December 26, 2013: St. Thomas
Andy and I had to work Kids in the Kitchen for our tweens this morning at 9. Only a few kids came to that, which was kind of nice because everyone got two Rice Krispy treats and a cup of whichever of the two smoothies we made. It wasn’t a bad way to start off the morning! I could’ve gotten off after that, but the rest of Club HAL had raft drills this morning (some of them two because they had the new-crew one in addition to a scheduled one for their number), so I had to go upstairs and cover for Christine in Club HAL during her drill. By the time all the drills were done, it was 11:30. A few of the boys came up to see what was going on and Andy, Ethan, Royce and I ended up deciding to eat a light lunch on the ship before heading to Magen’s Bay for some beach time.
It was a bit of a ride to get there, but once we were there, it was really nice weather, a beautiful beach, and lots of fun! They played soccer for a bit, we all swam, I got to lay out in the sun for a while, then we took a lot of time and walked from one end of the beach to the other, even exploring in the shallow rocky areas on either end. We actually saw quite a few fish which was cool, sea urchins, minnows and some small striped yellow and black fish. We only had about 30 minutes once we got back to our spot to enjoy the sun and for the boys to kick around the soccer ball before I made us leave to make it back on time. It was a good afternoon though, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Once back, I showered and lounged around reading until nearly dinnertime when I realized I had to go upstairs and eat soon! My tweens had RockStar night in the Loft. We hadn’t been in the Loft yet, so I gave them about half an hour to play foosball and air hockey before we moved onto playing ‘Just Dance’ on the Wii and Celebrity Heads. Celebrity Heads was quite popular, surprising for me since so many of them were trying to cheat and giving away the answers to the other kids.
Friday, December 27, 2013
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Christmas Day in Puerto Rico
December 25, 2013
This morning was a whole day unto itself. I woke up at the usual time for work at 9, but instead of going to work in Club HAL, I had to quickly change into an elf and make my way to the Showroom at Sea. There, Christine told me and Christine basically to hide through the first activity (candy cane bingo), so we went down to the Pit and waited. We made sure that all the presents were there and pretty much in order, then I ended up actually falling asleep in “Santa’s chair.” Finally, they showed the video of Santa running around the ship, Santa came in the Showroom, the Pit rose, and Santa and his elves were reunited. Ryan (singer from the cast) was Santa, so we had a quick conversation and laugh as he sat down; he couldn’t see for the wig and hat, so we decided I’d just give out the gifts.
For the next hour, I smiled nonstop, gave out lots of presents and took more pictures than I have in my life so far. So many kids, adults, and families wanted pictures with Santa and his elves. It was fun though; Ryan, Rachel (the EM), and Christine all told me how good a job I did at both being ready for pictures and giving out the gifts at a proper time and perfectly according to age. :) That’s a good sign, when your boss and boss’ boss compliment you on something like that!
That took about an hour, housekeeping probably hates us because of all the snow that was slowly fluttering down all inside the Showroom that whole time. It was a nice effect, but a lot of clean-up work for them. Once the Showroom was clear of guests, I helped Christine carry the boxes of presents to the office, ran downstairs and changed before running up to help her with the last activity before port day. The rest of Club HAL had immigration, so it was just me, Christine and Ethan upstairs with three kids who colored those 30 minutes. Some parents, however, did not pick up their kids at the time posted, and ended up staying the rest of the afternoon (we were only scheduled for programming until 11:30, then port day started at 12). I stayed with them while Christine ran downstairs to quickly eat some lunch (some kids got picked up for a quick lunch and were returned to us in 15 minutes while others were signed in between 11:30 and 12.
After that, Ethan and I grabbed some lunch and the rest of us in Club HAL made our plans for the afternoon in San Juan. OF course we all wanted internet at some point, but Kristin wanted to find a beach, Phil wanted to go surfing, and Ethan wanted to wander on his own. So, I ended up hanging out with Andy and Royce, we walked around for about 2 hours, stopping a lot for photoshoots, then realized that if we wanted internet for a decent amount of time we’d better find a place. We found a restaurant right across the street from the ship and stopped there for wifi for about an hour and a half! I got to upload pictures (finally from the first two weeks back here), and get on skype! I’m actually still registering that I spent Christmas day in San Juan, Puerto Rico while my family is all still at home.
We had to hurry back to the ship because they were putting on a Christmas Dinner for those of us with Officer status and formalwear was required. I went for the more casual formalwear and most of the other girls did too (at least, the girls who weren’t actual officers or engineers who have an actual formal uniform to wear). We were a bit worried about having enough time to eat before work (especially because Kristin’s first contract was during Christmas and they never actually got their food before they had to run off to work), but it was fine, even though they did forget to give us our entrees for a while (they brought us dessert actually before our entrees). It was a bit strange sitting in the Lido and being served by housekeeping staff, but it was a nice dinner (I had fruit as an appetizer, and steak as my entrée! YUM, filet mignon!!).
We changed and made it to work right on time. It was movie night anyway, so we didn’t have anything to prepare for. We gave the kids 30 minutes of free time, then did a mummy wrap with wrapping paper, a snowball fight with the same (but torn up) wrapping paper, and then played four corners before we put on Wreck-it Ralph.
I was exhausted by then, I only barely managed to stay awake through Wreck-it Ralph; and I wasn’t the only one. All of us in Club HAL (with the exception of the teen counselors and Andy who volunteered to do after hours) went straight to bed at 10 (the others as soon as they were finished with work after midnight). It was a lonnnngg day. Good, but very long and tiring.
This morning was a whole day unto itself. I woke up at the usual time for work at 9, but instead of going to work in Club HAL, I had to quickly change into an elf and make my way to the Showroom at Sea. There, Christine told me and Christine basically to hide through the first activity (candy cane bingo), so we went down to the Pit and waited. We made sure that all the presents were there and pretty much in order, then I ended up actually falling asleep in “Santa’s chair.” Finally, they showed the video of Santa running around the ship, Santa came in the Showroom, the Pit rose, and Santa and his elves were reunited. Ryan (singer from the cast) was Santa, so we had a quick conversation and laugh as he sat down; he couldn’t see for the wig and hat, so we decided I’d just give out the gifts.
For the next hour, I smiled nonstop, gave out lots of presents and took more pictures than I have in my life so far. So many kids, adults, and families wanted pictures with Santa and his elves. It was fun though; Ryan, Rachel (the EM), and Christine all told me how good a job I did at both being ready for pictures and giving out the gifts at a proper time and perfectly according to age. :) That’s a good sign, when your boss and boss’ boss compliment you on something like that!
That took about an hour, housekeeping probably hates us because of all the snow that was slowly fluttering down all inside the Showroom that whole time. It was a nice effect, but a lot of clean-up work for them. Once the Showroom was clear of guests, I helped Christine carry the boxes of presents to the office, ran downstairs and changed before running up to help her with the last activity before port day. The rest of Club HAL had immigration, so it was just me, Christine and Ethan upstairs with three kids who colored those 30 minutes. Some parents, however, did not pick up their kids at the time posted, and ended up staying the rest of the afternoon (we were only scheduled for programming until 11:30, then port day started at 12). I stayed with them while Christine ran downstairs to quickly eat some lunch (some kids got picked up for a quick lunch and were returned to us in 15 minutes while others were signed in between 11:30 and 12.
After that, Ethan and I grabbed some lunch and the rest of us in Club HAL made our plans for the afternoon in San Juan. OF course we all wanted internet at some point, but Kristin wanted to find a beach, Phil wanted to go surfing, and Ethan wanted to wander on his own. So, I ended up hanging out with Andy and Royce, we walked around for about 2 hours, stopping a lot for photoshoots, then realized that if we wanted internet for a decent amount of time we’d better find a place. We found a restaurant right across the street from the ship and stopped there for wifi for about an hour and a half! I got to upload pictures (finally from the first two weeks back here), and get on skype! I’m actually still registering that I spent Christmas day in San Juan, Puerto Rico while my family is all still at home.
We had to hurry back to the ship because they were putting on a Christmas Dinner for those of us with Officer status and formalwear was required. I went for the more casual formalwear and most of the other girls did too (at least, the girls who weren’t actual officers or engineers who have an actual formal uniform to wear). We were a bit worried about having enough time to eat before work (especially because Kristin’s first contract was during Christmas and they never actually got their food before they had to run off to work), but it was fine, even though they did forget to give us our entrees for a while (they brought us dessert actually before our entrees). It was a bit strange sitting in the Lido and being served by housekeeping staff, but it was a nice dinner (I had fruit as an appetizer, and steak as my entrée! YUM, filet mignon!!).
We changed and made it to work right on time. It was movie night anyway, so we didn’t have anything to prepare for. We gave the kids 30 minutes of free time, then did a mummy wrap with wrapping paper, a snowball fight with the same (but torn up) wrapping paper, and then played four corners before we put on Wreck-it Ralph.
I was exhausted by then, I only barely managed to stay awake through Wreck-it Ralph; and I wasn’t the only one. All of us in Club HAL (with the exception of the teen counselors and Andy who volunteered to do after hours) went straight to bed at 10 (the others as soon as they were finished with work after midnight). It was a lonnnngg day. Good, but very long and tiring.
Christmas Eve & "where'd you find this adorable dog?"
December 24, 2013
Christmas on ships is an entirely different experience. A whole new world from Christmas on land. For one, it’s SUNNY and WARM! I don’t think I’ve ever really had a white Christmas (at least, not one I remember), so it’s not the snow I’m missing. However, it being Christmas Eve day and I spent it at the beach, that just seems like an oxymoron. Another thing is, family and tradition are missing. I’ve heard that ship-Christmases have their own traditions, but as this is my first Christmas on board, they are all foreign and new to me.
The Christmas-Tree Lighting Ceremony was one of these new traditions. I don’t think I elaborate on that much the other day so here goes. At around 7, all the available entertainment department members were gathered in the Ent. Office, Santa hats on, wearing nice clothes (for those that didn’t have to wear uniforms at all, or even just at night; basically everyone was in pretty/Christmasy clothes except for Club HAL). The cast had sheet music because they were in charge of leading the songs, and the rest of us just followed along as we hadn’t been given any instructions as to what we should do. Our department arrived, singing jingle bells in the atrium (about 30 steps from the office) and everyone else filed into place. The stage crew, librarian, show host, and party planner headed up the stairs quickly to Deck 3; the cast lined up along the stairs from Deck 1 to Deck 2; we just followed and ended up lining up behind the cast on those stairs. The room was full of noise, half the people were singing, the other half were just talking to one another, it seemed as if they were oblivious to the fact that something important was happening. The cruise director introduced us, we sang another song and then the main event took place. Two kids had been chosen earlier in the day to light the tree. They were up front and the cruise director took them aside, introduced them, and gave them the “magic snow” to sprinkle around the tree to make it light. We had a bit of technical errors as the magic took some time to work, but the tree lit up eventually. Immediately we launched into “Let It Snow” as the people on Deck 3 threw ‘snowflakes’ from buckets down onto the floors below, like magic right? I feel like it could’ve been better organized, but it still had some feel of magic to it, the kids definitely thought it was magic, they couldn’t see the secret buckets being reached into for the snow. That’s what counts on ships though, the kids view of Christmas, and of course the rest of the guests, but for me in Club HAL, it’s ALL about the kids. They enjoyed it, which means we did our job!
The morning was quiet when it comes to Christmas activities, I guess it’s just the fact that I seem to be the only one in the world who views Christmas Eve just as important as Christmas Day, possibly even more so. I guess it’s because of the candlelight service at church, really celebrating Jesus’ birth! Christmas Day is always exciting with the presents and all, but the REAL Christmas in my mind is always the night before; it reminds us of the real reason we celebrate, of why we give gifts. There were Santa hats everywhere, pretty much everyone was required to wear one today and tomorrow.
I found out that night in Club HAL that there was a Christmas Mass at 5, if I had known earlier, I probably would have attended, it would’ve been better than nothing, but they didn’t advertise it to crew or even much around the ship (probably because a lot of the families on board this cruise are Jewish).
