*Another another Guest Blog from Kim!*

I got a lot of good response from her last one, as it's nice to hear the not-so-rosy accounts of what this job entails. So again, for your reading pleasure - a blog entry entirely written by Kim and definitely not me.

KIM: The Crew Cabins

"After days of land-based training, my training team was brought by van to the Disney Cruise Line's crew area. We gathered our luggage and followed our Human Resources leader to the security gate, where we were cleared through and were soon walking across the cargo loading areas to the crew gangway, which leads into the lower decks of the ship. For most of us, the anticipation was overwhelming. Few people really know what life is like on the crew levels of a cruise ship, and we were about to experience it for the first time.

Boarding the ship from the crew entrance is definitely not the same as boarding through the guest entrance. The gangway leads into a no-frills bay, which is usually loud and bustling with crew members scurrying through the crew quarters, cargo being brought onboard, and plenty of security and immigration personnel overseeing your every move.

Our first stop was the Crew Office, a really tiny room on a lower deck of the ship where paychecks, room assignments and benefits are handled. Even though the Crew Office is a central part of every crew member's life while onboard, the space was ridiculously small. A maximum of three people could fit in the space behind the counter, so bringing in an entire training team meant that we were standing in line in the hallway with our luggage, eagerly anticipating our room assignments, crew IDs, etc. On paydays, the Crew Office would invariably have long lines with crew members trying to cash checks or pay bills. Crew members soon learned that if you needed to take care of financial problems or any other type of issue that the office handled, you'd need to go late in the night unless you wanted to waste a lot of time. It was sort of like the DMV, only for a ship.

After much waiting, we were finally given our room assignments. Crew members are typically roomed with someone in the same department. Most rooms sleep two people. For instance, dining staff would be roomed together and housekeeping crew members would be roomed together, but chances are a dining crew member and someone from housekeeping would rarely, if ever, be in the same room. This is because of the odd work hours on the ship. Typically, crew members working in the same department would have comparable working and sleeping hours, and would be spending the most time together. Who your roommate is depends on who has an empty space in their room at the beginning of your contract. As crew members' contracts end and begin over staggered times, there's a continuous flow of empty rooms.

As a member of the Cruise Staff, I was part of the Programming Division. Since our staff only had about eight members, we were combined with the Children's Programming staff, which was considerably larger. My room assignment was with Allison, a Canadian who worked in Children's Programming.

• The number one question that I'm always asked about working on the ship is, "What were the rooms like?" 

Let me tell you, the first time I opened the door to my crew room, it took my breath away (not in a good way, either!). I don't think it's possible to imagine how tiny a crew room is without actually seeing it! Seriously, your mind can't even fathom such things.

When I opened the door to my home-away-from-home for the first time, the door swung into the room and immediately took up half of the interior space. To my left was a wall that had two narrow desks, each with one shelf above with metal railings so your items wouldn't fly off during rough waters. We had a television on one of the shelves, which broadcast the guest television channels as well as an additional movie channel for the crew.

Immediately in front of me were two bunk beds. I don't think they were even full-size twin beds, they were so small. Thankfully, though, they each had a curtain that could be pulled the entire length of the bed so that you could sleep while your roommate had the lights on. Though we each had two closets, which would hold about eight hangers each, most of the storage was in and under the bed. The headboard and footboard could be lifted up for some small storage and we each had a drawer under the lower bunk. That's it.

If all of this wasn't depressing enough, I hadn't even stepped inside the "bathroom" yet, which was being hidden by the opened room door. Crew bathrooms are very reminiscent of airline bathrooms, only with a really tiny shower in the corner. The shower is in the shape of a triangle, and you can't lift both arms up at once without hitting the shower curtain and having it cling to you. The toilet and sink were crammed in there, too, with very little storage space.

The room was entirely too small for one person (although more senior members of staff did get single rooms), but imagine putting two people in it at the same time -- there was no room to even move around, since we had about nine square feet of open floor space. When my boyfriend sent me a bouquet of flowers on my birthday, the flowers ended up taking up so much room that we had pollen on our clothes for about a week, since the flower arrangement consumed about half of our usable walking area by the door. At Christmas, my family wanted to send me a small tabletop tree to decorate. They just couldn't comprehend that there was literally no surface space to set a tree on.

So, that was to be my living arrangements for the next six months. I would soon learn that I was directly under the luggage loading area, too, which meant that every debarkation morning, the walls would literally start shaking at about 5 a.m., as passenger's luggage was being carted off the ship directly above my head. Thankfully, my room was right next to the elevator because I never did learn to navigate my way through the maze of rooms that created the crew quarters."

