Greek Goddess

Greek Goddess

14th May 2011

As you can guess we are in Greece today. After formal night and finishing at 1am it was a struggle dragging myself out of bed at 5am. The only bonus was that I was dressing up as a Greek Goddess. 

Tugging my bed sheets off at 6am and numerous failed attempts I managed to get the sheet to look something along the lines of a toga. In the end about three people were helping me as I wasn’t quite ready when the gangway opened. We used my belt to fasten the sheets around my waist. If there was a strong wind, the guests would be getting a glimpse of my very unflattering cow pyjama shorts. Lou from Spa lent me a wired head piece with white flowers and greenery wrapped around and a Greek style bead bracelet.

Stu arrived a little before we headed onto the gangway and helped me sort the sheet a bit more to make sure it was secure. Stu was also in costume – a Greek God. He was luckily enough to have a Greek God costume. A bed sheet was simply used to go across his back and drape around his arms. In true style Stu wore his dirty Converses which stood out like a sore thumb against the whiteness of his costume. This caused a few laughs amongst the guests.

Jeni was shooting the rail. David was photographing Stu. All were shooting at the back exit of the ship. This was where all the tours were departing from so the area would be busy. Luci was shooting me at the forward exit. This exit was for guests who were going out and about on their own. Our section was far quieter but most people were saying yes to have their photo taken. Having said that, we weren’t giving them much choice. As soon as they walked out I’d put my arm around them, literally trapping them into having their photo taken, while Luci took the shot. She was standing there ready so the second the guest looked up, she’d take the photo and we’d move onto the next. People were lining up to have their photo taken; what one does, the other follows. Most guests just joined the queue without knowing what it was for.

When things didn't go quite to plan or I'd freeze up a little with nervous, Luci was straight on my case. "Grab them!" and "Don't let them go!". Having Luci on your case can be hard going but it makes you push that little bit harder to get over your nerves, get the job done and get her off your back! Luci's a great teacher to be fair.

Towards the end of the 4 hour stint on gangway Stu, Jeni and David came up to our part. Stu had a moan at me for not smudging enough. That was kind of ironic as Luci and I had the quietest section yet double the photographs!! When I started smudging he told me to not smudge the guests he’d just had a photo with. This boy was doing nothing but complain and nag me and it was starting to get on my nerves. For a while we were both having our photos taken with the guests. Athena on one side and Zeus on the other.

After gangway Luci and I headed to a great little café to use the internet. The café makes its own pizzas and pastries. The food is absolutely delicious! The place was empty so we had a reasonably fast internet connection. Unfortunately the parents weren’t online. I’m used to not seeing them all the time but I do miss speaking to them every day or every other day. Maybe another day.

Back on the ship I was in gallery. Stu was displaying the prints from gangway so I thought I’d give him a hand. The gallery was fairly empty. It was great seeing the gangway photos in print! Again, everything that I did was wrong. Maybe I shouldn’t have done, but I pointed out that it feels like he’s now being overly critical. Some of the images were about half a centimetre out and he’d move them along so all the prints were directly in line. It was the small nitty gritty things that he's picking at. Stu quitely reminded me, rather needlessly, that I’m a Photog 1, he’s Photog 2 and it’s his job to show me how things are done and how to do it properly. He’s only trying to help. That may be true, but it still feels like everything I do is wrong and it’s putting a real downer on me. When Stu talks really quietly, you know he’s doing it to avoid an argument – not that I was looking for one! I just wanted to know why the hell he was on my case so much. Hernan doesn’t get the same amount of shit I do. Thankfully a couple of guests came over so I could get away from him for a bit. I have no idea what’s up with him at the moment. Normally Stu’s a great laugh and I love working with him but at the moment, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Natasha left the ship today. As nasty as it may sound, there were a few sighs of relief. Before she’d resigned she’d been giving so many people grief and it only got worse when she handed in her notice. I’d quite frankly had enough of being spoken to as if I’m a servant and getting shouted at. David and Hernan were the same. On embarkation she had a go at Hernan for something that wasn’t his fault. He asked a couple to stop and have their photo taken and completely buggered up his English and took a couple of seconds to recompose himself and carry on. By then, two couples had walked past. She said he wasn’t doing his job properly etc. It’s easy for someone who only speaks one language.  Even though I speak fluent Spanish, I sometimes fluff my words and get muddled up. And yes, sometimes you do have to take a second or two to recompose yourself when you get nervous and/or embarrassed about not being able to get the right words out at the right time, and more importantly, doing it quick enough! Hernan’s English is getting much better – sooner or later he won’t have half as much troubles as he does now. It’s just a matter of time and practise.