At 11pm, we had our concert. It has some aspects of the candlelight service I’m used to, music of course, and the singing of “Silent Night” by ‘candle’light. I didn’t get to really watch and hear what was going on though, because we were stuck backstage until time for the international choir (anyone but Filipinos and Indonesians) to sing. There was a much bigger group for this than there was for rehearsals for a few reasons actually. 1) The engineers and deckies are required to be at the concert if they’re not on watch, but they aren’t required to go to rehearsals, and 2) free drinks at the OB as we waited to get organized and go onstage. It was definitely an interesting experience. We filed down the stairs at almost exactly 11, but the Filipino choir and Cantare (the 4 male singers of the cast) sang before us, so we were waiting on the crew staircase between decks 1 and 4 for about 20 minutes. Safety hazard? Plus, all the girls were wearing dresses and heels. Not a great combination with the stairs on a night when we were rocking pretty hard. All of us were glad when we finally had enough room backstage to stand and wait there before we crowded onto the stage, sang our three songs and went back backstage. After that, it was only a short time before we were back onstage, turning our ‘candles’ on, singing “Silent Night” and making our way up the stairs and out the Deck 3 doors. What they didn’t tell us in rehearsal about that is that we had to stand there and wait for all the guests to leave, wishing them all a Merry Christmas as they went.
After all the guests left, word quickly spread about a Christmas gathering for us in the Pinnacle. There, we found more free drinks and lots of food. I had my time of being the social butterfly (I have friends in lots of departments and they were all sitting in different parts of the room!), ate a few ensamadas and wished everyone I could a “Merry Christmas!” I was very Christmasy in a red dress and Santa hat, much more Christmasy than that elf costume I think!
After they closed up the Pinnacle, most everyone ended up in the Northern Lights, our guest area curfew had been extended, so we were allowed to be there for a while. I didn’t stay too long though because it was already really late, I was tired and I had work in the morning.
Now, to the non-Christmas-related part of my day.
Fire drill was at 10:30 this morning, which greatly delayed my getting off the ship and enjoying the sun. However, I did get off as soon as I could after that with Ethan. We met Phil on the beach and ended up far down the beach at a place a lot of crew members go (most guests never make it further than three restaurants away from the ship). It was nice, they had food, music, and of course, the beach right outside. And then, we found a dog. This dog belongs to the people who run this place and he has full run of the beach (not that he goes very far), the crew members that’ve been here since the start of the season know him well by now. I made a friend today! He’s a really sweet dog, it took him some time to listen, but we became friends after that. When Ethan, Phil and I first went in the water, the dog followed us a little bit in, then decided it’d be more fun to dig, so he dug and dug and dug, occasionally turning around as the sand flew behind him. I eventually figured out that he liked the sand flying through the air. So, I threw some clumps of sand up to see what he would do. I spent the next hour or so gathering sand and throwing I for him to try to catch! It was great fun! Though, we did draw a lot of attention from other people walking by. Once I got tired, I went to lay out on my towel for a little bit, and he followed me, resting for a bit, before running back towards the water to play some more, I couldn’t resist, so I followed.
Phil left, and the Recycled Percussion guys came out and found the dog just as fascinating as I did. “Where did you find this adorable dog?” They joined me in playing with him, and we even got him out further into the water. I’m not sure if he really has ever swam much before, he seemed rather uncertain about it, but he really wanted to join us. For a while, he was walking in the deeper water on his back paws. I picked him up and his instincts took over and he was swimming around us in no time. When he got tired, he’d swim over to me and I’d hold him up for a while. Finally, he got too tired and made his way back to more firm ground where he began digging again. One of the guys from the group actually ended up helping him dig. That was entertaining to watch, man and dog digging a hole in the sand, trying to beat the water which kept filling up the hole as they were working. Not long after that, I figured I should head back to the ship, perfect timing because as soon as I had my stuff together and was about to start walking, I felt a few raindrops. I started walking and suddenly it was a constant drizzle. Next thing I knew, Recycled Percussion and other crew members were running past me and it was raining much harder. I decided it wasn’t worth it, I was wet already, couldn’t hurt to get any more wet, so I just walked normally back to the ship. Of course, once there, I was drenched and looking like a wet dog. Luckily, Kristin was working the afternoon shift, so I didn’t have to worry about taking over the bathroom to take a good long shower once back in the room. The security at the gangway did find it hilarious how soaked I was though, guests were coming in with towels over their heads and umbrellas, but there I was, one with the rain and completely drenched!
Christmas on ships is an entirely different experience. A whole new world from Christmas on land. For one, it’s SUNNY and WARM! I don’t think I’ve ever really had a white Christmas (at least, not one I remember), so it’s not the snow I’m missing. However, it being Christmas Eve day and I spent it at the beach, that just seems like an oxymoron. Another thing is, family and tradition are missing. I’ve heard that ship-Christmases have their own traditions, but as this is my first Christmas on board, they are all foreign and new to me.
The Christmas-Tree Lighting Ceremony was one of these new traditions. I don’t think I elaborate on that much the other day so here goes. At around 7, all the available entertainment department members were gathered in the Ent. Office, Santa hats on, wearing nice clothes (for those that didn’t have to wear uniforms at all, or even just at night; basically everyone was in pretty/Christmasy clothes except for Club HAL). The cast had sheet music because they were in charge of leading the songs, and the rest of us just followed along as we hadn’t been given any instructions as to what we should do. Our department arrived, singing jingle bells in the atrium (about 30 steps from the office) and everyone else filed into place. The stage crew, librarian, show host, and party planner headed up the stairs quickly to Deck 3; the cast lined up along the stairs from Deck 1 to Deck 2; we just followed and ended up lining up behind the cast on those stairs. The room was full of noise, half the people were singing, the other half were just talking to one another, it seemed as if they were oblivious to the fact that something important was happening. The cruise director introduced us, we sang another song and then the main event took place. Two kids had been chosen earlier in the day to light the tree. They were up front and the cruise director took them aside, introduced them, and gave them the “magic snow” to sprinkle around the tree to make it light. We had a bit of technical errors as the magic took some time to work, but the tree lit up eventually. Immediately we launched into “Let It Snow” as the people on Deck 3 threw ‘snowflakes’ from buckets down onto the floors below, like magic right? I feel like it could’ve been better organized, but it still had some feel of magic to it, the kids definitely thought it was magic, they couldn’t see the secret buckets being reached into for the snow. That’s what counts on ships though, the kids view of Christmas, and of course the rest of the guests, but for me in Club HAL, it’s ALL about the kids. They enjoyed it, which means we did our job!
The morning was quiet when it comes to Christmas activities, I guess it’s just the fact that I seem to be the only one in the world who views Christmas Eve just as important as Christmas Day, possibly even more so. I guess it’s because of the candlelight service at church, really celebrating Jesus’ birth! Christmas Day is always exciting with the presents and all, but the REAL Christmas in my mind is always the night before; it reminds us of the real reason we celebrate, of why we give gifts. There were Santa hats everywhere, pretty much everyone was required to wear one today and tomorrow.
I found out that night in Club HAL that there was a Christmas Mass at 5, if I had known earlier, I probably would have attended, it would’ve been better than nothing, but they didn’t advertise it to crew or even much around the ship (probably because a lot of the families on board this cruise are Jewish).
At 11pm, we had our concert. It has some aspects of the candlelight service I’m used to, music of course, and the singing of “Silent Night” by ‘candle’light. I didn’t get to really watch and hear what was going on though, because we were stuck backstage until time for the international choir (anyone but Filipinos and Indonesians) to sing. There was a much bigger group for this than there was for rehearsals for a few reasons actually. 1) The engineers and deckies are required to be at the concert if they’re not on watch, but they aren’t required to go to rehearsals, and 2) free drinks at the OB as we waited to get organized and go onstage. It was definitely an interesting experience. We filed down the stairs at almost exactly 11, but the Filipino choir and Cantare (the 4 male singers of the cast) sang before us, so we were waiting on the crew staircase between decks 1 and 4 for about 20 minutes. Safety hazard? Plus, all the girls were wearing dresses and heels. Not a great combination with the stairs on a night when we were rocking pretty hard. All of us were glad when we finally had enough room backstage to stand and wait there before we crowded onto the stage, sang our three songs and went back backstage. After that, it was only a short time before we were back onstage, turning our ‘candles’ on, singing “Silent Night” and making our way up the stairs and out the Deck 3 doors. What they didn’t tell us in rehearsal about that is that we had to stand there and wait for all the guests to leave, wishing them all a Merry Christmas as they went.
After all the guests left, word quickly spread about a Christmas gathering for us in the Pinnacle. There, we found more free drinks and lots of food. I had my time of being the social butterfly (I have friends in lots of departments and they were all sitting in different parts of the room!), ate a few ensamadas and wished everyone I could a “Merry Christmas!” I was very Christmasy in a red dress and Santa hat, much more Christmasy than that elf costume I think!
After they closed up the Pinnacle, most everyone ended up in the Northern Lights, our guest area curfew had been extended, so we were allowed to be there for a while. I didn’t stay too long though because it was already really late, I was tired and I had work in the morning.
Now, to the non-Christmas-related part of my day.
Fire drill was at 10:30 this morning, which greatly delayed my getting off the ship and enjoying the sun. However, I did get off as soon as I could after that with Ethan. We met Phil on the beach and ended up far down the beach at a place a lot of crew members go (most guests never make it further than three restaurants away from the ship). It was nice, they had food, music, and of course, the beach right outside. And then, we found a dog. This dog belongs to the people who run this place and he has full run of the beach (not that he goes very far), the crew members that’ve been here since the start of the season know him well by now. I made a friend today! He’s a really sweet dog, it took him some time to listen, but we became friends after that. When Ethan, Phil and I first went in the water, the dog followed us a little bit in, then decided it’d be more fun to dig, so he dug and dug and dug, occasionally turning around as the sand flew behind him. I eventually figured out that he liked the sand flying through the air. So, I threw some clumps of sand up to see what he would do. I spent the next hour or so gathering sand and throwing I for him to try to catch! It was great fun! Though, we did draw a lot of attention from other people walking by. Once I got tired, I went to lay out on my towel for a little bit, and he followed me, resting for a bit, before running back towards the water to play some more, I couldn’t resist, so I followed.
Phil left, and the Recycled Percussion guys came out and found the dog just as fascinating as I did. “Where did you find this adorable dog?” They joined me in playing with him, and we even got him out further into the water. I’m not sure if he really has ever swam much before, he seemed rather uncertain about it, but he really wanted to join us. For a while, he was walking in the deeper water on his back paws. I picked him up and his instincts took over and he was swimming around us in no time. When he got tired, he’d swim over to me and I’d hold him up for a while. Finally, he got too tired and made his way back to more firm ground where he began digging again. One of the guys from the group actually ended up helping him dig. That was entertaining to watch, man and dog digging a hole in the sand, trying to beat the water which kept filling up the hole as they were working. Not long after that, I figured I should head back to the ship, perfect timing because as soon as I had my stuff together and was about to start walking, I felt a few raindrops. I started walking and suddenly it was a constant drizzle. Next thing I knew, Recycled Percussion and other crew members were running past me and it was raining much harder. I decided it wasn’t worth it, I was wet already, couldn’t hurt to get any more wet, so I just walked normally back to the ship. Of course, once there, I was drenched and looking like a wet dog. Luckily, Kristin was working the afternoon shift, so I didn’t have to worry about taking over the bathroom to take a good long shower once back in the room. The security at the gangway did find it hilarious how soaked I was though, guests were coming in with towels over their heads and umbrellas, but there I was, one with the rain and completely drenched!
Monday, December 23, 2013
life of an elf?
Dec 22, 2013: embark day of the Christmas cruise
The first ¾ of today was absolute insanity it seems. If I had known that they were THAT busy doing other things to think about organizing anything Christmas, I definitely would have volunteered to help organize it all because it was just a big confusing mess. Ethan, Christine and I were in the office with Amanda at 8am to fill up balloons and tie strings on them to put them all up in the check-in area and around the gangway. That part was kind of fun other than the fact that I was tired and hungry; we had a forest of balloons throughout the office. Once we got a good number, we tied them up in groups of three or four. Christine and Ethan went to take those and start decorating while Amanda and I finished the rest. They came back not long after and said that security wouldn’t let them off at the guest gangway, so they figured they’d wait on us and take them all out the crew gangway together. While we were doing more balloons, one of the new Club HAL guys came on, so Christine had to leave to get him settled and show him around. She came back just as we were leaving with all the balloons. We made it to the crew gangway and they were all confused about what we were doing, but they let us off. All but Christine because the other three new Club HAL people just arrived and had to be shown around as well. So, we get outside, and stand there for a few minutes, completely at a loss of where to go. We ask the HRM who’s there checking in the new crew, but she’s too busy to help, and then we ask the port security, who just suggest going around the building. So, we wander around the outside of the building for a while, carrying a ton of balloons blowing around in the wind, until we find the doors the passengers use to get to the check-in area. We finally get to where we’re supposed to be, and the hotel director is there, freaking out because no one can find us; as it turns out, we DID have permission to go through the guest gangway no matter what security said. He gives us a bit of direction about where to put the balloons, then leaves us to work. It was a bit complicated because before tying balloons onto the desks and the “waiting maze,” we had to first untangle the big bunches of balloons because the wind was not kind to the strings while we were outside.
