Castaway Cay and Characters

Castaway Cay and Characters

18th May 2012

Goofy

Chip n Dale and DJ Kurtis

Dale Playing Around

Cartwheels at Cove, Castaway Cay

Pluto

Minnie Mouse

Mickey Mouse at Mount Rustmore

Where's Dale?


Captain Jack Sparrow


At the Post Office

Mickey and Minnie Mouse at Mount Rustmore

Goofy, Pluto, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck

Dream Meets Magic

Dream Meets Magic

23^rd April 2012

I’d known for a couple of days that Disney Magic would be meeting Disney Dream in Nassau, Bahamas. There was one person in particular that I was desperate to see, my Image step brother, or Hermanastro as I call him, Hernan. Although we’ve been in constant contact with each other, I hadn’t seen him for nearly six months!

We had another early morning start. Most of the photographers were shooting the Princess Gathering. Unfortunately, I had to sit that one out due to my wrist and was stuck on display with Cintia and Steph instead. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind display but I’d much rather be taking photos at the Princess Gathering.

My wrist hadn’t improved, in fact it was getting worse. The doctor I’d been visiting in the medical didn’t know what was wrong with it. It’s frustrating but, what can you do? As far as the doctor and nurses were concerned, I’d sprained my wrist and maybe pulled my tendons a bit. With a puffy hand and sausage fingers, strapped up in a splint, I was only able to use one hand. Of course, my one handedness caused a few laughs as my index finger was sticking up and curling at the knuckle. I was, I have to admit doing the “Captain Hook” look. Very popular on Pirates Night, I can assure you.

With Princess Gathering and Display done, Ani and I crawled up the stairs to our cabin. Slumping into bed, we wanted to get an hours sleep before meeting the photographers on Disney Dream and heading out into Nassau, Bahamas.

At around 11.00, our phone started ringing. Jumping out of bed, cursing under my breath, I picked up the phone. “Holaaa”. I'd recognised that voice anywhere! It was Hernan! Immediately I was wide awake, hanging up the phone and scrambling to get my clothes on. Hernan was on the Magic and waiting for me just off the I-95.

Running down the stairs, I was over the moon and couldn’t wait to see Hernan. Charging over to him, he got the biggest bear hug imaginable… and he recorded it on his new compact camera!

Nipping upstairs, I woke Ani up and grabbed my things, we were heading out. Hernan was impressed by the size of our cabin, the "penthouse cabin" as we call it, but that was about it. Compared to the Disney Dream, our cruise ship was an old rust tin that seriously needed to go into dry dock for improvements. He was right, especially when you consider we have a large wet patch in the middle of our cabin thanks to a new, constant leak that no one has come to fix. That's right! The leak is back... just in another part of the cabin!

Quickly running onto Disney Dream as Hernan forgot his wallet, straight away you could see the contrast in our ships. The Dream was not only newer and large, but better looked after, more luxurious. Even their cabins were slightly bigger but much nicer than ours. For starters, they had space to move around and the drawers inside their wardrobe weren’t broken or hanging off! The lucky sods even had an endless list of movies to watch. All we had to settle with was BBC News and the ship’s shopping channel.

It was the Magic’s first time in Nassau so we weren’t sure where to go. We didn’t have that long so Hernan showed us a place popular with crew, mainly because of its good food, reasonable prices and internet connection. Olives was jam packed with crew members. Crew from Disney Magic were meeting up with Disney Dream.

We talked about everything. Life and work on our ships, where we’ve docked, the places we’d visited, money, where we’re going, vacation and a huge chunk of our conversation was reminiscing about the days on Mariner of the Seas. The laughs we had on that Royal Caribbean ship were endless. By the looks of it, we both love and miss working with the team from the Mariner of the Seas. Sandra, Zoran, David, Camilo etc… all friends who soon turned into family members.

Hernan then had a great idea. Asking a passing waitress for a piece of paper, he scribbled a message down for Sandra containing one of the many private jokes we all shared during our contracts on Mariner of the Seas. Getting my camera out, Ani took a photo of Hernan and I holding up the message.

We then did another one for Zoran and Fede. Photos were taken, uploaded to Facebook and the respective people were tagged in our pictures. It was our way of making fun of them not being there with us in Nassau but, also our somewhat disturbed way of saying “we’re thinking of you and wish you were here!”

As always time flies way too fast when you’re having fun and soon it was time to return to our ships. It was sad going separate ways and saying bye to Hernan. I’m still very used to having him around and/or being in constant contact.

Soon Disney Dream and Magic will be docking in Nassau together, again. With meeting Hernan in Nassau today and on a later date, seeing Lee every other week in Port Canaveral, with the possibility of seeing Chet and Zoran when they aren’t working, things are certainly starting to look up!!!