Dolphin Tuna

Dolphin Tuna

9^th May 2011

Chania, Crete

My complaining has finally paid off! Hernan has been dressed up on the gangway at least once every cruise. While talking to Reuben I joked that it wasn’t fair he got to dress up and I didn’t. I think he was shocked that I wanted to dress up as most people don’t. So today my wish was granted… I was going to be dressing up as a dolphin for gangway in Chania, Crete. To make things even better, Stu was shooting me on gangway. If Stu’s around on gangway, you instantly know it’s going to be a laugh. The first time I did gangway in Crete, Stu and I were shooting the wheel. It was my first cruise so he was trying to give me as much information and help as possible. The big question was, did it pay off?

After our little photographer’s corridor party I crawled out of bed at 06.30. Gangway was in 30 minutes. Luckily I didn’t have to look presentable so I climbed into the dolphin costume wearing my pyjamas and hair scrunched up into a ponytail. My ipod cable was threaded through the arm of my costume so I could dance to my music on the gangway.

At 6.50 I had no idea where Hernan was so I crept into his cabin and like usual, he was still asleep. This time he had someone wrapped around him. Waking him up wasn’t easy. That boy can sleep the sleep of the dead!! Accidently I managed to wake the both up. Luckily I didn’t wake Fede. Hernan finally flopped out of bed but while getting ready for gangway, laid on the floor and fell asleep... again.

Stu was supposed to be in the photographer’s corridor but was a no-show. While kicking Hernan to wake up I was calling Stuart. He  sounded anything but wide awake when he finally picked up. Security were late opening the gangway so things were going our way. To get in the mood I was blasting Paramore into my ears. A little while later I got a kick from Hernan… I’d fallen asleep! Once Stu arrived it was time for the show to begin.

With the dolphin head on it’s quite hard to see where you are going or what you’re doing. It’s great fun though. Dancing around the gangway, shaking your booty and the more ridiculous you look, the better: the more the guests laugh. Some people tried running away from me… so I ran after them, as you do. A couple of people dodged me and while walking away thinking they’d missed us, I’d creep up behind them and simply place my flippers on their shoulders. Stu and I were rolling up when a few people let out a shriek. The American’s were happy to pose with a dolphin. English just don’t like the cheese of it all. They are more reluctant to have their photo taken anyway, so you just have to put your arm around their shoulders and make them. That way they have no choice in the matter. One person barged past me and nearly knocked me over! Now that would have been funny!

Stu was shouting out to people “give the dolphin a hug… we all love dolphins – we all eat tuna don’t we?” He was also asking guests if they thought I was a dolphin or porpoise and whether they knew the difference. Everyone knows Stu is the camel on gangway so they asked why he wasn’t dressed up. Next came the “what’s the difference between a camel and a dolphin”… I would post the answer here but it’s a little rude and very crude.

Inside the costume was sweltering and sticky. In addition, the Velcro holding the costume together at my shoulders, kept coming undone exposing my pyjamas. Stu was forever doing it up whilst playing silly buggers with me. After an hour and a half on gangway we got 185 images, our target was 200. We didn’t do badly, next time we will do better but it could have been much worse. Natasha didn’t get close to her target shooting the rail.

After gangway it was time to have a snooze. There was no point heading into Chania (or Xania). The port is a bit of a way from Chania town centre and I didn’t want to rush around trying to contact everyone.

Tonight was formal night too so sleep was needed as it was going to be a long night. At 14.00 we were all setting up the studios – eight in total. My first two stints were in the gallery. There were two ressi sessions in between shooting Bars and Lounges. To finish off I was shooting on the Titanic backdrop.

Everything was going well until I went into the dining room. I was running late as I had to wait for Paco to get back from shooting Captain’s Table. The first table I approached, a couple, told me someone had already been around to take their photos. Scanning the room I spotted Fabio. I rushed over to find out what had and hadn’t been done. He told me Natasha had finished my side and her own. As she wasn’t the fasted at shooting Ressi I thought something was wrong. So I headed to the opposite end of my section in the dining room and went over to a table. I asked if they’d had their photo taken, they replied no, so I took their portraits. I did the same with the next two tables and both denied having their photos taken. It became obvious that my section hadn’t been done so I started working my way through the tables. Halfway through my section I had a look around and there was no one to be seen. Once I finished my section I left to find everyone was back in their studios. This annoyed me as the rule is you don’t leave anyone behind in Ressi. If you’ve finished your section, you go and help somebody in theirs and we all leave together.

