December 24, 2013
Christmas on ships is an entirely different experience. A whole new world from Christmas on land. For one, it’s SUNNY and WARM! I don’t think I’ve ever really had a white Christmas (at least, not one I remember), so it’s not the snow I’m missing. However, it being Christmas Eve day and I spent it at the beach, that just seems like an oxymoron. Another thing is, family and tradition are missing. I’ve heard that ship-Christmases have their own traditions, but as this is my first Christmas on board, they are all foreign and new to me.
The Christmas-Tree Lighting Ceremony was one of these new traditions. I don’t think I elaborate on that much the other day so here goes. At around 7, all the available entertainment department members were gathered in the Ent. Office, Santa hats on, wearing nice clothes (for those that didn’t have to wear uniforms at all, or even just at night; basically everyone was in pretty/Christmasy clothes except for Club HAL). The cast had sheet music because they were in charge of leading the songs, and the rest of us just followed along as we hadn’t been given any instructions as to what we should do. Our department arrived, singing jingle bells in the atrium (about 30 steps from the office) and everyone else filed into place. The stage crew, librarian, show host, and party planner headed up the stairs quickly to Deck 3; the cast lined up along the stairs from Deck 1 to Deck 2; we just followed and ended up lining up behind the cast on those stairs. The room was full of noise, half the people were singing, the other half were just talking to one another, it seemed as if they were oblivious to the fact that something important was happening. The cruise director introduced us, we sang another song and then the main event took place. Two kids had been chosen earlier in the day to light the tree. They were up front and the cruise director took them aside, introduced them, and gave them the “magic snow” to sprinkle around the tree to make it light. We had a bit of technical errors as the magic took some time to work, but the tree lit up eventually. Immediately we launched into “Let It Snow” as the people on Deck 3 threw ‘snowflakes’ from buckets down onto the floors below, like magic right? I feel like it could’ve been better organized, but it still had some feel of magic to it, the kids definitely thought it was magic, they couldn’t see the secret buckets being reached into for the snow. That’s what counts on ships though, the kids view of Christmas, and of course the rest of the guests, but for me in Club HAL, it’s ALL about the kids. They enjoyed it, which means we did our job!
The morning was quiet when it comes to Christmas activities, I guess it’s just the fact that I seem to be the only one in the world who views Christmas Eve just as important as Christmas Day, possibly even more so. I guess it’s because of the candlelight service at church, really celebrating Jesus’ birth! Christmas Day is always exciting with the presents and all, but the REAL Christmas in my mind is always the night before; it reminds us of the real reason we celebrate, of why we give gifts. There were Santa hats everywhere, pretty much everyone was required to wear one today and tomorrow.
I found out that night in Club HAL that there was a Christmas Mass at 5, if I had known earlier, I probably would have attended, it would’ve been better than nothing, but they didn’t advertise it to crew or even much around the ship (probably because a lot of the families on board this cruise are Jewish).
At 11pm, we had our concert. It has some aspects of the candlelight service I’m used to, music of course, and the singing of “Silent Night” by ‘candle’light. I didn’t get to really watch and hear what was going on though, because we were stuck backstage until time for the international choir (anyone but Filipinos and Indonesians) to sing. There was a much bigger group for this than there was for rehearsals for a few reasons actually. 1) The engineers and deckies are required to be at the concert if they’re not on watch, but they aren’t required to go to rehearsals, and 2) free drinks at the OB as we waited to get organized and go onstage. It was definitely an interesting experience. We filed down the stairs at almost exactly 11, but the Filipino choir and Cantare (the 4 male singers of the cast) sang before us, so we were waiting on the crew staircase between decks 1 and 4 for about 20 minutes. Safety hazard? Plus, all the girls were wearing dresses and heels. Not a great combination with the stairs on a night when we were rocking pretty hard. All of us were glad when we finally had enough room backstage to stand and wait there before we crowded onto the stage, sang our three songs and went back backstage. After that, it was only a short time before we were back onstage, turning our ‘candles’ on, singing “Silent Night” and making our way up the stairs and out the Deck 3 doors. What they didn’t tell us in rehearsal about that is that we had to stand there and wait for all the guests to leave, wishing them all a Merry Christmas as they went.
After all the guests left, word quickly spread about a Christmas gathering for us in the Pinnacle. There, we found more free drinks and lots of food. I had my time of being the social butterfly (I have friends in lots of departments and they were all sitting in different parts of the room!), ate a few ensamadas and wished everyone I could a “Merry Christmas!” I was very Christmasy in a red dress and Santa hat, much more Christmasy than that elf costume I think!
After they closed up the Pinnacle, most everyone ended up in the Northern Lights, our guest area curfew had been extended, so we were allowed to be there for a while. I didn’t stay too long though because it was already really late, I was tired and I had work in the morning.
Now, to the non-Christmas-related part of my day.
Fire drill was at 10:30 this morning, which greatly delayed my getting off the ship and enjoying the sun. However, I did get off as soon as I could after that with Ethan. We met Phil on the beach and ended up far down the beach at a place a lot of crew members go (most guests never make it further than three restaurants away from the ship). It was nice, they had food, music, and of course, the beach right outside. And then, we found a dog. This dog belongs to the people who run this place and he has full run of the beach (not that he goes very far), the crew members that’ve been here since the start of the season know him well by now. I made a friend today! He’s a really sweet dog, it took him some time to listen, but we became friends after that. When Ethan, Phil and I first went in the water, the dog followed us a little bit in, then decided it’d be more fun to dig, so he dug and dug and dug, occasionally turning around as the sand flew behind him. I eventually figured out that he liked the sand flying through the air. So, I threw some clumps of sand up to see what he would do. I spent the next hour or so gathering sand and throwing I for him to try to catch! It was great fun! Though, we did draw a lot of attention from other people walking by. Once I got tired, I went to lay out on my towel for a little bit, and he followed me, resting for a bit, before running back towards the water to play some more, I couldn’t resist, so I followed.
Phil left, and the Recycled Percussion guys came out and found the dog just as fascinating as I did. “Where did you find this adorable dog?” They joined me in playing with him, and we even got him out further into the water. I’m not sure if he really has ever swam much before, he seemed rather uncertain about it, but he really wanted to join us. For a while, he was walking in the deeper water on his back paws. I picked him up and his instincts took over and he was swimming around us in no time. When he got tired, he’d swim over to me and I’d hold him up for a while. Finally, he got too tired and made his way back to more firm ground where he began digging again. One of the guys from the group actually ended up helping him dig. That was entertaining to watch, man and dog digging a hole in the sand, trying to beat the water which kept filling up the hole as they were working. Not long after that, I figured I should head back to the ship, perfect timing because as soon as I had my stuff together and was about to start walking, I felt a few raindrops. I started walking and suddenly it was a constant drizzle. Next thing I knew, Recycled Percussion and other crew members were running past me and it was raining much harder. I decided it wasn’t worth it, I was wet already, couldn’t hurt to get any more wet, so I just walked normally back to the ship. Of course, once there, I was drenched and looking like a wet dog. Luckily, Kristin was working the afternoon shift, so I didn’t have to worry about taking over the bathroom to take a good long shower once back in the room. The security at the gangway did find it hilarious how soaked I was though, guests were coming in with towels over their heads and umbrellas, but there I was, one with the rain and completely drenched!
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