Sleeping on the Job!!

Sleeping on the Job

31^st July 2011

Another day, another gangway. Unlike last week I wasn’t in costume, Lady Corsica wasn’t making an appearance. Instead I was shooting Camila who was dancing around in the dolphin costume. Sandra was on the rail while Fabio was once again free shooting… drunk. 

We all headed out just after 07.00 and as predicted no one was around. The tours weren’t leaving the ship until 08.00 and the Captain didn’t give the all clear until around that time either. In the hour I managed to take 2 photos from the only two people that left the ship. In the end Camila, Sandra and I just sat on the steps outside the ship and fell asleep. Sleeping on the job… I bet Brand Quality would have loved that one!!

Gangway went relatively smoothly, the only small problem was Camila had her music blaring in her ears and couldn’t hear a thing anyone was saying. Security were telling her to move away from them, I was calling her when people wanted their photo taken and she was looking the other way. She couldn’t hear a thing! I told her to turn the music down, she needed to be able to hear what we were saying to her but she refused saying she could hear just fine. Once again we’d only had a couple of hours sleep so by 11.00 we were all completely shattered. 

We’d all done a great job on the gangway even if we didn’t reach our targets. Camila and I got 500 images (Camila thought she’d get 600 images in two hours - wrong) while Sandra had nearly 200 on the rail. Fabio had a whopping amount of free shooting images but we were doubting how many were single shots as opposed to doubles and triples. When Camila and I were inside taking a break, Sandra said Fabio laid down in front of the gangway exit and security and started randomly shooting people from the floor!! I think security noticed he was drunk. They didn’t say anything but it’s only a matter of time, especially now. Previously Fabio had spent 5 days without drinking but now he looks like he’s hit the bottle with a vengeance.

Once the cards were in the lab, Camila and I headed out. We were meeting Luci at the bar we found on our previous visit. Unfortunately it was closed. In fact, everything was closed. It must have been a Sunday… we later found out it was a Tuesday. 

In the end we found a place with wifi and reasonably priced food. After ordering we realized we had to pay 3 euros for the internet. What a load of cack! We paid as we hadn’t found anywhere else open with an internet access. The food came in monstrous, American size proportions and the calzone I had was absolutely excellent. I’ve never had a calzone with so much stuffed inside: tomato, cheese, egg, ham, bacon. All that was missing was the kitchen sink! Camila wasn’t too impressed as she said her egg wasn’t cooked properly.

All of a sudden, I had a message come through on Facebook from Hernan. He was nearby. Looking around I realized that not only was he nearby, he was in the bar next door to the one we were in. According to Hernan the internet was quick and completely free. 

Camila and I later found out the internet access was 3 euros per hour!!! Camila was fuming when her connection cut off half way through one of her competency tests. Next time she’s online she’ll have to start the test from the beginning. Pain in the arse!

Back on the ship and it was time for a snooze. Looking at the way things are panning out there seems to be a steady ritual. We work, go out for a couple of hours, sleep and work again and in that order.

The first couple of ports of call are quite slow with very little to do. We are all looking forward to Cannes (tomorrow), Barcelona and Palma. By far the best place to visit is Barcelona!

As I mentioned before Brand Quality is on board. They are basically here to make sure we are keeping the brand’s quality up (keeping Royal Caribbean at 5 stars) so many things have to change while the mystery shopper is here. Apparently BQ has come in two forms – a male and female and no one knows who it is. 

While working in the gallery, I had a pen in my jacket breast pocket. I was told to take it out as it’s not part of Royal Caribbean’s brand quality. Are you serious? I honestly thought Jomar was taking the Michael but he wasn’t. I have my pen in my pocket, like everyone else for a reason. The guests needed to sign all receipts and the pen in the jacket pocket is the most convenient place to have it.

Jomar went through a few things that we can and can’t do with Brand Quality on board and most of them were petty!! Jomar even told Zoran he needed to wear black pants for formal nights. The reason why Zoran wears his grey pants for formal night is because Image STILL haven’t sent his uniform (Zoran’s been here 2 months now). When Zoran pointed this out Jomar’s pig headed reply was “I don’t care. They don’t care. Brand Quality will fail us on it and our priviledges will be taken away for a year. If you don’t have black pants, you need to buy some”. A few mouths dropped open. 
We all pay for our uniform… so Zoran’s paying for a uniform he doesn’t have because it originally got “lost in the post” and is now being told he needs to pay/buy more because mystery shoppers are here for 3-5 days!! It didn’t make sense but hey! Welcome to the Royal Caribbean and Image ways!

Team Work

Team Work

23^rd July 2011

As predicted, getting up after 4.5 hours sleep was a nightmare. I nearly fell back to sleep. 

Dragging my clothes on I had to make sure Zoran was out of bed and I was hoping he was in a relatively sober state. He was. Fabio was far from it. 

As promised I went down to the Crew Laundry to pick up the Gladiator costume for Zoran. The Indonesian guys from Laundry asked if I was going to be wearing the costume on gangway. When I said no, it was for a guy, they looked shocked before laughing. They thought I was joking as the Gladiator outfit is a burgundy velvet looking mini-dress. The lads rolled up laughing when I assured them a guy was wearing it as a girl couldn’t be a gladiator.

Heading back upstairs I passed the costume onto Zoran. Fabio was rolling around in bed talking crap. Fabio called me in to explain where my new emergency point is. Yesterday I had to change emergency cards with him because I didn’t speak Italian. There go my hopes of driving the life boat haha! 

Next Fabio started telling us about going to find his son. His son!? He said he had a son in Genoa, because about four years ago he was in dry dock and met a girl there. I told him it didn’t necessarily mean he had a son and to go back to sleep. His slurred reply was “No, I know I have a son because me and this girl did a lot of things together… a lot. Yeah man. I don’t know if I have a son, but I know I have a son. I’m going to be a great Dad and show my son how to smoke marijuana but only the good stuff”. This had us rolling up laughing at his drunken blabber. He didn’t know what the hell he was on about and to be quite honest, neither did we! Zoran and I went along with it and started winding him up. If and when he finally sobered up without topping himself up on drink, we’d remind him of everything and use it to our advantage… another good laugh at his expense!

Camila was fuming, sitting on the floor, shouting at Fabio to shut up! I don't know if she was jealous or had simply lost her patience with Fabio, but her reaction just made Zoran and I, play up more and contiune to wind Fabio up!

Come 07.00 we were heading onto the gangway. Hernan was in costume with Camila shooting. Zoran was also a Gladiator and teamed up with me. I always have a laugh with Zoran on gangway so I was pleased we were teamed up together. As Camila is slow at shooting, Zoran and I took the tours gangway. We each had a target of 500 images.

Sanela, who was late as usual and shooting the rail, had a 250 target. Would she get it? Probably not. Would we hit our target? Maybe not… but we were going to have a bloody good go at it!

Soon Zoran and I were clocking up our image count. Hernan and Camila came over to the tours gangway complaining there was no one coming out on their side. We told them to stand back a little and work the tour side too. There’s very little point having two of the same costumes standing right next to each other. So during the rush they were catching the people we missed or slipped passed us.

Guests from a one day  cruise were disembarking from Deck 4. We were wondering why the hell the gangway on Deck 1 was so deserted. It was unusual. We took it in turns to have a 15 minute break before Zoran and I had a walk around the ship. 

