Days of the week don’t matter on board a cruise ship. There are only work days. We work 7 days a week. The distinguishing factor between days is whether it’s a port day or a sea day. On port days, the destination goes a long way toward entertaining passengers. On sea days, it’s all on us.
My usual day starts with a lecture around 9 in the morning. There are enrichment lectures about many topics relating to our destinations (i.e. piracy) and port talks, going over the highlights of each destination. There’s also a naturalist onboard, from the park service.
After that, there’s always maintenance to do, but we’re concentrating on remounting a show that’s been in storage for 6 months, then we’ll load in another new show. In the middle of those long-term processes we have guest entertainers who come on and need their shows programmed. Lately, we’ve been having rehearsals onstage from 11am to 3pm.
Then it’s a movie, which a member of the crew takes care of, which means I can’t do maintenance work and don’t have to be in the theater. That’s a nice forced break.
After that, it’s time to set up for the evening’s entertainment, with last minute changes or fixes. I set up any additional lights onstage and check the rig. Then it’s preshow and house open, and off to dinner or change, or both, depending on how much time is left before show call.
There are usually two shows at night, with about an hour break between them. That’s the alternative dinner break, since nothing can be done, either onstage or programming notes, since the house remains open.
After the show, we strike the setup. Then it’s either programming for the next day’s acts, or bed time. My day usually ends around 11:30pm if there’s no late night programming to be done. If there is, a night can end anywhere from midnight to 4am.
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