August 21, 2013: Kotor, Montenegro
We arrived an hour early today, which was very nice. Although it did mean that we had to cut short Kids in the Kitchen so we could start setting up for tendering, but that’s okay. Tendering went surprisingly well considering it was later in the morning than usual. Ryan, Julia (the librarian-in-training), Santana, Emily, and I worked it. It seemed like a lot of us, but it worked so I’m not complaining. Ryan gave out tickets, Santana answered questions, Julia collected tickets, and Emily and I were ‘runners.’ Emily and I took turns getting the collected tickets from Julia and sorting them out to have ready for the next round of numbers. We pretty much got to sit and chat the whole time, although we did try to help Santana answer questions, not that there were too many.
We all went to lunch, then Emily and I got off together to wander around, neither of us having been to this port before. It was an extremely short tender ride, then we wandered into the Old Town, walked the wall, took some pictures, did some souvenir shopping, then wandered back towards the port area. We sat outside the Old Town wall for a while and just chatted, not quite ready to head back yet. We headed back after 3 and I didn’t do much between then and dinner, I just sat in my room and read.
It was Alien Night, so after free time, we set the kids on decorating an alien and space ship. It took longer than arts activities have been with this group, but that’s probably because we set out the glitter glue, and had a LOT of messes to clean up. We made it through though, and built our own weird-looking alien on a big sheet of paper, ready to throw wet towels at it to make it look cool. But by the time we’d finished building our alien, only girls were left, so we decided not to do the wet towel throwing, and we played 4-corners instead. These girls like to dance. We spent much less time in corners than we did dancing. All but one left during that, so I read “Moon Man” to the one girl that was left, her dad came right as I reached the end of the story, great timing!
Thursday, August 22, 2013
leaving Venice again, but I didn't see it this time..
August 20, 2013: Venice day 2
Work started at 1 again today, I didn’t get off this morning, but slept (a great nights sleep again finally!) until nearly drill time (I didn’t have to do wristbands for once!), then got ready and headed up to work. A few more kids came up today, only a few crew kids, and one girl who I think is going to be in Club HAL the whole time we’re open, every time. Her mom was asking about port day stuff and after-hours during Open House. We didn’t go up to the Sports Deck because it was raining, so we played a few games indoors instead. We did go get ice cream though, it was an interesting experience with 3 girls that only speak Russian, one of which refused at first to come to the Lido with us, I had to lead her out the door. Miranda and I are hoping that they get to be friends and hang out at the pool or something instead of their parents bringing them up to us, they can’t do any of the activities since we can’t explain them in Russian. This group isn’t at all into coloring, their attention span for coloring is about a minute, and then they’re ready to do something out, so this should be interesting with all the art-dominated theme nights.
Camp Night and the Venetian Ball were tonight. Free time was a bit chaotic, but it calmed down when we finally started camp night. We decorated bears, made a tent, told some stories, then put on the masks to head down to the Ball. That didn’t take that long, so we were back (with about half the group, the other half’s parents had signed them out downstairs) in Club HAL in 15 minutes. More parents came as soon as we got upstairs, and it wasn’t really worth it to do much in the way of Camp Night with them, so we read some stories until they were all signed out.
Work started at 1 again today, I didn’t get off this morning, but slept (a great nights sleep again finally!) until nearly drill time (I didn’t have to do wristbands for once!), then got ready and headed up to work. A few more kids came up today, only a few crew kids, and one girl who I think is going to be in Club HAL the whole time we’re open, every time. Her mom was asking about port day stuff and after-hours during Open House. We didn’t go up to the Sports Deck because it was raining, so we played a few games indoors instead. We did go get ice cream though, it was an interesting experience with 3 girls that only speak Russian, one of which refused at first to come to the Lido with us, I had to lead her out the door. Miranda and I are hoping that they get to be friends and hang out at the pool or something instead of their parents bringing them up to us, they can’t do any of the activities since we can’t explain them in Russian. This group isn’t at all into coloring, their attention span for coloring is about a minute, and then they’re ready to do something out, so this should be interesting with all the art-dominated theme nights.
Camp Night and the Venetian Ball were tonight. Free time was a bit chaotic, but it calmed down when we finally started camp night. We decorated bears, made a tent, told some stories, then put on the masks to head down to the Ball. That didn’t take that long, so we were back (with about half the group, the other half’s parents had signed them out downstairs) in Club HAL in 15 minutes. More parents came as soon as we got upstairs, and it wasn’t really worth it to do much in the way of Camp Night with them, so we read some stories until they were all signed out.
another embark day
August 19, 2013: Venice embark day
I happily slept in this morning, not having to be at work until 1 for Open House. I would’ve gotten up and gone out, but I really needed the sleep, and I didn’t know of anyones plans to go out with. Open House was extremely quiet. A few teens came by, and a handful of kids. I was on gangway duty for the second hour, so had to wait for kids to come, and give them the Club HAL program for their age and tell them about the open house. I saw about 5, 3 of which didn’t speak English at all. So, I spent most of the time talking to some of the beverage guys, and the spa girl who were also handing out flyers at the gangway. After that, I was just pretty tired, still haven’t been sleeping well, so I decided to forgo going out in Venice (again), and attempt to sleep. Sleep didn’t come, but I at least felt somewhat more rested. I don’t think anyone really got off this afternoon, it was extremely hot apparently.
I’m working with the little kids with Miranda this week; there’s 25 or so on board this week, and half of them are crew kids. Not many came tonight, which was kind of nice, I hope that may be an indication for the rest of the week. We had one for half an hour, then two more came, but they left by 9, and the first girl left by 9:30. Miranda and I just sat and talked until time to clean and lock up. It still wasn’t quite 10 yet, so we went by the tween room to see how they were doing to take up a few more minutes so we didn’t feel so guilty leaving early.
I went to the OB and hung out for a while, it was a busy night. The whole photo team was there, so I hung out with them for a while. James and I watched a movie afterwards since neither of us had to be up early.
I happily slept in this morning, not having to be at work until 1 for Open House. I would’ve gotten up and gone out, but I really needed the sleep, and I didn’t know of anyones plans to go out with. Open House was extremely quiet. A few teens came by, and a handful of kids. I was on gangway duty for the second hour, so had to wait for kids to come, and give them the Club HAL program for their age and tell them about the open house. I saw about 5, 3 of which didn’t speak English at all. So, I spent most of the time talking to some of the beverage guys, and the spa girl who were also handing out flyers at the gangway. After that, I was just pretty tired, still haven’t been sleeping well, so I decided to forgo going out in Venice (again), and attempt to sleep. Sleep didn’t come, but I at least felt somewhat more rested. I don’t think anyone really got off this afternoon, it was extremely hot apparently.
I’m working with the little kids with Miranda this week; there’s 25 or so on board this week, and half of them are crew kids. Not many came tonight, which was kind of nice, I hope that may be an indication for the rest of the week. We had one for half an hour, then two more came, but they left by 9, and the first girl left by 9:30. Miranda and I just sat and talked until time to clean and lock up. It still wasn’t quite 10 yet, so we went by the tween room to see how they were doing to take up a few more minutes so we didn’t feel so guilty leaving early.
I went to the OB and hung out for a while, it was a busy night. The whole photo team was there, so I hung out with them for a while. James and I watched a movie afterwards since neither of us had to be up early.
beach day in Argostali
August 17, 2013: Argostali, Greece
It was a sea day morning, but most of our tweens slept in so it was a quiet morning. I only saw Ryan and Leah this morning, and they were both just going to get internet onshore. I didn’t want to do that, so I tried to call Jessie and she if she wanted to get off and do something, since last time we said we’d find a beach here. She had to help out with Indonesian Independence day stuff, so couldn’t get off. I was determined to have a beach day, so I packed a bag and got off to find one alone. I did find one, not far of a walk away, I could actually still see the ship and hear some of the music at the gangway. It was a nice little spot on the rocks right next to the water. I’d forgotten to grab a towel, so I just laid out in the sun on the rocks, slightly painful if there was a sharp rock, but it wasn’t so bad, I did have my cover up dress to help me dry off after I swam for a bit at least. It was really nice, I alternated between laying out enjoying the sun, and swimming. I stayed at my little spot on the beach probably for around three hours before I decided I could go find internet for a bit before getting back on the ship for a shower. I’d forgotten how salty the water here is, when the sun dried me off, I kept finding areas of salt dried onto my arms and legs. I went to the restaurant Jessie and I went to last time we were here and got internet for a bit (I hope my face wasn’t too salty-looking, although everyone could tell I’d just come from the beach), then took my time getting back to the ship. I finally got to rinse all that salt off, and had just enough time to get ready before dinner.
