Team Activity in Kusadasi

Team Activity in Kusadasi

12^th September 2011

For once we had a team activity that didn’t involve eating!! We couldn’t believe our luck when Reuben told us what we’d be doing for our monthly team activity. The team was going to the water park in Kusadasi. None of us could wait to go down the highest kamikaze slide in Europe!!

I managed to get a lay in while a couple of the others were on gangway. We were all meeting on the gangway at 11.15. It wasn’t until we were on the gangway that we found out David and Ritesh were going to be meeting us at 12.30 at the water park. There were quite a lot of other crew members coming.

Seeing Ada Land on the hill side, everyone on the crew bus got excited and the voulmue peaked. There were a couple of “ooooh’s” and “aaahhh’s” at the sheer size of the water park and height of the kamikaze. The bus carried on driving. There were a few looks but we didn’t think too much of it until we started down a small country lane five minutes away from the water park.

The bus stopped outside a small set of iron gates. What the hell was going on? Crew were complaining that we weren’t at the right water park. The bad news was, we were. There are two water parks in Kusadasi. Ada Land, is massive and nearby Aqua Fantasy, the “poor man’s water park” as we called it. Needless to say, Aqua Fantasy was a lot smaller than Ada Land. The photo on the “Crew Tour” advert showed the largest of the water parks so you can understand the disappointment of some of the crew.

Us photographers just didn’t care! We were off the ship, not going for a team lunch or something along those lines and didn’t have to work until much, much later. We were going to make the most of our time off! 

Quickly getting changed and shoving our things into a locker we jumped in the pool. Sitting on the internal steps was so nice. To just sit back and relax in the sun - bliss! Most of the members of crew had found the pool bar and were making the most of it. Well, more like abusing it.

After sitting around for a while, it was time to get on the slides. Hernan had already disappeared. Fabio and Zoran were off to have a look around too. Grabbing a double ring Sandra and I headed to one of the smaller slides.

I’ve been living and working with the team for five months tomorrow. Even to this day, we are finding out new things about each other. Sandra, for example, has a fear of heights so we started off from the smaller slides to work our way up to the larger ones. 

Sanela stuck to the shallow pools where we were all relaxing because she’s scared of water. Why? She can’t swim!! I thought she was joking at first. If your brother is apparently a professional swimmer, surely you’d be able to swim? Even if it’s not on a professional level. I tried getting her away from the side to swim or float a bit, but she wouldn’t. 

After a lot of splashing and promises to pull her away and not duck her under the water, she came away from the side and floated around in the pool… but only if someone was there to save her in case she "drowned"! What the hell! I’m the shortest in the team and can put my feet down. Where she got the idea of drowning from, I’ll never know.

Sandra and I spent the next couple of hours running around going on the slides. On one ride you have to lay on a mat and slide down on your belly. We were having a race and Sandra got her arse kicked. Not long afterwards, we found out there was a race between cabins 4439 (Fabio and Zoran) and 4441 (David and Hernan). I would have loved to have seen that!! Each cabin was accusing the other of cheating… typical!

One slide was a half-pipe. Sandra was terrified!! I sat in the front of the double ring so she could "hide behind me". There was a mix of screaming and laughing while we were boomeranging up and down the half-pipe. Such a great laugh!

Sandra’s favourite was a long twisting, turning slides that sent you in every direction possible. Coming up from a dip in the slide were three jet sprays which caught you in the face, just when you least expected it. We were acting like kids hollering and laughing from start to finish. We used and abused that ride until we knew every corner and turn!

Heading back to the main pool we found Sanela sitting on her own. We were going to get something to eat and suggested she tagged along with us. David had brought his girlfriend Regina along to the team activity. Some people weren’t too impressed about that. They felt the team activity should be used as it’s intended – to spend time with your team mates outside of work; or as Image put it “a time to bond with your team”. Spotting a few shoppies, we went over to join them.