It took close to an hour and a half to do that, basically just making it up as we went. Then, we got to go back in for an “on location” team meeting with someone from corporate, then we met up with the new Club HAL members. Kristin (who was here this summer for a few weeks) and I had to grab costumes and dress up as elves to wander around the check-in area to talk to guests as they waited. However, again, problems with security. Kristin just got on board so she didn’t have a crew ID for them to scan to allow her off the ship, so we stayed right inside the ship on the gangway greeting people. Bit boring really, no one gave us specific directions of what we were supposed to do. At lunchtime, we took turns running up to Club HAL and having Christine get us some lunch so we wouldn’t have to walk around the Lido as elves.
When I finished and got back down to the gangway to send Kristin up, Megan stopped me and ended up recruiting me to come pose with guests for pictures. They already had one of the band leaders as Santa on one side, so I took over being the “mascot” for the other side of the photography station, and occasionally switched back and forth, a lot of the families with kids wanted both Emma the Elf and Santa in their picture. I like to think I helped them a lot, a few people at first didn’t want a photo, but they ended up stopping for a photo with me! It was quite fun, at non-busy times we’d all just talk or take fun group photos to pass the time. Much more entertaining than standing inside the gangway where I felt in the way of everyone. Maybe they’ll ask me to help with gangway on some other port days?
Anyway, finally the flow of oncoming people stopped, and we went 10 minutes without seeing anyone. That’s when we decided to close down. I joined Kristin on the ship for another 10 minutes before we determined it was slow enough for us to leave. Finally, my first break of the day… at 3:30 after starting at 8. I had about an hour before the entertainment department meeting, so I went to the Bow to call Mom and Dad while I had a chance! The meeting was like our normal meeting, just telling us to keep up with what we’re doing, but even better because the VP is on board this cruise (with his kid, so maybe for the first time ever part of the entertainment meeting actually was somewhat relevant to us!). I met the new guys and we all went our separate ways for the next 45 minutes until dinner.
The night went by pretty quickly. We attended the Tree Lighting Ceremony at 7, and so didn’t open Club HAL until 8. Though, for the half hour after the ceremony before we opened, Christine and I worked on getting together the registration forms and going over the manifest for each age group. We opened at 8. Phil and Andy, two of the new guys (they’re really new actually, one has done a 3 week contract, the other hasn’t done any) are on tweens with me, though we have divided up the ages for this cruise since there are so many. They’re both on 8-10yr olds, while I’m on 11/12yr olds; most of our activities are together though, so I’m training them somewhat while working with my own group. We gave the kids about 45 minutes of free time before giving out snack, which took a long time because they weren’t quite sure how to handle it at first. Finally we got through snack though, and we worked together as a tweens group to come up with a Contract of Fun before splitting off into our two groups for get-to-know-you games. Two of my group of tweens actually were in my group last year for New Years, so I knew them already which was cool, my first repeat kids!! They remembered me first actually and were really excited to be back with me :) Yay! So, the boys led their group in “Two Truths and a Lie” on one side of the room, while my 8 older tweens gathered on bean bags on the other side of the room and played the toilet paper game (ripping off at least 3 squares, then once the roll has gone around, I tell them they have to state as many facts about themselves as squares they have, it’s entertaining and they usually give pretty good facts). That surprisingly lasted until their parents came. I stayed late to help Christine number and chronologically order programs since there are so many. It takes a lot less time with two of us than it would her doing it herself. After that, I met Andy, Phil, Kristin, and Alex at the OB where we hung out and talked until we all realized it was hour forward and should get to bed
The first ¾ of today was absolute insanity it seems. If I had known that they were THAT busy doing other things to think about organizing anything Christmas, I definitely would have volunteered to help organize it all because it was just a big confusing mess. Ethan, Christine and I were in the office with Amanda at 8am to fill up balloons and tie strings on them to put them all up in the check-in area and around the gangway. That part was kind of fun other than the fact that I was tired and hungry; we had a forest of balloons throughout the office. Once we got a good number, we tied them up in groups of three or four. Christine and Ethan went to take those and start decorating while Amanda and I finished the rest. They came back not long after and said that security wouldn’t let them off at the guest gangway, so they figured they’d wait on us and take them all out the crew gangway together. While we were doing more balloons, one of the new Club HAL guys came on, so Christine had to leave to get him settled and show him around. She came back just as we were leaving with all the balloons. We made it to the crew gangway and they were all confused about what we were doing, but they let us off. All but Christine because the other three new Club HAL people just arrived and had to be shown around as well. So, we get outside, and stand there for a few minutes, completely at a loss of where to go. We ask the HRM who’s there checking in the new crew, but she’s too busy to help, and then we ask the port security, who just suggest going around the building. So, we wander around the outside of the building for a while, carrying a ton of balloons blowing around in the wind, until we find the doors the passengers use to get to the check-in area. We finally get to where we’re supposed to be, and the hotel director is there, freaking out because no one can find us; as it turns out, we DID have permission to go through the guest gangway no matter what security said. He gives us a bit of direction about where to put the balloons, then leaves us to work. It was a bit complicated because before tying balloons onto the desks and the “waiting maze,” we had to first untangle the big bunches of balloons because the wind was not kind to the strings while we were outside.
It took close to an hour and a half to do that, basically just making it up as we went. Then, we got to go back in for an “on location” team meeting with someone from corporate, then we met up with the new Club HAL members. Kristin (who was here this summer for a few weeks) and I had to grab costumes and dress up as elves to wander around the check-in area to talk to guests as they waited. However, again, problems with security. Kristin just got on board so she didn’t have a crew ID for them to scan to allow her off the ship, so we stayed right inside the ship on the gangway greeting people. Bit boring really, no one gave us specific directions of what we were supposed to do. At lunchtime, we took turns running up to Club HAL and having Christine get us some lunch so we wouldn’t have to walk around the Lido as elves.
When I finished and got back down to the gangway to send Kristin up, Megan stopped me and ended up recruiting me to come pose with guests for pictures. They already had one of the band leaders as Santa on one side, so I took over being the “mascot” for the other side of the photography station, and occasionally switched back and forth, a lot of the families with kids wanted both Emma the Elf and Santa in their picture. I like to think I helped them a lot, a few people at first didn’t want a photo, but they ended up stopping for a photo with me! It was quite fun, at non-busy times we’d all just talk or take fun group photos to pass the time. Much more entertaining than standing inside the gangway where I felt in the way of everyone. Maybe they’ll ask me to help with gangway on some other port days?
Anyway, finally the flow of oncoming people stopped, and we went 10 minutes without seeing anyone. That’s when we decided to close down. I joined Kristin on the ship for another 10 minutes before we determined it was slow enough for us to leave. Finally, my first break of the day… at 3:30 after starting at 8. I had about an hour before the entertainment department meeting, so I went to the Bow to call Mom and Dad while I had a chance! The meeting was like our normal meeting, just telling us to keep up with what we’re doing, but even better because the VP is on board this cruise (with his kid, so maybe for the first time ever part of the entertainment meeting actually was somewhat relevant to us!). I met the new guys and we all went our separate ways for the next 45 minutes until dinner.
The night went by pretty quickly. We attended the Tree Lighting Ceremony at 7, and so didn’t open Club HAL until 8. Though, for the half hour after the ceremony before we opened, Christine and I worked on getting together the registration forms and going over the manifest for each age group. We opened at 8. Phil and Andy, two of the new guys (they’re really new actually, one has done a 3 week contract, the other hasn’t done any) are on tweens with me, though we have divided up the ages for this cruise since there are so many. They’re both on 8-10yr olds, while I’m on 11/12yr olds; most of our activities are together though, so I’m training them somewhat while working with my own group. We gave the kids about 45 minutes of free time before giving out snack, which took a long time because they weren’t quite sure how to handle it at first. Finally we got through snack though, and we worked together as a tweens group to come up with a Contract of Fun before splitting off into our two groups for get-to-know-you games. Two of my group of tweens actually were in my group last year for New Years, so I knew them already which was cool, my first repeat kids!! They remembered me first actually and were really excited to be back with me :) Yay! So, the boys led their group in “Two Truths and a Lie” on one side of the room, while my 8 older tweens gathered on bean bags on the other side of the room and played the toilet paper game (ripping off at least 3 squares, then once the roll has gone around, I tell them they have to state as many facts about themselves as squares they have, it’s entertaining and they usually give pretty good facts). That surprisingly lasted until their parents came. I stayed late to help Christine number and chronologically order programs since there are so many. It takes a lot less time with two of us than it would her doing it herself. After that, I met Andy, Phil, Kristin, and Alex at the OB where we hung out and talked until we all realized it was hour forward and should get to bed
sea day
Dec 20, 2013: Sea day
It was a typical long sea day, extremely busy with the kids.
We had Tamarind for dinner tonight, so the four of us got to dress up in our formals and have a nice dinner before work. It was Ethan and Christine’s first time there, so that make it fun. I got to explain the menu and all that. It was nice getting to relax and hang out as a group since we really haven’t had a whole lot of chance to that this cruise.
As we were getting ready for dinner, Christine found out that we had to participate in the concert on Christmas as part of the international choir, rehearsal was at 11pm. It wasn’t really a good start to that. Ethan and I went to the show right after work, and decided just to stay in formals for the rehearsal thinking it wouldn’t take too long, then we could meet Natalie after she finished work and all go to the Northern Lights. That didn’t happen. The rehearsal didn’t really ‘start’ until 11:15. And the first hour of it really was just the cruise director explaining the order of what was going on, twice, arguing with one of the choirs about who was in charge of them, and us all wondering why they hadn’t got anything organized before we all got there.
They finally got the rehearsal started around 12:30. First the Filipino choir had to perform, and no one knew which of the songs were tracked, or where the tracks were, or what number the tracks were, so that took another 15 minutes (I ended up going to get my laundry out of the dryer and to change into something more comfortable while that was going on). Finally we found out what songs we were singing, went up, had a horrible but quick run-through of the three songs, and we were all ready to go, but then we were told to stay because of the final group number. Luckily, t Indonesian choir had their stuff organized so their section went by quickly. They went through four different plans for the ‘candle’light Silent Night closing song before we finally settled on one and actually practiced it. Once we got to the doors of the theatre, we all kept walking like they told us, but straight to bed. It was an exhausting night and I was happy for it to be over finally at 1:30. Such a long night after a sea day.
It was a typical long sea day, extremely busy with the kids.
We had Tamarind for dinner tonight, so the four of us got to dress up in our formals and have a nice dinner before work. It was Ethan and Christine’s first time there, so that make it fun. I got to explain the menu and all that. It was nice getting to relax and hang out as a group since we really haven’t had a whole lot of chance to that this cruise.
As we were getting ready for dinner, Christine found out that we had to participate in the concert on Christmas as part of the international choir, rehearsal was at 11pm. It wasn’t really a good start to that. Ethan and I went to the show right after work, and decided just to stay in formals for the rehearsal thinking it wouldn’t take too long, then we could meet Natalie after she finished work and all go to the Northern Lights. That didn’t happen. The rehearsal didn’t really ‘start’ until 11:15. And the first hour of it really was just the cruise director explaining the order of what was going on, twice, arguing with one of the choirs about who was in charge of them, and us all wondering why they hadn’t got anything organized before we all got there.
They finally got the rehearsal started around 12:30. First the Filipino choir had to perform, and no one knew which of the songs were tracked, or where the tracks were, or what number the tracks were, so that took another 15 minutes (I ended up going to get my laundry out of the dryer and to change into something more comfortable while that was going on). Finally we found out what songs we were singing, went up, had a horrible but quick run-through of the three songs, and we were all ready to go, but then we were told to stay because of the final group number. Luckily, t Indonesian choir had their stuff organized so their section went by quickly. They went through four different plans for the ‘candle’light Silent Night closing song before we finally settled on one and actually practiced it. Once we got to the doors of the theatre, we all kept walking like they told us, but straight to bed. It was an exhausting night and I was happy for it to be over finally at 1:30. Such a long night after a sea day.
catamaran birthday party in Cozumel
Dec 19: Cozumel
I had the morning shift in Club HAL, but was able to get off after that to attend a Christmas/birthday catamaran/beach party/crew tour (confusing I know, but it was a Christmas-themed birthday party, it was a catamaran ride, with snorkel and beach time). It was actually a surprise party for Matt. We all met around 1, Cassandra got us all to hide off to the side, then get on the catamaran while she went back to the ship to get him, I think she told him he was escorting an excursion or something. He got there and we all sang happy birthday, then we set sail towards the snorkeling spot. Most of us snorkeled for a little while (I had a hard time because they made us wear life jackets and it inhibited my swimming and breathing abilities). Not really a whole lot there to see though, then we set off again on a 40 minute ride to a beach area. We spent an hour around the beach: inflatable games in the water, volleyball, hammocks on the beach (I want a hammock now, it was so comfortable!), just swimming, food, and drinks. Once back on the catamaran, they put on music, and a lot of us ended up dancing for a little while before we realized how tired we were. It got cold (to me) quickly after that, clouds came over the sun and it even started to rain.
