Reply To: JCCC4: Post Mortem (Feedback Thread)
Ok, I’ve had a sec to decompress after my laptop ate the last half or more of response, so let’s try again. Luckily for y’all, I’m now highly motivated to be more succinct!
*Dinner/schedule – we found the 5:30pm dinner time from JCCC3 to be far more convenient with the Kids Club schedule and made it easier to start the shows earlier. I’m not sure what is so different about the Freedom and Independence schedules and I realize that this is outside Home Office control most likely but if we can get the earlier seating again next year I wonder if it wouldn’t help with the late night issues.
*Karaoke – I loved that there were lots of karaoke times, but would prefer if they could be moved to later so the main shows could be earlier. I think that would fix the talking during karaoke, the desire for more chances to sing, etc. Though on that last part, speaking as a long time karaoke host, I don’t think it is remotely fair to whomever is running the show to start over the requests each night when the time slots are so short. Between songs and transitions, you get about 12 singers per hour at a karaoke show. With a group like ours, you’d need 2 or 3 hours a night just to get to all the people who took the time to sign up right away. I don’t think that’s feasible. However, since there is so much interest in karaoke, perhaps a longer show might be a good shadow event.
*Open mic – I think that the open mic night absolutely should be as open as possible, though I totally understand the concerns about stand-up this year from the Home Office. This event is Sea Monkey Show and Tell, to me, not another entertainment segment. A lot of the Sea Monkeys I know are incredibly creative and talented and equally terrified of rejection and convinced that their work is no good. I think the Open Mic is a fantastic chance for people to really grow, like a petri dish filled with nourishing encouragement. Maybe the concerns about what type of acts are appropriate could be addressed by setting audience expectations ahead of time?
I’d like to propose that the Home Office consider delegating the planning/stage management of the Open Mic night to some Helper Monkeys while maintaining oversight and providing celebrity hosts. There are several Sea Monkeys with experience managing such events and I think it would give folks who have the time before and during the cruise to make sure things are communicated well, that the order of performers is set well, that there is some stage management, etc. We could start registration much earlier, get an idea before the cruise of what will be needed, coordinate between acts for things like loaner instruments, etc., and then adjust as needed once we’re on the boat.
*Lines – I think the idea to have doors/show times posted will fix most of what can be fixed about Studio B lines. Alhambra, though, presents some other challenges just because of what the space for lines around it is like. Clumping around the entrance results in a lot of blocked walkways for other passengers and represents both a nuisance and a safety hazard as a result. I think that much of this can be avoided by putting the Sea Monkey self-organization capacity to good use by creating a simple diagram showing everyone what the preferred line pattern for events at Alhambra should be. I think that two lines wrapping down the stairs for people wanting to get their preferred seats makes sense along with encouraging people who aren’t as concerned to congregate upstairs by the (Schooner?) bar so that the stairs stay clear. Other options would work just as well, I’m sure, the main thing is just communicating A Plan early and often.
*Main Dining Room stuff – I saw a couple of comments early about tables being switched to fixed seating and this causing problems for people seated at large tables. As far as I understand, the RC staff were motivated to switch tables to fixed seating because it gave the service staff the chance to be reviewed individually on our surveys rather than as part of a broad clump. That way they wouldn’t have their performance reviews suffer from the poor efforts of a colleague a few tables over. I don’t know if there are options for working something out with RC so that we can keep open seating without hosing some of our servers, but that is what I understood to be the reason behind that action by the staff.
I was very pleased at the vast reduction of applause for performers and such during the entrance to dinner.
I think the Still Alive sing-a-long was a sweet but misguided thing that sort of happened. We still share the dining room with Snorks and I don’t think it is fair for us to impose ourselves on their cruise experience in that way – just as many have complained about the constant stream of parades.
I could really go for some waaaaaaarrrrrm breeeeeaaaaad.
*Final Thoughts – I am blown away by how much work the Home Office does every year. My deep thanks and respect to everyone involved in the planning and execution of the cruise. However, I caught a vibe this year that the whole event was just a little more stressed out than last year. Maybe it was just the loss of a day, but things seemed more rushed, especially announcements. Some of the things that were very organized last year (like the flipchart schedules outside the game room for main events and shadow events) were not as organized this year.
As JCCC grows, I think that vastly increased delegation will be necessary to maintain quality without burning out the Home Office. There is a Sea of Monkeys who are reliable and capable and whom I think would be delighted to assist during the year. This would free up Paul, Storm, Scarface, and all the people whose names I don’t know, to focus their attention of the things that volunteers can’t do – like booking acts, negotiating with RC, etc.