Another Question!

Another Question!

"Why do Americans have to get one?"

(Re: No I-94, no Getting off!)

This is an excellent question, and I don't really know why they make Americans go through that whole tedious process when clearly anyone with American citizenship should be able to get off with no problems.

(And believe me, many Americans have made it quite vocal and clear that this makes no sense)

Part of it might have to do with the fact that you will never be in possession of your Passport at any point when you step off in land, and thus having a solid I-94 is technically your only proof of being allowed to legally be there. And even if you might have your driver's license or state identification card on you, maybe those doesn't count?

Either way it's one of those silly requirements that's part of working on a ship that everybody still has to endure!

No 1-94, No Getting Off!

No 1-94, No Getting Off!

A big part of the allure of sailing on a cruise ship is the idea that you will be able to get off in exotic locales, exciting cities, experiencing the local culture and cuisine and all of the tantalizing entertainment venues just like one of the Guests. And you definitely can!

However, if you're on a ship that visits American destinations, this won't be an immediate reality until you've acquired the I-94. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_I-94  <- Read this Wikipedia page for more.
For us seafaring folk, this form is reduced to miniature form and is about the same size and thickness as a receipt you'd get from an ATM machine.

This teensy, flimsy piece of paper is only granted to you if you pass something called  crew-wide immigration. 

 If you don't get one, you're not getting off in any American ports.

 

 (of course no YA in their right mind would wear their gross Costume in Port... unless ironically I guess.)

 Which sadly means that even if you have the day off, or the ship is staying overnight, you won't be able to do anything but look at that particular city from the ship.

So that means not getting off in Alaska, or Los Angeles, or San Francisco, or Hawaii, or Miami, or Key West, or Galveston, or New York, or any other bit of American soil during the span of your contract unless you manage to get one of those 1-94s. Of course, if you're American you don't have to worry about it as much.


The reasoning behind it is so that any non-Americans don't get the idea to abandon ship and run off in Port to start new lives in America on Disney's dime. Not to say they couldn't do that even after getting an 1-94, but at least they've been tracked by immigration.

THE IMMIGRATION PROCESS

This is one of those things that EVERYONE has to do, even if you're American. The whole ship is sent in waves to get their immigration done (hehe...waves. That's water fairy humor. I mean, ship crew member humor).

By this I mean that regardless of whether it takes place in the Port itself or in the big Walt Disney Theater where the inspectors come on board, organizationally they only send groups of crew members to do it at a time, based on Department so that all 1000 crew members don't rush at once. It's usually structured something like:

6-7 AM: Dining Room and Galley
7-8 AM: Entertainment and Mainstage
8-9 AM: Youth Activities and Merchandise
9-10 AM: Housekeeping and Galley
10-11AM: Deck and Engine

...and so on.

For the most part, we've done it all in the Walt Disney Theater where the officers and managers all glad in their gleaming whites organize and corral you into rows of seats to wait your turn. The immigration inspectors are all lined up behind various desks on stage, a conspicuous pile of hot coffee and breakfast pastries and sandwiches for them to eat just behind - the hungry masses of tired crew members drowsy and grumbling in the audience.

When you first enter the theater you wait in line to receive your passport back (one of the only times during your time on board that you will ever SEE your passport from the day you board until the day you go home). If you're lucky, you will be sat with other members of your department, virtually unrecognizable by their unkempt hair and lack of makeup. Depending on how lax the Port or ship is, sometimes you can get away with heading up directly in comfortable clothing. Sometimes you will be strictly refused entry until you return in presentable "Disney Look" business casual clothing. Also depending on your country of origin, the air is filled with the feeling of tension and anxiety or irritated boredom over the proceedings that follow. What I mean by that is that certain departments are more likely to BREEZE through immigration based on their cultural/national makeup, while others won't.