Once we got back, a lot of them went to the crew bar in town, but some of us were the first off, running back to the ship so we could shower, eat and get to work.
I had the morning shift in Club HAL, but was able to get off after that to attend a Christmas/birthday catamaran/beach party/crew tour (confusing I know, but it was a Christmas-themed birthday party, it was a catamaran ride, with snorkel and beach time). It was actually a surprise party for Matt. We all met around 1, Cassandra got us all to hide off to the side, then get on the catamaran while she went back to the ship to get him, I think she told him he was escorting an excursion or something. He got there and we all sang happy birthday, then we set sail towards the snorkeling spot. Most of us snorkeled for a little while (I had a hard time because they made us wear life jackets and it inhibited my swimming and breathing abilities). Not really a whole lot there to see though, then we set off again on a 40 minute ride to a beach area. We spent an hour around the beach: inflatable games in the water, volleyball, hammocks on the beach (I want a hammock now, it was so comfortable!), just swimming, food, and drinks. Once back on the catamaran, they put on music, and a lot of us ended up dancing for a little while before we realized how tired we were. It got cold (to me) quickly after that, clouds came over the sun and it even started to rain.
Once we got back, a lot of them went to the crew bar in town, but some of us were the first off, running back to the ship so we could shower, eat and get to work.
horseback riding in Grand Cayman
Dec 18: Grand Cayman, horseback riding
This morning, I got to escort my first excursion this contract! It was great because I got to get up and out on one of the very first tenders instead of waiting around 3 hours for open tender. None of the other first 4 excursions had escorts (one was really just a transfer to the beach, so it makes sense it didn’t need an escort), so I had to lead the way for all of them to the crew staircase down to deck A and the tender platforms. Once in the port, we found the person with a sign for our excursion and met the group. Ours was a very small group, just four of us: three older ladies and myself. We signed our waiver then were taken on a 5 minute walk to our transportation to the stables on HoneySuckle Beach, an SUV. That was a bit odd for me, I guess I just had gotten used to the big (and full) tour buses for excursions in Europe over the summer; but for four of us, it was perfect. Our driver talked very little, but pointed out the big resorts and stuff along the way, he got more chatty as we got closer though, telling us about the island. Once at HoneySuckle Beach, we put our bags in the supply house, and were each given a horse to ride. I was the first, Mocha was his name, I got on pretty easily, then our guide led me and my horse to the fence to wait while the others got their horses. It took some time, but we were all ready to head out finally and our guide told me to go out the gate first and stop at the path right before the actual beach, apparently I was leading the rest, once we were all in order and the gate closed once more, our guide made his way to the front and we set off. One thing about this excursion, it’s definitely not suited for anyone who’s never ridden a horse before. We were given the reins, and though the horses knew the path and to follow, well, my horse, we still had to direct them, and keep up with the guide ourselves. A few times the two ladies in the back fell behind a bit, so I slowed down to let them catch up somewhat. It was a pretty day, warm in the long pants and shoes we’d been told we had to wear, but there was a nice breeze coming across the water, and the somewhat constant splash of water as we rode right at the waters edge. We rode out for about half an hour, then went deeper into the water, it wasn’t quite up to the stirrups, but getting close. We didn’t stay in the deep water for long, just long enough for us to give cameras to the guide for him to take pictures for us, then it was back on the trail back to the stable. On the ride back, we took a little bit different route, a few times through paths further inland among the trees. It was interesting seeing some of the things that had been collected washing ashore. One tree at the waterline was covered in shoes, I think they were actually stapled to the tree. Odd decoration, but interesting. Also on the way back, we saw people out on the water doing some kind of sport, we asked the guide and he told us all about kite surfing, which seems like it’d be pretty cool to try. The people out there that way went pretty far, pretty quickly, doing tricks too! Back at the stable, we gave each of our horses an apple (one of the ladies had brought 4 apples for that exact purpose), and got back in the SUV to head back to the ship.
It was kind of funny because about the time I got back to the tender to get back on, it was apparently open tender because a lot of crew members were just getting off. I hung out for a bit, then went to Club HAL to help Ethan with lunch before we got off to go to the beach. Alex came with us, and we ended up going to a different part of 7-mile beach from where I went last time we were here. It was good though because it was a bit cheaper for crew since the taxi ride was a dollar less each way and we didn’t have to pay the $2 entrance fee as crew members! Alex and Ethan got wifi for a bit whereas I went right to an empty spot on the sand, laid out my towel and jumped in the water. We only had about an hour there, because crew all aboard was early since we were tendering, but it was still a nice hour on the beach: time off, chatting, enjoying the sun and water. :) A very good day.
This morning, I got to escort my first excursion this contract! It was great because I got to get up and out on one of the very first tenders instead of waiting around 3 hours for open tender. None of the other first 4 excursions had escorts (one was really just a transfer to the beach, so it makes sense it didn’t need an escort), so I had to lead the way for all of them to the crew staircase down to deck A and the tender platforms. Once in the port, we found the person with a sign for our excursion and met the group. Ours was a very small group, just four of us: three older ladies and myself. We signed our waiver then were taken on a 5 minute walk to our transportation to the stables on HoneySuckle Beach, an SUV. That was a bit odd for me, I guess I just had gotten used to the big (and full) tour buses for excursions in Europe over the summer; but for four of us, it was perfect. Our driver talked very little, but pointed out the big resorts and stuff along the way, he got more chatty as we got closer though, telling us about the island. Once at HoneySuckle Beach, we put our bags in the supply house, and were each given a horse to ride. I was the first, Mocha was his name, I got on pretty easily, then our guide led me and my horse to the fence to wait while the others got their horses. It took some time, but we were all ready to head out finally and our guide told me to go out the gate first and stop at the path right before the actual beach, apparently I was leading the rest, once we were all in order and the gate closed once more, our guide made his way to the front and we set off. One thing about this excursion, it’s definitely not suited for anyone who’s never ridden a horse before. We were given the reins, and though the horses knew the path and to follow, well, my horse, we still had to direct them, and keep up with the guide ourselves. A few times the two ladies in the back fell behind a bit, so I slowed down to let them catch up somewhat. It was a pretty day, warm in the long pants and shoes we’d been told we had to wear, but there was a nice breeze coming across the water, and the somewhat constant splash of water as we rode right at the waters edge. We rode out for about half an hour, then went deeper into the water, it wasn’t quite up to the stirrups, but getting close. We didn’t stay in the deep water for long, just long enough for us to give cameras to the guide for him to take pictures for us, then it was back on the trail back to the stable. On the ride back, we took a little bit different route, a few times through paths further inland among the trees. It was interesting seeing some of the things that had been collected washing ashore. One tree at the waterline was covered in shoes, I think they were actually stapled to the tree. Odd decoration, but interesting. Also on the way back, we saw people out on the water doing some kind of sport, we asked the guide and he told us all about kite surfing, which seems like it’d be pretty cool to try. The people out there that way went pretty far, pretty quickly, doing tricks too! Back at the stable, we gave each of our horses an apple (one of the ladies had brought 4 apples for that exact purpose), and got back in the SUV to head back to the ship.
It was kind of funny because about the time I got back to the tender to get back on, it was apparently open tender because a lot of crew members were just getting off. I hung out for a bit, then went to Club HAL to help Ethan with lunch before we got off to go to the beach. Alex came with us, and we ended up going to a different part of 7-mile beach from where I went last time we were here. It was good though because it was a bit cheaper for crew since the taxi ride was a dollar less each way and we didn’t have to pay the $2 entrance fee as crew members! Alex and Ethan got wifi for a bit whereas I went right to an empty spot on the sand, laid out my towel and jumped in the water. We only had about an hour there, because crew all aboard was early since we were tendering, but it was still a nice hour on the beach: time off, chatting, enjoying the sun and water. :) A very good day.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
the sounds of Half Moon Cay
December 16, 2013: Half Moon Cay
Half Moon Cay very possibly is my favorite day of this itinerary! It’s a lovely day at the beach, whether I’m working for half of it or I have the whole time to spend at the beach. Today was a half and half day. I got off at 8:15 with Christine for “island activities” from 9 to 11:30. We sat on the beach talking for an hour before a few of the kids showed up, we built a mountain and dug a hole and buried my feet for half an hour before they left, completely covered with sand from head to toe as they’d been rolling around in it the whole time. No one else came after that, so we hung out some more and then rinsed off the buckets and shovels, put them in the bag and dropped them off with a security officer on duty next to the ship (so they could dry out and so we didn’t have to carry them around).
So, we headed down the beach, and found Natalie’s bag saving three chairs for us, so we dropped our stuff off, then jumped in the water. It felt so good after having been in the hot sun and sand for the past two hours. After we cooled off, we headed towards the pirate ship to get a drink, a sunshine lemonade (lemonade and sprite). We met Natalie along the way, and when we got back to our chairs, we all jumped into the water and stayed there for a long time, chatting, swimming, splashing each other, splashing some of the HAL Cats that came over. We were in the water for over an hour before I decided I needed to get out and have a snack. I sunbathed for a while, eating the goldfish I’d brought with me. Alex and Philipo another HAL Cat hung out with me for a while, before they decided to go back to the ship before getting too much sun. Christine came back and went back to the ship as well to work on stuff for Christmas and to check on Ethan during his port day. So, Natalie and I were left on the beach, we had some fun photoshoots in the water, swam some and sunbathed for a while. It was a bit odd having so much time onshore on the beach there, I got so used to my time there being rushed. I really enjoyed getting to spend so much time there.
Onto the sounds of Half Moon Cay day. First thing in the morning, the first and second tender are full of crew members going to work and the early-rising guests. There are few sounds on the ship; the creaking of metal, the metal on metal of the ramp from ship-to-tender, the quiet and tired voices of crew members making small talk waiting to get on the island, the trilling of the computer as everyone is scanned as being off-ship. The tender ride contains the waves, the slightly louder voices of passengers as they excitingly make small talk with one another about their excursions or about the island itself, the waves as the tender gently makes its way through them.
At work on the beach, we could hear families calling to their children, water running down the slides, the scrape of plastic shovels on the sand, children rolling in the sand, adults pulling beach chairs into the water, lifeguards blowing their whistles telling people to take the chairs out of the water and, of course the kids laughing as they tried to bury our feet in sand while we kept wiggling our toes and breaking the piles of sand on top of us.
Just laying out on the beach. There was the faint hum of the ships engines, the louder roar of the tenders motors and they traveled back and forth, the occasional perfectly-timed breeze, leaves of trees rustling with the wind and birds, birds chirping, the fans turning inside the cabanas, the splashes and yells of a family as they played Frisbee in the water, waves calmly making their way to shore, bits and pieces of conversations all along the beach, the music from one of the large cabanas, the HAL Cats playing in the pirate ship just a little further down the beach, and if you listened closely and it was quiet enough for a few seconds, the horses way down the beach as they were lead into the water for a tour. So many little sounds combining to make the feeling of Half Moon Cay a perfect day on the beach.
We got back and relaxed until dinner and work. For some reason my day on the beach had made me crave pizza, so I ended up eating 4 slices, and a few pieces of fruit for dinner. For a formal night, the lido “fishbowl” was crowded with officers (not in formalwear though they should have been as it was after 6), and the usual suspects: casino staff on break, a few shoppies, the random HAL Cat during one of their short breaks between sets, the Location Team, and of course Club HAL. We actually ended up having to sit elsewhere because our usual table in the fishbowl had been taken over by officers. It was a bit odd having so many people out eating on a formal night.
