Since I arrived on ship on Saturday afternoon it's been one busy day after another. I haven't left the ship yet even though we've made a few stops, because honestly at this point I'd rather nap when I have a free moment rather than explore a touristy island that I will see a dozen more times between now and April... don't worry, I DO plan to do some exploring eventually!
With this job I'm not just running the productions--there's a lot of administrative behind-the scenes stuff that will be the biggest learning curve I think. TONS of institutional knowledge that it may take a while to figure out. And all of the terminology is different. For example, the person I would call the "Technical Director" has the title of "AV Manager" in this world. Oh well. As the Production Manager I report directly to the Cruise Director, who, as I learned, is VERY important and basically responsible for everything "fun" for the cruise guests. He's British and very energetic, I'm just hoping I can keep up with him!
Living on a ship is a lot like living in the dorms... if your dorm room is on a rocking, wobbly piece of steel in the middle of the ocean. That being said, this ship is only about 2 years old and is pretty stunning (though having never been on a cruise before this I have nothing to compare it to... my closest experience is from watching "Titanic," which probably isn't the best thing for comparison...). It should be said that I'm living in a fancy guest cabin for this first week or so until my room is available. There is a specific cabin just for the Production Manager, but that room is being occupied by the person currently holding that title, so I got stuck in a guest cabin up on deck 7 with a BALCONY, a couch, and a Queen size bed. And a big little bathroom. Tough life. Really curious as to what my "real" room will look like.
We have three big production shows and a variety of smaller shows that are performed here, not to mention guest entertainers and such. I still don't have a good grasp of how all that works. One thing that makes our shows unique from many of the other ships is all the aerial stuff in our shows... a little Cirque du Soleil-ish. Super cool, and super new for me. A far cry from the last few projects I've worked on on land.
I'm being trained by a guy who's been doing this for years and years, so he definitely knows what's going on. In fact, so far the whole "AV" team seems pretty great. I'm definitely outnumbered by males around here though. We'll see how that goes. Testosterone.
I've met lots of people from ALL OVER THE WORLD. More accents and denominations than you can shake a stick at. I definitely have an advantage as a native English speaker, however. I wouldn't want to be doing all of this training (LOTS and LOTS of ship safety training) without a firm grasp of this language. Just in my cast and crew we've got Canadians, Filipinos, Brits, Scots, Polish, American, Ukrainian, etc. Wild. Have made some friends from South Africa, Bulgaria, Canadia, Ukrainia...all over.
I may try to post some pictures of this place at some point. Maybe even now. We'll see.
P.S. I have NO FACEBOOK on the ship, unless I go pay to use a computer in the crew lab. At the moment I am on my office computer, which has all social things blocked, though I am still able to check email from here.
P.P.S. Will be doing 7 day cruises around the Caribbean until April, then set sail for Europa. For the time being I should be in Miami for a few hours each Saturday, when I will try to catch up with phone calls/texts, as I don't have these conveniences when I'm out on the water!
Cheers,
D
The view from the Bridge.
My temporary quarters. Note the small bed and tiny window.
Cheesy self portrait from my balcony as we sail into Puerto Rico.
And last but not least, the Eclipse Theatre. I found this photo on my office computer, not actually sure who took it or what's happening on stage, but this is the main performance space.
SUPER excited for all of this for you! And your room looks delightful.
ReplyDeleteAND titanic is coming out in 3d. just as an fyi.