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How To Get Work As A Guest Entertainer On Cruise Ships - Part Ii
By Paul Romhany, Thu Dec 8th
b>Embarkation In the majority of cases, the cruise line will fly you to yourdestination a day before you are to join the ship. You will bemet by the local port agent, who is responsible for yourtransport to the hotel and to the ship the next day. In somecases the port agent hasn't turned up to pick me up, so I alwaysmake sure I have my agent send me the port agents detailsincluding phone number, email and emergency phone number plusthe name and address of the hotel I will be staying. Fromexperience I like to have all bases covered when it comes toarriving in a foreign country. Now I always email the port agentto let them know I will be arriving so they are there to pick meup. You will find, more often than not, that there will be othercrew members joining with you and they are usually picked upfrom the hotel between 7-8am. In some cases because I am a guestentertainer they don't want to see me too early, so I often findout where the ship is docked and catch a taxi a little later on,giving me more time to relax in the hotel and also the ship alittle more time to process all the crew. On the day you arescheduled to join the ship, they do like you to board as earlyas possible. If it is a turn around day where passengers aregetting
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on and off it can be very hectic, so I often go with thecrew straight on the ship. Upon arrival at the ship's terminal,go straight to the cruise ships information desk and explain youare a guest entertainer joining and have your joining documentsready to show, you will then be directed onboard. If there is noinformation desk then head straight to the gangway and advisethe security officer on duty that you are embarking and theywill call the office and get you settled. You will either beasked to visit the Crew Office (crew purser) where all of theembarkation formalities will be completed or told just to go tothe main reception area where you will be given your key. Ialways make a point of visiting the Cruise Directors office tointroduce myself and hand over my promotional photo and get aschedule of performances. Side note:- There have been times where I have flown very longflights, from Vancouver to New Zealand, and by looking at the'Patter' daily news found out I was performing that night. Thisdoesn't happen often but be prepared because it CAN happen. Therules also state that you are to attend the passenger safetydrill with all passengers. If this is your first time on ships Icertainly suggest you do this! (Article continued below)
Crew or passenger list? It depends how long you are on the shipand where you are going as to whether you are put on the crewlist or not. If you are put on the crew list then you will begiven a crew ID badge which you use to get on and off the ship.In most instances I am on the passenger list and get thepassenger ID card. The only reason we are put on the crew listis because it makes the paperwork a lot easier in the crewoffice, especially when it comes to visas in some countries suchas Brazil. Because you are Guest Entertainer status - alwayscheck the guest manual to make sure of rules and regulations forthe company you are working for - in most cases this means youdon't have to do crew drills. The only thing you might have todo are 'watertight' doors if they put you in a staff area. Thereare some cruise lines where guest entertainers are required todo crew drills. Disembarkation Arrangements for leaving the ship differfrom port to port and the crew office will know more about yourdetails of what time you are to be picked up and taken to theairport. Sometimes it can be a long process as you may have togo through customs and immigration so be prepared for a long day. A few things to make sure you have before leaving:- * Paid allyour onboard bills * Returned your crew ID to purser, if you areon the crew list * Hand in your blue or yellow card - a safetycard given to you when you join. * Leave your key in your cabin* Pay your room steward his or her tips * "Signed off" theship's crew articles if on crew list. Acccommodation With the cruise lines I work for theyalways put me in a private double cabin and you have your ownbathroom facilities. The cabin is either located in passengerarea or a staff area depending on the ship. Although I have notfound it in any regulation hand book we always get an outsidecabin which seems to be the rule of thumb. Towels and linen arealways provided. Each morning your cabin steward will come andchange the towels and usually once a week change the linen. Accommodation on each ship varies, in many cases they tend toput all the entertainers together in one area which makes forfun times and a good way to get to know other acts. There havebeen instances where we have been put in passenger areas and theroom service is the same as passengers. If you are in a staffarea then you will not get the chocolate on the pillows at nightand the cabin steward usually comes in only once a day, unlessyou ask otherwise. We have always had a TV in our room,sometimes with a video and fridge. On contracts where I havebeen booked for 6 months or longer and there was no fridge Iwould often purchase a little $80 fridge and have it in thecabin, it always comes in handy on those long runs. There isalways a phone in the cabins and if in staff areas I am able tobuy a calling card at crew rates in the crew office and phonehome from my cabin. I remember in the early days I had to lineup with all the other crew to use one phone on one of the lowerdecks on the ship, I could be waiting there over an hour to useit. There are advantages to being in a staff area. Forpassengers to use the satellite phones it can cost up to $4.50per minute, for crew it is only seventeen cents, depending