Golden Gate Bridge, Sept 24, 2012

A few weeks ago on our way south from Seattle the ship spent the night in San Francisco.  On the way into and out of the city we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge.  I was able to get out to the heli-pad on the front of the ship as we left the city and took this quick video.  It was really incredible, and as huge as this ship is it dwarfs in comparison to the Bridge.

I don't remember how much clearance they said we had, but there was not a lot of extra room overhead!

In case the video doesn't work as planned, here's a photo as we approached the bridge---

And as we passed under it--

Pretty cool.

Okay.  Time for bed.

Sweet dreams,
D

Canal Day

Yesterday, 10/4/2012, the Infinity went through the Panama Canal on its way from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  I was in rehearsal all day, so I didn't get a chance to actually go outside and see the (9 hour) process of navigating the locks and the lakes, but I do have a cool pic from a webcam as we passed through:

Celebrity Infinity in the Panama Canal - October 4, 2012

We'll pass through the Canal 4 or 5 more times before I leave, so I'll definitely find time to watch some of it... it's pretty amazing.  There's approximately 50 centimeters of clearance on each side of this ship as it passes through... that's not a lot of room.  As I was eating lunch that day down in the mess on Deck 1 all you could see out the porthole window was a stone wall... if there wasn't glass in the window you could reach out and touch it.  Insane. Some colleagues and I were comparing it to pulling into the garage... for a couple of hours at a time.

Okay that's all for the moment.  I have a 9am rehearsal for a guest talent show tomorrow.  AND it's one hour forward [AGAIN] tonight as we continue our eastward journey.  Ouch. 

Sweet dreams.
D

Thoughts

Yesterday I received a compliment that I can't stop thinking about...it's cracking me up a little bit. One of the guest entertainers on board told me I reminded her of a 'young' Angela Lansbury:

What do YOU think?

In other news, we're 11 days into this 17 day-long cruise... still in the Pacific Ocean.  Stopping in Puntarenas, Costa Rica today as our port of call.  Since the new cast is still in rehearsals for their third and final show, they're using this day as a rehearsal day... that being said, I don't think I'll be getting any sun in Costa Rica today.  Oh well.

My lighting guy just called me to tell me he's been throwing up all morning and that he might not be able to work today. Throwing up sucks, and under normal circumstances I'd say 'that sucks, stay home, feel better.' But since we're on a ship, which is not normal circumstances, there are certain maritime and company regulations that come into play here... first and foremost he has to be reported to the medical facility, and may or may not be isolated to his cabin for a day or so until he gets better. Any sort of GI disturbance is serious, because some of those bugs are super contagious and must be kept at bay... there's nothing fouler than a ship full of pukey poopy people.  Actually, as I write this, my boss just called to say we're nearing the dreaded 'Level 2,' which means we've had a certain number of GI cases reported in so many hours and need to boost our sanitization efforts.  Oy.  Talk about fun!

That being said, I'll leave you with this image of future me...

Hope you are well!
D

Cast Changeover...

I don't quite exist this week...or next, but somehow have carved out a second to make a post.

This cruise and next are a part of what we in the cruise industry call the cast changeover.  Last embarkation day (when the old guests leave and new ones come on) in Seattle, I got my 17 new dancers and singers on board.  For the last few weeks they have been in rehearsals in England and arrived on board as a whole cast to replace the outgoing group, who will be leaving on the next embarkation day in Seattle. 

It's a particularly crazy time... not just in the days leading up to the new cast arriving and the old cast leaving, but the suuuuuper long days wherein we have a full day of normal rehearsals, shows, lectures, and events, and then add on top of that the extra rehearsals we are doing with the new cast members to get them fully accustomed to the theatre, the stage space, the scenery, lighting, sound, costumes, etc.  They need to be at 100% with everything when the current cast leave, so needless to say it's a busy week.  At the moment my normal brood of 17 cast members has doubled to 34, in addition to my tech team.  Supermom am I... yeah, you have to be part mom to do this kind of job, whether it's on ships or on land.

