Next contract

Life continues to be a little bit all over the place here on the Voyager of the Seas.  With so many different itineraries, all of different lengths, some full charters, some half charters, and some regular cruises, it is very hard to keep track.  We have gone from the usual ship life of routine week after week to simply being ready for whatever comes next.  I don't try to keep track, I take it one cruise at a time and wait and see what happens.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been onboard this ship for her inaugural Asian season, and have been able to visit so many unique and interesting ports, unlike anywhere else I've been in my life.  Just yesterday I was in Okinawa and we visited Shuri castle, went to the duty free mall and found a tasty lunch at the food court, then went to a cafe for some coffee and to use the free wifi for a couple of hours, and finally ended the day with a quick dinner at a Japanese BBQ place where you cook the meat at your table.  As with most of the restaurants I have been to in Japan, the menu didn't have any English translations but did have pictures of most of the dishes which makes things a little easier.  I ended up ordering the pork belly and some cut of Kobe beef, which of course I then cooked to my liking on the grill at the table.  It was a great way to end the day and the Kobe beef was amazing.

Now, in other news I have been waiting on information concerning my next contract for a week or so as there have been some complications to sort out.  Those however are now in order and I have accepted a contract to join Oasis of the Seas as the Aquatheatre light technician on October 6.  Since this would mean a very short vacation for me with my original sign-off date (sometime in September), my vacation has been bumped up and I will be going home August 11, which will mean I actually have some time to enjoy summer at home, complete with BBQ and nice weather (hopefully).  Also it coincides well with my sister's university co-op work placement program as she will be leaving for Alberta for 6 months in October and it will be nice to be home together for the full length of my vacation.  Then we'll both take off in separate directions for 6 months and hopefully be back home around the same time.  It's nice when timing works out well like this.   Of course, it was a major surprise to be finding out I would be going home a month early but this is a very welcome surprise and I am looking forward to going home in only 24 days!

In the Aquatheatre on the Oasis of the Seas, I will be running lights for two shows: Oasis of Dreams, an evening show featuring diving, synchronized swimming, and acrobatics, and Splish Splash, a daytime comedy-diving show that features a completely different style of diving and synchronized swimming.  The control booth is located on deck 12 and looks out over the stern of the ship towards the ocean, providing what will certainly be the best view I have ever had while performing my job.  I am really looking forward to this opportunity as Oasis is the second-newest vessel in the fleet and offers so much technology that I am very excited to get my hands on.  In addition to the two aqua production shows, which are each offered multiple times per 1-week cruise, there are also fountain shows that feature the automated fountain system built into and around the diving pool.  This system also falls under the responsibility of the light technician in terms of day to day operation and I look forward to working with such different equipment from my usual routine so far on ships.

Well, I have a magic show rehearsal to prepare for so I'd better go do that.  More details about Oasis to come soon.

Shanghai: it Begins.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finally in Asia

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The ever-changing Voyager of the Seas

What an incredible 6 weeks it's been so far!  Just as I suspected, time is just flying by here on the Voyager.

This week we have the install team for the Dreamworks parade onboard, they are here to ensure everything needed for the parade in terms of props and costumes gets loaded on properly and has a place to live onboard the ship.  The costumes for Dreamworks are massive and in most instances there are more than one per character as one is reserved solely for parades and the other is to be used for all other Dreamworks character events around the ship.  As well there has been a lot of worked involved with removing the previous parade, Party Around the World.  Everything from that parade has been all packed up and is ready to be landed when we reach New Orleans for the last time on Saturday.

Speaking of our last time in New Orleans, we will be setting sail at 9pm with a massive party up on the pool deck in place of the usual welcome aboard show.  This will be a great final sail-away from NOLA and we are all looking forward to it.  The 6 week repositioning cruise to Asia will be long and challenging but so far it looks like everything is coming together nicely in order to make the transition as smooth as possible. 

This past week we had FUNA and LCL Engineering onboard to install our new Barco projector for our upcoming Dreamworks 3D movie experience.  We are all really looking forward to this new offering and so far we have only been able to watch short 2-3 minute trailers on the new system and are already blown away.  It is quite remarkable how few pieces of hardware were really needed in order to upgrade our existing sound system to Dolby 7.1 surround sound, and add the 3D projector.   Our new projector is the Barco DP2K-20C with Dolby 3D installed.  The projector itself is large but still remarkably small for the image it produces.  We were able to install it alongside our existing Christie projector and still have room for ventilation and whatnot.  An interesting fact is that the 3D color wheel needed to produce a 3D image actually reduces the brightness of the projector output quite a bit.  For that reason, this projector is actually overly bright when watching regular 2D content but since 3D content will be played the majority of the time, the extra brightness offsets the difference created by the 3D color wheel.  The resulting image and sound is simply unbelievable and has breathed some new life into our 13 year old La Scala theatre.

