dolphins!!!!!

March 13, 2014: Cozumel
This contract is definitely an excellent one for getting fun stuff done!
So, I had work this morning, port day until 12:15. That wasn’t too bad, but there were a lot of kids there. Daniella came to take over while we were at lunch, and I ran downstairs to change and grab all my stuff. I’d talked to Cassandra last week, and she ended up getting both me and Michelle on a tour… to go swim with dolphins!!!!!

I was a bit worried that the tour might be cancelled because it was raining and foggy. But when we arrived at the pier to meet the tour, we were both ecastic to hear that they were still going to do it. We got our wristbands and met our tour guide, and then loaded up in taxis to head to the place, which was only a 5 minute ride down the road. It was cool, we had to wait a bit once we got there to get our lifejackets and stuff, but the area we could wait in overlooked the whole area with the dolphins. Some people were in the water with the dolphins, others were following trainers instructions and ‘training’ the dolphins to splash, high five, jump, etc, and others were sitting on the sidelines watching. I took my camera, so I got it a bit wet (from the rain) as I took pictures of all that.

Then, it was our turn, we got our lifejackets, and those of us that were swimming got goggles, then we followed our trainer to our section of the area and got in the water. It was still raining, but that just made the sea water feel so much better! Our group included 8 people, and we had two dolphins named Alaina and Vina to hang out with for the hour or so. Our trainer was really cool, he told us a little bit about the dolphins, and we swam out to the middle, where one of the dolphins swam in front of our row and we got to pet it for a bit, they both seemed to enjoy that, they came back by at least one more time after the trainer signaled to return to him. Then, we took turns holding, dancing with and kissing one of them (the two dolphins took turns) for photos. I was kind of the guinea pig for that for our group because I was first in line closest to the trainer. It was cool, but the trainer didn’t really tell me what was going on at first, so I was trying to figure that out as it was happening. After everyone got their pictures, we moved on to something else. I was told to swim out almost to the other side of the pool, then to put one arm straight out and the other on my lifejacket, so I did. Then the trainer said something and all I got from that was the word “bike.” He said okay, and next thing I know, one of the dolphins comes up behind and next to me, I grab one of its flippers with my outstretched hand and suddenly I’m FLYING back to the group! Apparently when the dolphin came by, I was supposed to us both hands and hold onto both sides, but by the time I understood that, I was back at the group! The dolphin didn’t really seem to mind though, kind of funny because anytime anyone else in the group let go one hand, she just stopped and waited until they were ready again. That was really cool! Water flying everywhere, being pulled by a dolphin!
After we all had a chance to be pulled across the area by one of the dolphins, every group around the area finished as well, and the trainers got our dolphins to put on a show for us. 5 dolphins sped around the pool, spraying water at us, jumping in the air, etc. SO COOL!!

And that was the end, sadly. We got out of the water, back into the rain, went and looked at our pictures, gathered our stuff, dried off, bought pictures (I bought a package that included all the individual shots of my-19 of them- on a CD with one printed copy), then sat and watched other groups experience what we just did as we waited for our ride back to the pier. Such a good experience.

On our way back to the ship- walking through the mall that you must to get from the street to the pier, we met Jeremy at Starbucks, so stopped and got some food and a hot chocolate for a bit, before all three of us decided to go to the Mega store (Target-like store) down the street since they all needed stuff. I just tagged along because I wasn’t quite ready to go back to the ship yet. Michelle went back to the ship to go work out before dinner and work, but Jeremy and I walked across the street to the crew bar and got wifi before we decided it was time to head back.
I had a quick shower, and an even quicker dinner before movie night at work.

can I say it again? I love my job!

March 11, 2014: Sea day
I really do love my job. I’m not sure why, but today it just really hit me. Nothing really bothered me like it sometimes does, the little frustrating things the kids do sometimes. I felt content. One of the little girls fell down as she was running on the sports deck and I got to her before Michelle and got her to a bench and talking to me and stopped the tears really quickly. I had two of the girls holding my hands as we left the sports deck and all through ice cream time, and though one of them felt bad when one of the older boys said something mean to her during ice cream, she wouldn’t sit up to talk to her friend, but she sat up and talked to me. Somehow everything just went right this morning and afternoon. When I called for their attention, it took a second, but once they were quiet, all the kids were quiet until I’d finished. And none of them really complained about the activities we were doing. We’ve spent today alternating between the kids and tweens schedules, since we’re still keeping them combined for the moment, and none of them have had any trouble with it!
It’s just been an overall satisfying day at work :)

just another day in paradise

March 10, 2014: Half Moon Cay
Daniella and I were on a tender by 8:30 this morning, which meant that we were on the island by 8:50, so we had half an hour of time before ‘work.’ I guess I could have run down the beach again, but I was just too tired today to do that, so we both ended up laying out on the sand and taking a nap for the half hour. None of the kids ended up showing up for island activities (as usual, it’s the first full day of the cruise, and we only had 4 show up last night, so I wasn’t really expecting anyone anyway), so we packed up and went to my normal beach spot to spend the afternoon.

