END OF THE WORLD?

I am proud to say that it is 8:00 PM on December 22, 2012 (AKA – The day after the apparent day of the end of the world) and I’m still floating in the middle of the ocean with no problems. Based on Facebook status updates, I can confidently say that my friends on land have had the same good fortune.

I've just begun my fourth week with DCL and I have to say, things are going pretty well. I’m a little less overwhelmed now in some areas and little more in others. The ship doesn't seem quite as big to me anymore because it’s finally becoming home. I've made some really great friends and I get genuinely excited to go to work. Balance is so important with this job. I've stopped relying on getting eight hours of sleep a night because that simply doesn't happen. There are times when I only have seven hours between the time I get off at night and the time I start again in the morning. Add in showering, shaving, brushing my teeth and all the other nightly/morning routines and that leaves around five or six hours of sleep in a night. Therefore, my breaks have also become nap times. Most days, I have a couple of two or three hour breaks where I catch up on rest. I definitely stay busy.

I've finally started hosting my own events on the ship. So far, it’s been smaller events like karaoke or trivia. Currently, I’m in rehearsal for two shows: “A Pirate’s Life for Me” and “Mirror, Mirror.” And when I say rehearsal, I actually mean spending twenty minutes quickly running through blocking and learning small dance routines while simultaneously learning lines and crying a little because I feel like I’ll never get it. As you can see, I’m a little stressed about it. But I know I’ll be fine. It’s just very difficult to find time to actually learn the script when I'm already working 10-12 hours in a day. Next week, I’m expected to be show ready with those two. We’ll see what happens.

Other than that, things are pretty much the way they were last week. I didn't get off the ship much this cruise. I spent my days sleeping. Also, the weather was pretty rainy. This led to canceled events and excursions which led to more activities being added that I was required to be a part of. Hopefully this next week will be a little better in regards to weather.

Alright, that’s enough for now. I can hardly believe it’s already been three full weeks. My next goal is to get a few photos of me in my costumes.

Bye!

PROGRESS SO FAR

Today is Wednesday Dec. 12. I’ve officially finished one cruise and I’m about half way through my second. The great thing about doing seven night cruises is that each day and each week are completely different. So I’m not going to the same place every three or four days. Once we visit a port, I don’t come back to that port again until two weeks later. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored!

Okay. Where shall I begin? I have worked and learned so much this past week and a half, I feel like I’ve been on this ship for a month. I can’t lie to any of you. This is hard. I really am having a wonderful time. But this is hard. Just getting used to the ship life in general takes a lot of energy and patience. There are definite pros and cons. For instance, one pro is time. I’m confined to a ship. And although it’s big, there’s only so long it can take me to walk from one end to the other so I can get to work in less than five minutes. This allows ample time for sleeping in as much as possible and inevitable procrastination. Also, if you’re on a quick break from work and you just want to run back to your room and sit down in your own space, you totally have that flexibility because everything is within just a few minutes of you no matter where you are. Another pro is the people. I can’t speak for working on any other ship but here on the Disney Fantasy, everyone is a family. There are about 1500 crew members representing sixty different nationalities on board and it seems as if everyone knows everyone else. As soon as I embarked the ship I had other crew members welcoming me and helping me. We treat each other the way we treat our guests and that’s really special. One con is the fact that you have to share a room. And when I say room, I mean, a walk in closet (I’m exaggerating… a little). I really like my roommate (Vicky from India). He’s very nice and works in the tech department on board. He works LONG hours so he’s barely ever in the room except at night to sleep. The bathroom is the hardest to get used to because it’s extremely small with a sliver of a shower. But it’s all a part of the adventure. Another con is the amount of work each crew member is responsible for. We stay very busy and we also stay exhausted. I’m a very social person. I like going out and partying with my friends. And we totally have that option. But I’ve barely even participated in any group outings because at the end of my day, I’m ready for bed! You know that when Matt James comes home at 11 PM and goes to sleep instead of going to the crew bar, he’s had a long day.