 Around the ship, lots of other changes are underway as well.  Currently the Deck 4 outdoor promenade is receiving a new floor surface installation (same as was installed during the Explorer drydock when I was there) and all rooms are receving new LED flat-panel TVs.  Coming up in the next couple of days the casino will also begin undergoing a huge revitalization. 

Getting packed and ready to head back

Just another day packing to leave for a 6-month contract.  It's never fun nor is it easy.  I've learned from my many years of travel with my family since I was a child not to over-pack and to really consider each and every thing I'm going to bring.  Unfortunately packing for half a year is not that easy.  Often one must pack clothes for multiple seasons, for work and for relaxation, and many more little bits and pieces than would be needed for, say, a 1-week vacation.  Luckily I did leave a rather large box on the ship full of my belongings but I still always bring home anything meaningful that will fit in my luggage, in case my contract were to get changed or something prevented me from coming back to the ship (you just never know).  Of course, then I still have to pack up all that stuff and bring it back to the ship with me.  It really gets to be an ordeal trying to sort everything out.  For me, the clothes are not the problem, it's the electronics.  Being the geek that I am, when away from home for months at a time, I of course need an entire arsenal of electronic gadgets and whatnot, not to mention small bits like the chargers for said electronics, any medications I think I might need over the course of 6 months, my tools, and any number of other things.  I think I'm about 75% packed right now.  It's getting easier with each contract but I hate it just as much every time.

It's been a very busy vacation for me.  For starters, being home for Christmas was great.  Then I went for a week trip to Aruba with my family to stay at our timeshare which was awesome.  If you get a chance to visit Aruba for New Years', do it.  It's unlike anything you've ever seen.  I also visited my friend in North Carolina and we took a road trip down to Florida to go to Disney World and Busch Gardens.

Other  than those two trips, much of my time has been spent installing a new smart home system in my mom's newly-renovated house.  This involved installation of security, lighting control, multi-zone audio, surveillance cameras, controllers, and all the wiring and programming necessary to tie it all together.  I can safely say that I've almost been working as hard at home as I would be on the ship.   It's been interesting though and a means of keeping myself occupied.  Gotta do something for 2 months to keep your brain from melting into mush due to non-use :).

Tomorrow at the crack of dawn I will be flying back to New Orleans, via Atlanta, to re-join Voyager of the Seas on Saturday morning.  I have the day in New Orleans from about noon onwards to explore, of which I fully intend to take advantage.  All I have explored of New Orleans previously is the Walmart, Starbucks, and the mall at the cruise terminal.  Shameful, really.  But with nearly a full day to explore (and more importantly the evening, which I don't get when I'm on the ship), I think I can cover some more interesting territory.  I will hopefully be joined by one of my co-workers from the ship, Evan, who is coincidentally re-joining the ship the same day that I am, after a week of leave due to family reasons at home.  Should be a good day in NO.  I just hope the weather isn't so bad in Toronto that my flight gets cancelled or something, it's supposed to be a rather crappy day weather-wise tomorrow.

This contract promises to be the most interesting one so far.  Starting on April 14, Voyager of the Seas will begin a series of 3 two-week cruises to cover the distance from New Orleans to Singapore.  Itinerary for the crossing cruises:

New Orleans, USA (turnaround port)

• Nassau, Bahamas
• Ponta Delgada, Azores
• Malaga, Spain
• Cartagena, Spain
• Valencia, Spain

Barcelona, Spain (turnaround port)

• Alexandria, Egypt
• passage through the Suez Canal
• Aqaba, Jordan
• Safaga, Egypt

Dubai, UAE (turnaround port)

• Goa, India
• Cochin, India
• Penang, Malaysia
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Singapore

I can't wait for these transition cruises, followed by the actual voyages within Asia of which there are many different itineraries and I will post those later on closer to the date.  If you're really interested in knowing, a quick search on Royal Caribbean's website will get you the info.



Alright, I think that's a sufficient update for the moment.  Time to get back to packing.

Home for Christmas

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

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.