YES! I work onboard....photos to come later.

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Okay! I have decided after a lot of comments that I never work from all of you, to write an entire entry on what I do in a day, or voyage.

Trust me you will be sorry that you doubted how much I work.

This is something that Jeanette, Catherine, Richard, Kristina, Marlize etc… talk about all the time. First I will tell you what it is like to live onboard. I know that I have mentioned it a few times but let’s revisit what I mentioned before.

The environment that I am currently in is very intense. And the funny thing is I don’t think I can fully describe everything or paint you a pretty Norman Rockwell style image to depict what it is like. But here goes…

Being onboard is like living in a small town wrapped up in University Dorm Style living arrangements entangled with the annoying nattering of high school social structure/gossip. Gossip is something that runs rampant onboard the ships and I wouldn’t say that it is anything to harsh or that a lot of it is actually un true. However, if something happens everyone knows about it in about 20 seconds. Imagine a ‘telephone’ game with about 900 people, so by the time the story gets back around to you it has completely changed. I recall one story where someone was signing off the ship because they had a death in the family, in two days time the story onboard was that, this person was going home because they cheated on their boyfriend with the captain and then became pregnant and she needed to go home to have an abortion and would be back onboard in three days. This is absolutely ridiculous and there in lay the high school nattering. I’m getting a flash back of high school and watching people lean over and whisper into one another’s’ ear and look out of the corner of their eye. When you see this, its gossip and NEVER true.

As for the living situation, you can imagine living with a roommate in a room that is so small that you can touch either side of the wall and a restroom that allows you to sit on the toilet with one foot in the shower and the other in the hall. But it’s actually not that bad, because you are never really in your room, except for sleep, changing or taking a nap. (I don’t think I have mentioned that I moved into a new cabin, and am now sharing with Christophe, a French Purser. He is nice, hard to understand at times but nice.) So back to the dorm style. Often I get calls at 3 am asking me to come over to someone’s cabin to watch a movie or just hang out and chat. So it’s like University being called for a room party. But we don’t have to hide the fact that we want to have people over here. We just have to keep in mind that we have roommates and neighbours and they may not appreciate the loud noise. As an FYI, the walls are thin, you can hear everyone’s everything. Especially when its burrito night, you can hear EVERYHING, ewwwy!

Now for the small town-esque atmosphere, I live and work in crew areas. Guests are not allowed in these areas and they are much more bland and lacking a “je ne sais quois”. There is a main ‘road’ called the I-95, or Hespeler Rd (for those of you from home) or the 401 for everyone else from Canada. This is main hall way that runs the length of the ship and everything that we essentially need is off of this hall way. Our Laundry facilities, infirmary, mess (where we eat) pay master (bank) staff administrator (our help desk) are all located here. But as a Corporate Trainer I have guest area privileges, this means that I can go into guest areas and use some of their luxuries. There open decks, have pools, stages, bands playing, buffets and other creature friendly amenities are. There is a coffee shop which is like an onboard star bucks, a main show lounge which is like going to theatre production down town Toronto, or St. Jacobs Playhouse, or Centre in the Square - you get the idea. There is a main disco, which is like going to the club with friends, and there are lounges with performers, some classical, some jazz and some cabaret style. All of which are like going to a café at home, like Jane Bond, or Starlight Lounge. There is of course Supper Club, which is the onboard fine dinning restaurant and as the name suggests its like going out for the night for a fantastic meal.

Because all of this is contained within our working and living environment, it is seriously like a small town. I cannot walk down the I-95, or go to the coffee shop or to the main show lounge without knowing 99% of the people and their positions. Being a Corporate Trainer this is something that is kind of part of our job, we need to know everyone and with training everyone onboard you get to know them too.

When we go to any of our home ports it is like going away for the weekend. Imagine going to the cottage or to the big city for some fun, or the country for others who look for fun.

I think most of you think that what I am doing is an extended vacation with some work added in. I often joke with my manager that the “Shine is off the penny” after two months in terms of thinking that I am on a ship and this is my job. By in reality, I think it is like any other job in terms of the amount of work and the type of work. The only difference is that I am fortunate enough to see different countries instead of the Canadian country side of downtown Toronto on my weekends. And when I refer to my weekends it is the 4 hours I might get to have off when I am at a home port. In 8 days Vanessa my Manager and I will work approx. 75+ hours. It is actually a lot of work.

On any given day, I will wake up around 8am shower and get ready for work at 9am. I work until around 12pm when I go for lunch. The morning generally surrounds training the new employees who signed onto our ship about company policies and procedures, showing them around the ship and completely mountains of admin work. After lunch, I work from 1pm - 4pm completing lesson plans for Hospitality Classes which we train to all levels of employees, from entry level pot washers all the way up to highly ranked officers. During this time we complete lesson plans for English Classes which range from Basic, Conversational, Intermediate and Advanced Classes.
(On a side note, I am shocked at how much my level of conversing/written English skills has dropped. You see because we have to teach at a VERY basic level daily, the more Adult English I would generally use at home is lost. When I had Krissy and Kim come and visit they noticed it right away and said I had trouble articulating thoughts often.)
I often will go to the gym or a cat nap around 4pm-5:30pm. I then shower up and head for dinner for 6pm and then back to work for 7pm-12am. During the evening hours is when we conduct Hospitality and English classes.

When we are at the ports, we often have training. You see it is very hard to conduct trainings during seadays as all guests are onboard so “all hands on deck” are needed in order to service them. As you can see port days when guests are off enjoying the joys of their visited countries, Vanessa and I train everyone else on Environmental Issues, Legal Procedures and International Maritime Organization Rules and Regulations. Vanessa and I do a think which is called, “Walk the Talk” which has the two of us walking around the ship for an hour saying hello to everyone, making sure that they are happy and that their employees are doing a job well done. If anything comes up the employees are encouraged to come to our training centre where we will train them on anything that is needed.

After 12am when we close our centre for the night, this is when I either will head to the Gym again, or for the first time depending on if I went for a nap that day. OR we head to the crew lounge for some down time. It seems that is where most end up. We go there to chat, gossip, play cards, make fun of each other, psycho analyze everything you can imagine and generally just kick back.

It’s a very interesting position really. We are Teachers, Facilitators, Guidance Councilors, Parents, Shoulders to cry on, Curriculum Developers and so much more.

After all of this, I hope you have a better understanding of what I do on the ship and that I actually work a lot. I often show you pictures and share stories of my adventures when I am at a port because to me that is the exciting stuff. But often forget that for all of you readers, this entire experience for me is exciting regardless of what I am doing.

Miss you all, and can’t wait to show you pictures, videos and souvenirs.
Brooks

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Comments

[ashley]

Good to know
I know this was amillion years ago (or 3), but thank you for this entry. I am really thinking about working on a cruise and so this is helpful to see what everyday life is like. I heards its really tough, so Im a little scared to actually take the plunge and do it. Anyways, thanks for your blog! Ashley