Gladiator!!

Gladiator!!

8^th May 2011

Kusadasi, Turkey

Today was another tour, this one was only four hours. Stuart got the short straw and got a 10 hour tour. Of course, he came back absolutely shattered. 

My entire tour took place at Ephesus… the place is massive and we had access to the terrace houses (for entry there’s an additional fee). Oh my word, it was so hot in Ephesus it was untrue, so humid. The site itself is fantastic!! The tour guide studied business administration at university in England and travelled the country quite a bit so he loved telling me all his stories. He was a great laugh and “I joke… I like to joke. See, I joke”. Fantastic! Having a super tour guide makes a huge difference and makes the day that extra bit special.

Here’s an interesting fact about Kusadasi. The name means “Pigeon Island”. "Kusa" translates to pigeons and "Dasi" is island. Originally and obviously the island was known for its huge amounts of pigeons. Kusadasi, believe it or not, also became well known and popular after the 9/11 attacks. It’s also renowned for being one of the safest places in Turkey. We were all given a map of Kusadasi an Evil Eye pin and a clay tablet ticket. The tour guide told us the Evil Eye in Turkey is used to ward off evil spirits and bring you luck. That, and keeping the mother-in-law away. The tablet tickets were used when Ephesus was the largest civilization in the region (2^nd Century B.C – 5^th Century A.D.). 
The clay, engraved tablet was used by spectators to enter the theatre. On the tablet's facade are two engravings, one of a smilings face, the other, crying. This was to symbolise the drama and melodrama found in the theatre's performances.

My tour group was only small, around 22 people, including myself and tour guide. One of the hardest things about touring is you have to split your time in between photographing the guests and keeping the group together and moving. You'd be surprised how easily they find it to get lost. One American guest did just that! He was darting all over the place with his Nikon D90 taking photos. Twice he stood in the way of my shots. As the tour is continuously on the move you have to shoot relatively fast. When he walked into my shot, the guests I was going to photograph walked off to keep up with the tour guide. It's incredibly frustrating to say the least! Anyway, the guy walked off taking photos and got completely separated from the group. It was only 30 minutes afterwards that his wife noticed he was gone… just shows how much she loves him!

Coming out of the terrace houses the lady came charging over to me and started shouting that I’d lost her husband and that he was missing. The tour guide didn’t seem to bothered and said he’d show up sooner or later, plus, he should have stuck close to the rest of the group. This is another reason why I loved this tour guide!! He didn’t pussy foot around the guests.

The terrace houses themselves were absolutely enormous! One thing I didn’t realize was that the Romans were so obsessed with being clean. In Spain and many other countries we have what’s called as a Siesta. Spanish think of it as a time to eat, sleep and relax. The siesta period originates from the Romans. Between 3 and 5.30 the rich people (the poor had to use public baths in the morning) would go to either the public or private baths and sit the entire time soaking and washing. At the entrance of the houses were baths where people would wash as soon as they walked through the door. The baths themselves looked more like decorative, semi-circle internal fountains build into the property wall.

The public bathrooms were great too! Along the back wall was a long marble bench with holes. The rich people would pay serious amounts of money to have a seasonal access to the toilets where they’d perch their bum rather than squat like peasants. Living in those times, compared to nowadays, must have been great if you were rich! Now, it seems like pure madness. Having said that, I'd love to take a step back in time and see it all with my own eyes. Absolutely amazing.

We visited the theatre which is being removed stone by stone. The government are moving the entire thing so that it can be used for future concerts despite public uproar. Sting once held a concert in the ancient theatre. There was big trouble too apparently. Spectators were nearly crushed due to others pushing towards the stage.

Towards the end there were a 10 minute show featuring two Roman gladiators, slaves and Royalty. The sword fight didn’t last long and the emperor gave the thumbs up. Bit unfortunate! When the Emperor gives the thumbs up at the end of a dual, it’s to signify whether the loser lives or dies. Thumbs up and he lives. Thumbs down and he dies a nasty death. Most of the crowd were willing for thumbs up, me and a few others were the opposition.

Every time the tour stopped for a couple of minutes, I was darting around to get the guests' photos one of the many ruins. Although I did the best I could, I didn’t do too well. Only 24 images.