Work wasn’t too bad, Under the Sea night went well. We made a sign for the night, decorated seahorses, played River/Bank, and played fishy 4 corners. They wanted to be active tonight, so River/Bank and 4 corners lasted an hour just themselves! All the kids were signed out by 9:45, nice because that gave us time to clean up and change before our present-wrapping party. Christine told us at dinner that we would be wrapping all the kids presents in the OB at 10 with a few other volunteers. It was quite fun! We put on some Christmas music (until other people came in and changed it), took over the back room and worked together with some of the cast members, the librarian and the party planner to wrap all the presents we’ll give out to the kids on Christmas day. It was definitely a team effort, we only had a few rolls of tape, and over 200 things to wrap. At first we were all cutting paper and wrapping, then I decided to turn it into a more assembly line thing, so I measured and cut the paper and made a pile for others to grab from and wrap the tween presents with, while someone else did the same with the teen presents. We finished in about an hour and a half, with only about 8 of us working! After we finished, we got Natalie to leave her teens and help us carry everything back to the closet to lock it away until the day of, then we all went back out to the bow and just talked for a while. It was a warm night out, the moon was bright so we couldn’t see stars, but it was too nice not to stay out for a while
Half Moon Cay very possibly is my favorite day of this itinerary! It’s a lovely day at the beach, whether I’m working for half of it or I have the whole time to spend at the beach. Today was a half and half day. I got off at 8:15 with Christine for “island activities” from 9 to 11:30. We sat on the beach talking for an hour before a few of the kids showed up, we built a mountain and dug a hole and buried my feet for half an hour before they left, completely covered with sand from head to toe as they’d been rolling around in it the whole time. No one else came after that, so we hung out some more and then rinsed off the buckets and shovels, put them in the bag and dropped them off with a security officer on duty next to the ship (so they could dry out and so we didn’t have to carry them around).
So, we headed down the beach, and found Natalie’s bag saving three chairs for us, so we dropped our stuff off, then jumped in the water. It felt so good after having been in the hot sun and sand for the past two hours. After we cooled off, we headed towards the pirate ship to get a drink, a sunshine lemonade (lemonade and sprite). We met Natalie along the way, and when we got back to our chairs, we all jumped into the water and stayed there for a long time, chatting, swimming, splashing each other, splashing some of the HAL Cats that came over. We were in the water for over an hour before I decided I needed to get out and have a snack. I sunbathed for a while, eating the goldfish I’d brought with me. Alex and Philipo another HAL Cat hung out with me for a while, before they decided to go back to the ship before getting too much sun. Christine came back and went back to the ship as well to work on stuff for Christmas and to check on Ethan during his port day. So, Natalie and I were left on the beach, we had some fun photoshoots in the water, swam some and sunbathed for a while. It was a bit odd having so much time onshore on the beach there, I got so used to my time there being rushed. I really enjoyed getting to spend so much time there.
Onto the sounds of Half Moon Cay day. First thing in the morning, the first and second tender are full of crew members going to work and the early-rising guests. There are few sounds on the ship; the creaking of metal, the metal on metal of the ramp from ship-to-tender, the quiet and tired voices of crew members making small talk waiting to get on the island, the trilling of the computer as everyone is scanned as being off-ship. The tender ride contains the waves, the slightly louder voices of passengers as they excitingly make small talk with one another about their excursions or about the island itself, the waves as the tender gently makes its way through them.
At work on the beach, we could hear families calling to their children, water running down the slides, the scrape of plastic shovels on the sand, children rolling in the sand, adults pulling beach chairs into the water, lifeguards blowing their whistles telling people to take the chairs out of the water and, of course the kids laughing as they tried to bury our feet in sand while we kept wiggling our toes and breaking the piles of sand on top of us.
Just laying out on the beach. There was the faint hum of the ships engines, the louder roar of the tenders motors and they traveled back and forth, the occasional perfectly-timed breeze, leaves of trees rustling with the wind and birds, birds chirping, the fans turning inside the cabanas, the splashes and yells of a family as they played Frisbee in the water, waves calmly making their way to shore, bits and pieces of conversations all along the beach, the music from one of the large cabanas, the HAL Cats playing in the pirate ship just a little further down the beach, and if you listened closely and it was quiet enough for a few seconds, the horses way down the beach as they were lead into the water for a tour. So many little sounds combining to make the feeling of Half Moon Cay a perfect day on the beach.
We got back and relaxed until dinner and work. For some reason my day on the beach had made me crave pizza, so I ended up eating 4 slices, and a few pieces of fruit for dinner. For a formal night, the lido “fishbowl” was crowded with officers (not in formalwear though they should have been as it was after 6), and the usual suspects: casino staff on break, a few shoppies, the random HAL Cat during one of their short breaks between sets, the Location Team, and of course Club HAL. We actually ended up having to sit elsewhere because our usual table in the fishbowl had been taken over by officers. It was a bit odd having so many people out eating on a formal night.
Work wasn’t too bad, Under the Sea night went well. We made a sign for the night, decorated seahorses, played River/Bank, and played fishy 4 corners. They wanted to be active tonight, so River/Bank and 4 corners lasted an hour just themselves! All the kids were signed out by 9:45, nice because that gave us time to clean up and change before our present-wrapping party. Christine told us at dinner that we would be wrapping all the kids presents in the OB at 10 with a few other volunteers. It was quite fun! We put on some Christmas music (until other people came in and changed it), took over the back room and worked together with some of the cast members, the librarian and the party planner to wrap all the presents we’ll give out to the kids on Christmas day. It was definitely a team effort, we only had a few rolls of tape, and over 200 things to wrap. At first we were all cutting paper and wrapping, then I decided to turn it into a more assembly line thing, so I measured and cut the paper and made a pile for others to grab from and wrap the tween presents with, while someone else did the same with the teen presents. We finished in about an hour and a half, with only about 8 of us working! After we finished, we got Natalie to leave her teens and help us carry everything back to the closet to lock it away until the day of, then we all went back out to the bow and just talked for a while. It was a warm night out, the moon was bright so we couldn’t see stars, but it was too nice not to stay out for a while
end of one cruise and beginning of the next
December 14, 2013
Yesterday was a rather boring sea day for me. Since I cleaned the Loft closet on the crossing, and it (surprisingly) didn’t really get messed up while I was gone, and since none of my teens have really been showing up, I had nothing really to do while in the Loft. Yes, I got to read which is nice, but when it’s for two hours in the morning and 4 hours in the afternoon, I just don’t feel all too productive from just reading. I did have two teens come in, just for about 30 minutes each, one in the morning, the other in the afternoon, but that was it; it was a nice break from reading to set up Wipeout on the xbox for one and to play Skip-Bo with the other. Honestly, that was my whole day, I feel like I’m not doing much of anything this week, and so feeling guilty for it! I try to help out Natalie sometimes next door, but only a few of the tweens have been coming up so she doesn’t have a whole lot to do herself.
Anyway, we’d planned to have a Club HAL dinner at the Pinnacle last night, so I was given permission to leave the Loft early to change quickly into formalwear and meet the rest of them downstairs. I’m getting much better at changing in the bathrooms outside of Club HAL (for formal and for pajama nights). When I got down to the Pinnacle though, the rest of the girls weren’t there, so I asked and the manager said he didn’t know anything about our reservation, so I went to call them. Natalie didn’t pick up and I was about to call Emily when they came out of the elevator and told me that our reservations had been cancelled due to guests making reservations.
We were all still dressed up though and looking forward to a nice dinner together, so we went to Canaletto in hopes that they had an empty table for us. They did, and we got to experience their new menu. It’s been a while since I had Canaletto, actually it’s been over a year; last time I went was for Rachel’s (the librarian, now EM) birthday on the Maasdam. The new menu has “small plates,” (appetizers) “pasta” and “large plates” (entrees), they recommend group-style eating so ordering a few things and dividing them up onto everyone’s plate. So, that’s what we did. I really wasn’t that impressed. They’ve gotten rid of the bread with balsamic before the meal in favor of a small, tomato-slathered bruschetta. Splitting four ‘small plates’ wasn’t really the easiest thing actually, I tried most everything, but I really only wanted one of them and I got a very small piece of that. The pasta was good though, pesto ravioli is the better one of the two we had, the other was of course too tomato-y (rigatoni with tomato sauce and Italian sausage). I didn’t get a lot of the pasta though, because again we divided two somewhat small plates between four of us, so I really just ended up with two pieces of ravioli. They got chicken cachiattore and veal as entrees. I wouldn’t go near the veal (had it before and wasn’t in the mood to try it again), but I had one piece of chicken, not too impressive and it wasn’t quite enough, because again we were dividing it between four of us. I wish we could’ve gotten the pasta as the entrée, I would’ve been a lot happier. At least I know for certain now that going to Canaletto really isn’t worth it for me, I came away still rather hungry. Dessert was good at least, walnut praline and a scoop of ice cream! And it was nice that we all got to get dressed up and hang out as a group, we haven’t done that this contract yet.
I wasn’t really sure what to do after dinner because I had about an hour and a half before I had to be in the Loft, and half an hour before the show if I wanted to go to that alone. Instead, I just changed back into my uniform and hung out with the kids during free time and helped Natalie with her tweens before heading to the Loft. Two of my teens were actually already there when I went back to the Loft, they were very excited about Vegas night (most of the teens are), so I got out chips and tried to refresh my memory a bit as to how to play Blackjack and Texas Hold ‘em. I think I made up a few of the rules and messed up others, but we still played and they didn’t seem to care. Around 10:30, their parents came to get them, so I was left alone with nothing really to do. Snack came, brownies (I don’t normally eat the brownies on the ship, but I was hungry so I tried one, then ran downstairs to get a slice of pizza) and I ended up watching Ever After until I could clean up and leave.
I didn’t get off in Half Moon Cay today. I had the morning shift of port day and could’ve gotten off for an hour before all aboard but I decided it wasn’t really worth the stress of getting back to the tender on time. No one called for port day, but I hung out for a while in Club HAL to go through and organize the craft supplies. The afternoon was uneventful as well. The night actually went well, a lot of the teens finally showed up and they all stayed until midnight! After work I joined Natalie on the Bow where we tried to watch for shooting stars, but it was too cloudy and the moon was too bright. We tried to leave after a while (because we were tired), but Johan dragged us back inside to cheer the boys on in Wii Sports.
December 15, 2013: Fort Lauderdale
There was nothing I really needed to go shopping for today, and it’d been a late night so I slept in instead of paying for a shuttle. I had a calm morning, had lunch, called Mom from the Bow, and visited Natalie as she worked Open House. Not a whole lot of excitement; I met Ethan, who will be with us in Club HAL for a month. We had sailaway, then hung out in the Lido for 15 minutes until it was time to go to our entertainment dept meeting. After the meeting, we had about 45 minutes, not sure what else to do, and since we never get to see it, we watched as everyone rehearsed for the opening show “Listen to the Music” (which introduces everyone in the entertainment department (aside from Club HAL). That lasted about 45 minutes, perfect time to head to dinner!
It was a busy first night, at least 12 of the kids showed up, a few of them need to work on their listening skills and we had to talk to their parents about that, but most of them were tired so we mostly had counselor-lead free time the whole night. We played candyland, 4-corners, ickle bickle, where’s my shoe, and colored. Some of the kids in this group are surprisingly talented drawers! I was impressed!
Yesterday was a rather boring sea day for me. Since I cleaned the Loft closet on the crossing, and it (surprisingly) didn’t really get messed up while I was gone, and since none of my teens have really been showing up, I had nothing really to do while in the Loft. Yes, I got to read which is nice, but when it’s for two hours in the morning and 4 hours in the afternoon, I just don’t feel all too productive from just reading. I did have two teens come in, just for about 30 minutes each, one in the morning, the other in the afternoon, but that was it; it was a nice break from reading to set up Wipeout on the xbox for one and to play Skip-Bo with the other. Honestly, that was my whole day, I feel like I’m not doing much of anything this week, and so feeling guilty for it! I try to help out Natalie sometimes next door, but only a few of the tweens have been coming up so she doesn’t have a whole lot to do herself.
Anyway, we’d planned to have a Club HAL dinner at the Pinnacle last night, so I was given permission to leave the Loft early to change quickly into formalwear and meet the rest of them downstairs. I’m getting much better at changing in the bathrooms outside of Club HAL (for formal and for pajama nights). When I got down to the Pinnacle though, the rest of the girls weren’t there, so I asked and the manager said he didn’t know anything about our reservation, so I went to call them. Natalie didn’t pick up and I was about to call Emily when they came out of the elevator and told me that our reservations had been cancelled due to guests making reservations.
