The new ship
12th May 2007
Evenin’ all,
The next morning it turned out that I wasn’t the only one doing my laundry. There were only two washing machines and two dryers and both washers were full and chugging away in a slightly disconcerting way when I walked in. As I was standing there a red neck cliche came in and said that it was his washing and shouldn’t be much longer. We ended up sitting in the lobby and talking while we waited for his washing to finish and then to swap out his into the dryer and put mine in the washer. He even let me use some of his washing powder. It turned out he was from Kentucky, worked for the railway and his job was to travel around the country dealing with ecological problems that came up. He was currently dealing with an underground fire at a railway yard somewhere. He told me that he was also involved in a program, using technology developed and exported by a Kiwi, cleaning and reinforcing water tanks. Strangely it sounded much more interesting when he was describing it than it does now when I write it. We talked about a lot of stuff, differences between the US and the rest of the world and he even agreed that the war in Iraq was not a good thing and wasn’t doing the US’s reputation or image any good at all. It was my first real contact and conversation with an average American and immediately they were willing to admit to negative thoughts about the war. The eye opener to me was that this man sitting opposite, with the baseball cap, dark glasses and Kentucky accent, who would seem to be the typical ‘America can do no wrong’ type, would talk like this to a foreigner. We did talk about other things as well though, like how he has had to learn at least rudimentary Spanish to survive in the country and how cars only have to have one licence plate.
If you are ever in a hurry to do your laundry and have the ability to travel anywhere in the world to do it…don’t choose the Amerisuites at the Miami International Airport. By the time I had washed and then dried everything it was already after lunchtime. Admittedly I had taken the opportunity to sleep in and luxuriate in a double bed that didn’t move, a bathroom all of my own that didn’t necessitate breathing in before being able to turn around and a fridge and microwave useful for cooling and heating all of my service station bought goodies. Knowing that I really had nowhere to go and no way of getting there even if I did, the rest of the day was taken up with a guilty visit to Burger King for lunch, a short walk for some exercise and then an Italian restaurant just down the road that evening. At the time I felt a bit like I’d wasted the day and could have made better use of it but sitting here now on the new ship, having spent the last few days doing nothing but work, train and sleep, I look back on that day fondly as a nice break and almost a holiday.
Early the next morning, (7am!) I was down in reception again waiting for the bus to my new ship. This time, instead of a big one full of Filipinos it was just a mini bus and there was only me and a Romanian girl who was going to the same ship to be a dealer. This was an even longer trip than the one into Miami, along freeways and back streets to Port Everglades. Port Everglades is the port for Fort Lauderdale in case you’re following this on a map. It’s north of Miami and used to be a popular ‘spring break’ place before the locals did everything they could to discourage the sex, drugs and mayhem you see on TV.
This new ship, the Caribbean Princess is huge. When I said that the last one was big I had no idea that ships of this size existed. I had gone from about 1300 passengers to one that has 3100. That’s a big increase both in space and, as I looked up at it in a little bit of fear, workload in the casino. Getting on the ship was so much better organised and easier than the last one it wasn’t funny. A big bus full of Filipinos pulled up while we were waiting and we all got processed in the large passenger embarkation lounge before actually getting on the ship. A member of the casino staff met us and we got the quickie guided tour of where our cabins were, where the casino was, where the mess was and then an even quicker walk around some of the highlights of the ship itself. Suddenly the tackiness of the Carnival ships was thrust into stark contrast with the quality and elegance of this Princess ship. Every bar, restaurant, boutique and even the elevators seemed to be of a better quality and better appointed. Instead of the chrome, marble and restaurants with dodgy elephant statues outside, this ship had timber, carpets, a couple of restaurants that provide such a level of service and food that you have book and pay extra and a giant movie screen that allows you to sit back in a deck chair and watch movies for large parts of the day and night. There is even the Churchill Bar with Winston Churchill memorabilia on the walls, dark timber panelling, large leather armchairs and cigar humidors holding expensive cigars that you can enjoy as the waiter brings you your brandy snifter. It’s just outside the casino and a nice place to sit on 10 minute breaks apart from the smoke.
