Learn from the Past, but Embrace the Present

 It's been a while since my last post.  We spent almost a week in the cold of Busan, South Korea as they repaired our damaged propeller.  Since then we started a new cruise in Hong Kong and have visited the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.  I'm sitting in my cabin right now still able to get the free wifi signal from the pier (always a nice and welcome surprise!).  Anyway, this topic is something that I continue to see from musicians, and all crewmembers, on every contract...

Learning from the past is an important part of life, but so is knowing when to let go of the past.  While this is kind of a deeper philosophical concept, I want to focus on this in terms of being a musician and work.  Hopefully as a musician and a human being you are learning something everyday.  A friend of mine had a saying that “every day is a school day,” meaning that you should never stop learning.  If this holds true, then you should be wiser now than you were a day ago, a week ago, a month ago, and definitely a year ago.  That knowledge gained from the past should be used in making decisions today.  But at the same time, that knowledge has to be adapted and may change along the way.

Why am I talking about this?  In working, and especially on ships, there is a tendency for people to cling to the past.  Many times do people do something only because that is the way it has always been done.  The world changes and there may be better and more efficient ways to do it now than compared to five years ago.  Or maybe the work settings and environment aren’t exactly the same, so what worked in the past might not work at present.

Experience is a valuable thing, but it can also get people in trouble.  I’ve heard so many people say “On (insert name of ship), we did it this way…”  or “But on my old ship we didn’t have to do that.”    While it may be true and some things might be universal, maybe there is a reason for the difference.  When working in a corporate environment, there will be things in different offices, or ships, that will remain the same everywhere.  But then there are a lot of things that will differ from location to location.

For instance, on ships of the same design and layout, the safety and security procedures will remain the same.  It would not be safe and would take too long to train crewmembers from scratch every time they went to a different ship.  But then for work procedures, many times it will be different on each ship.  And that’s OK because no 2 ships are exactly alike.  Even though the design may be the same there are still a lot of ways to be different.  Ships have different itineraries, home ports, demographics and nationalities of passengers and crew onboard, lengths of cruise, and much more.  Let’s take two hypothetical ships just to make a point.  Ship 1 is a brand new huge ship, it has all the latest and greatest technologies, it is based out of Fort Lauderdale doing 7-day Caribbean cruises and is full of families and 90% of passengers come from the Unites States.  Then Ship 2 is an older, smaller ship, it has basic amenities but not all of the latest and greatest, it changes home port every cruise and goes all over the world doing cruises lasting mostly 14 days and more and has passengers from all over the world but never more than a handful of children.  Ok, I said hypothetical but I have based my 2 examples on ships I have actually worked on.  Imagine working on Ship #1 for two years and then transferring to Ship #2, would you expect everything to be ran the same?  Would you expect to play the same music?  Of course not!

My last two ships were sister ships, meaning exact same layout.  The itineraries and demographics were nearly the same: doing world cruises with the average age being nearly the same and both were itinerary-driven ships meaning the passengers chose the ships usually based on their great itineraries.  However, there were many things different between the two ships.  For instance, on the first ship the orchestra wore a black suit every single night and the dress shirt and tie combination was left up to each person.  On the second ship, we wore black long-sleeved shirts and black pants almost every night and only wore suits about once a week.  Not a major change, but it didn’t help when I showed up not needing 75% of the clothes I brought and then having to ship for more black clothes in the next port.  In between the 2 contracts, the company cut 3 musicians, meaning my workload increased when I went to the second ship.  Even though the ships are owned by the same company and both ships are identical in layout and design, there were still many things different.  I had 2 choices: to either go kicking and screaming and complain it wasn’t like my previous ship, or just go with the flow and learn the new system.

Even on the same ship, the management will change and therefore so will some of the more minor rules.  For example, I was just working with a Hotel Director that allowed crewmembers to use passenger elevators.  In fact on a few occasions I even rode in a passenger elevator along with him.  Now we have a different Hotel Director onboard and she does not allow any crew to use the passenger elevators.  Could we complain that it’s not right to keep changing the rules?  Maybe, but the better option is just to adapt and learn the new system.  Another example, on several ships I had worked on, the staff mess (dining area for crewmembers) opened at 5:30pm.  Then on my last two ships, the mess opened at 6pm.  I could choose to get caught up and complain every time how I used to be able to eat at 5:30 and now I can’t, but instead I just plan my meal times differently and go with the flow.

Of course there will always be exemptions based on your personal ethics, morals, and beliefs.  If somebody is asking you to do something you know is either wrong or illegal then by all means say something to somebody.  If you work in the shops onboard and the other staff are taking items and giving them to friends, then you have the right not to go along with it.

