized educations to get to their respective positions and to perform their job effectively and safely, and should be compensated respectively). However, nearly all (if not all) of the 2-stripers who were able to retain their single cabin privilege got a nasty surprise a couple of months later: while they were going to still have single cabins, they were going to be downgraded from what in some cases were slightly larger, nicer single cabins with portholes, to the smallest inside single crew cabins (sometimes on the lowest decks below the waterline) that were generally even too small to be converted to shared cabins. This last change also trickled up through the ranks to 2.5 stripers who are generally Managers, whom also experienced a bump down in their accommodations. The only exception to this that I saw was for certain specialty performers, who did get shuffled around between cabins during the changes but generally did not experience a change in category of cabin.
In the minutes that followed those conversations, a private Facebook group was created by fellow Royal Caribbean "Black Shirts" (ship slang for anyone in the Production team) and within 48 hours nearly 400 members had amassed to talk about this. All of this from a rumour. Still no word at that point from the company on any of these changes. I should note that within the powerpoint I received was an official deadline by which time all affected positions were to have been notified off the changes to their employment contracts. While the actual date escapes me, it had been at least 2 weeks PRIOR to the date that I found out about this, and still I only found out through a rumour.
So as the days went by, technicians continued to debate within our Facebook group about our options and there were several suggestions of ways we could communicate our displeasure to the company. A few people mentioned some kind of job action, a few others got in touch with the higher-ups shoreside and received heartfelt but empty responses. A large number of techs simply decided to vote with their feet and leave. This lead me to seriously consider whether my then-current contract would be the final one (at least for the time being). After a couple of days' deliberation I came to the conclusion that yes it was. Luckily for me, there was work available at home, which would pay well, and would be a good transition away from ship life. Many others were not so lucky. Technicians from North America and the UK generally had an easier time finding work at home than those from other regions. In general, there are two overall categories that ship technicians fall into: those from countries where there is high demand for their work and decent pay offered in exchange for their expertise, and those from countries where related work can be harder to find and/or doesn't pay much. Those in the former group usually seek ship contracts for the opportunity to travel, gain experience quickly, be a part of the "social experience" that is ship life, and sometimes save a little money on the side. These techs generally take a massive cut in pay to work on ships but as there are hardly any living expenses onboard it is possible to save money and still have fun. These techncians are the ones currently resigning in the highest numbers in search of something better at home. The latter group of technicians tend to seek ship employment because the pay is substantially higher than what they could make at home (or there is no job availaility at home), and allows them to have a much nicer lifestyle at home than they would be able to otherwise; and these are the folks who generally are trying to stick it out onboard as they need to support their families back home.
Eventually various ships throughout the fleet started to schedule one-on-one meetings with the crewmembers to be affected by these changes. Oasis (my ship) was one of the last ships to do this, far more than a month past the "official deadline" I mentioned earlier. When we finally were asked to come in and sit down with the HR Manager and Cruise Director (our division head) it was little more than for show. Everyone knew that everyone else knew what was happening. We had heard from technicians on other ships what the procedure was. Sit down with the HR manager, he/she presents an official memo from the company outlining all the changes to take place, why the need arose, and how we weren't going to receive any additional compensation or privilege(s) in exchange for this loss. Sign here. The only thing that was different about each individual meeting was the date when the actual change would take place. As I mentioned above, "on paper" it was March 2013, but this was a big project across the entire fleet that would take place a few ships at a time. My contract was to end April 27 and I had no intention of going back to sharing a cabin the way I did when I was a Stage Staff. I worked hard to get promoted to attain that extra privilege which came with being a technician (and not much extra money or anything else). Since I didn't know what date the changes would start affecting us on Oasis, I entered the HR meeting with a signed letter of resignation in my pocket, only requiring me to "fill in the blank" with the appropriate end date, based on what date they conveyed to us for the changes onboard, which I would hand directly to the HR manager following the meeting. In the end they ended up telling us that Oasis would be one of the last ships to go through the changes onboard and that the project was "to be completed by June 1, 2013". I didn't end up using the letter (yet), and figured I would just stick it out to the end of my contract, and sign off "contract complete" (not scheduled to return to a ship).
