Cruising The Seven Seas: Wake Up Call

16^th September 2011

Wake Up Call

There’s nothing I hate more than getting woken up by the telephone ringing or the main light getting turned on in the morning. When the phone started ringing, I won't lie, I was pissed off! It didn’t last more than a couple of seconds. “Wake up! I’m outside!” It was Lee!!!

Quickly dragging my clothes on, I legged it out the door, through security and off the ship for an enormous bear hug. Lee, is now the AMS on Vision of the Seas which had docked that morning in Istanbul for an overnight. It’s a shame it wasn’t the same night as us. Either way, it was great to see Lee. Getting his visitor card sorted, he came on board to see everyone. Bashing endlessly on Fabio’s cabin door until he finally opened up. Seeing Lee, Fabio was absolutely over the moon!

Paco had no idea about Lee being on board. Calling his cabin, Alex picked up and said Paco was still asleep. I got him to wake Paco, telling him it was an emergency. “Paco, I have a problem.” “Why? What’s the problem?” he asked half asleep. “Can you come over to my cabin please? There’s a strange man by the name of Lee Ashford in my cabin and he won’t leave”. “Oh fuck!” followed by a sleepy laughing Paco. He told us he’d be awake soon to come and see Lee. That didn’t happen for a long time though, so we had to go looking for him. Eventually we found him in the Crew mess having “rice with a spoon” – Don’t ask!

I later found out Fede and Alex from Miami training were on Vision of the Seas. Heading over with Lee, he took me into the terminal where they were shooting embarkation. Fede hadn’t changed a bit… except for the Elvis like side burns. I didn’t even recognise Alex at first, he’d changed so much!! Giving each a hug, it was brilliant seeing them again. It’d been such a long time since we were in Miami together and here we were… nearing the end of our contracts!

Lee popped back onto the ship to change his clothes. Lee, Hernan, Fede, Vision’s AMP, Guido, and I headed out the port to a local café for something to eat and a catch up.

Unfortunately, the guys from Vision of the Seas couldn't stay long. As soon as they'd had a bite to eat, they ran back to the ship. It was their turn around day, therefore one of the busiest.

I still had a couple of hours off so I grabbed my laptop and headed over to Nargilem for an hour. The forms needed to book my flight had been sent through – finally.

Back on board and an hour’s kip, I was ready for the gallery. We are half way through the cruise and I managed to sell quite a lot (it’s around this point where things so down until the last day): 2 frames, 3 folios, 1 GTP plus prints, 1 Nikon S1600 – all coming to a total of $1,700.

After work, once the studios were broken down and gallery closed we all had to run back to the cabins before going to the lab for an inventory check. Both my CF cards had gone walkabouts so I’ll have to replace them by the end of my contract. That was pointed out to me twice. My personal 8GB, SD card had entered the lab not long ago, never to be seen again. That, however, wasn't an issue and something I’d have to replace myself anyway. Does that seem logical? It wasn’t long until Ritesh would be leaving for vacation. The team finally met Dione, our new AMP, from the Philippines.

Speaking to Dione he’d been on the same ship and James and Dom from Miami training. Dom was his cabin mate and bloody hell, did Dione have some funny stories to tell about Dom. I won’t repeat them on here though - just in case!