Goodbye Pacific Islands

On By D. EndoIn Ports, Ship LifeLeave a comment

We’re beginning our crossing to the Europe today, and this is going to be very different for me. Majesty never changed locations like some of the other ships. Some ships have a cycle where they go to places farther from the equator during the summer months and have tropical cruises during the winter months. Explorer used to have an “endless summer” as they would go to Alaska during the northern hemisphere’s summer and then switch to Sydney for the southern hemisphere’s summer. Due to the popularity of the cruise, Explorer’s route is being replaced with a larger ship and is switching to a European/Caribbean itinerary. As a result, I will no longer see the Pacific islands on this ship.

I had fun going to the Pacific islands and Australia. It was never part of my plan to see any island out here, but I’m glad I did. They aren’t as developed as the ports in the Bahahmas or the western Caribbean that I went to, but that let them have their own charm. The water was nice, and I even got to see a sea turtle. I’ll probably end up buying a snorkel with prescription lenses so I can see things without having to get so close as I go on more ships. The food at some of these islands was amazing. The fries with garlic mayo in Noumea and the fish and chips in Suva were absolutely delicious.

I have to admit, I want to come back and visit Australia. I mentioned it during the first Aussie cruise, but the Australian ports were very nice. The weather is very similar to California except there are more clouds in the sky. I would enjoy going to see more of the attractions at any of the ports we’ve been to. Fortunately, I have a few more ports in Australia before we leave the continent. Thanks to a zoo in Sydney, I’ve seen the “big five” Australian animals which is something I wanted to do since I discovered I was going to be in Australia. Having seen them in person, I’m surprised at how big some of them are and how tiny the platypus is. I would love to back to a ship in this part of the world and add New Zealand to the itinerary.

It’s off to Singapore now.

Big Ship vs Little Ship (Part 2)

On By D. EndoIn Comparing, Ports, Ship LifeLeave a comment

While cost can be a major factor as to how big a ship you would want to build, there are other factors to take into consideration, such as ports you can use and structural design.

When dealing with the larger ships, not all docks were designed to take ships of that size. Even the docks that are large enough may be somewhere away from the tourist areas and require shuttles. Any time there is no dock able to accomodate a ship for a port, tendering is required. Tendering is when the ship anchors in safe waters and smaller boats are brought to slowly load and unload passengers from the ship. This is very time consuming and can cause discomfort for guests as the tender boats move more in the water than the ship. This also means that if the ship has to leave earlier than expected due to weather, they have to predict this and pull people out even earlier or just skip the port that day. Some places will never have a port even for the smallest Royal Caribbean ship. Others spend the money to encourage more ships to come in.

One of the best examples of ports being restrticted by size is the Majesty of the Seas and Havanna, Cuba. When it set sail in 1992, it was the largest ship in the world. Now, it’s the largest ship in the world… that goes to Cuba. Havanna doesn’t seem to have the option of having larger ships dock at a shipping pier like some of the other cities do. Majesty is also one of the largest ships that can go in and out of the port of Tampa. There is a bridge at the entrance of the bay that is just high enough to clear the highest point on the ship. I’ve been on the top deck while going under this bridge. Bridges that have boats pass under tend to have lights hanging down so any helmsman can see where the highest/center point of the bridge is. All they have to do while sailing under the bridge is line up those two lights and steer straight through. Majesty has to make sure their smokestack is either just to the side of the lights or they risk hitting them. It was kind of scary how close we got.

Something else to worry about as you get bigger and add more things is the design of the ship. Weight distribution on a ship is very important. While engines are heavy and tanks at the bottom of the ship provide ballast, the more you add to the top, the more you raise the center of gravity on the ship. Think of the ship like a tower of building blocks on a tray. It’s fine while just sitting on a table, but if you have to move it, you may want to think more about how the tower is built so it won’t topple over as the tray moves. The theory is simple. As long as the center of gravity is supported, it won’t fall. This is why pyramids are such stable shapes. Not only is the center of gravity low, the base supporting the weight is wide. The captain of the Explorer of the Seas once said the ship should theoretically be able to recover from a 45° roll while it is intact. Nothing that isn’t tied down tightly will be where it’s supposed to be, but the ship shouldn’t capsize. Keep in mind, a 15° roll is enough to send a grand piano flying across the stage, with or without brakes. If you think the solution is to add more weight to the bottom or widen the ship, that is correct. If you do that, though, the ship has to sit lower in the water which increases drag and the time it takes to hit full speed or stop due to the momentum of the ship. Canals that would shorten trips may have to be excluded because the ship won’t fit inside them. When the ship has to be taken to a dry dock, options for the largest ships in the world become rather limited.