Sanela had a fan at the water park! While we were eating, we were all using plastic knives and forks. A Turkish man, who works in the park came over to the table. He picked up her salad and put it on a plastic tray scattered with rose petals! She even had a steel knife and fork. If that's now ammunition to poke fun, I don't know what is! As if that wasn’t enough, the Turkish guy soon came back. This time he’d lovingly made her a Mojito and presented her with his business card. His personal number was penned on the card. Talk about sauve! This had us all in stitches. “Go on Sanela, go give him a kiss… maybe we can each get a free Mojito”. Luckily enough her make up hadn’t washed off or else she’d have been as red as a tomato! Sanela took our jokes in her stride but didn’t know where to look. The Mojito was however the best I’ve ever had. The others said the same. Unfortunately for us, Sanela didn’t pucker so no free drinks!

Jumping in the pool again, Sanela and I ordered a Mojito. They were all out of Bacardi. Randomly picking out an African Inn from the cocktail list we received a tall glass with so much decoration we couldn’t find our straws! The orange and red drink was delicious… bloody lethal, in other words. You could knock them back as if it was juice and be plastered before you knew it!! Incredibly more-ish! Luckily for us, our Aqua Fantasy cards had run out of credit and we were too lazy to get out the pool and put more money on it!

Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and get ready to meet the bus. Just before leaving the water park the photographers – minus David (and Ritesh, who was a no-show) gathered together for a group photo. Next everyone from the trip to the water park jumped in for an all-crew group photo.

There was a moment of madness when we thought crew all aboard was 16.00 and guests 16.30. Crew getting back to the ship late means you’ll be dragged in front of the staff captain. You can receive anything from a slap on the wrists to a flight ticket home!

Speed walking past the guests we made it to the ship a couple of minutes before 16.30. Looking at the time board, we realized crew all aboard was at 16.30 rather than 16.00 and guests 17.00. Phew! We were all back on the ship and in the nick of time too!

What awaited me back at work were 3 hours of shooting Coral – joys. Guests were starting to get annoyed with us constantly being around, wanting to take their photos.

It wasn’t long until I started to feel ill. I had a banging headache and every so often dizzy spells. Calling Reuben I asked to close the studio. He said no but managed to send up a replacement. Feeling sick I ran to the bathroom. Alex had arrived to replace me just in time!

Popping into the office to see Reuben, he told me to go down to the medical, go to bed for an hour and come back to the last session in the studio. Even after throwing my guts up a couple of times I had to go back to work as there was “no one to replace me”.

Laying down I’d just dozed off when the phone rang. It was La Bruja M&R. She was ringing me to ask me questions about when I sprained my wrist. She informed me about Image's rule that all photographers must have their camera straps around their necks. Of course, I already knew this.
Mary then asked me why I hadn’t had my camera around my neck. I told her I did have the camera strap around my neck. She claimed I’d previously told her I didn’t have my strap around my neck and was instead simply holding the camera in my hand. Again, I explained the strap was around my neck and I was also holding the camera up, in my hand (as opposed to dangling around my neck) to avoid hitting any of the guests seated in the dining room. Of course, she didn’t believe me and accused me of changing my story saying she had “my exact words in writing”. Her writing of course. I wasn’t budging from what I’d said and stuck to what I’d originally told both Mary and Jomar. Getting annoyed she snapped “Fine! Now I’ll have to type up the entire investigation again. Thank you very much” before putting the phone down on me. Mary really does know how to live up to her nickname.

Going back to the studio I felt like hell and apparently I looked it too. You can always trust your team mates! Reuben told me to take it easy and do my job as best as possible. I didn’t smudge, I couldn’t. Finally an hour had past and it was time to break down. Once break down was over, we were free to do whatever we wanted. 

Some of the others headed up to Back Deck for a drink. There was a swapping uniform party on Back Deck and I was originally going to wear Whitney’s Spa uniform. Unfortunately for me, there was only one place I was going to – bed.

I guess this is the price you pay for having such a great day!

Aqua Fantasy Water Park, Kusadasi, Turkey: Sanela, Lou & Zoran

Paco (AMS), Reuben (BM), Sanela and Me (Sandra's Photo)

Hernan, "Brazilian DJ", Leandro (below), Fabio and Zoran

Relaxing - Me, Sanela, Sandra and Paco

Mariner of the Seas Photog Team - September 2011 - Minus David and Ritesh
Top L-R: Paco, Alex, Zoran, Leandro, Zoran
Bottom L-R: Sanela, Me, Sandra, Hernan, Camila and Reuben