After the tour we had a 30 minute period to use the rest rooms and have another look around. I was getting a few nasty comments about people being sick and tired of us photographers sticking our cameras in people’s faces and so on. Although I can understand it, they have no obligation to buy anything and it’s also my job. It’s just what I have to do to get my image count and hit targets. With 20 minutes left I gave up, you can only put up with so much nagging and bad comments before you need to step back for a bit; not only for the guests as they still have a few days left on the cruise but for yourself and your personal sanity! As Rich once said, it’s mass rejection.

I took the chance to have a drink and walk around some of the little shops that were located outside Ephesus. Of course I had to get some magnets! The Turkish flag, evil eye and Ephesus moment. Three for five euros - pretty good if you ask me. There was even a camel outside Ephesus. 1 euro to stand next to the camel and get your photo taken.

Back on the bus and the missing American had finally made his appearance. His wife pointed at me so I commented “Oh someone’s found you, where were you?” Wrong thing to say. The guy went off on one! “Where were you? Your job is to make sure we don’t get lost and you didn’t find me to tell me that we were moving on”. Rapidly losing patience I had to explain that my job was not to walk at the back of the group and make sure everyone sticks together. Instead, I’m there as the group photographer. I work for the photography department. Next I had to try and politely explain that although I do stand at the back of the group and usher people on, if he wants to take it upon himself to walk off I can’t be held responsible. I can’t separate myself from the group in case I get lost too so there are limits. If he wants to walk off then it’s his responsibility. The guy asked for my name so no doubt he’s going to put in a complaint/bad comment about me. I wasn’t rude but I had to cover my own arse and state the fact that although I’m the escort and photographer, he needs to use common sense rather than expect someone to hold his hand and wait for him to take photos.

Once back at the ship I told our new BM Reuben about the situation, just so he had an idea of what was going on. He told me not to worry – at least my new BM is prepared to give me his backing. A group of us were talking about the ruins and momuments when Reuben came out with a great comment: “In my country (India) we have ruins and everyone call it poverty. In Europe, they have ruins and everyone calls it culture”. The guy cracks me up! 

Our new AMP also went on a tour and only got 20 odd photos. At least now he can see just how hard it is on these tours and it’s not us being slack and lazy about it all. Although we can tell him again and again, he needed to experience the lack of willingness we have from guests. Virtually no one wants their photo taken.

Afterwards I headed out to Starbucks to meet Luci to use the internet. Unfortunately by the time I got to Starbucks there were so many people there the internet connection was so slow. For me, I couldn’t even get online. Fail. 

We took the opportunity to have a walk around the local mini bazaar. Some of the clothes in the shops are beautiful. There was a white, Greek style, cotton dress that I wanted until he guy told me the price, 24 euros. Although the dress was nice, those type of dresses are sold in the markets in Spain for half the price or less! Luci wanted to get some cotton parachute pants so we went into another shop where I spotted a lovely maxi dress. It was so nice, I loved it… but all my hopes of buying it were dashed when I asked for the price. 45 euros. Everything on that side of the market was way overpriced but there were people buying.

We headed over to the opposite side of the bazaar. The side was much cheaper and there was room to bargain. As I can’t steal Rich’s aviator sunglasses anymore I found a nice pair and got the price down to 10 euros. Luci keeps laughing and calling me a Bubaloo (that’s how it’s pronounced anyway. The word means idiot and provided by the Filipinos) as I haven’t taken the glasses off – unless it’s for work on board the ship. Luci didn’t manage to get any pants but she did buy her brother a Turkey top for US$5 instead of 10. 

Every shop has belly dancer outfits, some pants and some dresses. Both of us thought it’d be a great costume for gangway. Maybe that way we’d be able to have Hernan or Stuart as a Turkish prince and me or Luci as belly dancers. We’d get so many photos it’s untrue. Later on I spoke to Reuben and he thought it was a great idea, so when we are next in Kusadasi or Istanbul, Luci and I will be on a mission to find a costume and heckle the price down to the ground. Even though I don’t have a wash board stomach, I’m all for dressing up if it brings more revenue and a packet full of giggles. After all, you only live once so I might as well shake my booty on the gangway while I still can!

Tourism at Ephesus, Kusadasi (Turkey)

Gladiators

Genuine Fake Watches - Ephesus Market

Big Boy's Slide!!

Big Boy's Slide

4^th May 2011

Another day, another new port. 