Let me give a rundown of what my time has been like so far and then I’ll give you an idea of what my job entails. The entire first week was filled with HR training as well as on the job training. HR training was all about safety regulations and customer service. We were taught what to do in an emergency and how to handle certain guest situations. We had life raft training where we learned how to use a life raft and where to go if we ever needed to abandon ship. Every two weeks, we have a safety drill so that the procedures are always fresh in our minds. As you can imagine, the HR stuff was pretty boring. But we definitely got some valuable information like how we get paid, where we do our laundry, and where the crew bar is. On top of learning all of our HR and safety information, we were also thrown into on the job training in our specific areas. My area is DCL Entertainment and my job title is Cruise Staff Entertainment Host. So what does that mean? The cruise staff (there are 11-15 of us at any given time) is responsible for all adult and family activities on board. This can be anything from greeting guests as they enter the theatre for one of our main stage shows and facilitating BINGO all the way to performing Mickey’s Pirates of the Caribbean show on the main deck stage. The cruse staff team is all over the ship. Out of those 11-15 cruise staff members, about half of us are Entertainment Hosts. What this mean is that in all of the events and functions that we facilitate, one of the Entertainment Hosts will actually function as the emcee and speak on microphone as each one takes place. We also have our own family shows that we perform in various locations around the ship. As of right now, I’m not hosting anything because I’m still in training. This entire first week has involved a lot of observing and retaining of information. My next step will be to actually receive the scripts and go into rehearsals for each show that we do. Here are some of the shows and events that I will work/host around the ship:

BINGO

THEATRE DOOR GREETER

DECK THE DECK – A holiday show on the main deck

FAMILY FUSION – A game show to see how well you know your family

SUPERSTAR KARAOKE

LONDON ROCKS – A nightclub celebration in “The Tube,” a venue celebrating underground London

PIRATE NIGHT – A series of shows on the main deck featuring your favorite Disney characters (and me!)

DISNEY TRIVIA

MOVIE TRIVIA

DISNEY ANIMATION

MIRROR, MIRROR – A game show featuring Dopey from Snow White

… And the list goes on…

It really is a fun job and I’m having a blast. But as you can imagine, learning all of these events and scripts is a lot of work. And the list of events I’ve posted here is only about one day’s worth. There are seven different nights on each cruise with this number of activities. It can get very intense and very overwhelming.

The ports of call I’ve visited have been absolutely gorgeous. So far, I’ve been to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, and Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island). Today, I’m in Cozumel, Mexico. Here are a few photos from San Juan and Grand Cayman. I’ll try to get more photos as soon as I can.

Alright, I think that’s enough for now. I’ll try to continue updating as much as possible as time goes on. I have a big six hour break today so I’m heading out on a port adventure to swim with the dolphins. Because… yeah… I can do that stuff for FREE! Be jealous.

See-ya!

EMBARKING THE DISNEY FANTASY

Saturday Dec. 1

Once again, I woke up bright and early at 4:00 AM. I was so excited. Today was the day. The day I’d get on the ship. And I was very pleased to see that my illness had almost completely gone away. There was no more fever and only a slightly runny nose. I quickly packed last minute things and headed to the hotel lobby to meet everyone. We waited about five minutes when finally the Disney Cruise Line bus arrived and we got on. As early as it was, we were all so pumped and ready to get on that ship. The trip took about an hour. As we got closer, I looked across the horizon and saw the ship at its port. I had imagined the ship to be big. I had imagined it to look beautiful. What I saw exceeded all of my expectations. It was MASSIVE. It was GORGEOUS. I couldn't believe my eyes.

The bus pulled up and I was all but jumping up and down in my seat. A border patrol officer came onto the bus and looked over our passports to make sure we were all accounted for. Then we got off the bus and lined ourselves along with our luggage against a wall. A drug dog ran by and sniffed our bags. (He didn't find my extra pixie dust.) Now it was time to get on the ship. We made our way through the gangway, set our luggage in one room, and headed to the DCL Crew Training Room. The first thing that we got was our “Earning My Ears” tags to put on our name tags.

This is for guests to see so that they know we’re in training, as well as a celebratory tradition for the company. Once our training is complete, the tags are removed and we actually receive our Mickey ears.

