August 28, 2011

NASSAU, BAHAMAS

I can’t believe it’s been a week since I last have written anything. Like most calendar computations on this ship it seems both a very short time, and an eternity. Last week was very busy with the storm rerouting. We took our Western itinerary backwards, heading to Cozumel first, then Jamaica and Haiti. I have to say I enjoyed last week immensely in hindsight. This is probably due to having hosted three Karaoke sessions, including the contest. There were some lovely people. Margaret and Lana were two ladies I met on the Rising Tide. Margaret has a daughter who is a performer and lives out in Seattle. We had a lively discussion about theatre and the quality of various shows and performers. I encouraged them both to come to the Contest, and while Margaret at first looked skeptical about any karaoke I was pleased to see them in the crowd on the Night 4. After that I just kept seeing them everywhere.

I had the day off in Cozumel so I was able to hang out with the actors of Hairspray again. We ended up going to Margaritaville which sits right on the ocean. It has an enclosed area in the water that has huge blowup play areas, and it felt great just to lie out on the water in the sun. While we were having lunch there I was able to ask several of them if they would be judges again for the contest and they all said yes. So that made me happy. I always enjoy having them. Victor, one of the performers, also said that he would be willing to sing. I will have to get with him and find out what tracks he would like to sing to.

Back on the ship it was busy as I was learning the ropes for Bingo. Everyday we had it, and it was a miserable week. This crowd just did not want to play bingo. One of the sessions we actually had to cancel. Oasis has the distinction, dubious one, of having the worst revenue flow for bingo in the entire fleet. What is odd is our sister ship the Allure has the best. Same ship, same show, on opposite ends of the spectrum. We can’t quite figure it out. This is a major revenue stream for RCI, and as Cruise Staff it is our only commission based activity. If we are to make any extra money it has to be through this. We have a target set every week, and if we make target we get money. We weren’t even in the ballpark last week. As Bingo Host it will be my responsibility to see that we hit target. This is where the visibility of the position comes in. I can do any marketing and promotion that I want, and I have been thinking of various things I can do to help us out.
There is no reason why two sister ships should be so opposite in their events.

This was also Amy’s last week. She has a week vacation then she comes back as Cruise Director for two weeks to cover Richard, then she goes back on vacation. When Richard leaves in a month or so after that Mike is coming back as permanent Cruise Director.

While Amy is on vacation/CD, Mitch Merucci is our Activities Manager. He comes from the Allure, so this will be a great way to find out how their Bingo works and why ours is so different. There will also be a complete turn over for our team. Joyce, Luis, Bjorn, Andrew, Susan, TT and Priscilla are all leaving over the next six weeks. Out of those people only Joyce is coming back to the ship. Susan is being promoted to Activities Manager on the Monarch of the Seas, Andrew is going to Explorer, (where Richard is taking over as CD), Priscilla is moving to Germany with her husband, Bjorn is going to a different ship as is TT, (he’s happy; he will be based in Dubai). Basically within the first five months of my employment I will end up as a senior person on the Team. This of course means a WHOLE lot of learning about EVERYTHING before they all go. It is going to be a busy and stressful couple of months until the new team members get locked in. One good bit of news, Alison is coming back off vacation and will be returning here.
It’s kind of sad, but normal. You get a good team and they all go.

Back to Bingo…So, last week I learned how to operate the actual Bingo machine. This week I will be calling out the numbers for games 2 & 3 of each session. I have to admit, this makes me a bit nervous. There is so much paperwork involved, and due to our schedules I am not sure I have all the information I need. We have Bingo today and we actually have a new grand prize which we have, to my knowledge, never had before. Today’s grand prize is moving into the Crown Loft Suite. A $20k value! It is the premier suite on the ship and takes up two decks. Obviously this is to help create excitement and generate sales of cards. I was just on the Gangway and hawking the Bingo game today. There is a TON of interest so the theatre space should be packed.

I seem to be jumping around a lot here, that is the peril of having to update an entire week in one entry. I wanted to talk about the karaoke sessions last week.

So, the Contest. Once again I had not been present at any sessions prior to the Contest, so I had no idea what to expect in the way of singers. Three cast members of Hairspray showed up as Guest Judges and a lovely black girl from Seattle (!) named Janae was our fourth judge. The singers were all uniformly good, and we actually had to have FOUR finalists, not three. The crowd insisted. Charles, a tall black man with a voice of velvet had wowed everyone with his songs. Jo Ann, a black woman who reminded me of Aretha Franklin; John, another black man with a phenomenal range that was almost a countertenor, and Michael who was so engaging in his stage presence that it made up for any deficiency in his vocals. The crowds were enthusiastic for every one of them. John was on his honeymoon, and being the sap I am, I brought his wife up to him on stage when he was singing a love song that he was dedicating to her. The crowd loved it, and he ended up winning the contest. It was deserved. His voice was incredible, and his last song was a Stevie Wonder song that he knocked out of the park with his improv scat.

It was unusual, but I also ended up hosting karaoke the next night, which was also fun, but sort of a let down after the previous night’s excitement. I was also scheduled for the last night’s karaoke, and to my surprise word must have got round because all my karaoke stars from the contest showed up. It was like a party of friends, and I was so ‘in the mood’ that I changed around my normal sets and ended with the Standard “I’ll Be Seeing You”. People were actually crying by the end of the show because it was midnight and their cruise was over.

Altogether it was a great group of people, and a very successful cruise.
I was not able to get off the ship in Nassau today, but I was curious about any storm damage. Apparently there was quite a bit of damage in the market area. I chose to sleep in instead.

Mitch came on board yesterday, our new AM, and he seems a very capable guy. He trained Amy and was the AM for the Takeout Cruise in 2009. It will be good to see another AM and the way he handles things.