This time Mariner of the Seas is docked in Ashdod, Israel. Half of the photographers have gone on tours to Jerusalem. Stu, Fede, Luci, David and I were given an easy day compared to yesterday. We were all up at 6am for Gangway at 7. Stuart was dressed up as the camel and paired up with Fede who’d be shooting him. David and I were on the rail. I was shooting while David smudged. Normally we work in twos but David could only stay until 8 because he had three hours of training. So, I was left to smudge and photograph on my own. Watching David smudge gave me some extra tips on how to improve. Even though I didn’t do as well as the others, I shot more than usual. Slowly but surely I’m getting better.

Everyone was working in different places today. At 15.00 David came back from training and we both wanted to go out for a bit. We desperately needed to get off the ship for a couple of hours. Sometimes, being on the ship feels like you're sitting around the house all day doing nothing.

Jumping on the shuttle bus David and I headed into Ashdod centre where the Captain of the Mariner said there was a huge shopping centre or “mall” as everyone calls it.

While walking towards the shopping centre we spotted this massive playground with an enormous climbing frame and slide. There were two kamikaze like slides. Running over to the climbing frame, like children, we started climbing up the ladders. 

After bashing our heads a few times on the frames we finally reached the top. Four ladders to climb before we got to the top - that'd never be allowed in the health and safety crazed country of England! Could you imagine Gordon Brown or Tony Blair allowing anything like that to be built let alone used by kids?? 

David was in his element. He’d found a “real big boy’s slide”. This had to filmed for future reference!!! I went down the slide first with David filming on my camera. 

Next he came flying down while filming… the prat managed to head butt my compact camera leaving him with a nice little bump!! 

After rolling around on the floor crying with laughter we ran back up again for another go. The joins in the slide really hurt your backside… wear some extra padding, unless you have a chubby arse like mine. Going down the second time was even better than the first, I flew down the chute but got ever so slightly worried when I saw the sparks flying off my trousers. Now I have a small patch of “slide burn” on my ankle. That’ll teach me for wearing three quarter lengths...

Heading towards the mall again David spotted the “Cookie Monster” and had to have his photo taken. It was one of the characters from McDonald’s, the purple hairy one. Well, it’d been made with flowers with great big eyes and even holding a metal umbrella. 

The shopping centre wasn’t so great but let’s face it, how could it be after finding something as grand as the big boy’s slide? We were trying to look for a birthday present for Luci but couldn’t find anything she’d like. Plus, Ashdod is so outrageously expensive! In the end I walked away with a small multiple card reader (I was stupid enough to put my card reader into storage) and batteries for my compact camera (I also forgot my battery charger – as you can tell, I’m smart like that).

At 17h we had to head back to the shuttle bus as I had work at 18h. Next time we are in Ashdod we are going to show a couple of the others where the park is. Both me and David we commenting how much Stu would love the park. At the end of the day, he may be 6’7 but he’s a big kid! I’ll upload the photos and videos as soon as possible.

From the Top!

Going Down...

Climbing Back Up For Round Two

Little Boy's Toy

David and The Cookie Monster!!

May Peace Be With You...

May Peace Be With You...

4^th May 2011

Yep, today was the Holy Tour! Mariner of the Seas is in Haifa on the north west coast of Isreal. Here’s a bit of information on the city: Haifa is the third largest city and is situated along the Bay of Haifa overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The city has a population of approximately 240,000 inhabitants and spread over three levels of the northern slopes of Mount Carmel. At the top of the summit are the finest properties and hotels. It is often referred to as the “San Francisco of the Middle East”.

The information guide Royal Caribbean published says the city is “a pleasant, sophisticated modern city with two universities, numerous museums, parks, gardens and theatres.” It is also the centre of international trade “commerce and heavy industry”. Haifa’s port is the largest in Israel. The main industries are steel foundaries, food processing, the production of chemicals, textiles and cement. From what I’ve been told there are a few good beaches and large number of religious historical sites throughout the region.

Now for some history. This information was taken from the information guide provided by Royal Caribbean.

“Haifa is first mentioned in the Talmud around the 1^st to 4^th Century A.D. when it was referred to as Sykaminos, Elijah. The Hebrew prophet fled to this city to escape the wrath of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, hiding in a cave near the waterfront. In 1100 the town was conquered by the Crusaders who then called it Caiphas. The Crusaders built the first of several monasteries above Elijah’s cave.