Coming out onto the deck, there was a terrace area leading off the exit from Deck 4. We headed up and started smudging. Security had told us that the passengers getting off the ship were disembarking… that wasn’t entirely true. Guests going out for the day were also using the Deck 4 gangway. Hernan and Camila came back from their break and took over from us. Again Zoran and I went for a walk around the ship. In the end we positioned ourselves out on the deck where two lines on guests were merging into one before heading down to the terrace where Hernan and Camila were.

One of the great things about working with Zoran is that we both want to have a laugh and have each other running around like blue arse flies. All wasn’t plain sailing though. Hernan and Camila got annoyed with us being on Deck 4 complaining we were taking all the counts even though there were two queues of people going down to them. We were only working one side where they had both sets of traffic. 

Zoran and I finally reached our target with 45 minutes to go. Checking how the others were doing, we did a few calculations. Each of us needed to get 40 images more to hit the overall 1,000 target. Zoran and I, rather than going in, started running around like crazy, grabbing people, pulling them in for a photo.

Hernan was still pissed and stormed back onto the ship 10 minutes early saying he was done. We were nearly at the 1,000 target and only needed 30 images more. Camila was complaining that we were being unfair for not “sharing” the guests with them. This wasn’t a playground! I tried to tell her that if she wanted to speak to me, then to do it later, not while I’m working, taking photos and smudging guests in. She wouldn’t have it. 

Stopping we told her that we hit our target and therefore could have left the gangway but, we didn’t. We carried on working so both costumes would have a total of 1,000 images. How was that unfair? We also told her that Zoran and I hit the target because we were working together as a team. Gangway is about team work. Zoran, who was in costume, was doing the most smudging. Costumes are the main smudgers. Having said that, the shooter still needs to help smudging the guests in. 

Camila had the audacity to tell us we were wrong and only the costumes smudge. The shooters just take the photos. This wasn’t the first time we’d been told how to do our jobs by Camila, a new hire. Turning to her, I pointed out that she was a new hire and although Zoran and I had only been on the Mariner for 2.5-3.5 months, we were P2 and in our short stints on the ships knew more about working as a ship’s photographer than she did. Camila was only in her 3^rd week!! We weren’t having a go, we’re trying to help and explain the way things are to her as she’s new. The last thing we expected was for her to storm off crying her eyes out!!

Zoran and I were determined to get the target and stayed on. Everyone else had gone inside. Within 12 minutes we had hit the overall target and surpassed it with 677 images! Leaving the gangway in good spirits and a huge smack of a high five we headed to the staff mess with about 1,080 images between us. We’d smashed the target!!!

Going back to the cabins, I heard Hernan’s music. The thought of going in to talk to him crossed my mind but I left it. I knew the real reason why he was upset and annoyed and it had very little to do with gangway. The previous night he’d broken up with his girlfriend, Eve and was still upset about it. I won’t say why it happened but as they say… ship happens!

Jumping in the shower, I stuffed my laptop and camera into my bag. Luci was shouting at me to hurry up and get ready! Yelling back, she laughed saying “Lou, you are so cute. You are like my daughter!” It is a bit of a mother-daughter relationship with me and Luci now. She yells at me for not being ready to go out when I’ve just come back from work, even though she’s been off all morning. She yells, I yell back, often reminding her the more she yells at me, the longer I’ll take to get ready.

Finally, Camila arrived at the cabin. None of us had been to Genoa before so we had no idea what to expect. Walking around, we found a cheap supermarket so we all popped in for juice, coca-cola and a few snacks. 

Genoa is a nice city, don’t get me wrong, but it’s at the bottom of the list. If we’d just gone straight to Genoa, we’d have loved it but after all the places we’ve seen while working on the ship, we didn’t find anything special about it. 

Taking photos as we went along, we were trying to find a place to use the internet. I wanted to call the parents and Becks. 

Time was ticking and it wasn’t long until Luci and Camila had to go back to the ship. I carried on walking around and within another 5 minutes found a pizzeria where there was free wifi. The internet was fast and there wasn’t a single crew member around. Bliss! 

There was another message from Stu, he was still doing good and going back into the wilderness again. He hadn’t uploaded any photos from his previous trip. The parents weren’t online because of the time difference. This is something I tend to forget about! About five minutes before I left I was getting attacked by bees and I’m not kidding! The buggers were all after my can of coke. Quickly sending a message to my Dad, it was time for me to leave…. Quickly!

Walking around for a little while longer, I spotted the Bio-sphere on the docks. I remembered seeing it while looking through photos on Flickr.com. It looked a lot more impressive in the photos though. Situated near the aquarium is an enormous pirate’s ship which wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Pirates of the Caribbean film!

Back on the ship, I had an hour to sleep before shooting casual Ressi. After casual ressi I was in the gallery for a while before shooting on LSP. 

LSP wasn’t as dead as it was the previous night but it was far from busy. Either way, I got some good shots which, for me, was the most important factor. By the time we finished up it was 1am. We all  had to pop down to the lab to collect the schedule.

In true tradition with Jomar’s schedules, there was a problem. Zoran and Hernan were due to be on gangway in costume… only problem was, we didn’t have the costume for the occasion! Ritesh changed the costumes to sailors. Zoran was too tall to wear the sailor’s outfit so I had to swap with him. Instead of shooting, I was now the sailor. Last time I was sailor there was a complaint so I’d better watch myself this time… 

Wardrobe Malfunctions

Wardrobe Malfunctions!

20^th July 2011

This cruise I’ve been on gangway quite a lot, mainly shooting and I’ve got to admit, I’m getting much, much quicker. The same goes for my cropping but there are times when it gets a little loose. Today however I’m in my favourite gangway costume as… the Crete Girl!

The costume was still in the lab so I had to get up at 06.00 and run down to pick it up. I was so tired that I ended up dragging my backside out of bed at 06.030 leaving me little time to get ready.

Getting the costume I decided to just get dressed in the lab. Putting the white under shirt on and something didn’t look right. It was all baggy and falling off me. Then it clicked. The elastic in the shoulder line had snapped. Chucking the dress over my head and there was nothing to lace it up with. The lace hadn’t made it out of the Crew Laundry. Putting my shirt back on, I run up the stairs to come down another flight on the opposite side of the water tight doors (you’ve got to love the water tight doors!) and popped into the laundry. 

The Indonesian lads in Laundry are always so nice and when I told them that the lace wasn’t with the dress a couple had a look around for me. They couldn’t find it but found something else that I could use as a substitute. Thanking them, I ran back up to Deck 1 and to the cabin.

While changing into the costume there was a knock at the door. It was Camila asking to borrow my white gangway trainers as hers were hurting her feet. No chance. I had 5 minutes to get ready in, it was pitch black because I couldn’t turn the light on without waking Luci and there was no way I could find anything under the mountain of shoes and bags on the floor. She hadn’t even got the rail from the lab yet.

Zoran was having a field day trying to find David’s gangway shorts to wear but thinks Fabio’s done something to them in one of his overly drunken moments.

Camila soon came back into the corridor with the rail. The only problem was it didn’t have the Greek flag inside. It was completely bare. When we told her she needed to have a flag inside the ring she went mental, shouting at us in Portuguese “you all expect me to know everything. None of you have told me it had to have a flag. You haven’t taught me anything”. She’s been here long enough to know that the ring and rail always have a flag with the name of the port on it. Storming off she went back to the lab. 

The rest of us headed onto the gangway where we found the rail in the open and no one watching it. Zoran and I picked up the rail and put it to one side. 

