Lighting, Lighting, and More Lighting

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

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

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

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

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

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

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).