I've been to Greece now!

June 29, 2013: Corfu
I feel like I spent all day waiting. I got up and went to breakfast with April, then I came back to the room and waited for Kristin to call so she, Meghna and I could get off together. Finally she came by around 11:30 ready to go to the Lido. I didn’t realize we were waiting until AFTER lunch to get off. So, after lunch, I waited for Meghna to finish changing, then we got off and found out that Kristin and Ryan had already gotten off and left us. So much for hanging out together. Then, Meghna wanted to take the shuttle to the terminal, so we had to wait for that, only to find out it’s about a 5 minute walk away. Then, we had to wait for the shuttle bus to take us to the downtown area (it would have taken about 20 minutes to walk; and it took the shuttle about 20 minutes to get there). We didn’t get there until around 1:30.

It was nice once we got there because we just wandered around, we found streets of little shops and looked through a lot of them. Meghna was apparently hungry so we ended up asking a lady at one of the shops about cheap, good food. She directed us to a man called George who had a restaurant just down the street. Again, I had to wait a few minutes while he doted on her before we left and promised to come back later. We wandered around and found an old palace, now a museum. That was cool to walk around outside.

We intended to go down to the beach area below it and walk around in the water for a few minutes, but we ended up going back through the streets of shops before Meghna wanted to eat. I wandered around the shops by myself for about 20 minutes while she did that, then I went back to where she was, thinking she’d be about ready to go wander some more. She was a bit busy being admired by the owner, and eating her tazaki (not sure how to spell that) and drinking her wine. So, I got a juice and sat down with her. My phone wouldn’t connect to the wifi for some reason, so I just had to sit there and sip my juice while it took her another 30 minutes to finish. More waiting. :(

Finally, she finished and there wasn’t enough time to do much wandering, so we made our way back to the shuttle bus, to the terminal and then walked back to the ship from here. Now I feel like Meghna and I spend too much time together. We’ve hardly been apart since we met over a week ago. We room together, we work together, we eat meals together, we go out at night together, and we get off ship together (people won’t leave just one person behind, so since we’re roommates they feel they can leave both of us since we won’t be alone.) I’m looking forward to next cruise: Meghna’s on kids and I’m on tweens, and Jessie will be here so I’ll have other friends to hang out with!

port day

June 28, 2013: Katakolon
It was my port day today. A very long day. I started at 8, none of the kids showed up until close to 10. It went a lot quicker once the kids got there. We all took turns on MarioKart, some played Lego Star Wars, and I also had a movie going (since that’s what I’d been doing until someone got there). I’m very glad they all wanted pizza for lunch, because no one came up to help take them to lunch. It was an interesting group to have lunch with. One kid signed in halfway through us eating, and he’d already eaten so he was bored, then one kid ate really slowly so we all had to wait on him, then another girl talked almost the whole time. Finally we went back upstairs and went back to our activities. A few others signed in not long after, so I set up Just Dance instead of the movie, and they all had something to do. One of the teens came by because he was bored, so I talked and played some games on the xbox with him.

I’m very glad all the parents came by at 4, they had trouble yesterday and ended up having a few kids not picked up until nearly 5. However, I had a hard time figuring out how to lock the door. My keys only work for the teen room, apparently they’re all different locks; this morning, I came in through the teen room and just opened the tween room from the inside (they’re connected). But this afternoon, I could not get the door for the tweens room to lock from the inside. After about 15 minutes of trying to get it to work, it finally worked for no apparent reason. I was just glad it did because I was exhausted. I took a nap until dinner, but I kept getting calls (I had the YPC phone because of port day) about the kids in the kitchen thing and I couldn’t get a hold of Ryan to give the phone back and explain what was going on until dinnertime! So, no sleep really during my ‘nap.’
Dinner wasn’t that great, at least they had some type of chicken instead of lamb, pork, and fish; but it wasn’t very good chicken. I decided I needed sugar to help me get through the rest of the night, so I got ice cream as well which helped me feel somewhat better.

The night session was pretty easy. We played “Scene It” until they got bored/frustrated with it, then hung out and watched Brave. I felt kind of bad because I wasn’t being particularly social with them this evening, it’d been a long day I think for everyone so only a few of them stayed anyway.

sea day

June 27, 2013: Sea Day
First and last sea day of this cruise. We didn’t expect many teens to show up right at 10, but we were surprised when quite a few came. We did a few sudokus and two of the girls went to the Lido and brought up hot chocolates for everyone. We all just relaxed and had a quiet morning. A few of the ones that came this morning, it was the first time we’d seen them all week.

