January 22, 2014:
Such a busy busy cruise! I haven’t really worked all that much, with 2 kids on board and 3 staff, we’ve divided up the hours so we’ve only worked about 3 hours each day, plus helping out with some of the random blues cruise activities. It’s been pretty fun actually. This charter is sooo different from our normal cruises!
There’s three of us this week, taking care of a grand total of 2 kids: two five year old boys. It’s been pretty laid-back. Christine, my YPC, planned it out so we only worked one session of each sea day. So, I worked the morning of the first, and so had the rest of the day off. I was feeling lazy, so ended up taking a nap until I had to help out with the Blues cruise activities. Basically, that meant sitting in the digital workshop reading and waiting for any of the artists to come by and sign posters. I worked the night shift the second sea day, and of course had to work an activity the hour and a half before work. It was a busy evening; the ships theme was Mardi Gras, so I combined that with Club HAL’s un-birthday theme (we’re deciding on themes as we go this week). The boys had fun making masks, and that ended up taking up a lot of the time. After work, I met up with Alex and Meghna in the showroom and listened to one of the bands play; we wandered around listening to various bands around the ship. Two sea days down, one to go, although these sea days really aren’t like normal sea days, I don’t really know what to make of them. Do I like them because they’re so lazy or do I not like them because I don’t really DO anything during them? I did go to the gym this morning just because I could. We had a security training, and though I was tired and wanted to go back to bed, I’d woken up this morning and told myself I was going to the gym, sooo that’s what I had to do. Now, I just need to do that more often. So much time on the elliptical is intense, but I made it through, got ready and made it to lunch at a somewhat normal time.
The best thing about this cruise though, definitely is the fact that they’ve changed the lido. Usually, breakfast closes promptly at 10, maybe a few minutes later if there’s a lot of people in line; and lunch opens sometime around 11:30. This cruise, however, breakfast is available until 2pm. Lunch is served starting around the usual time, but only on one side. One side of the main line has the normal lunch options while the other has the ‘typical’ breakfast options, one side is salads while the other is still making eggs benedict and omelets, of course the pasta and aisan stations are both available (no waffles or crepes for lunch because they’re at the pasta station), one side is desserts and ice cream while the other has the various juices, milk and cereals. It’s absolutely amazing. I don’t know why this isn’t a normal thing!? It’s not really any more work for those serving the food, they’d be at the line anyway, just giving out different types of food. All the musicians and cast members love it too because they rarely get up in time for breakfast normally. I wonder if most of the other charters eat this way? If they do, well next charter season, please let me go on a ship with lots of them! Haha
St Maarten:
Today was nice, we did port day sign-ups and neither family signed up, so Christine (who scheduled herself for port day, had anyone signed up) came out with us. It was actually quite a large group going to the beach: Amanda, Johan, Meghna, me, Alex, William (another HALCat), and of course Christine. We got lunch and wifi at a cool restaurant right across from the beach, and then Johan convinced us to take a taxi to another beach. The beach we ended up at was Airplane Beach, named so because it is right next to the airport, so planes are taking off and landing not far from where we’re laying on the beach. They were flying over our heads! It was a cool experience. At one point, a rather big jet plane took off. That was painful; the jets started up and we got sand-blasted. William actually got cut, and all of us were scrubbing sand off our faces or backs, dumping more sand out of our bags and towels, and running after stray hats. Definitely an experience that I never want to repeat, but how many people can say they spent a day at the beach with planes flying closely over their head and getting sand-blasted by a jet.
I had the full day off, so I ended up just hanging out with some of the HAL Cats and listening to music around the ship in the evening. Not at all a bad way to spend a day! :)
Monday, January 27, 2014
Friday, January 17, 2014
Cozumel
January 16, 2014: Cozumel
I got to sleep in today, well a little bit; I did go to breakfast around 9:30, which would be extremely early for all the musicians (anything before 11:30 is ‘extremely early’ to them). After breakfast, I had to cover for Meghna while she attended raft drill and Christine went to an entertainment department meeting about the Blues charter next week. After that, I was free though, but I ended up staying in Club HAL and having lunch with Meghna. Meghna and I got off with Alex and most of the cast around 1 to celebrate one of their birthdays, but Meghna left us soon after we arrived at the restaurant to meet up with the party planner somewhere else. It was a fun lunch though, got to spend some more time with the cast before they leave in 10 days. It was getting very chilly, so once we all paid most of us went back to the ship to get warm clothing before going back out to “no name bar,” which is the place apparently most crew go when in Cozumel. It’s actually a really cool place, it’s a hole-in-the-wall door leading through the building into a nice outdoor area. There’s a pool, lots of tables, a sandy area with beach chairs and more tables, and of course since it’s “by crew, for crew,” they have free wifi.