The worst part is that this is often done on Port days where many people don't work until much later in the day, forcing you to wake up extra early. And even though it's extra early, you cannot even take a quick nap while seated in the plush cushions of the theater seats as you're constantly made to shift rows and then stand in line towards the stage as immigration proceeds. If you could see it, it's really a morning filled with tired, anxious people. Your ship officers are probably also not thrilled to wake up early and be dressed immaculately in their white uniforms and be standing for the whole time directing the crew. The gruff immigration inspectors on stage munching away on their breakfast snacks makes the whole scenario juts peachy.


Eventually you'll make it up to the stage and wait your turn to be seen by an immigration official. It's always a bit awkward as there's a couple hundred other people watching you from the audience. You hand over your passport to the immigration and they'll probably ask you a few cursory questions:

• Where are you from?
• What do you do on board?
• Have you been to the United States before?
• How long have you worked for DCL?

And if you answer those questions to their satisfaction, they'll issue you a new I-94, stamp it and retain your passport. And that's on the luckier side. Most Americans and Canadians will get by with a "Hi, how are you?" and automatically get their I-94. Youth Activities Counselors and the countries that make up the department also get by without too much hassle.


Watching other departments go through immigration isn't quite as pleasant, however. Usually they'll get more varied and probing questions asking about their family or friends in the United States, how much contact they've had with them, what other jobs they've held in the past, anything. They get stricter based on recent incidents - http://www.cruisebruise.com/Cruise_Ship_Crew_Ship_Jumpers.html

Because these workers in various departments might not have the best command of English, they're more likely to trip up or fumble in their immigration answers and are more likely to get denied access to American soil. They've also been known to deny any I-94s to people from the same country, regardless of department! (For example: even an Indonesian-born high ranking officer was denied an I-94 due to a recent case of Indonesian crew members illegally leaving ships in Los Angeles!)


Immigration also only really happens every 1-2 months, so you might be waiting around for a while after first joining the ship to get off in American ports. It's really a matter of lucky timing for the most part, imagine coming back for a contract right before an overnight stay in an American port and having that whole night + morning free? What a bummer.


Oh and if you happen to ever lose that little flimsy piece of paper? You're paying $300 to get it replaced. Because even if you aren't getting off in any other American ports for the next while,  you're expected to hand it right back to immigration officials when you leave the ship.






 

Cabin Inspections aka How to be Treated like a Child

Cabin Inspections aka How to be Treated like a Child

(From https://www.facebook.com/highfiveI95)

Can I say this right now - FUCK Cabin Inspection.

There. I Did it.

On behalf of every crew member on every ship in the world right now.

Cabin Inspection is one of those things that, in theory is probably very much needed in terms of health and safety on board as it makes sure that crew members aren't hoarding illicit substances (see my post on Drugs and Alcohol), or food products that can spoil and make roommates sick, or attract pests and rats, or hidden tunnels between cabins (if anyone on the Dream or Fantasy can attest to the "Narnia" tunnels beneath the desks and bedframes), or any homemade explosives and weapons.

Sure, that's all well and good, but there are a lot of incredibly daft and ridiculous parts of Cabin Inspection that just about render the practice ... stupidly annoying in my opinion. This is what happens:

Every week or two there will be a notice given the night before that there will be a shipwide Cabin inspection to have all rooms ready for it the following morning at about 10am. Sometimes these can be on the same scheduled day as usual, or completely random. There have been times when rumors of a sudden Cabin Inspection have resulted in a flurry and panic to clean when it was just a false alarm.

