Goodbye Explorer

On By D. EndoIn HomeLeave a comment

Well, it’s been a long seven months, but I’m finally going back home. This contract has certainly been an experience. I couldn’t imagine when I started this job that I would se as much of the world as I have in such a short amount of time. On this contract, I ended up getting off at more than 40 ports in 18 countries. I got to experience feeding kangaroos and crocodiles (not at the same time) in Australia. I took a tour of the Acropolis in Athens. I watched some traditional folk dances in Russia. As I sit and wait for my flight, I’m wondering what I might discover on my next ship.

All I can say now is that I’m tired and ready for a vacation.

St. Petersburg

On By D. EndoIn Cultural, PortsLeave a comment

One of the perks of working on cruise ships is being able to take part in the shore excursions. Now, this is not completely fun and games. As a part of being a crew member, you are also there to keep an eye on the guest experience and report back your own impressions to the company. Other than that, they can be a lot of fun. Most of the tours I choose to go on are aimed at being historical or cultural. The ships offer tours based on food, shopping, and even amusement parks depending on what the local area has to offer.

I was lucky to go on a 2-day tour of St. Petersburg and some of the surrounding area. My tour ran from about 7 AM to 5 PM each day so I did have time to do regular work in the evenings. We mostly went to the historical places and churches. Of course, when I say historical places, I mean palaces. Due to St. Petersburg being the capital of Russia for a long time, there were many palaces built by nobility and the rich in the area. We visited Catherine’s palace and The Hermitage Museum which used to be the Tzar’s summer palace. We also took a trip south to visit Peterhof, which has well over 100 fountains which are amazingly all powered by gravity. The plumbing for the fountains is so good, they only need to perform small maintenance on the several hundred year old system.

What I found quite surprising through all this was that they brought a Russian performance team for the show while we were docked. We brought on a couple dozen people just for one show. Keep in mind guest entertainer groups are usually not larger than four people. While the singing was beautiful, I was most impressed by the dancing and acrobatics.

I think I’ll take it easier next time I’m in Russia, though. I’m totally wiped out after so much sightseeing.

Studio B

On By D. EndoIn Science, Ship LifeLeave a comment

When I was working on Majesty, there was only one show venue. On the Explorer, we have two main venues. You have the Palace Theater which looks as you would expect a theater to look like. The other venue is an ice rink called Studio B. As it turns out, one of Royal Caribbean’s claim to fame is the only cruise line to offer ice skating on the ship. Not only is there free time to skate on the ice, but there is also an ice skating show. The international ice cast are able to do amazing things even during rough seas. It becomes more impressive when they land their jumps in choppy waters. There have been times when the show had to be cancelled due to weather.

As a part of the not-so-glamourous side of my job, I had to stay up late for a mini-melt. I finished work at 1:45 AM and still had to start the next work day at 9:00 AM. A mini-melt is when we let the top layer of ice melt so we can remove it. During normal operations in order to keep the ice smooth, we scrape a thin layer of ice off the top to get rid of the lines created from the ice skates cutting into the ice and then add water on top to fill in any gaps from the deeper cuts. Ultimately, the water added raises the level of the ice faster than the scraping can take it away. Thus, every now and then, we need to do a mini-melt. As the name would suggest, there are full melts as well. The ice is normally kept somewhere between -10.5°C and -9.5°C. The older and/or thicker the ice is, the colder we have to keep it in order to maintain it. Before the mini-melt, the production manager of Studio B had to keep the ice colder due to seeing puddles during the ice shows due to the lights heating up the surface. The full melt is a long process that requires constant attention. Once everything has melted, the ice is made by adding thin layer of water, letting it freeze, and repeating the process until everything is properly frozen. This ensures smooth ice that is to the level desired. The last thing skaters want are dips or hills in the ice.

I found out while talking to the ice cast that skate for figure skating and hockey are designed differently and the two should not mix on the same ice for best results. Figure skates, which is what the ice cast uses, are designed for a deep cut in order to have better control during skating as well as including those spikes at the front of the skate known as a toe pick. Hockey skates go for a shallow cut in order to be able to react to the game faster. The hockey players will complain about the deep channels created from the figure skaters, and the figure skaters complain about the torn up surfaces the hockey players make.

So Close

On By D. EndoIn PortsLeave a comment

When booking a cruise, companies usually like to use names people will either recognize or that sound exotic. It’s not hard to understand why. Ask yourself, would you rather go on a cruise to Le Havre or Paris? How about to Piraeus or Athens? Civitavecchia or Rome? Big names sell. The reality isn’t always so neat and clean. In each of those pairs of destinations is the advertised location as well as the actual port of call. Some of them are quite close. Piraeus is about a thirty minute bus ride to the historical area of Athens. Paris, on the other hand, is a three hour drive one way from the port of Le Havre. Royal Caribbean does take that into consideration so we were docked at Le Havre for thirteen hours.

