Christmas Day in Puerto Rico

December 25, 2013
This morning was a whole day unto itself. I woke up at the usual time for work at 9, but instead of going to work in Club HAL, I had to quickly change into an elf and make my way to the Showroom at Sea. There, Christine told me and Christine basically to hide through the first activity (candy cane bingo), so we went down to the Pit and waited. We made sure that all the presents were there and pretty much in order, then I ended up actually falling asleep in “Santa’s chair.” Finally, they showed the video of Santa running around the ship, Santa came in the Showroom, the Pit rose, and Santa and his elves were reunited. Ryan (singer from the cast) was Santa, so we had a quick conversation and laugh as he sat down; he couldn’t see for the wig and hat, so we decided I’d just give out the gifts.

For the next hour, I smiled nonstop, gave out lots of presents and took more pictures than I have in my life so far. So many kids, adults, and families wanted pictures with Santa and his elves. It was fun though; Ryan, Rachel (the EM), and Christine all told me how good a job I did at both being ready for pictures and giving out the gifts at a proper time and perfectly according to age. :) That’s a good sign, when your boss and boss’ boss compliment you on something like that!

That took about an hour, housekeeping probably hates us because of all the snow that was slowly fluttering down all inside the Showroom that whole time. It was a nice effect, but a lot of clean-up work for them. Once the Showroom was clear of guests, I helped Christine carry the boxes of presents to the office, ran downstairs and changed before running up to help her with the last activity before port day. The rest of Club HAL had immigration, so it was just me, Christine and Ethan upstairs with three kids who colored those 30 minutes. Some parents, however, did not pick up their kids at the time posted, and ended up staying the rest of the afternoon (we were only scheduled for programming until 11:30, then port day started at 12). I stayed with them while Christine ran downstairs to quickly eat some lunch (some kids got picked up for a quick lunch and were returned to us in 15 minutes while others were signed in between 11:30 and 12.

After that, Ethan and I grabbed some lunch and the rest of us in Club HAL made our plans for the afternoon in San Juan. OF course we all wanted internet at some point, but Kristin wanted to find a beach, Phil wanted to go surfing, and Ethan wanted to wander on his own. So, I ended up hanging out with Andy and Royce, we walked around for about 2 hours, stopping a lot for photoshoots, then realized that if we wanted internet for a decent amount of time we’d better find a place. We found a restaurant right across the street from the ship and stopped there for wifi for about an hour and a half! I got to upload pictures (finally from the first two weeks back here), and get on skype! I’m actually still registering that I spent Christmas day in San Juan, Puerto Rico while my family is all still at home.

We had to hurry back to the ship because they were putting on a Christmas Dinner for those of us with Officer status and formalwear was required. I went for the more casual formalwear and most of the other girls did too (at least, the girls who weren’t actual officers or engineers who have an actual formal uniform to wear). We were a bit worried about having enough time to eat before work (especially because Kristin’s first contract was during Christmas and they never actually got their food before they had to run off to work), but it was fine, even though they did forget to give us our entrees for a while (they brought us dessert actually before our entrees). It was a bit strange sitting in the Lido and being served by housekeeping staff, but it was a nice dinner (I had fruit as an appetizer, and steak as my entrée! YUM, filet mignon!!).
We changed and made it to work right on time. It was movie night anyway, so we didn’t have anything to prepare for. We gave the kids 30 minutes of free time, then did a mummy wrap with wrapping paper, a snowball fight with the same (but torn up) wrapping paper, and then played four corners before we put on Wreck-it Ralph.

I was exhausted by then, I only barely managed to stay awake through Wreck-it Ralph; and I wasn’t the only one. All of us in Club HAL (with the exception of the teen counselors and Andy who volunteered to do after hours) went straight to bed at 10 (the others as soon as they were finished with work after midnight). It was a lonnnngg day. Good, but very long and tiring.