Cruising The Seven Seas: septiembre 2011

viernes, 16 de septiembre de 2011

Sign Off Date

Sign-Off Date!

6^th September 2011

The time has finally come and after much deliberation, I have my sign off date! It wasn’t necessarily the sign off date I was looking for, as I was hoping to extend until 27^th November. This wasn’t possible as Image had already scheduled me to return to work onboard Disney Wonder.

Jomar asked again if I’d be able to extend due to the prices of airfares to South America. Getting a flight from Galveston to Montevideo would be approximately $1,000 cheaper. After waiting days we finally heard back from Image. Yes, I could extend… but the extension would be taken out of my vacation. So after working seven and a months, I’d get about three weeks holiday? You must be joking...

During the drill yesterday, I was speaking to a lady from Crew Finance who is resigning and signing off in three weeks. I'd previously told her I didn’t have my sign off date. Jomar overheard and came over, announcing “I have your sign off date. The email came through the day before yesterday”. Thanks for letting me know!

Asking when I was signing off he gave one of his infamous, typical Jomar replies “I can’t remember the date but I know it’s in October”. Yeah, we knew I was leaving in October… it was the date that was the important part of it all. He told me to ask Reuben (who is replacing Jomar in a matter of hours) to get the email later on.

During the evening I popped into see if Reuben was in the office. He wasn’t, but Paco was. I asked if he could find the email with my sign off date. After five minutes searching Paco found the email. I was signing off on the 26^th October.

Looking at flights later on I found out it was very expensive to fly out of Rome. More than I'd originally thought. Maybe I can extend a few days to fly out from somewhere cheaper but it’ll be hard. Reuben’s sent some emails around to see if he can get me a cheap flight so fingers crossed I get a good price! Until then it’s just going to be a case of looking around…

Green Drill

6^th September 2011

For some reason important information isn’t always passed on to us, unless it’s the targets. At midnight we found out there’d be a green drill. There are three types of emergency cards – green, red and blue. Blue cards are mainly held by management. Only two people in the photography team have red cards and neither were scheduled to shoot gangway.

During the mornings training at 08.30 they shifted the schedule around a little. Zoran and Leandro would be on gangway. Hernan would be shooting in the evening which buggered his plans for the last Barcelona. The rest of us had to attend gangway and then head for the drill.

After the training, Sandra and I headed to the lab to pick up our equipment. Normally we’d keep it in the cabin but due to an inventory check it had to be left in the lab overnight.

Sandra was shooting the rail which had to be taken from Tween Deck (-1) to Deck 4. Finally getting through the water tight doors, we got the rail to the photographer’s corridor. Just as we were ready to go there was an announcement “in 15 minutes the crew will be participating in a weekly mandatory drill”.

Thinking about it, we had to carry the rail up eight flights of stairs to get to Deck 4, get through security, across the connection bridge from the ship to the terminal and set up. There was no point. As soon as we’d have got there, the emergency signal would’ve gone off and we’d have to carry the rail back down again.

Ritesh walked into the cabin and asked why we weren’t on gangway. We explained but he said we had plenty of time to get out and take photos. Just before he left he said to me “we’ll talk about this later”. As soon as he left the corridor another announcement was made “Bravo. Bravo. Bravo. Deck 1. Fire Zone 4. Portside.” Both Sandra and I had to get to the 5^th floor so we made our way up the stairs. Five minutes after getting to our emergency points the alarm sounded.

All in all, the drill took nearly two hours. Returning back to the cabin we had 10 minutes until gangway was over. Like I said before, there was no point taking the rail up as we’d have to turn back around again and most of the guests had already left the ship.

Going down to the office we saw Jomar for the last time. He was being transferred to Navigator of the Seas and Reuben would be taking his place as the BM.

Sanela popped into the cabin to ask if she could talk to me. She’s been down lately because of things that have been happening within the team. We sat around talking for well over an hour. Nipping up, we had something to eat and then back down to the cabin. She was still letting off steam as well as trying not to cry. Shocked, frustrated, hurt and angry were the words that kept getting repeated and she had a damn good reason for it too. I can’t go into details about what happened but let’s just say that what happened to her was a huge humiliation and completely inhumane!

Sandra had left to go to La Sagrada Familia. I’d have gone with her but I really didn’t have time as I was on set up. Sanela didn’t want to go into her cabin and face Camila. Leaving the door on the lock, I headed out to go to the shops leaving her watching TV.

The washing machines on board have munched a couple of pairs of my underwear so there was a pit stop at H&M. I only went in for underwear and came out with undies and two pairs of pyjama bottoms that look more like cotton joggers. Oh well, at least I have something baggy and comfy to wear while dossing around on the ship.

While walking back I had to get some bits and bobs for the cabin in Carrefour. Our drainage system is playing up again (nothing new there) and we’d run out of aerosol. We have a timed smelly diffuser – a real must have when the drains kick up such a stink you’ll run out the cabin gagging!!! Finally our cabin smell like roses – literally!

Back on the ship and it was time for work. Looking out the window, I really wanted to have more time off so I could go out and about in Barcelona. There’s so much to see with so little time. You could spend a week there and only scratch the surface of Barcelona.