Napoleonic forces took over the city in 1799 and in 1893 Ibrahim Pasha, the great Egyptian general and viceroy captured the Haifa. In 1840 the city surrendered to Turkey and the Ottoman Empire. Close to the end of World War I, in 1918, the British forces occupied the city. This is also the time of the legendary Lawrence of Arabia. In the 1930’s the massive immigration of Jews seeking refuge from Nazism in Europe bought many to Haifa where they became the majority in a formerly Arab dominated city. In 1933 the deep water port was developed under British mandate while in 1939 Haifa’s petroleum refineries were constructed. During the Palestine War of 1948-49 Haifa, which its key port and industries became important to both Arab and Jewish defence forces who fought to control the city. The Arabs surrendered in April 1949 and Haifa was the first territory secured after the Israeli declaration of independence and it became the early industrial centre of the young country Israel.”

This is probably one of the most religious tours we have, after all we are working on the Holy Cruises. The tour Nazareth and Galilee – Jesus Ministry would take approximately 9.5 hours. We’d stop off at Galilee, the region where Jesus spent his youth, River Jordan, Mount of Beatitude, Tabgha, Capernaum and Nazareth.

We all had to obey the following instructions: “Guests should dress conservatively when visiting sacred sites. Clothing should cover the shoulders and knees.”

The bus drove us to a tourist site located next to the River Jordan. The site contained everything religious possible: holy water, sand from the holy land, thorn crowns (with certificates of authenticity – how, I’ll never know) key rings, magnets, jewellery, bibles etc. In the River Jordan people were baptizing themselves. It’s US$50 to baptize yourself and you receive a certificate too. How authentic the certificate is, I’ll never know. There were two tour buses with Koran guests. According to Fede about 50% of the Koran guests were baptised!! Everything was incredibly expensive so many people were steering clear, especially crew. The brave hearted ones were racking up enormous bills. Everywhere you looked there were numerous signs, leaflets, billboards etc. featuring the same phrase: MAY PEACE BE WITH YOU.

Taking photos was quite challenging at times. We were at locations from anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes.

The tour guide was always on the go walking to the next segment of the tour or back to the bus. People thought if they stopped for a photo they’d lose sight of their group. It did happen on a couple of occasions.

I’ve got a few photos which I’ll upload. Next time I go on this tour I’ll be more prepared as to where to take photos, know my way around better and more information on each site. Luci gave me some good tips on how to get people to have their photo taken when they are on the go. I’ll have to remember it for next time.

By the time we all got back, around 18.00h we were all completely shattered. At 23.30 we had retail training (they know how to choose their times!) Although some of it was useful, I knew most of it from working for an estate agency. Having said that, selling properties is very different from cameras. The tactics are different. Plus, I need to study the pros and cons, features and benefits of each of the cameras we have on sale. Not only that, we need to memorize as many of the PLU codes as possible. When the training ended at 02.00 hardly anyone could keep their eyes open.

Tomorrow we are in Ashdod, Israel which is roughly an hour away from Haifa. All the guys who went on tour will be on gangway and gallery tomorrow. The others will be escorting tours in Ashdod.

Non Stop

Non Stop

3^rd May 2011

Today has been pretty much non-stop. After a couple of hours sleep, it was up at 8 am for training. We only found out the night before that we had training. As I was walking past the message board on my way to S.O.B I saw my name at the bottom of the list. Hernan, Retish (our new AMP) and I had training from 9-10am. Great!

Trying to wake Hernan up was a challenge. He wasn’t even in his own cabin. Ringing somebody else's cabin was rather awkward to say the least! There was a bit of a switch around last night due to some bed hopping – welcome to ship life! Ship life really is a knocking shop at sea!

Just as I was walking into the training room I heard the trainer saying “Don’t worry, I understand if the photogs haven’t been told about the training. Let them sleep. I’d rather they do their training another day with plenty of notice than them falling asleep in class”… just as I was about to turn around and sneak out the door she caught me. “Lou, you’re photo aren’t you? Oh good, the others must be coming then, right?” I double checked David wasn’t on the training list (he thought he was). The lucky git went back to bed for a few hours. Before that though David to run and wake the new AMP up. Poor guy didn’t realize he had training. In the end, we all made it to training – as for falling asleep, a few of our heads were nodding. Marlene (Guatemala) from Guests Relations fell asleep a couple of times. She’d just finished a night shift and was sent straight to training.