My roommate is a South African guy. The cabin we share is actually much (relatively speaking) bigger than my last one and much better appointed. It is carpeted rather than having a plastic floor and even has a fridge. Food in the cabin is not the issue it was on the last ship and Molefi has a little grocery store happening. There is coke and water in the fridge and packets of junk food, from chips and peanuts to chocolate and biscuits. What we can do is fill out an order form, put our crew account number on it (another new innovation) and the supplies will be delivered to our cabin once a week. Pretty handy. All you have to do then is pay your account once a month.
After unpacking my stuff and settling myself into my cabin I had to head straight to the first of my ‘induction’ sessions. This involved getting my ‘blue card’. A blue card lists your duties during boat drills and emergencies. On the last ship I had no duties so I just got to sit in my cabin during the mandatory lifeboat drill but this time I have duties. This is not necessarily a good thing since it is so much easier to just sit in your cabin. My new duties? Well, firstly I am a stairway guide. This means that I have to make my way up to deck 14 midship (I live on deck 6 forward) using the stairs rather than the lift because in the event of a real emergency the lifts would be out of action. Once I get there I have to stand with 2 other people (a dealer and a guy who plays piano in the band) and point people down the stairs to deck 7 where they all gather at their muster points. This is as exciting as it sounds. The other two, who have been here for some time, just bitch about it all the time and keep saying how it’s the worst part of the job. The work itself isn’t that bad, it’s just boring and you know that once a week, every Sunday when the new cruise starts, you have to do it again. Once all the passengers are in their muster points there is an announcement saying that stairway guides should make their way to their muster points and we head down to the Explorers Bar. When we get there it is full of passengers, all clutching their lifejackets and waiting for it all to be over so they can get back to their lounge chairs, bar stools and buffet seats. The muster-person-in-charge stands up in front of the crowd and we all listen to the captain over the PA as he gives a complete safety talk. Then the person-in-charge takes over and all of the crew (meaning me) have to do a little visual demonstration of how to put on a lifejacket, just like on an airplane. Then it’s over and we all get to go back to what we were doing before we were so rudely interrupted.
I am now going to skip ahead a week. As I sit here typing this we have just finished the boat drill but before that I had to do ’embarkation’. This is not something you have to do every week but just something you get rostered occasionally. This meant that I had to stand outside the forward bank of elevators on deck 15 and direct oncoming passengers to their cabins and answer questions. The cabin part was easy, it’s just a matter of remembering that odd numbers are on starboard and even numbers are on port. The hard part was the questions. Fortunately for me all of the pools and a number of bars, along with the buffet restaurants, were on my deck so, instead of having to remember where they were and direct passengers up or down or sideways, I just had to tell most of them to continue on the way they were going. This went on for about 3 hours while they all found their cabins, got a drink and something to eat. Then it was off to do my stairway duty, then the muster point demonstration. Now I have a bit of time to kill before I start work.
But back to my first week.
Training on this ship was going to be a lot easier than on the last one. There wasn’t a test at the end of the first week, so no massive studying in the few precious hours off I got, and the whole thing seemed a lot more casual. I say casual but I don’t mean lax, I just mean that it didn’t seem to be the matter of life and death that it had been and, as such, it sank in a little more. The lack of fear made the whole thing a little easier to swallow and it has stayed with me much better than the previous training, a lesson to be learned by all organisations training new staff. I only had two training sessions scheduled for the first week and two for the second. Once they were all out of the way I might actually be able to look forward to getting a few more solid blocks of sleep rather than the broken sleep that the training days promised. But, as I keep being told, and as I keep writing…the first few weeks are hell. But enough of training, on to what I actually get paid to do. Or at least what I hope I’m going to get paid to do.
