Preparation to restart Operations

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My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

As I write this, I have been onboard the Enchanted Princess for two months and this is the first time I’ve had a minute to catch up with you since I was released from quarantine (though I didn’t have time to finish the post until after the holidays).  Many of us were wondering what we would be doing for a whole month on the ship without guests, and for a minute there, it almost seemed like there wouldn’t be enough time to do all the things we wanted to do before we had guests!  For the most part, we spent our days in training and preparing our activities and our evenings relaxing and getting to know each other in the open air by the pool. 

Let me introduce you to the cast of characters:

Dan Falconer, from England, is our Cruise Director, and though I hadn’t worked with him before, I’d heard great things.  He took out the Majestic Princess after the pause in operations, so he at least had some experience with what we were about to go through. 

Dan is our direct supervisor, but he was so busy getting things ready that we actually spent more time with Madi, a Fleet Supervisor.

Madi, from Canada, spent the most time with us.  She was promoted from being an Assistant Cruise Director and her job was to get us back into shape- we relearned how to talk on a microphone, how to stand in front of people, and how to make required, boring announcements more fun.  She made sure we got the things, skills and rest we needed to put on the best show when the time came.  She was very good at pointing out our personal strengths so we could focus on those, while still giving us notes on things we could do to improve.  She quickly pointed out that my strength is storytelling, which I’ve known is something I love to do, but I hadn’t made the connection that I could use it as a tool in so many ways.  Now, when I’m feeling a little out of my depth (maybe introducing a guest entertainer that I have no personal connection with, or doing anything that has to do with sports) I find a way to tell a story, and suddenly I’ve found my footing. 

The Team:

As I mentioned before, I was surprised and honored to be chosen for the team that would take out the newest ship in the fleet.  I was even more surprised to learn that I was the most senior member of the Cruise Staff.  I’d heard rumors that they picked the best of the best for the newest ship- a team full of future Cruise Directors.  I was not excited about that aspect.  I imagined that I would be on a team full of divas who would all be elbowing each other out of the way in order to find a place in the spotlight.  Instead I found myself in a group of hard-working, funny, talented team-players who each bring their own strengths to the party; people who uplift everyone around them as we help each other to be our best. 

I’ve already introduced you to Jayson and Jeremy, but I’ve gotten to know them even better since my last post.  We call our little group of three the Queens, and I couldn’t feel more blessed to have them as such an integral part of my present life.    

Jayson is the fashionista of the team and has taken it upon himself to make sure everyone looks like perfection.  He has established this role to such an extent that a new look or outfit on any member of the team will not be introduced to public areas without Jayson’s approval.  I was not at all surprised when Jayson nominated me as the one who was most in need of a complete makeover.  After a year and a half of no makeup, a knot of hair on the back of my head, wearing T shirts and sweatpants, I was in no hurry to get back into my ‘more-smart-than-casual’ and formal outfits.  Jayson was pleasantly surprised when I actually did put some effort into my appearance, but that didn’t stop his ambition.  Finally I let him do my makeup and straighten my hair. 

We laughed hysterically when I saw the results:  my hair was so fluffy that I didn’t know what to do with it, and there was so much makeup piled on my face that it accentuated my wrinkles and I actually looked my age!  Since then, for the most part, he’s left me alone.  When I ask for approval he quietly gives it, but I honestly think he’s just given me up as a lost cause.  Professionally Jayson takes every activity he does to a wacky new level.  From music trivia to line dancing, he adds sparkles, back drops, and costumes in ways that hadn’t yet occurred to me.  We spend quite a bit of our Sea Days together telling stories about the steps line dancing, and then going to arts and crafts where he is meticulous and structured while I tell the guests that art is a matter of personal interpretation and whatever they did is beautiful.  Jayson and I are also in charge of the cruise staff schedules.  Each night we try to beat each other to the computer in order to lighten the load for the other. 

Jeremy is the socializer.  He is the most compassionate of the group and goes above and beyond to make sure that everyone is okay, included and taken care of.  Jeremy is in charge of making sure that the other girls on the team have the support they need as they navigate this new job that absolutely has no manual.  The only way to figure out what you’re not supposed to do is by doing the wrong thing.  That’s also sometimes the way you figure out the best thing to do. Jeremy fits so comfortably in my life that I feel like I’ve always known him.  He has fantastic banter in a humble unassuming way and manages to make an incredible number of people in any room feel seen, heard and understood.  When I have a gameshow that I really like, but I’m not sure the guests will love it as much as I do, and I want to add some extra support and heart, I make sure Jeremy is my co-host. 

Angela, from Serbia, claims that her English skills are her greatest weakness, but I totally disagree.  She is beautiful, charming and funny and she completely delights everyone she meets.  She is the only other member of the team with curly brown hair, and I would be totally flattered if we were mistaken for the same person.  This is her second contract on Princess. Before we had guests, Angela started trying to teach me Serbian one phrase at a time.  So far I have learned Hello (Stravo); How are you? (Ka ko see); Good (Doh Bro); and How do you say? (Ka ko see kazsha).  Our lessons were instantly halted when we welcomed guests onboard, but now I’m hoping they’ll continue now that I have a little more breathing room in my brain. She is also the Powerpoint Guru and gave us all lessons on how to make our presentations look more modern and professional.