Coming back a little later Camila was carrying a tiny Greek flag. We told her that wasn’t the right one to which she said there wasn’t anymore. There are normally stacks of them in the lab but she was insisting there wasn’t any in the folders where we store the flags.

Zoran was shooting me and we always work well together. We were skipping around and literally chasing after guests who refused to have their photo taken. So many people were pegging it away from us thinking we wouldn’t chase and grab them. Most laughed at us running after them and stopped and had their photo taken. Others had to be grabbed and turned around towards the camera before they’d put their arm around me and smiled for the camera. It was all a great laugh. 

There were a couple of people getting pissed off at us for constantly being hounded by photographers. We were all doing it with a smile on our faces and having a laugh. Some didn’t quite take it like that. One person shouted at us to which I replied “Miss, you’re going to miss having us treating you like celebrities, running after and papping you”. She wasn’t amused. 

One guy shrugged me off saying he couldn’t have his photo taken with us because his wife was jealous… looking over at his wife, I suggested she should jump in too. She simply looked at me like dirt and walked off. So did her husband. Zoran and I looked at each other in amazement before cracking up and running towards someone else. A lot of people were recognising me and calling, “Hey Lou! We’ll get a picture with you”. It was great fun.

Taking a break quick break to have a drink, I went down to the lab to see if I could find some of the Crete/Greek signs for Camila. 

Walking through the Crew Laundry they all started whistling and cheering. One of the lads, Edi, simply held his hands out, pointing to my costume with a big smile on his face. Everyone, including myself was laughing. I shouted “Calm it you lot” which just made them laugh more. The Indonesian lads from laundry are always so cheerful and laughing!

Camila was right, the folders were where they should be but there was nothing in any the Crete folder. Where the hell had the signs gone? There were loads of them!

Going back to the cabin, I had a quick cigarette and drink before Zoran and I headed back onto the gangway. When we reached 250 images we’d come back in for another break. It wasn’t long until we reached our 250 images. 

Unfortunately, our time on the gangway was cut short by the sound of “Bravo, Bravo, Bravo…” It was time for the red drill. Zoran and I both held red emergency cards and therefore had to head back onto the ship. I had get out of my gangway costume and into my uniform before the alarm sounded. The alarm itself took longer than usual. I had time to sit down with Zoran and have a quick can of Fanta before it sounded. Grabbing my life jacket I headed up to Deck 5.

Once upstairs Becky ticked me off the list and someone came around and asked us security questions. Regina was there and explained to me what we were going to do. It was my first drill in this section and I had no idea about what was going on. The life rafts were ready to be lowered.

After an hour and a half of waiting around and endless calls for certain people to get to their emergency stations, we were all called to our life raft points. The drill couldn’t end until everyone holding a red card was ticked off the list. For that alone, the drill look an hour longer than usual. 

My life raft point was the same as my muster station. We all had our life jackets on and finding it hard to stay awake... More waiting around. After another 30 minutes the announcement came for all crew members participating in the life raft exercise to board their rafts.

There were six of us in our life boat. My job was to grab an oar when we hit the water and push the boat away from the ship. There were two of us doing the job. Two guys were at the back of the boat to release the clamp from the wires and one at the front. The final person was the “captain” of the life boat who was in charge of driving. 

Once a couple of metres away from the ship, the engine started and we were speeding off into the sea. Two minutes later the engine cut out. There were about eight other life boats around us, just floating. 

This is the procedure – we get away from the ship, group together as much as possible and just wait for help. The boats were rocking side to side and bobbing up and down! If you get sea sick easily, you’ll be turning green within no time at all!

The “Captain” of the life boat told two of the men to come over. He taught them how to work the life boat and steer. They both had a go of driving around in circles for five minutes or so. After we were just waiting around for the other boats to join us and the call to come back in. I was also told that next time there’s a drill and I was going to have a go at driving the life boat – I couldn’t wait!! 

Finally, after what seemed an age, a voice crackled over the walkie-talkie telling us to head back to the ship. The captain of our life boat said that when it’s windy the boat will slam against the side of the ship – oh joys. 

Once it was secured we climbed out and onto the deck. From there we had to climb up a ladder to the point where we all had a go at cranking up the life boat until it was suspended over the deck. It was like doing a work out at the gym!! The girls went first, the higher the boat got, the harder it became to crank up and that’s when the men took over.

Once we’d all climbed back down, we picked up our life jackets and were dismissed. The drill was finally over after 2 and a half hours. 

I had an hour left of my break before going back to work. I bumped into Zoran on back deck and we sat around talking for a bit before going up a couple of decks for something to eat.

It was formal night tonight and we were already shattered. We’d both missed our chance to get some sleep and it was now time for set up. For the fourth formal night in a row Zoran was shooting ship and boy, was he getting sick to death of it! I’m being alternated between two boring backdrops – Bow and Titanic. There’s really no point in even looking at my formal schedule anymore because I know what’s coming. Fabio is always on LSP. David’s reign on black is over and all the new members of the team are shooting centrums and stairs while the more experienced ones are on crap, "learner's" backdrops. 

The worst thing about it all was that Sanela was put on Stairs one formal night, didn’t take many photos and approximately 95% of her shots were out of focus. The same happened the following formal night when she was on Centrum 3. 95% of all her shots were completely out of focus while the background was as sharp as a pin!! It didn’t make sense to us.

Set up took longer than it should – as it always does. By the time we were finished we had a couple of hours until it was show time. I had an hour to sleep. 

The night was a bit of a drag, no one wanted their photos taken. We were smudging as much as we could until the middle of the second session. By then it was obvious we weren’t going to get anywhere. After the second Ressi, we were back in the studio for one last session. One hour to go and the studios were dead. 

The singers came onto the Royal Promenade bridge and 70’s Night began and it wasn’t long until the party was in full swing. The guests were all rushing over. David had to quickly dismantle his studio on the Promenade as the crowd grew bigger and bigger. People will even try to stand on the light’s power packs to get a bigger view of what’s going on!! 

There wasn’t long left and my side of Deck 5 was empty. The dining room was empty too. Not even the Italians were out… and that’s saying something. David started breaking down the studio where Fede had been before he started his long night of printing in the lab.  With nothing to do, I helped. With 10 minutes left, David told me to gather my stuff, download my images and bring the studio bag up. In the meantime he’d break my studio down.

Soon we’d all closed our studios and downloaded our images. We were all breaking down our studios. Those who had broken theirs down already were moving on to other studios to help out. 

Starting from Deck 5 we loaded all the equipment in and moved down to Deck 4 where we did the same. Three people had to run down to Deck 3 as there was no more space in the lift. From there, we all worked as quickly as possible to shift everything into the store and finish up for the night.

With break down done, all that was left was the pizza. Two of the lads had already gone for pizza but in recently weeks we’ve been having a lot of problems with getting food on formal nights. It was getting a bit playground-like and incredibly petty. The cooks simply didn't want to make us pizza!

Looking around at everyone… we were all completely shattered. Port days and formal nights really aren’t a good mix!!

Popular on the Gangway! :-o

Crete Girl and Shooter

BEST gangway photo EVER!

Birthday Presents

Birthday Presents

18^th July 2011

Kusadasi is one of my favourite places to go. There’s so much to see and do in this port. One of the best things to do while in Kusadasi is shop. 