When I was so unceremoniously kicked off the last ship they were kind enough to pay me. They pointed out that I had spent the week just standing there watching (which wasn’t by choice) so I wasn’t entitled to any share of the tips. They did give me an envelope containing $280 in cash though, which was a strange feeling since it has been about 25 years since I’ve been paid in cash. When I totalled it all up I found I was actually ahead. I now had more money on me than I had when I left Australia, even after all the sundry expenses incurred in way of tips, food, taxi fares etc. On this new ship I was given a float the minute I walked into the casino, given a window to work and put straight into the firing line. Nothing like learning through a baptism of fire but at least I was going to get my fair share of the tips I was given. I don’t know if you picked up on the subtlety of the sarcasm there when I said the tips that I earned but I’ve found out the reason why the recruiter was a bit quiet when I asked how much I could expect in tips as a cashier. It turns out that the dealers are the ones who make the tips. As for cashiers we are separate from them and share tips with the techs/attendants. We have our own little tip container and each week they are shared out among the 3 cashiers and 5 techs. I got a grand total of $75 in tips for the first week so this may not be a job that I’ll be retiring from after a few months. It’s just lucky that living expenses are so minimal that it’s almost all profit.
As for the job itself…it is so different from land based casinos in so many ways but still the same in a few ways. The trouble is that the differences are so different that it’s hard to get my head around them. The whole way that they balance is horrendously different from anything that I’ve seen before and I would hate to have to be the one trying to explain it to someone new. One of the supervisors was telling me about a new cashier that had come straight out of a short time in a bank and had little to no idea of what was involved in a casino. He had a really hard time picking up the new job on top of the lifestyle change that went with moving onto a ship. At least I know the concepts even if I have to learn the new procedures. Add to all the new procedures the number of questions asked by passengers about where things are and what time the bingo is on and the learning curve is pretty steep.
For the first week it was taking me horrendous amounts of time to balance. The paperwork was mind boggling and I was going through feet of calculator tape trying to get the figures to come out right. The other problem was that because of the way that the shifts work I was usually the only one there and had to figure it out myself with no one to ask questions of. As I type this I’m nearing the end of my second week and seem to have a handle on the balancing now or at least I’m speeding up a bit and seem to be getting smaller variances. I even balanced to the cent the other night and was only out 25c yesterday. Given that the allowance is $25 before anyone cares I’m pretty happy with that.
I’ve done a few ‘box counts’ now as well, which is what they call soft count. Of course, with only 17 tables and nowhere near the same amount of cash it’s a pretty fast operation and only involves one cashier, one dealer and a purser. It works in a very similar way with one person opening, one sorting and running it through a counter and one inputting it into the computer. I’ve managed to hold my own each time I’ve done it and we’ve always balanced so far. Given that it’s the last thing we do each night before going home the others have been happy with the way I’ve kept up as well. The stacker count (which is called the stacker count) is only done once a week and involves the dealers so I can’t really comment too much on it. All I can say is that I was happy to balance and leave while they were all still running around emptying machines of notes and coins.
The problem now is that, as the paperwork and mechanics of the job become easier and more routine, I’m finding myself concentrating more on the public service side of it, or in my case the lack of public service. This is not to say that I’m rude or unhelpful or refuse to smile or anything else that you may think is typical of me. The problem is the expectation of the average American. One of the first training sessions was on the way that Americans expect to be treated. We were told that if we are walking around and any passenger is within ten feet we are expected to greet them and ask how their day is going. Everyone has to be called Sir or Maam in the over the top way that you see in the movies. The Head cashier is a Canadian and has the whole thing down pat with the needless banter and annoying enthusiasm that seems to endear him to the Americans. It’s the sort of familiarity and pep that would simply be annoying in Australia or New Zealand and I think it’s the part of the job that is going to cause me the most problems. Small talk has never been my forte and if anything keeps me from seeing out this six months it’s going to be my uncomfortable feelings with the gregarious requirements. I’ve already found out that I don’t have to give any notice if I want to resign, I just say I want to and then I spend the rest of that particular cruise in my cabin and get off when we get back to port. Luckily I’m not relying on the tips to survive but I do feel a little sorry for those that are when I fail to make the necessary ingratiating remarks needed to be given cash for being nice.