We were all still dressed up though and looking forward to a nice dinner together, so we went to Canaletto in hopes that they had an empty table for us. They did, and we got to experience their new menu. It’s been a while since I had Canaletto, actually it’s been over a year; last time I went was for Rachel’s (the librarian, now EM) birthday on the Maasdam. The new menu has “small plates,” (appetizers) “pasta” and “large plates” (entrees), they recommend group-style eating so ordering a few things and dividing them up onto everyone’s plate. So, that’s what we did. I really wasn’t that impressed. They’ve gotten rid of the bread with balsamic before the meal in favor of a small, tomato-slathered bruschetta. Splitting four ‘small plates’ wasn’t really the easiest thing actually, I tried most everything, but I really only wanted one of them and I got a very small piece of that. The pasta was good though, pesto ravioli is the better one of the two we had, the other was of course too tomato-y (rigatoni with tomato sauce and Italian sausage). I didn’t get a lot of the pasta though, because again we divided two somewhat small plates between four of us, so I really just ended up with two pieces of ravioli. They got chicken cachiattore and veal as entrees. I wouldn’t go near the veal (had it before and wasn’t in the mood to try it again), but I had one piece of chicken, not too impressive and it wasn’t quite enough, because again we were dividing it between four of us. I wish we could’ve gotten the pasta as the entrée, I would’ve been a lot happier. At least I know for certain now that going to Canaletto really isn’t worth it for me, I came away still rather hungry. Dessert was good at least, walnut praline and a scoop of ice cream! And it was nice that we all got to get dressed up and hang out as a group, we haven’t done that this contract yet.
I wasn’t really sure what to do after dinner because I had about an hour and a half before I had to be in the Loft, and half an hour before the show if I wanted to go to that alone. Instead, I just changed back into my uniform and hung out with the kids during free time and helped Natalie with her tweens before heading to the Loft. Two of my teens were actually already there when I went back to the Loft, they were very excited about Vegas night (most of the teens are), so I got out chips and tried to refresh my memory a bit as to how to play Blackjack and Texas Hold ‘em. I think I made up a few of the rules and messed up others, but we still played and they didn’t seem to care. Around 10:30, their parents came to get them, so I was left alone with nothing really to do. Snack came, brownies (I don’t normally eat the brownies on the ship, but I was hungry so I tried one, then ran downstairs to get a slice of pizza) and I ended up watching Ever After until I could clean up and leave.
I didn’t get off in Half Moon Cay today. I had the morning shift of port day and could’ve gotten off for an hour before all aboard but I decided it wasn’t really worth the stress of getting back to the tender on time. No one called for port day, but I hung out for a while in Club HAL to go through and organize the craft supplies. The afternoon was uneventful as well. The night actually went well, a lot of the teens finally showed up and they all stayed until midnight! After work I joined Natalie on the Bow where we tried to watch for shooting stars, but it was too cloudy and the moon was too bright. We tried to leave after a while (because we were tired), but Johan dragged us back inside to cheer the boys on in Wii Sports.
December 15, 2013: Fort Lauderdale
There was nothing I really needed to go shopping for today, and it’d been a late night so I slept in instead of paying for a shuttle. I had a calm morning, had lunch, called Mom from the Bow, and visited Natalie as she worked Open House. Not a whole lot of excitement; I met Ethan, who will be with us in Club HAL for a month. We had sailaway, then hung out in the Lido for 15 minutes until it was time to go to our entertainment dept meeting. After the meeting, we had about 45 minutes, not sure what else to do, and since we never get to see it, we watched as everyone rehearsed for the opening show “Listen to the Music” (which introduces everyone in the entertainment department (aside from Club HAL). That lasted about 45 minutes, perfect time to head to dinner!
It was a busy first night, at least 12 of the kids showed up, a few of them need to work on their listening skills and we had to talk to their parents about that, but most of them were tired so we mostly had counselor-lead free time the whole night. We played candyland, 4-corners, ickle bickle, where’s my shoe, and colored. Some of the kids in this group are surprisingly talented drawers! I was impressed!
Dec 12
Dec 12, 2013
San Juan: It was a normal sea day morning, I worked 10-12, a few of the teens showed up, but they didn’t stay for too long. After lunch when we finally arrived, Alex (from the HAL Cats) and I got off the ship to wander. And wander we did, we made a big loop around part of the town before we decided to stop and get something to eat. After we ate, we decided to go to the mall that we’d heard a lot of other crew members talk about, so we went there and got wifi until we met up with a few others and we all came back, some of them to go to a bar, others of us to take a nap or rest before work. There’s a movie theatre in that mall, so some of us have discussed going next time to see the Hobbit!
Work wasn’t too much to talk about. Two of the 13/14year old boys came in, they became friends this morning, and we chatted for a bit, they have a lot in common with each other, I’m glad they both came at the same time this morning so they could meet! Then they played Wipeout until their families came to pick them up (so far, 3 out of the 5 teens that have come, their parents drop them off and pick them up, I find that odd). So, by 9:45, I was alone, none of the other teens came the rest of the night, so I put on Doctor Who and watched that until time I could leave.
St. Thomas: Today was nice. It didn’t really seem like it would be at first this morning though. I woke up early and got ready before going to breakfast, hanging out in Club HAL with Emily, and watching people getting off the ship from the outside part of Deck 10. All that to kill a few hours before I had a raft drill. Because I had a raft drill, I couldn’t get off until after, so I waited. Finally we had the drill, then Natalie and I went up for lunch, ate a bit and I made plans to go to the beach with Johan and a few others (finally plans for the day, I was thinking that I would just have to wander around town by myself!). Natalie had another excursion so couldn’t come with us. We took a 10 minute taxi ride to the beach (even after riding around a bit, I have no idea where we’re docked, I know I’ve been here before, last year on the Maasdam-we tendered that time-but none of the things I saw today rang any bells as familiar to last year). It was a short ride, but it’s nearly unwalkable because there’s no sidewalks, and rather curvy roads. Anyway, we arrived and settled in on the beach with Cassandra and Matt who’d been there a while already. The water was nice, not nearly as clear as I’ve seen it in other Caribbean ports though. We actually spent a lot of time in the water (glad that people swam more this time, in Grand Cayman everyone kind of stayed close to the shore, or tanning on shore, so it wasn’t as fun to swim around out on your own. Johan, Matt and I were in the water most of the afternoon actually, they kept trying to see if they could launch me in the air and get me to do a backflip, I “flew” a few times, but have yet to master that aerial backflip. I could either use the momentum to go UPwards, or to go BACKwards, but never really was able to combine the two. Apparently we have to try again another beach day, practice. They seemed to have a lot of fun with my light weight, they kept thinking of ‘tricks’ they could do picking me up. It was fun for me too, ignoring of course the many many gallons of saltwater I may have swallowed in the process. The afternoon slowly came to a close and it was getting to be time to start heading back to the ship, so I laid out to dry off while the boys decided to show off their handstand and cartwheel abilities on the sand. Actually, they’re quite good, better than any cartwheel I could do!
Back on the ship, I had a relaxing two hours; a quick shower and drying of my hair before going on to spend the remaining time with other, more ‘pretty’ things. I decided to curl my hair (for no reason other than to see how this curling iron works since we’re doing a Club HAL dinner in Pinnacle tomorrow), I put on some make-up then put on a movie to watch as I did my nails. Natalie came back and we chatted before heading up to dinner.
Oh, and I’m finally over this sore throat thing that’s been horrible over the past few days! Still going to take the next day or two’s antibiotics to be sure, but I’ve been feeling so much better the past two days! I have yet to look up exactly what the crew doctor gave me, but I’m very glad it seems to be working (still wish though she would’ve given me some clue as to what was wrong with me).
San Juan: It was a normal sea day morning, I worked 10-12, a few of the teens showed up, but they didn’t stay for too long. After lunch when we finally arrived, Alex (from the HAL Cats) and I got off the ship to wander. And wander we did, we made a big loop around part of the town before we decided to stop and get something to eat. After we ate, we decided to go to the mall that we’d heard a lot of other crew members talk about, so we went there and got wifi until we met up with a few others and we all came back, some of them to go to a bar, others of us to take a nap or rest before work. There’s a movie theatre in that mall, so some of us have discussed going next time to see the Hobbit!
Work wasn’t too much to talk about. Two of the 13/14year old boys came in, they became friends this morning, and we chatted for a bit, they have a lot in common with each other, I’m glad they both came at the same time this morning so they could meet! Then they played Wipeout until their families came to pick them up (so far, 3 out of the 5 teens that have come, their parents drop them off and pick them up, I find that odd). So, by 9:45, I was alone, none of the other teens came the rest of the night, so I put on Doctor Who and watched that until time I could leave.
St. Thomas: Today was nice. It didn’t really seem like it would be at first this morning though. I woke up early and got ready before going to breakfast, hanging out in Club HAL with Emily, and watching people getting off the ship from the outside part of Deck 10. All that to kill a few hours before I had a raft drill. Because I had a raft drill, I couldn’t get off until after, so I waited. Finally we had the drill, then Natalie and I went up for lunch, ate a bit and I made plans to go to the beach with Johan and a few others (finally plans for the day, I was thinking that I would just have to wander around town by myself!). Natalie had another excursion so couldn’t come with us. We took a 10 minute taxi ride to the beach (even after riding around a bit, I have no idea where we’re docked, I know I’ve been here before, last year on the Maasdam-we tendered that time-but none of the things I saw today rang any bells as familiar to last year). It was a short ride, but it’s nearly unwalkable because there’s no sidewalks, and rather curvy roads. Anyway, we arrived and settled in on the beach with Cassandra and Matt who’d been there a while already. The water was nice, not nearly as clear as I’ve seen it in other Caribbean ports though. We actually spent a lot of time in the water (glad that people swam more this time, in Grand Cayman everyone kind of stayed close to the shore, or tanning on shore, so it wasn’t as fun to swim around out on your own. Johan, Matt and I were in the water most of the afternoon actually, they kept trying to see if they could launch me in the air and get me to do a backflip, I “flew” a few times, but have yet to master that aerial backflip. I could either use the momentum to go UPwards, or to go BACKwards, but never really was able to combine the two. Apparently we have to try again another beach day, practice. They seemed to have a lot of fun with my light weight, they kept thinking of ‘tricks’ they could do picking me up. It was fun for me too, ignoring of course the many many gallons of saltwater I may have swallowed in the process. The afternoon slowly came to a close and it was getting to be time to start heading back to the ship, so I laid out to dry off while the boys decided to show off their handstand and cartwheel abilities on the sand. Actually, they’re quite good, better than any cartwheel I could do!
Back on the ship, I had a relaxing two hours; a quick shower and drying of my hair before going on to spend the remaining time with other, more ‘pretty’ things. I decided to curl my hair (for no reason other than to see how this curling iron works since we’re doing a Club HAL dinner in Pinnacle tomorrow), I put on some make-up then put on a movie to watch as I did my nails. Natalie came back and we chatted before heading up to dinner.
Oh, and I’m finally over this sore throat thing that’s been horrible over the past few days! Still going to take the next day or two’s antibiotics to be sure, but I’ve been feeling so much better the past two days! I have yet to look up exactly what the crew doctor gave me, but I’m very glad it seems to be working (still wish though she would’ve given me some clue as to what was wrong with me).
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
finally got internet enough to post quickly
December 3, 2013: At Sea
The rest of the workday yesterday was rather uneventful compared to the first half. I came back to the room and took a nap, talked to Natalie, had dinner then went to work. We had spy night, we combined our groups since there were only a few tweens. It went rather well, we had some bit of trouble getting them to stay focused, but that’s the usual with the young ones; a few more tweens came just in time for the scavenger hunt so we divided them up in groups with the littles, telling them to let the little ones help out where they could (looking for the clues), most of them were actually pretty good at that which was very helpful.
Natalie and I ran down to the room to change into formal clothes and made it to the show. I didn’t know what show it was, but I was happy to see when we got there that it was LiveWire, an Irish couple that I’ve seen a few times on various other ships. They have a great show, I’ve really enjoyed it every time. After that, I decided I wanted to socialize a bit, so we went to the OB for a while and ended up outside on the bow. It was a beautiful night, very light wind, stars so bright and numerous. We stayed out there for a while, I talked to the photographers and Cassandra for a while.
Today was a busy day, a typical sea day. We had quite a few kids right at the start of the day, and most of them stayed all the while we were open. At least they were mostly well-behaved, we didn’t have too much trouble all day, the normal instances of course but nothing we couldn’t handle. Even ice cream went well!
Camp night went well too, we decorated bears, made bear ear headbands, and divided them into groups to make up their own camp. Very few behavior problems compared to the last few days, but that’s probably because we’ve finally figured out how to divide them into groups that have the best results. As soon as they all left, we cleaned up quickly, then ran to catch the last bit of the show, GarageBand. Remember, the last time I saw this show was when they had a tech rehearsal for the crew. It was a bit disappointing actually, seeing it again. It’s still a great show, but I think it’s because it was so funny last time, and the cast is getting to the last month of their contracts so are tired, it just wasn’t as good. Still good, but not as much so as I remember
December 4, 2013: Grand Cayman
I was pretty unsure of what to do today at first. Natalie did tendering, letting me sleep in a bit. I went up to visit before breakfast and it was going really well, sending people straight down the stairs to the tender; we agreed to meet at breakfast if open tender was called before 10, and to meet in the room (me with a muffin for her) if they hadn’t called it, then go ashore as soon as we were ready. At breakfast, I met up with the solo guitarist and he invited me to go to the beach with a group. I told him I’d meet them on the pier, then went down with Natalie’s muffin after I’d finished eating. Open Tender was a bit later than expected, but Natalie and I still got to walk around for a bit before I met up with the group and she had to find her excursion.