After a light lunch, Meghna and I took a nap before heading back to work. A lot more showed up this afternoon, and we sent them on a scavenger hunt before playing more MarioKart and card games. The afternoon went by pretty quickly, and we only had a few at the end because it’s formal night.

We had dinner with the rest of Club HAL, then went down to the room to change into formals before going out around the ship for a while before work. We got tired of just staying in the room between sessions, especially at night. We got photos taken, walked around, samples the show to see if the teens might like it, and went to the Crow’s Nest for a bit. Ana and McKeena were there, so we hung out with them until nearly time for work.

Even though we were in formalwear, we ended up just staying in the Loft. The teens mainly just wanted to hang out, so we did movie quotes and adverteasers before going on to Celebrity Heads. A few left because they were tired and the rest weren’t really sure what to do, so we hung out some more before we finally got a movie from Club HAL and watched Wreck-It Ralph until the night ended. My port day tomorrow, so I went to bed early.

Sicily!

June 26, 2013: Messina, Sicily
We had a lazy morning. I got up, went to breakfast and then came back to the room and kind of took a nap before Meghna and I got off the ship.

We walked around a bit, then found a restaurant with pizza, so we had lunch there. Meghna didn’t understand when I said they were normally big pizzas, so we ended up ordering two whole pizzas. We ate about half each, then combined the other half in a box and took back to the ship for later. Then, we just wandered around, halfway using the tourist map as a reference point, but mainly just wandering around in the less touristy areas when going from “places of interest.” We got back on the ship and then got ready for dinner, Ryan had organized it for us to eat at Pinnacle, so we could all take full advantage of this newly discovered perk! I was Meghnas guest this time, since she was mine last time. It was a really good dinner, as I’ve discovered Pinnacle dinners typically are :) Steak, yum!

Meghna and I still had time after dinner before we had to work, so we ended up going to the Crow’s Nest to listen to the solo guitarist, who we’ve made friends with at the OB. Meghna had a hard time sitting still it seemed, so we ended up walking around and looking at books in the library as well. Then we changed into our uniforms (we got to be in smart casual for dinner) and went up to the Loft. It was sports night, so most of the teens were extremely happy about that; they’d been asking us to play Dodgeball again since last time we let them play. I stayed down in the Loft with those that didn’t want to play, and then we switched off after a while when one of the girls got hurt. I attempted to stop some of them from making the game so violent, but it didn’t work; so, after a few more headshots, I decided that it wasn’t okay to keep playing, so I ended it. The boys weren’t really happy with me, but I think some of the girls were glad to have a reason not to play anymore, and risk getting hurt. We hung out in Club HAL and played MarioKart the rest of the night.

Naples

June 25, 2013: Naples
I really do love getting to eat breakfast, I need to remember that so I will get up in the morning and go. I had breakfast this morning, hoping to meet some of the other girls there and make plans to go out. None of them were there, but I ended up talking to one of the HAL Cats while we both ate. After that, I ran upstairs to see Meghna and see if there was anything she needed. We chatted for a while, then I decided to change and get off-ship for a while and get on the internet. I’d forgotten about the 6 hour time difference so was very confused when no one was online to talk to.

I got back on to help Meghna out with lunch, since there had been quite a few kids there when I left. We took turns watching the kids, going to get food, and going with some to get other food. It was a very long lunch, especially for the two kids that signed in as we got there and had already eaten, they were just sitting there bored.

After lunch, I met up with April and we agreed to get off and get internet together later in the afternoon. So I hung out in the room for a bit, wrote some messages and then we got off.

Meghna came back and took a nap because she had to be up for port day really early. We went to dinner at the usual time, then did stuff around the ship; went to the Purser to try to get reimbursed for our meals on the way here (she’d just finished the cash count for the day, so we have to go back tomorrow), and went to the shops so Meghna could get a watch before we went to work a bit early.

