One Week at Sea

It's been one week since I went to sea. My world has changed.

I've been working long days, over 12 hours each day, to try to get organized, settled and up to speed. There are trainings that I have to attend, lectures I have to babysit, acts I have to design lights for and shows I have to run. Besides all that, the rig that I walked in on is in sore need of maintenance. Lamps are blown in most of the conventional units, the intelligent lighting fixtures stop working on a rotating (but inconsistent) basis, gel is burning through, and dust covers everything. I have to learn a new console, on top of it all.

In the middle of that mess, another show is loading on and getting ready to be installed, as the Golden Princess' entertainment gets upgraded along with the rest of the fleet's. Luckily, a lighting technician came with the install, so he's here for 2 months to help.

So it's a very busy time on the Golden. Unusually so. Usually handovers from one crew member to the next, at the end of contracts, take 1 week. Sometimes they're longer, especially for new hires on their first contract (like me), who need to get used to ship life as well as used to the rig and ship procedures. My handover lasted two days.

Added to the theater part of things, the whole ship is abuzz. We are at the end of the Alaskan season, and we have a repositioning cruise next week, taking us from Seattle to LA. On that cruise, 200 Princess VIPs will be coming on board. Something like the president, the CEO, the vice presidents of all the departments, etc etc. So everyone's preoccupied with that. That's over my head, and I don't worry myself with any of the preparations. I have enough light bulbs to change. It is annoying when all of the carpet gets ripped up around you, though.

After the repositioning cruise, we have a special luncheon on board for the members of the UN summit in LA. There will be high security and secret service, FBI, etc etc on board. Woah.

Then it's 4 days at sea, then Hawaii.

This week has been very instructive, but I suspect next week will be equally enlightening.