4: Sensational

Right now I am on American Airlines flight AA 685 headed for Houston, Texas. I found out I was leaving my training boat (2 days early) just over 24 hours ago! So much can happen in a day, let alone a week. It feels like I’ve been working for months already; and it’s only been 8 days.

Ship life is SO different to anything at home. We work long hours and I don’t think I’ve been to bed before 1am since I got on the ship. There’s been so much to learn and so much I’ve wanted to write down to tell everyone back home but there’s just no time. If I get time off that’s more than 2 hours I tend to spend it sleeping or try go ashore and see the islands. Also, internet access is expensive - $20 for 200 minutes – it all adds up very quickly. Hopefully now I’m going to my proper ship things will calm down a little as there will be no more training.

The photo training has been fun and I’ve learned a lot. There were four trainees in my group, myself and three other South Africans – Landé, Liaan and Lititia. Somehow Liaan and Lititia got on to the boat the day Landé and I were supposed to start, and they were staying at the same hotel as us. Anyway, more about the training. We’ve had classes about the boat and its environmental impact or something (can’t remember), safety briefings, selling our products, been through many rules and regulations, had tests on photo stuff as well as general boat safety, evacuations and much more. Most of this happened before I was even given a camera to start taking photos. The photos we take are very basic, many snap shots and some portraits in the evenings. It’s so different to VEGA where the aim was to create beautiful pictures and we could take our time. Here quantity comes before quality. Photographers are given a target of how many photos have to be taken during a certain time period or of a certain scene: about 100-150 photos for an hour to an hour and a half. Hard work when you have to approach all the guests and tell them they want to have their photo taken. On formal nights there are about 10 portrait stations set up (that’s a lot if you ask me) and its hard work setting them all up, lots of carrying heavy stuff. I’ll have well toned muscles from all the weight lifting by the time I get home.

Part of our job is selling the photos we take. This includes helping the guests find their photos (every single photo is printed and put up in the photo gallery on the wall), answering any questions about prices, other products we sell, and being a general security guard to make sure the photos aren’t stolen. 8 x 10 photos cost $22 which seems quite steep, although I worked it out that if I were to do a family photo shoot in a studio and produce 5 to 10 images for someone I would be charging them a lot more per image. They’re getting a good bargain – take as many photos as you like, no obligation to buy anything and if they do want to buy they choose their favourites from all that were taken (which is often quite a stack). We are using D300 cameras with an 18-50mm lens. The lens can get quite a wide angle in – often necessary for many of the VERY large guests. Large and not particularly bright either. The other night I was asked “Whe(re) da formalidies at?” so I politely replied “well tonight is a formal night sir, is that what you’re asking about” with that he mumbled “never mind” with his back to me while he walked away. I’m still puzzled. I’ve had other guests come up to ask me questions and not understood a single word coming out their mouth; they were speaking a different English language.

While in college we’ve had a midnight curfew. Tough when you’re working until 11:30pm most nights. Doesn’t leave much fun time, but we’ve done our best. The curfew was relaxed a few times and we could enjoy ourselves at the crew bar. Drinks are very cheap: $1,50 for a gin and tonic which is more like equal quantities of gin and tonic. They can’t serve doubles on board and shots come in small wine glass – they’re not supposed to serve shots either. We had a little farewell party last night (no curfew) and I think I got less than four hours sleep before I was up again this morning to finish packing then leave the ship in Nassau (Bahamas) and fly to Miami before flying to Houston.

It’s taken a while to get used to the movement of the boat, now I think I finally have but things have reversed, it feels like the land is rocking when I go ashore. That could just be that I’m tired too. Otherwise adjusting to boat life hasn’t been too hard as everyone is so friendly. It was sad to leave all my new friends this morning, hard to believe I’ve only been there a week. The boats all have a share a smile policy – Say Hello And Respond Enthusiastically (SHARE) a smile. Everyone is in the same boat (figuratively and literally) and it just helps everyone get by. There is always food available – healthy and not. It is OK. I thought it was fabulous to begin with, but the menu doesn’t seem to change much so it gets a bit repetitive. Soft serve ice cream is also always available – very nice in the heat! My uniform is HUGE, ugly and uncomfortable. One shirt is an extra small and still slightly too big, they didn’t have my size for the other shirt so I got a large – am swimming in it! I shared a room with Ana from Croatia – we got on well which was nice. We also had one of the smallest rooms on the ship, a bit of a challenge. If the room’s tiny, the bathroom’s minuscule – I don’t know how anyone bigger than me manages.

We are beginning our decent, so that’s all from me for now, Ecstasy awaits!

xxx