The training went on until 10.45. As it is a sea day there’s very little to do so catching up on sleep seemed to be the best option. At 12.15 I was up and getting ready for a four hour stint in the gallery. I’ve sold quite a few folios, 2 cameras (2 in one morning), camera cases and memory cards this cruise. After an hour break it was back into the gallery for another two hours. Today my 2-4 hour stints in the gallery are split up by 1 hour breaks. Handy.

Now I’m on my 2 hour dinner break before I go through to 12.30 or 01.00. Including training I’ll have been on the go 11-12 hours.

Tomorrow we are in Haifa, Israel and I’m out again shooting tours. I thought the tour in Greece was tiring. This time we are all sent to separate places and my tour will last 9.5 hours. I’m so glad I get the evening off. I’ve got to head back to the gallery before retail training so I’ll try and get some more details on tomorrow tour.

**UPDATE**

Retail training has been moved to tomorrow. There was a crew only show tonight in the Savoy theatre. By the time I finished work and showered the show had already started. A little later I headed down to the lab. Fede was going to give me a hand with cropping: a few tips and how much space to leave and how the final image would look after cropping. Let’s hope I do better next time. He did say my positioning and exposure were excellent so I’m happy about that. Positioning people and getting the exposure right can be hard in Ressi as there’s not always a lot of space to maneuver. Sometimes getting further away from your subject isn’t always an option.

Jeni had to lend me a short sleeve top for tomorrow. In Haifa the tours are all based upon religion. At all religious sites everyone, without fail, must cover their knees and shoulders. All but one of my shirts have sleeves and guess what? It’s in the dirty washing (my suitcase is my dirty washing basket now). So next time we are at port I’m going to have a look around the shops for a few short sleeve tops as I’ll no doubt be doing the tours again.

As Jeni and I have both been complaining about how fat we’ve become we decided to finally do something about it… rather than just talk about it. It was midnight. We headed up onto Deck 12 where there is a mile long running track circling the swimming pools and spa. As we are so terribly unfit we only jogged for 15 minutes and walked a couple of laps to cool down. It was quite hard running against a strong wind, you don’t seem to get anywhere. It’s more like you’re jogging on the spot! After jogging we headed down to the Crew Mess for juice and cereals (as you do). By the time we headed back to our cabins it was about 2am… waking up tomorrow at 6am for the tour is going to be a real nightmare!! Wish me luck!

Tourist Mayhem!

Tourist Mayhem

2^nd May 2011

Once again we are in Athens, Greece. Rather than getting the entire morning off I was out photographing the tours with Jeni, David and Stuart. This is my first time photographing tours and didn’t really know what the heck I was doing. Thankfully, Stu gave me a quick run through. Each photographer was assigned a coach. Mine had 44 guests on board.

The coach drove us around the ports while the tour guide told the passengers about the history of the place, along with some current facts. I didn’t realize Greece had 3,000 islands – approximately 160 are inhabited.

The owl is a symbol of wisdom. It’s a Greek tradition to give gold owls to children on their first day of school, high school, university and when they reach 16. It’s a way of symbolising that they are growing and because wiser. Coming of age.

We arrived at our main stop, the world famous Acropolis. I’d never been before so I was a bit of a tourist myself! The place was heaving… ten buses came from Mariner of the Seas alone!! For me, taking photos of the guest was quite difficult. I didn’t know where's the best place to shoot from, which angle to take. We didn’t have a huge amount of time but I had to have a walk and look around for myself. At least that way, when I go back again, I’ll know a few ideal places to shoot from.

The best part was walking into the Acropolis, when you are right at the top of the hill. There’s a famous Martin Parr photograph showing the masses of tourists that flock to the ruins and the mayhem they cause. The scene before me was exactly like the Martin Parr image. I couldn’t help but smile! Wil would have loved taking candid and landscape shots!

After the tour guide did her bit the guests had about 45 minutes to have a wander and look around. This was our chance to go about taking photos. At first I thought I was restricted to the guests who were on the same bus as me (all guests wear bright stickers with their bus number). When I bumped into Jeni I found out that I could photograph anyone. Silly me! We arranged a time to meet up and head back to the bus together. She went in one direction and I went in the opposite. Smudging has to be more subtle than on the gangway. Although we are allowed to take photos, they don’t like us cruise ship photographers taking photos for financial gain.

Smudging on tours is far more difficult than I originally anticipated. I thought everyone would want their photo taken next to a world famous monument or ruin, but that wasn’t the case. People were saying "no" to me then handing their personal cameras to strangers who’d take their photo. Although it’s understandable, it’s frustrating and sometimes the mass rejection can get you down. 

