1 Year Ago Today

1 Year Ago Today

13^th April 2012

It seems unreal that a year ago today, Hernan and I joined the Mariner of the Seas on the small island of Rhodes. Us, struggling along with our suitcases to the gangway, seems like a distance memory from years ago. I still remember meeting Lee and Stu, working on the gangway.

Looking back, we’ve both come a long way since those days. We’re still here, on second contracts and working on Disney Cruise Line ships.

Disney isn’t exactly the place for me and I’m not the only one to have made that comment. Apparently, my style is "too Royal Caribbean". Having said that, the two Royal Caribbean girls (Carolee and I) are the fastest shooters and have the best quality images. I had a long day ahead but for once, I had a more positive outlook.

This morning, I had morning sale plus embarkation. The BM wanted an extra pair of hands during morning sale. The good thing about occasionally doing both Morning Sale and Embarkation is that you’re given the evening off. While working I was slowly thinking up a list of things that I wanted to do in my precious time off. Laundry, blog, watch a film and sleep were all there, but I didn’t think I’d have enough time to do everything. No harm trying to do it all though.

Coming back to the cabin after work, I got online and called the parents. During our conversation I noticed water running down one of the cabin’s wall. Looking up, there was a leak from the ceiling and dripping by the electrical goods and plugs. Getting off the phone, I found one of Ani’s many empty water bottles lying about and lodge it into place in between the wardrobe and ceiling.  Hanging up, I reported the leak. Glancing at my watch, it was 6pm.

It wasn’t long until there was a knocking at the door. Someone was here to inspect the leak. Gathering up my computer, I went to Deck 5 forward to call the parents again.

Thirty minutes past and I was due to meet Ani for dinner in the mess. Back in the cabin, I got a royal shock. All the ceiling panels had been removed and there were now four people in my cabin. Let’s face it, it’s not every day that you open your door to find four Filipinos inside!

Meeting Ani, I told her what had happened. She couldn’t believe it but started laughing. It’s just typical that this would happen on my night off! Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long to resolve the problem. Apparently, it’s the hot water pipe that’s leaking which is a big problem and needs to be fixed as soon as possible. 

Before heading back to work, Ani was kind enough to remind me that today is Friday 13^th. Bad luck, there.

At about 7.15pm I slowly strolled up to my cabin, opened the door and found someone still working on the leak. He seemed irritated that I should come back to my cabin. Asking why I wasn’t working, I replied that it was my night off. Asking how long he was likely to be, he became even more irritated and ended my hopes of having my cabin back soon with an abrupt “I don’t know.”

Next stop, the lab. Was there anything I could do in the lab? No. Mike told me to go away and find something to do, or go to sleep. I’d been up since 5am and hadn’t had a nap. He had a point, I was dog tired but where could I sleep? Kate’s cabin! Calling Kate, I met her in Shutter to collect the room key.

Slumping into her bed, my tiredness was exaggerating my crabbiness. I decided to set the alarm for an hour and fifteen minutes time. Before the meeting at 11.10pm, I wanted to check on my cabin, surely it couldn’t take that long to fix a leak, could it? We’d soon find out.

Sleep got the best of me until Kate’s cabin mate Claire walked in and woke me up. To be fair, she jumped out of her skin to find me laying in Kate’s bed. Giving the shortest explanation possible as to why I was sleeping in Kate’s bed, I rolled over and dozed off again.

Walking up the stairs from Kate’cabin, I bumped into the two Filipinos who had been fixing my leaking ceiling. Both all smiles, they told me the problem was fixed before adding that the carpenter would be along shortly to put the ceiling panels back on. I couldn’t believe it. At 9.30pm and the problem still wasn’t sorted.

Slinking off to my cabin in a sulk, I slumped into bed and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Turns out, I’d only been sleeping for twenty minutes, when I was woken up by a thudding knock on the door. Opening up, it was the carpenter to put the ceiling panels on.

Grabbing my things I headed down to the lab again. This time for the meeting. A bad mood was an understatement! I was ready to lose the plot at the drop of a hat. The whole episode was to everyone’s amusement though, especially Csaba’s who constantly brought it up during the meeting.

One good thing did happen. Once we finished the meeting and got back to the cabin, there were no Filipinos in sight, all ceiling panels were attached to the roof and there wasn’t a single drip coming from above. Needless to say, my bed was calling me. It’s just a shame that we’d have to clean up the masses of soaked foam and attempt to dry/clean the carpet tomorrow.

The day definitely wasn’t in my favour today… oh, how I love Friday 13ths!

Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow is another day… let’s hope things start off on a different foot...