Niki, from Florida and Canada, went to school for marketing, went on a cruise with her parents and then completely changed tracks and joined the Entertainment team.  Three cruises into her first contract, the world shut down.  As of this writing she has spent more time on cruise ships without guests than she has with guests!  It is so much fun to watch her blossom into a confident host considering how little experience she had before coming to this ship.  Plus she loves sports and is happy to take over those events on the schedule, which makes me adore her even more. 

Joey, from Kentucky, is our Assistant Cruise Director/DJ and last contract she was a videographer on the same ship as Jeremy.  She is also very new but is finding her way. 

Now, back to the day to day? What did we do? Did we get off the ship? No. There was an itinerary where we would stop in Fort Lauderdale for supplies and then go out into the ocean.  We would pull up to an island in the Bahamas for fuel, and then go back to sea.  The ship sailed so slowly that it hardly rocked, and the only way you knew if we were docked or at sea was if you glanced out a window and saw land.  Not that it mattered—we couldn’t get off the ship anyway.  We had group trainings about the features of Medallion Class and the new health protocols, we spent hours updating our Power point  trivia and game shows with nice backgrounds, fonts and graphics that move.  We practiced the things we hadn’t done for two years incorporating the new health protocols.  Now there would be no events in the Piazza (as that is considered a super spreader venue).  There would be no singing, no ‘parties’- only ‘Musical Experiences’ on the open deck.  The ‘Party Band’ was renamed the ‘Pop Cover Band.’ Masks are required for guests in the lounges, so we had to practice telling people that in a friendly way.  We could take off our masks while entertaining as long as we were three feet away from guests.  We worked a lot.  I used my lunch break to fine tune my Zumba routine.  And still, for the first two cruises I was spending my spare time fine-tuning whatever the next event was and figuring out how to make it better the next time. 

Early on we were given a special project by the Commodore. The higher level managers wanted to find a way to motivate people to take more responsibility for the projects they came across, so they asked us to recreate a video that is on youtube– There was a problem, and Everybody thought that Somebody could do it, but Somebody thought that Anybody could do it, so Nobody ended up doing it. The Commodore played Nobody, and we filmed it in his office, which was pretty fun.

Our dining assignments would change on a daily basis.  We started out eating in the World Fresh Marketplace (the buffet upstairs) where we had to sit every other seat by department.  We could also eat at the pizza place and the burger place by the pool.  Then we were moved down to Plaza Court (a fancy name for the Crew Mess) but we were not allowed in the Officer’s Mess (which had white table clothes, real glasses and table service) where I had previously eaten since my first day.  Then we were moved to the Santorini Dining room, where we filled our plates buffet style as we walked through the galley and then ate in the Dining room.  Sometimes we would get invitations to the Specialty Restaurants so they could get some practice before we had guests.  We had a couple of nights being served like guests in the Amalfi Dining room where I ate too much bread and desserts.  The only thing we could take for granted was that the times and places to eat would change. 

We had some crazy weather- it rained more in the first month on the Caribbean than it did for the year and a half I was in California!

Normally when I join a ship, I’m briefed on my safety duties the day I arrive. I’ve been First in Charge of a muster station for the last couple of years. It was a little jarring to be onboard without this information. Finally we got our assignments with our new titles– Instead of First in Charge and Second in Charge, we had the same duties but were now called Leader and Deputy Leader. We got hats and then had to trade them in for different hats. They explained that some of the muster personnel would be designated as “Communicators.” They would go on the lifeboats with the guests and communicate what was happening in the lifeboats to calm them down. I raised my hand and asked if the communicators had been in a lifeboat and did they know what was happening. Not necessarily. They hadn’t thought about that. It’s hard enough to communicate with a large group of group of people in normal circumstances, much less explain what is happening when you’re doing it for the first time during an emergency when everyone is freaking out. A few days later there was a training for the Communicators to go down in a lifeboat. I asked if I could go along too (since I had instigated the whole thing).

The Caribbean Princess was floating nearby and my friend Matt was in Quarantine on the side of the ship facing away from us. I asked if we could take the lifeboat out around the Caribbean. They laughed and said we could, but we just ended up lowering and going around to the side of our ship in order to climb back aboard.

One day we were in Fort Lauderdale and at noon the Commodore announced that we had been granted shore leave.  I quickly changed out of my uniform and knocked on doors to find out who was going out with me.  After a month on the ship, we stepped foot on dry land, and for the most part, Fort Lauderdale was pretty much how I left it.  It was the last time I would have more than 2 hours at a time in US civilization, and I didn’t quite take advantage of it.  In retrospect, I would have spent more time perusing Ross, though I don’t really NEED anything else, and I would have gotten a pedicure, though I ended up getting a pedicure in St. Thomas.  Instead the team went to a sports bar and enjoyed sitting close to each other all at one table without masks (on the ship we always had to sit every other seat or 3 feet apart).   

Well that’s all for now– the next post will continue when we Welcomed our first guests and returned to service.