The beach was great, I was very happy to go hang out with people, get some sun and swim! I thought I was going to come back before everyone else because I was supposed to help do something for one of the guest entertainers at 3, but everyone else ended up comig back with me. I made it back just in time, literally ran to the room to change and ran upstairs, sand on my feet and salt in my hair but I was there on time, when so many other people didn’t even show up. We didn’t really know what we were going to be doing until we got there, but it wasn’t bad, all we had to do was take labels off pans and stuff, throw out any that could cause injury and count them all. The guest entertainer group we were doing this for is called “Recycled Percussion” and they have a lot of crowd interaction (thus the pans we had to count. They have a crew show at midnight after their normal shows tomorrow so I’ll see how they are then.
After that, I finally got to get all that sand and salt off of me and head to dinner, then work. Nothing too exciting there, so glad we’re mixing tweens and kids because I don’t think I could handle all these kids by myself, they don’t like to listen and most of them English isn’t their first language.
December 10, 2013
So, I haven’t written in a few days, I’m sorry. I haven’t been feeling too well the last few days and it got busy before that.
The end of last cruise was alright with the kids. I had to do pirate night on my own though, in the kids room. Change of environment with 12 already-hyper and nearly uncontrollable 3 and 4 year olds? Not the best idea. Far from the best theme night I’ve had, actually it might even have been the worst. I was exceptionally glad when it was over.
I did have after-hours one night, of course the same night as the Recycled Percussion crew show, but I was only a few minutes late for that. The kids played MarioKart the whole time, their parents came at midnight and I quickly cleaned, ran downstairs, changed and made it to the show by 10 after. It was actually a pretty awesome show! They have talent, partially music, partially gymnastics-y stuff, partially showing off with drumstick tricks.
Today was a busy busy day, exhausting really.
I woke up and went to the infirmary. Should’ve thought more about that, the crew doctor pretty much asked what was wrong with me, gave me some (huge) pills that were somehow already sitting on her desk), told me when to take them and told me I could go. Now I feel like I need to look up what exactly these pills are that she gave me, what are they supposed to do to me? Again, negative experience with a ships crew doctor. Not pleased with that at all, she didn’t even say what she thought might be wrong with me!
After that, I ran up to breakfast before going up to Club HAL early to cover for Natalie so she could go on an excursion, since she took over my gangway duty on Sunday because I was sick. So, I spent from 10 until 4 in Club HAL with a few kids who could never really decide what they wanted to do. Once two of the tweens got there (after lunch), they had something to do (MarioKart, as usual), but the kids needed something new about every 5 minutes. And then, the phone started ringing. Emily called to tell me that I needed to do some training in the Entertainment Office and Passenger Notification training in the front office after work, then Natalie called a few times to get me to bring her a pair of pants from the storage locker, as quickly as possible since hers were in the wash and she wanted to get something to eat. Altogether a crazy afternoon. So, after work I got to go by the locker to get pants, then run downstairs and do two sets of training before I finally got to rest. My throat is still completely sore and for a bit earlier I thought I might pass out because it hurt so bad when I turned around because of a noise. Not my best day, but tomorrow I’m off from noon ‘til 9, so that’ll be nice!
After that last break, I somehow felt great, much better than I’d been feeling over the past few days. My throat was still swollen, but my head felt a whole lot better. Sadly, none of the teens showed up, so I ended up watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (it was on TV), and an episode of Doctor Who until Natalie came back from the show around 11:30. We hung out in the OB for a while, me just enjoying the fact that I was feeling so much better again.
The rest of the workday yesterday was rather uneventful compared to the first half. I came back to the room and took a nap, talked to Natalie, had dinner then went to work. We had spy night, we combined our groups since there were only a few tweens. It went rather well, we had some bit of trouble getting them to stay focused, but that’s the usual with the young ones; a few more tweens came just in time for the scavenger hunt so we divided them up in groups with the littles, telling them to let the little ones help out where they could (looking for the clues), most of them were actually pretty good at that which was very helpful.
Natalie and I ran down to the room to change into formal clothes and made it to the show. I didn’t know what show it was, but I was happy to see when we got there that it was LiveWire, an Irish couple that I’ve seen a few times on various other ships. They have a great show, I’ve really enjoyed it every time. After that, I decided I wanted to socialize a bit, so we went to the OB for a while and ended up outside on the bow. It was a beautiful night, very light wind, stars so bright and numerous. We stayed out there for a while, I talked to the photographers and Cassandra for a while.
Today was a busy day, a typical sea day. We had quite a few kids right at the start of the day, and most of them stayed all the while we were open. At least they were mostly well-behaved, we didn’t have too much trouble all day, the normal instances of course but nothing we couldn’t handle. Even ice cream went well!
Camp night went well too, we decorated bears, made bear ear headbands, and divided them into groups to make up their own camp. Very few behavior problems compared to the last few days, but that’s probably because we’ve finally figured out how to divide them into groups that have the best results. As soon as they all left, we cleaned up quickly, then ran to catch the last bit of the show, GarageBand. Remember, the last time I saw this show was when they had a tech rehearsal for the crew. It was a bit disappointing actually, seeing it again. It’s still a great show, but I think it’s because it was so funny last time, and the cast is getting to the last month of their contracts so are tired, it just wasn’t as good. Still good, but not as much so as I remember
December 4, 2013: Grand Cayman
I was pretty unsure of what to do today at first. Natalie did tendering, letting me sleep in a bit. I went up to visit before breakfast and it was going really well, sending people straight down the stairs to the tender; we agreed to meet at breakfast if open tender was called before 10, and to meet in the room (me with a muffin for her) if they hadn’t called it, then go ashore as soon as we were ready. At breakfast, I met up with the solo guitarist and he invited me to go to the beach with a group. I told him I’d meet them on the pier, then went down with Natalie’s muffin after I’d finished eating. Open Tender was a bit later than expected, but Natalie and I still got to walk around for a bit before I met up with the group and she had to find her excursion.
The beach was great, I was very happy to go hang out with people, get some sun and swim! I thought I was going to come back before everyone else because I was supposed to help do something for one of the guest entertainers at 3, but everyone else ended up comig back with me. I made it back just in time, literally ran to the room to change and ran upstairs, sand on my feet and salt in my hair but I was there on time, when so many other people didn’t even show up. We didn’t really know what we were going to be doing until we got there, but it wasn’t bad, all we had to do was take labels off pans and stuff, throw out any that could cause injury and count them all. The guest entertainer group we were doing this for is called “Recycled Percussion” and they have a lot of crowd interaction (thus the pans we had to count. They have a crew show at midnight after their normal shows tomorrow so I’ll see how they are then.
After that, I finally got to get all that sand and salt off of me and head to dinner, then work. Nothing too exciting there, so glad we’re mixing tweens and kids because I don’t think I could handle all these kids by myself, they don’t like to listen and most of them English isn’t their first language.
December 10, 2013
So, I haven’t written in a few days, I’m sorry. I haven’t been feeling too well the last few days and it got busy before that.
The end of last cruise was alright with the kids. I had to do pirate night on my own though, in the kids room. Change of environment with 12 already-hyper and nearly uncontrollable 3 and 4 year olds? Not the best idea. Far from the best theme night I’ve had, actually it might even have been the worst. I was exceptionally glad when it was over.
I did have after-hours one night, of course the same night as the Recycled Percussion crew show, but I was only a few minutes late for that. The kids played MarioKart the whole time, their parents came at midnight and I quickly cleaned, ran downstairs, changed and made it to the show by 10 after. It was actually a pretty awesome show! They have talent, partially music, partially gymnastics-y stuff, partially showing off with drumstick tricks.
Today was a busy busy day, exhausting really.
I woke up and went to the infirmary. Should’ve thought more about that, the crew doctor pretty much asked what was wrong with me, gave me some (huge) pills that were somehow already sitting on her desk), told me when to take them and told me I could go. Now I feel like I need to look up what exactly these pills are that she gave me, what are they supposed to do to me? Again, negative experience with a ships crew doctor. Not pleased with that at all, she didn’t even say what she thought might be wrong with me!
After that, I ran up to breakfast before going up to Club HAL early to cover for Natalie so she could go on an excursion, since she took over my gangway duty on Sunday because I was sick. So, I spent from 10 until 4 in Club HAL with a few kids who could never really decide what they wanted to do. Once two of the tweens got there (after lunch), they had something to do (MarioKart, as usual), but the kids needed something new about every 5 minutes. And then, the phone started ringing. Emily called to tell me that I needed to do some training in the Entertainment Office and Passenger Notification training in the front office after work, then Natalie called a few times to get me to bring her a pair of pants from the storage locker, as quickly as possible since hers were in the wash and she wanted to get something to eat. Altogether a crazy afternoon. So, after work I got to go by the locker to get pants, then run downstairs and do two sets of training before I finally got to rest. My throat is still completely sore and for a bit earlier I thought I might pass out because it hurt so bad when I turned around because of a noise. Not my best day, but tomorrow I’m off from noon ‘til 9, so that’ll be nice!
After that last break, I somehow felt great, much better than I’d been feeling over the past few days. My throat was still swollen, but my head felt a whole lot better. Sadly, none of the teens showed up, so I ended up watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (it was on TV), and an episode of Doctor Who until Natalie came back from the show around 11:30. We hung out in the OB for a while, me just enjoying the fact that I was feeling so much better again.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Half day at Half Moon Cay
December 2, 2013: Half Moon Cay
Aside from a few minor changes, it’s almost as if I never left! Of course, I still had to attend the normal “newly embarked” crew meetings (which I’ve heard at least 7 times now). The last one was this morning. Sadly, that meant that I was unable to go directly ashore in the morning. I sat through the meeting, then changed and made my way to the gangway. I waited there for 45 minutes, not because there were a lot of people to get off (at least not to start off with), or because there was no tender there, but because the tender was rocking too much for anyone to safely get on or get off of it. It was a bit crazy, I was near the front of the line so I knew some of what was going on, but as the waiting crowd got bigger, the people in the back weren’t being told what was going on. We finally got on the tender though, with very few problems once we started. I made it to shore with about 2 hours to spend as I wished before I figured I should head back (an hour before the last crew tender, but I knew it’d take a while again to get people on and off). I walked down the beach, looking for Emily (my YPC) but didn’t find her, so I found a chair, set my stuff down and jumped in the water. It was lovely, I really missed the Caribbean, the perfect level of saltiness, the brilliant blue color, the relaxation! I didn’t get out of the water for 30 minutes, which is when I finally saw Emily walking down the beach, we talked for a bit until I decided to get back in the water and she continued her walk. Suddenly, the ship’s horn blasted 3 somewhat long blasts. In a moment, it seemed all movement on the beach stopped, even the waves seemed to be waiting, wondering what to expect. The next few minutes consisted of many people checking watches, asking each other what that meant, and generally a great deal of confusion. That signal usually means all aboard time is right about… NOW. So, I decided my water time was over and got out to dry off and possibly head back to the ship. I saw Emily down the beach talking to one of the lifeguards, and she came back to let me know that a big storm was coming and they want everyone to get on tenders to get back to the ship as soon as possible. Not good news when there’s supposed to be 2.5 more hours ashore for the guests. But, we all cooperated, and I heard no guests complain as I quickly made my way to the tenders. Not too much of a crowd was there yet, word was still spreading, so I made it onto the tender with no problems, but it quickly filled up and they tried to get as many of us on as possible. I seem to always ride back on the tender usually used for “glass-bottom boat” tours, and this time I ended up with a seat right about the glass, so I got to watch underneath us as we pulled out, lots of sand, designs in the sand, seaweed, and the constantly changing blue of the water. We had to wait a few minutes when we got closer to the ship because the other tender was having a difficult time getting the last few people off, so I watched beneath us as we rocked and waited. I alternated between watching rain come towards us and watching below to see if any fish went by. Lots of bubbles there, but no fish, but it was still beautiful. The water where we were waiting was my favorite blue, but even more so, it was a brilliant clear blue that seemed to glow and reflected off all the surfaces near the underwater ‘window.’ God’s creation really is indescribable!
