Sencity at Sea: Miracles do happen- accidents too!

I left you all at Wednesday morning 9 am, here is what happened after that.

10 pm
We are supposed to have a meeting. ‘Supposed’ to because again ‘something’ came up at the cruise management and the meeting gets postponed till 4 pm. That means we will not really be able to check out the Cayman Islands, the current location of the cruise ship. For the first time the vibe in the team declines and a numbness is comes over us.

10:30 am
Together with my tour manager we determine what is missing. Surely we could blame the cruise management but we both agree that this will not help any further. We realize that even though we have a professional product, we do not behave like the other professionals on the ship. The clothing is very strict and proper as opposed to the slippers we wear at dinner. But hey, if you get the chance to sing out loud your favorite song in a full restaurant without anybody noticing it, would you hesitate?

11 am
We decide to go to the island anyway, even if it was for only 2 hours. We all check our emails, catch some waves in a very hot Caribbean Sea and get back.

2 pm
Back on the ship I noticed something is different. It seems that the waves have brushed away the numbness and now everybody is tense This leads to some frustration among some people. Deaf dancers argue with the sign dancers who get to use the rehearsal space first. The Aroma Jockey (who is unemployed right now) does not wants to play a dead body in the choreography of Michael Jacksons ‘Thriller.’ Some also complain that the floor of the stage is too smooth to dance on and so on. Still I notice a focus on the performance. I decide to keep it like that and to prepare a good group speech later on.

4 pm
Finally we get to meet the technical crew of the ship to go through the show. It looks like we are talking to some cooperative people. Quite refreshing! Something is also happening with the stage manager. Even though she forgot all the things she had agreed on earlier, she is now working with us on how we can get the maximum result. They will prepare a DJ booth on stage, next to the booth for our Visual Jockey. At some point she explains to us how we can make use of the smoke engine. All of a sudden, our AromaJockey is alert! His performance was cancelled earlier because the crew were afraid his scents would activate the sprinkler system on the ship. But not that they are allowing the smoke engine, how would that work with the sprinkler system? I look at my tour manager and confident about her willingness to cooperate we try for the 7th time to bring about a solution for the aromas. It works! As if it were never a problem to her, she agrees upon using water sprayers for the scents and even comes up with a blower we can use to spread out the aromas.

In the end it turns out we can do the whole show the way we planned it, the vibe is getting up again: Miracles do happen!

10 pm
We get back to skating hall, where they put a wooden floor on the ice. In a moment the Halloween party of the cruise program will start with some dancing and a costume contest.

11 pm
The hall is completely filled, more than 500 people are in the hall, dancing, excited. We are excited as well. We have been doing some networking in the last few days, and some important people like the famous deaf actors are showing up as well. Everything seems to look good.

12 pm
In 30 minutes our show will start. I do the group speech I have been preparing in my head. I share that I have been insecure about the whole trip, about the show, about everything I can think of, but that the development of the last few hours has been giving me all the confidence that we need. We have a vibe to sell, communication right from the heart, straight to the heart! The whole team is on line again, we are ready for it!

12.15 am
I get a message from the stage manager that the show has a delay again. For some reason they add a storyteller to the program. So while the whole audience is dancing, they turn on the lights and have a signing story teller on stage. We stay backstage but it turns out that half of the audience at that time leaves the hall!

12.45 am
Everybody is ready to go on stage. The VJ has a special opening tape and then the sign dancers will do their version of Thriller. After that, the deaf dancers will take over. When we get the sign that we are on, the Aroma Jockey, Visual Jockey and Disc Jockey jump on stage. Immediately we smell the scents, see the visuals but… hear the wrong music…. I walk up to the booth and see a helpless face, next to the stage technician. He says the booth does not work and that we have to use the sound table from the other side of the hall. But they do not have the right music!

It all takes 12 minutes to have the right cd’s at the other sound table, but for the audience that was too long. Again half of the audience is gone. 75 people are left which looks like nothing in such a big hall.

As the new DJ does not have the right instructions he makes a lot mistakes with the sound. After every dance the dancers come backstage furious. Within half an hour, the audience is gone, not willing to witness all the technical breakdowns.

1 am
As the hall is empty, we decide to close the show. As this was our only chance the whole crew is very disappointed. The stage manager apologizes for the technical failures. It looks nice but that cannot take away the feeling of a missed golden opportunity. We decide to celebrate the disappointment at the Halloween party in lower deck. We dance until 4:30am trying to forget what happened.

But when I woke up this morning, it is still there, including some alcohol damage.
Time for a new plan. To be honest, I have no idea what that is going to be….
But trust me, there will be a new plan!

PS 1
Since we don’t have much access to internet on the ship, I will reply to your comments when I get back in Europe next week.

PS 2
I am not deaf myself!