A brief post to explain the differences between being an officer, a petty officer and a crew member as I realize that I refer to these terms a lot but with no explanations!
So, the ship is very hierarchical. The "lowest" level, as such, is a crew member. Whilst we all refer to each other as "crew", not all roles are theoretically crew members. These roles are mostly the ones which are not seen below deck - engine wipers, maintenance, deck hands for example - but also housekeeping host/esses, food & beverage host/esses including servers and custodials which are in guest areas - for example, pool hosts. All crew members in these roles share a cabin with either 1 or 2 other people and most of them do not have "guest privileges" which means they have to stick to using the crew areas when they are not working and cannot use the guest areas unless they are at work.
Next up is the "petty officers" - this is pretty much everyone in Youth Activities, Merchandise, Cruise Staff & Entertainment and Guest Services. It's pretty much the same as being a crew member except you get certain "privileges" meaning that you can use some of the guest areas such as seeing a movie in the Buena Vista Theatre or the evening show as long as the guests go first and there is available space - and of course you're dressed in appropriate Disney Look clothing. It does not mean you can eat the guest food or use their restaurants or restrooms. You also cannot use the main pools or the Aquaduck.
Finally there are "officer" positions. This starts at 1-stripe (on each shoulder!) and goes to 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4 (steering committee) and 4.5 (captain!). The main differences between petty officers and officers is that the officers mostly wear the white uniform that people are accustomed to seeing sailors wearing! Also, they get to eat in a different 'mess' which serves (slightly) more Western/rich food as it feeds less people than the crew mess. So, instead of getting pitta bread and hummus in a big bowl... you get stuffed pittas with a choice of chicken or beef ;) You also get a different type of cabin depending on how high up you are - one stripe officers get the same as petty officers but once you get 1.5 stripes you get a bigger room and then certain positions at 2 stripes and all 2.5+ officers get their own rooms, sometimes with a shared bathroom. Once you get to the 2.5+ level you might even get a window in your cabin!
Ultimately though, we all live under the same roof and everyone is very respectful of each other. You can all go to dinner in Cabanas - you just have to have the right form signed and sometimes be accompanied by a manager that's all! That's one of the things I love about where I work - everyone gets to enjoy themselves, even if it's just crew volleyball at the crew beach or an all-crew event in Cabanas. If you put the hard work in, you'll get fun out of it!
Sunday 3 May 2015
Who knows where a Dream might lead?
So, following on from my last post - one day I got called into the office to be faced with the Manager of Guest Services, the new Manager of Guest Services who was taking over imminently and the Assistant Manager of Guest Services.
With all three management people in a tiny office with me, my mind was racing - what did I do?!
Then the words "The role of Clearance Officer has become available and we think you'd be great in the job.... if you want to accept the role you will start in.... one minute's time."
I was pretty gobsmacked. I understand that this won't have much effect on anyone who hasn't been in a Guest Services department on a Disney ship but basically, it was my FIRST contract in GS, I was only 3.5 months in, and this was the biggest responsibility role without actually being a proper manager. I had to sign documents for the CAPTAIN!
I should explain what the Clearance Officer does... basically, you're in charge of the knowledge of who is coming, who is going, what cargo is coming onboard and leaving, anything being offloaded and any special circumstances surrounding docking and ports of call. You have to do the paperwork that will enable the ship to dock successfully and pass Customs. If you mess up the paperwork you could render the ship susceptible to fines and you'll definitely be in big trouble. This was a BIG challenge!
My first thought when I was offered the job was would I be capable of doing it? But with my managers support behind me, I took a deep breath and accepted! It was the best decision I made in my whole contract! I did the Clearance Officer position for the rest of the time onboard - approximately 8 or 9 weeks I think. During that time I had to deal with guests passing away, midnight docking at Castaway, NO docking at Castaway (too windy!), isolated crew and guests (I had to fill in medical forms every Bahamian dock), lots and lots of paperwork and finally, training my replacement when I'd only been in the job 6 weeks myself! All of that, along with the usual guest challenges, answering the phone and assisting in the Cabanas on Castaway Cay and with a couple of weddings in there too. What a fantastically busy way to end my contract!
This role did involve getting up early every single day - on Port Canaveral it was a 4.30am alarm clock, Nassau was 6.30am and Castaway was 6am. Sea Day I got a lie-in and got to wake up at 7.30am ;) To be honest, once I got used to the early mornings it was fine.
