Blog #1 - "I should probably write this down"

Oh.. hi!

Welcome to my blog. This is my first attempt (of what I hope is many) to chronicle my 7 month adventure as a trombone player on a cruise ship. Most of my friends and family already know my story, but if you don’t, the long story short: I decided to leave my job after 7 years and work on a cruise ship. I had worked on cruise ships for 4 summers, starting over 10 years ago, but this 7 months will be the longest stretch I’ve done. I wasn’t really finding what I was looking for in Toronto, so when this opportunity came up, I decided to go for it. And.. I’ve just decided I should probably write this all down. It’s a pretty different world living on a cruise ship - I think you could call it fascinating. So, I hope to write this all down, to let my friends and family know what I’m up to, have a way to remember it all when it’s all done, and also to keep myself accountable for the goals I’m trying to accomplish while I’m out here (more on that later). 

 

So! I am the trombone player on the Celebrity Equinox, a member of the “Celebrity Orchestra”, a 7-piece group that provides music for a variety of functions on the ship. Mostly, we play in the large theatre at the front of the ship. Two or three times a cruise we provide the backing music for production shows with singers and dancers, and a few times a week we are the backup band for the singers, musicians, comedians and other guest entertainers who perform on the ship. We also play some dance sets (swing music mostly with some latin music), and cocktail music as needed for some events on the ship.

Equinox in Venice. Big.

  

To provide some back story, I left Toronto in a flurry, barely being able to pack up my apartment before I left town. I owe huge thanks to my friends who helped me get rid of a bunch of things after I had already left town, and to my brother for letting me store a bunch of stuff at his place. I flew from Toronto to New York, and then took an overnight flight to Barcelona. I managed to find the shuttle to the airport hotel where I was staying the night before boarding the ship. The company was pretty organized in arranging for my travel details, which was nice. I heard that there were 79 new employees joining the ship on the same day as me, which is a bit crazy. One thing they didn't mention to me (though I should have remembered from my last contract) is that they put two to a hotel room. This isn't the strangest thing in itself, until when you're half asleep at 1am and some guy named Mihail from Romania enters the room loudly with his bags, and we have to be up in four hours. Anyway, I would say generally that people who work on cruise ships need to be ok with being inconvenienced from time to time. If you get really worked up about small things, cruise ships might not be for you. To put the size of this ship in perspective, it's been ten days and I haven't seen Mihail since the first day we arrived.

 

So, this ship is big. It's the largest in the Celebrity fleet, with six (I think?) identical sister ships. We have 2,850 guests and 1,200 crew. That's a lot of people. The race to build the largest cruise ship with the newest unique features has been going on for years, and I was surprised to find out that it's not really showing any signs of slowing down. They just keep building ‘em bigger and bigger. Royal Caribbean has two ships that hold a total of almost 8,000 people each, and they are building two more that are even larger. I think Celebrity is happy with their seven big(ish) ships (and the 7 other, smaller ships in their fleet), and I don't think they have announced any plans to build any new ships.

 

Back to my story… we were shuttled from the hotel to the ship and it took us a few hours to get through security and onto the ship. We all had to have our various employment details confirmed and verified with the staff on the ship. There was one person who had been flown from who-knows-where yet wasn't on the roster to join the ship. I hope she figured it out! All staff have to have an extensive medical performed before joining the ship. If you have an extensive drug history, or if you're pregnant… you're simply not employable here.

 

After a brief safety and training meeting, I met with the bandleader and was shown a few safety locations that I need to know, the location of the theatre, and the location of the crew mess. It really does take you a few days to learn your way around here, and aimlessly wandering up and down staircases and hallways is a pretty common occurrence.

 

The first day on a cruise ship is usually your longest - I had been up from 6am local time (midnight in Toronto time) to midnight local time. It was a bit of a mess. Also, you’re playing music you’ve never seen before, which can be a challenge. Thankfully, everything went well and I finished my first day without any major problems. I managed to make it back to my cabin and pass out.

 

Ah yes, then there’s my cabin. I had been told that I’d have my own cabin (a first for me), though the washroom is shared with another cabin. The cabin is actually tiny, but I think you can actually make it quite comfortable. There’s a bed that flips down from the wall, and under that is a desk with drawers and a fridge. Opposite that is a wardrobe and a small sink. When the bed is flipped down, it takes up about 70% of the cabin space! The bathroom is indeed strange - there’s a door to enter and then a door on the opposite wall, which connects to another person’s cabin. Both doors have two locks on them - all to facilitate two people being able to secure their own room and to use the washroom. I’m still trying to get the hang of it. To shower, you pull curtains over both doors and the shower is opposite the toilet. It’s all pretty strange at first. That being said, anybody will gladly accept the strange washroom deal with the single cabin that comes with it. Other crew members are not so lucky! 