That being said, when we leave Seattle on Friday we'll be heading south instead of north.  Alaska season is over, so we'll be doing a repositioning cruise, or "crossing" cruise, to transition to Panama Canal season.  Instead of a 7 day cruise this repositioning will be 17 days.  Yup.  The cast does basically the same amount of work in 17 days as 7 days, but I sure don't.  The ship will be doing an overnight in San Francisco on the 23rd of September, so I'm looking forward to the chance to do a little exploring in that city.  I've only ever been to the airport, but I saw Alcatraz and Golden Gate as we flew in!

Hope all is well with everyone.  I'm just trying to stay sane...and awake...sounds a little like grad school.  Once this changeover period is over I'll breath easy and sleep again.

Thinking of my people, wherever you are.

D

Mathematics

Nearly two weeks into this contract on the Infinity, and so far so good. Even though the previous Production Manager left before I arrived, we all survived with no major issues.  It really helped that I had the basic institutional knowledge of what the heck I'm supposed to do and who's responsible for what on these ships.  Otherwise we'd be in trouble.  As of now, the cast is good, the AV team is good, my boss is good, the ship is good, the itinerary is good. My cabin is half the size as my cabin on Eclipse. There's no window. There's no couch. But no matter.  I'll trade the stress/frustration of that ship for a smaller, darker, couchless cabin any day. No worries.

It's kind of fun now that I've already completed one contract to be able to talk to the cast/AV team and figure out how many of the same people we know.  It's a good icebreaker for me as the new person:  "Hey, did you say you worked with 'so and so'? Me too!" Yup.

We've got a few more weeks of Alaska cruises, then on September 21 we head south to reposition for our Panama Canal/Caribbean cruises.  The new cast will arrive on September 14 after four weeks of rehearsals in the UK, and we'll spend a week transitioning them into everything.  Should be crazy, but I feel a little better prepared since I survived one already my last contract. We'll see!

--

So...some math for you.  You may have heard me say, and it may not surprise you to hear, that men outnumber women quite significantly on ships.  I happened upon some numbers the other day that made me laugh a little... at this moment, there are approximately 770 men on board.

And 170 women.

--

Moving on, I just spoke with the on-board Alaska expert/naturalist guy and he says tonight should be a great night to see the Aurora Borealis, aka Northern Lights.  I might try to pop out to the open deck after the shows tonight to see what I can see! I've never seen the Northern Lights!


More soon,
D

A New Adventure

Celebrity Infinity...in some exotic locale.

A new adventure awaits on the high seas as I make my way to Alaska to join the crew of the Celebrity Infinity for the remainder of its Alaska season and into it's Central/South America season... should be interesting!

I expect to be on board until February, so any and all Birthday/Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years gifts and other assorted fan mail can be sent to this address (or some variation thereof)::

Celebrity INFINITY / Crew Mail
Danielle Fullerton / Production Manager
2935 West Corporate Lakes Blvd
Weston, FL 33331

This address is basically just a routing center for the ship and the mail will be forwarded to me wherever I am in the world!

More updates to come!
D

All's Well That Ends Well

SO.  I'm done. I'm back. It's over. The Celebrity Eclipse and I parted ways on June 9 in Southampton, UK, at the end of a very long and oh-so-short 5.5 month contract.  As with every home I've had, I left a piece of my heart there, and will miss a lot of people very very very much.  They know who they are.

(some of the guys...just your average evening)

Okay, enough of me being sappy.

In the 2.5 weeks since my return I've been crashing in the spare room of my sister and her husband's house in Richmond, Virginia, USA.  I've been sleeping late, eating delicious food, watching movies, and spending loads of time with my super cute 14-month-old nephew Giovanni (Gio!).  I'll be doing a little domestic adventuring as well, visiting friends and family around the USA.  Lately I've also been reflecting a lot on my travels, my work, my self, etc etc.  Being a Production Manager on a ship is no easy task.  When Maddie, the incoming PM arrived on May 26, it was like instant relief...the end was in sight.  We talked and talked a lot about the stresses of the job, the good, the bad, the ugly, the pros, the cons, all of it.  We jokingly referred to it as "Production Manager Therapy," but it was no joke... it's a tough job, a lonely one, so having someone to really (really!) talk to about it (after 5.5 months of nothing) made a world of difference.  To Maddie I wish the best of luck: it's a big ship, a beautiful ship,  with big shows and a lot of responsibilities.  The work is tough but the people are good.  Safe travels!

