Oz on the Summit

March 15, 2012 – Oz on the Summit

For those who know my affinity for the musical, this blog is NOT a tribute to Wicked. Although the word Oz in the title of this segment does originally derive from the story about Dorothy and her companions, it is actually the name of an accountability training that Laura was called upon to deliver on one of our sister ship’s, Celebrity Summit, that day in St. Kitts. This class had been planned for some time, recognizing the availability of a trained instructor on one ship who could deliver the course to another. As it is not often that two of our ships are together in port, despite the number of times we seem to be docking this season with Eclipse, this convergence was something the company wished to take advantage of. Now the Oz training usually is 6 to 8 hours in length. Laura felt she could comfortably complete it in 5, hoping to reach Summit by 10am which would allow us back to our ship by 3pm.

But all this was planned long before that this was going to be the day of both our Boat Drill and the Master’s Quarterly. Right away, we knew we were down to a window of 3 ½ to 4 hours, but Miami wished us Laura still to make the run and to bring me along so that I could learn to facilitate this course, as well. Then the final wrinkle was thrown into our plan. St. Kitts was to be an unusually busy port that morning which meant that Summit would not even be docked. Instead of walking across or along a dock to reach her, we would have to catch a tender to her at anchor in the harbor. Time just got shorter. With no option offered but to do our best we worked out a tightly crafted plan.

As soon as the Master’s Quarterly ended, we dropped down two decks to the Crew Mess for a turbo-charged lunch. Then minutes later, at 11:45, we gulped down our last bites and headed straight to the gangway, having ensured that all materials we needed were with us from the moment the Boat Drill ended. Of course there had to be one more snag for as we reached the bottom of the gangway our Crew Admin, Lavern, was standing there with two visiting crew from Summit who had run into a minor problem. With all possible alacrity the problem was dispensed and Laura and I headed briskly down to the dock and into the port area so that we could immediately make a hard left and cross to the tender dock. We surrendered our APasses which was a bit uncomfortable for me as this is the key to our shipboard identity. Instead we were handed Visitor badges so that we could embark onto the tender. Ten minutes later we approached Summit at anchor.

This would be my first time on a different Celebrity ship and, in addition, it was a ship from another class. Celebrity ships are divided into the Century class, established in 1995, the Millennium class, which we started to build in 2000, and finally the Solstice class which began in 2005. Silhouette is the newest of the Solstice class. So not only would I be on another ship, I would experience a different configuration. As we transitioned from the tender up the gangway to Summit we were warmly greeted by Mary, their T&D Manager. Advising that the managers to be trained were already in their conference center we hurried up the staircase and quickly set up for what now could not be more than a two-and-a-half hour class.

Laura would now be tasked with training over twenty managers and officers from another ship given only 40% of the time she ideally needed for the class. She hit the ground running and was just getting up to speed when another interruption presented itself in the form of the Summit’s Captain, who decided to stop by to thank his team for taking the training and Laura for coming over to teach. Lovely gesture but practically problematic.  With a quick reset, Laura started again and we were off.

To say that she killed this class is an understatement. Laura deftly covered all the key elements, kept it interactive, and definitely fast-paced and we finished in 2 hours and 45 minutes. Although we wanted a tour of the ship we had very little time to look around. Summit had just undergone a renovation based on the success of the Solstice class ships. She had been “Solsticized,” and it was fun to see several of our spaces translated onto her decks, albeit with a less grand application of space. After a couple of quick pictures with Mary and their HR Manager, Becki, we jumped back onto the tender, the second to last that would leave the ship and landed near our dock just before 4pm.

With 20 minutes grace period until we were supposed to be on board, we decided that a cold beer would taste just great given the warm day and the constant movement. But just before we entered a waterside bar we remembered we were still in uniform and the sight of two officers slamming down a beer before racing back to their ship would not be a good image. Instead we agreed that once on board we would stop in Mingles and have the cold brew there. But just as we reached the top of our gangway we heard Laura’s name called. Her boyfriend, Joseph, who was accompanying her on her final cruise with us had just gotten back from his shore excursion. With a quick ‘I’m sorry’ look she appropriately  joined him and I wandered back to my cabin to try to take a break. However, the pace of the day had been so rapid that I couldn’t slow down my brain. So after only a few short minutes I returned to my office to put that adrenaline to work. Another full and complete day at sea.

And the adventure continues . . .