 

In any case, Equinox is currently finishing her Mediterranean season and will cross over to Fort Lauderdale, Florida next cruise for their winter Caribbean season. I had never been to any of the ports on this run and was eager to see as much of it while I had the chance. That being said, I knew I’d have lots of training and rehearsals and limited time to see the ports. It’s a strange and true reality on a ship where you’re almost always in amazing ports yet sometimes don’t even have any (or much) time to see the port you’re in. As a musician, we’re fortunate enough to generally work nights (when the ship is usually at sea) and be able to visit ports in the day. Often times we end up with a limited window of visiting opportunity and end up “sprinting” off the ship to see as much as we can before the ship leaves for the day. 

 

Personally, I’m happy the ships I will be on will be visiting interesting destinations each day, as compared to destinations where the main attraction is sun and beaches. I love beaches as much as the next person, but after a few weeks and months, it can get old. 

 

Villefranche, France

So, we left Barcelona and arrived in Villefranche, France the next morning. There was no dock to pull up to so we used the ship’s tender boats to ferry guests and crew to shore. It’s a strange thing to step down off a ship, onto a platform hovering above the sea, and to get on a smaller boat to take you to shore. Actually, I think there is definitely an illusion at sea - it doesn’t usually feel like you’re on a ship. A “floating hotel” is much closer to the truth. It’s only in rough seas (which are pretty rare, so far) that it really “sinks in”. 

 

I am pretty determined to see as much of everything as I can while I’m out here. I hope to have the same level of determination in 4 months! Luckily for me, the itineraries will change fairly regularly. And, I hope to keep blogging with lots to report! However, my time this cruise was fairly limited with training. I had just a few hours in Villefranche to see the sights. Other crew members with more time elected to take trains into nearby Nice or Monaco. I hiked up the city’s winding roads as much as I could, trying to get a decent view of the beautiful, sleepy bay with our monstrous ship lurking in the background. In a way, it feels like our ship invaded this quiet French town.. 2,800 guests, mostly American, barging in and disturbing the peace. I’m sure the local industry appreciates the business, but I think the average cruise ship guest and the average Villefranche resident enjoy very differing lifestyles. Anyway, I think generally we are happy to visit and they are mostly happy to have us. 

 

At the end of the day, with about an hour left to visit, I found a nice cafe with free wifi. Free wifi is the golden ticket for crew members - it’s what we’re all constantly looking for. Wifi on the ship is relatively expensive and slow, and everybody just wants to be able to keep in touch with their friends and family back home. It’s interesting to see the difference in availability in the different ports - some places advertise free wifi everywhere and it’s quite normal to see, while in other ports it’s almost impossible. Personally, I was very internet-immersed and connected in Toronto, and it’s a pretty big system shock to be separated from it. In a way, I miss my 6GB of cellular data, but in another way, it’s very liberating. I simply don’t get a text or email on my phone unless I find somewhere to check in. It can be very, very nice!

 

 

 

The sleepy harbour in Villefranche

 

A note on “all aboard”: the ship leaves some port at some time, every day, and obviously all crew members being back aboard on time is a huge deal. However, we are in amazing places and generally, adventurous crew members try to see as much and go as far as possible in the short time we have ashore. Calculating risk is essential. Missing the ship will almost definitely guarantee you a “chicken or pasta” as they call it here (dismissal and a flight home), unless you have a really, really good story. I’ve been in a few sticky situations where I’ve cut it unhealthily close to the crew all aboard time, and it really is no fun. Generally, I like to leave myself lots of time to spare and prevent copious amounts of anxiety! It’s also a good idea to be close to the ship with plenty of time to spare and do any internet business you need to while you’re close by. 

 

 

Approaching Equinox from the tender

 

La Spezia, Italy

 

The next stop was in La Spezia, Italy, which is the port city to Pisa (with the leaning tower) and Florence. Unfortunately, I don’t think I made it off the ship that day. I actually did walk off the gangway to “step foot” in Italy, but with a 15-minute shuttle to the town and multiple training sessions and a rehearsal, there just wasn’t any time. As I’ve said before, being a crew member on a ship is often about doing the best you can with the time you have. 

 

 

An attempt at a long exposure from the front of the ship (deck 15!)

