Turnaround Day!

January 17, 2012 – Turnaround Day!

The middle of a cruise is like Wednesday in the typical work week, a virtual ‘hump day.’ From that moment forward, every day accelerates a downhill roll of activity toward Turnaround Day, the day that we offload 2500 – 3000 guests and in four hours or less prepare the ship to receive the next equally large group of guests. What you may not consider is that due to varying lengths of contracts of crew members, at every port we have crew changes with the largest number taking place at our home port. On this particular Turnaround Day, we would sign off 117 crew members who were going on vacation or transferring to another ship, and we would sign on 136 new crew. The HR department is at the heart of this ‘troop action.’

Although we are cruising the Caribbean, our home port is Bayonne, NJ. Before you wonder too much about that location, it will make more sense if I tell you that it is a new port, named Port Liberty, with a clear view of New York City. For our northeastern US guests, this is very convenient port for them at which to embark on a Caribbean vacation, especially in the heart of winter. The day-and-a-half at sea when leaving or approaching this port can be ‘interesting’ due to weather, which makes the calm seas and warm weather of the rest of the trip a real blessing. (I’m actually writing this entry on our first day at sea having left Bayonne last night. Cold and a bit ‘rocky,’ but I’ll share more about this in another entry. We are currently off the coast of North Carolina, having passed Virginia this morning . . . Hi Dani!)

Tunaround Day starts early and, like the Steven Bishop song of the late 70s, goes “on and on and on.” I rolled out of bed at 5:30am and arrived at the Crew Mess (cafeteria on Deck 2) at 6:15 for a team breakfast. Three of the four of us made it, as Yez was already prepping for the first event of the day. Eggs, yoghurt, fruit and coffee charged me up for what was ahead. We then proceeded straight to the Sky Conference Center on Deck 14 for immigration processing. All 117 who would be offloading had the pleasure of going through US Immigration on board the vessel once the Customs officials arrived. In addition, all those who had joined the ship since our last US port in San Juan, PR, had to go through immigration since we were now at a US port. When we arrived at Sky, we handed out passports which are kept in the ship’s vault so no crew members lose them. Once they have their passports and documentation we must keep them corralled in the room with us lest they wander off. We were not even at dock until 7:15am, which caused the natives to begin to get restless.

As the fog and darkness lifted from the harbor, I realized I was staring at the Statue of Liberty across the channel. What a wakeup call that was. She looks smaller in person. I guess television does really add 20, or 20,000, pounds. She was obviously built in simpler times when ships of our size were uncommon. Still the symbol is so profound in our national consciousness that I got a shiver up my spine simply seeing her from this vantage point.

Despite the delays in getting Customs onboard, we processed all the immigration by 8:45am. However, before that could even end Laura and I received a call that the sign-ons were already gathering in ‘the tent’ and we needed to get set up for them. So leaving Dwight, Yez, and Bruna (Marine admin, from Brazil . . . great young lady . . .) to complete immigration, Laura and I headed down to Celebrity Central, a guest venue on Deck 4, to prepare the room for nearly 140 arrivals. As soon as we were set we layered on sweaters and jackets and headed ashore. The security officers know us well and the port agents knew Laura, so we blew off the ship at a brisk pace. The docking facility is not very attractive but certainly functional. We crossed the cold and damp dock and arrived at ‘the tent,’ a temporary metal building with a peaked roof that is the welcome center for all sign-ons. By the time we arrived there were already 30 of the new crew present with more arriving each minute. After checking letters of employment, passports and visas, I began to escort them in groups of 30 onto the ship where they dropped their luggage and then proceeded to Celebrity Central for welcome packets, completion of documentation, medical records, and to be picked up by their supervisors who gave them cabin keys and got them settled. Amazingly, all had arrived and were processed prior to noon! This was apparently unusual, for we were able to actually sit down and eat lunch for about 20 minutes by 12:30pm.

You know the old Army commercial that said ‘we do more before 6am than most people do all day?’ That’s the way it felt, but we now had to fit in a couple of office hours before co-facilitating an onboard training for new crew at 2:30pm. Once that was done prior to 4pm, we returned to our offices to catch up on the regular tasks of the day in addition to the myriad of problems that come with adding 136 employees to your operation in one day. Finally got to dinner break at 7:30pm, back in the office at 8:00pm, before finally retiring to my cabin just after 10pm. Yeah, pretty much a 15+ hour work day.

All this occurring, of course, as a full complement of guests was boarding. As an officer who can save steps by crossing guest areas, it was my pleasure to greet many guests and welcome them aboard. Since they were new on the ship they naturally had many questions. To go from a full out sprint and intense work mode to calm, cool, collected host is a skill that must be demonstrated by every ship’s officer.

Not surprisingly, slept like a baby without colic last night . . .

And the adventure continues . . .