This is the part about ship life that I love. You never know when or where you’ll be seeing your friends again but in the small world of ship life, but you’ll bump into them again soon. Most of the time you don’t even realize you’ll be in the same country or port until you get on to the gangway and see your friend’s ship docked next to yours. Like I said, it’s the small world of ship life!

From Nassau: Sandra, Fuck You!

In Nassau with a Message for Sandra

This is for you Zoran...

Yep, THAT'S your Message :-)

AMP Energy

AMP Energy

14^th April 2012

What do you do, when you are shattered and failing miserably to stay awake, just before formal night begins? Some say drink coffee, others Red Bull but Monster is what I unwillingly choose, if desperate measures must be taken.

Unfortunately, the crew shop had completely ran out of Monster. Of course, it was a good thing for me in the long run. However, someone suggested trying a new drink called Amp Energy. The name itself made me smile (AMP for us photogs means Assistant Manager of Production). Picking it up, I paid and walked to my cabin to get changed.

Never in my life have I read the back of a drink can, looking for instructions on how to drink it. I cracked open the can, downed half, before jumping in the shower and the rest just before leaving my cabin.

In the atrium Carolee was setting up her pentab. She’s shooting the Mickey Statue tonight while I smudge and pose the guests. It’s strange the Hotel Director and Csaba want us to be less Royal Caribbean (say “Please” and “thank you” at the end of everything and take more time talking to them - bullshit, in other words) . When I mentioned to Csaba that he’d put the two Royal Caribbeans together his eyes widened but with a knowing smile on his face. I think he wants to see what we can do together.

Looking at me, Carolee suspiciously demanded “what’s wrong with you?”. I laughed. Almost instantly she knew I’d been drinking energy drinks again. All she could say was “Oh Jesus” before shaking her head and looking the other way.

It wasn’t long until the Amp Energy really kicked in. Asking me how much I’d drink, I said the can, in one go. Then I found out from Carolee that if you read on the back of the can, you’re supposed only drink half a can at a time. Using one half as a top up. I, on the other hand, had overdosed on energy drink.

Soon my legs were moving in the opposite direction to what I’d wanted. My words were apparently coming out slurred, although to me they were just a mad rush. Csaba came over to the Mickey Statue and soon saw the obvious surge of energy I had. Carolee told him I’d been on the energy drinks again which just so happened to amuse Csaba.

When the busy period came, Mike took over, posing the guests. Csaba and I had to keep the crowds back as everyone was surging into the dining room. One of the dining room entrances is situated just behind the Mickey Statue, so at 17.30 hoards of people line up outside for 15 minutes, before the place opens. As soon as the doors open, everyone starts scrambling forward to get inside. Honestly, you’d think the guests hadn’t seen food for a week or more, the way they behave!!

Anyway, in the frenzie, guests started to hand me things to hold on to, while having their photo taken – bags, litre glasses and even a walking stick! While running and skipping around like a fool, high on Amp Engery, holding back the crowd and holding on to piles of guests belongings, I was getting plenty of laughs from the guests. Carolee was doing her part in winding the crowd up a bit by saying I’m crazy and have a screw lose.

A couple of times I resorted to hiding behind the Mickey Statue while Carolee took a portrait and signalling to guests to stay back. A couple of people didn’t listen and gave us abrupt statements “We are going to dinner!” -  Really? I wondered why you’d go into the dining room at this time of evening…

For the last session, I was in the lab printing. I am now the lab bitch. Before though, I had to run into the crew shop, not for more energy drinks but for a crate of water. I desperately needed to calm down or else I’d be wake until the small hours of the morning. Csaba and Mike were still poking fun and laughing about it all. I don’t blame them. Turns out Carolee even took some sneaky photos of me while I was acting the prat. There was only one photo that I know she took – I posed on the stairs with a lady’s walking stick in my hand as if I was in some kind of Cabaret show.

By the end of the night, everyone was laughing at the stories Carolee was telling. My eyes, according to a few photographers, were wide open, deer to headlights kind and my pupils abnormally large, making me appear high.

AMP Energy far worse/more effective than Monster, depending on which way you look at it. Lying in bed, my legs were switching and I still felt full of energy, as if I could run a marathon and beat Paula Radcliffe.

During dinner we found out that Maryna is being transferred to Disney Wonder in Port Canaveral. No one had any idea as to who would be coming to replace her, although I had heard it was a new hire from either Serbia or Croatia. Another new hire wasn’t a thought any of us relished. Our fingers were crossed… actually, everything we could cross was crossed in the hope of getting someone with experience and a willingness to actually work rather than stagger behind waiting for us to pick up the pieces.

Never Drink AMP Engery!

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!

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