I didn’t spend a lot of time there, mainly went just to hang out and see what it was like. I had to work at 7, so gave myself enough time to walk back and change and get some tea before work, Alex came back with me to give himself enough time to eat dinner and work at 8 (I had 2.5 bowls of chips and a few quesadillas at lunch, so I wasn’t hungry at all for dinner).
Work was hard work tonight, pirate night. Usually there’s a lot more kids, and activities take a lot longer with more kids, so everything seemed to get done really quickly tonight. Thankfully, Christine helped me out on doing the treasure hunt around the ship (I was not about to take this group of kids - even though there’s only 5 of them - out and about around the ship by myself). So it didn’t end up too badly, just a bit exhausting.
After work, I changed and went to the Queen’s Lounge to listen to the HALCats. The old solo guitarist (now on as a guest) was there and we hung out and supported the band (not many people were out around the ship tonight, I guess most had a long tiring day in Cozumel and went to bed after the DWTS fashion show – which I couldn’t go to because it was in the middle of work :( ). Once they got off, some of them joined us and we hung out in the Northern Lights for a while. It wasn’t very busy and Alex and I weren’t really in the mood to stay in public area, so we went to the OB, which was also not busy but some of the other musicians were there, and we played darts until we realized it was hour forward night (before a sea day, yikes).
I got to sleep in today, well a little bit; I did go to breakfast around 9:30, which would be extremely early for all the musicians (anything before 11:30 is ‘extremely early’ to them). After breakfast, I had to cover for Meghna while she attended raft drill and Christine went to an entertainment department meeting about the Blues charter next week. After that, I was free though, but I ended up staying in Club HAL and having lunch with Meghna. Meghna and I got off with Alex and most of the cast around 1 to celebrate one of their birthdays, but Meghna left us soon after we arrived at the restaurant to meet up with the party planner somewhere else. It was a fun lunch though, got to spend some more time with the cast before they leave in 10 days. It was getting very chilly, so once we all paid most of us went back to the ship to get warm clothing before going back out to “no name bar,” which is the place apparently most crew go when in Cozumel. It’s actually a really cool place, it’s a hole-in-the-wall door leading through the building into a nice outdoor area. There’s a pool, lots of tables, a sandy area with beach chairs and more tables, and of course since it’s “by crew, for crew,” they have free wifi.
I didn’t spend a lot of time there, mainly went just to hang out and see what it was like. I had to work at 7, so gave myself enough time to walk back and change and get some tea before work, Alex came back with me to give himself enough time to eat dinner and work at 8 (I had 2.5 bowls of chips and a few quesadillas at lunch, so I wasn’t hungry at all for dinner).
Work was hard work tonight, pirate night. Usually there’s a lot more kids, and activities take a lot longer with more kids, so everything seemed to get done really quickly tonight. Thankfully, Christine helped me out on doing the treasure hunt around the ship (I was not about to take this group of kids - even though there’s only 5 of them - out and about around the ship by myself). So it didn’t end up too badly, just a bit exhausting.
After work, I changed and went to the Queen’s Lounge to listen to the HALCats. The old solo guitarist (now on as a guest) was there and we hung out and supported the band (not many people were out around the ship tonight, I guess most had a long tiring day in Cozumel and went to bed after the DWTS fashion show – which I couldn’t go to because it was in the middle of work :( ). Once they got off, some of them joined us and we hung out in the Northern Lights for a while. It wasn’t very busy and Alex and I weren’t really in the mood to stay in public area, so we went to the OB, which was also not busy but some of the other musicians were there, and we played darts until we realized it was hour forward night (before a sea day, yikes).
one of my 800 DWTS show photos!
January 15, 2014: Grand Cayman
I was on teens yesterday (sea day), and had the night off, which was nice. None of the teens showed up until around 5, and then it was only 2 who were exchange students from Finland and Germany on vacation with their journalist host mom. It was cool to talk to them, though they didn’t really stay long, they came to try to meet other teenagers, but there weren’t any others there. Meghna was supposed to meet me at dinner at 6 but she wasn’t there, and neither was Amanda so I sat down alone for a while, then Alex joined me for a bit before he had to head to work, and then finally everyone else started showing up, by which time I was ready to leave and change into formal. Courtney met me in my room and curled my hair (she has one of those ‘professional’ curling things that wraps and curls sections of hair in a few seconds), then we went off to the show.