If you find yourself in a new environment, try the new system.  You never know, over time you might like the new system even better.  Maybe it is more efficient and you will find yourself with an easier schedule, or maybe it will give you more time to go sightseeing off the ship.  But in any case, remember your past but also learn how to embrace the present.

Headed to Dry Dock

What a crazy week this has been.  One week ago we were docking in Tokyo for an overnight.  Because our ship is smaller, we were able to dock very close to downtown, only a 20-minute drive to the busy Ginza district.  But as we were docking, they received a few warning lights signaling unusual vibration on one of the ship’s propellers.  Unknown to even most of the crew, the company hired technical divers to assess the situation and take photographs of the propeller in question.  It turned out that the propeller sustained some heavy damage to the propeller shaft as well as several of the seals.  Their guess is that the ship struck some debris along the way, which caused the damage.  When the technical divers went to check the area, they found metal wire wrapped around the damaged propeller.

As we left Tokyo the following day, the Captain announced to everyone onboard that the damage was severe enough that the ship would be operating with just one propeller on our trip from Tokyo to Osaka.  Later that night it was announced that the cruise would have to be cut short, and instead would finish in Osaka instead of a few days later in Shanghai as scheduled.   The ship would also require going into dry dock for necessary repairs.  Our next voyage, scheduled for March 3 from Shanghai to Hong Kong would also be canceled.

The guests had 2 days in Osaka to stay onboard the ship and go on tours.  Many people, myself included, went on tours to historic Kyoto.  But then 2 days ago, all guests disembarked and the ship and crew left for Gwagyang Shipyard in Jeollanam-do, South Korea.  We are currently on our way and scheduled to arrive there sometime tomorrow.  The dry dock will take 4-5 days and then we will go slowly to arrive in Hong Kong on March 17 to start our next scheduled cruise.

Ending a cruise early and canceling a cruise is a last resort for a cruise line.  The logistics alone are staggering.  The company flew a “Go Team” of over 20 people from all over the world to help with the logistics.  The cruise line had to arrange and pay for all guests to fly from Osaka to Shanghai.  Because they would arrive one day earlier than scheduled, the cruise line also purchased 300 hotel rooms at the Hyatt Shanghai in the Bund district.  Guests were given a partial refund for missing the final 2 days of their cruise.  They were also given a gift certificate that can be applied for any future cruise, the amount was worth 25% of what they paid for the shortened cruise.

Canceling the next cruise will also prove costly for the company.  All guests were given a full refund and in addition were given a future cruise gift certificate worth 75% of what they had paid for the canceled cruise.  Because the cruise was to originate in China and was canceled only days before it was to begin, I would imagine there were a number of people who were already in Shanghai spending some time in the city before the cruise was to start.

This situation has been interesting and stressful for some members of the crew.  The day when one cruise ends and another begins is also a day with turnover for the crew.  Some finish their 6-9 month contracts, while others will begin theirs.  Flights had to be rescheduled and ground transportation would also have to be changed.

My wife and the next cast of singers and dancers were scheduled to arrive in the middle of the next cruise (the one that was canceled) in Busan, South Korea.  When they announced the cruise would be canceled and we would head to dry dock, we didn’t know what would happen.  We didn’t know where the dry dock would be, if new crewmembers could sign on while the ship was being repaired, or if they would just decide to keep the cast in Miami where they had been rehearsing.  Despite numerous rumors along the way their sign on will proceed as scheduled on March 6.  They will just be joining at a shipyard instead of a cruise terminal.

The dry dock experience will be interesting.  Most dry docks are scheduled years in advance and usually are set to revitalize and update the entire ship.  A lot of things from carpet to furniture are replaced.  But this was an emergency, unscheduled dry dock so they will only be focusing on the required propeller repairs.  This is important because the ship must be back to Hong Kong in less than 2 weeks to start the next cruise.  Every canceled cruise means a total loss of revenue so it is important to remain on schedule.  Because the propellers sit under the water line, it requires the ship to be out of water (which is why it is called “dry: dock).  The ship will enter a bay area, then the water will be drained out so that crews can reach the necessary areas without having to be underwater.  Once repairs are finished, the water will be added into the bay and the ship can exit and go on its way.

This has been my second emergency wet/dry dock experience.  2 years ago when we experienced the engine room fire, the ship had to go to a wet dock (the ship stayed in the water as usual because repairs were onboard, inside the ship) in Singapore.  The cruise line is under the umbrella of a much larger corporation, but this specific brand only has 2 ships.  Although this ship is not the ship where the fire occurred, there are a few of us who were onboard for both incidents.  Luckily this one was not life threatening.

So for now we are just awaiting our arrival to South Korea.  Me personally, I’m excited that I get to see my wife in less than 2 days.  I’ve already moved into our new room and I tried to claim a little bit of closet space before she arrives!