I still have more things to talk about, but I’ll leave the topic here for now.

Outbreak Prevention

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Recently, Sydney has had a major flu outbreak, and the ship has stepped up to minimize any new cases onboard. Major outbreaks of diseases on cruise ships are actually rare, although it does make major news when it happens. Ships tend to try to encourage washing hands and using hand sanitizer in order to prevent diseases from spreading. This is usually enough to keep guests healthy. Periodically, crew members will sanitize public areas that are high contact points such as handrails on stairs. When more cases continue to report to medical, the ship moves to the next level of precaution. For my team, this involves sanitizing the venue after every event and being even more careful to wash hands. If things get really bad, certain areas on the ship will close to prevent spreading and crew members are sent to serve food to guests in the buffet. I have heard stories from other crew members about how hard it is to be at this level of alert. I hope I never have to deal with that.

Speaking of getting sick, I caught a cold while the boat was docked in Sydney last. I never left the ship, so it must have been the bug that has been going around the crew. I got no days off, so I just bundled up in my bed and slept as much as I could. Fortunately, I was back to 100% about a week later. Well, almost 100%…

14 Days Later

On By D. EndoIn Cultural, Ports, Ship LifeLeave a comment

So our itinerary had to switch around this past cruise due to weather. When we left Sydney, we were actually sailing toward the back edge of a category six storm. This meant our day in Lifou had to change and we went straight to Fiji. We were still sailing in some pretty choppy waters. During the production show, the cruise director stayed on stand-by to cancel the show if it got too rocky. While we were tossed around, the show went on without some of the more spectacular moves such as flips and throws. I was surprised I didn’t get seasick from all the motion.

I think I was expecting Fiji to be more natural. When I think of Fiji, I think tropical jungle with limited structures. Only the heat and humidity met those expectations. I’m going to guess that this image I had is a carry over from the British colonial days in Fiji or a carefully crafted ad campaign. The city of Suva was as you would expect any major city on an island. There are parts of the city built around the same time so their architecture ends up being quite similar. You end up with a bit of a time capsule of architecture. Now, it wasn’t as extreme as Havana, but not all the buildings have a modern feel to them. If you get the chance to visit Fiji and partake in the culture, I encourage you to do so. Climate aside, it is a fun place to visit.

This cruise has felt long. I can’t imagine what the trip from Dubai to Barcelona is going to feel like.

An Aussie Cruise

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We just completed the shortest cruise so far, six days. That’s still longer than anything on my last cruise ship. Next, we will be off on a two week loop to Fiji and back. It’s going to be a long time stuck on the ship.

This past cruise has been entirely domestic. We stopped in New Castle, Wollongong, and Hobart. I had fun in Wollongong. One of the cast members is from Wollongong and so we were all invited to a barbecue at a local park. The site was beautiful. With lush green forests and hills next to picturesque sandy beaches, it reminded me of the central coast of California a little. As we enjoyed the sun, groups would parachute into the middle of the park. Another thing that surprised me were the grills. Instead of a charcoal grill that I would expect to find in park back home, the city had installed electric griddles for public use. No need to worry about the waste leftover from a charcoal grill or the pollution. In fact, each of the ranges had their own roof since smoke build up wasn’t a problem.

Of the three ports, I think I would most like to go back to Hobart the most. The weather could have been a little more desirable. It was a bit nippy. I don’t know what I was expecting from summer in Tasmania, but that wasn’t it. It reminded me of a nice winter day back home in California. I was walking with my co-worker later on and she commented how the weather reminded her of a nice summer day in Pennsylvania. And that is part of the reason why I don’t want to live in another state. Back to Hobart, they had a free museum that covered a wide range of subjects. They had taxidermied animals, Antarctic ice core samples, and modern art to name a few things. They also had a section on the Tasmanian Tiger, which went extinct due to humans in the beginning of the 20th century. I also had some lunch before I left and had some delicious local soda from a company called The Good. I ended up buying more bottles to enjoy later on the ship.