With the teens tonight, we played Two Truths and a Lie, Bananagrams, and guitar hero (once we finally figured out how to get the wii to work). It was a good night. They all were kind of tired so wanted just to hang out and relax.

lazy day on the ship

June 24, 2013: Civitavecchia
Yesterday, I had every intention of going out today and walking around town and getting internet for a while. I didn’t. Most of Club HAL went on the crew tour to Roma. I ended up sleeping in, and then getting ready and going to lunch. I hung out in Club HAL with Kristin for a while, then just went back to the room to see if Meghna was up yet and wanting to go out with me. She wasn’t in the room and I didn’t really want to go off alone, so I stayed in the room and read. She finally got back to the room around 3 (she’d been in Club HAL, probably got there not long after I left) and just wanted to nap. So, I read the rest of the afternoon. We went up for dinner at 6 even though there was a teen bbq at 7 (she’s vegetarian, so no options for her, and I just didn’t want that kind of food. It was good I went up for dinner though, because I managed to finally find the fruit soups! YUM! :)

WE went up a bit early for the BBQ and hung out with the teens that were there already. A surprising number of them came actually, so we had a crowd and just hung out and ate together. After that, we had normal Loft hours. We played Taboo for a while, which they seemed to enjoy, despite not doing very well at keeping up with the score. Meghna took a lot of them down for late night snack at the Lido, so I stayed with the others and played Skip-Bo and Phase 10. That lasted until the end of the night, so that went well!

Pisa

June 23, 2013: Livorno
Last night was improv night in the Loft. They weren’t fully into it. They put up with the activities on the schedule for little over an hour before moving on. First we had an activity “party quirks” where they have to act out a ‘quirk’ and have the others guess what they’re doing (actions instead of nouns, but still kind of like charades). They got tired of that pretty quickly, so we moved on to “Random Line.” That one they enjoyed more. I’d come up with random sentences and written them all down on slips of paper. A group of three came up and each grabbed 3 slips of paper. Another person was the ‘host’ and the others were the audience. The audience came up with a scenario for the 3 to act out; they started to act it out and the host would yell “line” and one of them would pull a paper out of their pocket and read it. They would then attempt to make the line make sense in the scenario. That lasted a while, but these teens aren’t really the most creative, so they got bored with it and we gave up on theme night. So, some of us played Apples to Apples, while others sat around and talked, and others played foosball or air hockey the rest of the night.

This morning, I got up and ready and went to breakfast before the raft drill. Happily, the raft drill didn’t last long, so I changed and read while I waited for everyone else to get ready to go, since 4 of us had planned on going to Pisa today. Meghna had missed breakfast, so ran up to grab a sandwich for lunch; while she was doing that, Kristin and April came by ready to go. They ended up going on ahead, and I had to wait for Meghna to get back so we could go. We took a shuttle to the town, then had to take the bus to the train station, and took the train to Pisa.

At the train station, we found Ana and her roommate, McKeena (HAL Cats piano; they were also going to Pisa) so hung out with them while we waited for the train. Once we got to Pisa, we found Kristin and April, who had actually been on the same train as us because of timing. So, the six of us set of for the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We walked and wandered around, occasionally stopping to take pictures and look in stores. April and I ended up together and got left behind when we stopped to get her some food. So, the two of us just took our time walking around until we got to the tower. We found the tower and also found Ana and McKeena, so took some group pictures and lots of funny shots before wandering off on our own again. We walked around the market, occasionally taking more pictures of the tower, trying to find the best angle. We decided to take the 3:45 train back so we could get some internet before going back to the ship, so left the tower area and walked back to the train station. We made it just in time for the train and had a nice ride back, and a crowded bus ride back into Livorno.



I had just enough time to check Facebook before we caught the shuttle back to the ship. Once back on the ship, we changed and got ready to go to Tamarind. It’s the Asian restaurant on the Signature Class ships. Ryan had organized it so that we could all go and eat dinner together tonight. It was nice, everyone but Kristin came (she didn’t want to rush to get back to the ship from Pisa). I managed to find some stuff I liked (mainly the ‘bread’ stuff, like the chip-things and orange dip they give us at the Chinese restaurant). It was nice though just hanging out, having a nice meal as a Club HAL. It’s awesome because we found out that due to some new thing, all of Club HAL gets the perk of once a month getting one free time dining at one of the specialty restaurants (Canaletto, Pinnacle, and Tamarind), plus guest. Meghna was my guest, so we may end up going to Canaletto or Pinnacle before the end of the month so I can be her guest!

The rest of them had to rush downstairs to get to work, but Meghna and I took our time and went down to the room until we had to go to the Loft. As usual, Meghna took a nap while I read and went through my pictures for a while. I wasn’t tired, but the room was dark, so my eyes were getting heavy, so I ended up just going up to the Loft early just so I wouldn’t fall asleep. Ryan was there, so we talked for a while and discussed the teen BBQ tomorrow evening.