Civitavecchia, Italy

 

Next up, Civitavecchia, Italy, port city to Rome. I had about 3 hours off and seriously contemplated making a mad dash for Rome, but rumours of terrible train delays made it a no-go. I headed off with a few band members and we found some good coffee and pizza (and free wifi, of course - dealbreaker!). I will confess that I have no idea how to order coffee out here. Maybe I just don’t know how I like it, though they don’t always serve “American”/drip coffee. I certainly like espresso-based coffee drinks, but I am usually used to consuming large quantities of it! The espresso-shot Italian staple is something I’m still getting used to. Though I do enjoy the cappuccinos out here - every single one has been divine. 

 

I’ve been fortunate enough to hang out with other musicians who are pretty good with getting off the ship as much as possible, which is pretty essential to mental health when you’re out here. On this day though, we just went out and had some good food (and Internet). Most crew members have laptops and sitting in silence (sometimes) at a table with everyone connecting to their family is common. After all, we have on-ship hours to be social with each other. 

Band members Doug, Scoot, Harrison and the legendary Isaac Darkstar

 

I walked down the pier in Civitavecchia and it was really great to just be outside, facing the massive ocean. I would have liked to make it to Rome, but what can you do. Next time. 

 

 

Naples, Italy

 

The next day we had more time off in Naples, and I would say this was my favourite day so far. The band’s guitar player, Doug (from Birmingham, England), is an excellent pseudo-tour-excursion-port-guide and usually has great ideas about what to do in any given port. Doug and a few others decided to visit Pompeii, the Roman city destroyed by the ash of Mount Vesuvius in 69AD (I think?), and I was very happy to tag along. 

Equinox with Mount Vesuvius lurking in the background

 

We walked through Naples and it was.. incredibly busy. People everywhere, tourists everywhere, things for sale everywhere, and garbage everywhere! Cars were zooming around and it just all felt very, very busy. The group I was with had been to Naples before but they weren’t exactly certain how to get to the local train station that we needed. We stopped to talk to a few locals and I was reminded that some people simply don’t speak any English. I think a lot of English-speaking travellers simply assume that English will be spoken everywhere when they travel, and it’s just not the case. The group I was with managed to quasi-communicate with a few locals and the most wonderful lady walked us what I think was a few miles to where we could take a bus to the train station. She had no need to walk us as far as she did and it was incredible to feel the kindness of a stranger in that regard. She made sure to tell us not to pay for the bus, (since apparently nobody checks), and another younger local who spoke a few sentence of English was able to let us know where to get off. I suppose we could have been better prepared, but the experience of finding our way was pretty great. 

Just happened on this space walking by.

 

 

Grabbed this “ninja pic” of two gentlemen going for a walk

Trying to decipher. It occurred to me (not for the first time) that I could have been much more prepared..

 

We took the local train out to Pompeii and spent as much time as we could walking around the grounds of the city that had been uncovered since its burial in ash so long ago. Living in North America, I rarely see anything, at all, that is over 200 years old. Everything in Pompeii was 2000 years old (and older). The weather was beautiful and imagining what it must have been like back then and walking the grounds was great. They had an amphitheatre as well that we could walk through - the experience was pretty surreal. I filled up many, many gigabytes of RAW camera images! 

 

We had ended up pretty far from the train station and heading back, lost our bearing a bit and my stress levels started to creep up. We were about 35 minutes by train back to Naples and at least 20 minutes from the train station in Naples to the ship. And, we were sortof-lost in Pompeii, having exited the grounds on the opposite side from where we had entered. After a decent amount of wandering and much more than a welcome share of that stomach-churning “am I going to miss the ship?” anxiety, we found the train station and caught a train about 45 minutes later than the one we had hoped for. Still with time to spare but not much room for error. I know a lot of people prefer to travel on land, where time doesn’t really matter, and there’s a lot to be said for it. 

 

Anyway, we hopped on our train and made good time back to Naples. Every train station was absolutely covered in graffiti and we encountered both crazy people and drunk, young hooligans on the way back (we shuffled trains a few times). I suppose the best moment was watching the crazy screaming man suddenly pull a Michael Jackson-like splits on the train floor. 

 

We did have about 30 minutes to spare arriving back in Naples and made an effort to locate some of Naples’ legendary pizza. For 4 Euros, I had a 4 cheese pizza (quatro formaggio!) and let me just say.. oh. my. goodness. I have never, ever, ever tasted pizza so good. If I could eat that every single day of my life, I would. It was simply divine. 