Again, I bumped into Jeni and then David. I had 16 photos and thought I was doing a terrible job. David was doing worse than me. Jeni was on a roll though! We also posed for a few photos ourselves – it’d be rude not to! I guess that was one way of getting our image count up!

Later on, before leaving the site, Jeni did some smudging for me to get my image count up to 20. She literally just ran up to people shouting “photo, photo, photo” while waving her hands together for the guests to move closer. I’d fail miserably if I did it with my random English accent!!

Again we met up with David. He started telling us that Stu was outside the Acropolis. Our entrance and bus fees are paid for as we are working. David’s tour guide told him at the entrance of the Acropolis that he’d have to pay for his own entrance ticket!! He couldn’t believe it… and neither could we when he told us! Stu, who has been to the Acropolis more times than he can count on both hands, gave David his entrance ticket. In the meantime Stuart stayed outside photographing the guests who were entering and taking stock shots.

Jeni hopped onto our bus and we went on another mini tour through the capital city before heading back to the ship. A couple of people were dropped off in Athens city centre. The architecture is Athens is truly amazing!! Real gold is used in many of the monuments as it doesn’t weather - You learn something new everyday.

We made a pit stop at the Olympic Stadium. I was thinking about getting off but the bus could only stop for five minutes and that’s pretty much how long it took to get the guests off. On the way back Jeni was teaching me little bits of Brazilian Portuguese. At lot of it is similar to Spanish, just with a slight twang/change. Some words were exactly the same in both languages. She’s managed to pick it up quickly because of the similarities. Having a Brazilian boyfriend must help too! In return I taught her the only two words I know in Afrikaans… one is bitch and the other I won’t dare post!

After the tour Jeni headed off to her cabin to get some beauty sleep. I found a note from Luci saying she’s waiting for me in the terminal. 

Spotting Luci, we headed to Carrefour which was a 20 minute walk from the port. The slop chest (ship shop – try and say that a few times after a couple of pints) is way too expensive so most people go to supermarkets on shore. For some reason I thought Carrefour was going to be so much cheaper than what is was. The cost of living in Greece phenomenal, especially when you consider the country is financially up shit creek without a paddle! What shocked me the most was that ASDA in England was cheaper. Anyway, we got what we had to and headed to the Irish pub Stu recommended to use the internet. When we arrived he was already there.

Once again I heard back from some of the guys from the Miami training session – everyone seems to be getting on well. Chet’s ship will be in dry-docked for 10 days. Basically, that means 10 days paid holiday – lucky sod!! A couple of the others are soon going to start their transatlantic cruise which will take 5-7 days depending on where they are and the destination. James is freezing his backside off in Ireland.

Our BM, Jomar signed off today and headed back home to the Philippines. We think 6 month contracts are a long time, he’d had his contract extended and ended up working on board for a whopping 11 months. The new BM, Reuben (India) and AMP Retish (India) have arrived. Not that we know them very well but so far they seem okay. Fingers and toes crossed.

At 16.30 I had to head back to the ship to get ready for work. 

Someone I work with put a complaint in about my sarcasm. Apparently, Natasha, the South African photographer, finds my sarcasm, whether I mean it as a joke or not, offensive. It’s only a bit of sarcasm and banter – no one else has a problem with it. Everyone else laughs or banters back. If Lee was around it’d be something of a sarcasm war. Neither of us will give up so it quickly turns into sarcasm tennis. A fantastic laugh though. Anyway, there were a few other problems that were addressed about me and this other girl. To be fair, I didn’t see anything as an issue or anything to report. The girl doesn’t like me – what can I do about it? Nothing. So I just carry on as normal and get on with the work. During my free time I'm always with other members of the photography team. They don't understand why I was pulled up about my sense of humour either. Oh well, I guess ship happens. Now there’s a bit of banter about my sarcasm. If I say something sarcastic, someone points it out or I retort “Oops. Excuse the sarcasm. Remind me, when we are next in Istanbul, I’ve got to pop over to the Grand Bazaar and buy a new sense of humour! I’ll save the sarcasm for special occasions.” The rest of the team know I don’t mean it in a harsh way and it’s all for a laugh. Shame some people don’t get it.

By the time we finished work and had a meeting in the lab it was 00.30. Instead of going to bed we all headed up to S.O.B. for a few drinks to unwind… as you do.

Jeni at the Acropolis, Athens (Greece)