The beach really wasn’t very crowded, which was surprising, of course I guess most people take longer to recover from Daylight Savings hour forward than I do now, seeing as we change hours twice a week! Daniella had to check out the volleyball court to see if any of the teens showed up (she had almost half the teens show up last night, so it’ll be a busy week for her). Jeremy joined me while she was gone until he had to go to team basketball. When they both finally got back, the three of us got a drink (strawberry-banana daiquiri for me, minus the actual daiquiri part) and took out snacks and enjoyed sitting in the sun for a while. Slowly more crew members joined us, Dani the port shopping girl, Greg the piano bar guy, the cast, a few HAL Cats, lots of people were there to hang out with! We played Frisbee for a bit, and watched the cast/HAL cats throw football, and swam. It was easy to pretend (for once) that we were just on vacation, not crew members, probably because none of the guests really ventured that far down the beach today.

Daniella had to work at 4, so she headed back around 2 to make sure she caught a tender and had enough time, but Jeremy and I stayed and hung out with everyone else for a while before I helped him go collect the sports equipment and we headed back to the ship. It had been a perfectly beautiful day! :)
Back on the ship, I kind of took a nap while doing laundry, and decided to curl my hair for formal night, even though I wasn’t quite sure how much time I’d actually be out in formal after work. Work went by quickly, Spy Night was a hit as always! We combined the tweens and kid since there were only about 10 total, strange since there are 30 on board. It’s good because they’re working very well together, and Michelle and I work really well together, we take turns running activities and I guess it’s because I helped train her with these age groups that we both kind of run the activities the same way. The night went by more quickly than any night from the past month or so, I guess really since the Blues Cruise! Wow, that was a really long time ago it feels like now!

I quickly changed into formal and went to the Northern lights to check on Jeremy for a bit, it wasn’t crowded there, and I ended up making a loop around decks 2 and 3 to see if there were many people out anywhere around the ship. Very few people were out tonight for some reason, it was a bit strange; the piano bar wasn’t even that crowded! I left before closing to go to the PO for a party Santana organized (she wasn’t sure until yesterday if she would be leaving in Grand Cayman or not, turns out that she’s not, so it was a ‘just because’ party instead of a ‘going away’ party). She had ordered so much food, so we all had to help eat all the chicken nuggets, sandwiches and pizza. It was nice, just a chance to hang out and chat, different location than normal which always makes things more fun. I hung out with Cassandra and some of the photogs for a bit before Daniella came and of course, we ended up just hanging out with the rest of the “On location” team the rest of the night (the librarian Antonio, Santana, and Jeremy once he got off work). Not a bad way to end a great day!

beach day (again)!

March 8, 2014: Half Moon Cay
We were in port with the Zuiderdam again today. It was pretty cool because the two staff that were working on the island are also going to be there this summer, one’s only there until mid-June, and the other goes home for the repositioning but returns for the summer. So, I know my co-workers already (except the YPC)! It was a bit odd because our ships were on different times. We didn’t go hour back yesterday since we’d just have to go hour forward again for daylight savings tonight, but the Zuiderdam just left Fort Lauderdale, so they were still on normal time. We were just one hour ahead of them, it was fine as long as we didn’t discuss what time we leave or what time activities were going on.

Anyway, after Daniella and I finished our hour waiting for kids to come build sandcastles, we headed down the beach to try to claim a spot. We found a nice spot on the sand and I left her to see if any of the teens (who haven’t shown up all week) would come to volleyball. None of them did, but some people got there early for Zuiderdam vs Nieuw A volleyball, so I stayed and talked to them, keeping them entertained until everyone else showed up. Even once everyone showed up, I stayed and talked to Jeremy while he waited on the other show host to get there. Then, I returned to our spot on the beach. Santana joined us later, after she finished a Vow Renewal ceremony. I didn’t have a whole lot of time, so I enjoyed what time I did have before heading back. I met up with Jeremy on the way back, he was coming to find us, so he ended up walking with me back to the tenders. I started work at three, meaning I put a sign up on the door and went to the Lido for some food. When I went back upstairs, Michelle said I could leave early if I wanted to since it would be weird if the teens showed up today when they hadn’t all week. I ended up getting a nice nap in before dinner.

I helped out with the younger kids again at work, most of who wanted to watch one of the new movies we got today (it was a weird Disney channel movie, kind of a mix between Grease and the ship production show Garage Band). Anyway, they all left early and I sat in the Loft for another hour before heading downstairs to change and head to the Northern Lights. The normal group of girls were there of course, but somehow we managed to close early-ish (the bar staff helped since they told Jeremy when to announce last call for drinks since they had to start getting ready for next cruise).

St Thomas port day

March 6, 2014: St Thomas
Another 12 hour day. I had to be at work at 8 this morning, but was surprisingly awake somehow. Two kids came in around 9 and their mom said she’d be back around 11 to pick them up because she had a meeting or something ashore that she couldn’t take them to. Not the best three hours of my life. They were terrible, refusing to listen, throwing things at each other or just on the ground, taking off their shoes, climbing on the cab, and screaming for me not to tell their mommy they’re being bad. They finally did get settled about the time their mom came back around 12. I was just ready for them to be gone by that point, it felt like those 3 hours lasted the entire day.