It was movie night for all Club HAL, because it’s Rome tomorrow! We borrowed a few movies from the kids room just in case the teens didn’t want to go downstairs and borrow one from the front office – they haven’t the last few nights. We had a bit of free time before playing Celebrity Heads for about half an hour. Two of the girls actually went down and got a movie for us, so after we finished the game, we voted on what movie to watch and ended up watching “Easy A.” It was an easy night. Meghna and I went through the manifest and wrote room numbers and names down for all the teens that have been coming so we can start writing them notes (most YPCs have us do that for all ages and deliver them before the guest satisfaction surveys go out- Ryan said we didn’t have to, but Meghna wanted to, so that’s our task for the next few days; writing and decorating over 50 notes). The movie ended and everyone left, even though it was only 11:30. We weren’t complaining though, because it gave us time to clean up the room and write a few notes before coming down to our room.

pretty day in Monaco and Nice!

June 22, 2013: Monaco
Last night was “gender wars” night. I realized that this is the first time I’ve worked teens with another staff, it’s very different. Meghna wants to stick to the schedule as much as possible, whereas I stick to the schedule for however long it keeps their interest and then figure out something else to do and let them do that. So, because we combined a scavenger hunt and ‘dress the contestant’ she told them they had an hour to finish. I’d done this scavenger hunt a few times before, and it might last 20 minutes, so I tried to convince her, but she went on with it. She was very confused when three groups were done… 20 minutes later. She wasn’t sure what to do with them for the remaining 40 minutes. I’d known this would happen, so already had ideas of what to do. Once they all got back, they wanted to play dodgeball as their ‘physical challenge’ of the night, so she took those that wanted to play up there, and I stayed behind with the remaining two. They didn’t really want to watch a movie, so I taught them to play Skip-Bo until some of the others started coming back. It was late, so we just hung out and chatted and ate snack.

This morning was nice. I slept in a bit, went to breakfast, got ready to go out and read for a while before they announced open tender. I went out with Meghna, Leah, Kristin, Cheryl (all of them Club HAL), and Tai (HAL cat). We found out how to get to Nice and took the train (only 7.40 for round trip ticket, about 20 minute ride!).

In Nice, we wandered around for a while, then went to sit on the beach. Tai and Leah went swimming because they’d brought swimsuits. After they dried off, we decided to head back to the train and Monaco so we could wander there for a while. Kristin, Meghna and I went to see the Casino (first time I’ve seen it in the day), and then walked back to do a little souvenir shopping before catching a tender back to shore. I was expecting a long line because the last crew tender was at 5, and it was 4:40, but we got on and left when the tender was only half full. I guess all the guests were staying out as late as possible, or else got back early.

Two years later, I'm back in France!

June 21, 2013: Marseille
Back in France, two years later! I woke up with every intention of going to breakfast. I showered and got ready and was ready to go by 9:30, but then just felt really tired so went back to bed instead. We had a newly-embarked meeting at 10:30, which lasted about an hour. The new-crew had to do a safety walk-around, so I went back to the room for a nap before Meghna came to get me for lunch. I had a quick lunch, then met Kristin, Cheryl, April, and Leah (Club HAL) at the gangway to get off together.

We had a good time. I recognized where we were when the shuttle dropped us off, so I suggested we walk to the Old Port, so we walked around there, took some pictures, and did some shopping. We tried stopping at Starbucks to get internet for a bit, but the wifi wasn’t working, so we wandered around some more before heading back to catch the shuttle back to the ship.



The shuttle bus that was there was just about full, but it wasn’t starting, so we waited outside for a bit, then switched buses when another got there. Nothing to do now until dinner at 6 and work at 9, so I might take another nap to shake the last of this headache off (always have some degree of a headache after embark day, I think this time it’s the jet-lag is catching up to me finally)

embarking a 'Nieuw' ship

June 20, 2013: Embarking the Nieuw Amsterdam
Embark day is always the longest day of the cruise. There were a lot of us getting on the ship today, 4 for Club HAL! Meghna and I got up early, had a light breakfast at the bar (cheaper than the hotel’s restaurant breakfast, plus I was really more thirsty than hungry), then went out to meet the shuttle. It was about a 45 minute ride to get to the ship. We did the usual medical check form and got our newly-embarked paperwork, then got on the ship.