In the end, I actually ended up resigning two weeks prior, on April 13th, due to a gut feeling that I wasn't going to be completely out of the woods staying until April 27. In a way I was right, as they moved the affected 2-stripers out of their cabins during the week prior, however another technician still onboard who was due to sign off on April 27 was allowed to stay in his cabin until that date, so the same probably would have been true for me. It cost me a couple weeks' pay and $300 for the flight home (resigning crewmembers pay their own way home) but I feel it was worth it to make sure I showed up as a "resignation" with a proper letter, forms filled out, etc. instead of just disappearing from the company as a "contract complete" with no trail at all of the reason behind it.
As of now, many Sound, Light, and Lounge Technicians have left Royal Caribbean. I've read several reports that ships are sailing short-staffed and onboard techs are having to fill the gaps by doubling up on venues, etc. I have done this a few times before and it sort of comes with the work, but it is re-assuring know that somebody is coming to fill that gap in a week or two so it isn't so bad. The problem now is that so many technicians have left that the company hasn't been able to hire enough technicians to fill the gap. So the techs onboard now, are having to double up on venues and workload, with no end in signt. I'm sure this is only redoubling the number of technicians resigning so it will likely have a cumulative effect until an eventual breaking point. Nobody knows what that will be but I feel like it must be coming soon. As this starts to affect Production Managers due to being short staffed, I'm sure there will be a bit of an exodus among them as well, though possibly not of the same magnitude. I know of a few who have left already or are thinking of going the Contract Complete route as well.
It's unfortunate that this came around as I really enjoyed my job on ships as did many other technicians, but without a change in salary this became too much to bear. As I mentioned, Royal Caribbean currently pays technicians one of the lowest salaries of any cruise line. This was previously outweighed by the nice privilege of having a single cabin, but without that it isn't worth it. Royal Caribbean Entertainment Technicians have some of the most demaning workloads among all cruise lines. The reason for this is that the ships tend to have more technology and bigger/better shows. This leads to both more time working shows and more time repairing the equipment when it inevitably breaks. So how much of a difference is it really between the various cruise lines? While I won't mention the actual starting salary of a Royal Caribbean Sound or Light technician, I will say that almost every other line pays more as a starting monthly salary. Some specific examples:
Carnival: $500 more, techs share cabins
Holland America Line: $400 more, techs have single cabins
Princess: $900 more, techs share cabins
P&O: $1200 more, techs have single cabins
Cunard: pays even more than P&O,
I know that unlike Royal Caribbean, technicians working for Princess, P&O, or Cunard generally don't have to perform repairs on their equipment, as this is handled by a separate department. Also every one of these lines has shorter employment contracts than Royal Caribbean, either by weeks or even months, which leads to less overall stress. So for any technicians looking for work on ships right now, might I suggest that you take a look at the above mentioned cruise lines for a better opportunity. Hopefully at some point Royal Caribbean will up their game and offer decent compensation to their technicians for their hard work and expertise. On the other hand if the shows are the most important thing to you, Royal Caribbean offers some of the only Broadway shows at sea, and the only Ice Shows and Aqua shows at sea as well. So that is something to take into consideration if you really want to gain experience running some of the largest and most complex shows at sea.
So after two hours of writing this, I guess I'll get down to the whole point of this post: what I am doing now. At the moment I am working two part-time/freelance jobs. One is as a Lighting Technician with a local show/event production company in Toronto, the other as a Home Automation Installer / Programmer with a local Home Automation dealer. Maybe some day I will find myself back on ships, but I doubt it. After 3.5 cumulative years at sea, I think I've done enough and seen enough that I don't need to go back. I can't wait for the opportunity to go back to being a passenger on cruise ships, which is what got me interested in working on ships in the first place.
I guess that is all for now. I will probably post one or two more times to this blog some time in the future, after some more time has passed, just to provide an update on what I am up to. I think my life on ships though, is finished.