Brave the Night was, as always, a huge success. We didn’t get to go through many activities though because they were all a little wild tonight. As soon as I told them half the instructions for an activity, they would start discussing it, and I got so tired of it, I just sat and waited until everyone began to wonder why I hadn’t given them paper or gotten out something for the activity, only then did I finish the instructions
It was a sea day morning, but most of our tweens slept in so it was a quiet morning. I only saw Ryan and Leah this morning, and they were both just going to get internet onshore. I didn’t want to do that, so I tried to call Jessie and she if she wanted to get off and do something, since last time we said we’d find a beach here. She had to help out with Indonesian Independence day stuff, so couldn’t get off. I was determined to have a beach day, so I packed a bag and got off to find one alone. I did find one, not far of a walk away, I could actually still see the ship and hear some of the music at the gangway. It was a nice little spot on the rocks right next to the water. I’d forgotten to grab a towel, so I just laid out in the sun on the rocks, slightly painful if there was a sharp rock, but it wasn’t so bad, I did have my cover up dress to help me dry off after I swam for a bit at least. It was really nice, I alternated between laying out enjoying the sun, and swimming. I stayed at my little spot on the beach probably for around three hours before I decided I could go find internet for a bit before getting back on the ship for a shower. I’d forgotten how salty the water here is, when the sun dried me off, I kept finding areas of salt dried onto my arms and legs. I went to the restaurant Jessie and I went to last time we were here and got internet for a bit (I hope my face wasn’t too salty-looking, although everyone could tell I’d just come from the beach), then took my time getting back to the ship. I finally got to rinse all that salt off, and had just enough time to get ready before dinner.
Brave the Night was, as always, a huge success. We didn’t get to go through many activities though because they were all a little wild tonight. As soon as I told them half the instructions for an activity, they would start discussing it, and I got so tired of it, I just sat and waited until everyone began to wonder why I hadn’t given them paper or gotten out something for the activity, only then did I finish the instructions
Saturday, August 17, 2013
santorini
August 16, 2013: Santorini
, Greece
Such an early morning. But I did sleep well at least! Finally! I had one kid for the first hour of work, then a few more showed up. They were all pretty well-behaved, playing xbox, Kinect and Wii, and helping me work on a puzzle. The morning went pretty quickly considering it was 5 hours long. Betty came and helped with lunch, and the kids suddenly got really wild. That wasn’t helped by the beverage department, who came and teased the kids with sodas, and one of the chefs who came by asking if they wanted cookies. Betty took over and I got to leave and relax for a bit. Everyone I could think of had already left, so I decided to get off and get some internet for the afternoon. On the tender, I found Regina and we joined up since she wanted lunch and wifi as well. On shore, we found Johan and one of people that work in the shops at a restaurant, so joined them. Regina got food, and I got an orange juice and we all sat and talked and checked out stuff on the internet. The three of them left around 2 and I was left alone. Soon after though, a waitress told me that I needed to leave because they needed the tables because it was getting to be lunchtime, this was after another woman had sat with me and ordered a drink so she could get online as well. They kicked her out, and moved a chair to the back for me to sit, but then they turned off the wifi! Right after I’d just started talking to Mom. So, I left, got on the tender and just spent an hour of my ship internet time to finish talking to her. On the tender though, I looked back at that restaurant, and half the tables were now empty. So much for the big lunch rush this lady was expecting.
Anyway, I rested the rest of the afternoon, had dinner and then it was up to Club HAL for “Cranium Craze.” We had 16 kids, so it was perfect for two games of cranium, with 2 people per team. I ended up with the wild group though, they kept getting a bit out of control, so I ended up just stopping the game for a bit until they calmed down somewhat. Having just Cranium as a theme night isn’t really the greatest idea, but some approved theme nights sometimes just aren’t very good for too many/few kids, or certain groups of kids. Maybe it works with other groups.
I had after-hours tonight, two of my tweens stayed. They tired themselves out running back and forth on the skate ramp for a while, then we sat down and they watched the end of Spy Kids 4. Easy after-hours! I was supposed to meet Jessie to hang out for a bit, but she’d gone to Betty’s room for a ‘nail party’ and when I got off, I was too tired to do much; it’d been a long day so I just went straight to bed.
, Greece
Such an early morning. But I did sleep well at least! Finally! I had one kid for the first hour of work, then a few more showed up. They were all pretty well-behaved, playing xbox, Kinect and Wii, and helping me work on a puzzle. The morning went pretty quickly considering it was 5 hours long. Betty came and helped with lunch, and the kids suddenly got really wild. That wasn’t helped by the beverage department, who came and teased the kids with sodas, and one of the chefs who came by asking if they wanted cookies. Betty took over and I got to leave and relax for a bit. Everyone I could think of had already left, so I decided to get off and get some internet for the afternoon. On the tender, I found Regina and we joined up since she wanted lunch and wifi as well. On shore, we found Johan and one of people that work in the shops at a restaurant, so joined them. Regina got food, and I got an orange juice and we all sat and talked and checked out stuff on the internet. The three of them left around 2 and I was left alone. Soon after though, a waitress told me that I needed to leave because they needed the tables because it was getting to be lunchtime, this was after another woman had sat with me and ordered a drink so she could get online as well. They kicked her out, and moved a chair to the back for me to sit, but then they turned off the wifi! Right after I’d just started talking to Mom. So, I left, got on the tender and just spent an hour of my ship internet time to finish talking to her. On the tender though, I looked back at that restaurant, and half the tables were now empty. So much for the big lunch rush this lady was expecting.
Anyway, I rested the rest of the afternoon, had dinner and then it was up to Club HAL for “Cranium Craze.” We had 16 kids, so it was perfect for two games of cranium, with 2 people per team. I ended up with the wild group though, they kept getting a bit out of control, so I ended up just stopping the game for a bit until they calmed down somewhat. Having just Cranium as a theme night isn’t really the greatest idea, but some approved theme nights sometimes just aren’t very good for too many/few kids, or certain groups of kids. Maybe it works with other groups.
I had after-hours tonight, two of my tweens stayed. They tired themselves out running back and forth on the skate ramp for a while, then we sat down and they watched the end of Spy Kids 4. Easy after-hours! I was supposed to meet Jessie to hang out for a bit, but she’d gone to Betty’s room for a ‘nail party’ and when I got off, I was too tired to do much; it’d been a long day so I just went straight to bed.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
stuck on the ship in Kusadasi
August 15, 2013: Kusadasi, Turkey
Again, I didn’t sleep well. Despite getting to sleep in until nearly 10, I felt exhausted and didn’t want to get up. I got up to Club HAL early to take over for Leah at 10:45 so she could go on the crew tour to the water park (apparently the 3rd biggest in Europe, and it has the biggest waterslide in Europe). There were 8 kids there, but they were a quiet group and were content to color and watch Brave and Monsters Inc. Lunch went fine, and it was quiet again until 2 when all the other kids started to show up. All the non-English-speaking kids came at once, and wanted me to get things for them all at once as well. So much for a quiet port day. I finally got them somewhat settled, got the little ones watching Finding Nemo, and I started playing Skip-Bo with the others for a while, then realized that the older Spanish kids were taking over the xbox games from the younger ones, and when the little ones would switch games, the older ones would follow. Frustrating. Finally I made them choose a game and it was a bit more quiet after that. They all came to the couches, and brought out the bean bags to watch Madagascar 3 for the last hour. And of course, some parents didn’t come until 4:15 to pick up their kids.
I probably could’ve gotten off the ship for an hour or so and gotten some wifi, but I’ve never been here before and don’t know how far away good wifi is, and I was still exhausted so I stayed on and tried (yet again) to nap. I tossed and turned until dinner. Dinner was good at least, the pasta line was open, they had fruit soup and ensaymadas! And Emily was there, so I took a quick trip to her room to get some melatonin to see if it’ll help me sleep tonight.
Movie night in Club HAL again, I feel like it’s a bit close to the last one, but oh well, I needed a night of not having to do a whole lot. I started a 2000 piece puzzle during free time with some of the kids (mainly to keep my mind busy so I wouldn’t drift off), then we all settled down to watch Zookeeper.
Indian Independence day is today and I was invited to the PO for a party, but I’m not sure if I’m going, especially since Ryan called me as soon as I got back to the room to tell me a family has an early tour and I need to be in Club HAL by 7:40 for them to drop the kids off. Although, if I don’t stay up until 12 to do my hours, I just know I’ll end up forgetting in the morning…
Again, I didn’t sleep well. Despite getting to sleep in until nearly 10, I felt exhausted and didn’t want to get up. I got up to Club HAL early to take over for Leah at 10:45 so she could go on the crew tour to the water park (apparently the 3rd biggest in Europe, and it has the biggest waterslide in Europe). There were 8 kids there, but they were a quiet group and were content to color and watch Brave and Monsters Inc. Lunch went fine, and it was quiet again until 2 when all the other kids started to show up. All the non-English-speaking kids came at once, and wanted me to get things for them all at once as well. So much for a quiet port day. I finally got them somewhat settled, got the little ones watching Finding Nemo, and I started playing Skip-Bo with the others for a while, then realized that the older Spanish kids were taking over the xbox games from the younger ones, and when the little ones would switch games, the older ones would follow. Frustrating. Finally I made them choose a game and it was a bit more quiet after that. They all came to the couches, and brought out the bean bags to watch Madagascar 3 for the last hour. And of course, some parents didn’t come until 4:15 to pick up their kids.