Big Ship vs Little Ship (Part 1)

On By D. EndoIn Comparing, Ship LifeLeave a comment

For those who don’t know, Royal Caribbean has some very large cruise ships. If you look at the top ten largest cruise ships in the world, seven of them are owned by Royal Caribbean. So that does raise the question, is a bigger ship better?

Ships are expensive to build in both time and resources. The latest ship to the Royal Caribbean fleet cost an estimated $950 million to make for a 1,142 ft long vessel. That’s over three football fields long! In addition to having a guest count of 4,180, the ship boasts a multi-use roller rink space that can be used for bumper cars as well, an aqua theater for diving shows, several specialty restaurants, a surf simulator, mini golf course, a central park, several stories of rock wall, and so much more. That’s one of the nice things about the bigger cruise ships. There becomes more space to add other things besides rooms for sleeping. My first Royal Caribbean ship was the largest in the world when it was built in 1992. They only managed to fit one theater, one specialty restaurant, and one small water park for children. Even if you are trying to build a small cruise ship, say to do river and coastal cruises, it can still cost quite a bit. American Cruise Lines’s latest ship, the American Harmony, cost $40 million for a 269 ft vessel. So, not quite a football field long. Ultimately, larger ships mean more passengers so the cost of running the ship can be much more spread out. When looking up an Alaskan cruise for Royal Caribbean and American Cruise Lines, you find much different prices. Prices for a room start at $8,090 for a ten night cruise aboard the American Constelation with a guest population of 175 for American Cruise Lines. On the other hand, Royal Caribbean charges $1,429 per passenger for a cheap room on their 11 night voyage with a guest population of 4,180.

These are a lot of numbers, but what am I getting at? If you were to sell all rooms at the cheapest price available without any discounts (neither of which would ever happen, but this is useful as an illustration), the money coming into American Cruise Lines for this singe trip would be $720,010, while Royal Caribbean would take in $5,973,220 for their cruise. This is how American Cruise Lines makes their money, but, even with all that money, Royal Caribbean is probably just breaking even.

You see, American Cruise Lines includes pretty much everything on the ship with the cost of the cabin. So that’s all the food, drink, and most shore excursions that you don’t have to pay extra for. Not only that, but every room has a window if not a balcony. Royal Caribbean takes a different approach. While there are many things free, such as the buffet, the production shows, and the sports activities on the ship, you can buy things to enhance your voyage like specialty dining and shore excursions. This is how Royal Caribbean can make money to keep building bigger, more extravagant ships. Though, if you want a window, you better be willing to spend more money. The cheap cabins aren’t very big and they are in the middle of the ship, but if all you want to do is sleep there and keep your things safe, not a bad choice.

There is much more to this debate, but I’m already rambling. I’ll continue this topic another time.

Australia Day

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We celebrated a holiday on the Explorer of the Seas on January 26th. It’s called Australia Day. Never heard of it? That wouldn’t surprise me. No, I’m not just making up holidays now. It’s the day Australia started to be colonized by England in 1788. It’s celebrated kind of like we celebrate the 4th of July. As you might expect, the celebration on the ship included many events through out the day including a kangaroo race and a balloon drop. While they didn’t have actual kangaroos on board, some of the staff put on kangaroo ears and hopped around the pool deck. They then raffled off a prize to someone got a ticket for the winning kangaroo. I didn’t participate in this event, but I was setting the band up there at the time this event took place, so I got a good view. Balloon drops, on the other hand, involve stringing up giant nets filled with balloons and releasing them along the central walkway of the ship which we call the Royal Promenade. You can think of this as a sort of downtown area of the ship where we have restaurants and shops along side a wide walking area. This little avenue stretches almost the entire length of the ship.

