A day in the life of a member of the Cruise Staff Team
A very good morning to you. My name is Beatrice and my position onboard is called Cruise Staff. A little bit of a strange position name but on other ships they call us Entertainment Staff.
And when you read that, you know already what we do. We are the ones who make the Entertainment onboard, which is organized by the Cruise Director and his Assistants. We are the ones who greet guests, call the numbers at Bingo, animate guests to participate in sing-along sessions and in various games such as Bridge tournaments and the likes.
We also help with crowd control during the mandatory lifeboat drill as well as while the shore excursions are dispatched.
Sailing in the Caribbean, means we also have a Caribbean night, and that is one of the biggest events to organize every week. The band needs to set up outside, we have arranged for palm leaves to get purchased and delivered onboard and we will decorate the pool deck.
I am working on a small ship, more like a private yacht, with only one hundred guests, so everyone needs to chip in when big events are scheduled. At the same time, it is great to be on such a small ship. We will serve dinner as a barbeque on the pool deck for the guests, while the Band is playing Calypso and Reggae Tunes. All crew will wear their Caribbean Uniform today, colourful shirts and shorts. After dinner, it will be our task to get the guests up to dance and to enjoy the party. To do so, we will do a couple of known dances as a group, and then we will go and ask guests to dance to get the party started.
However, first this morning we have to help the shore excursion staff to get the tours dispatched. I am the one on the microphone in the lounge and I tell the people where each group is meeting for each shore excursion. One of my colleagues is at the door, checks the tickets and directs the people to the right place. While the guests wait, until they can leave the ship and go to the buses, I often tell some jokes or entertain them with a little song. I am glad, that I have a good talent for singing as this can help shorten the waiting time.
After the guests have left that are going on a shore excursion, we ask the guests that remain onboard if they want to participate in the bridge tournament that we have held on the last few days.
My colleague is assigned to the bridge session, I will go and decorate the pool deck. Afterwards I need to prepare the bingo game and the sing along for tomorrow. Since we will be at sea tomorrow, there is a lot of entertainment to do for the guests. Bingo before dinner, sing along in the afternoon and in the evening we will have the crew show.
One of my colleagues will tell you more about the crew show, and you will be surprised how many talents are hidden among our crew.
See you tonight, at the party.
Beatrice David, USA