Passing on the role to my successor was actually quite sad. I felt I hadn't done it for long enough. Of course, I'm about to embark on my 4th contract on the Dream and 2nd in Guest Services which means there is opportunity to take on Clearance again - I'd happily do it. I enjoyed being in the terminal building on Port Canaveral days and getting to meet the Cast Members that meet our guests before they come onboard. Hopefully I will get to say hi again to all of them when I get back to the ship.
One of the best things which happened during the remainder of my 3rd contract was that my parents got to come and visit! They arrived in late February, stayed for a week, doing a back-to-back cruise. Because I was Clearance at the time, I couldn't see them in the mornings because I was working - but I got to see them every afternoon and even went to Serenity Bay with them on Castaway Cay. I was lucky enough to be approved to have Palo brunch AND Palo dinner with them which I was very appreciative for, as well as eating in the main dining rotation for the first cruise (3 night) as I finished at 8.15pm each night. That was an awesome advantage I was lucky to have, made easier by being an officer! Really, the only day I didn't see them much was the sea day as I had to work most of it.
Overall, I was very blessed with my 3rd contract - I appreciated all the opportunity I got given and moving to Guest Services was the best decision I made whilst being on DCL. I will embark the ship again on 14th May for my next contract in the department and whilst I will be starting again as a Host working on the phones and the desk, I hope some more opportunity to step up will show itself and we we will see "where a Dream might lead".
With all three management people in a tiny office with me, my mind was racing - what did I do?!
Then the words "The role of Clearance Officer has become available and we think you'd be great in the job.... if you want to accept the role you will start in.... one minute's time."
I was pretty gobsmacked. I understand that this won't have much effect on anyone who hasn't been in a Guest Services department on a Disney ship but basically, it was my FIRST contract in GS, I was only 3.5 months in, and this was the biggest responsibility role without actually being a proper manager. I had to sign documents for the CAPTAIN!
I should explain what the Clearance Officer does... basically, you're in charge of the knowledge of who is coming, who is going, what cargo is coming onboard and leaving, anything being offloaded and any special circumstances surrounding docking and ports of call. You have to do the paperwork that will enable the ship to dock successfully and pass Customs. If you mess up the paperwork you could render the ship susceptible to fines and you'll definitely be in big trouble. This was a BIG challenge!
My first thought when I was offered the job was would I be capable of doing it? But with my managers support behind me, I took a deep breath and accepted! It was the best decision I made in my whole contract! I did the Clearance Officer position for the rest of the time onboard - approximately 8 or 9 weeks I think. During that time I had to deal with guests passing away, midnight docking at Castaway, NO docking at Castaway (too windy!), isolated crew and guests (I had to fill in medical forms every Bahamian dock), lots and lots of paperwork and finally, training my replacement when I'd only been in the job 6 weeks myself! All of that, along with the usual guest challenges, answering the phone and assisting in the Cabanas on Castaway Cay and with a couple of weddings in there too. What a fantastically busy way to end my contract!
This role did involve getting up early every single day - on Port Canaveral it was a 4.30am alarm clock, Nassau was 6.30am and Castaway was 6am. Sea Day I got a lie-in and got to wake up at 7.30am ;) To be honest, once I got used to the early mornings it was fine.
Passing on the role to my successor was actually quite sad. I felt I hadn't done it for long enough. Of course, I'm about to embark on my 4th contract on the Dream and 2nd in Guest Services which means there is opportunity to take on Clearance again - I'd happily do it. I enjoyed being in the terminal building on Port Canaveral days and getting to meet the Cast Members that meet our guests before they come onboard. Hopefully I will get to say hi again to all of them when I get back to the ship.
One of the best things which happened during the remainder of my 3rd contract was that my parents got to come and visit! They arrived in late February, stayed for a week, doing a back-to-back cruise. Because I was Clearance at the time, I couldn't see them in the mornings because I was working - but I got to see them every afternoon and even went to Serenity Bay with them on Castaway Cay. I was lucky enough to be approved to have Palo brunch AND Palo dinner with them which I was very appreciative for, as well as eating in the main dining rotation for the first cruise (3 night) as I finished at 8.15pm each night. That was an awesome advantage I was lucky to have, made easier by being an officer! Really, the only day I didn't see them much was the sea day as I had to work most of it.
