September 9, 2011

Dear Reader,
I think I am going to adjust this blog to be a weekly entry. That way I can add things as the week goes by and post one update every week. By this point if you have followed me on my journey you have become used to the rhythm of life on the seas, so it is pointless to do a daily update, (besides being increasingly difficult with my schedule), and a weekly update allows me to create a flow and maybe even a story line. So, though this is Day 7 of Voyage 93, I am going to write this out for the week that has preceded.

Enjoy!

Michael


This week I re-read Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist”. If you haven’t read it so far I highly recommend it. It is an amazing parable, and one that never ceases to hit home for me. We are all on a Journey in this life, and I believe we all have a purpose. Maybe not a “Grand Purpose” like being a statesman and leading a country, or being a multi-millionaire patron of the arts, but we all have an impact on our world and those around us. The Alchemist is a story about finding your Personal Treasure, whatever that treasure may be.

I have always liked stories of journeys. There is, of course, Homer’s “Odyssey”; one of the earliest and certainly most profound stories of a personal journey, but there have been many more over the centuries. In truth, I would say that all stories, films, tv shows, dramas, plays…anything that has been written or performed, is in fact the story of a personal journey. It doesn’t matter if the journey actually includes travel, it is a personal journey of growth. I suppose there are exceptions…especially in the film genre of horror, etc, where there is nothing but the excuse for bloodletting, but the stories that impact us the most heavily are always those that involve a journey of some sort. Joseph Campbell referred to this as “The Hero’s Journey”. We are all the heroes of our own story.
Being a Pisces, a water sign, I suppose it is no great surprise that my Personal Journey should involve travels on the water. Water is a symbol of the subconscious mind. It is also the strongest element. Water can bend, flow, take on any shape, overflow, erode mountains. Strong and flexible…good attributes to have while working on a ship.
Enough philosophy, on to the week….

We had several new events, as I believe I said earlier, this week…and I got to host them all. The first new event we added is called “Secret Supper”. I am not sure what the secret is, but the supper is a progressive bar crawl/dinner. It begins in the Champagne Bar on Deck 5, proceeds to the outdoor Trellis Bar in Central Park, then finishes in Vintages, the wine bar also in Central Park. We had 29 people signed up for this excursion and they pay $25 dollars. This fee includes free cocktails at all the bars, a tapas and wine dinner in Vintages, and entertainment provided by the Cruise Staff. In this case the Cruise Staff consisted of myself and Gyselle, a beautiful Brazilian woman.

We had no idea what to do, Mitch gave us a general guideline an hour or so before hand, and off we went. We decided to take some Trivia quizzes with us and some prizes to break the ice and entertain the guests. This worked well in the Champagne Bar. It got the different guests talking and laughing. We realized after that it would have been better to pick Trivia questions that contained the theme of wining and dining. It is a note for next week’s Secret Supper. Another mistake we realized is that everyone wanted to take the Rising Tide bar to Deck 8, Central Park, and we couldn’t because we were on conflicting time schedules. So we will have to adjust the timing of the event to enable us to take the RT.

Once we had spent 30 minutes in the Champagne Bar it was off to Deck 8 by elevator. We all met at the Trellis Bar, which is outdoor seating underneath…a trellis. Go figure. By this time the ice was thoroughly broken and we had fun with the guests answering questions about the ship in general and adding more Trivia questions and prizes. Our last stop was the elegant Vintages. Here they were treated to a dinner of tapas and we thanked them all for their time and wished them bon appetit. I had a question and answer with the guests, letting them know that this had been the first time we had done this event on the ship, and asking for their thoughts to create a unique experience. They were very appreciative and gave some good ideas which, like the Rising Tide and Trivia theme, we will incorporate into the next time we do the event.