To have your cabin room ready for inspection, you're expected to:

• make your bed and have nothing on it except for your lifejacket and safety card (a small slip of paper you're expected to keep in pristine condition. If there is anything broken or uneven on your lifejacket or safety card, you get in trouble for it!)
• make sure the floor is clean of all debris and vacuumed
• empty your trash and bring it all to the incinerator room (as if anybody actually does that late at night before inspection. Just hide it in your closet)
• make sure no decorations are hanging up like stickers, tape, posters, etc. Usually these are allowed, but this seems to vary.
• clean your ashtray
• defrost the freezer in the minifridge
• make sure your sprinkers aren't rusted and your air filter is clean
• clean the inside of your fridge and don't put anything on or around it (make sure no illegal food is hidden in there)
• clean your bathroom
• dust all surfaces
• make sure you are awake and not in bed
• leave the room during inspection
• turn off all lights and electronics

Now this seems reasonably tolerable if not a scratch above irritating to have to do, but luckily for the small size of your shared room I suppose. But there are just a few problems with Cabin Inspection:

• The inspections vary depending on who's doing it. So the people doing Cabin inspections will be the officers on board, including your managers. The way it is structured is that your Youth Activities managers won't be allowed to inspect your cabins for favoritism or whatever. While they do have a checklist to go over to make sure specific tasks are completed, how picky or stringent they are with enforcing them depends on who the inspectors are. You could have the upbeat character manager who used to be Mary Poppins ("friends with Mary Poppins" in Disney-speak) at Disneyland who will let you go with your bed a bit wrinkled or your desk a bit cluttered. Or you could have the head of housekeeping who is in a massively bitchy mood who will make your cabin as "not ready for inspection" for leaving your uniform on your chair or having dust underneath your closet or not all of the shower curtain hooks being properly hooked (all possible things to be docked on).
• The inspections could last very long. So if you're just about to start work, you can't get ready or be in your cabin to shower or get dressed. Either you have to get yourself settled an hour before you need to, or you risk waiting outside for them to come around your "block" of cabins and finish before you rush to work. Often times there will be people impatiently waiting around for cabin inspection to finish just to get access to their things.
• You get in trouble for things that you shouldn't have to be responsible for. Now the same can't be said for all crew members, but for a Youth Activities Counselor your cabin comes with housekeeping services twice a week who are expected to empty your wastebins and vacuum your floor and  make your beds. If the housekeeper didn't do a good job of vacuuming your floor, that ought to be their fault. I hardly think we should be getting in trouble for the "sprinkler being a bit rusty" or "the fridge not being completely defrosted" or the "air filter being dusty". But you do if they're feeling like complete assholes. And the worst part is- you might think you're doing completely fine and ok because for the previous 8 inspections they all said it was fine, but the 9th inspector decides to be a little prick about it being at fault for weeks. Still your fault!
• You can just hide things in your closet. Like the image at the top of this post implies, yes a lot of crew members can relate to just jamming their trash bags into the bottom of their closet to hide until cabin inspection passes. Because they're technically not allowed to go into your "personal" items. But wait, this means that you can just about shove everything else in there too - your illegal weapons, knives, pipebombs, nutella, yogurt cups, milk products, glow in the dark stickers, bottles of vodka and tequila, baggies of weed, your pill bottles filled with ecstasy and oxycontin - whatever floats yer boat. And since that's true....what's the point!?
• For any small infraction during Cabin Inspection your managers is obliged to give you discipline. That's right, so for any of the seemingly innocuous things, a note is made and the Youth Activities management has to speak with you about it (even though they often know exactly how unfair it could be) -  writing everyone's names up for the whole staff to see regarding meeting individually in their office. A little warning may not be a big deal, but several could cost your job promotions or the ability to do more with your career at sea. Imagine not getting promoted to be an Assistant Manager because your roommate accidentally left your light on in the bathroom?

Cigarettes and Alcohol

Cigarettes and Alcohol

(During this post, feel free to listen to some music I've thoughtfully put here for you)

So no surprise, working for Disney on a ship is essentially has the same strict expectations and regulations for drug and alcohol use as you would expect in the Parks.
Except I don't think you'd ever get away with being buzzed walking through any other Disney property like you would heading through the ship back from a crew party.

DRUGS

As far as illegal drugs go, zero tolerance.
So just to get that out of the way, if they find any illegal drugs in your possession they will terminate you immediately and very possibly turn you over to the authorities. I've seen it happen!