Royal Caribbean - Mariner of the Seas (1st contract)

Disney Cruise Line - Disney Magic (2nd contract)

Peachy Bums

Peachy Bums

10^th April 2012

Tendering ports are always horrible, especially when on Disney, as they have the “guests must go first” approach. Sleeping in as much as I could, an utter fail as I was wide awake at 8.30, I decided to get the laundry done. It was about time too!

Carolee called to ask what the weather was like. I reminded her that we don’t have a window in our "penthouse cabin" but suggested that I’d have a look outside as I’m one level up from the crew open deck.

Going to collect my laundry, I spoke to one of the cabin attendants who asked if I was going outside. Not really, I wanted to type up my blog but needed to get off to withdraw money from Ocean Pay. Then came the shocker “why?” the cabin attendant asked. “We have no tender today”. That couldn’t be right, surely?

Charging down the stairs to the point that I nearly tumbled and rolled down the rest, I got to Deck 5 forward. Looking over the edge, he was right. The Disney Magic was docked in St. Thomas and not tendering. Running back upstairs, I woke Ani up and got on the phone to Carolee.

“Carolee, we are docked”

“Shit, are you serious?”

“Yes! I’ve just checked”

“I’m getting off the ship. Now. Bye” and she hung up on me – again.

Ani and I slowly got dressed and got off the ship. The sun was hot and beating down on us. I felt like a lizard, awaking as my body absorbed more and more of the heat. There’s one thing to always remember about the Caribbean sun, it’ll cook and toast you into a lobster red in no time! The vast majority of guests will come back as red as a traffic light. Some even get third degree burns and sun poisoning. One boy last cruise had large, horrendous, yellow blisters across his cheeks after a day in St. Thomas.

Walking around, there wasn’t really much to do, but apparently this was the more affordable side of St. Thomas. The other, where we tender to, is a more luxurious, expensive side, full of designer clothes shops etc.

Ani spotted the place and asked if I was up for having something to eat in Hooters. Of course, anything is better than the tripe served in the Mess. Crossing over the road, we sat outside admiring the place and enjoy the warmth of the sun, rather than the coolness of the air condition on board the ship.

Not long after we sat down there were people milling around in bright orange hot pants and teeny white tops. Boobs and bums out, of course. I had to smile. Most of the men were admiring the peach, pert bums that wiggled past in super tight Daisy Duke shorts. You couldn’t help but look! The internet wasn’t bad and I managed to get some blog posts up and photos, although uploading pictures took a while.

It wasn’t long until the food was served and we were woofing it up. Even though it was simple and on the verge of junk food, it was one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time! The crew mess, we are forced to eat in, is putting me off food. Endless days of rice, undercooked chicken drumsticks and out of date salad. Now we eat to eat, because we have to. After eating crap for days on end, biting into a chicken sandwich made our lunch taste so much better.

Carolee spotted us and came to join us. Of course there were a number of “is there something you girls aren’t telling me” and “I caught you checking out her butt” comments but then again, even Carolee had to have a peek. At Hooters, it'd be rude not to!

As we were apparently going to be docking in the same place next time, we decided we should venture up the mountain in the cable cars. It sounded like a plan, but we wanted to rally up some more people.

Finishing up, we headed over to the bank after one o’clock to withdraw our money. Carolee and Ani hadn’t been paid. I withdrew some money that had been building up on my card. All of a sudden, Carolee figured out why we hadn’t been paid. Usually we get paid every two weeks, during St. Thomas at 13.00. Our days have switched now though. Instead of turning around on Saturday, we are now disembarking the guests on Friday. Basically, we’d be getting paid tomorrow at 13.00… when we are at sea and on our way to Castaway Cay where there’s no chance of finding an ATM… I guess such is ship life!

Purchasing a Cookie Jar

Purchasing a Cookie Jar

9^th April 2012

I’ve been counting down the days until we dock in St. Maarten. Why? Because I’ll be purchasing my new camera, a Canon 5D Mark II.

Ani and I had a bit of a lay in but it was great to finally get off the ship. Feel land beneath your feet.

Before getting off the ship though, we had to attend the crew safety drill. This time there was a “fire” to the right of our cabin. However, we weren’t spotted by the fire fighters or medical staff and claimed as “someone to be rescued”.

Off the ship, we walked into a few camera shops, asking for prices. Mike, the new AMP said he’d come with us but didn’t pick up the phone when we called, so we were on our own. The cheapest quote I got was $3,200 for the Canon 5D Mark II body, 24-105mm lens, camera bag and memory card. It was the cheapest, I’d had so I decided to go for it. Handing over my card, within seconds it came back declined. Tried another, declined.

