My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
Whoa! It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these! I’ve had so many adventures ashore that I forgot to tell you what life has been like on the ship.
My first week on Villa Vie, we had an incredible Guest Entertainer, Shari Moucheit. Her two shows were hilarious, and she had a gorgeous voice. It was so cool to actually be able to watch the shows – on Princess I was always too busy!
You’ve met Steven and Michele from my previous posts. They invited me to Shabbat on Friday nights where Saul and Beatrice became dear friends.
So I’d joined Villa Vie to work with my friend Lauren. After her contract had been extended so many times that it practically doubled in length, her replacement arrived with me in Acapulco, Mexico. Lauren had a short handover with Meg and left four days after we arrived.
Meg’s contract was only two months, after which we thought Lauren would return (as the owners had requested). Peel, the entertainment company that had hired us, told us they would instead be sending Oliver to be the Entertainment Manager.
When asked why Lauren wasn’t coming back, they said the contract had already been signed and flights couldn’t be changed. (Interestingly, when the company wants to make changes, it’s amazing how quickly last minute flights can be arranged).
Ollie’s contract was for four months. Lauren had been planning to return in July and wasn’t told by either Peel or Villa Vie that a contract would not be offered.
I don’t think that situation was handled well.
Fast forward to October.
Villa Vie decided to end their contract with Peel. Since my connection with Peel was my opportunity to work with Lauren on Villa Vie Odyssey, I let Villa Vie know that I would like to stay if they’d have me.
Walter, our Sound and Light Technician, had worked with Peel for more than ten years, and they already had another contract lined up for him. So when his contract ended in Manila, Peel did not fill his position.
Ollie, the Entertainment Manager (who was also loyal to Peel and simply finishing out his contract), decided that if we didn’t have a technician, the ship wouldn’t offer any entertainment that required one.
After two of my port lectures manifested as word documents left out on the desk (without a presentation), I finally said, “I can figure out how to turn on a projector and a microphone.”
So I started running my own tech.
Villa Vie asked Lauren to come back, but she couldn’t rejoin until Darwin. There would be a gap between when Ollie left and Lauren arrived.
They asked me to fill in.
So, for ten days, I was the Destination Manager (each port requires at least three days to research and put the presentation together), the technician for everything I could figure out, and the Entertainment Manager.
On my team I had Luciano, the Fitness Instructor, and Marietta, the Dance Instructor.
During my reign, we had a full resident drill, an Australian Coast Guard drill and a Halloween Party to organize.
With the authority to run Entertainment my way, I filled in the gaps wherever I saw them. I made sure there was something happening every evening, and on sea days, if there wasn’t a port lecture, I’d put on a music trivia or another fun activity in that time slot.
I decided that instead of simply playing music for the Halloween party, we’d have a gameshow as a warm-up.
I’d just finished putting together my proposal – which involved mulitple departments, like themed drinks from the bar – when the Hotel Director called me into his office.
We were crossing the Equator and needed a Crossing the Line ceremony.
Now?!
Couldn’t we wait until we had a full team?
Nope.
I’d been invloved in a couple of Crossing of the Line ceremonies on Princess. They usually took about two weeks to prepare and involved around thirty people.
I had two days.
On top of that, the residents had already crossed the equator twice before, so they’d already experienced the ceremony I was familiar with.
I needed a new story line.
Luckily, we had a Captain who was a fantastic sport when it came to entertainment and the guest experience.
We also had residents with a supply of costumes.
I hung a rope across the pool, and had my assistant, Chad, help me write a script.
Instead of worshiping King Neptune, we had Davy Jones and his wife, the Mermaid Queen (characters they had played before) transform the polliwogs into shellbacks.
Everyone seemed to have a great time, and they especially treasured their official certificates.
Oh… and one more thing… we were due for an Employee of the Month Ceremony.
Again I asked whether it could wait a few days until we had a full team, but it apparently had to be done before the end of the month.
I’d been nominated for Employee of the Month a couple of times during my last contract on the Diamond Princess, but hadn’t won.
The food and beverage team really went above and beyond with the Halloween lunch buffet.
For the Halloween Party, I wanted more than just a gameshow that turned into a party.
I wanted an ongoing game of Wink Murder.
Luckily one of our bartenders was also a DJ.
Since we didn’t have a technician, the Food & Beverage team handled the sound system set up while helping my team decorate.
We had a double party – Crew on the terrace outside the buffet on Deck 6 and residents on the terrace outside the Coral Lounge on Deck 5.
During my interview for Destination Manager, I had been told that if Lauren was sick or on vacation, I would fill in as Entertainment Manager – and that I would receive both the status and compensation that came with the role.
That felt fair to me. Lauren had specifically asked me to join her at Villa Vie because she knew I could run the entertainment program.
The title sounds like a traditional Cruise Director, but with the skeleton crew on Villa Vie, the Entertainment Manager actually spent more time doing administrative work than entertaining.
I was happy to fill in when needed, but my day-to-day happiness has always been more important to me than status.
Still, if I was going to do the job, I was going to do it to the best of my ability and I wanted to be respected and compensated accordingly.
So when they asked me to bridge the gap between Ollie and Lauren, I reminded the Hotel Director of what had been discussed in my interview.
He asked me to do the extra work without the additional compensation because the paperwork would be too complicated. (I still hadn’t receieved my contract with Columbia, the new manning company replacing Peel).
I decided to do my best anyway.
So my Halloween costume was a little nod to that situation. I was pretending to be an Entertainment Manager – an officer with three and a half stripes.
In the end, they decided to give me a bonus that covered the difference in salary.
AND THEN LAUREN WAS BACK!
My contract was supposed to end in November, about a week after Lauren returned.
Instead, I offered to extend it so I could actually have some time to work with Lauren again, I could help with the holiday festivities (Entertainment always works harder over the holidays), plus that would give Villa Vie more time to rebuild the department (it took forever to find a technician).
Alisa worked in guest services and became a really good friend.
When she was promoted, no one could possibly credit nepotism.
She was incredibly smart, and made sure everying was handled in the most thoughtful and thorough way possible.
Once I recovered from the week of doing three jobs, I had a wonderful time working alongside Lauren again.
I also learned that eight months is probably a little too long for a contract.
By the final month, I was so exhausted that my patience and sense of humor were getting harder to maintain.
Still, it was worth it to get to spend that extra time with my friend.