A look inside the cupboard I'm gonna live in!

AN INSIGHTFUL GLIMPSE INTO OUR ROOOMS

It's official, I get to live like Harry Potter. In the Privet-Drive years at least. In a wee cupboard-under-the-waterline.

Here's a fascinating glimpse into the lower decks where the crew will live.
Everyone prepares you for the idea that the crew cabin is quite small, and before I actually step inside one I'm trying to envision the smallest possible thing ever so at least I get a sigh of relief as opposed to a wave of disappointment.

On the downside:

•  I'll have a roommate. On my contract, under "Berthing" - it's a shared room with at least one other guy.
• I'll have to share a bathroom with said roommate in an already small space!
• Roomie will soon learn to hate how loudly I snore/talk in my sleep
• Roomie might use this as a hilarious opportunity to record one of my more exuberant, conversational sleeptalking episodes.
• Roomie might smell like stinky dude smell!
• Roomie might be either a huge slob or a huge neat freak.

On the plus side though:

• I'll be rooming with someone from the Entertainment department - so either Cruise staff (hooray!), Youth Staff (hooray!), or Production (yay!)
• This means that at the very least they'll be incredibly friendly, unless they're the sort that shuts all of that down after a long day of smiling
• This also means chances are high that this smiley-friendly guy who either dances/sings/works with children isn't a douchebag and is genuinely someone I get along with
• Alllso means chances are high that he's a gay dude, and that would be the best possible outcome. Or worst. Depending.

We start with the official look at the living spaces straight from the Mouse:

See how sincere they all are! Notice how the guy from a third-world country says the cabins are nice?

(Well yeah, compared to a slum.)

Now for some unofficial looks inside the cabins (none of these videos taken by me!)

Looks pretty much like living in res at college/university again. Complete with mega stash of empties. (Gross though, I'd never allow that to happen in such a small space!)

 And naturally, what better thing to do in your teeny tiny shared closet than get wasted and rock out?

Now for some middle ground, this video's from a Canadian dude who verrrry gleefully discusses how much he loves his job- and gives us a sneak peek at the living situation in a pretty straightforward, yet upbeat way.

Convinced ya to join us? Hmmmm?

*ANOTHER GUEST BLOG*!

Hey hey kiddos,

Thanks to the sudden influx of readers for making me feel special - even if most of you were redirected here via a porn site. (I'm not kidding, according to my site stats, about 10 of you were there before looking at this)

TSK TSK. You naughty, naughty folk!

I'm in the middle of writing about my harrowing 2nd trial of the GAUNTLET, so that won't be published til tomorrow. Instead, enjoy another Guest blog courtesy of Kim! Here, Kim laments how hard it is to be an American on board.

Here's a charming excerpt: "Yet, for all of the nods towards other country's culinary tastes, there was rarely a supply of "American" food...The lack of edible food in the cafeteria was a situation affecting everyone."

Boo hoo, Kim - the rest of the world is playing a teeny tiny sad violin and snickering behind their Disney grins. Now I'm not anti-American by any means, I've lived there quite a bit and adore many Americans. But, let's just hope I won't be hearing a lot of commentary like this over the course of my contract. It gets that wee multicultural Canadian nerve going and hits it square on the head.

Now just like before, the following entry isn't written by me  - it's all Kim's. And I'm sure she loved her job working with DCL! Read on, and enjoy!

Kim: Being an American on Board

"As I mentioned before, I was one of only a handful of Americans to be working onboard the Disney Wonder. My immediate boss was also an American and had worked at the Walt Disney World Resort, too, so we had a great deal in common and I had someone that I could easily talk to. Everyone else, though, was from a myriad of different nationalities. When you're living and working with other people in a very close environment, cultural differences tend to become much more pronounced.
Though everyone on my team came from an English-speaking country, our phrases and vocabulary definitely weren't the same. There were many, many times that our conversations seemed to need an interpreter, even though we were all speaking English. I know I wasn't the only one feeling this way, because many guests would come up to me and say "Oh, you're an American! I can actually understand what you're saying!"

Of course, language was just one of our cultural differences. Throughout the ship, everyone had a different style of dress when they weren't wearing their cruise line uniforms, different political views, different work habits and ethics, different ways of dealing with the opposite sex... everything seemed to be different. It was as if I was living in a foreign country and dealing with culture shock, yet twice a week I would sail back to port in my home country and yet not feel like I was home at all.

