back on the zuiderdam

June 2, 2014
It’s been a busy first few days on the Zuiderdam. I joined on my birthday, which wasn’t the best day ever. I had to wake up at 5:30 to be ready for the shuttle, then when we got to the terminal, they wouldn’t let us on yet because none of the passengers had gotten off yet, so we sat outside waiting for 45 minutes before we got through security, and had to wait another 30 minutes to get everyone’s forms filled out and collected and for a break in passengers leaving for us to run up the gangway. It was hectic. Then, I get to my room to find that there’s already two people there. They figured there would be confusion when they found out the other girl was staying, so I dropped my stuff off there, and went to breakfast with the librarian Bonnie, Club HAL Katie, Club HAL Jordan, and Christine (who was my YPC on the Nieuw A for the blues cruise, she left but will be back in 3 weeks to take over again as YPC). Thank goodness breakfast was still open! Anyway, it was a long morning of meetings, getting the room situation worked out (I’m rooming with the librarian), and then Open House. I had a massive headache by that point and was nearly at the point of tears. I tried to take a nap but I woke up every 5 minutes, and got up to go to sailaway feeling even worse than when I lay down. There was a few minutes of fear where I thought I was going to be sick any time I moved, but I went up to sailaway anyway, we had to stay there for 45 minutes, during which time we mostly talked with the rest of the on location team. Dinner helped my headache and I was feeling a bit better in time for work. Few kids showed up tonight, so Katie and I combined the kids and tweens programs. I went to the OB for a bit to see people who wanted to celebrate my birthday, but didn’t stay too long because I was exhausted.
Day 2 wasn’t bad, especially for a sea day. The kids were rather well behaved and they enjoyed their time. I didn’t spend any time in the room, from when I left at 8:40 for the HESS meeting, until midnight (because I had stayed upstairs hanging out with Jordan and the teens in the Loft).
Juneau was cold and rainy. I didn’t really have tweens come for the morning session, so I helped Katie with her 5 kids, then ran downstairs, changed and went to the crew office for immigration. Carl, YPC this week, was very frustrated that we had to be down there at 12, when we didn’t even arrive until 1. I did the same thing on the Volendam, so I came prepared with my phone to use while we sat and waited. It was really cold outside, and a bit rainy, but we made it through immigration and got back to the ship with an hour to spare before the newly-embarked crew raft drill. I had nothing to do, so I went up to Club HAL and watched Frozen with Jordan (who was on port day, with no kids showing up), we agreed to get off the ship and get crepes after he got off port day, so after the drill, I went back up there and helped him unlock characters in MarioKart to kill time until 4. Carl, Jordan, and I got off the ship and walked around town for a bit before going to the Viking, where we met some people Carl knew from the Westerdam. We hung out there for a while until I realized I should run and grab my crepe so I could get back and have plenty of time to change and get to work. Not many kids showed up for movie night, which was kind of nice. Easy night for us!