Overall, I was very blessed with my 3rd contract - I appreciated all the opportunity I got given and moving to Guest Services was the best decision I made whilst being on DCL. I will embark the ship again on 14th May for my next contract in the department and whilst I will be starting again as a Host working on the phones and the desk, I hope some more opportunity to step up will show itself and we we will see "where a Dream might lead".
I'm still here!
I know the blog posts have become few and far between but it gets hard to find the time to sit down and write. I really should make more effort to contribute to my blog because not only is it nice to read back in years to come (as I have done with my Florida blogs in 2008 and 2010) but it's also nice for other people to read. I do occasionally get emails from people that have read my blogs about my time working for Disney or if they are going to embark on something similar, it's good to have a reference.
So, as a mid-year resolution I will try to blog more. This will make my friend Hayley happy who always stalks my blog and gets disappointed there is no new posts... ;)
So, I went back to the ship and within a couple of weeks a great opportunity came along and I got promoted to being the Guest Service Systems Coordinator. This job required me to check guests into the Onboard Check-In Program which is something we offer for guests travelling on certain airlines (Delta, US, JetBlue, American, United) and means that their boarding passes can be printed the day before leaving the ship and their luggage can be sent ahead of them - the last time they see it is outside the stateroom on the last night of the cruise until they get to the home airport and pick it up at the carousel. I also was in charge of the Deck 11 arcade - filling the machines, ordering stock and keeping it all in working order as well as tackling any guest challenges.
I LOVED doing the arcade... on a Port Canaveral morning once all the guests had disembarked it was like an oasis of peace up there on Deck 11, just mindlessly threading hooks onto the little toys and making sure everything looked pretty before the next 4000 guests came on board. The walk from Deck 3 forward to Deck 11 aft wasn't so fun - especially at 8.15pm on Pirate Night! Sometimes you had to run up there when the toys got stuck or if an arcade card wasn't working - haste can make the difference between a happy guest and a not-so-happy guest! It was also a great opportunity to make some magic, like the time I got challenged to a game of air hockey with a 8 year old (I let him win...) or giving out the free 10-minute game cards so they could play for a while longer without affecting Dad's wallet!
The Onboard Check In Program was also a fun challenge. It uses an automatic system which links to the airport bag handling company so random errors sometimes got thrown up and you'd have to try and fight the computer to make it work but if it did, it was a great relief. If you couldn't, and it unfortunately happened sometimes, you just had to use your best Guest Service skills to try and fix the situation... so, it provided some good challenges for me!!
So, I was really getting into the swing of this role when.... I got changed to Clearance Officer!
My next post will cover this role and the rest of my contract number 3!
So, as a mid-year resolution I will try to blog more. This will make my friend Hayley happy who always stalks my blog and gets disappointed there is no new posts... ;)
So, I went back to the ship and within a couple of weeks a great opportunity came along and I got promoted to being the Guest Service Systems Coordinator. This job required me to check guests into the Onboard Check-In Program which is something we offer for guests travelling on certain airlines (Delta, US, JetBlue, American, United) and means that their boarding passes can be printed the day before leaving the ship and their luggage can be sent ahead of them - the last time they see it is outside the stateroom on the last night of the cruise until they get to the home airport and pick it up at the carousel. I also was in charge of the Deck 11 arcade - filling the machines, ordering stock and keeping it all in working order as well as tackling any guest challenges.
I LOVED doing the arcade... on a Port Canaveral morning once all the guests had disembarked it was like an oasis of peace up there on Deck 11, just mindlessly threading hooks onto the little toys and making sure everything looked pretty before the next 4000 guests came on board. The walk from Deck 3 forward to Deck 11 aft wasn't so fun - especially at 8.15pm on Pirate Night! Sometimes you had to run up there when the toys got stuck or if an arcade card wasn't working - haste can make the difference between a happy guest and a not-so-happy guest! It was also a great opportunity to make some magic, like the time I got challenged to a game of air hockey with a 8 year old (I let him win...) or giving out the free 10-minute game cards so they could play for a while longer without affecting Dad's wallet!
The Onboard Check In Program was also a fun challenge. It uses an automatic system which links to the airport bag handling company so random errors sometimes got thrown up and you'd have to try and fight the computer to make it work but if it did, it was a great relief. If you couldn't, and it unfortunately happened sometimes, you just had to use your best Guest Service skills to try and fix the situation... so, it provided some good challenges for me!!
So, I was really getting into the swing of this role when.... I got changed to Clearance Officer!
My next post will cover this role and the rest of my contract number 3!
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