Guess who’s back!
The World Cruise and Visas
I’m back to work after an odd schedule. With Royal Caribbean going on its first world cruise, I was asked to take part in the install process. They put in 5 new shows to replace the 2 that were originally there. After about a month, they were mostly finished, but I was all set to go home. Thank goodness I got to have the holidays at home. As I waited at home, the ship traveled south down the east coast of the Americas down to Antartica. After that, they went up the west coast to Los Angeles before heading across the ocean to Australia. I was originally going to join them in Tahiti but found out later that they wanted me to join 2 weeks earlier than I expected in Los Angeles. This sent me into panic mode to get the proper visas. I needed to get two visas to be allowed on the ship, an Australian visa and a Chinese visa. I was not too concerned about the Australian visa. I had gotten one years earlier and it was a painless process. All you need to do is fill out the form online and submit it. Hours later, they got back to me confirming my visa. The Chinese visa, on the other hand, was a lot more annoying. I had to fill out the form online which required a picture with a pure white background. That took many tries before I got one with a plain enough background to be accepted. Once everything was filled out, I had to submit an online copy as well as turn in a physical copy to the embassy in San Fransisco. I was fortunate enough for my dad to know someone who was a travel agent who exclusively does travel to China. I submitted the paperwork a week later, I got my visa. Unfortunately, I got the wrong visa. I got a tourist visa, and I needed a business visa. At this point, I’m panicking. One of things that is needed for a business visa which is not needed for a tourist visa is a letter of invitation. That’s right. Someone in China has to invite you to come over for business. This step adds to the amount of time needed to get your visa. So there I was, waiting at home for the visa. They decided to go with worst case scenario, and I began getting paperwork for a second Australian visa that would allow me to fly there and board my ship. Then I get the message. Turns out I didn’t need the Chinese visa. According to them, I won’t be allowed off in China so I don’t need a visa. I could have joined in Los Angeles. So they booked me on a flight to Hawaii to join the ship.
Once I got on the ship, they decided to change the itinerary for later on in the cruise. The original plan was to go from Dubai up through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean Sea. Due to wars and terrorism, the company cannot guarantee safety, so we are going to go the long way around. I don’t know if I need any new visas for this change. I guess I’m either going to get one on board like for India or I just get to look at land while stuck on the ship.
The only good thing to come of this whole debacle is I now have a Chinese tourist visa. Disneyland Shanghai is a possibility in the next ten years.
Hurricane Delay
We got a surprise sea day yesterday. With Hurricane Idalia hitting Florida, we were lucky enough that our home port of Tampa wasn’t hit directly. Idalia was a category 3 hurricane when it made landfall, classifying it as a major hurricane with winds up to 129 mph. While I normally don’t have to deal with tropical storms and hurricanes, I was still quite surprised at how far the effects of a hurricane can go. Idalia pushed a lot of water in front of itself, striking all of Florida’s shores that face the Gulf of Mexico. Tampa is about 150 miles from where the storm hit and it still saw a storm surge of up to 7 feet in some places. This was not helped when the tide came in which added even more to the huge amount of water there. For safety reasons, we cannot go into
Tampa until the channel checked for safety and water levels recede. We’ll still try to do a modified cruise for our customers, but they will no longer have a leisurely day in Cozumel as we’ll be getting in much later than intended, having lost a day of sea travel. There were tentative plans to cancel this coming cruise, but our captain has deemed it possible to make it and still have a satisfactory cruise. Doing the math, we will probably arrive early to mid afternoon if we rush there at top speed. I’m guessing this will turn into a shopping trip for most guests now as some shore excursions will probably not be possible.
I was not surprised by the plans to cancel the next cruise due to the way US maritime laws work with cruise ships. I actually learned about this in my time working for American Cruise Lines. If you are a passenger vessel and you only do US ports, your ship must be American. This means only American made parts and American steel while only hiring American workers. Our ships don’t qualify for this so we must have at least one foreign port on any of our cruises with Royal Caribbean. If you’ve ever been with a major cruise, this is why you can’t have just an Alaskan cruise with only American ports. You will always stop in Vancouver or have that be your home port. This got me wondering if we would even have the cruise having lost a day of travel. There are no close foreign ports we could go to while going out of Tampa. We’re on the wrong side of Florida for a quick trip to the Bahamas. The Yucatan peninsula is also pretty far. Key West doesn’t count because that’s still Florida. Even if we had the proper paperwork, we’re too big to get into Havana. Everything else is even farther away.
