I thought I’d take some pictures while on the job, so I could show you where I work. The “office” is a big blue school bus, and that’s where I spend most of my time:
And here's the inside!
Like I said, John and Alison are very organized. You can tell that John used to be a boat captain. He’s very particular about how things are organized. You can also tell that he really knows the tourism business. Appearances are very important. We never have down time. If there are no tours, we have lots of chores: cleaning equipment, organizing, re-organizing, detailing kayaks, and most recently, painting the bus wheels. All the lifejackets and spray skirts are hung neatly in rows, according to size and color. The shelves are always neat, the floor always swept. It’s pretty funny. We’re like busy bees everyday, even when no one wants to go kayaking.
I’m the first one to arrive in the morning, around 7:30 or 8. This is usually what I see when I arrive:
Skeeter, the shore rep, arrives next and the other guides trickle in throughout the morning. We usually have customers who have booked online before the cruise, but if not, we have to do some meeting and greeting. As passengers come on shore, we smile and say: Can I offer you a walking map? or Would anyone like a walking map? or Can I help you find anything? It’s interesting to observe the attitudes of tourists. Some of them are determined to walk by you and not make eye contact, because they assume that you are trying to heckle them into buying something. Some of them will say “no, no, no.” as soon as you start talking, even though we’re just offering them a free map. And others will walk up to me, and say, “How do I get to Fortress of the Bears?” or “I want to see a whale.” or “Can you call me a taxi?” Ahhhhh the service industry…
We talk to so many people on ship days, and most of them have no interest in kayaking. Cruise ships are pretty weird. Most of the passengers seem to settle into this ‘herd’ mentality. I think they get so used to being herded and served that they can’t be self-sufficient when they get off the ship. They get off the ship, disoriented and lost. Then they see some people lining up. “Well that looks promising. Let’s go stand in line,” they think to themselves. Lots of people come up to me asking for a shuttle bus into town. “Well, the main street is right over there. You should walk; it’s a gorgeous day.” But they don’t believe me and they stand in line and take a bus 100 yards.
I observed a “line up” phenomenon just the other day. First let me give some background: There is a brown bear rescue just outside of town called The Fortress of the Bear. It was started a while back in an abandoned industrial complex. They recycled these huge circular tanks, by turning them into bear pens. They have 5 or so rescues living there. I’m not sure what my opinion of this place is yet. It looks really crappy and cramped. And I’ve heard that the bears beg for peanuts. (The road to hell is paved with good intentions.) But I don’t know. If these bears didn’t have this place, they would have been shot. Anyway, there was a cruise ship in the other day, and for some reason, everyone on that ship wanted to go to Fortress of the Bear. Now, there are several local tour companies that make trips out there, but of course, you pay for their tour. This year, there is a man who volunteers to drive a shuttle bus back and forth to the Fortress. It’s free, but it is also erratic. There is no set schedule; he just goes back and forth whenever he gets a few passengers. And he usually only gets a few passengers, but this day was different. People wanted to go. And people were asking me about it. And I said: “Well, there is a free shuttle, but I don’t know when he’s going to get here. It might be half an hour.” So a line formed. Beside the big blue kayaking bus. And more people lined up. And the line was embarrassingly long. And 40 minutes later, the bear bus comes, and not everyone fit. So the bus headed out of the parking lot, with the back end sagging, and the line remained. It was hilarious. There was this line in the middle of the parking lot. And most of the people in line had no idea what they were waiting for, but they heard it was a bear bus, so they waited. And some people waited an hour. I tried to convince people to go take a walk in Totem Park instead, but they didn’t want the exercise or the magical forest atmosphere. So instead they waited in line, to ride a bus, to see some captive bears in an old industrial tank. BOOOOOOOOO!
A few days later, and it’s still funny! But even with the disinterested passengers, we still manage to get a good amount of business, and so far, our customers have been great. Hope all is well with you!
<3
And here's the inside!
Like I said, John and Alison are very organized. You can tell that John used to be a boat captain. He’s very particular about how things are organized. You can also tell that he really knows the tourism business. Appearances are very important. We never have down time. If there are no tours, we have lots of chores: cleaning equipment, organizing, re-organizing, detailing kayaks, and most recently, painting the bus wheels. All the lifejackets and spray skirts are hung neatly in rows, according to size and color. The shelves are always neat, the floor always swept. It’s pretty funny. We’re like busy bees everyday, even when no one wants to go kayaking.
I’m the first one to arrive in the morning, around 7:30 or 8. This is usually what I see when I arrive:
Skeeter, the shore rep, arrives next and the other guides trickle in throughout the morning. We usually have customers who have booked online before the cruise, but if not, we have to do some meeting and greeting. As passengers come on shore, we smile and say: Can I offer you a walking map? or Would anyone like a walking map? or Can I help you find anything? It’s interesting to observe the attitudes of tourists. Some of them are determined to walk by you and not make eye contact, because they assume that you are trying to heckle them into buying something. Some of them will say “no, no, no.” as soon as you start talking, even though we’re just offering them a free map. And others will walk up to me, and say, “How do I get to Fortress of the Bears?” or “I want to see a whale.” or “Can you call me a taxi?” Ahhhhh the service industry…
We talk to so many people on ship days, and most of them have no interest in kayaking. Cruise ships are pretty weird. Most of the passengers seem to settle into this ‘herd’ mentality. I think they get so used to being herded and served that they can’t be self-sufficient when they get off the ship. They get off the ship, disoriented and lost. Then they see some people lining up. “Well that looks promising. Let’s go stand in line,” they think to themselves. Lots of people come up to me asking for a shuttle bus into town. “Well, the main street is right over there. You should walk; it’s a gorgeous day.” But they don’t believe me and they stand in line and take a bus 100 yards.
I observed a “line up” phenomenon just the other day. First let me give some background: There is a brown bear rescue just outside of town called The Fortress of the Bear. It was started a while back in an abandoned industrial complex. They recycled these huge circular tanks, by turning them into bear pens. They have 5 or so rescues living there. I’m not sure what my opinion of this place is yet. It looks really crappy and cramped. And I’ve heard that the bears beg for peanuts. (The road to hell is paved with good intentions.) But I don’t know. If these bears didn’t have this place, they would have been shot. Anyway, there was a cruise ship in the other day, and for some reason, everyone on that ship wanted to go to Fortress of the Bear. Now, there are several local tour companies that make trips out there, but of course, you pay for their tour. This year, there is a man who volunteers to drive a shuttle bus back and forth to the Fortress. It’s free, but it is also erratic. There is no set schedule; he just goes back and forth whenever he gets a few passengers. And he usually only gets a few passengers, but this day was different. People wanted to go. And people were asking me about it. And I said: “Well, there is a free shuttle, but I don’t know when he’s going to get here. It might be half an hour.” So a line formed. Beside the big blue kayaking bus. And more people lined up. And the line was embarrassingly long. And 40 minutes later, the bear bus comes, and not everyone fit. So the bus headed out of the parking lot, with the back end sagging, and the line remained. It was hilarious. There was this line in the middle of the parking lot. And most of the people in line had no idea what they were waiting for, but they heard it was a bear bus, so they waited. And some people waited an hour. I tried to convince people to go take a walk in Totem Park instead, but they didn’t want the exercise or the magical forest atmosphere. So instead they waited in line, to ride a bus, to see some captive bears in an old industrial tank. BOOOOOOOOO!
A few days later, and it’s still funny! But even with the disinterested passengers, we still manage to get a good amount of business, and so far, our customers have been great. Hope all is well with you!
<3
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