Just as we were closing the gallery Ritesh called me into the office. My “excuse” for being “late” for gallery was “unacceptable” and apparently I could have been shooting on gangway for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Gangway opened at 10am and drill started at 10.15. You do the maths. Either way, nothing that I said would change his mind. A lot was said and there was very nearly an argument. As I was apparently 45 minutes late for gangway, I got a log. Three logs for the same thing and it’s a warning. I didn’t agree with the log so I wouldn’t sign. Ritesh told me to add my comments, laughing as if I was a prat, adding “but you will sign”. In the end I gave up, wrote my comments and signed. He asked if I’d signed. I said “yes, I’ve signed my comments” before walking out the door.

The more I see, the more I believe Jomar was right. Only difference now is, Jomar isn’t around and no doubt things are going to get much, much worse before they get any better!!

Photos from previous Barcelonas.

Hernan and I

Sandra at Parc Guell, Barcelona, Spain

Parc Guell Ginger Bread House Cum Gift Shop

Parc Guell Plaza

Hermanastros

Our House...

Hernan

Sandra

Parc Guell, Barcelona, Spain

Parc Guell on a Relatively Quiet Day

Hernan

Low

5^th September 2011

Waking up I felt like hell. My face was stiff and it felt like I’d been in the ring with Mike Tyson. I was still down and upset about the night before. Putting on my make up for Lady Corsica, I tried to perk myself up by thinking positively. It didn’t help much. Looking in the mirror, I was ready to do. Lady Corsica with big puffy eyes. Brilliant.

Going onto gangway we had plenty of “Gia Fattos” from Italian guests and it was grating on us all. It was becoming a joke within the team. Counts were going up slowly. I had a smile plastered across my face but I wasn’t in the spirit. I couldn’t dance around, smudge etc. My mind was elsewhere. Where? I have no idea. Going in for a break, I sat speaking to Fabio (shooter). Going outside I was feeling a bit better so, we had a run around catching guests. One guy even picked me up and through me over his shoulder!

Gangway was over and it was the first time Lady Corsica hadn’t reached her target. That took me back down to another low. We’d been working hard to get the targets up without splitting the couples. Not splitting made everything so much harder.

If you don’t reach the target or go over it, you have to make up the numbers elsewhere. I’d let the team down and someone else would have to make the counts up. Next gangway, instead of having a 500 target it’d be 650 which would take some serious work.

Once out the shower, I grabbed my stuff and headed out. I wanted to be alone for a bit. Going to the usual place where we use the internet in Corsica, I sat down updating the blog, surfing the net and checking for flights. I still don’t have my sign off date but, I want a rough idea as to how much it’ll burn a hole in my pocket.

Right now, I just wish I could get on a plane and fly away. Second contracts aren’t on my mind at the moment. The only thing that is on my mind is trying to finish my first with a minimal amount of fuss. Will I do another contract though? We’ll see.

Raining on the Red Carpet

4^th September 2011

It’s our last gangway in Cannes, France and it would also be a formal night so getting another chance to have a walk around the city was slim to none. Zoran and I were the first out for gangway, we even managed to jump on the first tender for security only. Normally we missed it but for once were ready at 06.30.

The weather was terrible! The sky was grey and the thick clouds were rolling in. You could see the rain pouring over the island across from Cannes. We were hoping it would come over our way. A gangway in the rain with guests walking across a soggy red carpet could be fun. On the other hand, we knew that the majority of the guests on this cruise wouldn’t stop to have their photo taken if their hair was getting wet!!

I was dressed up as a sailor with Zoran shooting me. Alex the dolphin and Fabio would be along later. There really wasn’t enough space on the short, narrow gangway for two costumes. If things got too busy Zoran and I had agreed with the other two that we’d go up into the car park and chase after the guests. From the car park there’s a great view of the sea, island and ship.

We had strict orders too. No splitting couples up like usual as the sales rate was low compared to the image count. The sailor would go first on the gangway as the dolphin was a much cuter option and most likely to get the most counts. The target was 500 each character and the only people we could split we the South African guests (we had two large groups of them totalling to 220) and children.

Ritesh had also given me strict orders to keep my sailor pants up!! The pants were way too big for everyone. He said he refused to print "75% of the images as my underwear was exposed". Slight over exaggeration but there we go. I was told to wear white shorts underneath which I didn’t have so he’d have to settle with my grey and black cow pyjama shorts!! Finally we had to get a clear background in every photo. No guests passing behind – that would be a difficulty and a half.

It wasn’t long until Jomar made an appearance on the gangway. He told us Reuben was supposed to be signing on today rather than in Barcelona. Jomar could see how hard we were smudging and how little we were getting in return. By 11 Zoran and I had our target. We decided to stay a little longer to help Fabio and Alex out. We left 30 minutes later with an extra 50 shots. Maybe we’d have done better if it didn’t keep raining. On two occasions we had to stop shooting because it got too heavy.

On the tender and the bottom of my pants were soaked along with my trainers. I had no way of drying my trainers either.

Back on the ship we headed up for something to eat before going back to the cabins. Both of us were shattered. We had three hours to sleep before formal night and we were planning to use it wisely!

This would be the only formal night on this six day cruise so we thought it’d be incredibly busy. We were wrong. If it wasn’t for the South African group of 142 we’d have been screwed. They were queuing up at Zoran’s studio on Deck 5. My studio was down on Deck 3 instead of Deck 5. Someone had set it up badly and on the wrong deck.