After the show, we went to the atrium area and bugged all the photographers and got a LOT of pictures taken (some after we borrowed Amanda for a bit from work). Not sure what to do afterwards, we wandered around to the different bars and finally settled in the Crow’s Nest for a while to just hang out. It felt so much later than it really was though, because I got used to going to the show at 10, not 8; 2 hours makes a BIG difference! They didn’t really want to stay in public area, so we went to the OB, which was pretty dead, so they left and I hung out with Ryan (from the cast) for a bit, eventually we decided to venture back out to public area once more, and ended up at the elevators near the casino, where a lot of the DWTS people were. We stayed there for a while talking to people (most of them are actually pretty nice) until we moved on to the Northern Lights with a lot of them. That was fun, Alex joined us after the band finished their set, and a lot of the cast members came. I ended up talking for a lot time with a girl who I found out was assistant for makeup and wardrobe (she was really nice), and a passenger hung out with us too. We got introduced both to Sabrina Bryan and Joey Fatone and a few of the dancers who hadn’t been outside the casino earlier. I really enjoyed chatting with all of them!
Anyway, today I had to work the morning shift, of course no one showed up so Meghna came to take over at 11:30 and we just had lunch together. Alex and I had planned on going to the beach after I got off work, but it was cloudy looking outside, so when I got back to the room I called and instead made plans to get some wifi and food (for him, since I’d just eaten lunch).
It’s nice sometimes when it rains, because then I don’t feel guilty about using my time ashore only for wifi instead of excursions and beach time! It was like that especially in Europe. Rain gave us an excuse to just relax and not feel quite so obligated to do something more productive or educational with our time.
I intended to take a nap when we got back, but it just wasn’t meant to be. First Meghna called and needed me to cover for her in Club HAL for a few minutes (so I had to change into my uniform, go upstairs, and then of course I ended up hanging out and talking to her for longer), then someone in the room next door decided to deadbolt their door open, and go in and out and in and out of their room for about 20 minutes straight, and then Courtney called so we could go get pictures from formal night (she leaves tomorrow so we had to get the prints today). They were busy, so we wandered around a bit made plans for dinner and picking up the pictures after dinner. However, plans changed when I returned Alex’s ipad and he wanted to go to dinner early. Courtney just met me as I was finishing dinner and we got the pictures and sorted them before I had to work.
Work was a bit long tonight, “Games Galore” night just isn’t made for kids under the age of 8. I usually have the tweens make up their own board game; the little ones can’t do that. The little ones also can’t play that many board games, all we have for them is Candyland, Jenga, and Connect 4 (which really is over some of their heads anyway). I made it through though, but had to give them more free time at the end of the night, when most parents were coming in anyway. I was ready to run downstairs, grab my camera, change and run to the show (the Dancing with the Stars production show), but one of the parents was late picking up their kid, so I really did have to run, and I missed the first 15 minutes of the show, and Courtney and Sam had just lost the seat they’d been saving for me. So, I stood through the show, it wasn’t too bad though, I could move around to take pictures and not really disturb anyone, except when the dancers came into the audience and ran around the stairs (the narrow part, where I was standing). I did get a LOT of pictures though!
So amazing!
Courtney had been planning on staying out late as it was her last night on board, but when we went to the Northern Lights after the show, she realized how tired she was, so she and Sam left. I stayed of course, and hung out with the cast and Alex when he got off work, and talked more with Rachel (the assistant for makeup/wardrobe). It was hour back night, which was amazing, although, the extra hour that could’ve been used for sleep was instead spent on hanging out in the Northern Lights and OB, choosing music to play and just talking.
I was on teens yesterday (sea day), and had the night off, which was nice. None of the teens showed up until around 5, and then it was only 2 who were exchange students from Finland and Germany on vacation with their journalist host mom. It was cool to talk to them, though they didn’t really stay long, they came to try to meet other teenagers, but there weren’t any others there. Meghna was supposed to meet me at dinner at 6 but she wasn’t there, and neither was Amanda so I sat down alone for a while, then Alex joined me for a bit before he had to head to work, and then finally everyone else started showing up, by which time I was ready to leave and change into formal. Courtney met me in my room and curled my hair (she has one of those ‘professional’ curling things that wraps and curls sections of hair in a few seconds), then we went off to the show.
