Girls Night In

Girl’s Night In

11^th February 2011

It’s turn around day today. The start of a new cruise and I finally get to lose my “Earning My Ears” ribbon.

After 4.5 hours sleep I had to attend immigration at 05.45 at the Walt Disney Theatre for my I-95. The I-95 is a small slip of paper stamped by U.S. Immigration and allowed me access to U.S. owned ports such as Port Canaveral, St. Maarten, Key West etc. Without it, you simply have to stay on the ship. Needless to say, after immigration I went straight back to bed but, sod’s law, I couldn’t sleep until 1 hour before I had to get up and get ready for work.

Maryna has been signed off work with G.I. – another one bites the dust! Left on embarkation was Mark, Bjanca and myself. Embarkation on Disney Magic doesn’t last as long as it did on Mariner of the Seas, probably because there’s a lot less guests. 98% wanted their photos taken. I think I took about 300 images. Here on Disney things are quite slow paced because of the children, whereas on Royal Caribbean we used to rush everyone through as quickly as possible to get the counts up.

Speaking to Bjanca (Croatia) during a break we spoke about the things we wanted to do during our contracts. There’s not a huge amount to do in the Caribbean apart from go to the beach and let’s be honest, that can get a bit boring sometimes. We wanted some excitement! This cruise is the Eastern Caribbean cruise so we’ll be docking at St. Maarten. If we have enough time to get off the ship, we are planning on heading to Airport Beach to go Jet Blasting. If you don’t know what it is, it’s when you get blasted by aeroplane jets! Look it up on Youtube.com and you’ll see a number of videos on the subject.

After embarkation I had a three hour break. First thing was first, persuading myself to get to the gym, which I finally did. I was the only one in there, so I stuck my headphones in my ears and started running. I only did 45 minutes in the gym, but it’s a start. My main worry is pulling a muscle and then having to lift/pull/drag heavy loads at work. The studio light bags weigh a ton and have to be dragged half way across the ship! Broken wheels on the bags doesn't help either! Anyway, I’ll be going again tomorrow so hopefully I’ll be able to spend a bit longer in the gym.

Back at the cabin I tried calling the parents but without success. I’m getting a bit worried now as they haven’t been picking up the phone for two days. I hope Mama hasn’t been admitted into hospital again.

Today I was shooting three sessions of character, Sailor Mickey Mouse and Goofy. The first session was pretty slow, the second picked up and the third was dead until the last 10 minutes. We ended up staying an extra 15 minutes as we got so busy. In total I took about 400 images but missed my target by 50-100 shots. It wasn’t bad and if the people aren’t around, what can you do? Nothing.

During one of my breaks, I left my camera hidden in a corner of my studio, hidden behind a pelican case. While at dinner Carolee told me Dave the BM was looking for me. When she said why, I darted down from deck 9 to deck 3. Dave was nowhere to be seen and my camera was still there but this time on show. For someone who was so annoyed at me for leaving my camera out, although hidden, he’d left it there. Also, why uncover it when it was perfectly hidden? It didn’t make sense to me. Picking up the camera I walked down to the lab to see if Dave was about. Better get the bollocking over with, I thought. Again, he was nowhere to be seen.

After the second session in the studio, I was scheduled for the lab. Dave was in there but didn’t say a word to me, not even a hi. While putting sleeves into DVD cases, he told Bjanca and I that he was having problems opening his Yahoo! Account. When I tried to help him, he started speaking to me and after that was fine, as if nothing had previously happened.

Aniko came running into the lab with some news for us. Whitney Houston has died at the age of 48. Looking shocked, Bjanca and I didn’t believe her. Apparently it’s all over the news, Whitney Houston apparently collapsed yesterday and died today? The first thing that popped into my mind was a drug overdose but Aniko said nothing’s been confirmed or denied. What a shock though. As usual, we are always the last to find these things out while on ship. Once again, we are all in a little bubble. A different world from the one on land.

During my last session Kate came over to speak to me. I was feeling a little down as I couldn’t get hold of the parents. The more I thought about it, the more worried I got. Even though I was trying to focus on my job, it was hard to concentrate, especially as we have two sea days before reaching St. Maarten; so if anything had happened there’s be no way of getting a flight home until 14^th February. Kate told me to come down to her cabin after the team meeting and we’d have a few drinks and a chat.

The meeting went quickly, it was mainly about a couple of bad comments we’d had during the previous cruise. One was “I asked a photographer for help and she walked straight past me and ignored me.” Really? Before you ask, it wasn’t me! The only reply we had for that one was that the photographer may not have actually heard the guest, especially if it was during the last day when Shutters was packed to the rafters. I asked for the good comments which we’ll have within a couple of days.

I’m still not sure if I’ve been paid or Image have taken the money to pay for my flight. Come to think of it, I don’t even know how much I’ve earned!

A couple of hours down in Kate and Claire’s cabin was a giggle. Claire was trying to highlight Kate’s hair. When we told Claire the news about Whitney Houston, she didn’t believe us and generally thought it was a prank. Someone’s obviously got a sick mind! We had to log onto the internet and show her a news article stating Whitney Houston had died. Claire was absolutely gobsmacked but didn’t reduce to tears like she's anticipated! All in all, it was a good night to end a crap day!

Sailor Minnie and Mickey Mouse

Sailor/Captain Mickey Mouse

Goofy