The second new event is called “Family Quest”. It is loosely based on the adult themed “Quest” show which we roll out on the evening of Day 6. It is an audience participation game show where team captains are chosen to represent the various sections of guests seated in Studio B. As it is a midnight show, and the guests have been drinking, you can guess at the adult nature of the event. It is a Cruise Director hosted event, and the Studio is broken down into teams with numbers. The CD will ask for a certain something and the team captains have to run on down to him/her with the team number and what ever it is that has been asked for. By the end it becomes an event that might be seen on Duval Street on a late weekend night. That’s all I’m saying.

It had been decided that due to the adult nature of the show that it might be nice to have a G version of it that the whole family can participate in. Again, that is all I had to go on, so I built a show around that guideline. It was not promoted or published much, which was fine, and in the end only two families showed up. They were great sports, and after I explained what it was we were trying to achieve and that they were, in fact, guinea pigs for the concept, they all had fun. The games included things like “bring me your team number and a left shoelace”, or “bring me a team number and three tongues”. The families had a great time, and the kids really enjoyed competing with their Moms and Dads. Again, after the event I had a question and answer with the families so I could tailor a really nice event that we can pack. The one comment that was most important, and I agree, is that the event took place in the nightclub, Blaze, which would be dangerous for young kids if there had been more people. There are a lot of marble tables and the dance floor itself is surrounded by marble tables attached to the pillars. This is just asking for an excited child to run their head right into the corner. We are going to have to move the event to a different location.

Immediately after this event, I had yet ANOTHER new event called “Victims”. (We need to change the name). It is loosely based on Whose Line is it Anyway? Hosted by Drew Carey. It is an improv show where the audience chooses what the teams have to accomplish. The theme could be movies, with four choices of movies, and the audience picks which movie each team has to improve a scene from. Again, it got pretty adult in nature. The choices were made by pressing corresponding numbers on a key pad which was wirelessly connected to the main computer. The computer had a powerpoint program which has been adapted to create the show. The event went really well, and we had over 50 guests with keypads choosing the themes and awarding the points. There is some tweaking yet to be done, but it has the makings of a show that will be produced, most likely, in the Main Theatre, the Opal. It will probably end up being a Cruise Director hosted event as well.

I received many compliments on my hosting from guests and staff, which was appreciated.

Speaking of staff appreciation, last month I was nominated for Employee of the Month. I really didn’t think much of it at all, but apparently it really is a big thing. This morning I got a call from Mitch saying I needed to go the Comedy Live venue. When I got there all the senior officers and staff were there with a really nice buffet lunch and assorted crew. There was an awards ceremony for those crew members with various years of service, and the finale was the recognition of the Employee of the Month. Margaret, the HR Director, was the MC, and the Captain was there to co-host and shake hands with the winners. There were about 15 nominees, and as they say, even though I did not win it was an honor to be nominated. I suppose out of 2,100 crew members being 1 of 15 top performers in my first quarter as an employee is pretty spectacular. All the others had much more time in service and multiple cruises under their belts. We apparently also get a plaque for being nominated. The winner gets a thousand dollars in cash. I’ll have to try harder next time!

I was also surprised over the past week how many crew members congratulated me on the nomination. Apparently word of these nominations gets around, and it is something quite special. I just felt I was doing my job to the best standard I could achieve.

Of course, no week would be complete without the Oasis Superstar Karaoke Contest. Day 1 I hosted the evening karaoke, and assumed that no one would be there, or everyone would be too scared to perform. Boy, was I wrong. It was an amazing crowd, and there were many that I told to come to the contest. Well, they all showed up. There was a large contingent from Rainer Beach in Seattle, and they rocked the house. I honestly don’t think I could have a good contest with Black participation. There is something that they bring to the stage that just ignites an audience. I was speaking with Victor, a young black man in the cast of Hairspray who has volunteered as a judge for the past four contests, and he says it has to do with a Cultural confidence gained singing in church. I think he is right. I hate to say it, but Blacks possess a freedom of expression that Whites simply don’t. We are too tied by what others are thinking all the time. Blacks don’t care. Well, all three of the finalists were black, and Don, a veteran of Day 1, was simply brilliant. At one point he had half the room on stage with him singing and clapping and dancing along to his rendition of “Celebration”. It was one of the most exciting contests I have judged here, and people were still talking about it last night. I have seen several veterans of my Ministry of Music over the past several days, and all say they are coming back tonight for the final session, which I am hosting. It should be a great time once more. I will be sorry to see this lot go.