A couple of photographers were thinking about going to the beach but the girls would have to go to “Women’s Beach”. Females aren’t allowed on just any beach, they have to go to designated beaches while men can go anywhere. Men can join us females on the Women’s Beach but we can't join them on another beach. I'm so glad I'm from the West!

It’s my brother’s birthday  in August and there were a few things I wanted to get him in Kusadasi. I was getting the presents early so it’d give me enough time to find a post office in one of the new ports and send everything.

During the morning I was photographing David, dressed up as the Turkish Prince. At first we thought it was going to be a very slow gangway but things soon starting picking up and before we knew it, we were clocking up our counts. 

Just before heading out onto the gangway at 07.00 we bumped into Sanela who wasn’t even in her uniform. We were sure she was on gangway this morning. Asking Sanela, she told us she was free shooting outside the terminal and asked if that meant she had to wear her  uniform. Obviously!! David and I couldn’t believe it. She didn’t even have her camera equipment ready. It was still in the lab and her battery hadn’t been charge. Finally, she got off the ship 45 minutes late… again. This was becoming a habit.

Watching David jump and run around the gangway is always a sight to see! Some of the things he says has everyone cracking up. He put his arm around one person and playfully shouted “Sir, let’s get your picture. Just me and you, right here and right now!” The guy couldn’t stop laughing and stopped for his photo. 

Not only is it funny watching David prat around on the gangway, it’s gives you pointers on what you can do when you’re in costume. Obviously you can’t copy out right, that’d be impossible, David has a natural flare for gangway and with people in general. 

We weren’t the only ones on the gangway. Fede was also out shooting Sandra who was officially the Mariner of the Seas Cleopatra. I’ll have to upload a photograph because she looks absolutely stunning as Cleopatra. A couple of guests have spotted her in the gallery and commented “oh you’re the mini Cleopatra”.

David and I were in the lead with our image counts which is a first. Fede is a much faster shooter than I am and David had me running all over the place as he chased after guests. Overall, it was a great laugh and a brilliant way to remember our last gangway in Kusadasi.

Once gangway was over we all nipped up to the mess to get something to eat. A couple of us wanted to get some bits and pieces from the shops so Luci, Ritesh, Fede, Sandra and I headed out into the port. Ritesh wanted a pair of trainers, Luci wanted a pair of shoes like Sandra’s for her cousins back in Brazil, I obviously had to get my brother his birthday presents and Fede was just coming for a walk around. 

The strangest thing about walking around Kusadasi was that people remembered us from walking past two weeks ago! They’d call us and say “Lady, I remember you, you wanted these boots” etc. 
They have a bloody good memory. I find it hard remembering what a guest’s face looks like after five minutes!! 

As I walked past, the men were coming out of the shops shouting “Excuse me, Russian lady”. Me? Russian? No chance. I wouldn’t have said I was a stereotype of a Russian. One person thought I was Dutch which was probably more likely. I couldn’t help but smile either way. Popping into a shop I changed my “Fuck Google… Ask Me!” shirt for a smaller size. Fede bought a copy of evening shirts while Ritesh got a pair of jeans.

Walking around a little more we walked down a small back street where we found a little shop selling typical Turkish jewellery. The earrings are much cheaper and funkier than the ones you can get in England and dare I say it, but the quality is much better than Claire’s and any other accessory store. Choosing a pair was so hard, I wanted the lot! In the end I managed to get some chandelier earrings the girls wear in Turkey. I was thinking about getting a pair for Anna, back in England, but wasn’t sure if she would be able to wear them as they weren’t silver or gold.

With my brother’s presents finally stashed away in a bag, we carried on walking around until we’d done a full circuit of the shops. I even managed to get something for my Mama which I’ll send her once I finally get to a post office. Maybe I’ll be able to find one in Barcelona.

There were only a couple of hours remaining until we all had to board the ship. Heading to the port I stopped off at Hardward Café, a lovely bar with a balcony over the sea. It’s a relaxing place to sit and catch up with the family online. Unfortunately, because of the time difference, my Dad had only just woken up as I was about to leave to go back to the ship.

I found out today that Becks who I met at the Image job interview and trained with in Miami had been fired from Image due to “under-performing”. She wasn’t given any warning or notice, just sent straight home. 

The thing that struck me was that she is a trained photographer, her ship was doing badly anyway and in a previous meeting with her BM they said she was doing a good job. Not only that, during the cruise in which she was fired, she was also given a good comment. It really didn’t make sense. A couple of us guys from the Miami training (we still have a group message going on Facebook) think they might have been trying to make an example of her. Either way, she had no notice, nothing. 

It’s a good job she still lives at home. If it was someone in my case, I’d be sent back to England with pretty much nowhere to go. Obviously they don’t think about that. It’s made me wonder about a few things, that’s for sure. I was really hoping I’d be able to do my second contract with her. Looks like that’s not going to be the case. 

It’s sad as this was the job she really wanted to do: take photos, travel the world and get paid for it. Now that has all taken away within a couple of hours. The more and more I see and hear about the way things work around here, the more I realize that Stuart was right in more ways than one.

Later on, I found out that both Hernan and Zoran got an "Opportunity Log" because they had a low image count in Athens (3 negative opportunity logs is a warning). Hernan signed his and at the side in brackets put “Not Agreed”. Luci, the new AMS, even agreed with Hernan and didn't think either deserved a log. 

Zoran hadn’t even had his good comments logged, just the negative. Luci soon changed that and added them to the log. 

My three good comments from the previous cruise had finally been added to the log. So many of us got good name comments last cruise. Sandra and I lead the way with three each. One lady gave both Sandra and me a good comment. Sandra’s was for being a great help when the lady bought the canvas (of a photo I took on a Centrum). Mine, was for going the extra mile while shooting her daughter on the Centrum on Deck 4 (which was later made into a canvas).

This particular guest told Jomar that I didn’t have a ladder but went running around looking for one anyway and was determined to get a great shot. The girl had a white, puffy Holy Communion style dress on. Deck 4 Centrum has a large circle pattern on the floor tiles. I got the girl to sit down, spreading her dress out within the circle. All the other tiles provided leading lines in towards the girl. Standing up on the ladder, just under the soft box I got a fantastic shot of the girl looking up at the camera. 

It might not have been the most original but it provided an effective final print and the guests loved it. Plus I’d never seen anyone else do it on any of the Centrums. It’s just as Stu once said to me before shooting LSP “you’ve got to think outside the box that the box is in”. 

That’s three more days off for good comments. I’m planning to use them to my best advantages when we start the 7 day cruises next week in ports and countries I’ve never been to before.

Cleopatra

Luci and Cleopatra

Working the Gangway: Newman (Guest Relations), David (Turkish Prince), Me (Shooter) and Sandra (Cleopatra)

Greek Goddess No More

Greek Goddess No More

17^th July 2011

Once again I’m gracing the gangway with my presents… as the Greek Goddess! Again I’m not wearing the Image Greek Goddess costume. Originally I was supposed to be shooting Hernan, the Greek God. 

Last night, when Luci handed out the schedules she told the couple of people present to “be prepared”. Looking at the schedule, Sanela was scheduled to be the Greek Goddess with Fede shooting her. Fede was far from happy. Not only did he want to shoot Sanela because she’s apparently boring on gangway, she doesn’t get a good image count. 

The previous evening Jomar was banging on about us not hitting targets and then he puts Sanela AGAIN on gangway. All the female costumes have been going to Sanela for the last cruise and a half. Luci said the exact same thing and I wasn’t disagreeing. 

