Boston

May 4, 2013: Boston, embark day

So, because we’ve been in Code Red, we had to SuperSan the entire ship after the passengers disembarked and before the new passengers embarked. Carly and I went to the entertainment office at 8 like we were told to, to see when we could start. The EM told us she’d call because we weren’t even docked yet. It was weird because we weren’t doing the SuperSan ourselves, HAL had hired a company to come and clean, we were just there to supervise a team. It was a long and intense process, making sure every surface in every room and public area was wiped down. There were lots of groups at least, so that helped. About 1:30, my team finished our area so we went up and were allowed to go get some lunch before coming back at 2. When we got back, they didn’t have anything else for us to do, other teams were double-checking to make sure everywhere was finished and then we were finally dismissed.

Passengers weren’t let on until 3:15, which set everything back. I was supposed to work Open House 1-3, but that didn’t happen obviously; we cancelled open house. The drill was supposed to be at 4, but was pushed back until 5. Our entertainment department meeting was right after the drill. Beth, Carly and I went to dinner immediately after the meeting and it was extremely crowded. Carly and I were in line and had one of the passengers complain to us about the ineptness of everyone ashore today and how badly this cruise started off. Apparently they weren’t told until after 1:30 that they weren’t getting on for a while, and around 2, they were given a shuttle to take them into town to get lunch before coming right back to get onboard. I’m glad I’ve learned how to say “I’m sorry for how that was handled. We are glad you’re here. We’ll do our best to make sure the rest of the cruise is much better. ETC, ETC” I mean it all, which I hope they understand from how I say it. Sometimes people just want someone to complain to, and because we’re allowed to eat in the Lido, we usually are those people that get the complaints.

Even though I’m technically on teens this cruise, I went up at 7 with Beth and Carly and helped them for an hour before I went over to explore the Loft a bit. I’d only really been in there about 15 minutes before Carly came to ask if I wanted some pizza. I went over and had snack with them and stayed there the rest of the evening, with a note on the Loft door telling where I was in case one of the two teens happened to show up. All but one of the kids came, registered and stayed for a while tonight. They’re mostly a young group, the oldest ones are all siblings but they left early for dinner. It was a pretty easy night. Carly and Beth worked on YPC stuff (some weekly reports and trying to get a family to understand that we can’t take 2-year-olds) while I sat on the floor near the two kitchen sets and helped the kids make and eat dinner.


We all cleaned up and were looking through last week’s comments when one of the teens showed up. I’d already locked up the Loft, so I unlocked it and showed him around a bit. It looks like he might end up coming, his family didn’t realize how few young people are on this cruise and he’s desperate to have something to do. He didn’t want to stay tonight, so I told him about tomorrow’s schedule, locked up again, and went to the OB with Beth and Carly to celebrate Carly’s first day as YPC.