Barbados (day at the BEACH!)

Yesterday the whole photo team (well, almost the whole team, one guy had to stay behind as part of his emergency duties to "man the port"), went to the Boat Yard (a private beach/bar place in Bridgetown). The port in Barbados is really ugly, you have to take a shuttle to get to the main terminal, and then grab a taxi to go anywhere (downtown or the beaches). Every month Image gives $20 per person for a group activity (something everyone agrees on as a team). The people who have been here longer knew about this place with an awesome beach, so that's where we went for the afternoon. There's an entrance fee of $5US which gets you access to the beach (including water trampolines, a climbable/inflatable glacier slide thing, and a rope swing!!) you also get one free drink. I got a Shark Tail (rum + some fruit juice mixture, it was good), plus we ordered a bunch of food (chicken fingers & wings, shrimp, basket of fries with cheese) and we ended up getting about 3 buckets of beers (6 beers/bucket = $15).

It was so nice to swim in the water (even though it's salty, yuck). It was such a beautifully sunny & hot day. I recognized a lot of the crew, and even some guests, I guess it's a popular place. There is a long boardwalk/pier that you can dive from at the end, and also a rope swing! It took some convincing for me to go on it, but it was so much fun (except getting a bunch of water up my nose)! I hung out on the water trampolines for a bit too. We also played some volleyball. I must have pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve or something because my back started to hurt. By the time we got back to the ship it was hurting really bad. I took a quick nap before work, hoping I could just sleep it off, but no luck. By the way, I'm getting awesome at napping! hahah, if I have a spare half hour to an hour I'll take a quick cat nap. This is pretty standard on the ship. They even have "international nap time" from 2-4 where you aren't supposed to phone anyone.

I was supposed to meet the cruise director to film a small segment advertising the Photo Department on the cruise TV channel, but it was cancelled at the last minute. I'm kinda glad because I was nervous and not told what to say! But also disappointed because I spent extra time making myself look good :P lol. By the end of the night my back was so sore, all I could do was cry myself to sleep because I couldn't find a comfortable position :( sad but true. I tried putting some Tiger balm (thanks Gabe!) but it didn't really help. I'm planning on going to see the doctor today, but it's only open from 4-5 and 7-8 for the crew... pretty dumb hours!! I could go to the guest medical area, but I don't that's only for emergencies (which this is not).

Tonight is the second formal night (busy night for us photographers!) and I'll be shooting pictures in the Ressi (restaurant) for the first time. The other day I did my first portrait studio and it went really well!! I was so worried I would suck, but I got a lot of positive feedback (and some helpful critiquing). My manager said he liked how confident I appeared, even when I wasn't sure what to do. I think I shot about 15-20 couples, and sold some of the pictures already!

Right now I'm at a bar in Grenada using the free wifi and drinking and Amaretto sour (which doesn't tastes that good). The wifi is really slow, but at least I'm not paying per minute to use it! Pictures are still impossible to upload :( so you'll just have to use your imagination. The weather here is overcast and not that warm, it even rained this morning for a bit.

Today is day 8 of the cruise, so I'm past the halfway point! I don't even want to think of how many more weeks until I come home... I miss everyone! I wish you could all come visit me! It's not that I'm very lonely (I'm enjoying the private room) but I'm so exhausted by the time we finish work around 11:30pm, that I just got straight to bed and don't really party or hang out with anyone. That might change once I get used to life onboard, but it's just been too much too soon, I'm still adjusting. Here's what an average work day looks like:

Port Days:
8-11:30am: on the gangway (I've only done this twice, since I have ship training in the morning, usually from 9-11, but they have me smudging on the gangway before/after the training, today was the last of the training though). There's usually 3-5 photographers, 2-3 shooting and the rest smudging or dressed as a character.
11:30-5pm: lunch break, time in the port, or nap time. On formal nights (like today) we have to be back by 3:30 to start setting up the portrait studios (5 different studios! on a casual day we only set up 1 studio)
5pm-11pm: the gallery is open for business. Everyone works and rotates taking breaks (usually 1 half hour break and 1 hour break, but this isn't always the case). On formal nights there are no breaks! We shoot the studio for 1.5 hours and go to the restaurant to shoot for half hour, then back to the studios for 1.5 hours, and back to the restaurant for the late seating for another half hour, and then back to the studios! Formal night photos are the best sellers, and where we make the most money, so they are very important.

Sea Days:
since there is no gangway, the Photo Gallery opens earlier, 10am I think. So far I've had ship training on all the sea days, so I'm not sure what the schedule normally looks like. I think some people will get the morning off and work in the afternoon/evening, while others work the morning/afternoon and have the evening off.

No one ever has a full day off, we all work 7 days a week, an average of 10 hours per day! It's physically draining, especially on formal nights. Setting up the studios take a lot of work (putting up the backdrop, setting up the lights, making sure everything is safe, etc). I really don't like doing it :( I wonder if I'll make it the whole 6 months. It's hard to say at this point, since I'm still adjusting. But I really want to go to Europe, so that's a great motivator! Only 6 more cruises until the transatlantic! It doesn't sound like much, but each cruise is 14 days, so that's still 3 months to go :(