While there is a bit of a scramble right now, my plans to go home don’t seem to be affected at the moment. I still have about a week before I fly home, so (fingers crossed) everything should be fine by then.
Soon…
Promotions
I got another promotion this contract. I am now Head Sound and Light Technician. Mostly this means I answer company emails and am ultimately responsible for the technician team and all the equipment they work with. If people have questions, I’m supposed to be the one with answers. Having done this for a little while now, I have come to the conclusion that I can do the work, but I don’t want to be in this position again. The benefits don’t cover the added stress of the extra responsibilities. I thought about it some more and realized that I don’t really want to be promoted much further for now. I could have made a go for Stage and Production Manager but ultimately decided to stick with lighting. I enjoy the challenge of light programming. Just the other day, I had to try to make a disco ball effect without a disco ball. The results didn’t look the same, obviously, but I was proud of my makeshift solution. If I were to become a Stage and Production Manager, I wouldn’t be able to do as much actual theater work which I enjoy. I would mostly be managing the venues and running production shows. Maybe after some more time passes, I’ll change my mind, but for now, this is as high as I want to climb up the promotion ladder.
I’m getting close to the end of my contract. I can almost taste that Cicero’s Pizza.
Definitely not San Fransisco.
Recreation
One of the nice bonuses I’ve gotten while working on ships is the crew area known as back deck. This is a space to get some fresh air and not have to worry about dealing with guests. A lot of crew activities can happen there such as barbecues, dance parties, and karaoke. There is also tends to be a bar there. As a theater technician, I’m allowed to go into public spaces, but when I do, I must be in customer service mode. I’ve actually made it a habit to walk on the open deck when going from the theater to the mess hall. If I really wanted, there are days I could spend all my time inside the ship. I would have said without natural light, but the mess has windows and the sun doesn’t set until later since its summer. Now, there is a smoking section, but the natural breeze eliminates most of the smell unless you’re sitting next to an ashtray. I’ve got a lot of good memories of hanging out with friends on back deck. Now, I haven’t been on the really big ships, but I’ve heard that some of them have pools and hot tubs on the front of the ship for crew. This is in addition to the regular back deck.
Unfortunately, the class of ship I’m on doesn’t have a back deck. We told some of the new crew members about this area we don’t have, and they are quite jealous.
As far as recreation goes, the crew will periodically make use various ships’ facilities for a crew activity night. We may get time on the rock wall or free play in the arcade. When I was on Explorer, we had were able to use the ice skating rink. I’d like to think I got pretty good at being able to stop myself on the ice, but I’ve definitely lost any skill in that due to time. I’ve also had some stage crew activities when the theater was closed. Just the other night, we had a raffle and bingo night. A handful of people went back to their cabins satisfied with their winnings.
I’m not sure they packed enough
Counting the Days
When I first started cruising, I was stuck doing 3 and 4 day cruises to the Bahamas. After dry dock, the schedule shifted to 4 and 5 day cruises to accommodate going to Cuba and Mexico. On my next ship, I was doing two week cruises due to being in the Pacific and then Europe. My last contract had me doing 10 and 11 day cruises to the southern Caribbean. Now, I’m back to 4 and 5 day cruises after doing 7 day cruises at the start of my contract. I now know what length of cruise I enjoy.
One thing I should clarify, when I refer to the length of a cruise, my count tends to be one day shorter than the average tourist. For example, this cruise I’m on right now, I would consider it a 5 day cruise. If you look at advertising for the same cruise, it’s billed as a 6 day, 5 night cruise from May 26th to June 3rd. The advertising isn’t wrong, rather, we usually set sail with new passengers the same day the previous cruisers leave us. It just makes more sense for us to refer to that 6th day as simply the 1st day of the next cruise. Plus, it’s not like passengers are doing a whole lot that day they leave.
Anyway, I think my ideal cruise length as a worker is somewhere between the 7 and 11 day cruise. These lengths allow for a good variety of options for ports as well as allow the entertainment to take a more leisurely pace. A 7 day cruise is especially nice as it is quite easy to match activities to the day of the week. If the cruise is longer, it just takes forever to get back to your home port and do some shopping. It can be quite tedious with all the waiting. Shorter cruises tend to need to pack more into them. If you take pretty much all the entertainment of a 7 day cruise and cram it into 5 days, you get what my schedule is doing right now. To be fair, the schedule is at the whims of the Cruise Director, and some of them feel the need to do everything a longer cruise would provide. They’re not wrong, but it is a lot more work for me and my team.
Another pleasant day on the marina.
Shore Leave 