Meghna and I are roommates, so I just decided to wait on her so we could get to the room together. Ryan is the YPC, he’s buddy for the 3 new Club HAL’s (not mine because I was on the Eurodam, which is the same class ship), so he took me and Meghna to our room, where we dropped off our stuff, then I just stuck with them as he walked us to Club HAL and the training room. Same set-up as the Eurodam, but I definitely like the Teen and Tween rooms here better. The tween room is bigger for one, with lots of chairs, beanbags, and generally more space. Although, the taxi in the middle of the room is a hazard. The teen room is spacious, with a foosball table, an airhockey table, a few couches, and a hot-dog stand sound system (the theme of the whole ship is New York, that’s why they have the taxi and the hot dog stand). Anyway, we went back to the room for a few minutes and changed before the first meeting, then went straight to lunch since we had open house 12-3.

With the new rules, one of Club HAL has to be at the gangway with Club HAL info for the families as soon as they get on board. I think it’s a horrible idea, but it’s a new thing corporate wants us to do. I worked open house, basically just setting up since only 4 families came by, for the first hour, then went down to the gangway to take over from Cheryl for my shift. It was chaotic, people were coming on and having to figure out security (how to let security scan their cards), then being forced papers on by the spa, the beverage department, and having their newly-purchased alcohol products be looked at (only wine and champagne are allowed to be consumed from off-ship, everything else is taken by the beverage dept. and given back the last night of the cruise). And then, there was me, standing in the way of groups without children and trying to get to those with kids. I got a few mean looks from a family with teens who really didn’t want anything to do with the Loft, and ignored by a few families, but I did talk to some as they were waiting for the elevator to take them to their room. Not such a great system, but it was my first time seeing what passengers experience when they first get on their cruise. It’s completely understandable that they were grumpy with me, they just wanted to get to their rooms and rest for a bit after travelling!

Anyway, I had an hour of that before Kristin came to take over and I got to go back upstairs. It was busy up there, and I got to talk to quite a few teens and random people passing through to get to their rooms on the forward side of deck 10.

After Open House ended, we had a quick meeting with the 8 of us, then dispersed for a little while before we had to be at sailaway. At least this sailaway wasn’t like the Eurodam, we just had to walk around and talk to people if they chose to ask us a question. So, Meghna and I just walked around together saying hi to everyone who made eye contact with us.

Right after sailaway, we went to the showroom for the entertainment department meeting. It was a normal entertainment department meeting where they went over how important it is to do our hours, act professional, dress properly, etc. We were all hungry, so we went upstairs for ‘family dinner.’ It’s kind of nice having so many Club HAL staff, we sat together and chatted for a while, then everyone dispersed to go do stuff before work. Meghna and I are on teens, so we went down to the room and she napped while I unpacked.

At 8:45, we went up to Club HAL and set up some for the night in the Loft, got the keys from Ryan, and made a game-plan of what to do for the night. We opened at 9, and the teens just kept coming in. There’s 130 of them on board, and I think at least half came! We had a few games out, and quite a few of them played apples-to-apples until Meghna and I came up with another game-plan of activities (we hadn’t planned on this many all at once on the first night!). We tried a name-game, but that didn’t go over so well, and more kids kept coming, so we ended up playing “move your booty.” We didn’t have enough seats for everyone and didn’t really have a way of marking spots, so I had everyone take off their shoes, and have each pair of shoes be a spot. It’s a pretty good game for large groups because it gets a lot of people moving. One person stands in the middle and says “Move your booty if…” and they say something about themselves, for example: … if you’ve been to Europe before, or … if you’re wearing shorts. The people that this applies to then have to change spots, and the person in the middle tries to find a spot. The person left without a spot is in the middle, and the game repeats.

We played that for at least an hour, then Meghna suggested we play the shoe game. Everyone picked one shoe and then had to try to describe the owner of the shoe in a few words just by looking at the shoe. Didn’t go over so well either, so we went on to “speed-friending.” We had two lines, and everyone had a buddy, they had about a minute to talk and get to know each other before one line moved down one and then it started over again until they were back at the beginning. It took a long time because we still had a lot of kids (some came, some left, some stayed the whole time), but it made them get to know each other some. One girl kept opting out of the first activities, but I made her do this one, and she ended up making some friends. We only had about 30 minutes left, so we just let them hang out. I went around and encouraged groups to combine and talk to each other more, while Meghna checked everyone in to make sure they were all under 18. Finally, at 12 we got to kick them out and close. We cleaned up and then took the extra pizza to the OB. Ryan and Kristin were there, so we changed and joined them for a little while. I left before Meghna because I was really tired and starting to feel that jetlag.

flying to Barcelona

Wednesday June 19, 2013
I finally made it to Barcelona. 24 hours after I got to the airport in Charlotte. Well, 18, but for me it’s 24 now that I’m 6 hours ahead!

