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

On By D. EndoIn CulturalLeave a comment

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

On By D. EndoIn Cultural, PortsLeave a comment

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

On By D. EndoIn Science, Ship LifeLeave a comment

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

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

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.

Taking Longer Than Expected

On By D. EndoIn Dogs, FlightsLeave a comment

So last time I wrote on this blog was a while ago. I ended up not doing the trans-Pacific crossing and instead joined up some time later in Australia. That has got to have been the longest flight I have ever taken. According to my airline app, I spent over fifteen hours flying from Los Angeles to Sydney. I slept a lot and watched a few movies that I had never seen before. It turns out that the passengers who were right behind me are also going to the Explorer of the Seas. I might see them on board at some point, even though I’m going to be hidden for a good portion of the voyage.

At the moment, the thing I am most concerned about is the jet lag. While you may look up the time difference between San Jose and Sydney as being nineteen hours due to time zones, it is easier to say that as far as daylight is concerned, Sydney is five hours behind. I got a similar effect when flying from Tampa to San Francisco at the end of my last contract.

Oh, and because I wasn’t sure if there would be food on the plane, I went and bought snacks that I never ate. Just like California, Australia has some pretty strict laws regarding agricultural products and even mud that cannot enter the country. One of the products not allowed is pork which I had on me in a sandwich that I bought in the airport which I never got around to eating. I wasn’t in trouble because I was honest and up front about having it on me, but they did take my sandwich. To be fair, I was going to throw it out anyway as it had been outside refrigeration for about eighteen hours. Restraunts shouldn’t serve food if it has been sitting out for more than four hours, buffets included. As it turns out, they had a new dog for sniffing out contraband and my sandwich was perfect for practice. Having helped raise puppies for Canine Companions for Independence, I was more than happy to help. They did a few quick tests where I had the sandwich in my hand so the dog would understand better the scent of pork. Then they practiced group searching by having the dog look for the sandwich that I placed in my jacket pocket. That dog really made my day.

From Shore to Ship

On By D. EndoIn HomeLeave a comment

I’m excited to start working on my next ship. This will be my second contract with Royal Caribbean, and I will be placed on the Explorer of the Seas. My job will be as a technical stage staff again. This ship is bigger than my last one, so there will be some adjusting. Hopefully, I will learn the new layout of the ship quickly. If anyone is wondering, the first thing I really need to know is where the bathrooms are in the public areas of the ship. Guests don’t always take kindly to me not knowing the answer.

I am looking forward to my trans-Pacific crossing on board the Explorer. We will stop by Hawaii and several Pacific islands before making our new home port Sydney, Australia. There will be long bouts of nothing but the ship. Hopefully, that will give me time to learn how to navigate the ship. This will be a far cry from the short trips my last ship took me on. I’m not sure if I’m excited or nervous about that.

Well, I need to do some more things before I leave, so I will leave this here. Talk to you on the water.