The tripod head was missing from the production draw and I knew I’d left it there last week. In the end I had to set up and shoot without a tripod. By the end of the night my wrist was in agony. My counts weren’t as high as they should have been and I missed my 500 target by a long shot. Maybe I’d have hit it if I was on Deck 5 but with a deck filled with Italians it was impossible. One thing was for sure, I didn’t try to maximize my counts by over shooting. I kept to what Image wanted 3 shots when it’s busy and 5 if it wasn’t. Some people were coming down with 8 to 10 shots per couple. That was an over shoot on epic proportions and most likely to be the reason why our sales rates were down compared to the image count.

After a long night I popped into the lab with my camera bag. Opening the gladiator I bent down to out the camera inside. At the back of the gladiator and in the corner was the tripod head. Pulling it out I showed it to a few people. The main question was “how did it get there?” If it was attached to a camera, it’d still be attached. I remember giving Sanela’s camera back without a tripod head and putting it in the production draw.

Ritesh saw me holding the tripod head and all hell broke out. Coming over with a huge grin on his face he asked where I found it. When I explained me said “see, you didn’t put it in the production draw. You need to take more responsibility.” I tried to explain that I had left if in the production draw. Sanela backed me up saying I’d taken the tripod head off in front of her when I gave her the camera back and put it in the production draw. That was that. Ritesh went nuts at us, me in particular.
Are you trying to blame someone for your carelessness?
Who are you trying to blame?
When I said I’m not blaming anyone, just telling him I didn’t shove it in the gladiator, things got worse. “Hey little Miss, don’t give me your bad attitude. Fuck man, you’re in the wrong. Who are you trying to blame? Tell me. You need to be more responsible and change your attitude. It’s not my problem or responsibility, it’s yours!”

Next he stood there laughing, trying to make me look like a royal twat in front of everyone. Turning to him I told his the truth “I’m not giving you attitude. This isn’t attitude but I’m getting sick and tired of you trying to make me look like an idiot in front of everyone, taking the piss and laughing at me. I told you, I didn’t put the head in there. You think I did, fine. Nothing I say will change that, so think what you like”. Heading to the door he called me “Fuck man! Don’t walk away from me when I’m talking to you, Miss”. I’d had enough of the patronizing shit so I carried on, ignoring him. Ritesh can kiss my ass!

I’d finally had enough. Jomar was right about one or two things he’d said to me, and it was starting to show. I was dubious at first but now, I’m sure Jomar is right.

Sitting in the cabin, I burst into tears and wanted to call the parents. There was no point calling them if all I was going to do is cry. Getting ready for bed I quickly closed the curtains before the others came into the corridor. I didn’t want to see anyone. Something tells me that things aren’t going to get better any time soon. What I can do about it, I really don’t know.

Photos from the infamous return gangway... I got attacked by Hernan!

Lookie-Lookie!

Getting Attacked by Hernan

Going Down!

Kicked while Down!

Hernan Showing Off His Wrestling Moves

Sanela, Sailor and Hernan.

Just when I thought it was safe...

The Bitch Bites!

martes, 13 de septiembre de 2011

Beginning of a Final Chapter

2^nd September 2011

It’s the beginning of my final chapter on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas. We’re on our final all European Union cruise. The previous six cruises, were seven days, the last will be only six days. Afterwards we’ll be returning to our original itinerary. The Italians will be gone along with the extortionate 20% tax. Americans, Canadians, British and South Americans dominate the scene again. For the team it’s better. Although we’ve learnt the necessary Italian, the dominators were obviously Fabio and Sandra who speak the language fluently. When we get back to the two week cruises there’ll be guests for all the team.

Sandra was on morning sale. She’d been asking Jomar to let her do morning sale for a long time. If you’re on morning sale you tend to finish at 09.00-09.30 and then you’re off until 17.00. Once she’d finished she grabbed her stuff and started the long journey to Rome. No one else in the group had been to Rome. As Civitavecchia is our home port and getting time off on embarkation day is nearly impossible - unless you’re scheduled for morning sale, of course. If you jump on the fast train to Rome it’ll take about an hour to get there. I couldn’t wait to see her photographs!

I was finally back shooting!!! Embarkation isn’t my favourite thing to shoot but at least I was back taking photographs. We had our usual three backdrop set up in the terminal and things were going well.

I had to bash on Zoran and Fabio’s door to get them out of bed. They’d both woken up early, turned the alarm off and fell back to sleep rather than going out. Zoran was embarkation leader.

Half way through the day Alex came over and asked if we knew a particular person. It was Dorel from Miami HQ. He wasn’t supposed to arrive until tomorrow so it was a bit of a shock seeing his embarkation photo on the pentab.

Troubles soon came our way in the form of M&R. One of the Italians working on the arrivals desk had complained about us photographers. Guests were queuing up to have their embarkation photograph taken. It wasn’t a long queue, maybe about 10 people. She told everyone to walk straight through and head to the ship. We didn’t just lose 10 photos, we lost a whole lot more, as the people who’d just cleared arrivals refused to have their picture taken. It was a mess.

Somehow the Italian managed to get M&R’s attention. As soon as she waltzed into the terminal we knew we were in for trouble. Looking around she said there were way too many people bustling around and that the guests had no space to move. A slight over exaggeration. We had to dismantle the middle studio.