The biggest disadvantage to be parked so far from the tourist places is travel time. I managed to look at Rome for only about three hours which was enough time to see the outside of Sistine Chapel, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain with a quick pizza snack on the go thrown in. If I tried to do anything else, like visit the Colosseum, I would have been late for the bus and had to find my own way back. I do admit, it is nice to wander on foot and not be stuck on a bus schedule. I have found some interesting places in my travels that I might have missed otherwise.

The Cost of Travel

On By D. EndoIn Ports, Ship LifeLeave a comment

Part of the appeal of working on a cruise ship is the travel and the fact that you don’t have to spend thousands to go to these places. You get to see different ports and immerse yourself in a new culture or at least a new area. That’s what they tell you and for the most part that is true. There are some hiccups that I’ve noticed as I work on these ships. One would be the itinerary of the ship. Some ships only go to the same ports in a quick three to five day cruise cycle. When I first worked on Majesty, I knew only three ports well: Port Canaveral, Nassau, and Coco Cay. I hit all those ports twice in the span of a week. The Explorer is currently seeing mostly new ports as it sails out of England. This is great for the experience but not so good on my wallet.

Most of the port towns we visit tend to be a little on the expensive side right by the dock. This makes sense due to the competition of goods and services as well as how far people are willing to travel to get a good bargain while on vacation. When I wandered around Cozumel, I found most of the shops and restaurants to be on the expensive side. It wasn’t until I went away from the more touristy areas that I found some delicious and cheap food. A coworker wanted to pay for five of us to eat there and ended up spending about $15 for everything. We were hungry when we came and full when we left.

This past cruise, the Explorer went to Norway. Even by San Fransisco Bay Area standards, that place was expensive. Going to Burger King for a Whopper meal costs around twice as much as it does back home. My hobby of collecting magnets cost me three times as much. I can honestly say I both want to go back and don’t want to go back. The scenery of the fjords was breath taking and the people were very friendly. I just ended up spending more money than I really wanted to while traveling there.

Three cruises until I go back home.

On Duty

On By D. EndoIn Ship LifeLeave a comment

Any time you work on a ship, someone has to stay onboard at all times. This is in case something unexpected happens and needs to be taken care of. It can be as simple as picking up a delivery or desperate as having to put away a band on the pool deck due to heavy rain. We call this being on duty. The person on duty is given a way to be contacted hopefully by a deck phone (think a cell phone for use on the ship only) and is required to stay on the ship at all times. The rules are the duty deck phone must always be attended and the phone cannot go out of range of the ship. Yes, this does pretty much mean that if you’re on duty, you’re not leaving the ship. Because this would be unfair to only give to one person for the whole contract, we rotate being on duty between the stage staff every week.

I have to say there is something nice about going to the same places on multiple cruises. Right now, I have to map out when my duty weeks are to see what ports I’ll be missing. I actually have not stepped foot onto the Canary Islands even though the ship has sailed there with me on it thanks to being on duty. We also have a couple of overnight ports in Russia coming up. I’ll be on duty for one of those so I really need to figure out what I want to do ahead of time. Hopefully, if I stick with the company long enough, I’ll go back to those places.

The Crossing

On By D. EndoIn Ship LifeLeave a comment

Well, about a month and a half of traveling over 1,800 miles by sea has finally landed us in Southampton. It’s funny. If you asked me five years ago if I ever thought I would ever see Dubai or Singapore, I probably would have laughed and said no. That is one of the nice things about working on a cruise ship. I get to see so much of the world. Granted, this kind of crossing is unusual for this company. In reality, this wasn’t so much a regular crossing and more a repositioning cruise. As it turns out, Australia/Alaska cruises are so popular, they’re choosing to switch the Explorer with a larger ship.

It certainly has been an incredible cruise. We landed in nine different countries on our journey. Over a thousand guests stayed with us the entire journey, and a good portion of our passengers were the ones that have cruised with us a lot before. We ended up adding a lot of things to do on the ship that we wouldn’t normally do just to keep things interesting for all those passengers. Some of our normal things also didn’t pan out the same as well either. Bingo, for example, was much less popular than on a standard cruise. It’s hard to entice people when all they can win is under $10 due to low participation.

It’s been quite the contract for me so far and now I’m looking toward the future. I only have a couple of months left on my contract. I’m looking forward to being home. I also hope to see a new contract soon for my next ship. Wherever I go, I’m sure I’ll have fun.

6 cruises left.

Channels, Canals, and Locks

On By D. EndoIn Ship Life, TerminologyLeave a comment

On the way to the Mediterranean Sea, we passed through the Suez Canal. It made me think of my time on the ACL ship Independence. Part of my duties on that ship was actually steering the ship. Mostly that boiled down to the captain or first mate telling me what course to take. Because we were traveling down the east coast of America, I got to experience the joy of steering in canals and channels at night.