Fede picked up the phone to call Jomar. He told Jomar they were switching the Goddesses as Sanela was scheduled for gangway and sail away with the same costume (something we don’t do and for a good reason!)

The entire morning schedule was completely rearranged by Fede. Sanela would shoot the rail rather than Zoran. Zoran would shoot Hernan, the God. I’d replace Sanela as the Goddess with Fede shooting me. Sanela would wear the Image Godess costume for return gangway and sailaway. That would give her a chance to practise smudging in costume. 

When Sanela was told about the changes she was far from happy to say the least and wanted to do both gangways. When she asked why, she got the honest truth, a response she really didn’t like and looked even more miffed! Not long afterwards, she stormed out the office. She honestly thinks there’s some sort of vendetta against her!

The next morning I dragged myself out of bed once again and climbed into my dress. Boy, was I tired! 

At 07.00 Fede and I headed up to the Savoy Theatre. Our orders were to “shoot as many children, blacks and Brazilians as possible”. This, as always, had us rolling up laughing!! Especially as during the meeting someone had to turn to David, fake having a gun in their hands and shooting him. David would start laughing his infectious laugh and shout “you’re all racist!” 

Once up in the theatre, it wasn’t long until we were on a roll. I was skipping about pulling people in for a photo with Fede snapping away. We got some great shots on the stairs leading down to the Savoy. The morning tours had gone and we had over 200 images. 

We decided to go outside onto the gangway for a while to join Hernan and Zoran before coming back in to go to the Lotus Lounge for the afternoon tours.

Walking outside and the heat hit you like a ton of bricks. It was so bright outside Hernan and I (the ones who couldn’t wear sunglasses) were having troubles keeping our eyes open. Fede even said that the heat today in Athens was similar to what he’d experienced in Jamaica. Apparently it was 38ºC and guests were asking if I had sun protection on! The poor guests were worried I was going to burn as I’m as white as a pint of milk (and that’s with a tan)! 

Fede and Zoran had to count to three to enable Hernan and I a chance to close our eyes, opening them only at the last second for the photo. It was an attempt to stop us from squinting. It worked a little, but not much. Without a doubt there are going to be so many dodgy, squinty photos!!

Going back onto the ship at 11.30 we had an hour of photographing the tours coming out of the Lotus Lounge. 

There’s a Brazilian Congress on board with their very own vicar. He was standing at the entrance of the Lotus with one of the Congress leaders. Fede kept asking me to go and get my photo taken with the vicar. I somply couldn’t bring myself to do it because I was wearing a relatively see through white dress with was exposing rather a lot of cleavage. I was looking far from virginal to say the least! “That’s exactly the point” Fede told me. 

In the end, after too much begging and pleading from Fede, I walked over to the Congress Leader and vicar and said in my very best Portuguese “Come, I want a photo with you both” and once the Congress Leader agreed, the vicar did too. Saying thanks I jogged back to Fede who was trying his best to keep a straight face.

12.30 finally rolled around and Fede and I called it quits. We had about 450 images and this gangway had proved to be a lot more difficult than normal. Most of the guests were already complaining that they were “pictured out”. 

Seeing Hernan and Zoran in the photographer’s corridor, we asked how they had got on and the response wasn’t a good one. They’d only managed to take 200 images. To be fair, I can understand where they were coming from and why they’d got such a low count. Outside, no one wanted their photo taken, it was too hot for them and all they wanted to do was jump on the shuttle bus and get to wherever they were going. It was incredibly hard for Hernan to smudge the guests in when he couldn’t even open his eyes. At one point both of us were standing on the gangway with our eyes closed rather than struggling to open them and squinting.

Quickly showering and getting dressed, I grabbed my things. Luci and Camila left a message with security for me saying they were waiting for me outside. They weren’t there. 

Regina, David, Hernan, Fede and I jumped onto the shuttle bus towards the port. It was a Sunday so there's no chance anything but a few coffee shops being open. Not even our local internet haunt was open. O’Connell’s (an Irish pub of all things) was closed for the first time ever. 

As we were heading towards another internet café we bumped into a few crew members who had an internet connection in a small coffee shop. It was too hot to move so we went inside rather than walking around to the other place. Unfortunately the internet was slow but I managed to upload a few photos of the crew party to Facebook for the parents to see. The other crew members were slowly leaving to head back to the ship for work. 

After a couple of hours, Fede, Hernan and I, the last ones standing, decided to call it quits.  Fede had set up at 16.30 while Hernan and I had work at 18.00 so we were going for a quick kip.

Once again it was another night in the gallery and studio for me. I’ve gotten to the point where I prefer working in the gallery, selling, rather than taking photos in the studios. There are some rude guests on this cruise along with some spoilt kids so there’s plenty of snappy remarks and getting ignored. 

Tonight I was shooting Bow for a second time. I didn’t make sense to shoot the same background twice when we have so many others. This time I had the ship’s wheel in front of the background. To make it a bit more interesting and fun, I borrowed David’s captain’s cap. I was aiming at kids… that’s if there were any awake during my 21.30h to 23.30h shift. 

Surprisingly enough, there were loads and it wasn’t long until I had a steady stream of people coming to have their photo taken. They loved wearing the hat and paying captain of the ship – even the adults!! I was only taking one or two photos of each guest and by the end of my shift I had 105 images! Everyone else had between 20-40 which was proving to be normal during these times. 

Back in the office, to download my images, Jomar asked how many images I got, when I told him he didn’t even batter an eye lid, carried on looking at the computer screen and said “that’s what we should be getting”. You can’t please everyone… especially a boss who obviously has a chip on his shoulder!

We are now sailing towards Kusadasi, Turkey. The Greek God and Goddess costumes can now be laid to rest. It was the last time we’d be using the costumes on gangway in Athens and with the way things are going in Greece at the moment, it’s unlikely we’ll ever return. It’ll most probably get dropped from the agenda. 

From now on, the Greek God and Goddess are no more… roll on the Matador and Flamenco dancer!

(Just found these photos from a previous Athens. Luci and I shooting Sailaway)

Checking Exposures for Sailaway

Athens, Greece Sailaway

Luci During Sailaway

Luci LOVES Romero Britto's Work

Gangway... OWNED!!

Gangway… OWNED!

3^rd July 2011

Today we are in Rhodes again and it’d be the first gangway without Stu which means no more pouting knight! Zoran who does a fantastic job as the Greek God was dressed up in the Knight costume and it swamped him!!

At the last minute Fede wanted to shoot Zoran because David (Centurion) wasn’t ready. Sod off was my reply. Zoran and I were already on the gangway. Zoran was still a little worse for wear from last night but we got to work on the tour exit. Every so often we’d dart into the middle of the gangway and work both sides as much as we could. Within the first hour we had nearly 300 images. Our target was 400 each.

Fede came to join us a little later on gangway. David had locked himself out of his cabin and Fabio, who was free shooting, had forgotten his key inside too. Great stuff! 

Just as Fede came back over my Quantum battery died. It’d been on charge all night and hadn’t lasted two hours! My Quantum has been giving me so much grief recently. My flash doesn’t always fire, the light consistency is terrible and the battery simply isn’t lasting half as much time as it should.

Running to the lab I picked up another SD card for Fede, my spare wasn’t anywhere to be found. Grabbing another Quantum battery I locked up and headed back outside. 