Taking a look at Spa’s promotion table she decided it was in the way too. She moved the table into a spot where no one would see it. Going outside, Denise from Spa was fuming. She’d been standing for an hour and decided to sit down for a while. We warned her that La Bruja would be back but she either didn’t believe us or didn’t care. Not long after we’d told her, M&R came back through the terminal doors. Straight away she spotted Denise and had a moan at her for sitting down. Her table then got moved again. And then again… back to its original spot.

Alex soon came under La Bruja's fire. Apparently he was standing too far away from the backdrop with the camera and pentab. She said he didn’t need that much space to take a photograph and told him to move forward. Alex, the poor sod, didn’t know what to make of it all, he’d never met M&R before and got a royal shock when he did!

With embarkation over, I took some equipment down to the lab. None of what had been taken down beforehand had been put away. It had all been left to me. I was supposed to finish at 17.00 but by the time I’d put everything away and sorted some bits and bobs out for tomorrow’s embarkation it was closer to 18.00. I was not impressed.

Ritesh wasn’t impressed with me either. I’d left a lot of stuff in the camera bags for tomorrow. All we’d have to do is throw in the camera, pentab and Quantum batteries. No, that wasn’t good enough. It ALL had to be put away and then repacked tonight. It didn’t make sense but biting my tongue I did as I was told… even though I knew I’d have to come back after work to pack it all again.

During the evening in the gallery Dorel came over to say hi. He said I was quiet and didn’t remember me that way. Dorel was here for two reasons. The first and main reason was to find out why our ship was doing so badly. We kick arse when it comes down to embarkation and gangway but our portrait and ressi counts are low. The most important thing about it all is that our sale percentage is down.

Personally, I didn’t care if our counts were low as long as our sales rates were up but the office wanted both – obviously. I’ve always worked on the quality over quantity principle. Like I’ve said before, I may not be the fastest shooter in Ressi and studio but I try to make sure everything is perfect and therefore more sellable.

I finished at 23.30 but there was a meeting in the office at 00.15. Using the time wisely I had my one-to-one meeting with Dorel. We went up to the guest library on deck 7. I’d never been there before. Sitting down I was asked how my first contract was going. I was asked one question that took me by surprise. New hires had been complaining to the office that senior photographers hadn't been helping or training them. I had plenty to say on the subject, but it was the complete opposite to what other new hires had been saying.

Stuart took me under his wing and trained the living daylights out of me; smudging, “thinking outside the box that the box is in” as he put it, tipping and tossing chairs around in the studios, dealing with guests and even my cropping when I first came.

Jeni taught me a huge amount when we were at the Acropolis (Greece). I had no luck getting guests to have their photo taken. She just ran up to them telling them to move in shouting “photo, photo, photo”. Her smudging on tours taught me a lot. Let’s not forget her Ressi techniques either.

Luci got on my case so much on gangway. “Just grab them” and it worked wonders once you’d got past the initial discomfort of it all. Luci was the one who taught me how to smudge in costume along with Stu, they both used different techniques.

Lee, well, for the short time he was there he taught me a huge amount about the gallery. He also helped me a lot of studio work, cropping, set ups and getting people into the studio. Lee was also the person who took me into Ressi the first time and showed us how to approach a table. The biggest help, for me, was Lee telling me about life on ships. You go into ship life as blind as a bat! Looking back it was great to have an experienced person’s advice.

More questions were asked and the meeting went on until 00.30. Realising the time we headed back down to deck 3 and into the office where the meeting had just started.

This would be our last meeting with Jomar. It lasted a lot, lot longer than usual, mainly because Dorel was here. Going around the room he asked each and every one of us where we thought we could improve. It was my turn and Jomar said “you’re the best seller in the team. You’ve sold the most 15 packages. Tell the others some tips on how to sell it.” It was quite hard to explain. I’ve lived and worked with people that sell houses, holiday rentals etc. so it comes relatively naturally. One thing my Dad had taught me was to focus on how much of a discount the clients/guests were getting. I suggested to everyone, before telling anyone the final price, to focus on how much they are getting in the deal and how much they are saving. For me it works. I’m not the greatest at selling GTPs but I tend to match the GTP sales (price wise) with the 15 packages (which also cost half the price). I can match it. It might be more work but I know I’m more than capable of doing so.

Sandra was asked how she sells so many DVDs – she’s the number one DVD seller. She said her one advantage is that she’s watched the DVD before and knows what’s included whereas the rest of us have only seen a couple of clips here and there. Movie night was going to be put on the agenda. We were going to set up the projector one night in the corridor and watch a copy of the DVD so we knew what we were selling. Obviously it would help a great deal!!!

By the time we were finished it was past 2am. Needless to say, we were shattered but sat around in the corridor for a while having a beer chatting before heading off to bed.

Winner!

1^st September 2011

September has arrived! Hernan and I have approximately six weeks left. It seems quite remarkable. I can still remember the day we arrived on the ship. The time has flown by and comparing to where we were, we’ve both come along way. Hernan is now one of the fastest shooters while I’m one of the best sellers. I still need to speed up in my ressi and studio work but having said that, looking through my photos, the quality is far better than most. I take my time to make sure everything is perfect while the others shoot more for the counts. Now I just need to perfect speed with quality. I have a feeling my counts will go up once we get into the two week cruises where there are more English and Spanish speaking guests.