After the show, we went to the atrium area and bugged all the photographers and got a LOT of pictures taken (some after we borrowed Amanda for a bit from work). Not sure what to do afterwards, we wandered around to the different bars and finally settled in the Crow’s Nest for a while to just hang out. It felt so much later than it really was though, because I got used to going to the show at 10, not 8; 2 hours makes a BIG difference! They didn’t really want to stay in public area, so we went to the OB, which was pretty dead, so they left and I hung out with Ryan (from the cast) for a bit, eventually we decided to venture back out to public area once more, and ended up at the elevators near the casino, where a lot of the DWTS people were. We stayed there for a while talking to people (most of them are actually pretty nice) until we moved on to the Northern Lights with a lot of them. That was fun, Alex joined us after the band finished their set, and a lot of the cast members came. I ended up talking for a lot time with a girl who I found out was assistant for makeup and wardrobe (she was really nice), and a passenger hung out with us too. We got introduced both to Sabrina Bryan and Joey Fatone and a few of the dancers who hadn’t been outside the casino earlier. I really enjoyed chatting with all of them!
Anyway, today I had to work the morning shift, of course no one showed up so Meghna came to take over at 11:30 and we just had lunch together. Alex and I had planned on going to the beach after I got off work, but it was cloudy looking outside, so when I got back to the room I called and instead made plans to get some wifi and food (for him, since I’d just eaten lunch).
It’s nice sometimes when it rains, because then I don’t feel guilty about using my time ashore only for wifi instead of excursions and beach time! It was like that especially in Europe. Rain gave us an excuse to just relax and not feel quite so obligated to do something more productive or educational with our time.
I intended to take a nap when we got back, but it just wasn’t meant to be. First Meghna called and needed me to cover for her in Club HAL for a few minutes (so I had to change into my uniform, go upstairs, and then of course I ended up hanging out and talking to her for longer), then someone in the room next door decided to deadbolt their door open, and go in and out and in and out of their room for about 20 minutes straight, and then Courtney called so we could go get pictures from formal night (she leaves tomorrow so we had to get the prints today). They were busy, so we wandered around a bit made plans for dinner and picking up the pictures after dinner. However, plans changed when I returned Alex’s ipad and he wanted to go to dinner early. Courtney just met me as I was finishing dinner and we got the pictures and sorted them before I had to work.
Work was a bit long tonight, “Games Galore” night just isn’t made for kids under the age of 8. I usually have the tweens make up their own board game; the little ones can’t do that. The little ones also can’t play that many board games, all we have for them is Candyland, Jenga, and Connect 4 (which really is over some of their heads anyway). I made it through though, but had to give them more free time at the end of the night, when most parents were coming in anyway. I was ready to run downstairs, grab my camera, change and run to the show (the Dancing with the Stars production show), but one of the parents was late picking up their kid, so I really did have to run, and I missed the first 15 minutes of the show, and Courtney and Sam had just lost the seat they’d been saving for me. So, I stood through the show, it wasn’t too bad though, I could move around to take pictures and not really disturb anyone, except when the dancers came into the audience and ran around the stairs (the narrow part, where I was standing). I did get a LOT of pictures though!
Courtney had been planning on staying out late as it was her last night on board, but when we went to the Northern Lights after the show, she realized how tired she was, so she and Sam left. I stayed of course, and hung out with the cast and Alex when he got off work, and talked more with Rachel (the assistant for makeup/wardrobe). It was hour back night, which was amazing, although, the extra hour that could’ve been used for sleep was instead spent on hanging out in the Northern Lights and OB, choosing music to play and just talking.
Monday, January 13, 2014
perfect day in Half Moon Cay
January 13, 2014
You know those days when everything goes perfectly, all according to plan? Well, this wasn’t quite one of them. Not in a bad way though! I just didn’t have much of a plan and things went perfectly anyway, with only a few of the usual blips.
Actually, it kind of started last night, I had an awesome time at the OB playing Skip-Bo with two of my amazing groups of friends. Amanda, Sam and Courtney (the first group) left early after one game, and I settled in talking to the photogs for a while. I’ve missed them lately, they’re being worked very hard with very little to show for it, so they’ve been catching up on sleep and giving their barbill a break most nights. It was good to see them all out, even if half of them do just tease me (they’d forgotten that I’m ticklish until today). After a while they scattered and more people joined us. I ended up talking to Alex for a while before heading across the room to see Ryan (he’s one of the cast members, I’m not sure I’ve mentioned him a lot but we play cards together a lot at the OB). He immediately asked if I brought Skip-Bo with me. When I went over to grab it, I didn’t even have to ask before we had 6 players: Betty (who was Club HAL this summer, but currently wife on board with a band leader), her husband, Meghna, Ryan, Alex and me. It was a surprisingly long game, but it was fun. Betty and her husband left, and the rest of us played another game which ended in perfect timing because we were all just starting to yawn.