Video of Don and Jackie from the final night of the cruise is on the video tab.

Another guest I met, while on Rising Tide, is a wonderfully stereotypical New York woman, (from Brooklyn), who now lives in Florida. She hosts a monthly get-together for native born New Yorkers so that they don’t “forget how to talk”….actually, it came out “tawk”. She had not had a great experience on board, so I set out to find out why. Various reasons from her dining experience (she came with a group of 29), to not finding the staff friendly enough to say hello. Needless to say I overheard her name, and have gone out of my way, but not obviously so, to say hi to her every chance I had. I saw her yesterday at the Comedy doors and asked how the cruise was going. Apparently it had vastly improved.

A couple more things and then it is time to wrap this up so I can load it tonight.
There was an amusing incident at the Dreamworks parade this week. We have a new DW cast on board now, so things are bound to be a bit rocky. I arrived on Day 5 to get my costume and put it on and found that when I did my sleeves had somehow shrunk to end somewhere around the middle of my forearm. It was late, and places had already been called. Luckily, since I am Shrek’s Wrangler, Shrek was not there and I did not really have to attend…other than it is fun. Places had already been called, so I sent a message out to the Dance Captain, who was already on the Promenade getting the parade started, saying that I could not participate because there was an issue with my costume. She sent back a message saying that that was fine.

Now there were two options for the costume issue. Either someone had my costume, or it had shrunk in the wash. I REALLY didn’t want option 2…that would mean that I was out of the parade for good and someone would end up getting in trouble because of the costume damage. I decided to head out to the parade and watch it, and see if there was anyone who was wearing my princely get-up.

Sure enough, about half way through the parade I see the wrangler for Puss in Boots come around the turn of the Promenade. She is a slight girl…and was wearing my costume which looked remarkably like a blue and yellow velour sack on her. Relieved at the answer to my question I laughingly waited for her to finish and come back to the staging area in the Opal Theatre Deck 5 box seats. When she did I asked if she felt the costume was a trifle large on her. Situation solved, I will be back parading next cruise!
Lastly, last night was Amy’s first Quest show as Cruise Director. Remember, she is taking over for Richard while he is away at a wedding. She did a fantastic job and I think that she hit it out of the park. Don of course was involved. Apparently he has been at EVERY event this week. I don’t think I have ever seen a guest as involved in their cruise. He has truly “Lived the Oasis” this week…which means he will have a LOT of great memories to take back home with him. I am certainly going to miss his energy among the guests…but that is the good thing about getting a new selection of 6,200-odd new best friends every week!

EVENING ENTRY

Tomorrow we lose three of our team members, Andrew, Bjorn and Susan. The whole team is basically breaking up. My first team. Within the next 4 weeks almost everyone rotates off and basically no one is coming back. It is very sad since I have become attached to all the team in my time here. It is an amazing group of people, and though I look forward to the future team, there will never be a first one again. I have been blessed to work with such a talented and generous group of people. I shall miss Bjorn, my Jamaican friend. He is almost like a brother to me in that we never have to wonder what the other person is thinking…our sense of humor is exactly the same. Of course, this means that we cannot play practical jokes on each other because we know exactly what the other person is doing at all times. He is a very humorous and generous man, and the Allure is lucky to be getting him when he signs on in a couple months.

Susan is another incredible person. Scottish, and though I tease her about her pronunciation of all numbers in the 30’s, (especially 33), I will miss her upbeat personality and sense of fun. She was a great bingo hostess, and she will be an awesome Activities Manager when she reports to her new ship, the Monarch of the Seas.

I wish all the team members bright futures and fair skies, and look forward to seeing them again at some point!

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

I HAVE A SINGLE!!!  Moving day is tomorrow....across the hall to my own cabin...small...but MINE!