It was an interesting day. The flight to New York was fine, just a normal 2 hour flight, landing in rain. We had to walk through an outdoor walkway to go up stairs to get into the building, then my gate wasn’t on the board yet. So, I wandered around to find a spot to sit and see if I could get internet, nope, it costs to get online. I found a Wendys, so bought some lunch and found a spot to eat it, right next to a woman and her two kids who’d been on the flight from Charlotte. We started chatting, the kids made a friend and played games on the computers in the terminal while the mom and I talked, they were on the way to Frankfurt to visit her sister for a few weeks. After a while, I figured I’d go ahead to my gate, which was finally posted.

The gate changed a few seconds after I got there, so I did a lot more walking, got more food and kind of settled in. I made a few more friends there. A woman from the Philippines going to Barcelona for an “eseren” conference, and a group of students from Greenville, SC who were going to Barcelona just to travel. In line to board, I made another friend, a woman who’d spent the last two weeks in NY to help her sister with a newborn, but she was going back to her family now. She ended up sitting in the same row as me. We were in the middle, and no one else was there, so we had four seats for the two of us! Turns out, her family moved via cruise ship. They did a transatlantic on Royal Caribbean and moved to Spain! We talked during the take-off and a bit from time to time afterwards, but mostly we just did our own thing (I slept some, walked around once or twice, and watched “Oz the Great and Powerful”). Not a bad flight, especially since I could spread out over three seats! :)

We landed about 45 minutes early, and I made another friend, a couple going on a cruise on the Nieuw A! They said they’d keep an eye out for me and we chatted while waiting in line to go through Customs. It was actually pretty quick, going through Customs, but getting baggage took a while. One of the students from SC actually has the same big blue bag I have, so I accidently grabbed his… twice.. before I found mine. Once I had my bag, I wandered around to find a phone to call for the shuttle. There, I met another girl doing the same, she’s joining the Nieuw A tomorrow as Youth Staff as well! We asked around about the phone, which was a pay phone that we couldn’t get to work. Then, we left baggage claim to find out where we could get coins to get it to work. We tried another one out there, but still didn’t work. So, we went to information and they just told us to try again. So, then we went to Tourist Information. They were awesome! Immediately they told us exactly where to go, and even called the shuttle for us! Very happy with the Tourism Information desk!

We waited and talked, and finally the shuttle came. When we got to the hotel, we both kind of just laid down on the beds and wondered how we were going to get through the rest of the day. I got online, then showered and changed while she napped, then I took a quick nap while she showered and changed, then we went out to see some of Barcelona.

We took the metro closer to town, and ended up getting off at a stop too early (yay my folded map-reading skills), so we decided just to walk and see how far we could make it. It was really too far to walk to get to downtown, so we wandered around, found a late lunch, and wandered around some more before deciding we were getting too tired for this to be fun anymore. It was nice to be out for a while at least.

When we got back, we sat by the pool for a little while, enjoying it and realizing just how awesome it is that we were in Barcelona, at no expense of our own, relaxing with our feet in the water! :) It’s one of those times when I’m amazed at how much I love my job. God has a marvelous plan!

By the time we were falling asleep laying at the edge of the pool, it was nearing dinnertime, about the time I’d told myself I could potentially start thinking about going to sleep. We agreed to wake up by 8 to check out the dinner downstairs, so we went down and had a nice dinner before we could finally get to sleep!

Veendam birthday

May 30, 2013: Halifax
My life raft drill was cancelled this morning! So, I went out and got internet for a little bit with Jenn before going on an excursion to Peggy’s Cover. Odd weather. It was foggy this morning, cleared up when I went out with Jenn, got rainy-looking again when the excursion left the main town and stayed that way until we got back to the ship and it was sunny again. The excursion was mainly a bus ride out to Peggy’s Cove. The tour guide was very talkative, she talked about the town of Halifax, friends she knew and finally some about Peggy’s cove when we arrived. We had about 45 minutes to walk around Peggy’s Cove when we arrived, but it was foggy, cold and looked like it was about to rain. I didn’t walk around long, I wasn’t too impressed with the area: a small lighthouse, a small town, fishing/lobster boats, and lots and lots of rocks. I was kind of relieved to get back on the bus for the ride back. As we got closer however, all of the passengers and I got more and more nervous about getting back on time. The tour guide took us the long way back to town, then we had to go through town and all the traffic to get back to the ship. We got back and the people in charge of the tour guides were there, not happy that we were 10 minutes late. We were the last tour to get back and the ship was having to wait on us.