David had finally made an appearance. Teaming back up again we continued shooting and smudging. People were lining up and the ones who refused were literally chased down until they gave in and had their photo taken. 

Fede and David reached 400 before Zoran and I did. There were however 400 images of the knight (Fede took over shooting while I went inside for another battery). They said they’d stay out on gangway shooting and help us get 800 in total. Before we knew it, we had 800 images in total. It wasn’t even 10am and we’d smashed the target, owned the gangway! 

Jomar told us to keep going even though we’d reached the target. We were due out until 11.30.

Smudging like hell and soon Fede and my right arm were aching like hell from holding the camera up to our faces. I must have spent about 10 minutes with my camera to my eye without lowering it once. It was a continuous aim, focus, shoot. It was fantastic!

By the time Zoran and I had reached 500 Fede and David were just passing 700!! This was a record for Europe. David and Fede said this was Caribbean style shooting. Zoran and I were in our element when we reached 600 images!! Every time we got to another 100 mark we’d be laughing in amazement with high fives all around!!

At 615 my 2GB memory card was full and I didn’t have another. God knows where my 4GB was but it wasn’t in the lab. It was 10.40 so Fede just said to go inside as there wasn’t much we could do. Fede was already on his second memory card and his flash batteries were running low (he was already on his replacement batteries). So Zoran and I had whacked up 615 images. We knocked on a few cabin doors to see if anyone else had a spare memory card so we could continue shooting. We were buzzing! No one had another memory card though.

David and Fede wanted to see if they could get 1,000 shots. They weren’t far off!! They’d done a fantastic job between them. Not long after we’d come in they joined us. Fede had to stop shooting, his arm was cramping and his flash batteries were dead. They had just over 900. Fabio, last time we checked had 150 and we had 615. That’s 1,665 images in total! 

We’d smashed our targets and had an image count to rival the Caribbean’s! It was an amazing image count for Europe when it’s sometimes a struggle to get over 600! The guys in costume were fantastic and not taking "no" for an answer. The Knight and Centurion were acting up, playing the part perfectly! They were absolutely fantastic! Fede was the ultimate shooter. All together we’d done a brilliant job and not only smashed the target but all expectations too!!

During gangway David raised his hands into the air and declared we owned gangway! And he was right… Gangway Owned!

Zoran the Knight

Mad Rush

Mad Rush

22^nd June 2011

Usually we have a sea day, the second formal night, in between Haifa and Ashdod. However, on this cruise, we are heading straight to Ashdod, arriving tomorrow morning. The distance between Haifa and Ashdod is unbelievably short, more than I'd realized: 45 minute flight or an hour and a half by car. Rather than cruising slowly to make a sea day we steamed on towards our next port of call.

All the photographers were up between 06.00 and 06.30. Those who weren’t on tour were working on gangway. Again, Stu had a private tour lined up with the same family. Zoran therefore took Stu’s place as the Crusader. Jeni was shooting the ring at one gangway and I was on the rail at the opposite end of the ship.

Yesterday's events on the gangway went well, today things were the opposite, especially for me. As usual Ashdod was a royal mad house! People were running here, there and everywhere trying to find their bus or trying to get to their tour bus first to grab a window seat. It's like going back to your school days! It’s crazy, they turn into little kids! Some people had got their tour bus stickers and headed straight out to find the bus rather than waiting for the tour guide to take the group. Some of them even got lost looking for their bus!

Smudging was near impossible. Ritesh came out on the gangway to see what was happening. Picking up the rail he told me to help him carry it to another spot. He plonked the rail in the centre of the gangway rather than on an entrance/exit. It was insane! I had to constantly keep heaving the rail out the way for the tour buses to get passed. So not only did a get a crap image count I’d buggered my back and shoulder again!

Once the tour gangway was closed Jeni came up to join me at the gangway exit. Fabio was shooting Zoran and Jeni and I were shooting pretty much the same thing. Obviously people didn’t want a photo with the ring when they’d had one on the rail and vice versa. It made sense to only use one or the other but we were told to stay outside and keep smudging.

Towards the end of our stint Jorge from Explorations! came out from the ship dragging his suitcases behind him. He was disembarking to be transferred to a smaller ship in the Baltics. It was actually quite sad seeing him go. I’ve always got along well with him, he’s absolutely lovely. 

Everyone seems to be leaving or preparing to leave. Saying goodbye seemed strange, almost unreal but he’s happy to be going so good luck to him. Jeni and I got our photo taken with him behind the ring. One last Mariner of the Seas photo which we said we’d email to him. It still didn’t seem real when his taxi drove off. Even now I still expect him to pass by or call out “Hola Chiquita”.

The rest of the day I spent catching up on sleep, searching for cans of Coca-Cola and blogging before going to work in the gallery. I really need to catch up on my blog entries but been too knackered and favouring sleep each time!

There's even a shortage of fizzy drinks on board. Well, for crew anyway. The guests have run out of pretty much everything. As we can't possibly have the guests going without, our crew area got raided. All our vending machines have been emptied and so have the majority of the crew bars! Once we run out, we're dry and caffeine-free until Embarkation Day!

Tomorrow is Stuart's 22nd birthday and we are all at a loose end. We honestly don't know what we can buy him. Well, we did have a few ideas. Originally, we were all going to chip in and buy the Knight's shield he wanted in Rhodes, but that isn't for another three days. Unfortunately, we are going to be at sea for his birthday and as it's a sea day, it's formal night! We also have to get a leaving present for Reuben tomorrow as he disembarks early in Kuasdasi.

Zoran as the Crusader

Jorge Disembarking - Jeni, Jorge and Me

Costume & Shooter
Zoran the Crusader & Fabio

 

Smudge! Smudge! Smudge!

Smudge, Smudge, Smudge

21^st June 2011

Today we all had an early start. Mariner of the Seas is docked in Haifa, Israel and we needed to get a good image count. 

Haifa gangway is like a zoo, a madhouse! After Israel, things go to pot, our image counts, gallery purchases and profits go down the pan. The guests either tighten the grip on their wallets or run out of money from buying too much holy water, or both. 

This was the final push so we doubled up. Jeni was shooting the ring, I was on the rail and Stu was smudging for us both. David is the “new age” camel. Stu can no longer dress up as the camel because, according to Mike, he’s naturally too tall and wearing the camel’s head takes him up to something loopy like 7 foot. There’s too much of a gap between the guests and camel’s head. Shooting the camel was Fede.

Stu started smudging for me until I had a reasonable count while Jeni was struggling. He switched to Jeni to give her a hand. Reuben soon came over and started helping me smudge. During a quiet moment on the gangway he checked my images for faithful exposures and cropping. A mad rush came with everyone running around like headless chickens looking for their tour buses. Reuben started shooting and between us we smudged as much as possible. 

I’m far more comfortable smudging in Spanish. For some reason, I find it so hard in English. When speaking in Spanish I have no shame, naturally wave my hands around and speak louder (or shout) than I do in English. At one point Stu got a bit pissed at me for not smudging enough. Someone's always got to complain.

Towards the end of our four hour stint on gangway, Mike came out from the ship and told me to follow him. Reuben picked up the ring Jeni was using and carried it down to the opposite end of the ship. 

The ring was set up so the guests were close up foreground and the entire length (or 95%) of the Mariner of the Seas in the background. Some port agents apparently don’t allow you to go that far away from the ship if you’re working so Mike had to clear it with Israeli security first.

