Hanging out with some new friends!
Red Sky at Morning
We had some rough seas going to Halifax with what seemed like 20 foot swells. That’s about as tall as a two story building. It reminded me that there is an old saying for sailors that goes “Red sky at night, sailors’ delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.” Believe it or not, this phrase is ancient wisdom that works well for the most part. You see, weather usually goes from east to west while sailing. The beautiful red sunset at sea can be caused by water and other particles in the air, but because of the way the winds usually blow, the likelihood of a storm is actually low. On the other hand, having the red with the sunrise means that whatever system is there is likely to come your way. We have much more sophisticated equipment now that gives us lots of data and more accurate predictions. Being from California, I have a hard time reading the clouds and have had to run up to protect band equipment from rain on more than one occasion.
In the event of a storm, the captain is the one to make the decision about what happens next. One of the possibilities is to stay in port longer and try to wait out the storm. This hinges on a few things including the protection the port provides and if there are other ships schedule to take that spot later on. This does not always work out as sometimes the storm lasts longer than expected and there is a limit before a ship has to leave or else it may miss the next port. On Majesty, the ship ended up doing a double overnight in Havana and not doing the next port of Cozumel as this would have taken us right into the back end of a Hurricane. The other option is to sail around the storm. We did this on Serenade and ended up switching around the itinerary order to stay away from the storm but still make all the ports. If there seems to be no safe way of sailing, there is the possibility to cancel the cruise, but that cannot happen just because of a few bumps along the way.
Of course, what affects us the most is the rockiness of the ship for shows. We ended up canceling and changing shows in order to make sure our dancers were safe due to a storm system that hung around. Our juggler was also not sure about what balancing tricks he could perform, but did not want to cancel the show until he was sure he could not perform anymore tricks due to safety. We told him that the audience would understand if he felt unsafe. I also added what I usually tell jugglers on rough sea days, “This show is either going to be even more amazing or a total disaster.” He laughed and did two awesome shows much to the delight of the guests.
I Think I’ll go to Boston
So, I got a new contract on the Serenade of the Seas. We sail out of Boston for the month of October, and then we get to switch to a southern Caribbean run pretty much for the rest of my contract. I’m quite excited to see parts of New England and Canada with the possibility of seeing some of the beautiful fall colors you don’t always get to see in California. While I will be seeing some familar destinations in the Caribbean, most of the ports will be new to me.
As always, there will be an adjustment period as I need to familiarize myself with the ship. I no longer have to worry about an ice rink as this ship is slightly smaller than the Explorer of the Seas. Part of me wishes I could go back to one of the other ships I’ve been on, but there is something to be said about exploring a new ship. There are already things that are widely different from the ships I’ve been on. For starters, there is actually no way to get from my cabin to the theater without going through guest areas. On the plus side, I don’t have to worry about taking care of a band on pool deck, which means no more having to rush up there in case of a sudden rain and getting soaked to the bone. There are also the little things to discover like finding out where staircases and elevators drop you off as well where all the lockers are. It seems to me that even if the ship class is the same, storage may shift around due to the needs at the time. Some of my coworkers have commented about going to the wrong locker due to working on a similar ship before and just getting confused.
Wait, when did Joey take this picture?
Any guesses where he is?
Hello? Is this thing on?
Don’t tell David, but I smuggled myself out of Sydney in his luggage. I’m Joey the Vegan Drop Bear. I’m looking forward to traveling the world and seeing interesting places. I figure that by the time he figures out I’m here, it will be too much trouble to take me back to Australia.
Goodbye Explorer
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
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
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
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
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.
Shore Leave 