onwhere you are calling. Discounts This varies from cruise line to cruise line, soagain, either ask your agent or check the Guest EntertainerManual of the cruise line you are working for the discounts youare allowed as a guest entertainer. The general rule for mostships is that there is a 25% bar discount for guest entertainersand a 20% discount in the boutique shops on board. At the end ofeach cruise when you get your bill, make sure that the discountshave been taken off the final account. It has happened on somany occasions where the final discount was wrong or not takenoff. For whatever reason these days, the bills are always wrongand most guest entertainers have to end up going down at the endof a cruise and sorting the problems out. I often believe theproblems on ships are due to simple lack of communicationbetween departments! There are the top end cruise lines whereyou don't have to pay for any drinks at the bar, but that is theminority. There is also a 21-year minimum age requirement forpurchasing alcohol on most cruise lines. Everything you purchaseis put on to your account so ships are a cashless society,however I always take a few dollar bills and leave them as tips.Note:- As of re-reading this book the company I work for has nowtaken off any discounts in the shops on board for guestentertainers. Requirement of Shows Each cruise line will have differentrequirements from their Guest Entertainers, what I offer issimply a guidline - Length and number of shows I checked the guidelines in themanual for the cruise line I work on and they state that aminimum repertoire of two 30-minute and one 15-minute show isrequired. On longer cruises it may be necessary to perform threeof four 30 minute shows. On the ships I work I have never donetwo different 30 minute shows, rather one full show and a splitshow with another act or two different 45 minute shows. On thecruise I am on at the moment, as of writing this book, I amperforming two 45 minute shows and a close-up show. The close-upshow is at my suggestion to the cruise director as it gives meanother chance to push my DVDs plus I thoroughly enjoy close-upmagic. How many shows you are required to perform dependsentirely on the length of cruise. If you are doing the shortseven day cruises then more often that not you will only berequired to do one full show, perhaps maybe another show sharingthe bill with another act. On the longer cruises of say twentyfour days you can be assured you will need to do two differentfull shows. This requires a lot of work and it is important thatyour second show is as strong as the first. Speaking fromexperience I prefer just to do my one main show as it containsall my number one material, rather than try and split it upbetween two shows. After experimenting with my act I realizedhow important it is to make sure your first show is very strong,that way people will talk about you, get to know you and comeback for the second. You will hear other entertainers say theyhave an A and a B show, in my opinion if you want a long careerin Cruising make sure both your shows are A material. If you cando a close-up show then by all means mention it to the cruisedirector as it all helps in the long run keeping your name infront of the passengers when they fill in the comment cards. Thegeneral rule of thumb is that you will do your main show twicein one night. Your schedule Your schedule will vary from ship to ship and cruise to cruise.Generally speaking, on a seven day cruise you will be requiredto work one night with your main 45-50 minute act. This you willdo twice, once at the early show, usually 8.30pm and the otherat 10.30pm for two different audiences. On the larger ships theyare now getting us to work more, so we will work one night withthe two shows, then repeat the show again the next night for thecrowds who missed it. The large ships now carry up to 2800passengers so you are required to do an extra show. On the sevenday cruise you may also be asked to do an extra ten to fifteenminute spot on the last night, along with other guestentertainers. Because I have two different full 45 minute acts plus theclose-up show, I tend to get the longer runs which also meansthe better contracts where the ships travel to more exoticlocations around the world. It makes sense to keep me on a shiplonger as I can do two different nights of entertainment and theclose-up show on a sea day. However, having said that next weekI will be leaving the ship I have been on for three months andtransshipping to another ship for a little over a week where Iwill be on the last part of the cruise and the beginning of anew one, then fly to join another ship for a little over a week,then fly to another ship for only one night before flying home.There is no set rule for how many times you will perform and youusually only find out when you join. My advice is to make sureyou are prepared before starting your cruise ship career,otherwise it will be short lived and chances of gettingre-booked are very slim. There somehow seems to be an invisible network amongst theEntertainment Department in the cruise industry and word travelsfast. Remember that Carnival cruises owns about 70% of thecruise industry including; Carnival Cruise Lines, WindstarCruises, Cunard Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises,Costa Cruises and The Yachts of Seabourn. That is a huge marketand Entertainment is now overlapping with these companies asthey all come under one umbrella. About the author:Comedy Magician Paul Romhany performs as a headline act on TopCruise lines around the world. To see Paul Romhany on stage isto witness a magical transformation. While his skills andartistry as an illusionist are unsurpassed, Paul takes hisperformance to another dimension when he applies makeup as theaudience watches, suddenly leaving behind Paul Romhany andbecoming Charlie Chaplin. visit:http://www.chaplinmagic.com | 