For the next hour and 15 minutes I was roasting in the Israeli sun like a chicken!! None of us bother slapping on suncream in Haifa as the ship always provides us with shade for the entire gangway stint. Big mistake! There was a small area of shade, provided by the terminal's roof ledge, that I was running to for refuge during breaks from guests getting off the ship. 

Stu came down with a bottle of water and to see how I was getting on. There was about 45 minutes left so he stood around keeping me company and doing the odd bit of smudging. Most of the time he took the pee out of my accent and how I say “photo”. He’s South African though… he isn’t one to talk!! Nowadays if I tell him to repeat “yes” or “off” in his thick South African accent, he tells me to fuck off!! Charming. I guess it does contain the word "off"...

The images I was getting were bloody good though so I took a couple of stock shot like images to put on the blog and send to the parents. Slowly but surely I was back to racking up more images.

Once gangway was over we all headed back onto the ship. Stu and I went upstairs for munch while the others went back to bed for a few hours. 

I had until 17.30 off so it was a chance for me to get my washing done. Borrowing Stu’s detergent I managed to get it all done relatively quickly! Sara (Mexico) the singer from Boleros said there’s a cheap supermarket nearby the port. Chucking my lights into the dryer and darks into a bag, I ran off towards my cabin to drop everything off. 

While charging down the I-95 I bumped into Jorge from Explorations! He was being transferred tomorrow to work in the Baltics and needed to bue a suitcase. We arranged to meet on the gangway in five minutes to find a suitcase and get some shopping in. 

Finding the suitcase was much easier than finding a supermarket. There are plenty of clothes, leather and delicatessen shops. Finally we found a supermarket that looked more like a garage from the outside. Everything was so much cheaper than in Europe so I made the most out of it, keeping in mind that I had to carry it all back to the ship. I finally managed to find washing detergent, a 3litre bottle of Persil for $6. In Europe it’d cost you an arm and a leg! Next time we need shopping, we’ll save it until we’re in Haifa.

Back on the ship I had a couple of hours to spare but didn’t quite know what to do with myself. Stu was now on his private tour with the large, Honeymoon family. Jeni was catching up on her beauty sleep. Hernan, Fede, Sandra and Eve were at the beach. I’d had enough sun for the day and decided against going to the beach. The last thing I needed was a lobster red body followed by shedding my skin like a snake!!

Making the most out of the time I jumped into bed for what was supposed to be an two hours and turned into three and a half. Gathering my stuff up I headed to Back Deck for a while. I’ve been a bit behind with my blog updates due to our hectic schedules.

When we are in port we can’t sell a lot of our products due to tax reasons. So today I was surprised when Reuben put me on table sale to sell cameras. Once everything was on the trolley to take up to Deck 11 we said we couldn’t sell anything until we were out of the port and asked what we were supposed to do. Reuben hadn’t realized that sail away was 22.00 and it was now 17.30. Either way, I had to set up and just promote what we had to offer. I had to turn a couple of people away as I couldn’t sell them a camera. 

During the evening, a guest came back to purchase a camera and mentioned my name so the commission would go to me. Someone else came back to the gallery and bought one from Stu. It’s kind of frustrating when you’ve pretty much sold a camera but can’t close and charge because you’re in port. It’s worse when they buy from someone else and you loose your minimal commission of $4

Reuben has also confirmed that he has a definite date as to when he’ll be leaving the ship. Our previous manager Jomar will be returning to the Mariner of the Seas from vacation. Reuben is being transferred to the Oasis of the Seas. Although Rueben likes the small team - Oasis of the Seas has 27 photographers while Mariner of the Seas has a team of 10 photogs - he’s pleased to be going to Oasis. Fantastic money, or so I'm told. Not many people can say they’ve been the manager to a team of photographers on the second biggest cruise ship in the world. Reuben will be disembarking in Kusadasi in three days. 

Good luck to him.

Smudger: Stu on the Rail (with half the Ring)

And there's the other half of the ring

David The Camel, Haifa (Israel)

Character & Shooter - David & Fede

Our BM Reuben

Reuben & Mariner of the Seas, Haifa (Israel)

Mike & Reuben - Sample Shot

The Set Up

Message from Miami

Message from Miami

20^th June 2011

Yesterday was a bit of a blur really. The only thing that I remember is the meeting we had, lasting a good couple of hours and finishing after 01.00. Mike, from Image, was talking about how our ship was doing, our performance statistics, how we can improve etc. 

While working in the gallery he was pointing out photos telling me what we should and shouldn’t be shooting. For example, at the Acropolis (Athens) there’s a certain area where we should stay and just get the same shot. “It has to be a consistent shot” he informed us. If we didn’t get the same consistent shot we wouldn’t sell anything. Rather than people looking for something unique they are looking for the same shot as everyone else? To me it didn’t ring true, but he's the one with the experience and knowledge under his belt.

During the meeting Mike said while we are dressed in costumes on gangway we have to act like the character we are portraying. If you’re a dolphin, we cannot speak to guests. One guy from another ship used to dress up as a bear and walk around talking to guests telling kids he was a talking bear etc. That’s no longer allowed as it’s unrealistic as bears can’t speak… well I never! We also have to exclude any modern poses if we are ancient characters, such as a Greek God giving the thumbs up! Some sounded a bit over the top but, oh well, rules are rules.

Now we are to have a Gallery Host who is there to welcome people to the gallery and help them find their prints etc. On some ships they are even dressed up in a costume. Mike is going to try and get us dressed up in the gallery depending on the event. So during 70’s night, the Gallery Host, should be dressed up in the relevant costume/clothing. Sounds like a good laugh! I’m up for that one!!

In short, the message from Miami was “do better”.

White Tent

White Tent

19^th June 2011

Some people were saying we wouldn’t and shouldn’t be stopping in Athens due to the demonstrations and riots going on. Against what has been voiced, we still arrived in Athens as planned. More demonstrations are planned for today and people were expecting violent protests like there have been for the past few days.

While working on the gangway, Jorge from Explorations! (the tours department), told us to be careful if we go out into the city, just in case we get caught up in any of the riots/demonstrations. Previously, according to Lee (remember we are stuck in a bubble where we don’t always know what’s going on in the real world) the ports had been closed off. Jorge said it was something to keep in mind in case the same thing happens again. Although he doubted it would happen today, you never know.

Getting kicked out off bed at 06.30 I had to wear the new Greek Goddess costume provided by Image. I’d tried it on the previous night and Stu did a bit of handy work pinning it in certain places. The costume was like a white tent on me!! Stu even had me bending down, lifting my arms up and out to make absolutely sure that nothing could pop out. The others girls here are smaller built than me so if I had room to spare than they’d bw sporting great big gaping holes. Once Stu had pinned the costume it didn’t look so bad but I still preferred the dress I’d been wearing for the last two visits. 

Going into Luci, I asked for her opinion. She liked the dress but agreed with me, my outfit was better. As Image wanted sample shots of the dress I had to wear it. One of Luci’s criticisms was that the dress was far too long and added that maybe I should take it to the tailor to be pinned up… bit late for that. Going into Stu he pinned the costume up again.

Stu in many senses had struck gold. During formal night he’d got talking to a large (and I mean large as in numerous) American family. They were going on a private tour in Athens. As they were talking Stu suggested they take a ship photographer with them. They’d have a private photographer for the day. They thought it was a great idea and wanted Stu to do the job. Spending most of his breaks from the stuido in the gallery or manager's office, Stuart was desperately trying to arrange something. At the last hour, something was planned by the looks of things. Every time I saw him, he had a phone stuck to his ear.

