What a 227,000-Ton Ship Taught Me About Production

My first contract with Royal Caribbean International was aboard Oasis of the Seas—a 227,000-ton ship carrying more than 6,000 guests and operating an entertainment programme on a scale I had never experienced before.

From daytime events and parades to ice shows, theatre productions and late-night entertainment, the operation involved multiple venues, departments and technical teams working simultaneously.

Nothing really prepares you for that scale. You learn it by working within it.

Scale Changes Everything

In a smaller venue, one or two technicians can often keep track of most aspects of a production.

On a ship of this size, that approach simply does not work.

There are too many venues, too many shows and too many moving parts. The challenge is not knowing how to do every job yourself, but knowing how to delegate responsibilities to the right people and trust the technical teams around you.

That was one of the biggest lessons of the contract: good production management is not about doing everything. It is about making sure everything gets done.

The Ice Rink Problem

One of the most interesting venues on board was Studio B, an ice rink that also converts into a performance venue.

The transformation involves covering the ice, bringing in staging, preparing the rigging and adapting the technical setup for the next production.

A venue designed to serve multiple purposes will always involve compromises.

The real challenge is making sure those compromises remain behind the scenes and never become part of the audience experience.

Maintenance Is Part of the Show

One of the biggest realities of shipboard production is maintenance.

Routine checks on amplifier racks, cables, motors and technical equipment may not be the most exciting part of the job, but they are what keep the entertainment programme running consistently.

I learned to approach maintenance in the same way as a show: scheduled, documented and completed systematically.

A successful performance on Saturday often depends on the routine work completed earlier in the week.

What I Took With Me

That first contract left me with three habits that have stayed with me throughout my career:

Walk the venue before trusting the radio.

Document everything, because someone else may need the information later.

Never allow a routine job to become a rushed one.

Working on a ship of this scale taught me that production is rarely about one person knowing everything.

It is about preparation, communication, delegation and building systems that allow a large team to operate as one.

Those lessons have followed me through every contract since.