The Life of an "Aqua Captain"

As cruise lines evolve and offer new features, new positions, never imagined a decade or two again, are created. I remember a few years back interviewing the gardener on the first ship to introduce live shrubbery and plants. Just a few years, I talked with professional ice skaters who told me when they were doing competitive skating, and they considered where their careers could take them, they never imagined they would be skating in an ice show on a cruise ship.

Just thee or four years ago, the position of "aqua captain" didn't even exist. Dance captains had been around for years, but there was no need for anyone to be in charge of the divers and swimmers until Oasis of the Seas came along.
Now Royal Caribbean has two of them, and this week, one of them was a guest blogger for Royal Caribbean.

Nicholas James Thomas McMahon is the Aqua Captain of the Aqua cast aboard Allure of the Seas, and his blog takes readers behind the scenes at the Aqua shows on the giant ships:

The three levels we have in our aqua shows, “Ocean Aria” and “Let You Entertain Me”, are a 3 meter springboard, and a 10 and 17 meter platform. All of the divers in our cast dive from the 3m springboard, and the 10m platform. However, only our two featured high divers can dive from the 17m high dive.

Before each Ocean Aria performance, we have a half hour warm up period where the lifts and boards are down so we can do a few dives. At 8 o’clock the stage staff presets the props underwater, so we have to get out of the pool. After this we have an hour to stretch and warm up until the show starts at 9:00 PM. In between shows we usually grab a bite to eat, and if necessary, fix any problems that occurred in the first show. During the course of a regular week, we have two “Ocean Aria” performances on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and two “Let You Entertain Me” shows on Saturday.
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