One of the biggest cultural differences of all was the food. In the crew mess below decks, the cafeteria is a display of multicultural tastes. Never in my life had I seen broths served with every meal, yet apparently this is common in many countries, so there was always a large vat of some type of broth liquid available. Rice is also a mainstay, and there was plenty of it. There were more hot teas to choose from than I had ever been used to before. Yet, for all of the nods towards other country's culinary tastes, there was rarely a supply of "American" food, such as sandwiches, hamburgers, pastas, etc.

This might sound like a blessing in disguise, since American diets are traditionally too heavy with too many calories. Yet, when you're working for 18 hours a day on your feet doing very physical activities, you need some substance to get you through the day and we were definitely NOT getting it. The food situation became so bad that my boss, knowing my journalism background, asked me to write a letter to DCL management to increase the foods available and their quality. The lack of edible food in the cafeteria was a situation affecting everyone.

Though there are plenty of places onboard the ship for guests to get a quick snack whenever they want, it was not like that for the crew. The crew mess was essentially your one-stop dining destination, and if you weren't eating food there (especially when they were closed periodically throughout the day), then you had to rely on food you bought in port. The problem with that, though, is that you actually needed time to get off the ship, get transportation to a store to buy food (which has to be prepackaged and not fresh fruits, vegetables, etc. because of Customs rules) and get back to the ship. With our work schedules, that didn't happen too often. And if you remember my description of our crew rooms in a previous article, there was no room to store food even if you were able to purchase it.

Perhaps during a cruise you might have seen some crew members dressed in work clothes eating in guest areas. As officers, you are allowed to do that, and as a member of the Cruise Staff, I was a very low ranking officer and had that privilege. However, my boss didn't think it would look appropriate, so we weren't even allowed to go to the snack bars, even though it should have been one of the perks of my job.

With the lack of food that I was willing to eat and the heavy amount of physical activity every day, I was soon losing weight at a rapid pace. By the end of my time with the DCL, I was stick thin and my clothes just hung on me. I was already wearing the smallest size costume that was available, and even those quickly became too big, even the bathing suit. It was a serious medical problem that guests would find hard to believe with the extravagance of food in the guest areas, yet the lack of food for the crew was a problem nonetheless.

When I was able to get off the ship, my only concern was finding a place to eat. To this day, I still consider a Subway sandwich that I bought in Nassau to be one of the top ten food highlights of my life. Before you start questioning my taste, I also consider Artist Point and Victoria and Albert's at Walt Disney World to be among the tops, too, but I had been so hungry for so long and just wanted something "American" that every single bite of that sandwich tasted like a little bit of heaven to me."

VI *GUEST BLOG!*

Hey gang, here's a Guest Blog for ya, from a fellow Canadian Disney Cast/Crew Member named Jody (who is a guy). It gives a bit more insight from someone who's already been working on the ship for some time; I'll be putting in my two cents after I've officially started my huge contract and training's over.


So remember - the following is most definitely not by me, it's all Jody's.
And as usual - everything found on this blog is not the property nor associated with the property of Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Corporation or its affiliates.

Enjoy, folks!

The Deal. The Skinny. The Straight Dope.

Alright, here it is. I’ve set aside a few minutes and a few dollars to get online and tell you landlubbers what’s going on. Pour yourself a refreshing beverage, get your scrolling finger ready, and read on at your leisure.

The Job.

My official title is Youth Activities Counselor, and I spend my day working with a team that takes care of groups of children on the cruise ship The Disney Wonder. The shifts are about ten hours in duration, and are usually broken up into two chunks of about five hours apiece. There is a slow rotation of start/end times, such that someone who starts at 8am wold be off by 8pm, and someone who starts at 2pm would be off by 2am. It’s not that straigtforward, but it’s not that interesting either.
There are a number of different jobs that get done by a YAC during the day, ranging from sitting at the check-in desk, to performing as a pirate in an interactive program for the kids. I was a pirate today. We put on a show for the kids that made them believe that Captain Hook had taken over the cruise ship and the kids had to solve the mystery. Some kids were so scared of Hook - and so convinced of our performance - that they actually cried and had to leave. It was aaarrrrrghhhhhhsome!
There are many of these interactive programs that the kids get to participate in. They make cookies, they make Flubber, they solve mysteries, they dig for whale bones on the tropical island that we dock at. It’s fun. Even more fun is when I get to spray them with hoses on said tropical island! Very nice.
We also take them for meals, let them play videogames (Mario Kart and Guitar Hero!!!!!!!), introduce them to some of the characters, and even take them to the onboard movie theater. If I have to watch Bridge To Terabithia one more time however, I will throw someone overboard.