 

We made it back on the ship and I was thoroughly exhausted. We still had shows to play that night, which is a common theme - run around all day, struggle to play shows well at night. I haven’t talked too much about the shows - they are varying degrees of challenging and varying degrees of rewarding. Personally, I like backing up the guest entertainers the most - we’re on the big stage with good talent and I think generally the guests enjoy the shows. I’m not always sold on the production shows, though the singers, dancers and aerialists are certainly talented. Anyway, everyone in our band plays really well and I’m generally happy to be playing these shows with them. 

 

Kotor, Montenegro

 

After a day at sea, we stopped in Kotor, Montenegro. I didn’t know too much about Kotor, and Kotor competes pretty closely on Google as both a city in Montenegro and as an acronym for “Knights of the Old Republic”, a video game spin off from Star Wars (the Star Wars search is actually higher on the search relevance than the city. For shame!). Anyway, Kotor is really built like an old walled city with a castle at the top. The entire city is walled and it is pretty.. different! Surreal. We decided to hike up, through the city to the top of the old castle. 

 

 

All of the city within the city walls (the “old city”) has stone, narrow streets, and nothing is in a straight line (this seems to be a recurring theme in old cities!). The city is mostly filled with shops, restaurants and churches. We headed up through the back of the city and hiked up the stairs to the castle above (or what’s left of it). The weather was not great - it rained constantly. We were a bit pressed for time and had to motor up the stairs at a decent rate. Anyway, we hit the top and got some great views of the city below. After spending some time at the top, we hiked down, found some coffee and wifi (of course) and met up with the ship. It’s easy to forget that I was pretty soaked and miserable that day! A fascinating city.

 

 

 

Venice, Italy 

 

I was pretty excited for Venice! Maybe the most anticipated stop on the Equinox part of my voyage. We were scheduled to stay overnight (fairly rare for cruise ships), from about 2pm-2pm.   We were docked in the port and had to take a boat shuttle for about 15 minutes into the city. Unfortunately, as crew we were only able to get off the ship after the sun had set for the day, but we still had lots and lots of time to explore. 

 

If Kotor is narrow winding pedestrian streets, Venice is that times a million. For miles and miles and miles, narrow stone streets and shops occupy the city. I’m not sure how the locals get around! A map is essential. That being said, most streets have direction signs for major landmarks/areas. 

 

Oh and of course, the water. There’s nothing quite like it! Bridges everywhere and of course, the gondolas. It’s a pretty romantic, unique city. I heard a man singing and playing accordion on a gondola, but it took about 10 minutes following his voice as it echoed through the city walls (side note: I really want to learn how to play accordion). We made our way through the city and the crowds. 

 

Oh, the cameras. I have never seen so many cameras (professional and otherwise) in my life. There must have been a photography convention in town. Every single person was taking pictures at every single point. I did feel quite at home :)

 

There were probably lots of interesting landmarks I was supposed to go and see, but mostly I wandered around with a few guys from the band. We had dinner at a small place that of course, advertised wifi, but it didn’t work. Such disappointment. The meal was actually quite average, if not disappointing as well. Oh well! Win some, lose some. The city was amazing. 

A Venetian sunset on arrival

 

 

Gondolas, of course. Note the water level...

I don’t think he’s meaning to pull a “duckface”.. but that’s how I see it (and the gelato was amazing)

 

We actually headed to a completely different part of town as one of the band members had heard that most places had wifi and that it was a hipper part of town. I know it seems like too often we’re looking for wifi, but with an overnight and hours of free time for once, it was a good chance for the guys to get onto Skype/actually spend some time writing emails and Facebook messages, etc. We found a great bar with great wifi (transfer speed is judged!) and settled in. Great Italian wine at 3 Euros a glass and a decent Internet connection? The life. The square we settled in to was filled with young students who just seemed to want to roam about and have fun. There were 3 people singing together in one corner. The didn’t seem to be any police presence yet there were at least a few hundred people there. It was pretty magical and pretty un-North American! We finished our wines and made our way back to the ship. 

 

The next morning, I had a relatively short window to go back into town but wanted to take some pictures during the day. I headed back into town on the shuttle. 

 

Now.. the flooding. I had heard that Venice floods, and I had seen a few streets the night before overflowing with water. But, nothing major. There was an elevated walkway through Saint Mark’s square the night before, but I didn’t make too much of it. When I came into town the next day, however.. there were major portions of the square under water. High tide. It was quite a sight to see, especially with all the tourists. The vendors sold rubber boots for the tourists.

Note the difference in the water level from the earlier picture

 

I made it through the crowded part of town and found a coffee shop with wifi (which again, didn’t work. Italy wins bigtime on the coffee and fails on the wifi. Maybe there’s a lesson in there somewhere).