I spent the next hour going through my pictures and getting ready for dinner! For my birthday, Carly had made reservations for me, Jenn, Donna and herself to eat at the Pinnacle! We had a dinner with really good food (for once!) and had fun just hanging out off duty. Carly had to get to work, she told me that she would cover for me so I could hang out more without having to worry about time.

I got there right after freetime. It was “Brave the Night” so the kids had divided themselves into teams and started making their team flags. It was thankfully only the older kids, so I knew it would go well. They finished their flags and presented them to the group, then we went on to do a word scramble, Wall-Sits, the letter riddle game. Snack finally arrived (an hour late!), so when we finished the letter-puzzles, I had them do the jello-slurp before we had snack. Great timing because some parents came to pick them up during the slurping! With only two kids left (on the same team), I had them do the other challenges on their own until time to leave. It was a good night. I probably stayed up too late chatting with Donna, Paul (officer) and Carly, but it was a fun night in the OB as well!

May 31, 2013: Bar Harbor
I had to get up early to help with immigration again. Carly and I worked together to scan all the cards of all the passengers. It took a while, and the cruise director was doing tendering and was frustrated that none of us were downstairs helping her with tendering. We got all but 8 of the passengers through, and they told me I could go help with tendering. Luckily that only took about 2 and a half hours. I got off with Jacqui and we went walking around. We ended up on the sandbar that disappears during high tide. I of course went barefoot, because it was warm enough not to wear long sleeves! We had lunch and then I went off to meet my tour.

It was a pretty crowded tour. Not really what I was expecting though, of course I didn’t really know what I was expecting anyway. It was a bus tour of Acadia National Park. They slowed down when we got to some areas, but we didn’t’ get off until we got to Cadillac mountain. We had about 20 minutes to walk around there, before it was back on the bus and back to the ship. We could see the ship from Cadillac Mountain, which was pretty cool. Funny considering I was looking at it when it was crew all aboard time. I was an escort, so that didn’t apply to me today, but it was a bit odd. We were the last to get on the tender to get back on the ship. I’m very glad I got to get off and do something today, even if it wasn’t my first choice in tours.
Once back on the ship, I got my suitcase from Donna and started to pack. I got up to Club HAL and found that Carly had had the kids do arts and crafts stuff for my birthday. They’d made me a sign! :) It was a pretty easy night, we had free time for a little over an hour, then watched the Wizard of Oz.
Carly and I went to the OB and hung out and said bye. I ended up staying and talking to Paul for a while, until we realized how late it was and how I had to leave in the morning

Sydney port day

May 29, 2013: Sydney
I worked port day today. No one noticed until yesterday that it was an early arrival day, so we’d planned Kids in the Kitchen for 9, but we arrived at 8. Only one tween showed up to make some granola bars with me, Carly, and Donna. He came up to Club HAL with me and we played MarioKart for a while before moving on to bowling and then Phase 10. His dad came before lunch to pick him up, so I got to have a long, quiet lunch before heading back upstairs. I had a few minutes to go through the markers to throw away those that don’t work before some of the kids came. They were pretty content to play Wii, so I made another example bead buddy (like the geckos we could make at camp, only we have a lot more animal choices; I made a dog today, the ears were difficult). That took up the rest of the afternoon.

During our hour of free time, most of the kids played MarioKart and I played phase 10 again with the others. Tonight was camp night, so after snack, I had them make their bear headbands and decorate bear cut-outs, hoping the younger ones could leave so the older ones could actually do some of the activities I had in mind. All the two little ones wanted to do was play with the legos, so I let them do that while the rest of us did craft stuff. Next, I had them each design their own ideal camp. I had the brilliant idea to have the littles make their ideal camp using the legos, so that’s what they did while the others drew it out. They were very intent on every detail, so it took the rest of the night to finish and present to the group!

Charlottetown photo tour!

