The last days of Alaska & ...Chad!

Alaska can be absolutely stunning in all weather conditions though towards the end of the season the weather can turn to absolute shit with constant freezing rain, rough seas and dim misery every day you step ashore. As great as this team and ship was, everyone always seems to get burnt out by the end of the contract and adding in good friends leaving every few weeks with general fatigue you begin to crave normal land life. Despite the burnout many of the team would be finishing up their contract in a few weeks in Seattle and there was a bit of resentment that after a whole Alaska season (and the same 4 ports) for almost 6 months we were all going to miss out on this amazing month long cruise from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia. I think it was only the two assistant managers JP & Lara who would be staying a little longer and bar a few new faces at least half the team was due to leave in a few weeks. Like I said it was mixed as some of us (at 8 months onboard already myself) were done and ready to go while others really wanted to see do the month cruise to Australia.

I suppose if I hadn’t done those ports as part of my 2nd contract on the Sun I’d really want to go as well but I was happy enough that I’d survived my first contract with a great team, management and crew in general and the only downsides had been having to fire John and Chads basic existence stressed me out at this point.

My last Chad story for now is that we had just received some new expensive Sennheiser wireless microphones and in the last week of the season Chad managed to fuck one up. So literally when we have all the footage for the season we need, the weather is shitty, cold and rainy everyday and Chad the brain surgeon decides on a rafting tour to stick the new mic to the tour guide and I’m guessing he did for an interview at the start, then forgot the guide had it till the end of the tour by which time the camera and mic were both fucked.

His exact words were ‘I’ve took the new mic to comms as it got a bit cold on tour today’. Comms is the broadcast centre onboard and also the guys we take our kit to if there is any technical issues with it, and Chad have never been someone to really take care of the equipment so I immediately knew he must have really fucked up here. ‘Oh and did the camera get ‘cold’ too?’ I asked ‘er yeah probably? I guess’ he said. ‘You mean wet Chad, the camera and the mic got fucking soaked! Where was the rain jacket? ‘It was on there’ he replied ‘So then, if its raining that much that the camera is getting wet through the rain jacket then perhaps you should stop filming if you can’t make sure the camera won’t get fucked, especially when its the last week of the season and we could have just thrown up a stock tour because of the weather?…He for once was quiet as I rang water out from the wind muff on the camera.

So due to not using any common sense we were a brand new microphone down and the ‘cold’ camera would go on to develop faults and be trashed within a few weeks as well. This should have been a formal written warning for Chad there and then but somehow he avoided it as by the time he left at the end of the cruise they were still trying to fix both mic and camera and any disciplinary action was lost in the ether.

I’d been looking around the fleet schedule to try and see what ships would be available around the time I’d be due to be back and I noticed an issue. My replacement Leandro (one of the most senior guys in the company) was apparently still going to be on holiday for another month and wouldn’t be able to join until the 2nd transpacific cruise, this meant they would have to find a new senior videog to fill the gap for a month and usually they’d jump the current junior to fill the gap but Chad wasn’t ready and also was leaving as well.

So like a crazy man I volunteered to stay for my 9th month onboard! I figured a month without Chad and a fresh energetic new team would get me through and also it was going to be an awesome last cruise and I’d finish up my contract in Sydney. Now one of the big perks of working for Princess was that after completing 3 contracts you could apply for something called local leave, this meant whatever port you finished your contract in you could stay there and have a holiday for up to 3 months and the company would still pay for your flights home.

Unfortunately this was only something you could apply for after your 3rd contract had finished so you could take it at the end of your 4th contract. As I was doing a head office a favour by doing 9 months and had just been an all round troubleshooter since what seemed years ago on the Sapphire at the start of the contract I thought I would ask anyway. Much to my surprise I was allowed to get a tourist visa (online and free!) and have a 2 week holiday in Sydney at the end of my mammoth contract, this meant I’d be able to meet up with my friend Nicole who had just left the ship and was definitely not coming back for another contract.

And for my last cruise, what a cruise - starting in San Francisco , we’d travel to La Haina & Hilo in Hawaii, Bora Bora, Moorea & Papeete (with an overnight!!!) in French Polynesia & Tahiti. On to Samoa and American Samoa, before heading to New Zealand where we’d cruise Fjordland and hit Auckland & Christchurch before finally heading over to Sydney.

Not too shabby for a last cruise.

Of course I had to spend my last days with Chad hearing him bitch and moan about how unfair it was that I got to extend my contract and why couldn’t he? Firstly, no one wanted him there and the new manager Rich immediately thought he was a twat and I wanted him gone as well. We wanted him gone that much that a day or two before turnaround we found out that Cyrus, Chad’s replacement from the Philippines was having immigration issues and he wouldn’t be able to join the ship until halfway through the cruise once we’d left US waters. Rich immediately asked me did I want Chad to stay and we both laughed, two weeks or so by myself would be heaven compared to Chads constant complaining.

When it came time for San Francisco we had a massive crew turnover and Cassie, Ela, Ben, Richard, Nigel, Chantelle, Rey, Brian, Jose and Chad all left the photo team the next day. We’d be welcoming onboard Tank, Mario, Kenji. Marcin, and already Sarah & Matt had joined in the last few weeks and we’d just be waiting on Cyrus to replace Chad in a few weeks.

Chads appraisal was hard to write because as a videographer he was mostly competent, I didn’t have to check his edits anymore and he could be relied on to make sure the daily updates were sent around the ship when it was his turn. Could be a senior videographer? No way in hell yet but after firing John a few months earlier I think Chad realised that he had to buck his ideas up a bit and he did improve slightly but again towards the end of the contract he was constantly getting in minor trouble everyday that on another ship would have resulted in him quickly acquiring his 3 written warnings and he would have been fired very quickly. For whatever reasons the Star was a very laid back ship and Chad constantly escaped getting in trouble, but many people onboard couldn’t stand the guy and simply ignoring and counting the days till he left became everyone’s default strategy. I flat out told Chad that his attitude to his fellow crew and lack of common sense in certain situations were his biggest issues and that to become a senior videographer he had to get on well with the photo team as it was part of their job to sell the DVD which directly affected our sales. ‘If they all think you are a twat, then they are not going to mention the DVD at all’.

Reluctantly I told him I was recommending him for a promotion but only one level to a junior videographer level 2 as perhaps a run other than Alaska where the work load was more balanced between tours and onboard would benefit him and that to take the lessons he’d learned from the way he’d acted onboard and not act that way on another contact. This was his 2nd chance and if he carried the same attitude to the his next contract he most likely wouldn’t be getting a 3rd contract…he just nodded and for once kept quiet. On the last night he of course got absolutely obliterated drunk around 7pm, passed out in his cabin and missed most of the nights festivities but after that I was free from Chad never having to work with ‘the whining yank’ as he was called ever again!