I probably could’ve gotten off the ship for an hour or so and gotten some wifi, but I’ve never been here before and don’t know how far away good wifi is, and I was still exhausted so I stayed on and tried (yet again) to nap. I tossed and turned until dinner. Dinner was good at least, the pasta line was open, they had fruit soup and ensaymadas! And Emily was there, so I took a quick trip to her room to get some melatonin to see if it’ll help me sleep tonight.
Movie night in Club HAL again, I feel like it’s a bit close to the last one, but oh well, I needed a night of not having to do a whole lot. I started a 2000 piece puzzle during free time with some of the kids (mainly to keep my mind busy so I wouldn’t drift off), then we all settled down to watch Zookeeper.
Indian Independence day is today and I was invited to the PO for a party, but I’m not sure if I’m going, especially since Ryan called me as soon as I got back to the room to tell me a family has an early tour and I need to be in Club HAL by 7:40 for them to drop the kids off. Although, if I don’t stay up until 12 to do my hours, I just know I’ll end up forgetting in the morning…
long day on the ship
August 14, 2013: Lesbos, Greece
It was a really long day. I haven’t slept well the last few nights and last night was no exception. I left breakfast and went up to Club HAL, then realized that we had kids in the kitchen this morning, so then I had to run all the way to deck 2 for that. It was a pretty hectic kids in the kitchen. We had a lot of them show up, some that hadn’t come before, so we had to run back upstairs for registration forms, and they didn’t give us forks to eat the pancakes with, so I ran up to the Lido for those, and they didn’t provide enough toppings so we had to closely regulate how many blueberries each kid got. I was relieved to go upstairs and play balloon volleyball and scattegories. Tendering didn’t start until 11, so I attempted to nap for an hour and a half, then went to lunch before checking on Meghna, Betty and Santana who were working tendering. It was crazy, so I went back to the room to try to make another attempt at a nap. Meghna came back at 2:45, finally done with tendering. She said crew were allowed shore leave, but last crew tender was at 4. I decided it wasn’t really worth it to get off for an hour, especially since the tender ride round trip would take up over half that hour. I did laundry instead.
The afternoon went by pretty slowly, I kept trying (unsuccessfully) to nap as I waited on my laundry. At least I was a productive day, clean clothes!
Olympic night was a bit crazy, lots of kids and some of them didn’t speak English so didn’t understand the rules of the games. Then some of the English speaking kids who are very competitive started to cheat and to contest our judgment and rules. I was glad when the night finally ended. I had after hours, but only for about 20 minutes, and we played Skip-Bo the whole time. Afterwards I tried to call Emily, who said she’d give me some melatonin to see if it might help me sleep, but she wasn’t in the room.
It was a really long day. I haven’t slept well the last few nights and last night was no exception. I left breakfast and went up to Club HAL, then realized that we had kids in the kitchen this morning, so then I had to run all the way to deck 2 for that. It was a pretty hectic kids in the kitchen. We had a lot of them show up, some that hadn’t come before, so we had to run back upstairs for registration forms, and they didn’t give us forks to eat the pancakes with, so I ran up to the Lido for those, and they didn’t provide enough toppings so we had to closely regulate how many blueberries each kid got. I was relieved to go upstairs and play balloon volleyball and scattegories. Tendering didn’t start until 11, so I attempted to nap for an hour and a half, then went to lunch before checking on Meghna, Betty and Santana who were working tendering. It was crazy, so I went back to the room to try to make another attempt at a nap. Meghna came back at 2:45, finally done with tendering. She said crew were allowed shore leave, but last crew tender was at 4. I decided it wasn’t really worth it to get off for an hour, especially since the tender ride round trip would take up over half that hour. I did laundry instead.
The afternoon went by pretty slowly, I kept trying (unsuccessfully) to nap as I waited on my laundry. At least I was a productive day, clean clothes!
Olympic night was a bit crazy, lots of kids and some of them didn’t speak English so didn’t understand the rules of the games. Then some of the English speaking kids who are very competitive started to cheat and to contest our judgment and rules. I was glad when the night finally ended. I had after hours, but only for about 20 minutes, and we played Skip-Bo the whole time. Afterwards I tried to call Emily, who said she’d give me some melatonin to see if it might help me sleep, but she wasn’t in the room.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
grand bazaar and stargazing
August 13, 2013: Istanbul day 2
I realized today that I only have one more time in Istanbul, wow. We have three more runs of the Barcelona/Venice cruise, and just one left of the Venice/Istanbul/Venice cruise. Doesn’t seem like all that should last two months, but then again, twelve day cruises are weird. That’s ship life for you. One cruise always is “a week” (unless it’s one of the really long 42 day ones), and time moves differently. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before. In ship life, we don’t go by days of the week (I would’ve lost track on day 2 if it weren’t for the rugs in the elevators), we go by which port/country we’re in. There is no longer “Monday,” it is now “Athens day.” Despite each cruise being “a week,” it feels like a month, three days feels like a weeks time, and a month seems more like 4, one contract could be 4 months, but feels like a year. It’s so easy to lose track of time when you’re at sea. Weekends don’t exist anymore, they’re days working like any other. Holidays are never really holidays, but there are celebrations despite the work day, and we celebrate anything we can think of! With so many nationalities on board, and so many people, there’s almost always some type of independence day, holiday or birthday; if you know people from all departments, there’s a chance something will be going on every night after work.
It’s not all travelling and losing track of time though. Your friends are people you live and work with and see all day, every day for the most part. Relationships are intensified, even if they’re only short-lived. If there’s a problem, everyone knows and it affects every part of your life. There’s no escape. We have to be ‘on’ any time we’re in public areas, so no matter how bad a day you’re having, or how sick/homesick you feel, you have to smile nice, answer lots of crazy questions politely, and make small talk whenever possible. Entertainment department isn’t the hardest working on the ship, but we are the most visual, everyone sees us and knows who we are (the orange shirts of the ‘on location’ team add to that). If we mess up, everyone knows.
Anyway, today was one of the days I need sometimes to forget the stress of this job, and remember exactly how blessed I am to have it. I had a quiet breakfast early and then got ready to head out to Istanbul with Ryan, Leah, and Mollie. We didn’t want to spend the money on a taxi, so we opted to walk to the spice market and Grand Bazaar. It wasn’t too bad of a walk, especially since it wasn’t too hot out; it took about 45 minutes, including stopping time to look at things and take a few (very few) pictures. At the spice market, Ryan got some tea, while Leah and Mollie got Turkish delight, I didn’t buy anything, I wanted to see what was there, and I’ll be back again, unlike Leah. After the spice market, we walked for another 10 minutes to the Grand Bazaar. Not nearly as overwhelming as everyone made it out to be. At the entrances there are lots of jewelry stores full of shiny stuff, which is the most overwhelming part of the bazaar. We walked around and found that most of the stores were the same thing over and over and over, lamps, scarves, carpets, souvenirs. The antique part of the market was cool to look through though, so much interesting stuff.
We got kind of tired of that, so left and slowly made our way back to the ship, stopping at a few stores on the way. I do think I maybe should temporarily dye my hair for next time I’m in Istanbul, being blonde draws far too much attention to me, especially in the Grand Bazaar, the owners of every store tried to talk to me, asking where I’m from, can they help me buy something, calling me angel, stuff of that sort. Funny story though, on the way back, Ryan and I were walking together and talking, with Leah and Mollie in front of us. Someone was on the sidewalk with his shoe cleaning stuff, he picked it up before we got to him and started to leave. He dropped a brush and didn’t realize it so kept walking. Ryan picked it up and caught up to him to give it to him. The man then put his stool down and sat down with his stuff and told Ryan to put his foot on the other stool. He proceeded to talk to us and clean Ryans sneakers. The other girls walked on and left us. We thought he was just doing it to be nice since Ryan picked up his brush, but when he was finished (and Ryans shoes sufficiently wet), he asked for 8 euros. Ryan didn’t have much money, just some Turkish Lira coins so he gave him that. He was upset, but how were we supposed to know he wasn’t doing it just to be nice?
Back on the ship (it was almost 2 by then), I changed and went up to lunch with Leah and Ryan, luckily the pasta and sandwich lines were still open (they close at 2, we timed it well). After lunch, I decided to take a nap since I still haven’t been sleeping too well. Dinnertime came all too soon. I just had some fruit again since lunch was so late.
Tonight was “Games Galore.” So once free time was over, we set them up to make their own board games, it took them the whole time to finish. The games look really cool actually, I’m quite impressed with them! While they worked on their games, Leah and I worked on a puzzle we’d started the other day, and we finished it right in time for everyone to leave.