Considering all of our ships port in the Caribbean and Jamaica you can imagine how "not difficult" it is to score drugs on land. Especially since there are guys on the street that can easily tell crew members apart from the Guests and will offer it right up to you then and there! In Vancouver, marijuana was everywhere. In Colombia, cocaine. In Spain, MDMA. In Miami, heroin.


Luckily though, every time you get on and off the ship in many of these ports a drug-sniffer dog will go through your bags to check if there's any contraband. Sometimes the officers are incredibly friendly, sometimes they're not the sort of pleasant people to joke with.

If you do somehow manage to smuggle it onboard, know that every Cast and Crew Member is subject to random drug testing. I'm not sure how often this actually happens though, since in my years of working for DCL I've only been tested twice.

1. For my pre-employment medical screening they took a blood and urine sample.
2. The day I joined the ship they took a saliva and urine sample.

People I knew in YA were tested far more often, and these were the kind you wouldn't be surprised if they had contact with a puff here and here so I'm not sure as to how "random" the drug tests really are.

That said, the testing itself is a pretty awkward situation. You're in the hospital wing on board along with ship's officers and whole bunch of other people from different departments who have been taken from work (they don't give you any advance warning). Then, they tell you to stick the saliva swab in your mouth or tell you to go pee in a cup in the adjacent bathroom. And it isn't the time for stage fright, everyone can fully hear you aiming for the cup as they're completely quiet either waiting their turn to muster up some urine or have a big white stick shoved in the side of their mouths.

And you know it's judgement hour since you can hear if anyone's forgotten to flush or wash their hands. Guaranteed everyone pees on themselves a little.

CIGARETTES

Much like the parks, smoking can only be done in designated smoking areas on board. There's been a big deal made about it ever since a guest once smoked on a balcony and instead of putting out their cigarette, it quickly ignited their balcony furniture and the result was....

  For the Crew, there are technically only two areas where we can light up. And that is: The crew-only deck, or the crew smoking area/lounge (depending on which ship you're assigned to). And again, if smoking anywhere outside you cannot be visible to guests. In terms of the cramped little smoking lounge, it's virtually like being hot boxed with tobacco smell clinging to your hair and clothes.

When I first started we were allowed to smoke within our cabins (in that teeny space! Imagine smoking in a walk-in closet! ) but only with the full consent of all persons sharing that room. That is, if you lived with a non-smoker you certainly were not allowed to smoke anywhere in the room, even in the bathroom. However recently rules became tighter across all cruise lines apparently and now you are no longer able to smoke there either!

ALCOHOL

Much is said about cruise ship workers partaking in swigs of alcohol and cheap beers and much merriment, and I'll admit I have definitely had more than enough to drink on many nights. It really brings you back to those 18-year old days being carefree and belligerently drunk and dancing up on randoms.

Especially with ports in Mexico and the Caribbean, tequila and rum pretty much get handed to you if you say you're a Crew Member anywhere you go, in the hopes that their restaurant or excursion will be mentioned to guests by the crew.

But when it comes to hard liquors, any bottles are immediately confiscated by security as soon as you board the ship and aren't granted to you until you leave your contract. If they find any in your crew cabin, you face heavy discipline or termination!

(You know you're a drunk Crew Member when they know you by name but you don't ever remember being here.)


However where some cruise companies might allow certain members of the crew to drink up on deck, Disney has a zero alcohol policy when in any guest areas. Which means that during work hours you must have a 0% BAC (blood alcohol content),  so if you happen to go out and have a nice boozy lunch in Nassau you better hope you don't work immediately afterwards.  (That said, I have known my share of YAs who all had several margaritas in Port and went back to work with the best poker faces I've ever seen in my college years).


