First Training Day

Sunday 3rd April 2011

Homewood Suites Hotel, Miami, Florida

21.30 (02.30 UK Time)

The first day of training was a pretty tough one. Mainly because we are all jet-lagged and The Image Group wanted to get the boring stuff out of the way. Neeedless to say, keeping our eyes open became the main goal!

First we covered what to do with chemical wastes, “Save our Seas” and “Respect Your Mother (Earth)”. "Respect your Mother" bought back a few memories of Swanley as we do the complete opposite! I had a bit of a tough time keeping a smile from sneaking across my face.

At about 2pm we practised shooting on the Gangway which is when the ship docks in a port and we photograph the passengers leaving the cruise ship. Someone will be dressed up in a costume such as a dolphin, sailor, pirate etc. For things like the "ring" or "rail" we practised smudging. A smudger is the person who ushers the passengers over to have their photograph taken.

Normally photog 1s tend to do the dressing up and smudging for the ring and rail, while the more experienced photographers take the photos. At the beginning practising gangway wasn’t so bad, we got to work on our tans and have a laugh!

We had to pair up with someone of the opposite gender and became couples. So, now the joke is that I have a Ukrainian husband as he’s stuck with me the longest. We’ll ignore the fact that I’ve been married four times and divorced 3 times within the space of three hours! I obviously move on quicker than Elizabeth Taylor!

We were told about the type of people we’d be photographing on the cruise ships: newlyweds, overly feds and nearly deads. Lovely! Approximately 80-95% of the passengers will be Americans. English people need to watch their sense of humours as the Americans don’t take kindly to sarcasm. That’s my sense of humour down the drain! Is there a local market or mall where I can purchase a new sense of humour?

…………………………………….

UPDATE

It’s now 23.50 (04.50 UK Time) and we’ve spent most of the evening sitting around the swimming pool, drinking beers and getting to know each other. To be fair, it’s not a bad crowd. The majority are English but there’s a large amount of people from Belarus. There are a couple of Ukrainians, one Argentinian, Spaniard (from Granada – small world), South African and Austrailian.

Earlier on I got told I had to move room as I was supposed to be sharing with someone and somewhere along the line I’d managed to get a room on my own. Not bad I thought. Wrong. I wasn’t too impressed as I’d unpacked most of my stuff so now I’m sharing with a rather wacky girl from Belarus whose name I cannot even pronounce let alone spell!

We have a presentation tomorrow where we have to introduce another member of the team. We have a list of approximately 10 bullet points we have to talk about. It all sounds very Asda. Anyway, the girl I’ve been teamed up with was supposed to meet me at 9pm and didn’t. I bumped into her on the way back to my hotel room and she’s asked if could meet her at 6am in the dining room so we can do some preparation notes. I’m not looking forward to getting up at 5am, I thought I was finished with all the ridiculously early starts the day I handed my notice in at Asda. I guess that’s just the way to cookie, unfortunately, crumbles.

Another shocker came today. The Image Group told us that we still didn’t have the job!! At the end of the training week we have to do an exam. If we failed, bye bye. If we pass and they think we aren't quite cut out for the job or “unsuitable” as they prefer to say, we’d also get sent home. Everyone has given up their jobs, some of us our tenancy and so on and travelled a minimum of 10 hours only to be told that we could still be sent home at the end of the week. 

Looking on the bright side, I’ve never been to America before so it’s an all paid for, all inclusive holiday. So far I think I did a good job today, especially smudging with Becks. We were the best in my opinion,  mainly because we were bouncing around, shouting our heads off, having a laugh and none of the managers had a bad word to say about our smudging skills.

Anway, I’d better get some beauty sleep, I’ve got bags under my eyes that could rival a 90 year olds!

Dad, I will try and call you on Skype tomorrow, if all fails, I’ll leave you a voicemail and try to find somewhere where calling cards are sold. Night night xxx