Each department has their own set of River Days. There are days you are absolutely obligated to work called River Days. It was half a mile from the docks to the banquet room, trays could be incredibly heavy, weddings were fast paced, and our largest event space was a concrete floor so by the end of the night your body would be seriously aching. The work wasn't particularly hard, but was very physical.
You could pick up work in other departments, there was always someone that wanted to give up a shift. There were slow periods where you had no events. However, with banquets you never had to work over night and often times didn't work major holidays. Shifts could be long and there was never a way to confidently know when you would get to go home for the night. I was a banquet server and while it was not the best job ever, I did have a lot of fun and made great money while I was there.