I’d agreed to meet Emily at the show, so changed into formal very quickly and got to the show only 20 minutes late. After that I hung out in the hall talking to Emily and Julie (who Emily is training as librarian) for a while, then went to the OB to go out on the bow to watch for shooting stars. It was a very nice night for it, very little wind, not too cold, but cool enough to make it a good idea that I wore my hoodie. There wasn’t anyone there when I got there, so I laid out on one of the picnic tables with the hood of my hoodie folded up as a pillow. People came and went, sometimes star gazing with me, and chatting a bit, sometimes just talking with the group they came with. I saw quite a lot of meteors! There was a really big one that streaked across the sky, burning yellow and leaving a long trail. That was definitely a cool one! The photo department and Meghna joined me at the table (I moved so they could sit at half the table) and some of us watched for shooting stars, while the others just talked. It was a great night, I was the first to leave because I have to work morning sea day hours since we don’t arrive until 11.
I realized today that I only have one more time in Istanbul, wow. We have three more runs of the Barcelona/Venice cruise, and just one left of the Venice/Istanbul/Venice cruise. Doesn’t seem like all that should last two months, but then again, twelve day cruises are weird. That’s ship life for you. One cruise always is “a week” (unless it’s one of the really long 42 day ones), and time moves differently. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before. In ship life, we don’t go by days of the week (I would’ve lost track on day 2 if it weren’t for the rugs in the elevators), we go by which port/country we’re in. There is no longer “Monday,” it is now “Athens day.” Despite each cruise being “a week,” it feels like a month, three days feels like a weeks time, and a month seems more like 4, one contract could be 4 months, but feels like a year. It’s so easy to lose track of time when you’re at sea. Weekends don’t exist anymore, they’re days working like any other. Holidays are never really holidays, but there are celebrations despite the work day, and we celebrate anything we can think of! With so many nationalities on board, and so many people, there’s almost always some type of independence day, holiday or birthday; if you know people from all departments, there’s a chance something will be going on every night after work.
It’s not all travelling and losing track of time though. Your friends are people you live and work with and see all day, every day for the most part. Relationships are intensified, even if they’re only short-lived. If there’s a problem, everyone knows and it affects every part of your life. There’s no escape. We have to be ‘on’ any time we’re in public areas, so no matter how bad a day you’re having, or how sick/homesick you feel, you have to smile nice, answer lots of crazy questions politely, and make small talk whenever possible. Entertainment department isn’t the hardest working on the ship, but we are the most visual, everyone sees us and knows who we are (the orange shirts of the ‘on location’ team add to that). If we mess up, everyone knows.
Anyway, today was one of the days I need sometimes to forget the stress of this job, and remember exactly how blessed I am to have it. I had a quiet breakfast early and then got ready to head out to Istanbul with Ryan, Leah, and Mollie. We didn’t want to spend the money on a taxi, so we opted to walk to the spice market and Grand Bazaar. It wasn’t too bad of a walk, especially since it wasn’t too hot out; it took about 45 minutes, including stopping time to look at things and take a few (very few) pictures. At the spice market, Ryan got some tea, while Leah and Mollie got Turkish delight, I didn’t buy anything, I wanted to see what was there, and I’ll be back again, unlike Leah. After the spice market, we walked for another 10 minutes to the Grand Bazaar. Not nearly as overwhelming as everyone made it out to be. At the entrances there are lots of jewelry stores full of shiny stuff, which is the most overwhelming part of the bazaar. We walked around and found that most of the stores were the same thing over and over and over, lamps, scarves, carpets, souvenirs. The antique part of the market was cool to look through though, so much interesting stuff.
Back on the ship (it was almost 2 by then), I changed and went up to lunch with Leah and Ryan, luckily the pasta and sandwich lines were still open (they close at 2, we timed it well). After lunch, I decided to take a nap since I still haven’t been sleeping too well. Dinnertime came all too soon. I just had some fruit again since lunch was so late.
Tonight was “Games Galore.” So once free time was over, we set them up to make their own board games, it took them the whole time to finish. The games look really cool actually, I’m quite impressed with them! While they worked on their games, Leah and I worked on a puzzle we’d started the other day, and we finished it right in time for everyone to leave.
I’d agreed to meet Emily at the show, so changed into formal very quickly and got to the show only 20 minutes late. After that I hung out in the hall talking to Emily and Julie (who Emily is training as librarian) for a while, then went to the OB to go out on the bow to watch for shooting stars. It was a very nice night for it, very little wind, not too cold, but cool enough to make it a good idea that I wore my hoodie. There wasn’t anyone there when I got there, so I laid out on one of the picnic tables with the hood of my hoodie folded up as a pillow. People came and went, sometimes star gazing with me, and chatting a bit, sometimes just talking with the group they came with. I saw quite a lot of meteors! There was a really big one that streaked across the sky, burning yellow and leaving a long trail. That was definitely a cool one! The photo department and Meghna joined me at the table (I moved so they could sit at half the table) and some of us watched for shooting stars, while the others just talked. It was a great night, I was the first to leave because I have to work morning sea day hours since we don’t arrive until 11.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Istanbul
August 12, 2013: Istanbul day 1
Today was pretty much a sea day for me. We arrive in Istanbul at 4pm, so we had the usual sea day hours for the morning and afternoon. It was pretty quiet all day, less than 15 kids in each of the two sessions (one sign-in sheet has 15 rows, that’s how we know generally how many kids we have, this week on tweens, we’ve easily filled up two sheets a session). I skipped lunch to sleep because I’m not sure if I actually fell asleep last night at all, so I ended up being thoroughly exhausted in the morning. I was more awake in the afternoon. It was nice though, we played Skip-Bo, went outside, did puzzles for an hour, and played Ickle Bickle. We docked about half an hour early, so all but one of the kids left before then. It was odd because his parents came late to pick him up as well. I didn’t get to the room until 4:30. I attempted to nap again (unsuccessfully) until dinner. Dinner was rather disappointing. They didn’t have the pasta line open (this randomly happens, I never know when to expect it to not be there), the pasta in the regular line was undercooked, all the meat was pork or fish. I think they thought that everyone was just going to eat out since it’s an overnight.
Movie night in Club HAL. One of the two people in each group had the night off, so Ryan and I combined the kids and tweens for our movie night. It went well, I played Uno with a group during free time, alternating between that, syncing wii remotes, xbox controllers, and getting out coloring pages, markers, and colored pencils. We put on Finding Nemo (to the protest of my tweens, though they loved it anyway), gave out popcorn and finally got to relax the rest of the evening. I got back to the room after we’d cleaned up and Jessie called me to see if I wanted to go out. I wasn’t nearly ready and they were leaving right then, so I decided it’d just be another overnight to stay on the ship (Meghna had left before dinner, and the rest of Club HAL was leaving around the same time as Jessie). I went to the OB for a bit and talked with Lauren (one of the dancers who was on the Oosterdam last summer as well), then called it an early night, hopefully with better sleep than last night
Today was pretty much a sea day for me. We arrive in Istanbul at 4pm, so we had the usual sea day hours for the morning and afternoon. It was pretty quiet all day, less than 15 kids in each of the two sessions (one sign-in sheet has 15 rows, that’s how we know generally how many kids we have, this week on tweens, we’ve easily filled up two sheets a session). I skipped lunch to sleep because I’m not sure if I actually fell asleep last night at all, so I ended up being thoroughly exhausted in the morning. I was more awake in the afternoon. It was nice though, we played Skip-Bo, went outside, did puzzles for an hour, and played Ickle Bickle. We docked about half an hour early, so all but one of the kids left before then. It was odd because his parents came late to pick him up as well. I didn’t get to the room until 4:30. I attempted to nap again (unsuccessfully) until dinner. Dinner was rather disappointing. They didn’t have the pasta line open (this randomly happens, I never know when to expect it to not be there), the pasta in the regular line was undercooked, all the meat was pork or fish. I think they thought that everyone was just going to eat out since it’s an overnight.
Movie night in Club HAL. One of the two people in each group had the night off, so Ryan and I combined the kids and tweens for our movie night. It went well, I played Uno with a group during free time, alternating between that, syncing wii remotes, xbox controllers, and getting out coloring pages, markers, and colored pencils. We put on Finding Nemo (to the protest of my tweens, though they loved it anyway), gave out popcorn and finally got to relax the rest of the evening. I got back to the room after we’d cleaned up and Jessie called me to see if I wanted to go out. I wasn’t nearly ready and they were leaving right then, so I decided it’d just be another overnight to stay on the ship (Meghna had left before dinner, and the rest of Club HAL was leaving around the same time as Jessie). I went to the OB for a bit and talked with Lauren (one of the dancers who was on the Oosterdam last summer as well), then called it an early night, hopefully with better sleep than last night
crew tour to Athens and the Acropolis
August 11, 2013: Athens
I had breakfast and went back to bed this morning until I could get up and get ready for the crew tour to Athens and the Acropolis. Leah, Meghna, Voirry, Linda, and Mollie (the techspert) went on the excursion as well. I mostly hung out with Linda and Mollie. First was the bus tour around Athens. We stopped at the Parliament Building and one of the stadiums for the Olympics. Other than that, it was just trying to get pictures quickly from the window, as always I chose the wrong side of the bus to sit on. We got to the Acropolis and were supposed to have half a guided tour and half free time, but most of us left the tour guide as she was giving a history lesson to those who she had seen and called over. Linda, Mollie and I explored on our own, there wasn’t a lot there, but it was still cool. We took pictures overlooking the temple of Zeus (which we’d seen through trees as we rode past on the bus), and of Athens in general. Mostly on the Acropolis was the Pantheon and the Temple of Athena.
