The Inside Passage - Canadian/USA Border

11th May 2011


Hello again, Cruise Director Nigel back with you.

We left Seattle in Washington State of the USA yesterday at 10.00pm and today will cruise the ‘Inside Passage’. The Inside Passage is a coastal route for oceangoing vessels along a network of passages which weave through the islands on the Pacific coast of North America. At 7.00am tomorrow morning we will arrive at our first Alaskan port of call Ketchikan. Today there will be spectacular scenery for our passengers to observe, it should be a wonderful day at sea, and a great photo opportunity for everyone. The atmosphere around the ship is electric, tomorrow Alaska!! The vast majority of our passengers and ship's company have not been to Alaska so this is a very special cruise indeed.

Before we get up to Alaska and I send you some blogs about it I thought I would let you know a little more about myself.

I in fact left home in Cheshire on 28 March and spent the night in Southampton before joining Arcadia there on 29 March.

While on leave this winter I spent two weeks at our headquarters in Southampton (Carnival House),working closely alongside our hard working shore based entertainment team in the planning of the entertainment for our ‘World Circumnavigations’ and ‘Grand Voyages' 2012. There are four of them in all and they range from 87 nights to 109 nights, they are on Aurora, Oriana, Arcadia, and Adonia.

The life of a Cruise Director is very varied; no two days are ever the same. At times it can be stressful, challenging and demanding, but never dull and always highly satisfying and rewarding. We are all here on board to make sure our passengers have the best holiday ever. Myself and the entire entertainment department along with every other member of the ship's company are here to make that happen. As Cruise Director I oversee all the entertainment on board from the daytime activities to our evening entertainment be it a Caribbean/Tropical Deck Party or a West End Style Production Show.

A lot of my job takes place behind the scenes.

On any day on board I will be answering internal ship or shore side e-mails, attending meetings, dealing with passenger observations, running activities, compiling reports, doing appraisals, working on the planning of future cruises, hosting chat shows, attending drills, introducing production shows, cabarets or classical concerts, the list really is endless!!

Some passengers think we book all the entertainment on board but that is not the case - all the cabaret acts, guest speakers, musicians, entertainment officers, show companies, production team etc are all booked through our Southampton office. The only entertainment the Cruise Directors do book is the local shows we employ to come on to our ships and perform when we have late evening calls. So far this voyage I have booked a Folkloric Show in Madeira on 15 April, The Harminites Steel Band in St Lucia on 23 April, the Bagan Doo Flicky Show in Barbados on 24 April, and the Tom Lepps Jazz Band in San Francisco on 7 May. All of these entertainers were very much enjoyed by our passengers and made a very fine contrast to our usual cabaret or production show scheduling. As the saying goes ‘variety is the spice of life’!!! On a 72 night voyage the greater the variety the better!!

One of the cruise's very special events happened on board last night - The Captain’s Gala Cocktail Parties. The dress code is formal and every one of our passengers receives an invitation to this glamorous occasion. Captain Kevin Oprey made a speech and then invited on to the stage the heads of all the different departments on board, eleven of us in all. All the passengers on board were invited to this party.

Do enjoy the photos today.

On 2nd May Arcadia was in Huatulco Mexico, all the photographs below were taken from the ship. Huatulco is a purpose built resort and proved very popular indeed with our passengers, it was just a couple of hundred yards from getting off Arcadia to the beach. A dip in the Pacific Ocean was a must, it peaked at 34 oC on 2 May!!!

Me in The Globe on 2 May, it was a lot cooler in than out!

On 3 May we were in the glamorous resort of Acapulco, the three photos below were taken from the upper decks of Arcadia. You can see just what a fabulous berth we were docked at from the views.

All the best.

Nigel