I got on another ship!

So the Constellation (affectionately called Conny by most), docks overnight in St. Petersburg. These days are referred to as "1st St. Petersburg" and "2nd St. Petersburg." Days of the week do not exist here. Days of the week are referred to by our ports of call or by sea day count. For example... instead of saying your week is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, our week is:

Embark
At Sea 1
Rostock
At Sea 2
Stockholm
Helsinki
1st St. Petersburg
2nd St. Petersburg
Tallinn
At Sea 3
Copenhagen
At Sea 4
Disembark // Embark

So intead of talking in weeks, we talk in thems of voyages (right now we are on voyage 317), and our voyages are 12 days long. The ports/sea days change depending on the itinerary, but we are currently finishing up the second of our three baltic runs this season.

You might say somethign like:
"Do you want to grab lunch on Helsinki?"
which means something entirely different than:
"Do you want to grab lunch in Helsinki?"

The former implies getting lunch onboard the day we are at port in Helsinki (a 20 minute commitment), the latter implies that you will get off the ship together and find a local restaurant (a 2 hour commitment). Always good to get your prepositions correct. Also, you have to relearn the "days of the week" for every itinerary. I have just started to get used to this one, and now we will be going to a Mediterranean itinerary so everything will be changing soon.

So on our last Helsinki (Aug. 19), the Eclipse docked in St. Petersburgh for its "1st St. Petersburg." Thus, our 1st St. Petersburg and its 2nd St. Petersburg were the same day so the two celebrity ships were both docked at the same port. The production manager on the Eclipse emailed me inviting myself and my staff over to see the tech run of their production show. So yesterday I got to visit there ship. I arrived around 1:30pm, the tech was at 3:45pm, and was off the ship by 4:45pm. Perfect timing with their 6pm sail away time.

I am not sure if I have explained this before or not, but Celebrity's ships are broken down into three classes. Each class share it's name with the first ship to sail of it's class. I do not know all of the ships, but will give you the basics.

The oldest class is the Century class. Now this class only consists of the Celebrity Century. There used to be others but they have been sold to smaller companies to make way for the newer vessels.

The next class is the Millenium class. It consists of:
Celebrity Millenium
Celebrity Summit
Celebrity Infinity
Celebrity Constellation

The newest class is the Solstice class. It consists of:
Celebrity Solstice
Celebrity Equinox
Celebrity Eclipse
Celebrity Silhouette - this ship launched for its maiden voyage last month, so it is brand spanking new.
Celebrity Reflection - this ship launches for its maiden voyage in November 2012. There is already rumor that I may be on the start up team for that. We'll see.

The real point of me explaining the classes is to get to this: The Solstice class is BIG PIMPIN'! My ship is 12 decks tall, Solstice ships are 16. The ceilings are high. The PM office is huge. The shows involve so much flying I could die. It's awesome. The unfortunate part is that the shows on board just aren't that good. Celebrity contracts the shows from production companies. We use QDos on the Millenium Class, but they use Poet on the Solstice Class. The production values are very different between the companies.

It was really nice to get onboard another ship to see what it looks like and how things are run. But honestly, the best part was meeting another production manager. Her name was Heather and she has been with the company for nearly 4 years now and seems to have a good head on her shoulders. Also, the AVTL (AV Technician Lighting - there is also AV Technician Sound) on the Eclipse went to school at CMU with me. Apparently we had similar Julie-related hiring experiences. It was just funny to bump into him on a cruise ship... in Russia. Odd.

Things are going quite well. Everyone seems pleased with the job I am doing and how the theater is being managed. I'm a bit tired with what I believe are now permanent bags under my eyes. But am feeling the constant professional and personal challenge a bit refreshing. Not that I didn't like working with IN THE MOOD, but in all honesty I could not have found the job less intellectually stimulating.

Change is good.

Even though I miss Brian.

Our 2 year anniversary is just around the corner :D.