Knowing we’ll be leaving soon is proving to be quite hard to get our heads around. Mine especially. I’ve made some great friends here and it’ll be sad leaving, especially as I know I won’t be returning to the Royal Caribbean any time soon. David, for example, won’t be coming back for a third contract so who knows if, or when, we’ll see him again. I’ve spent a long time with Hernan, from training to our first contract and possibly we’ll be together at Disney training but it’s going to feel strange not having my Hermanastro around. Whitney’s asking me to try and get an extension as most of her friends are leaving in October (Hernan, Fabio, me and David out of the photographers).

Back to today. It’s the sea day before the guests disembark in Civitavecchia. Getting up at 10 with a God awful back ache I made my way up to Back Deck for an hour to type up some blog entries. It wasn’t long until the Laundry guys came up for their break and joined me.

I was due in the gallery at one. Leaving them I ran upstairs to the staff mess for something to eat and boy, was the food crap today. Most people were having sandwiches, desserts or salads for lunch. It’s a good diet I guess! Whitney, Ashleigh and Eve from Spa came over to join me.

Running back downstairs I quickly changed into my uniform and slapped some eye shadow and mascara on before charging up the stairs to the gallery.

Checking the sales report, Zoran was in the lead and just selling another GTP. The GTPs are slow going this cruise simply because of the price going up and 20% tax. He’d sold three, Fabio and Sandra one. I had a lot of catching up to do. Selling GTPs really wasn’t my strong point. I constantly set the guests up for an upgrade though. My strongest package is The 15. Guests nearly always have more than 15 they want to take home, so it's easy to upgrade them to the GTP. Next cruise I’m going to start going straight in for the GTP package and see how it goes.

Before I knew it, I’d sold three of The 15 packages. One family of 7 took forever to close! While talking to the family of seven, I sold one lady two folio packages costing a grand total of $239.80 – nearly a 15 package. Later on, the family of seven came back and bought another 15 package from me. Goal!!

Checking the sales reports again I was in the lead but Fabio was doing his best to catch up and he wasn’t far behind.

Towards the end of the night, I went over to Fabio who was stacking images. The gallery was quite. Putting my arm around him, I let Fabio know I was firmly in the lead… for once. He was not amused. We have competitions and bets every week. There are always little jibes but it’s all in good nature. The last thing I expect was for Fabio to bite my head off saying it was unfair. Fabio told me he’d sold the family of seven their 15 package but I’d charged it. Bullshit! I spent ages talking to the family, helping them find their photos and closing the sale. As they’d dealt with me the first time they came back to me for the second 15 package. All Fabio did was sort out a reprint for them. How did that could as selling anything to them? When I asked Fabio that, he simply replied “because it does. I sold it to them”. He was really pissed off.

Walking away, leaving him still telling me it was all unfair, I went and stood behind the desk. Sandra was doing a digital search. I told her what Fabio had said and she shook her head coming to the same conclusion I had. If he’s winning, it’s all good and he can poke as much fun as he likes. We all take it with a smile and next time we try to do better. Now the tables have turned, he doesn’t like being the loser.

My shift finished at 22.30 and checking the sales report once more I was $1,300 in the lead. The gallery was dead. Checking up the next day and I was still firmly in the lead. Let’s see if I can keep it up for next week! For this week... I am, officially, the winner!

Planning Ahead - Fail!

Planning Ahead – Fail!

31^st August 2011

Our seven day cruises are finally coming to an end. Palma de Mallorca is the last port of call, tomorrow is a sea day and afterwards the guests will be disembarking in Civitavecchia. This is our last time stop in Palma de Mallorca. The next cruise will consist of six days.

We’ve only been into Palma de Mallorca city once so Sandra and I wanted to make the most of our time left and have another wander around. Before we could do that Sandra and I were decked out in our Spanish flamenco dresses. Zoran and Sandra headed out onto the gangway while Fabio and I took the Savoy Theatre.

Things started off really slowly but after about 30 minutes, started to pick up. The Italians didn’t want their photos taken saying the usual “Gia fatto” (they’ve already had their photo taken - bullshit). As they were coming out the Lotus Lounge I positioned myself at the bottom of the stairs and literally started throwing my arms around the guests so they had no choice but to have their photo taken. It’s the best way of getting the stubborn guests in for a photo.

Fabio and I were darting in between the stairs coming down from the Lotus Lounge (Deck 5), Savoy Theatre entrance and exit which was at the other side of the theatre. We were all over the guests like a rash. It was gone 10 o’clock by the time we made it onto gangway and we had 280 images. Our target was 250 each but all of us agreed to stay on to get 300.

Zoran and Sandra obviously had less than us as the gangway is slower but they’d done a bloody good job. They had 180 images. Luckily for all of us La Bruja wasn’t about to keep her ridiculous rules in force. We replaced Zoran and Sandra so they could have a break. They needed one too. It was so humid outside, especially in our costumes.

Guests were passing saying they didn’t want their photos taken. I was on the lookout for someone I knew would have their photo taken or could be easily grabbed. As a couple of guests passed, Fabio called over “jump in”. There was a little girl walking along so I quickly stepped in everyone’s way and put my arm around her. With a cheesy grin and a snap of the shutter release button, I moved onto the next person. Then the train of people started. All I had to do was say "hi" and put my arm up for them to walk straight into. Piece of cake. It wasn’t long until my arm was aching from lowering and raising it so many times.