For those that don’t know, channels and canals are two types of waterways you can use. They both serve the same purpose, but canals are completely artificial. This does not mean that channels are necessarily competely natural. In order to maintain waterways, dredging is sometimes required to keep the depth at a certain minimum to ensure vessels can pass through. Depending on the size of the ship, this may not be enough for the route chosen. There were times when we left in the very early morning or arrived later in the day simply to make sure it was high tide when we passed through certain sections. And when I say very early morning, I do mean it. There were times when my sleep was interrupted at three or four in the morning so I could help the ship dock or set sail.

Locks are basically water elevators used when the elevation of one section of water is drastically different from another. I’ve only had to go through one and that was on the Independence. I believe the captain mentioned something about an eight foot difference in tides between the two channels we were crossing. At one time, the Suez Canal was thought to be impossible due to the lock technology available at the time and a miscalculation as to the elevation of existing bodies of water that the canal would have used. It was later discovered that the bodies of water were actually more or less at sea level so construction on the canal was able to begin. As there are no locks in the Suez canal, convoys of ships are able to pass through without much difficulty and without having to stop halfway through. It did take us about fifteen hours to go through. That still saves us the month it would have taken to go around Africa.

 

It’s the home stretch to Southampton! I’ve got a week until we arrive at our new home port.

Seaman’s Book

On By D. EndoIn Ports, Ship LifeLeave a comment

The more you work on ships, the more likely it is that you will need/want a seaman’s book. This document allows people to track your career at sea and also acts as another form of documentation which is sometimes required while working on a ship depending on where you travel. When I tried to do research on the subject, I got very confused. You see, according to my research, a US seaman’s book is only required if you work extensively on the bridge or in engineering. I also kept seeing notices from the cruise line saying that I needed to get one to get off the ship in certain ports. After much emailing, it turns out that I don’t need a US seaman’s book but one from the Bahamas. This is because all the ships are registered in the Bahamas even though we are a US based company.

I was lucky my seaman’s book arrived in time for me to get off in India. The Indian ports are one of the places that a seaman’s book is part of the required documentation to get off. I figured that regardless of whether it arrived before the crossing or not, once I got this finished up, the company can have me get on a wider variety of ships and ports in the future. That being said, India was quite an interesting place. I got off in a town called Kochi, which used to be referred to as Cochin. This was due to western cultures finding the second name easier to say before they decided to go back to the more traditional name. I took a bus tour and saw part of the culture. On the list of things I saw were the Dutch Palace, a couple of churches, a synagogue, and some old Chinese fishing nets that are still in use today.

Oh, and these time changes are killing me. There is a four hour time difference between Singapore and Dubai. I’m jet lagged without having left the water. Fortunately for me, the next four time differences will be spread out much more evenly over a longer time period.

Onward to Barcelona!

Australia’s Big Five

On By D. EndoIn Cultural, Ports, ScienceLeave a comment

Australia is home to many unique and interesting animals. They are known for having the most deadly creatures in the world. These range from obviously dangerous salt water crocodile and southern cassowary to the cute blue ring octopus and textile cone. We had a group called Rusty and the Other Guy sing a comedy song listing some of the dangerous animals in Australia and beckoning all tourists to visit the continent. I couldn’t stop laughing. They also added a song welcoming people to New Zealand where the most dangerous and only creature on the list is a spider. If you are bitten by one, you should see a doctor within the next few weeks to double check on the bite as it may cause mild irritation.

While not official like in Africa, what I consider to be the “big five” Australian animals are the kangaroo, koala, Tazmanian devil, platypus, and wombat. While Australia does have other unique animals such as the bandicoot and kookaburra, when I think of these five animals, I think of Australia immediately. They are definitely worth seeing in person once in your life. Granted the Tazmanian devil is now only on Tazmania and that is where my mind goes, but they used to live on the mainland until the dingo arrived some 5,000 years ago. I still consider that close enough. You might also have noticed that I have not included wallabies or wallaroos on the list. That’s because the way you differentiate between kangaroos, wallaroos, and wallabies is purely by the size of the adult. It’s kind of like how a dog is a dog, regardless of whether it’s a great dane or a beagle.

The kangaroo is incredibly adapted to desert life in Australia. They are able to conserve water to such a degree that can delay giving birth to a joey until a suitable water source is found. A koala’s diet consists of only the most nutritious eucalyptus leaves which means the koala only has enough energy to be awake for about four hours every day. Tazmanian devils are now the largest living carnivorous marsupial in the world. The platypus is so strange, not only is it one of the very few egg laying mammals, it was orginally considered a hoax back in England after it was discovered. And the wombat… well, I’m not sure why the wombat is so well known. It used to be a food source until scientists realized the animals were threatened and that the invasive rabbits were much easier to come by. Regardless, it has become iconic to Australia, even being an unofficial mascot when the olympic games were held there.

If you are interested in seeing these five up close and happen to be in Brisbane, check out the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. It’s full of native species and even has a kangaroo feeding ground which is basically a free range park where the kangaroos are docile enough to eat from your hand. You can also get your picture taken holding a koala. You should get in line early for that. They do sell out of tickets.

And now we sail for Dubai.