So You Want to Work on a Cruise Ship

On By D. EndoIn Ship LifeLeave a comment

The first thing you should know is that there is a wide range of talents and positions on a cruise ship. The ships I’ve been on can probably best be described as a floating Las Vegas casino hotel with less emphasis on the casino part. While we do have a casino on the ship, it is usually only open in international waters and has less space dedicated to it than the lounges, theaters, and other entertainment venues. On the ship side, you have your deckhands, engineers, bridge staff, and store keepers. The hotel needs housekeepers, lifeguards, musicians, technicians, chefs, wait staff, childcare staff, and activities staff. Most people can get some experience that will help them in their careers at some point. I tend to view the whole travel and meeting new people as a bonus to doing what I love. For others, that’s the point.

Once the usual job pleasantries are done, you will be required to do a few things depending on which cruise company you work for. While I can only really speak to my experience with Royal Caribbean, I assume that people will get a similar experience no matter which international company they work for. The first thing that needs to be done is getting a complete physical to tell the company that you are fit to work at sea. While you are going to get a checkup from your doctor, you will also need to get another physical exam from an approved office. This is mostly to make sure that you won’t do more harm to yourself while trying to work in an environment where you may have to be helicoptered to the nearest hospital. You will also need to get cleared by the local authorities such as the sheriff or police department. You will need to take a course on maritime safety and security. One of the other things you will need to double check is visa requirements and other paperwork for the countries you will be going to. Sometimes, this will provided on the ship you are traveling on and other times you will need to get it beforehand. For example, we were able to submit an application for a visa when going to India, but I had to get a visa for Australia before I left California. This may come in handy depending on if I go back to the Serenade and when we are there for. My current Australian maritime visa is good until September of next year. There may be other paperwork to hand in before going as well as certificates that are earned once you get on a ship, but these are some of the basics required to work on a ship. There’s probably more paperwork that I’m forgetting, but this is at least a start to let you know what is required.

 

The first sailing of the Serenade got pushed back a month. I guess that’s more time for me to relax, write, and practice my cooking skills.

Stuck at Home

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It does feel odd to me to be at home for so long. I’ve usually had some idea of when I’m supposed to be back on the ship when I finished a contract before. As it stands, all I can do right now is keep checking my emails and look at the company website. When I first got home, I did see that the company was planning on trying to restart about mid-September for most ships. I recently checked again and saw that the soonest date for Serenade was pushed back to mid-October for now. I’m going to guess that this date will continue to be pushed back until the whole pandemic is put under control. I mentioned Serenade because the company mentioned that we would probably get sent back to whatever ship we left. On the bright side, the ship is currently set to be going out of Sydney to do New Zealand cruises which I’m really excited for. I enjoyed those Sydney sail outs and it looks like there should be some beautiful scenic cruising like I saw in Norway.

Normally, the time between contracts is the time when I need to get certain stuff done. I usually start a list while I’m on the ship about what I’ll need for next time. Shoes tend to be pretty high on the list. I will usually carry three pairs with me when I board the ship, and each of them is for a different purpose. This next contract should be slightly different as I will want to gather the tools needed for my recent promotion to light tech. In addition to those standard pliers and screwdrivers, I also need to find gadgets such as a cable tracker and multi-meter. These tools should help me identify where certain problems occur in the lighting system. This is also a chance for me to read up more on the console and fixtures I’m working with. I have many manuals in PDF format that I still need to go through. While this may not be absolutely essential to do what I need, it will certainly expand what I’m able to do with the programming and troubleshooting.

I really can’t wait to get back on the water.

All The Things I Missed

On By D. EndoIn Ports, Ship LifeLeave a comment

A large inconvenience that happens when working on a ship is not being able to do things in the ports. Sometimes it’s because you lack the proper paperwork to leave the ship and others it’s because you are working and so can’t really get off the ship to do what you want. I’m already creating a list of things that I would love to do in the ports I visit. A good portion of the list is things that I never did but was able to hear about usually due to the shore excursions advertisements on the tv.

On my first ship, I found out that you can go on a submarine voyage in Cozumel. I got really excited for the possibility. Unfortunately, when I went to try to book a ticket at their office, the waters were too choppy to set sail, and I was sent home before we went there again. So now I actually have a list of where I’ve been and what I want to do there if I ever go back there. Some of the things on the list are things I heard about but never got around to checking out. Others are things I’ve done before, but I would really like to do them again. For example, I would love to see the Great Barrier Reef if I’m ever back in Australia or take a city tour of Dubai as I wasn’t able to do those things while on the Explorer. On the other hand, I can’t wait to go back and enjoy Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and Tivoli Gardens. I’m not sure when I’ll be back to those places, but I’ll know better what I want to do when I am.

If anyone is wondering, I am now part of the less than 1% of people who have been on a submarine and gone underwater. I did it in Aruba. It was a lot of fun.

Local Food

On By D. EndoIn Home, PortsLeave a comment

I’m back home now and am slowly adjusting to life on land. One of the things I started doing on the ship was make a list of all the foods I wanted to eat once I got back home. I hope I can get through the list before I get back on the waters (whenever that is).