When Zoran and Sandra emerged from the ship we had 405 images. With the images from both photographers we’d smashed our target. We told Zoran to go back into the ship as we were all done, but he wanted to stay out and get his 300. About twenty or thirty minutes later Zoran and Sandra came back into the corridor. They’d hit their target within no time.

Zoran, Sandra and I popped up to the mess for something to eat before getting ready to go out. Fabio had already collapsed into bed. Zoran decided to do the same.

Jumping on the shuttle Sandra and I headed into the city. The cathedral there is massive but it was too crowded to visit, we'd run out of time too quickly. All the ships in the port had tours going on which made it pretty hectic. We took a couple of photos before heading off.

We had an email to send to Image, so were looking for somewhere with wifi. Normally it’s easy to find but in Palma de Mallorca, it’s not the case. In the end we found the restaurant we ate in on our first trip to Palma and used the wifi there.

I’ve had two quotes from international removal services and the prices are worlds apart. £166 and £580. There’s not a huge amount to move from England to Uruguay but there’s enough. Just before leaving I had a look at Iberia flight prices from Rome to get a rough idea as to how much I’d be paying. The prices were astronomical!! $2,688 for a one way ticket! You must be joking!

Time was ticking and we needed some well-deserved sleep before formal night. Heading back towards the shuttle bus we stopped off in a couple of souvenir shops. Of course, I had to pick up a magnet! Looking around I found a little something to send to the parents in Uruguay. Just as I was heading to the checkout Sandra called me. She’d found a cow mug. It even had a bell on the front with “Milk” across it. If anyone knows me, they’d know that I couldn’t resist buying it!! A cow Palma de Mallorca mug to match my cow pyjamas... What a sad case!

Back on the ship and within no time we were tucked up in bed for a couple of hours kip.

Formal night went really slowly. Deck 3 was also the quietest level. Usually, it's the opposite. Ritesh was 15 minutes late for the meeting. Jomar couldn't help but laugh at Ritesh's hypocrisy after he had a go at three of us for being 5 minutes late the previous formal night.

While everyone was shooting Ressi during the second seating, I was in the gallery. I managed to sell a 15 package while the rest of my time was spent condensing. As I was condensing the Lady Corsica photos, a women was talking to her friend behind me. Her daughter had had her photo taken with Lady Corsica and they were looking for the print. “Oh yeah, the girl just threw her arm over her (daughter) shoulder and forced her to get her picture taken”. It’s a good job my back was turned to them but I couldn’t help smiling to myself. What a great comment!

Popping into the office to speak to Jomar I told him about the flight prices and asked if he had my sign-off date. He’s heard nothing from Image. Typical. He told me I could extend my contract and get a cheaper flight from Texas. The catch was that the extension would come out of my vacation. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. First I can extend, then it’s denied and now I can extend but the additional two – two and a half weeks will come out of my vacation. What part of that seemed logical or fair? My vacation was already being cut short by one week because of going to Disney World for training. If it was cut more I’d be losing 3-3.5 weeks out of six. Some of their rules seem to be made up as they go along.

Just as I was leaving I asked Jomar if I could go back to shooting. He said he’d schedule me for some shooting but didn’t want my wrist to get over worked and sprained again.

Setting up my studio, Zoran came over to talk to me. Camila had caused a scene in both ressi sessions. Apparently she went into hysterics because Zoran denied her help as she went into ressi 30 minutes early and he wanted to finish his side by himself. So, Zoran told her to wait by the dining room door and photograph any guests entering. Second session she did something similar, closing her studio early and taking Sandra’s side of the dining room where it was practically all Italians. Nothing had been swapped around at the last minute, the dining room set up had been planned at the meeting.

At one point in the third session, a guy tried taking a photograph of the people I was posing in my studio. Putting my hand out to block the photo I told him he couldn’t take photos with his own camera in the studio. He flew into a rage, screaming and shouting at me. There were three Italian couples waiting to be photographed and one couple told him that I was the one taking photos so of course, he couldn’t use his own camera. He didn’t listen and carried on ranting. I told him to leave my studio which just infuriated him even more. Taking my picture he said he was going to put in a complaint at Guest Relations and stormed off.

Looking at the guests in the queue and there were only two couples left. They gave me a sympathetic smile before walking off. Now my studio was empty. Telling the others what had happened, all I was told was “next time call security”. That’s a lot of help. How do I get to a phone when I have a guy screaming and shouting at me in my studio? “Please wait there while I go and make a phone call to security”? Alone in my studio and everything had finally taken its toll – I burst out crying. I couldn’t help it so busied myself looking through the previous sessions photos on the pentab.

At the end of the night I was shattered and emotionally drained. I wasn’t the only one. Sandra was exactly the same and had also been in tears. Why? Neither of us know. All she said was, she’s drained and frustrated with things. What should have been a good day turned into a real upper and downer day. Tomorrow’s are final day of this cruise so hopefully things will go better.

Flamenco Dancer

Lou and Sandra - Flamenco Dancers, Palma de Mallorca

Whitney!!

Whitney, Me and Ashleigh

Palma de Mallorca (Sandra's Photo)

Sandra and Lou

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Sandra

domingo, 11 de septiembre de 2011

Zoran's Dream Come True!!

Zoran’s Dream Come True!