(Maddie and I in Warnemunde-- rock on, lady!!)

As for me, I didn't think I would miss it, but I do.  Even after a few short weeks away I'm already rested and rejuvenated and have had time to think about a lot of things and how I would do things better--differently--if I were to go back to the Eclipse.  What you may not understand is that when you are a Production Manager on a ship you don't get a day off.  Ever.  So on this contract I worked 5.5 months straight.  Other PMs work 6-7-8 months.  Straight.  It's hard.  But I must be crazy, because I've agreed to take another contract as a PM with Celebrity.  This time on a different ship, a "smaller" ship, with a much different itinerary.  While I was on the EC we spent 4 months in the Caribbean before sailing over to Europe, where before I left we did a Norway cruise, a Mediterranean cruise, and a Baltic cruise.  It was pretty incredible.  On my next ship, the Celebrity Infinity, we'll spend a month or so doing Alaska cruises out of Seattle, then make our way south to do Central America cruises for a while, then south again to South America.  I may even see Antarctica (!!) before I leave.  This will be VERY different from the last ship.  Smaller size, different production company.  Just very different.  On the EC I had a number of people tell me that they could really see me doing "Millennium Class" ships (of which the Infinity is one), so we'll see how that goes.  Believe it or not, I got a lot of crap about working too hard/too much while on the EC, so I'm hoping I can get rid of that label. Shouldn't be too hard-- I hope.

(rough day at the office...)

I'll admit, I did a terrible job of keeping this blog up to date while I was on the ship.  I don't know how some people do this every day, or even multiple times a day! Yikes!  That being said, I plan to continue (to the extent that I am willing/able) on my next adventure, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, I'm in the process of reviewing loads of photos and plan to upload many of those to my 'facebook' site, which is simply more accessibile to me and most people I want to share those with.  Some may end up here too.  We'll see.

That being said, I thank the folks who took the time to check in on me every now and then...  Just know that if I wasn't writing then I was either working, sleeping, or adventuring in some amazing port.

(adventure time in Copenhagen, Denmark)

Talk soon,
D

Quickie from Miami (the LAST Miami!)

Haven't written in a while-- but that's because I've been busy. SUPER busy.  Haven't been off the ship on my own time for more than 45 minutes in weeks... haven't been off in Miami in well over a month.  This job is a lot, and I'm learning there's a lot of sacrifice involved...like time, and sanity.

The past two weeks we did what's called a "cast changeover" on the Eclipse, meaning that a new cast of singers and dancers (who have been rehearsing for weeks on land) come on board to shadow the old cast for a week and have tons of rehearsals.  And then the old cast leaves and the new cast takes over 100% and does all of the shows, but since they're still "new" there's still tons of rehearsals. And let me tell you, just finding the brainpower to deal with all of that is exhausting.  And it's not just rehearsals, it's costumes, it's ship life, it's everything.   There have been a LOT of changes lately, which is part of why I have been so busy/so stressed!  Not only did we get a new cast, but we also got a new Cruise Director (my boss-- in charge of all "fun" stuff on the ship), a new AV Manager (like the TD, sort of... I supervise him, he supervises the AV/Tech crew), and we got a handful of new Tech guys. Fun fun.

Today when we leave Miami we head EAST to Europe.  We'll be at sea for 6 days, then have several European ports until we arrive at Southampton, England (our new "home base" for the European season).   I'm scheduled to leave June 9th... in theory, by the time I leave I will have seen Norway, Sweden, Russia, Italy, etc etc etc.  Pretty darn cool.  It's exciting to have some new ports to look forward to instead of the same 4 Caribbean tourist traps every week.  I think we even have an "overnight" in St. Petersburg, Russia.  What?!?!  Photos will be taken.  Haven't taken any recently because there's nothing of interest to photograph, but that will change soon.

There's much much more to expound on here, but I don't have time and my last day in Miami is drawing to a close... just be confident in knowing that after 4 months cruising the Caribbean I am neither tan, nor blond.  Still white, still pasty, still dark blond.  Oh well.  That was never a realistic goal anyway.