May 28, 2013: Charlottetown
I had a wonderful relaxing morning. I slept in, and got to breakfast just a few minutes before it closed, then I went up to see Carly and take over for her if there were kids so she could take 30 minutes and run to the bank. One kid was there; we played MarioKart for a few minutes, then he went back to making his model magic creation. He’d made a snake and put it in the middle of a paper plate. Then, he proceeded to cut apart the outside edges of the paper plate and glue them in the center to make “snow.” It made him happy and kept him occupied and that was all that matters.

Marc came up about the same time Carly came back and the boy played with legos while the three of us chatted and waited for lunch to open. I had a quick lunch, changed and then went out to the terminal to meet my tour! I signed up for the “island in focus photography tour.” There were 26 people on this tour, so we all pretty much got window seats which was nice.

First stop was a fishing harbor, followed by a lighthouse/beach area nearby, then the national park with cliffs right at the water. The last one was pretty cool, but I wasn’t too impressed by the first two. The tour advertises that it takes us to spots around the island that professionals take photos of for tourism and such. Not much was really touristy about the fishing boats or the tiny lighthouse (maybe it’s just tiny because I’ve been to Currituck Lighthouse and seen others in the outer banks?). The national park was very picturesque though! Red rock cliffs contrasting with the blue sky, green grass, blue water and white caps on the water. I was adventurous and found a way into a ‘valley’ area between some of the cliffs. That went just fine and I got some cool shots of underneath the cliff area, the water, snails, rocks/shells on a sandy beach, etc. It was a few minutes later when I took a small step down back at the top that I slipped. Just a small step, but I managed to slip and fall. My back was soaked, my toes got kind of stubbed on a rock and my camera bag got some nice mud on it; my camera was safe at least! Despite all that, I enjoyed the tour and got to know some of the guests in the process. Oh, and we saw a red fox on the way to the park! We stopped in the road and took pictures before it ran off into the woods!
The rest of the day wasn’t nearly as exciting. It was movie night in Club HAL, and the tween girls birthday, so I let her pick between 3 I’d already narrowed it down to (the 3 I hadn’t seen in a while). We watched Stuart Little 2. The youngest boy was very upset by the fact that it was movie night. He told me over and over and over that he doesn’t like watching movies. And since there was nothing else he could do aside from watch it if he stayed, I attempted to call his mom a few times, but she didn’t pick up, so he had to stay. He kept pacing around and talking loudly, making me have to be somewhat mean by constantly telling him to be quiet and sit down. Quite a few times as well, he would come stand right beside me, practically in my lap (he has a habit of invading personal space quite often). I stood up the rest of the movie so he might possibly be still in the chair I had been sitting in.

last day at sea on the Veendam!

May 27, 2013: sea day
Sea days are really long when the ages are combined and there’s such a large gap in the age range. We have a 5-year-old, a 6-year-old and then 10, 11, 12-year olds. The 5-year-old was the first to show up this morning. He got frustrated with Wii about the time we were scheduled to change activities anyway. I had him and the tween that just arrived make their craft folder and we did name art before the others got there. We played Spoons and Squirt until I finally could close for lunch. The kid was having a very hard time understanding that you have to pass cards in Spoons and that you have to watch what is actually going on in Squirt. I keep thinking he’s younger than he is because he acts so much younger than the three-year-old we had last week!

This afternoon started with Skip-Bo with just the tweens. Then it got hectic because the kids came and were upset because we weren’t playing MarioKart at all this afternoon. I had to come up with a few quick activities because we didn’t have enough wrapping paper (and time to wrap something) to play “pass the parcel” and the Sports Deck was wet which meant we couldn’t go outside. Instead, they made their “All About Me” sheets (I wrote for the two little ones) and everyone who hadn’t already made their craft folders did that.

The tweens were there right at 7 and we enjoyed free time together before I let them have snack. The two kids came right after snack and immediately went to play MarioKart. Luckily, I’d thought about that beforehand and had already locked up the remotes just in case. They were upset about that, but it WAS theme night time, not free time. Anyway, one of the kids didn’t want to participate at all in our theme night, so he played with the kitchen and pirate ships while the rest of them made their Spy name tags, Spy ID cards, and figured out Chinese numbers. I had to help the other kid a lot, but the tweens helped me a bit with that too. When we started to make our spy gadgets out of random materials I’d collected from our supply closet, the other kid wanted to join, so I added him to a team and everyone ended up working separately on their own gadget. That was okay though, because it took a long time for them to finish, and then a while for them to present their gadgets to the groups, so there were only three tweens left to kill 15 minutes with! I miss working with only tweens!