30^th August 2011

There’s one good thing about having training at 8.30 in the morning, every Barcelona… it gets you out of bed. If we didn’t have the training, we’d all sleep in late. None of us were sure where to go after the training. Some of the guys had to go out on gangway.

Sandra and I managed to wake up late for training. Neither of our alarms went off. Alex, the new hire, called us from the gallery to check where we were. After training we were getting ready to go out and managed to fall asleep. I did put my alarm on and it went off – typical. Whitney called and woke us up again. The knock on the door woke us up for the third time! We couldn’t keep our eyes open.

Going up to the mess with Whitney we had something to eat and had a chat about where we could go. It was the penultimate Barcelona so we had to make the most of what little time we had left.

Back in the corridor Hernan and Sandra wanted to go to La Sagrada Familia. Zoran came into the cabin and asked who wanted to go to Barcelona football stadium. Hell yeah!! I’d already been to La Sagrada Familia and from what Sandra and David told me the stadium sounded like a great place to visit.

In the end Zoran, Hernan, Sandra, Alex and me headed out into Barcelona. I finally managed to get my brother’s birthday present in the post… only two days after his birthday - better late than never I guess!! We hopped on the train and strolled along to the stadium.

On the train - Me, Sandra and Alex

Barcelona stadium didn’t look as grand as I thought it would. I’ve previously been to the Chelsea football and Twickenham rugby stadium and they were immense pieces of modern architecture. This stadium seemed old and more like it belonged to a small-time football team rather than one of the best in the world. Zoran however was in his element! He was going nuts – it was like all Zoran’s Christmases and birthdays had all come at once!

Campo Nou - Me, Hernan, Zoran and Alex. Barcelona (Spain)

Zoran and Hernan

Standing outside the stadium we all had our photos taken before going in to buy the tickets. Sandra wasn’t going in again as she’s already visited the place. Alex wasn’t going either because he had no idea who Barcelona FC were. He’d never heard of the football team. This left us with our mouths dragging our ankles. So Hernan, Zoran and I coughed up the €22 entry fee – it might sound expensive but it’s something you’re only going to do once. Plus, when we went inside we found out it was well worth the money.

Zoran was a little too excited!

We got our Tickets - Campo Nou - Barcelona FC Football Stadium

Inside we skipped the museum and got to the most important part – the pitch. Running up the stairs to get a good view we started snapping away taking endless amounts of pictures. Zoran was estatic. Showing us his arm was covered in goose bumps, his hair standing on end.

Of course we had to have one of Hernan’s famous bum photos! Climbing to the top of the stadium both Zoran and Hernan dropped their pants enough so that when they lifted their arms to put them around either other their bare white arses were exposed. I had to unfortunate job of taking the photo whilst rolling up laughing!! There was also a licking of the nipple but we won’t go into that!

Mes Que Un Club

After spending about half an hour or more by the pitch we went back inside to have a look around the museum. Zoran grabbed my Nikon D90 and started photographing everything and by “everything”, I mean everything! The trophies were unbelievable. There were a couple which were half my height (5’1). They must have weighed an utter tonne. There was a golden football trophy and even a golden football boot. Finally prising my camera out of Zoran’s hands I managed to take a couple of photos including some of the information that was provided with the trophies/photographs.

I got a photograph that I think my Dad would highly approve of. There was a huge trophy which Barcelona won in 2005-06 in the Champion’s League. The match was played in Paris and Barcelona beat Arsenal 2-1 in the finals. As my Dad’s a die-hard Tottenham Hotspur supporter, I thought it’d only been appropriate to record that little piece of history for him.

Another piece of info that I came across was what was put across as Barcelona’s “Struggle with History”. It was about the football club during the Civil War. Here’s what it said:

“Commitment to Justice and Democracy

FC Barcelona was committed to social, political and cultural reform, initiated by the Republican Catalan government. The official club newsletter in October 1932 made the club’s position clear: “Our club’s popularity includes elements that are not related to sport”. Participation in political and cultural acts formed part of this commitment.

At the beginning of the Civil War, the club’s employees were faced with the threat of having FC Barcelona taken from them, prompting them to make an important committee decision that ultimately saved the organization. The committee demonstrated its firm resolve not to break away from its pre-war leadership.

The 1930s were marked by political instability and general crisis, which inevitably took its toll on FC Barcelona. During this decade, the club endured many cataclysmic events, which included its founder’s death, the Second Spanish Republic, the Second Civil War and the assassination of its president, Josep Sunyol. In summary it was a period characterised by uncertainty which saw a reduction in membership and cancellation of some players’ contracts.”

Heading down the stairs, we went past a green-screen (I think that’s what it’s called) where two photographers were posing people for their photo. They were then digitally imposed onto an image where they are standing next to and posing with one of the football players. The photos looked fantastic.

Walking past we walked through the conference room where there was another photographer taking photos of people lifting or standing next to one of the many enormous trophies.

Next we snaked our way into the changing rooms which were huge. Half was lined with lockers. On the opposite side were two therapy beds and on the far end a Jacuzzi big enough for about 5 people. There was also a white board of the football pitch for the coach to use.

Hernan and Zoran in the Changing Rooms

Game Strategy

Carrying on we finally arrived at the edge of the football pitch. Looking up the rows of seats seemed endless. Standing at the bottom looking up, allowed you to see the true scale of the stadium and it was by far the biggest I’ve ever seen. Again we pranced about taking photos and having a look around.