Outside the store, I got on the phone to my bank. Once answering all their security questions, I explained the problem. As the camera was over my limit, I couldn’t purchase the camera… even though I had the money in my bank account. Next, I asked if I could up my limit for a special purchase, saying “I hardly ever use my credit card and when I do, I pay it off immediately.” The reply startled me “that’s exactly why we can’t increase your limit, because you don’t use your card”.

Making a series of apologies to the store owner, I walked out with mixed emotions; fury, embarrassment and disappointment.

We sat down at a quiet little ice cream shop with a cute, shaded patio. Within minutes the laptops were out and I was on the phone complaining to my Dad about what had happened. The entire thing was ridiculous, really. You have the money but the bank won’t let you have it. It’s as if the money doesn’t even belong to you. “That’s banks for you” was the only thing Dad could say.

Well, I might not have purchased my Canon 5D Mark II but one thing is a definite: I will be purchasing a cookie jar to store my money in!

Bunny Ears?

Bunny Ears?

8^th April 2012

During the second sea day, travelling towards St. Maarten, we always feel that the managers stick things in our schedule, because they simply don’t know what to do with us. Originally, we thought this was the case. Usually, on the second sea day we shoot Disney Friends with appearances from Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Pluto.

Today there were only two sets of characters coming. Once we’d set up the lights, Csaba told us one of the lights needed to be moved from the left side of the ship to the middle. Now we were confused. About fifteen minutes before the characters arrived, we were told it was a gathering. A gathering basically means that it’s one line for the guests to see all, or in this case both, characters.

Kate was shooting face painting which meant nothing to any of us. Since when do we shoot face painting and where was she shooting?

While we were setting up, we saw numerous people walking around with bunny ears on. There were a number of people wearing baby blues, pinks and yellows, too. And why were people carrying around little wicker baskets? Was there an event going on that we didn’t know about? Well, in fact, there was.

Kate bounced over in her usually jolly way “Oh my God! It’s Easter – Happy Easter everyone!” Wow! It’s Easter already? It’d completely bypassed all of us. Again, we’re in our cruise ship life bubble, not knowing what’s going on around us. On land, you can’t help but notice future events, the shops would be cramming in Easter eggs, months before hand!

Turns out, we were shooting an Easter Special features four characters coming down in twos. First up were Donald and Daisy Duck wearing their Easter outfits of greens, yellows and pinks.  A complete contrast from their usual attire. Next up was Goofy sporting bright colours and overwhelming pink shoes! Alongside Goofy was the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

Wes, my greeter (all characters have greeters to hold the guests things, get their Key to the World Card for photographers to swipe and even take the guest’s photos with their own cameras), had never worked a gathering before and hadn’t know anything about it, until a short time ago. At least we were in the same boat together!

Poor Wes was running around the place like a headless chicken. I wasn’t much better, trying to help him out by grabbing cards, while he collected the children’s autograph books. In the end, things started to slowly sort themselves out as we worked together and through the muddle this gathering had rapidly become.

At one point Daisy, Donald and Goofy got together for a photograph, something we could sell as a stock shot and as a bit of a souvenir for us shooting/greeting. What we stupidly hadn’t anticipated was a massive surge from the crowd. No word of a lie, the crowd looked like it was going to stamped. Everyone was surging forward, pushing people out the way, clambering over children. I quickly fired a couple of shots of before turning around and giving Wes a hand to get the crowd to move people back behind the barriers. There were an odd few who wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, so we literally had to talk to them like a teacher would tell off a child. It was madness!

One of the greeters, who was managing the queue of guests waiting for their chance to meet the characters, cocked up on an epic scale. He thought Daisy and Donald would be making a third appearance when in actual fact, they were only making two and they’d just finished their last. So, the greeter separated the line into two. One for those wanting to meet White Rabbit and Goofy and the other for the Ducks. Wes and I were trying to comprehend why he’d spilt the lines, until he told us what his intentions were. Wes predicted there’d be murders and he wasn’t wrong, either.

About ten minutes later, the greeter had to explain to the one of the lines that Daisy and Donald weren’t coming back for another session. Some were disappointed while others were fuming. One lady with her three children had been waiting for apparently thirty minutes, only to find out she was queuing for something that’d never happen. We understood her frustration but her reaction was somewhat over the top and unnecessary.