I've met some pretty incredible people from all over the world over the last 4 months... definitely will be tough to say goodbye in June, but there's still some time left... ! I never imagined (never ever ever ever ever imagined) that my best friends on this ship would be a group of 30/40-something male Filipino tech guys.  Not that it matters where they're from, but still, not what I pictured for myself. At all. I love it when my own life surprises me in good ways like that.

Hope that you faithful blog checker-uppers are doing well.  I'm barely on facebook these days, but once things calm down a little in the European season (longer cruises=more free time) I might find myself with more time for online social life.  We'll see.

Happy trails to you!
D

(P.S. If I learn Greek and Tagalog I will be set for life on ships... with these languages you can do anything....Greek officers, Filipino crew!)

A quickie from San Juan

"Puerto Rico, my heart's devotion. Let it sink back in the ocean...."

West Side Story. I can't help but think of this song every time we are in port here.

It must appear as though I hop from island to island, coffee shop to coffee shop, doing the internet thing, but really, internet is such a commodity that it's a HUGE deal to have it. I have limited access in my office, but to do anything interesting/social/fun I have to pay per minute when I'm on the ship. Right now I'm in a super cool super chill coffee shop in old San Juan, Puerto Rico. I had a blonde moment when the guy at the counter asked me where I'm from and I said "the United States." And then I remembered that I'm technically still in the United States. And then I felt stupid. And then I ordered my latte and smiled politely and pretended not to notice. I'm awesome.

I got off the ship earlier than I thought I would today, but then again, I have to get back earlier than I wanted. My boss, the Cruise Director, invited some of his managers (myself included) to dinner tonight at one of the restaurants on board. Considering that I have not eaten at a single on board restaurant (the cafe and the panini place and the buffet do NOT count), I had to take him up on the offer. So I rushed into town, up the hill, to the coffee shop "Poet's Passage" to do some interwebbing. Fun fun. Really cool vibe here though. Someday when I have more time I aim to try one of their sandwiches... looks good.

Anyway, things are still busy at work. A friend of mine left today, transferring to another ship as the Activity Manager there, which is an awesome promotion and super exciting. Looking forward to hearing his updates. We're getting a new Musical Director this weekend. The current one, Martin, has been doing this since January as a fill in until Ian gets here this weekend. If there's one thing I've learned here (I've said it before and I'll say it again), change is the only thing we can take for granted. People come and go all the time. Wow. And people get fired too. Two guys in the department (not my guys) were fired the other weekend for partying to hard and kissing guests. Let me just say, kissing guests is BAD. When you do that you get fired. And so it happened that they kissed guests and got fired. Bummer too, because they were pretty cool.

Anywho, that's my super brief update from San Juan. Gonna run and do some super quick errands before I hop back to the ship for dinner.

I miss everyone!

D

A quickie from Miami

10:59am

Sitting in Starbucks in Miami at a shopping area (tourist trap) about 15 minutes from the ship. This is my "usual" hangout on Saturdays, as it's a quick getaway and has internet, which is usually all I'm looking for.

I had a surreal moment last night (this morning) as I was going to bed-- glanced out the window and saw lights and buildings and trees outside... and other ships! Crazy. Sort of unexpected at 4:00 in the morning. I would have sat in the window and watched everything until we docked, but I figured it was probably time for sleep. Eh. Don't worry, the 4am thing is super unusual for me. Some people can do it all the time but I might keel over dead if I tried-- my work days start early and end late, not leaving a ton of time for other things, but oh well, such is the life.

I'm at a point in my world where I'm trying to figure out how to deal with taxes for last year... apparently when you freelance in different states and different countries things get complicated really fast. And then when you're on a ship with limited/slow interwebs for 98% of the week, that makes finding/accessing forms and such kind of tricky. Oh well. I can't possibly be the first person in the history of cruise ships to be dealing with this. It's just a pain in the butt. And as I've learned thru my numerous dealings with the payroll office on board, money and numbers are NOT my forte. Every time I drop by with an important form that I've spent days gathering signatures for, he takes one look and shows me what is wrong and makes me do it again. Talk about frustrating.