A selfie. Yes, I do that. 

 

Anyway, when I left the coffee shop, the owner gave me a few bags for my feet. They were bags designed to be worn as boots - they came with some string built in to tie around your feet. I really didn’t think I needed them. Then I walked down the street and.. yup, in the hour I had been in the coffee shop, most of the city had seriously flooded. So, I donned the boots and waded through flooded Venice!

Here goes nothing.

Unfortunately, stepping into St. Mark’s square, I encountered some serious water levels. That, combined with my inadequate boot-tying skills.. well, within about 2 minutes, the water invaded my makeshift boots and flooded my shoes. 

 

Flooded St. Mark’s Square

 

So, I’m standing in the middle of Venice, in a foot of water, in boots that are now zero percent effective. What a day! What could I do. Obviously I had to make it to dry land. The ramps that had been setup in the square were now jam-packed with tourists. I walked/waded over and had to lift of my bag-o’-water feet and pull the bags off my shoes. It was a proud moment and I got more than a few comments of “ohhh nooo” from various tourists walking by and seeing my situation. 

 

In any event, I made it up onto the ramp and finally to dry land, in soaking shoes. I grabbed the boatshuttle back to the ship and, well, changed my shoes. Fare thee well, beautiful Venice. I think I did it right. 

 

Dubrovnik, Croatia

 

The next port of call was Dubrovnik, Croatia, a place I knew little about (except for reports that it was simply beautiful). However, I had almost no time to visit and I thought about staying on the ship. I had about 90 minutes and there was a 15-minute shuttle to the city. But getting off the ship is always better than staying on, so off I went. The weather was extremely stormy! Thunder,  lighting and torrential rail. After 5 minutes in town, I thought I’d head back.. but the storms held off and I wandered through the city. It’s a walled city like Kotor but on a much grander scale. Huge. 

Wallaments.

 

 

I had heard about the “walls” of Dubrovnik and, somewhat by accident, found an entrance to the walls. It was 90 Kuna to enter, or about $18 Canadian. I didn’t really know what they were all about, and I only had about 45 minutes. The man at the register said I needed about an hour but since I was “a young strong man” I could probably do it in 45 minutes. I said what the heck and paid the fee. 

 

The “walls” ended up being a 2.2 kilometre circuit of the walls of Dubrovnik. The views were absolutely astounding. And, because of the thunder and rain, there was nobody else on the circuit. As in, I saw one person the entire time I hiked the walls. I can’t imagine a better way to see the city, and I’m really lucky I stumbled upon the entrance (and decided to do it). It is really a city like no other.  And, I managed to make the round trip from the ship in under 90 minutes :)

 

 

At Sea 

 

We headed back from Dubrovnik to Barcelona, a journey which took us two days at sea. I think the guests were relieved to have some time to relax. Many of the guests enjoy “back-to-back cruising” and stay on the ship for multiple cruises - one gentleman did 3 cruises in a row for 30 days on the ship!. The ship actually finished its Mediterranean season in Barcelona and will now head to Fort Lauderdale after 5 days in Spain and 7 days at sea (yikes!). I believe it’s a record that over 500 of the 2,850 guests on this ship are staying on the ship to head over to Florida. Most of the guests are American and I overheard one guest saying that the relative cost of buying a plane ticket back home vs simply paying for another cruise (which as a crossing is offered at a discounted rate) makes it all worth it. 

 

We encountered some really rough seas on the second sea day that I’d say was close to as bad as it had ever been when I cruised a few years ago. I managed to make it through most of the day feeling ok but after about 10 hours of bouncing around (and an hour of packing) I wasn’t feeling fantastic. Ships mostly sail in calm seas wherever possible but I guess there was no avoiding this. 

 

After a very busy night and morning and just a few quick hours sleep, I’ve disembarked Equinox and am headed to meet Solstice in Sydney, Australia. I fly to London tonight, wait a few hours, then fly to Sydney with a brief stop in Singapore. The London-Sydney leg will take 22 hours… wish me luck!! Then, I’ll have 24 hours to adjust in Sydney before staying on Solstice for.. 6 and a half months (gulp).

 

Anyway.. it has been an awesome 12 days here, and I will be sad to leaving a pretty fun and relaxed situation. I had a ton of fun with the band and really enjoyed getting out around the ship and checking out some of the other musicians on the ship. All good, though - everything is temporary with ships as people and itineraries are always coming and going. Onto the next!

 

I think that’s it for my first blog! I’m all worded out. I will post more as the adventure continues. 

 

Thanks for reading!!

 

 

 

 

Jim