Talking to Wes in between my few seconds off from taking photos and him running around for cards and autograph books, there was only one thing we could do. Wes was to signal to the character that the interaction between them and the guests was to be cut to a minimum. Wes was to hurry the guests through as fast as possible and I was to shoot as quickly as I possibly could. One thing is for sure, I don’t think I’ve shot so fast since coming onto Disney Magic. It was like shooting a gangway all over again!!

Luckily, for us, we managed to get everyone through within the characters appearance limit (30 minutes each - maximum). How we did it, I don’t know, because the two lines were stubbornly moved into one, snaked half way down one side of the ship. By the end of the session, I had 400 images of Goofy and Donald. Of course, the cramping wrist came with the image count, but I was pleased we’d managed to do so well considering the circumstances…

Happy Easter from the Caribbean Sea!

Daisy, Donald Duck and Goofy - Easter Special


Daisy and Donald Duck


White Rabbit

Goofy

Small World of Ship Life

Small World of Ship Life

6^th April 2012

Ani is moving into my cabin today, after my Spa roommate disembarked this morning. It’ll be a laugh having Ani in the cabin and no doubt we’ll be having a movie night, or something along those lines, soon.

This morning, I was on Morning Sale and as usual, I was the only person who turned up on time. The rest slowly sauntered into Shutters in between 06.10 and 06.20. I could have had an extra 15 minutes in bed, went through my head. Today it was just Inna, Kate and myself. Cintia was signed off while Rama was at Immigration preparing to disembark.

The queue was massive but we slowly and steadily working our way through it. Rama, later on in the morning, joined us and gave us a huge hand. Having an extra pair of hands was needed. At the end of Morning sale, we stripped the remaining photos off the wall as fast as we could. Unfortunately, we were at least an hour behind, due to the huge queue of guests and being one person down. It all adds up, especially when it’s coming out of your break.

The good news about Morning Sale: we’d managed to bring in $11,000 in only a couple of hours. That was unbelievable, especially when we usually made $4-5,000.

Finally getting off the ship at 11.00 with Kate, we jumped in a taxi to the Mall. In Port Canaveral, you either go to Walmart or the Mall. After faffing around with some paperwork Kate had to get sorted, we nipped into Books-a-Million to get a world map. Finally, I had one to stick to my cabin wall.

Settling down in an internet café, popular with other crew members, I got online to talk to the parents and catch up a little. Lee came online and asked how things were. We were chit-chatting as usual.

“Where are you?”

“Port Canaveral. You?”

“Port Canaveral too. Where are you?”

“At the Mall. Where are you?”

“At some shitty internet place by the Mall.”

“Hold on a minute…”

Walking outside and looking around, I didn’t see anyone. “Lou!!” Looking to my right, Lee was there! Running over I gave him a massive bear hug! It’d been so long since I’d seen him and out of the blue, we just so happen to be in the same place, at the same time. I was absolutely over the moon, in my element!

Joining Lee, it was brilliant to be able to talk to him again and have a proper catch up. I missed having a mate like Lee around. Plus he’s now working with Zoran and later on, I found out Chet (from my Miami training group) is on Monarch of the Seas too. I couldn’t believe it. It really is a small world but this just took the biscuit. This is the even smaller world of ship life!!

Hearing stories of life on board Monarch of the Seas, it made me miss having a team like the Mariner of the Sea’s photography team. The team on the Disney Magic aren’t as fun or out-going as my other team, or Lee’s, for that matter. If I’m absolutely honest, I only get on with 3 members of the team. The others, I can leave. I missed being around up beat people who went out of their way to have fun. It made a tough job easier. At the end of the day, when you sign off, all you want (apart from sleep) is a pocket full of money and endless amounts of great memories.

Speaking to Lee, I decided to go back to Csaba and request to be transferred to Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas. They worked hard, partied harder and earned good money. That was what I wanted. My mind was set.

Unfortunately, time ran out too quickly and we had to get back on the shuttle bus to the ship. In two weeks’ time we arranged to meet again (next time I’m on morning sale). Lee told me he’d pull a few strings and get Zoran to drag his arse out of bed. I can’t wait.

I miss Zoran and Lee so much!! It’d be fantastic to see them both again. Thinking about it, the last time I saw Lee was when Mariner of the Seas and Vision of the Seas went out together during the overnight in Istanbul. That was six months ago!!! It seemed like a lifetime!!

Saying goodbye to Lee, I bounced back to Disney Magic, over the moon to see a friendly face again while at the same time, not wanting to go back to my dull ship and even duller team. Looking on the bright side, my next morning sale is in two weeks and I’ll soon be seeing Lee and Zoran. A double whammy and I couldn’t wait. Yes, I’m going to be like a kid counting down the days until Christmas!!