The food on this ship is even worse than the last one if you can picture it. The staff mess is a bit more cafeteria like and to make matters worse we have been on a health red alert. I don’t know if you’re familiar with a thing called the Norovirus but it’s sometimes called the cruise ship disease. We keep getting told that it’s not specific to cruise ships and is actually about the most common virus going around. Basically it’s a bug that causes vomiting and diarrhoea and if someone picks it up in a port or brings it on with them then it is passed quickly from person to person by simply touching something that the previous person has touched. You can imagine what this means in an enclosed environment like a cruise ship. When a certain number of people, passengers and crew come down with it then the ship goes onto red alert. This means that staff are unable to eat in the passenger areas, the passenger buffets become service rather than self serve, all brochures are removed from the casino and other places, all surfaces are disinfected repeatedly. If you start to show any symptoms at all you must advise your supervisor and you are kept in your cabin for 48 hours to see what develops. We usually have used decks of cards for sale but under this alert even they are withdrawn. The upshot is that we are confined to the crew mess for food and that means that I am yet to have a go at the passenger food. As it turns out we came off red alert today so I hope to get to the buffet tomorrow.
The other news I have is that I now have a new roommate. The South African guy was discharged for medical reasons. I probably shouldn’t go into too many details but it was for his own benefit and psychological rather than physical. I now have a Costa Rican guy who only came onboard yesterday and it’s his first time on a ship as well. Suddenly I felt like an old hand as I spent yesterday explaining how things work and where things are to him. He seems like a nice guy so hopefully things will go well.
How many hours are you working? I hear you ask. The answer is, it varies. I’ve already learnt that ‘sea days’ are bad and port days are good. On a sea day the casino opens in the morning, about 09.00 and doesn’t shut until its quiet, so about 03.00 or thereabouts. This means that between the 3 cashiers we have to cover about 18 odd hours with all of us on to cover the busy periods. The roster is a split on those days with, for instance, today being 2pm – 6pm and then 9.30pm – Close for me, so maybe 10 odd hours all up with that break in the middle. The most I’ve worked in a day so far is 13.5 and the least is 5. The least was on a port day. Port days are where the ship docks in the morning and doesn’t leave until early evening. That means that we can’t start work until maybe 7pm and with staggered start times and finish times the shifts are much shorter. I’ve been told that this is the worst Princess ship itinerary in terms of sea days. Some others may only have one sea day in a fortnight, which sounds fantastic. Of course port days are also ones when you get off the ship and that’s a whole other attraction for them but more of that later. As of next week we’re starting a new itinerary that means we will be doing a 3-sea-day-a-week cruise and then a 2-sea-day-a-week one alternatively. It also means 3 new ports to see.
Today was the last of my ship training sessions so no more finishing in the wee small hours and then having to wake up a couple of hours later to learn what to do if you come across a fire or how many ships there are in the fleet. It also means that I will be able to get off the ship more and actually see the ports that I came all this way to see. Mostly the training sessions were on port days which was a pain in the %*^%. Apart from my fair share of ‘in port manning’ I will now be able to get my camera out and play tourist. The last couple of days I got off for a while and can now add St. Maarten and St. Thomas to my list of places in the world I’ve been. St. Maarten was just a quick look and to pick up some groceries but St. Thomas was a longer look around. I really liked St. Thomas, it has some great history and I’m looking forward to getting back with my camera.
But enough of tempting you with exotic ports, I might save them for the next email.
Greg
PS
I just got back from my first foray into the passenger buffet. I had to wait until 13.30 when the lunch rush was over because obviously it’s a bit rude to take up space that a paying person would reasonably want to use. All I can say is that it is soooo much better than the staff mess. Being a buffet it means I had to get my own food but the choices were much larger, the food of a much better quality and the view out of the large windows was considerably better than the walls of the mess. I had cold duck salad, marinated mussels, lasagne, mixed seafood in a tomato sauce, pork medallions in a lemon sauce, mashed potato and peas. That was just a bit of the selection and I only had a bit of each to see what it was like. I think I’m going to be eating there as much as possible and if not there then at the pizza and hamburger place.