I was confused as to why our kid count was so high since the Christmas cruise. The Christmas and then the New Year cruises I got, but nearly a month later, we still had about a thousand kids on board. Normally, we have a few hundred on the ship on your average cruise. As it turns out, all these kids have been on vacation this whole time. Instead of having a long summer break like we do at home, they go to school year-round with three week breaks between most quarters with a month and a half for their summer break starting mid-December to the end of January. Next cruise, when we do an Australia run, there should be far fewer children until the next major break for them.

Food in Sydney

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I had heard about Australia’s meat pies and wanted to try one. The first one I had was from a shop at the ferry dock which was right next to us. It wasn’t very good. I decided I needed to have a good one to say whether I liked them or not. While waiting for a show to start, I mentioned this to the comedian who was an Australian. He told me to go to a little shop called Pie Face that was a short walk away from the pier. When we docked in Sydney nine days later, I set out to find the little shop.

On my journey, I found two things. One, it’s very easy to get lost in such a busy city when you try to take shortcuts. I had gone to get more Australian dollars and thought I found a quicker route through a shopping center. I was wrong. I must have added fifteen minutes to my trip trying to find my way out. It might not have been so bad, but I tried this twice with two different undergrounds. Sydney is surprisingly hilly so going through buildings is not your best bet if you don’t know the city, and it can be easy to turn yourself around underground if your not careful. The second thing I discovered is the variety of food in Sydney. I stumbled upon two food courts that were bustling with activity within ten minutes of walking from each other. You can get pretty much everything from sushi to burritos to shnitzel to crepes. The variety really makes we wish we came back to Sydney more often, but I’m sure my wallet thanks me.

Back to the pies, the shop itself was tiny with seating for 6 people. It looks like most of their business is people wanting a snack to go. Upon the comedian’s suggestion, I got the classic mince pie. I was expecting one of those sweet fruit pies, but I was wrong. It was filled with ground beef and gravy. It was glorious. I am definitely going back there at some point. This just goes to show you, you can always trust the locals.

Rough Seas

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When I saw the itinerary for Explorer of the Seas, I expected smooth sailing all the way through. Ok, maybe not all the time, but I expected to have smooth seas when there wasn’t a storm. When I was on Majesty of the Seas, the water was pretty smooth pretty much the whole time. Every now and then a storm would kick up and we would get tossed around, but that usually only lasted a day or two if it was really strong. The New Year’s cruise from Dec. 29th to January 6th was the rockiest cruises I’ve been on. I took seasickness pills as a precautionary measure to make sure I didn’t throw up during the shows. I don’t think I would have, but it’s best not to take chances when other people are involved.

Motion sickness can be a real problem on the ship. Anytime a cruise ship hits rough seas, the medical facilities see a spike in patients checking in. The biggest problem with seasickness pills is the fact that, while effective, they don’t work right away. They take time to get into your system and start working. If you can take them the night before you need them and then at regular times after that, you should be able to stave off throwing up. Mind you, you may still feel nauseous even if the pills are working.

If you don’t know how motion sickness works, it is caused when your body gets mixed signals as to whether you are moving or not. Your body has two ways of telling if you are in motion. The first is your eyes, and the second is your inner ear. While on a boat, your eyes may say you are standing still inside a room, but your inner ear says that you are moving due to the rocking of the boat. The opposite is true when people get simulation sick playing video games, especially those first-person games where the camera bobs up and down as you move.

Australian Holidays

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In case anyone was wondering, Christmas in Sydney doesn’t actually look all that different than Christmas in Southern California. They have evergreen trees with ornaments and lights. There are festive decorations. The ship is even doing things like having a holiday ice skating show and a tree lighting ceremony. Even the fact that it’s summer didn’t feel all that different than a warm winter day in Anaheim.

I often get asked by people when my next day off will be. Right now, I’m sticking to the line, “In July.” This actually isn’t that far from the truth. Granted, some days are lighter than others and I often get time while we are docked in port to enjoy time off the ship, but still, I get no days off while I’m on contract. Not even holidays are breaks. In fact, cruises that have a major holiday are often more busy that regular cruises. As a part of the stage crew, I have to work on something every day. There is almost always some sort of show in the evening that I have to help out with. Some times it’s our own production cast performing and others, it’s a guest act. Guest acts can include singing, dancing, juggling, magic, or comedy.