I think there was more on the south slope, but our tour didn’t cover that part, so we didn’t get to see what was there. After we took all the pictures we wanted, we went to the snack bar and got some food since we’d all missed lunch. We still had 45 minutes, so we walked down to the meeting place and walked around the streets there, there were lots of people selling artwork down that street and we walked all the way to the Acropolis museum before we turned around to meet the rest of the group.
We got back and I took a really quick shower, read for a few minutes then went up to dinner. Spy night was, as usual, a success. They had a blast with the scavenger hunt, making their own spy gadgets and trying to get through our ‘laser beam’ web. Spy Night and Brave the Night are, I think, the best and most successful of the theme nights. There are so many activities to do with those nights, we can never get through them all, and the kids always love everything about it! The other theme nights are pretty much hit and miss, depending on the group of tweens at the time.
I had breakfast and went back to bed this morning until I could get up and get ready for the crew tour to Athens and the Acropolis. Leah, Meghna, Voirry, Linda, and Mollie (the techspert) went on the excursion as well. I mostly hung out with Linda and Mollie. First was the bus tour around Athens. We stopped at the Parliament Building and one of the stadiums for the Olympics. Other than that, it was just trying to get pictures quickly from the window, as always I chose the wrong side of the bus to sit on. We got to the Acropolis and were supposed to have half a guided tour and half free time, but most of us left the tour guide as she was giving a history lesson to those who she had seen and called over. Linda, Mollie and I explored on our own, there wasn’t a lot there, but it was still cool. We took pictures overlooking the temple of Zeus (which we’d seen through trees as we rode past on the bus), and of Athens in general. Mostly on the Acropolis was the Pantheon and the Temple of Athena.
I think there was more on the south slope, but our tour didn’t cover that part, so we didn’t get to see what was there. After we took all the pictures we wanted, we went to the snack bar and got some food since we’d all missed lunch. We still had 45 minutes, so we walked down to the meeting place and walked around the streets there, there were lots of people selling artwork down that street and we walked all the way to the Acropolis museum before we turned around to meet the rest of the group. We got back and I took a really quick shower, read for a few minutes then went up to dinner. Spy night was, as usual, a success. They had a blast with the scavenger hunt, making their own spy gadgets and trying to get through our ‘laser beam’ web. Spy Night and Brave the Night are, I think, the best and most successful of the theme nights. There are so many activities to do with those nights, we can never get through them all, and the kids always love everything about it! The other theme nights are pretty much hit and miss, depending on the group of tweens at the time.
beach day!!!!!!!!!!
August 10, 2013: Katakolon
I slept in this morning, then got ready to go to the beach. Fruszi and I had made plans to go to the beach right near the ship. She called and we agreed to meet in a few minutes. Apparently we missed each other though, I went to check on her room when she went to the gangway where I’d just left. After waiting about 10 minutes, I decided that I really needed a beach day and didn’t want to wait any longer, so I left and found my way to the beach. It was very crowded, but I found a spot off to the side around some rocks. It was kind of nice actually. When I was laying down, and looked around, I saw nothing but rocks, sand, water, and sky. I alternated between laying out reading and swimming for a few hours; I may have finally gotten some sun this contract now! Next time we’re there, unless I end up going to Olympia on a tour, I am definitely going back to that little beach!
After I got back, I had just enough time to shower and watch Sleeping Beauty before dinner. Unbirthday party was our theme tonight. It wasn’t the best night, but most of the kids had a good time. Playing “Islands” was a bit tough because they all got a bit violent trying to scramble onto the stools, and they were claiming other people were cheating during pin the candle on the cake. No one was really hurt though, and once we talked to them and threatened to not do any more activities tonight, their behavior improved.
I slept in this morning, then got ready to go to the beach. Fruszi and I had made plans to go to the beach right near the ship. She called and we agreed to meet in a few minutes. Apparently we missed each other though, I went to check on her room when she went to the gangway where I’d just left. After waiting about 10 minutes, I decided that I really needed a beach day and didn’t want to wait any longer, so I left and found my way to the beach. It was very crowded, but I found a spot off to the side around some rocks. It was kind of nice actually. When I was laying down, and looked around, I saw nothing but rocks, sand, water, and sky. I alternated between laying out reading and swimming for a few hours; I may have finally gotten some sun this contract now! Next time we’re there, unless I end up going to Olympia on a tour, I am definitely going back to that little beach!
After I got back, I had just enough time to shower and watch Sleeping Beauty before dinner. Unbirthday party was our theme tonight. It wasn’t the best night, but most of the kids had a good time. Playing “Islands” was a bit tough because they all got a bit violent trying to scramble onto the stools, and they were claiming other people were cheating during pin the candle on the cake. No one was really hurt though, and once we talked to them and threatened to not do any more activities tonight, their behavior improved.
Friday, August 9, 2013
leaving Venice again
August 8, 2013: Venice day 3
I knew I wasn’t going to make it off the ship today, but I did end up making it to breakfast. I really hope that today isn’t any indication of what breakfast will be like the rest of the cruise because it was incredibly busy and there were no tables available for more than 5 seconds once vacated. After breakfast I went back to the room and went back to sleep until lunchtime since there wasn’t that much time in between and nothing really to do since the passenger safety drill took up half that time (I didn’t have to do wristbands today, but there’s nothing we can do around the ship while the drill is going on, just have to stay out of the way). Lunch was really busy as well, that made more sense though since the drill just ended.
After lunch we started our sea afternoon. Leah and I are together on tweens this cruise. We had a lot come in to register this afternoon, so I took over the first few activities while Leah talked to the newcomers who needed to register. They’re all still pretty quiet. I do love the game UNO very much now, it’s easy enough to explain to non-English speakers and most of the kids from every country seem to generally know how to play. We played that for a while, had a ship drawing contest, then played Ickle Bickle before going up to the Sports Deck for Gaga Ball. Some of them don’t really get the fact that it’s not actually dodgeball, that they can hit the ball to keep it away, but at least none of them are overly aggressive with the game like they were last time I was on tweens! We had a quick water break in the Lido since it was so hot outside, then it was back to Club HAL. Leah and I kind of switched for the last hour, I assisted the parents registering and signing out their kids while Leah ran the activities. It was rather hectic the last thirty minutes because at least 5 families came at once and none of those kids spoke English. It seems strange to me that the parents know English rather well, but the kids don’t understand it at all. Anyway, while I was helping all these families register, Leah was trying to get all 20 of them set up on a Wii or Xbox. It was kind of crazy. I think we finally have about 40 (half) of the tweens registered now, so maybe not many more new people will come after the sea day tomorrow, so it’ll be easier on both of us.
Lights, Camera Action night was extremely quiet. Only 10 were there at snacktime, then we were down to 6 by the time we started making movie posters. A few more came while we were doing that, but our number never went above 10 again. So strange, usually nights are the busiest times of the day, but it seems like this cruise a lot of families want to have dinners together.
I’ve been having some trouble with housekeeping this contract. Meghna ordered room service a few weeks ago and they didn’t take the tray away until a few days ago, after we called a few times about it (gross), then there was an incident of not having any toilet paper for a few days (April and I went to the office and they got defensive, I’m not sure if I mentioned that here when it happened). The problem tonight was that they took away our dirty towels, but did not bring us any new ones. I went to the office and they acted confused and gave me a number to call. I called it and they said they’d send some down for us. Two hours later I called back (I was really ready to go to sleep because it’s hour forward tonight and sea day tomorrow) because no one had come yet. They answered the phone and were surprised when I told them I still hadn’t received the towels. I was very happy when 5 minutes later, someone came by with towels for us, soft fluffy, freshly out of the laundry towels too!
another embark day
August 7, 2013: Venice embark
I slept in today for once. Partially because I knew I wasn’t going to make it to breakfast before it closed and I didn’t have anything really to do before lunch anyway. I was really hungry by the time lunch opened though. I had a long, leisurely lunch with Linda and one of the stage managers before going upstairs for Open House. We had a short Open House today and 4 of us worked it, so it wasn’t really that busy ever. I spent the whole time writing our hours down onto the forms for parents and talking to a few of the families that came into the room and acknowledged me. 240 kids are on board this cruise, but only about 15 of them came up to Open House. We’re going to be busy with registering on the sea day (the day after we leave Venice) I think though.
A new cruise director came on today to fill in while Dave’s on vacation, so we had a full entertainment department meeting, which lasted about 15 minutes right in the middle of our break between Open House and dinner. There was no time to go to shore or to do anything productive before dinner, so I played Spider Solitare on my computer until dinnertime.
