Waiting Game

Waiting Game

11^th January 2012

Here we are. 2012 has arrived! Happy belated New Year to everyone!

17^th December, my sign on date to join Disney Wonder, has been and gone… and I’m still in Uruguay, South America. Why? I’m not too sure to tell you the truth. There are rumours that the scheduling manager at Image has been fired or resigned. I have no idea if there is even a grain of truth in that rumour. What I do know is, she isn’t the person who is scheduling our next ships.

As you can see, everything is a bit up in the air at the moment. I heard from Image a couple of days ago. The email said I would be going to a Disney ship – I’m still hoping it’s Disney Wonder, mainly for the itinerary. The only downside was that I’d have to wait for another sign on date. It’s a waiting game and to be fair, it’s kind of frustrating not knowing what’s going on. As much as I want to get back to work, I hope my date to leave Uruguay and join ship isn’t sprung on me with a day or two’s notice.

Oh, while on the Facebook group "I'm a Cruise Ship Photographer from Image" I found out that Alan, one of my trainers from Miami was the BM.

Hernan and I are, obviously, still in contact. He was supposed to join Disney Dream the same time as I was due to depart. That hasn’t happened. Hernan’s also playing the waiting game.

Unfortunately for us, Image have changed their rules about flights. Before Image paid your flight to the ship and you made your own way home. From 15^th January, we need to pay our own flights to the ship and Image pay our flight ticket home. To me, it seems like an odd decision. According to Reuben, my last BM on Mariner of the Seas, it was to stop people joining ships with no real intention of working.

While on the subject of the Mariner of the Seas, both Sandra and Zoran are photog 3’s!! Both are due to sign off within a couple of weeks, their time is finally coming to an end. Eight months on board the Mariner – they’ve done really well and they’ve not only seen Europe but also some of the Caribbean. I’ll have to call them before they sign off.

Sandra is next scheduled for Freedom of the Seas and Zoran Monarch of the Seas. Hopefully someday, our ships will be in the same port. They are both people I’d love to work with again.