I am in the habit of trying foods from the areas I go to. I have had key lime pie in Key West, a Cuban sandwich in Havanna, and stroganoff in St. Petersburg. I have been to Halifax and had donair and poutine. One of the best New England clam chowders was from a restaurant in Portland, ME along with a lobster roll. I have tried kangaroo, crocodile, buffalo, emu, rabbit, and moose. Sometimes I really enjoy the new foods and others, not so much. Every now and then, I discover later on that what I thought was a local food wasn’t really orginally a local food. The Cuban sandwich that I mentioned earlier is a good example of this. The Cuban part of the name more likely applies to the customer than the country of origin. It appeared in local communities in Miami and Tampa, Florida around the mid 1800’s where small communities of Cuban cigar factory workers lived. Traffic between Florida and Cuba was pretty common from then up until 1959 when a revolution took place. I’m sure the sandwich I had was there more for the appeal of having a “local” food while vacationing in Havana. Still, it was pretty tasty.

You never know what you will find when you go looking for food. Growing up, one of my favorite items to get from the hot lunch line was called a taco pocket. If you’ve never had one, its essentially a meat and gravy in a pot pie crust pastry pocket. I think that’s the best way to describe it. It was slightly spicy and full of flavor. When I left elementary school, I never thought I would be able to try that again. In Bridgetown, Barbados, there is a little stand just outside the terminal building. I had passed it a couple of times without giving it a second thought. One time, a couple of my coworkers asked if I wanted to join them for Jamaican beef panties. I went with them and was pleasantly surprised. I took a bite and my childhood memories came flowing back to me. It was the same taste or at least close enough to evoke the memories. I told my coworkers who shrugged it off, but I was ecstatic at being able to relive my childhood for a brief moment.

Movies

On By D. EndoIn Ship Life, TerminologyLeave a comment

Most nights we have some live entertainment in the theater, which I’ve talked about before. Even if an entertainer is somehow not ready for that night, we have backup plans which may include switching the night’s entertainment with another night or having the singers do a backup show. Every now and then, we do get a dark night. This is usually done on a night when we know the ship will be pretty empty for most of the evening or to try to increase the variety of things to different things to do in the evening. We have had to have a few dark nights because of technical difficulties, but those were very strange circumstances. Now when most theaters say that they have a dark night, that means nothing is happening in the theater that night. When we have a dark night, that usually means we show a movie instead.

The movies we get to show are actually pretty specific. As it turns out, we actually don’t need a large number of movies licensed to us. Because most people are on our ships for less than two weeks, the movies simply get put on rotation so the crew may see the same movies over and over again, but the guests do not. Because our viewings are not considered private, we have to get permission to show any movies to guests on the ship. These movies are usually not newest releases, so don’t expect to see the latest block buster on a ship. There have been a few movies I’ve seen that were newly released, but those were unusual cases including one movie that was filmed on one of our ships. If we get a newer film, they tend to be just after the theatrical release is over or when the release is starting to wind down. I’ve actually seen quite a few big movies this way. There have even been movies I didn’t know existed because I was working on ships and not paying attention to movie releases. We don’t get all of them, though. I have no memory seeing a Pixar movie on the ship, but I have seen several Marvel movies. We also show a number of slightly older movies as well, to keep the variety of movies up. We tend to play movies for a few months before rotating them out for another one. We may get back ones we’ve played before if they are popular enough, but there are no movies that just stay on the schedule all the time.

Endless Sea Days

On By D. EndoIn Goals, Ship LifeLeave a comment

It’s been almost a month since we had guests and I’m currently still on the ship. We can’t get off and have been hanging around Barbados all this time. Up until now, the longest I’ve ever been stuck on the ship was when I sailed from Dubai to Pireaus, the port of Athens. That was eight days at sea. I thought I would go stir crazy, but I had work to do then to keep me occupied. The only bright side is that we don’t have any work to do so it’s basically a vacation for now. While that may sound like a lot of fun, it’s not really what you might think. Think of it more like being stuck on a small island. There are only so many places to go and I’ve explored all the places I’m allowed to go. We’ve shut down many venues since we no longer have the workforce necessary to keep everything working properly. This includes lounges, bars, the theater, and specialty restaurants. As a result, we have to make our own entertainment.

I’ve actually brought some games with me due to periodically having game nights on other ships. In addition to a Switch, I have a couple of small card games and some Magic: The Gathering decks. I haven’t really seen an opportunity to play these games until now. I never thought I would really need these games like I do. I’ve always been pretty good about keeping myself occupied with something. It’s coming in pretty handy now. I have to admit, though, I do find it a little hard to concentrate on all the projects I had planned to do at some point while on ships. What I’ve really wanted to do for a while now is do some more writing. I have several plays that need editing and rewriting, as well as a play I’ve wanted to write for a while but never got around to writing. Now that I’m not working for a children’s theatre company, it’s becoming harder to find the motivation to write those plays. I probably just need to buckle down and do those. I guess I should add that to my New Year’s resolution list since the whole “going for light tech” thing went by so fast.

Oh, and we’re also doing social distancing on the ship for now until we are absolutely sure that no one can spread the disease anymore. I’m assuming that as soon as this period is done, we can resume our lives until this whole thing blows over.