It was a quiet night in the tween room. About 10 came in the first half hour, and a few more before snack. They weren’t very talkative though, either they’re all quiet in general or all very shy.
I slept in today for once. Partially because I knew I wasn’t going to make it to breakfast before it closed and I didn’t have anything really to do before lunch anyway. I was really hungry by the time lunch opened though. I had a long, leisurely lunch with Linda and one of the stage managers before going upstairs for Open House. We had a short Open House today and 4 of us worked it, so it wasn’t really that busy ever. I spent the whole time writing our hours down onto the forms for parents and talking to a few of the families that came into the room and acknowledged me. 240 kids are on board this cruise, but only about 15 of them came up to Open House. We’re going to be busy with registering on the sea day (the day after we leave Venice) I think though.
A new cruise director came on today to fill in while Dave’s on vacation, so we had a full entertainment department meeting, which lasted about 15 minutes right in the middle of our break between Open House and dinner. There was no time to go to shore or to do anything productive before dinner, so I played Spider Solitare on my computer until dinnertime.
It was a quiet night in the tween room. About 10 came in the first half hour, and a few more before snack. They weren’t very talkative though, either they’re all quiet in general or all very shy.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
hanging out in Venice
August 6, 2013: Venice
It was a normal sea day morning, not many of the teens showed up because the main group wanted to go swimming. It was a quiet morning of hot chocolate and Wii.
I ate lunch quickly and went with Jenny and Leah to the bow to watch the sail-in to Venice. I left a note for Emily to meet us there since she and I made plans last night at dinner to wander around Venice together. Once we docked, Emily went to get a quick lunch before we left, then we headed out together. It was a fun afternoon! We just took the People Mover (one stop monorail) into the city, and wandered around towards St. Mark’s Square. It was fun hanging out and talking. I took about a hundred pictures (since I’d brought my DSLR out, and had made sure it was charged beforehand).
We were only out for around 3 hours, but it was really really hot outside, so I was happy to get back and have time to shower before dinner. I can’t imagine how everyone else must’ve been feeling if they went out, if I was hot, they must’ve been dying!
The Loft farewell party was pretty quiet. The main group went swimming again, then went to karaoke so were only up in the Loft for an hour before their curfew. Most of the kids that stayed the whole time were the typical xboxers, who I managed to get to play Just Dance on the Kinect (still xbox, but at least it’s more active). They had fun and entertained themselves, so I got to sit and attempt to finish Harry Potter for most of the night (I started it about halfway through the cruise and only read it when I’m in the Loft).
It was a normal sea day morning, not many of the teens showed up because the main group wanted to go swimming. It was a quiet morning of hot chocolate and Wii.
I ate lunch quickly and went with Jenny and Leah to the bow to watch the sail-in to Venice. I left a note for Emily to meet us there since she and I made plans last night at dinner to wander around Venice together. Once we docked, Emily went to get a quick lunch before we left, then we headed out together. It was a fun afternoon! We just took the People Mover (one stop monorail) into the city, and wandered around towards St. Mark’s Square. It was fun hanging out and talking. I took about a hundred pictures (since I’d brought my DSLR out, and had made sure it was charged beforehand).
The Loft farewell party was pretty quiet. The main group went swimming again, then went to karaoke so were only up in the Loft for an hour before their curfew. Most of the kids that stayed the whole time were the typical xboxers, who I managed to get to play Just Dance on the Kinect (still xbox, but at least it’s more active). They had fun and entertained themselves, so I got to sit and attempt to finish Harry Potter for most of the night (I started it about halfway through the cruise and only read it when I’m in the Loft).
Croatia again
August 5, 2013: Dubrovnik
It was an interesting day. Planning out today last night didn’t work at all, I left the OB after a few minutes frustration. Not good. So rounds out the cruise of plans failing over and over.
I had breakfast with James, who was exhausted because he couldn’t get to sleep last night, so he wasn’t going out today. I wasn’t sure what to do after that so ended up going back to bed for a bit, then deciding it was critically important that I buy laundry detergent today, so I HAD to go out. At the store, I met up with Jessie and two of the engineers. I hung out with them as we all did shopping. I needed that, just to hang out with people, I haven’t had time like that much this cruise.
We got back to the ship to drop off stuff before a potential beach trip. It was already 1 by that point, so we decided there wasn’t enough time to have a good beach afternoon, and Jessie wanted to do some work that she didn’t this morning. So, I hung out in the room for a bit, then got off to possibly find internet. It was very crowded everywhere and there was only an hour left before all aboard so I gave up on that idea and came back to the ship to do laundry.
Sometimes I forget how nice it is to have all my clothes clean.
The teens weren’t into Casino night for some reason, which is very odd because the teens have always loved Casino night. It turned into a night of just hanging out and playing Just Dance.
After work, Jenny and I met up with the rest of Club HAL in the OB. Apparently they’ve been out a lot lately and have seen shooting stars. So, we hung out and watched for more, I saw a lot. It was a beautiful night!
It was an interesting day. Planning out today last night didn’t work at all, I left the OB after a few minutes frustration. Not good. So rounds out the cruise of plans failing over and over.
I had breakfast with James, who was exhausted because he couldn’t get to sleep last night, so he wasn’t going out today. I wasn’t sure what to do after that so ended up going back to bed for a bit, then deciding it was critically important that I buy laundry detergent today, so I HAD to go out. At the store, I met up with Jessie and two of the engineers. I hung out with them as we all did shopping. I needed that, just to hang out with people, I haven’t had time like that much this cruise.
We got back to the ship to drop off stuff before a potential beach trip. It was already 1 by that point, so we decided there wasn’t enough time to have a good beach afternoon, and Jessie wanted to do some work that she didn’t this morning. So, I hung out in the room for a bit, then got off to possibly find internet. It was very crowded everywhere and there was only an hour left before all aboard so I gave up on that idea and came back to the ship to do laundry.
Sometimes I forget how nice it is to have all my clothes clean.
The teens weren’t into Casino night for some reason, which is very odd because the teens have always loved Casino night. It turned into a night of just hanging out and playing Just Dance.
After work, Jenny and I met up with the rest of Club HAL in the OB. Apparently they’ve been out a lot lately and have seen shooting stars. So, we hung out and watched for more, I saw a lot. It was a beautiful night!
Monday, August 5, 2013
port day..
August 4, 2013: Kotor, Montenegro
I had port day again today. It was a late arrival day though, so I had the morning off and didn’t have to go up until 11. We’d apparently arrived very early (9:30 instead of 11), so it was at open tender by the time I got up to Club HAL, nice for the rest of the staff since they didn’t have to wait to get off. It was a very busy day. I had 11 kids there for lunch, and a few teens I had to kick out of the Loft while the kids and I went to lunch. It was a bit of a hectic lunch because the 3-year-old that doesn’t speak English was there, and wasn’t happy about something, she kept repeating something over and over and over in Russian and was getting frustrated and upset when I didn’t know how to respond. Then one of the tweens kept running off away from the group, and I wouldn’t know where he was for a few minutes. Luckily once he came back and I told him that he needed to stay with the group, he would ask me if he could go get a refill of drink or something. We got ice cream once everyone had finished eating, and that was the quietest they’d been all day, so that was nice. Even the Russian girl sat and ate her ice cream quietly.
The rest of the afternoon dragged on as more as more kids came, they fought over the Wii controllers and Monopoly rules. I finally had to find all 8 Wii remotes and sync 4 to each Wii, and make sure they knew not to mix up the remotes and to take turns, or else I’d take all the remotes away. That calmed them down for the most part, and I took over the banker job in Monopoly with less interruptions. It was nice for a while, some girls playing Just Dance on the Kinect, others playing Wii and the rest playing or watching Monopoly. At the end of the afternoon, I was pretty tired, but I had to take three of the kids down to their room because Ryan had given permission for me to do that since their grandmother had a hard time moving around. I had maybe an hour in my room before dinner. Linda had organized for her, Johan, James, and me to have dinner in Pinnacle, but that ended up falling apart because it filled up with guests, so they had to cancel our reservation. Maybe next cruise we’ll finally be able to do that, we’ve been trying this whole cruise to make that dinner happen.
