The fiance and I have landed a sweet gig working for Second City on a cruise ship for 4 months.
Our home port is New York, which means we’ll be docking there once a week and cruising to warm places in between.
We have to fly to Chicago for two days prior to our flight to New York, and of course we’re concerned about what to pack, how much to bring, etc. We’ll likely need both winter and summer clothes since we’ll be travelling from winter to summer weather each week.
We have our iPods, PSP, Nintendo DS, and a laptop to keep us electronically occupied, and we’ll have access to the ship’s gym and such, but what else should we bring?
Furthermore, what’s our best resource for information on New York City, like subway routes and good places to visit?
We’ve never done anything like this before…and it’s all happening literally one day after our wedding/honeymoon, so we don’t have a lot of time to plan prior to our departure. Any advice you can offer will be gratefully received.
Pick up a copy of David Foster Wallace’s A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, and read the title essay. Harper’s magazine sent him on a one-week cruise to do nothing (except take notes about the varieties of nothing he was doing). The result is a hilarious but pretty quick read, and should give you a good idea of what to watch out for while you’re aboard ship.
Wash your hands at every opportunity, and be careful what you eat. We see stories of cruise ship illness all the time. The last time I was on a cruise I got terribly sick about a week later. With all those people in such close quarters you can’t be too careful.
Yep - expect tight quarters and LONG days. I know some cruise ship employees work 12-16 hour days seven days a week - then get two months off. With uniforms, you probably won’t need much in the way of clothes - and you won’t have room for much either.
Going off topic a bit, I’ve always wondered how many of those sudden mass illnesses aboard ships are mostly mass hysteria. They had a big story on one of those incidents just a month or so ago, and were interviewing a number of alleged victims who were talking about how sick they felt but how they felt so much better now that they were off the ship. None of them LOOKED sick at all. Normally if you’ve been barfing and crapping yourself and legitimately sick for three days you look like six pounds of shit in a five pound bag the day after; these folks looked fine. It’s it curious that the virus that caused the mysterious illness suddenly stopped affecting so many people the instant they put into port?
That doesn’t seem to be the case with you if you were sick afterwards (which may have been a coincidence, anyway) but it does seem to be the case with a lot of these “Sick cruise ship” stories.
As to New York City, it’s preposterously easy to get around in; as Carly knows, I am a complete moron, but I found it easy to find my way around. To properly explore it, just find the subway line that takes you into the Broadway/Times Square district (Manhattan, more or less between 32nd and 50th) and just start walking around. Times Square is about Broadway and 45th, if I recall correctly. Start walking around. There’s no end of stuff to see. You can find tour maps online with markers to the major landmarks.
My nephew was a musician on a cruise line for about 6 months until he couldn’t handle the small quarters and monotony; after all, you’re basically lilving on a floating hotel. One of his survival techniques to was learn where all the movie theaters and libraries were at every port of call, just for something to do off the ship.
By the way, the “don’t socialize with the passengers” rules didn’t apply to him since he was an entertainer. The only place he wasn’t allowed was the casino, which I guess makes sense (you don’t want employees to gamble at their own establishment).
Spectre of Pithecanthropus was right, we’re entertainers. And we don’t really have to worry about uniforms or long days; I do have to wear a black dress for the show, but we’re only doing two one-hour shows every Wednesday night, so basically that black dress only takes care of my clothing for 3 hours a week.
I’d love to pack light, but I’ll be far from home for 4 months. I really, really don’t want to spend too much money on buying things I already own that I foolishly thought I wouldn’t need and thus left back in Canada.
So far, the advice is good; please keep it coming!
You still need to pack light, because space will be an issue. Passenger space is cramped, and the crew I talked to said theirs was even less. Entertainers had it better than general staff, hours-wise, though.
