I had this conversation with a young girl, long hair with two black clips, while we were settling under the tent at the front of the Norwegian Pearl. 

Shorex: “It’s my first day back.”
Me: “Oh, where were you before?”
“The Mediterranean.”
“Oh- welcome back!”
“Yes, it’s very different.”
“Oh- how so?”
“Well there are only like 15 excursions there, usually, in any given port. Also when there is an excursion, like 300 people go.”
“Oh that is very different!” 

You see, the Shorexs (Shore Excursion) walk out with clipboards and checklists that are multiple pages long, there must be upwards of 50 excursions. They have to check each one off, making sure they’ve either departed or been cancelled and make a note. 

Some of them hand us individual sheets when we check in, confirming our final counts as of that morning. They usually email us an update a few days before, then email us an update the night before. 

In the case of our tour, we are usually a big seller. Some of the Shorexs get antsy and check in with us for our final headcount. Usually there are stragglers walking from Berth 4 to Berth 3 so we can’t give them our headcount until they arrive. The most important thing as a Dock Rep is to get the green light from the Shorex. This only means that you run up to them (usually they are in mid-conversation) and say “We have all 46- do we have the green light?” and they say “Vaminos!” or “You’re good” or a meaningful thumbs up and I radio Suzanne. 

This much is clear, I thank God every day, and I do mean everyday even my day off, that I am not a Shorex. 

Kristi watched one lady ream a Shorex from the Noordam because she and her children missed the van to the zip lining adventure. When the Shorex called to try to get them on the next tour, all the tours had already started for the day. The lady was letting the Shorex have it, and it was absolutely her own mistake for missing the tour. 

She was able to find them another excursion and sent them on their way in a cab. 

Essentially, the Shorexs are accustomed to dealing with lost or angry people (usually lost). They come off the ships with tickets in hand (usually) and they want to know where the sign is for their tour, where is the sign? Their ticket will say “Check-In Time: 8:45 on the pier” The Shorex will kindly say “Well it’s a little bit early because it’s 8:20. But you will check-in here at 8:45.” I’ve stood next to some Shorexs who have repeated “It’s a little bit early” 15 interactions in a row. People want to know they are in the right place and they aren’t going to miss it. Whatever it is, they don’t want to miss it. 

Sometimes the boats tie up late and there is a bottleneck situation happening on the ship. Everyone wants off and to get to their excursion in time. In that case, we wait as long as we can but we are not supposed to belabor our departure time. If we already have a group from another ship loaded on the tour, we try to go as soon as possible. If it’s a single tour, we will wait because we want our passengers (and our money!) for taking them out to the Misty Fjords. 

The Shorexs are from all over. It’s very unusual to work with a Shorex with an American accent. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I ever have. There are a ton of Aussies, some Asians (usually on the Princess ships), several from the Caribbean, a few Germans (Ina speaks like 4 languages), a few from Romania and South Africa. I always want to know their stories and listen to their accents. They are usually really great to us because they have a pre-existing relationship with our company. They know our distinguished green jackets from the teal jackets and the red bags or the yellow jackets with the red signs. 

It’s usually a funny relationship with the Shorexs because they actually hold the power. They are the ones who pay us, so even though we are a private company, we want them to be happy with us. They are our business partners. We settle with them (give them our tickets and make sure the total count agrees) after our last tour has left for the day. This usually involves standing there and looking pretty while they count through our tickets (twice), mark it off on a list, ask for our signature, give us theirs and say “Have a good day!” We usually hand off more rack cards at this time (our little promo cards that you see in those big displays in tourist bureaus). 

Shorexs LIVE on the boats. They don’t get a break. I think they get some afternoons off. They usually change out of their polos and rain jackets and some of them use our hospitality suite for the free wifi and free-of-tourist area.