It was Olympic night in the Loft, so we hung out for an hour before going up to the Sports Deck where they wanted to play dodgeball. I refereed that for an hour, when they finally got tired of it, then we all went downstairs. Not long after that, most everyone left because they had curfew at 11. So, for half an hour, it was just one teen playing Guitar Hero while Jenny and I read. He left and we read for a little bit before deciding it was late enough that we could go ahead and clean up and close for the night. I’m supposed to meet Linda at the OB to discuss plans for tomorrow, but I don’t really want to stay long because port days tire me out, especially with as many kids as I had today
I had port day again today. It was a late arrival day though, so I had the morning off and didn’t have to go up until 11. We’d apparently arrived very early (9:30 instead of 11), so it was at open tender by the time I got up to Club HAL, nice for the rest of the staff since they didn’t have to wait to get off. It was a very busy day. I had 11 kids there for lunch, and a few teens I had to kick out of the Loft while the kids and I went to lunch. It was a bit of a hectic lunch because the 3-year-old that doesn’t speak English was there, and wasn’t happy about something, she kept repeating something over and over and over in Russian and was getting frustrated and upset when I didn’t know how to respond. Then one of the tweens kept running off away from the group, and I wouldn’t know where he was for a few minutes. Luckily once he came back and I told him that he needed to stay with the group, he would ask me if he could go get a refill of drink or something. We got ice cream once everyone had finished eating, and that was the quietest they’d been all day, so that was nice. Even the Russian girl sat and ate her ice cream quietly.
The rest of the afternoon dragged on as more as more kids came, they fought over the Wii controllers and Monopoly rules. I finally had to find all 8 Wii remotes and sync 4 to each Wii, and make sure they knew not to mix up the remotes and to take turns, or else I’d take all the remotes away. That calmed them down for the most part, and I took over the banker job in Monopoly with less interruptions. It was nice for a while, some girls playing Just Dance on the Kinect, others playing Wii and the rest playing or watching Monopoly. At the end of the afternoon, I was pretty tired, but I had to take three of the kids down to their room because Ryan had given permission for me to do that since their grandmother had a hard time moving around. I had maybe an hour in my room before dinner. Linda had organized for her, Johan, James, and me to have dinner in Pinnacle, but that ended up falling apart because it filled up with guests, so they had to cancel our reservation. Maybe next cruise we’ll finally be able to do that, we’ve been trying this whole cruise to make that dinner happen.
It was Olympic night in the Loft, so we hung out for an hour before going up to the Sports Deck where they wanted to play dodgeball. I refereed that for an hour, when they finally got tired of it, then we all went downstairs. Not long after that, most everyone left because they had curfew at 11. So, for half an hour, it was just one teen playing Guitar Hero while Jenny and I read. He left and we read for a little bit before deciding it was late enough that we could go ahead and clean up and close for the night. I’m supposed to meet Linda at the OB to discuss plans for tomorrow, but I don’t really want to stay long because port days tire me out, especially with as many kids as I had today
I tried Octopus today...
August 3, 2013: Corfu, Greece
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do today and hadn’t heard from anyone, so I’d kind of decided just to get out and get internet for a while on my own. I was leaving breakfast as James arrived so I stayed with him while he ate, and he told me Linda want all of us to get lunch out together after 1. So, I tried calling her when I got back to the room, glad to have a plan with friends, but she didn’t answer so I ended up napping until 1 and tried calling again. No one answered the phone. I hadn’t gotten off the ship the last few days and really needed to see the sun, so I decided just to get off on my own even though I kind of hate doing that sometimes. I wasn’t sure what to do since it was 2 by that point, but I started walking. I walked to the terminal, then started the walk towards town. Halfway there, I see waving from inside a restaurant. I found Linda and Johan and ended up joining them there.
I realized that I hadn’t had lunch yet, so ordered some food after they got theirs. Johan had ordered octopus and somehow managed to convince me to try a piece. Not doing that again. It was gross. The thing still had suctions on it, and they crunched as I chewed. Ewwww. I was glad I only got a small piece, and I covered up the grossness with a milkshake (a real milkshake, not a smoothie! Usually in Europe they say things are milkshakes, but they’re really smoothies. Milkshakes are not at all common here, so it’s great to find one somewhere).
We came back and I took another nap before a small dinner. My stomach kind of felt like the octopus was trying to suction cup its way out of my stomach (not in the ‘I’m going to be sick’ way, but still it is not very comfortable) so I didn’t really feel like eating anything more than fruit.
The Loft tonight was a bit crowded. No one had a curfew so they were all ready to hang out all night. We had another ‘dance’ on the outside deck, I had to go upstairs for that, but no one really came to dance. At least two of the boys decided to come keep me company for the hour I had to be up there. We talked about places we’ve all been and different cruises and a lot of other stuff. I’m glad we have the group of teens we have this cruise, they’ve been awesome. What other teens would decide to forgo playing xbox inside to join their counselor outside on a really windy deck so she wouldn’t be bored?
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do today and hadn’t heard from anyone, so I’d kind of decided just to get out and get internet for a while on my own. I was leaving breakfast as James arrived so I stayed with him while he ate, and he told me Linda want all of us to get lunch out together after 1. So, I tried calling her when I got back to the room, glad to have a plan with friends, but she didn’t answer so I ended up napping until 1 and tried calling again. No one answered the phone. I hadn’t gotten off the ship the last few days and really needed to see the sun, so I decided just to get off on my own even though I kind of hate doing that sometimes. I wasn’t sure what to do since it was 2 by that point, but I started walking. I walked to the terminal, then started the walk towards town. Halfway there, I see waving from inside a restaurant. I found Linda and Johan and ended up joining them there.
I realized that I hadn’t had lunch yet, so ordered some food after they got theirs. Johan had ordered octopus and somehow managed to convince me to try a piece. Not doing that again. It was gross. The thing still had suctions on it, and they crunched as I chewed. Ewwww. I was glad I only got a small piece, and I covered up the grossness with a milkshake (a real milkshake, not a smoothie! Usually in Europe they say things are milkshakes, but they’re really smoothies. Milkshakes are not at all common here, so it’s great to find one somewhere).
We came back and I took another nap before a small dinner. My stomach kind of felt like the octopus was trying to suction cup its way out of my stomach (not in the ‘I’m going to be sick’ way, but still it is not very comfortable) so I didn’t really feel like eating anything more than fruit.
The Loft tonight was a bit crowded. No one had a curfew so they were all ready to hang out all night. We had another ‘dance’ on the outside deck, I had to go upstairs for that, but no one really came to dance. At least two of the boys decided to come keep me company for the hour I had to be up there. We talked about places we’ve all been and different cruises and a lot of other stuff. I’m glad we have the group of teens we have this cruise, they’ve been awesome. What other teens would decide to forgo playing xbox inside to join their counselor outside on a really windy deck so she wouldn’t be bored?
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Sea day and Teen Prom night
August 1, 2013: Sea day
Another long day, two in a row is a bit rough. Yesterday I worked almost 13 hours, and today was nearly 11. This morning was quiet, most of the teens didn’t turn up until 11, when they were supposed to meet to go to the pool. They ended up not going to the pool this morning and just hanging out with us. This afternoon however, they did go to the pool, then came back around 3 and we went them on a scavenger hunt. That took up a lot of the afternoon. One group of boys, like the rest of the week, played xbox the whole time. They were actually kind of rude to Jenny, she asked if they wanted to join a team for the scavenger hunt, and they asked for another controller. The rest of the afternoon went well though, some of the teens went swimming again, and others of us played MarioKart until 6 when we closed for dinner.
After a quick dinner, Jenny and I went downstairs to change for formal night and the teens prom night. It was an interesting evening. We hung out for about 45 minutes, then went downstairs to take pictures (an hour was set aside for that on the schedule for some reason, it only took about 15). Then, we just went back up to the Loft and hung out some more, voted on Prom King and Queen, and played Celebrity Heads to pass the time until the dance in the Crow’s Nest. Unsuccessful dance in my opinion, Ryan wasn’t really playing much dance music, so most of the time it was me and Jenny on the dance floor trying to get everyone to come up. Two groups that haven’t really come to the Loft showed up, a group of Dutch teens, and another group that had 2 teens I’d seen before. The Dutch kids would dance for a bit, then leave, come back, dance, leave again, over and over and over. The other teens didn’t dance at all, but sat on the sides and watched like they were too cool for it. Stereotypical ‘popular’ teenager attitude. By 11, all the ones that usually come to the Loft had left, and it was only the Dutch teens left (and they kept leaving), so Jenny, Ryan and I had fun dancing until 11:30 (that’s when we had to leave) when he told us to check the Loft to see if any teens were there, if not, then we were free to leave. No one was there, so we left and went to the OB.
Another long day, two in a row is a bit rough. Yesterday I worked almost 13 hours, and today was nearly 11. This morning was quiet, most of the teens didn’t turn up until 11, when they were supposed to meet to go to the pool. They ended up not going to the pool this morning and just hanging out with us. This afternoon however, they did go to the pool, then came back around 3 and we went them on a scavenger hunt. That took up a lot of the afternoon. One group of boys, like the rest of the week, played xbox the whole time. They were actually kind of rude to Jenny, she asked if they wanted to join a team for the scavenger hunt, and they asked for another controller. The rest of the afternoon went well though, some of the teens went swimming again, and others of us played MarioKart until 6 when we closed for dinner.