As different papers were being passed around for us to sign, one of them asked if we had experienced any fevers, nausea, or diarrhea within the past three days. So I checked off that had a fever the day before and that the night before (this is too much information) I had diarrhea. Boy, was this a mistake. I had no idea that in the cruise ship industry (for crew members and for guests), any episode of diarrhea that is reported requires you to be seen by the ship doctor. Gastrointestinal problems are taken VERY seriously because it can spread so rapidly. So before I could even begin any training, I was whisked away to see the head nurse. She kept asking very specific questions about what time my last… ehem… episode was. I told her it has been around 10 PM the night before. She responded with, “Okay. So we’ll have to put you in isolation until 10 PM tonight.”

…

ISOLATION?!

I was taken to a hospital room where I was to remain for the next 14 hours. I started to freak out. I was already nervous about my first day on board.  What will the job be like? Will I be able to keep up with everything they want me to do? And now, I was to miss the entire day! The ship tour and meeting with my leaders were especially vital. It was a nightmare. But I had no choice. I literally sat (laid) in that room for fourteen hours. At least I was able to watch television. Whenever I wanted food, I had to call room service to bring it to me from the crew mess. They literally had to knock on the door, leave the tray outside of my door, and leave as to not have any contact with me. Did I have the plague?

Here’s a photo of my beautiful isolation room:

FINALLY, at 10PM on the dot, a nurse came to get me and take me to my room. To my surprise, I didn't have a roommate. This was actually a pretty nice room. A full sized bed, decent sized shower and bathroom, and a lot of storage space. I was quickly told, however, that this was only a temporary room. Due to the ship being over capacity, they had me in this room until my room became available. Oh well! At least I get to live the good life for a week. Here are some photos of my temporary cabin:

Although I had been in the isolation room for 14 hours, I really hadn't slept because I was so worked up and nervous about missing my first day. Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted and immediately went to bed praying that the next day would be a little different. 

TRAINING DAY TWO: TRADITIONS

Friday, November 30, 2012

Thankfully, this day didn't start quite as early as the day before. At 8:00 AM, we all met in the lobby once more and headed to Disney University. Yes, you read that correctly. DISNEY UNIVERSITY. It exists, folks. Many classes are taught there but one of the main courses is one called "Traditions." All new hires of Walt Disney World or Disney Cruise Lines is required to take this course. As you know, I am a former cast member. However, because it had been so long since my last employment (2009) and since DCL is such a different lifestyle, I had to retake this course. And why wouldn't I want to? To be paid to learn about Walt Disney, the history of the company, and Mickey Mouse is a dream come true.

The class takes about eight hours. But since it's filled with activities, games and a visit to Magic Kingdom, it goes by pretty fast. My "Traditions" assistants were Sue and Rose. And BOY were they full of energy and in total Disney spirit. Loved them. In some of the more boring sections of the training, they enticed us by handing out Disney "creatures" or small statuettes of characters and mini ships. I acquired Captain Goofy and a ship so I was pretty stoked. The highlight of the day was definitely when we were paid a visit by the man himself. And yes, I do mean Mr. Mickey Mouse. There was a knock at the door and in ran the big cheese holding a Christmas box filled with a very special surprise: our new Disney Cruise Line name tags!

Mickey went around the room and shook our hands. We were all jumping up and down in our seats with excitement from the moment he walked in until the moment he left. A personal visit from Mickey Mouse is not something that happens every day. As you can imagine, there were many tear filled eyes as each new crew member (DCL cast members are known as crew members) watched with pride as the icon of the most successful entertainment company in the world welcomed them to the company. What an experience.

Once traditions was over, we all headed back to the hotel and worked out how we wanted to spend our last night in the parks. We ultimately decided to head to Disney's Hollywood Studios Park to hop on a few attractions and catch a showing of Fantasmic! (Fantasmic! is my favorite show on Disney property using effects with water, fire, lights and fireworks to create a journey into Mickey's imagination.) Then we headed back to the hotel to pack our bags and get ready for the next day: EMBARKING THE SHIP!

The only problem with this day (Friday) was that I was very sick all day. I woke up with a fever and other flu like symptoms that made me feel awful. Ibuprofen and DayQuil were my lifesavers. Other than that, this day was fairly normal (Disney normal).

I was not prepared for what would happen next. 