I had a nice long lunch with Jeremy and Blair and a few others, then headed back upstairs for what I hoped would be a quiet afternoon. It was a quiet afternoon, but there was a kid walking in as I was just getting back and propping the door open. She just colored for a while, so I put on some music and read until she stopped coloring and I asked if she wanted a movie or a game or something else. So, I put in Tangled. Another two kids came in, French speaking boys, and one played Minecraft for a while until Tangled got too interesting, the other one immediately sat down to watch the movie. The girl left, and so it was just the two French boys sitting and watching Tangled. That’s what I love about that movie! Everyone loves it even though it is a ‘princess movie.’ I took a quick nap before dinner and work again. Tonight’s work was really just helping out with the tweens again, then hanging out in the Loft watching another movie until an appropriate time to close. The teens just aren’t showing up this week, makes it a bit boring for me as I’m in there all alone for at least an hour at night after the others leave. After work, I went to the Northern Lights to hang out with Jeremy and got roped into dancing for a bit by some of the younger crowd that’ve been there a lot this week too. It was pretty fun, there were a lot more people there than have been the rest of the week, and a lot of people were dancing, by the end of the night, none of them wanted to stop!

shopping in San Juan

March 5, 2014: San Juan
It was a normal sea day morning, with none of the teens showing up, so I got to sit and read until lunchtime. I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do ashore when I went to lunch, but Daniella (she’s my new roommate) invited me to go to the mall with her and a group. There ended up being 7 of heading to the mall together. It was fun, Daniella and I got what we needed and just walked around talking for the remaining two hours. We met back up with everyone else around 4, and took another taxi back to the port. There, everyone else went to CVS, but I went back to the ship to drop off bags and pick up Michelle, then we met them and all went to an outdoor restaurant for dinner. It felt like eating in a jungle actually, because this restaurant was separated from other cafes by a wall of plants, and there were birds, insects, lizards, etc. living in the bushes and trees. Bit weird, but at least they didn’t come that close to us.

I relaxed for a bit until work at 8, then helped out in the tween room until they closed, then I decided to watch a movie in the Loft. Daniella and Michelle ended up joining me and we all watched Chronicles of Narnia until time to leave. We went to the Northern Lights for a bit to hang out with Jeremy, then the four of us went to the OB to see if anyone was still there. They weren’t, so we just hung out on the bow stargazing and chatting.

Grand Turk

I know, I know, it's been a long time since I've posted anything. I'm sorry. It's been a bit busy around here and there was another week where I just didn't feel like I had anything to say that I hadn't already, aside from the very little that changed from the usual routine. It's better though now!


March 4, 2014: Grand Turk
It was a beautiful day in the Caribbean! Of course, we had fire drill this morning, so Michelle and I had to wait around for that to finish before we could get off the ship. We tried to call Jeremy, the show host, to get him to come out with us, but he needed to rest and recover from his first few days on board, so the two of us headed to the beach. The normal place crew go was rather full by the time we got there, but we managed to get a free table to sit in the shade and use the internet for a bit before we transitioned to the beach. I actually didn’t spend much time at all laying out on the beach this time. Topher, the dog who’s always been at Jack’s Shack was there of course, but there was another dog there this time as well. The other dog had an orange ball that people would throw and she would race after it, only to lay it on the beach close to where she found it, and then bark at it until someone threw it again. And I discovered the Topher loves to play with Frisbees! Mine now has quite a few teeth marks on it, but he didn’t bite all the way through it or even chew on it really, he would just chase after it, pick it up and then run around the beach with it. I had a fun time chasing him down for the Frisbee, because he’s a smart dog and knew to switch directions randomly and quickly to confuse me. Later in the afternoon, another dog came up with a toy of his own, a giant rock/shell that he carried around. I think he just liked to run around, because he only gave up the shell for me to throw twice. It was a fun hanging out with people and splashing around in the water with the dogs.

I had to work at 3, so I headed back a bit early to shower and get ready before I went upstairs and put a sign on the door saying I was in the Lido, since I hadn’t had lunch yet. Finally I remembered to try the new grill by the pool called Dive In. It’s actually very good, even better than the burgers and stuff they used to have. Of course, it helps that they can give you cheesy fries! Turns out that I wasn’t the only one with that idea today, because I joined Megan, Matt and Cassandra at a table (at the end of their meal, they didn’t stay for too long) and they all had the trays, and then Michelle and Krista joined me, also with trays, and Jeremy joined us as well, with yet another Dive-In tray. We sat and talked for a while before everyone had to go our separate ways, either for a nap or work. I went back to the Loft and sat around there waiting to see if any of my teens would show up, but not really expecting any to, since none of them showed yesterday, the sea day! It’s going to be a slow week in the Loft.