After a quick dinner, Jenny and I went downstairs to change for formal night and the teens prom night. It was an interesting evening. We hung out for about 45 minutes, then went downstairs to take pictures (an hour was set aside for that on the schedule for some reason, it only took about 15). Then, we just went back up to the Loft and hung out some more, voted on Prom King and Queen, and played Celebrity Heads to pass the time until the dance in the Crow’s Nest. Unsuccessful dance in my opinion, Ryan wasn’t really playing much dance music, so most of the time it was me and Jenny on the dance floor trying to get everyone to come up. Two groups that haven’t really come to the Loft showed up, a group of Dutch teens, and another group that had 2 teens I’d seen before. The Dutch kids would dance for a bit, then leave, come back, dance, leave again, over and over and over. The other teens didn’t dance at all, but sat on the sides and watched like they were too cool for it. Stereotypical ‘popular’ teenager attitude. By 11, all the ones that usually come to the Loft had left, and it was only the Dutch teens left (and they kept leaving), so Jenny, Ryan and I had fun dancing until 11:30 (that’s when we had to leave) when he told us to check the Loft to see if any teens were there, if not, then we were free to leave. No one was there, so we left and went to the OB.
long port day
July 31, 2013: Naples
It was an extremely long day. I had to be up in Club HAL at 8 for port day. Kind of nice though because no one showed up until 10. It wasn’t that bad of a day, not like the port days that the others have been having (at least 20 there for most of the day). Only 4 kids were there for lunch, one 3-year-old didn’t speak English, so that was interesting. Other than that, lunch went really well. After lunch we went back to Club HAL and continued the games they’d been playing before lunch. A few more kids slowly came in as the afternoon went on, but I still had less than 15 total. I’d been up a really long time, so was very exhausted when 4 came around and there were still 10 kids waiting to be picked up. Having that many late parents never happens, so I wasn’t sure what to do. Luckily, most of them came by in the next 10 minutes. 4 kids, from 2 families were left though and I started trying to call the rooms for the parents. One came only a few seconds after I’d called. The other, I tried to call a few different numbers, but no answer. The parents came finally at 4:30. I wasn’t too happy about that and they didn’t apologize or make any excuse for being late. Of course, it was a bit difficult for them to do that because I had another family who’d walked in wanting to register their daughter for tomorrow.
Finally I got them all to leave and got to come down to the room for a bit of relaxation before dinner. It was a long dinner and I had to run back downstairs to grab my bag before running back upstairs with the keys so we could open. Good dinner conversation though, Emily (the librarian) is pretty awesome, she and I talked about Doctor Who, Halloween costumes and a bunch of other stuff.
I was so tired tonight, I don’t really remember much of what we did. I know the teens were kind of concerned about me because I looked so exhausted.
It was an extremely long day. I had to be up in Club HAL at 8 for port day. Kind of nice though because no one showed up until 10. It wasn’t that bad of a day, not like the port days that the others have been having (at least 20 there for most of the day). Only 4 kids were there for lunch, one 3-year-old didn’t speak English, so that was interesting. Other than that, lunch went really well. After lunch we went back to Club HAL and continued the games they’d been playing before lunch. A few more kids slowly came in as the afternoon went on, but I still had less than 15 total. I’d been up a really long time, so was very exhausted when 4 came around and there were still 10 kids waiting to be picked up. Having that many late parents never happens, so I wasn’t sure what to do. Luckily, most of them came by in the next 10 minutes. 4 kids, from 2 families were left though and I started trying to call the rooms for the parents. One came only a few seconds after I’d called. The other, I tried to call a few different numbers, but no answer. The parents came finally at 4:30. I wasn’t too happy about that and they didn’t apologize or make any excuse for being late. Of course, it was a bit difficult for them to do that because I had another family who’d walked in wanting to register their daughter for tomorrow.
Finally I got them all to leave and got to come down to the room for a bit of relaxation before dinner. It was a long dinner and I had to run back downstairs to grab my bag before running back upstairs with the keys so we could open. Good dinner conversation though, Emily (the librarian) is pretty awesome, she and I talked about Doctor Who, Halloween costumes and a bunch of other stuff.
I was so tired tonight, I don’t really remember much of what we did. I know the teens were kind of concerned about me because I looked so exhausted.
off in Civitavecchia!
July 30, 2013: Civitavecchia
Linda and I had decided last night to make today a beach day. She had to wait for someone to come on board and help fix something in the theatre, but after that she was free. Last time this person came on board, they got on around 8 and were on for two hours or so, so she figured it’d be the same today. Nope. They ended up not coming until around 1, which meant I spent the morning hanging out in the room waiting for Linda to call and let me know what the plan was. We ended up giving up on our beach plans and instead getting off around 3 for a late lunch and wifi. We had some great pizza. The good thing about going out with Linda is that getting wifi isn’t antisocial like it is a lot of the time with others. Usually when I’m with a group and we find wifi, suddenly everyone is in their own worlds, attached to their phones, but with Linda we still kept up conversation between the two of us as we checked on the outside world.
I wasn’t really too hungry at dinner because of our late lunch, but I ended up at least eating some fruit before heading up to work. It was random games night, so we let them just hang out, like they always want to. I got out cards and taught some of them various card games while another group played Apples to Apples. Jenny had to leave for a while to help out with a ‘teen dance’ on Deck 12 that the new EM decided to have us host to try to have more activities for all the teens to do. I stayed in the Loft with the teens that didn’t want to go.
Linda and I had decided last night to make today a beach day. She had to wait for someone to come on board and help fix something in the theatre, but after that she was free. Last time this person came on board, they got on around 8 and were on for two hours or so, so she figured it’d be the same today. Nope. They ended up not coming until around 1, which meant I spent the morning hanging out in the room waiting for Linda to call and let me know what the plan was. We ended up giving up on our beach plans and instead getting off around 3 for a late lunch and wifi. We had some great pizza. The good thing about going out with Linda is that getting wifi isn’t antisocial like it is a lot of the time with others. Usually when I’m with a group and we find wifi, suddenly everyone is in their own worlds, attached to their phones, but with Linda we still kept up conversation between the two of us as we checked on the outside world.
I wasn’t really too hungry at dinner because of our late lunch, but I ended up at least eating some fruit before heading up to work. It was random games night, so we let them just hang out, like they always want to. I got out cards and taught some of them various card games while another group played Apples to Apples. Jenny had to leave for a while to help out with a ‘teen dance’ on Deck 12 that the new EM decided to have us host to try to have more activities for all the teens to do. I stayed in the Loft with the teens that didn’t want to go.
lazy day in Livorno
July 29, 2013: Livorno
I got up this morning not entirely sure what to do with my day. I went up for breakfast and saw the weather, which decided for me that I was going to stay on the ship today. It was rainy and hot. Most of Club HAL, and Jessie were all going to Pisa on the crew excursion (I’d already been, and it’s not one of those places that you feel the need to go to more than once. Been there, took the picture, bought the postcard, now I don’t need to go back.
So, I took a nap between breakfast and lunch (haven’t been sleeping the best the last few nights). I helped Ryan with the kids who were on for port day, then went to the library for a while to read. It got crowded there so I ended up going back to the room and watched a movie on my computer. I didn’t do too much today, but at least I felt somewhat productive.
I’m getting to that point now of being tired of ship food (again). I’m extremely glad that they’ve opened up the pasta line at dinner, but still there isn’t much non-seafood or simple food at dinner. Of course, I’ve learned now that the food changes depending on location, so maybe once it goes back to the Caribbean fruit soup will be available more often, and different options at dinner! Pasta every night is starting to get a bit old.
It was an easy night, movie night. We let them hang out for a while, then had them vote on one of the 6 movies Jenny and I had it narrowed down to. They ended up deciding on James Bond, however once they got to the front office, they found out it had already been checked out, so they came back with Iron Man 2. Oh well. Some of the kids weren’t really into watching the movie so Jenny and I hung out and talked to them anyway.
I got up this morning not entirely sure what to do with my day. I went up for breakfast and saw the weather, which decided for me that I was going to stay on the ship today. It was rainy and hot. Most of Club HAL, and Jessie were all going to Pisa on the crew excursion (I’d already been, and it’s not one of those places that you feel the need to go to more than once. Been there, took the picture, bought the postcard, now I don’t need to go back.
So, I took a nap between breakfast and lunch (haven’t been sleeping the best the last few nights). I helped Ryan with the kids who were on for port day, then went to the library for a while to read. It got crowded there so I ended up going back to the room and watched a movie on my computer. I didn’t do too much today, but at least I felt somewhat productive.
I’m getting to that point now of being tired of ship food (again). I’m extremely glad that they’ve opened up the pasta line at dinner, but still there isn’t much non-seafood or simple food at dinner. Of course, I’ve learned now that the food changes depending on location, so maybe once it goes back to the Caribbean fruit soup will be available more often, and different options at dinner! Pasta every night is starting to get a bit old.
It was an easy night, movie night. We let them hang out for a while, then had them vote on one of the 6 movies Jenny and I had it narrowed down to. They ended up deciding on James Bond, however once they got to the front office, they found out it had already been checked out, so they came back with Iron Man 2. Oh well. Some of the kids weren’t really into watching the movie so Jenny and I hung out and talked to them anyway.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)