Man Down! Man Down!

Man Down! Man Down!

5^th April 2012

It’s the last day of the cruise and things aren’t really starting to look up. Thankfully, it is the last day and maybe things will be different during the next cruise.

Arriving at Castaway Cay, the sky was grey and the clouds threatened to rain. This is always a bad sign for all the photographers, especially the beach shooters, and I was one of them. If the weather is bad at the end of the cruise, the guests tend to be moody. Believe it or not, and they don’t spend as much as they would have if it'd been a sunny day.

When it comes down to the photo department, I can understand that. Getting a photo taken on the beach with blazing sun makes for a nice photo. Same goes with the family standing in front of the ship, surrounded by brilliant blue skies. Dull skies and grey clouds don’t have the same effect.

While walking on the beach, it was deserted compared to normal. My image target was a little lower than usual, too. Instead of 350, I only had to get 300. That target can still be a struggle sometimes, as I don’t like to overshoot, whereas others get three photos of the same person. None of the managers have said anything about over shooting, but a few of the more experienced photographers have.

I won’t lie, I kind of gave up towards the end of my beach session. Usually the beach is split into sections with a photographer in each. They keep going over the area and snapping photos of the new arrivals, etc. By the looks of things, as there the beach was quiet, the other photographers had been wandering into other people’s sections.

Walking up to one lady, I smiled and cheerfully called out “Ma’am, let’s have a smile” and received a sharp reply “No! You’re the fourth photographer to come get my picture. Three is enough.” Of course, if you’re trying to relax on the beach, you don’t want to be constantly bothered by photographers, asking you for photos, so I completely understood why she was annoyed. I would be.

I only had 200 images which was incredibly poor. Speaking to Inna, she had 100 images more than me at the time, but said “I double shoot” before shrugging and walking off. We always look bad when we come back with (like today) 200 images when the newer photographers have 350 and it’s all because they shoot multiples of the same people. It doesn’t sell. Usually the doubles would be removed by the lab manager and only singles counted, but not on beach.

Giving up, I met Ani to go into the shops and get Diva a leaving present. We decided to buy her a Castaway Cay t-shirt and have everyone sign the back of it for her.

Back on board, we walked into the lab to see Cinta with a bandage around her arm. Asking what happened, she told us that she fell off the tram which transports crew and guests around the island.

Later on, we found out the truth. Cintia had got on one of the trams, wanting to go back to the ship to drop off her memory card. Instead, she’d got on the tram to Serenity Bay and crew beach. Realizing she was on the wrong tram, she jumped off, just as the tram started moving. Jumping off the tram, with $2,000 worth of equipment, she went crashing to the ground, slicing her arm open.

Csaba wasn’t in the greatest of moods and making a series on phone calls from the lab. Slamming down the phone on a few occasions, making some of us jump out of our skin, he was trying to find someone to stitch up Cintia’s arm.

The first aid centre on the island just wrapped Cintia’s arm up in a bandage and said she’d need stitches. As she wasn’t an island crew member (or more to the point, a guest) he wouldn’t stitch her up and instead sent her back to the ship.

The medical centre on board Disney Magic was closed for another three hours. The doctor on the island told Cintia that she couldn’t call the emergency number as needing stitches “wasn’t an emergency”. Csaba was furious at this and finally, taking Cintia with him, managed to find someone to open the medical facility to sort her arm out. Fancy having a gash in your arm and the doctor saying “you’ll have to wait until 15.00 to get stitches as it’s not classified as an emergency.” If Cintia was a guest however, you can guarantee things would be the complete opposite.

Bumping into Cintia later on, she’d been signed off from work for at least 48 hours. She wouldn’t be able to lift a camera for a very long time though. In the end, it’d taken ten stitches to close the slice, so it must have been a big/deep cut.

Speaking to the others in Shutters, a few people were saying the girl should be sent home. No doubt she’ll be out of action for a week or more while waiting for the stitches to heal. In ship terms, a week or a cruise is an incredibly long time. Also, we were questioning Cintia’s common sense. Who the hell would jump off a moving tram, especially with so much equipment on her. The equipment wasn’t damaged, which was lucky but, we don’t have spare parts, so if something had happened, we’d be up Shit Creek without a paddle!

Now it’s just a case of waiting to see what will happen to Cintia. Will she be sent home? Or as Image like to put it: Chicken or Beef?

Photographs from previous sessions shooting beach.

Ani - Wading Out to the Climbing Frame

What we do to get a high image count!

Castaway Cay Climbing Frame

We Made It!

 
Setting Exposures


Test Shots with Mark