Later on, speaking to Stu, I found out that they are a family of twelve on Honeymoon. For a private photographer for the day, it'd cost them a staggering $700. Money wasn't an issue to the family. I nearly fell over when Stu told me, but I couldn't help smiling. He'd done a great job to get a private tour (it's not something I've seen or heard of before). No doubt he’s got some extra kudos from the BM to go along with his endless list of good comments.

Things in Athens were a little different this time. Normally, when I’m the Greek Goddess, Luci shoots me but as she’s been promoted to AMS, it’s out of the question – she has to be in the gallery. David was the one shooting me. Stu is usually the God but he was going on tour to the job got passed onto Hernan who has played the part a couple of times before. Sandra was shooting the rail but ended up coming back from the lab with the ring.   

Heading out to gangway, Hernan wasn’t around and guests were starting to come out. Stu and Fabio usually go up to the tour exit of the ship where it’s a lot more fast paced before joining Luci and I at the slower end. 

We normally get around the same shots but use different techniques. Stu has the personality and charisma to get people to stop, people are automatically drawn and love him. I’m not that way, so Luci taught me to just grab people, slinging my arm around their back or shoulder to pull them in for a photo. It works for me. 

Today as Hernan wasn’t out on the gangway and we didn’t know where the hell he was. David and I had to take his spot at the tour exit. We couldn't afford to let the tour guests go. Hernan finally got onto the gangway 20 minutes late. He’d been staying over at Eve’s and no one knew her cabin number to kick him out of bed or hurry the bugger up.

Smudging the guests going on tour was a lot harder than I’d previously imagined. I couldn’t really put my arm around them as they were all rushing to their tour bus as if it was going to leave without them – which it wasn’t! You try telling that to guests though! David and I were smudging like crazy but our image count wasn’t really going up. 

Finally, someone had their photo taken with me and a steady stream of guests followed suit. It’s strange, when one person has their photo taken, others follow. If the pattern breaks, someone refuses, the next will. It’s a domino effect. Once that happens, you have to smudge like crazy again to get someone in for a picture.

Later on, when the tour exit was closed we headed over to join Hernan and Fabio at the forward gangway. The sun was up and the temperature rising. Obviously the people dressed in costumes can’t wear sunglasses if it’s not part of the outfit. Hernan and I had been standing outside for about two hours without sunglasses. It’s incredibly bright outside anyway but the sun was also bouncing off the white ship making it even harder to keep our eyes open. There came a point where we were seriously struggling to keep our eyes open and not squint. Finally it became unbearable. Both teams were soon working together to trying and get people in for a photo. 

Being able to speak so many languages helps so much during gangway. Between the four of us were four languages, mostly provided by Fabio. Hernan and I speak English and Spanish, Fabio speaks English, Spanish, Italian and Brazilian Portugese while David only speaks English… unless you include Afrikaans. We were taking it in turns go back onto the ship for drinks and to get out of the sun.

At about 10.30 Fabio, Hernan and Sandra had to go in for a drill. David and I were the only ones excused from the drill. YES! Rather than the usual “Bravo Bravo Bravo” fire/ship’s sinking announcement the ship was doing a Charlie drill. It doesn’t happen very often but if you hear “Charlie Charlie Charlie” it’s because there’s a bomb on board or terrorist threat! 

Apparently a fake bomb/package had been hidden on board and each department had to search their area to find it. If your area has the hidden package and you miss it, you’re going to get a little more than just a slap on the wrists! 

For the next hour and a bit David and I were left on our own on gangway. The guests stopped trickling out and the heat was becoming unbearable. It wasn’t so much the heat but the humidity. At every chance I had I was hoisting my dress up to cool down! 

The Image costume was awful to wear. At least with my cotton dress it’s much cooler than the huge white polyester tent I’d been given. As I was smudging one of the pins on my dress came undone. I carried on, a little worried that something might get a lot more exposure than intended. One eye was on the guests coming out and the other was on my boob!! The costume has a banana neck line and the lower part was a way too low!! David came over, made a joke about putting my bits and bobs away while pinning the dress behind my back again. It was the third time they’d had to pin the dress back… not good, especially if there's a rush on.

Just as the sun was becoming unbearable Ritesh came out to see how we were getting on. He checked how many passengers were on board and called it quits ten minutes before we were due to go in. I don’t think we’ve ever been so happy to see Ritesh!

Popping up to the mess for something to eat I bumped into Regina. She asked if I was going out, which I was, so she said we'd meet in the photographer’s corridor. 

Waking Luci up as I walked into my cabin, she also asked if I was going out. When I said I was going shopping she jumped out of bed and scurried around getting her clothes on. She’s been complaining for weeks that she needs shampoo etc. By shopping I meant supermarket shopping… we aren’t lucky enough to go clothes shopping… we didn’t have long. That’s one for Rhodes and maybe Istanbul. 

It was a Sunday too so we weren’t sure what would be open. Walking around for an hour we soon realized that not even the superstores would be open. Making out way back to the ship there was only one thing on  our minds – sleep! I was desperate for washing powder as I had a stack of laundry to do but that would obviously have to wait. 

After Greece is Israel and no doubt I’ll be on tour so God knows where I’m going to get detergent and the time to do my laundry! Soon I’ll be going commando!!

Waking up from a well-deserved nap I headed over to the lab to fetch the prints. We were all on display. I needed more sleep and was desperately trying to keep my eyes open. After two hours of display I ran upstairs to the staff mess to get something for dinner before rushing downstairs to change into my evening uniform. I was shooting LSP and working the gallery for the night.

While getting ready I popped into Stu to see how the tour had gone. He had so many images it was untrue. It’s easy getting the image count when you have people who want their photo taken. The trouble we have is that most people either don’t want their photo taken or have to be enticed. Looking through some of the shots, he’d done a cracking job. I told Stu I was on LSP (his studio), his reply “have fun” (remember Stu’s South African so there’s no sarcasm involved whatsoever).

We have someone representing Image from Miami on the ship. None of the ships in Europe are doing particularly well and Mike (England) was here to find out why. While shooting LSP he came over to ask me a few questions. I was a bit nervous to say the least. He started playing around with my studio lights while I was trying to shoot a couple. Kind of annoying.

At the end of the night, I jumped in to the shower and pyjamas before grabbing my laptop to start blogging. It wasn’t long before Luci came into the cabin in a foul mood. She was having a rant and rave, her voice getting louder and louder. She was tired and fed up. Paco had left her a lot of shit to sort out and she was cracking up, to put it nicely. 

It wasn’t long before she had a go at me for making too much noise earlier on. I was in the corridor with Stu and Zoran and just having a giggle. It had woken her up. She told me we had no respect for her as she was trying to sleep etc etc. As hard as it was, I gathered my stuff up, told her to just get into bed and buggered off out the cabin. 

Going into Stu’s, which is turning into my refuge cabin, I explained what had happened and asked if I could sit in his typing for a while. I’d return to my cabin once it was safe to go in… basically when Luci had gone to sleep. Even my typing wakes her up and I couldn’t be bothered with getting my head bitten off or arguing at some ridiculous time in the morning. It wasn’t long before sleep got the better of both of us and I ended up drifting to sleep at Stu’s. 

Tomorrow was another sea day (casual) before the ship arrived in Haifa, Israel.