The same goes for work the next morning, especially after big holidays like Christmas or New Years Eve or St Patrick's Day or Halloween, you're expected to be able to function 100% and smile and do the whole Disney show thing! ...Even though we're all dying inside with hangovers and Counselors are sprawled over stools or trying to catch sneaky naps in hidden places.


On some ships, they're very strict about enforcing rules in the crew bar limiting how much a crew member can actually purchase at a time; and if they're buying more than one drink they must be with the person whom they're buying for. Maybe cruise management really didn't know what to do with all those drunken sailors after all.

But even with all of the alcohol-infused shenanigans happening below decks, they will also often use a breathalyzer on suspicious crew members they suspect of being inebriated. On some ships they're lax about it, but on others.... let's just say that on the Disney Dream there's a famous case of 5 YA Counselors all terminated and told to pack their bags for the following morning after getting caught one night.



So the moral of the story is.... don't get caught!

The YA Creed

THE YA CREED

If you've worked in Youth Activities for Disney, you'll find that we often have to do many many more things than Counselors would do at other jobs. Often we don't know about the extent of all of these things until we're already on board. So on behalf of our sisters and (handful of) brothers working on the seas: I present to you, the YA Creed. 

How Ship Life Is Like College

HOW SHIP LIFE IS LIKE COLLEGE

I was going to write a similarly-themed blog post about this....but instead I found someone else's blog who did it already. Oh well! Enjoy:

http://mackenzieames.com/2013/11/14/how-ship-life-is-like-college/

or get a head start on things on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/disneycruiselinecrew/

Standing Out...Or Just Standing Around

Standing Out...Or Just Standing Around

Perhaps one of the most surprising aspects of the job for many new Counselors is the standing. Standing, standing, standing - something that will possibly do wonders for your posture and calorie burning but make your feet hate you SO much for not spending more money on comfortable white trainers before you signed on for your contract.

There are two sides to this which can be looked at glass half-full and half-empty and they are:

1) I'm getting paid to stand around here and not have to do much. Easiest. Job. Ever!!!!

or

2) I'm wasting my time just standing around all day. Worst. Boring. Part. Of. My. Job. Ever.

Make no mistake, there will be parts of your job that have you scheduled to do little more than stand, fixed in a location for half an hour at several different times during the day. 

Examples of this will be:

• standing next to the slide to watch for injuries/inappropriate behavior
• standing next to the restrooms to watch for adults/kids washing their hands
• standing on the snorkel beach on Castaway Cay for a few hours to make sure no one's playing in the sand or putting beach chairs down by the water.
• standing in the Oceaneer Club or Lab in case Counselor next to the restrooms needs help
• standing at the Front desk
• standing in the secret passage
• standing to observe children during meals
• standing to guard an exit door
• standing by a stairwell during a transition
• standing by the front of the space to greet guests and give information
• standing next to one of several different exit gates in Scuttle's Cove to prevent escape

Some managers will attempt to sweeten the idea by saying "You can still play games and interact with the kids in that area! You can make it fun! You can use that time to think!".

And oh think I did. I thought about how much more I could be better using my time than standing around. I thought about whether I'd rather be standing behind a Mcdonalds or Starbucks counter or next to this restroom. I thought about whether I was doing this job for the money or the experience of standing. I thought about whether standing on a beach was better than standing outside a pub handing out flyers.

Needless to say, there were a lot of conflicting emotions here. But prepare yourself for it; some Counselors might call it being a glorified security guard, some might call it "bitch-work" but at the end of the day if you're looking to make some money at this (why?! why!?): You've just earned about $3 standing around not having to do much. Not too shabby!

If you're doing it for the experience: You've just spent 30 minutes of your life standing around on a ship/on a beach. Not too shabby compared to worse things you could be doing.

But please, please invest in comfortable shoes. Because honey, if you get caught sitting down, you know a managers gonna come swooping in and telling you to stand back up. And take your hands out of your pockets. And stop reading or doing anything else when you should be looking focused. Disney show, after all.