Once we drew alongside the ship, we had no problems getting us all off, a few officers were there to make sure we ducked our heads as the ramp from the tneder to the platform on the ship was steep, and even I was too tall to make it through the archway door to the safety of the ship. I figured Natalie would have a few kids by now, after all everyone was being sent by, so I had a few slices of pizza before running by Club HAL. Surprisingly, no one was there, so I went outside to enjoy the sun while I could and to watch the last few tenders unload. They were having lots of issues, only getting one or two people down the ramp every few minutes, and there was still another whole tender of people to arrive! After about 20 minutes of unloading maybe 10 people, someone apparently called the bridge because the tenders drove a safe distance away and the ship began to turn and turn and turn. Finally it turned to where the waves were mostly blocked by the ship, and the tenders were able to have somewhat calm waters so they could unload. I think everyone was onboard by 2:45 or so (the last crew tender was originally supposed to arrive at the ship around 3:30). We are good.
Aside from a few minor changes, it’s almost as if I never left! Of course, I still had to attend the normal “newly embarked” crew meetings (which I’ve heard at least 7 times now). The last one was this morning. Sadly, that meant that I was unable to go directly ashore in the morning. I sat through the meeting, then changed and made my way to the gangway. I waited there for 45 minutes, not because there were a lot of people to get off (at least not to start off with), or because there was no tender there, but because the tender was rocking too much for anyone to safely get on or get off of it. It was a bit crazy, I was near the front of the line so I knew some of what was going on, but as the waiting crowd got bigger, the people in the back weren’t being told what was going on. We finally got on the tender though, with very few problems once we started. I made it to shore with about 2 hours to spend as I wished before I figured I should head back (an hour before the last crew tender, but I knew it’d take a while again to get people on and off). I walked down the beach, looking for Emily (my YPC) but didn’t find her, so I found a chair, set my stuff down and jumped in the water. It was lovely, I really missed the Caribbean, the perfect level of saltiness, the brilliant blue color, the relaxation! I didn’t get out of the water for 30 minutes, which is when I finally saw Emily walking down the beach, we talked for a bit until I decided to get back in the water and she continued her walk. Suddenly, the ship’s horn blasted 3 somewhat long blasts. In a moment, it seemed all movement on the beach stopped, even the waves seemed to be waiting, wondering what to expect. The next few minutes consisted of many people checking watches, asking each other what that meant, and generally a great deal of confusion. That signal usually means all aboard time is right about… NOW. So, I decided my water time was over and got out to dry off and possibly head back to the ship. I saw Emily down the beach talking to one of the lifeguards, and she came back to let me know that a big storm was coming and they want everyone to get on tenders to get back to the ship as soon as possible. Not good news when there’s supposed to be 2.5 more hours ashore for the guests. But, we all cooperated, and I heard no guests complain as I quickly made my way to the tenders. Not too much of a crowd was there yet, word was still spreading, so I made it onto the tender with no problems, but it quickly filled up and they tried to get as many of us on as possible. I seem to always ride back on the tender usually used for “glass-bottom boat” tours, and this time I ended up with a seat right about the glass, so I got to watch underneath us as we pulled out, lots of sand, designs in the sand, seaweed, and the constantly changing blue of the water. We had to wait a few minutes when we got closer to the ship because the other tender was having a difficult time getting the last few people off, so I watched beneath us as we rocked and waited. I alternated between watching rain come towards us and watching below to see if any fish went by. Lots of bubbles there, but no fish, but it was still beautiful. The water where we were waiting was my favorite blue, but even more so, it was a brilliant clear blue that seemed to glow and reflected off all the surfaces near the underwater ‘window.’ God’s creation really is indescribable!
Once we drew alongside the ship, we had no problems getting us all off, a few officers were there to make sure we ducked our heads as the ramp from the tneder to the platform on the ship was steep, and even I was too tall to make it through the archway door to the safety of the ship. I figured Natalie would have a few kids by now, after all everyone was being sent by, so I had a few slices of pizza before running by Club HAL. Surprisingly, no one was there, so I went outside to enjoy the sun while I could and to watch the last few tenders unload. They were having lots of issues, only getting one or two people down the ramp every few minutes, and there was still another whole tender of people to arrive! After about 20 minutes of unloading maybe 10 people, someone apparently called the bridge because the tenders drove a safe distance away and the ship began to turn and turn and turn. Finally it turned to where the waves were mostly blocked by the ship, and the tenders were able to have somewhat calm waters so they could unload. I think everyone was onboard by 2:45 or so (the last crew tender was originally supposed to arrive at the ship around 3:30). We are good.
I'm back!!
December 1, 2013: Ft. Lauderdale, back to the ship!
This morning was a bit hectic. I had a difficult time getting to sleep last night, and then kept waking up at random times throughout the night, I think once was because the phone rang… once. HAL recently (as in the past month) came up with a new system of giving out flight and hotel information, however not everything is always included in that one little part of a document containing flights and the name of the hotel, like information about the shuttle from the airport to the hotel, AND information about the shuttle from hotel to ship. I asked the hotel when I arrived, but they didn’t know exactly what time the shuttle should be there, they said it usually comes around 8, so that’s what I planned for, really 7:45 just to be safe. So, I went to breakfast and around 7:20 I finished and started to head upstairs when I saw a shuttle pull in, and a nurse I know from one of the ships waiting in the lobby. She’d seen the shuttle too, and told me to hurry but that she’d tell them to wait on me. Made it to the ship just fine, but when we got to the terminal, apparently more has changed, we have to give up our passports and our medical passports before we even can get on the ship, so there were maybe 25 of us (a lot were apparently flown into Miami, so had different shuttles) in the small room with the x-ray machine, trying to fill out forms and form some sort of line to turn them in, get confirmed and get our stuff out of everyone else’s way. Crazy. So, I get on the ship, and to my room, next to my first room last contract, to find it full of stuff, hardly any room for my luggage, but I find space.
Not sure what to do for the next 2 hours until my meeting, I pull a blanket onto one of the beds to sit and read. The two girls come and go, one had to literally throw all her stuff in a suitcase because they were making frustrated calls over the PA system for all disembarking crew to go to the crew mess, and her stuff was everywhere. Finally, my meeting time came around, so I went to that. As I was coming back to the room from that, I met up with Emily, the YPC, she gave me a schedule and we talked for a bit before I ran off to change and get some lunch before Open House. My new roommate arrived just as I was leaving for lunch, so we talked for a minute and I ran off to get food. Only once I was there did I realize that I wasn’t really that hungry. I ate anyway and went upstairs to organize stuff for Open House. For the first hour, no one showed up, not even wandering by, so I sat there watching Finding Nemo. Natalie, my roommate and fellow Club HAL girl, came up and we talked for a while, then it got really busy, then really quiet, then really busy. It continued like that the rest of the afternoon, 4 families would come at once, and then no one would be there for 30 minutes.
After that hectic Open House (we have some interesting families onboard, lots of really little ones. As in half the kids onboard are 3 or 4), I returned to the room to unpack some and ended up talking with Natalie until she went to do wristbands, then we talked again as she unpacked before her meeting and before I had to go to the Sailaway Party (in the rain, luckily when we got there we were told we only had to stay for a little bit). Emily, Amanda (the librarian) and I then went up to the OB for a bit, where one of the cadets had invited us to eat pizza and watch Despicable Me with a group of random people. They ended up not starting the movie until after we had to leave for our Entertainment Department meeting, but we did socialize there for a bit.
The Dept meeting was short, so we had a nice long dinner before Natalie and I went to work. I was so glad we combined the groups tonight, because it was just insane. 2 of the tweens showed up, and most of the young ones. We could tell that they all were exhausted and should’ve been in bed. Two of the most tired little ones literally attached themselves to me, so I tried to keep them entertained playing games, but one of them just wasn’t having it. Then, another of the girls just refused to listen to anything Emily, Natalie, or I said to her. Then one of the boys started to go play xbox instead of the activity we were playing. It was all just crazy. One of the little boys who attached himself to my leg a few times ended up falling asleep on the couch. We had to talk to a lot of parents, some of them just didn’t want to be there, others we found out weren’t fully potty-trained, some were just too tired to be there, and some wouldn’t follow the rules. I really hope tomorrow is better, I don’t know if Emily is going to let us stay combined or not, maybe the little ones will be better in the smaller room, where there’s less to get into and make a mess. I don’t know.
I hadn’t slept well last night, and Natalie was on her third ship this contract (she was transferred from the Ryndam to the Eurodam to here in the last month) so she was exhausted. We clocked our hours (another new thing, but this is very good, we don’t have to wait until after midnight to clock our hours! We can do it as soon as we finish work!), then headed straight to the room for bed. We ended up talking for a long time, finding out we have a lot in common so that’s good!
This morning was a bit hectic. I had a difficult time getting to sleep last night, and then kept waking up at random times throughout the night, I think once was because the phone rang… once. HAL recently (as in the past month) came up with a new system of giving out flight and hotel information, however not everything is always included in that one little part of a document containing flights and the name of the hotel, like information about the shuttle from the airport to the hotel, AND information about the shuttle from hotel to ship. I asked the hotel when I arrived, but they didn’t know exactly what time the shuttle should be there, they said it usually comes around 8, so that’s what I planned for, really 7:45 just to be safe. So, I went to breakfast and around 7:20 I finished and started to head upstairs when I saw a shuttle pull in, and a nurse I know from one of the ships waiting in the lobby. She’d seen the shuttle too, and told me to hurry but that she’d tell them to wait on me. Made it to the ship just fine, but when we got to the terminal, apparently more has changed, we have to give up our passports and our medical passports before we even can get on the ship, so there were maybe 25 of us (a lot were apparently flown into Miami, so had different shuttles) in the small room with the x-ray machine, trying to fill out forms and form some sort of line to turn them in, get confirmed and get our stuff out of everyone else’s way. Crazy. So, I get on the ship, and to my room, next to my first room last contract, to find it full of stuff, hardly any room for my luggage, but I find space.
Not sure what to do for the next 2 hours until my meeting, I pull a blanket onto one of the beds to sit and read. The two girls come and go, one had to literally throw all her stuff in a suitcase because they were making frustrated calls over the PA system for all disembarking crew to go to the crew mess, and her stuff was everywhere. Finally, my meeting time came around, so I went to that. As I was coming back to the room from that, I met up with Emily, the YPC, she gave me a schedule and we talked for a bit before I ran off to change and get some lunch before Open House. My new roommate arrived just as I was leaving for lunch, so we talked for a minute and I ran off to get food. Only once I was there did I realize that I wasn’t really that hungry. I ate anyway and went upstairs to organize stuff for Open House. For the first hour, no one showed up, not even wandering by, so I sat there watching Finding Nemo. Natalie, my roommate and fellow Club HAL girl, came up and we talked for a while, then it got really busy, then really quiet, then really busy. It continued like that the rest of the afternoon, 4 families would come at once, and then no one would be there for 30 minutes.
After that hectic Open House (we have some interesting families onboard, lots of really little ones. As in half the kids onboard are 3 or 4), I returned to the room to unpack some and ended up talking with Natalie until she went to do wristbands, then we talked again as she unpacked before her meeting and before I had to go to the Sailaway Party (in the rain, luckily when we got there we were told we only had to stay for a little bit). Emily, Amanda (the librarian) and I then went up to the OB for a bit, where one of the cadets had invited us to eat pizza and watch Despicable Me with a group of random people. They ended up not starting the movie until after we had to leave for our Entertainment Department meeting, but we did socialize there for a bit.
The Dept meeting was short, so we had a nice long dinner before Natalie and I went to work. I was so glad we combined the groups tonight, because it was just insane. 2 of the tweens showed up, and most of the young ones. We could tell that they all were exhausted and should’ve been in bed. Two of the most tired little ones literally attached themselves to me, so I tried to keep them entertained playing games, but one of them just wasn’t having it. Then, another of the girls just refused to listen to anything Emily, Natalie, or I said to her. Then one of the boys started to go play xbox instead of the activity we were playing. It was all just crazy. One of the little boys who attached himself to my leg a few times ended up falling asleep on the couch. We had to talk to a lot of parents, some of them just didn’t want to be there, others we found out weren’t fully potty-trained, some were just too tired to be there, and some wouldn’t follow the rules. I really hope tomorrow is better, I don’t know if Emily is going to let us stay combined or not, maybe the little ones will be better in the smaller room, where there’s less to get into and make a mess. I don’t know.
I hadn’t slept well last night, and Natalie was on her third ship this contract (she was transferred from the Ryndam to the Eurodam to here in the last month) so she was exhausted. We clocked our hours (another new thing, but this is very good, we don’t have to wait until after midnight to clock our hours! We can do it as soon as we finish work!), then headed straight to the room for bed. We ended up talking for a long time, finding out we have a lot in common so that’s good!
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