The Food

The ship’s mess is open 24-hours for my dining convenience, although after midnight there isn’t really much in there besides toast and Ramen noodles. I do love Ramen though. Mmm. At scheduled mealtimes there is usually a good variety of food to choose from, and it’s actually much better than most “cafeteria food” I’ve previously been subjected to. It’s not even near the quality of the meals the guests get in the ships restaurants, but they do switch up the menu daily to give the different ethnic groups onboard a little taste of home. Since being here I’ve had various curries, asian soups, fish dishes, salads, and even some of the extra I haven’t seen poutine or back-bacon on the menu yet though, so it isn’t really that diverse.
On a lot of the days I work, we do take the kids to lunch and dinner. That being so, we do eat the same food as they do while we’re in there. It’s the exact same stuff every day for the kids; chicken fingers, french fries, pizza, etc. That can get a little tiresome. I enjoy healthy meals on a regular basis with that sort of thing being reserved more for the occasional treat. Even the vegetables they put out for the kids are so covered in butter that I am probably better off eating the chicken fingers and pizza.

The Accomodations

My room is small. If you have an average size bathroom somewhere in your house, you can probably picture the size of my complete cabin… that I share with a Belgian guy. Yeah.
It’s actually not all that bad, considering I only ever go into the room to change, shower, or sleep. The bed is comfy enough (top bunk!), and they have a TV an DVD player in there too. The major downfall is the shower, which is entirely too small. It’s a right-angle triangle shape with the length of the two shorter sides being about 24 inches each. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out the length of the hypotenuse.

The Time Off

I do get a decent amount of time away from “The Lab,” as my workspace is called. When in Port Canaveral on Thursdays and Sundays, there is usually time to get off the boat ship and over to the mall or Walmart to pick up some stuff or just get away for a while. Once I get the hang of predicting my schedule (we only find out the day before), I’ll probably be able to work it so that I can meet up with local friends for lunch or a movie or something while we’re docked.

While in Nassau, we also get time away from work and are free to explore the island. The port area itself is kind of blah/touristy, but there are a lot of opportunities for excursions and activities if you know where to go. I haven’t really done much there yet, but I do plan to start doing more once I’ve been here a bit longer. On weeks that we get above-target scores on our performance evaluations, the Captain allows the ship to stay docked later in Nassau, so that the crew (me!) can get in a little night-life time. Last night was one of those such nights, so we all went out to a little tiki-style bar called Bamboo (I know, very creative) and had some drinks and dancing. Good times all around.
On the days that we dock into Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay (which, incidentally, used to be called “Gorda Cay” and was used by drug smugglers as a hideout), we spend most of the day looking after the kids and playing games with them in the sand. This is where I get to spray them with the water hose, so it’s always a  highlight for me! When not working with the kids on the island, we’re usually free to go to the private crew beach for some BBQ and R&R. There’s a volleyball court and soccer field, and a beautiful cove for swimming and sunbathing.

I made it over there for a couple of hours today, and went for a swim. Having previously studied marine biology in college, I was fascinated by the sea-life that I came across while in the water, and spent most of my time nerding it up with the Enchinoderm phylum. I ‘caught’ no less than 10 starfish (the biggest was about 15 inches across, and had SIX legs!), plus a sea cucumber and a purple sea fan. I also stepped on a sea-urchin and have about six of the spines still stuck in my foot (the Doc said to leave them in).

The Benefits

In addition to my regular compensation, Disney has given me free access to all Disney parks worldwide (with the exception of Tokyo, for some reason). I get additional passes to bring friends in with me from time to time, and even more passes on occasion to use or give away as I see fit. My position affords me many additional ship priveleges that not all crew members get, such as the ability to go into guest areas when I’m not working so that I may use the ship’s many services (jacuzzis, movie theaters, etc). I am also able to get friends and family discounts for cruise vacations, although I haven’t actually checked into the specifics of what the discount entails. Anyone interested, let me know and I’ll find out. Heck, I’ll even watch your kids for you while you’re off having fun on the vacation… it’s my job!
That’s about all I can think of at the moment. If you’d like a postcard, email me your mailing address and I’ll send one off to you when I get some time and stamps. Even better, if you’d like to send me stuff (subliminal message: send me stuff!), let me know and I’ll get you my mailing address on the high seas. Photos, letters, and snacks are always appreciated!

The Bottom Line

I enjoy it so far. The people I work with are all really great, and the company is a pleasure to work for. Most of the guests are there to have a good time, so there isn’t much complaining going on. Plus, you can’t beat the location! Even on the bad days, I just look out the window and I am instantly put back into a good mood. I mean, the worst thing that happened to me all week was getting stuck in the foot by a sea-urchin while strolling through a tropical lagoon. I can live with that.