TRAINING DAY ONE

Thursday Nov. 29, 2012

I woke up bright and early at 5:30 AM so that I could get showered and ready in time to meet the DCL training team in the lobby. I also wanted to be able to grab breakfast beforehand. Looking sharp in my "smart business" Disney look, I made my way to the End Zone Food Court. It wasn't hard to immediately spot others who were also there for training. Holding envelopes and folders full of paperwork and nervously eating our breakfast, we stood out like sore thumbs. We quickly began eyeing each other and coming together, introducing ourselves, and inquiring about our specific ship duties. I made fast friends with a guy named Riccardo from Italy, another guy named Yoann from France, and a girl named Linda from Ireland. At precisely 7 AM, our DCL Casting Assistants met us in the lobby and we all boarded a bus to the Disney Casting Office. Here, we filled out some final paperwork and received our shore side Disney ID's. After just a little bit of information about what the next couple of days would entail, we received the excellent news that our shore side ID's would get us into the parks for free and that since we were all joining such a strenuous and hectic job and lifestyle, they wanted us to have time to play. So off to the parks we went to be able to frolic for the rest of the day. Not a bad first day of training, right?

My three new friends had never been to America before, not to mention Disney World. So I became the official tour-guide.  I decided that their first experience should be in the Magic Kingdom since that is the quintessential Disney park, what with Cinderella Castle and the like. After about 45 minutes of showing them around, I realized that I had a missed call and voice mail from a 407 (Orlando) number. As as I listened to the voicemail, my heart sank.

"Hello. This message is for Matthew James. This is [insert cast member name here] from Disney Cruise Line. We are currently at your hotel to pick you up for your 10:30 AM costume fitting and are not able to find you. It is currently 11:00 AM. Please give me a call back as soon as you can so that we may make additional arrangements. Have a magical day!"

I couldn't believe it. How could I have forgotten one of my training appointments? I tried to think hard but I just couldn't remember being told about a costume fitting time. So as I began calling the number back, afraid of already starting off on the wrong foot, I was receiving a phone call from the same number. I answered.

"Hello?" 

"Hi! Is this Matthew?"

"Oh my gosh, yes! I just listened to your voicemail! I am so sorry. I am not sure what--"

"Please, do NOT be sorry! This is totally our fault. Soon after I called you, I realized that we had never sent you the information on costume fittings. This is our mistake and I apologize for the inconvenience. However, we DO need to go ahead and have you fitted into your costumes. Where are you now?"

"Well, I'm at Magic Kingdom. Should I head back to the hotel?"

"Absolutely not. We don't want to inconvenience you any further. I am sending someone now to pick you up from the park. Once we are done, we will take you back so that you can join your friends. You can meet [insert cast member name here] in the cast parking lot and she will take you to your fitting."

"Wow. Okay. Thanks so much!"

"My pleasure. Thanks for being so flexible and again, I apologize for the inconvenience. Have a magical day!"

"No problem at all. Goodbye!"

"Goodbye!"

Whew! With that weight lifted off my shoulders, I explained to the others what had happened. We tried to make arrangements to be able to meet up later in the park. However, since everyone had  international numbers, we had no way of texting or calling each other. So I told them I'd see them tomorrow for day number two and I headed to cast parking.

I met the costuming assistant as planned and we got in a company car to head to the warehouse. What I was not aware of was that this facility is not actually on Disney property. It's located about 30 minutes away, directly between Disney World and Port Canaveral. Obviously, this makes perfect sense. Disney thinks of everything. When I arrived at the costuming facility, I was greeted by warm and friendly faces who took me into a room to be fitted. As I walked in, my jaw dropped. I had no idea that I would have so many costumes. There had to be twelve different outfits ranging from race car drivers and pirates to suits and tuxedos. And they made me feel like a king. I stood on a step while they pinned, sewed, zipped and measured to make sure every costume fit me perfectly. It was truly a magical experience. Once I was done there, I hopped into the company car and was taken back to Magic Kingdom. I walked around for a while, wondering if I would run into my friends again. But that's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. So I decided to be alone for a while and strolled through the park enjoying the 75 degree weather and people watching. After a few hours, I headed back to the hotel to have dinner and begin settling down for the night. I wanted to be sure to get a good night's sleep because the next day would definitely be a long one.

 Little did I know what the next few days would have in store.