Guilty

Guilty

10^th February 2012

The last day of the cruise is always chaos. Huge surges of people come running into Shutters to purchase photos and/or reprints. As usual we were trying to get through the lines as quickly as possible and sell as many folios as we could. My target for the cruise is 15 folios. By the end of the night I had surpassed my target with 22 folios. For that, Rama is giving Kate and I two stars. Aren't we lucky girls?

Before on the Mariner of the Seas, you got a signature for good work, good name comments and surpassing your target by a long shot. Here we get stars. My signatures were transferred over to Disney so I’m entitled to a day off. Unfortunately, that day off can’t be in Cozumel because it’s Pirate Night. I’m thinking about having Key West off so I can explore the port more and get plenty of photographs. The star system does make us feel as though we are in pre-school but what the hell? If it gives me a day off, I don’t care!

Towards the end of the night, a huge family I’d sold a GTP package to, came into Shutters to collect their package. I told them the CD would be delivered to their cabin later on during the night. Not a problem. Then the lady asked to take the photos. I was confused, I’d told her the package was for the CD but somewhere along the lines she’d assumed the prints were included, which they aren't. All the photographers got on really well with his particular family. They’d even offered to buy me a beer on the beach of Castaway Cay. Obviously I had to refuse the beer as we cannot socialise with guests. Either way, it made me feel incredibly guilty for not being able to allow them to take the massive stack of photos.

Personally, I don’t think I’d miss-sold the package, but they said that two years ago, on Disney Magic they bought the same package and didn’t get a CD, just all the prints. They’d automatically expected to get all the prints, too. Asking what to do next, Kate came over to help me but Rama, the AMS, had to step in.

In between talking to Rama and calls to Dave the BM, Kate and I had to count through all the photographs and convert them into packages. Twenty five 8x10 photos can be counted as a 50 credit package which costs $298.95 and saves the buyer $200. Calling Dave about the total cost of the packages, it came to $2,400 worth of prints. That’s excluding the 6x8 photos which was neatly piled in a stack next to them. Dave informed Rama to give them one 50 credit package for free bringing the price down to $2,200.

Obviously the guests refused to pay, especially after spending $500 on CD packages. We were extremely lucky that the guests were calm and friendly to us all. Most people would be red in the face and screaming blue murder!

The lady told us how her Dad had been sick recently, in hospital and they originally thought they wouldn’t be attending the cruise to make way for his funeral. As such horrifying events took place, they wanted to get as many photos as possible of the family, as memories of the good times. Having a mom with cancer, I completely understood where they were coming from and felt so guilty because I was the one who sold the package. If I was in their situation and had professional photographers around, I’d be getting photos of the family left, right and centre!

By the end of the night, Dave wouldn’t let the guests walk away with their photos unless they paid $2,200, not even in exchange for the CDs. All they wanted were the prints, sod the CDs. Instead, they’d have to contact Image head office in Miami and arrange something with them. Until then, we are to keep their photos in the back office. 

As Kate pointed out, we should just let them pay an extra couple of hundred dollars, which would be $700 in total, and let them take the prints. After all, they were stumping up serious cash for photos and all we are going to do is burn them.

Sitting down with Kate in the Mess at midnight, we were both feeling down about the entire episode. We were shattered and had to be at immigration tomorrow at 6am. Going back to my cabin, I slumped into bed upset and still feeling guilty.

Normally, I don’t care. Guests are guests, they come and go. Rarely do I find people that I’d actually like to spend time with and whom I see as normal people, rather than just guests. While working on the Mariner of the Seas, I found a way of seeing guests as guests, or a way to make ends meet. It was almost like a defence mechanism. So far, on Disney Magic, I’ve met three families who I generally enjoyed chatting to. The Corley family from last cruise were excellent and I still miss the Little Monsters popping into my studios just to say "hi".

Maybe I need to harden myself up again? Maybe it is just the nature of the beast? But I still can’t help but feel terrible about it as a whole… and there’s nothing I can personally do to make anything right. The family did give me their postal address (scribbled down on a sick-bag) and told me to give them a shout if I’m ever in Ohio. As a nice gesture, I'll send them a postcard. It won’t right any wrongs, but it’s better than nothing, right?