Anyway. It's another typical crazy Saturday around here. Still waiting for some "normal" type of day. Today I have to drop off/pick up things at head office AND take care of two new cast members when they get on board. Last Saturday we had FULL CREW immigration where all 1200 of us had to be processed by 3 immigration guys before anyone could leave the ship. And then the weekend before I had another new cast member. There's always something. Miami is an important day because it's a turnaround day-- one shipload of people leaves, another comes on board, and we don't have to entertain them until the evening, so there's a bit more time to do other things during the day... like to go Starbucks!

Eventually I will post more pictures I suppose. I just don't have my camera with me! Eventually I want to find time to do more island exploring, because being stuck in tourist land is not my idea of paradise. Hopefully some cool photos will come of that. Will keep y'all posted.

And that's my "quickie" from Miami. Not much new. Just busy. Always busy. Looking forward to my vacation already!

D

A quickie from St. Kitts

Hola,

At the moment I'm sitting on the outdoor balcony at a coffee shop in St. Kitts...somewhere in the Caribbean. Yesterday we were in St. Maarten. The day before we were in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The next two days are sea days, and then back to Miami on Saturday. Whew.

It's been an interesting few weeks since last I wrote. We had New Years... which was fine. Super long day leading up to it, but considering everything that could have gone wrong, I can't complain.

After the new year I had a bunch of friends leave-- they had only been on board for about 3 weeks as youth staff for the holidays to help handle the 600+ kids on the ship. These were the very first people I met, so it was kind of hard saying bye to my "oldest" ship friends. The good thing is that youth staff come back fairly regularly when the kid count is going to be high, so I'm hoping to bump into them all again! The friend thing is hard on this ship, especially as a manager-- I spend the majority of my time with the same people, and I'm their boss. So....yeah. I can be their friend, but there's a fine line. Living and working on a ship is like living and working in the dorms, in a high school, on a boat. And you can't escape. Don't piss too many people off, because you're stuck with them. All the time.

The hardest part about this job, I'm learning, is that the moment I think I've figured it out, found some rhythm, have a plan-- that's when some ridiculous roadblock lands in my face. Along with the stress of crazy hours and irregular sleeping/eating patterns, and high expectations from the boss as well as my cast and technical team, we've been dealing with some illnesses and injuries, and last week we had to fire one the dancers. The decision wasn't mine, and I didn't actually have to DO the firing, but I was in on the discussions and paperwork and at the meeting itself with the dancer-- who had no idea it was coming. Poor girl, she found out at about 8:30 pm and had to spend the whole night packing so she could leave the next day at Miami. Talk about a stressful day. For everyone. That's one reason last weekend was just the shittiest. The stress of that, dealing with other performers' various issues, trying to make my boss happy, helping everyone get past the fact that one of their friends had been fired, etc etc. Wah wah. Blah blah.

Anywho. I'm one month in. Five months left. Exhausted. But okay. The last two ports instead of getting off the ship I went back to bed! Today I'm in St. Kitts--decided to get off the boat just to stretch my legs and get some fresh air... and find some internet!! It's kind of nice today because we're the only ship here, which means the place is not packed with tourists. At some ports we're often there with 6, 7, 8 other cruise ships, which means a LOT of people. Everywhere. Eh. It started POURING rain as soon as I got to the coffee shop, but it looks like the sun is out again, so I may start wandering back to the ship. It's the biggest thing on the horizon (apart from the volcano), so I'm not too worried about getting back!

I don't have photos to share today. They're on my other memory card which is sitting in my office. Oy.

I have plans for some more exciting posts at some point... but for now just know that I'm alive and pale (what?!) and that I also have plans for working on my tan.

OH, before I forget, at last St. Maarten, last week, I had lunch with a friend and fellow production manager who I know from CMU-- Maddie! Her ship was docked with ours that day, so I got to meet some other folks from other ships, which was kind of cool. This is some crazy lifestyle we live, so it's good to have people in various places-- you never know when you'll need them!

Hope all is well on the mainland. I'm definitely missing the "real" world with all it's "real" things... like driving, and yummy food, and weekends...

-D