Tunnel to the Football Pitch

Message to Zoran's Friends in Croatia

Heading upstairs again we went into the commentators box. Of course we had to get some more photos and Zoran was still like a kid at Christmas.

Zoran in the Commentators Box

Commentator's Box

Walking down the snaking slope towards the exit, we had a great view of the surrounding area. Hernan pointed out there was a cemetery opposite the stadium. Hernan being Hernan had to make a joke commenting “that’s where all the Barcelona football players are buried”. Zoran was stunned by the fact that, in Spain people are buried into a wall rather than in the ground. He was looking for tombstones in the ground rather than rows upon rows of walls lined with plaques.

At the exit we met up with Sandra and Alex. It was time for Alex to head back to the ship as he had work at 18.00. Hernan and I had work at 19.00 but decided to head back to Las Ramblas and the ship early. Sandra and Zoran had the entire day off for being Employee of the Week and 1^st runner up so they stayed on. Later Sandra told me she’d managed to drag Zoran to the Torre de Calatrava. The photos she took look absolutely fantastic.

Having a quick walk along Las Ramblas I bought a t-shirt before jumping on the shuttle bus. Alex had already gone and Hernan had gone over to the shopping centre.

Back on the ship, I quickly changed and had something to eat before an entire night in the gallery.

Most of the gallery needed condensing. The Cannes photos from gangway had finally been displayed but Barcelona's were still sitting in a pile.

There were two shows going on in Studio B so we had to stay in the gallery for longer than scheduled to wait for the guests from the last seating to come through the gallery.

The sales results were disappointing. The Italians flood the gallery after the shows but don’t actually buy anything. They’ll poodle around, group their photos and congregate in big masses talking to other Italians. In the meantime we have to stand or walk around trying to look busy while keeping an eye out for people taking snap shots of the photos we take. It’s getting more and more common and we’ve been having plenty of problems with it.

In one particular case we’ve had to remove the photos of one English family from the display panels. I asked them to stop taking photos of their professional photos and asked the lad to delete the pictures from his camera. He did, but not with some lip from his Dad. Taking the photo out of his hand I walked off with the entire family (3 “kids” who were all in their 20s and their parents) who started giving me shit as soon as I turned my back.

Paco saw me walking away from them and asked me what had happened. I told him. He’d previously asked them to stop taking photos three times so enough was enough. I threw their photo in the trash and Paco told me to later remove the rest of their prints. He told me to keep an eye on them.

The most orange looking girl with terrible hair extensions was giving the most lip. I glanced over at them and they were all watching me with the tangoed fool sneering shouting loud enough for me to hear “what the fuck's she look at” I heard the word “disrespecting” which is another favourite word for English people around my age. Nowadays people expect respect rather than having to earn it.

Some of the guys had a good laugh at the way they were dressed for formal night – they looked more like common tarts. The biggest laugh was provided by the over the top fake tan which made the girls bright orange and you can’t forget the faces caked with thick, thick make up. I had to explain to the Sandra and Hernan that was how typical English girls looked. They had a certain look about them that you could spot from a mile off.

It’s not just the English but also the Italians. The Italian guys for example are always looking smartly dressed and a lot of the time wearing incredibly tight pants and overly plucked/waxed eyebrows. They have a very, very metrosexual look about them. You'd mistake many for being gay if it weren't for their wives or girlfriends.

After work there were only a few of us in the office and Jomar had an announcement to make. Because of the recent events involving Camila, Jomar was being transferred to another ship. This was his undeserved punishment and he was really upset about it. The news hit Fabio more than it did the rest of us, especially as they’ve worked two contracts together. Jomar will be leaving us next Barcelona and Reuben our previous BM will be returning.

Apparently Reuben was settled and happy working on the Oasis but he too is now being transferred to a smaller ship. They see being sent to smaller ships as a demotion. It’ll be great to see Reuben again as I always got on well with him and he's a great manager too. Having said that, everyone made the same comment “be prepared to lose all of you free time” and it’s true. Reuben worked us to the point of exhaustion but as time went on and we improved in certain areas, we could see our work was reflected in our wages – not by a huge amount but it's better than nothing.

At the time when Reuben was the manager we were one of the top ships in our fleet. Since Jomar got back our ship had sunk (no pun intended) to 42^nd place, in other words: last. In the previous week, we’d had a meeting where Jomar told us the score and explained where improvements were needed and how we could go about it. We skipped a couple of places and went up to 40^th spot. Not good but it’s a start and certainly better than 42^nd. Let’s hope with Reuben back we can climb our way back up to where we feel we should be. Also we’ll be back on the 12 and 13 night cruises so hopefully our wages will be on the up again.

I’m not a huge fan of Jomar but at the same time, after everything we’ve seen and heard, he didn’t deserve the possible demotion or pending transfer. Most of the team agree on that one. However, the office has made its mind up and there’s nothing that can change that. As Jomar said, this had tarred his name and position as a BM and now he’d have to try and work his way back up the ladder.

It’s a shame that such a fantastic day had to end on such a low note. Today was really a day to remember and in more ways than one. We also have the 200 images we took to remember it by. For Jomar, all we can say is, we wish you the best of luck. As for Reuben: see you soon!