I woke up a bit late today as somehow I had managed to switch my two alarms, so my more abrupt music came on first, which of course sent me back deep under my blankets. I slept for a bit before realizing that I was now hearing my usual first alarm. It was only five minutes, but maybe I just needed those 5 minutes today. I met Christine on the beach and we hung out talking to one of the security officers who keeps watch over the marina entrance (which is easily visible from the ‘stand’ by the Club HAL area of the beach. No kids came, so it was a good thing we both forgot to get the beach toys from upstairs this morning, now we didn’t have to carry them around the rest of the day with us! While we were sitting there, we did some people-watching and realized that the Dancing with the Stars people had once again rented out the “Oasis” cabana by Club HAL (big shaded building with hot tub, tables, bar service, and a slide into the water), so we got to see all of them walk by to get there.
After we finished our two hours of waiting for kids, we headed down the beach, found a spot with the solo guitarist (he’s actually a guest this week, and friend on board next week because he wanted to stay on for the blues charter and his contract ended yesterday) and stayed there. It was nice, we swam for a while, and the DJ, Courtney, Amanda and Meghna joined us. Us girls sat enjoying the sun reading while the boys started throwing a football, which then turned into most of us heading into the water to play Frisbee. Megan, Kimbalee (a new photographer) and Johan joined us for that as well. It was fun, just hanging out, running/swimming/jumping after the Frisbee and just getting some relaxation time in. After laying out and reading a bit longer (it got a bit too chilly/cloudy to stay in the water playing Frisbee), Johan started bugging us to build a sandcastle. So, build a sandcastle we did, and everyone else ended up starting a sand-throwing fight, which then ended up in everyone (including me because they ganged up on me as I was sculpting the castle) diving into the water to wash off the sand that was starting to dry onto our backs, arms, legs, faces.
We still had over an hour, but we got a bit concerned after 15 minutes or so of drying off, because the beach was starting to empty, so we packed up and got on the tender. Good timing though, because Derek Hough and a few of the other Dancing with the Stars people joined us on that tender! Of course, I was too shy to ask for a picture with any of them, so that didn’t happen but maybe next time I’ll have photographic proof I met someone famous!
You know those days when everything goes perfectly, all according to plan? Well, this wasn’t quite one of them. Not in a bad way though! I just didn’t have much of a plan and things went perfectly anyway, with only a few of the usual blips.
Actually, it kind of started last night, I had an awesome time at the OB playing Skip-Bo with two of my amazing groups of friends. Amanda, Sam and Courtney (the first group) left early after one game, and I settled in talking to the photogs for a while. I’ve missed them lately, they’re being worked very hard with very little to show for it, so they’ve been catching up on sleep and giving their barbill a break most nights. It was good to see them all out, even if half of them do just tease me (they’d forgotten that I’m ticklish until today). After a while they scattered and more people joined us. I ended up talking to Alex for a while before heading across the room to see Ryan (he’s one of the cast members, I’m not sure I’ve mentioned him a lot but we play cards together a lot at the OB). He immediately asked if I brought Skip-Bo with me. When I went over to grab it, I didn’t even have to ask before we had 6 players: Betty (who was Club HAL this summer, but currently wife on board with a band leader), her husband, Meghna, Ryan, Alex and me. It was a surprisingly long game, but it was fun. Betty and her husband left, and the rest of us played another game which ended in perfect timing because we were all just starting to yawn.
I woke up a bit late today as somehow I had managed to switch my two alarms, so my more abrupt music came on first, which of course sent me back deep under my blankets. I slept for a bit before realizing that I was now hearing my usual first alarm. It was only five minutes, but maybe I just needed those 5 minutes today. I met Christine on the beach and we hung out talking to one of the security officers who keeps watch over the marina entrance (which is easily visible from the ‘stand’ by the Club HAL area of the beach. No kids came, so it was a good thing we both forgot to get the beach toys from upstairs this morning, now we didn’t have to carry them around the rest of the day with us! While we were sitting there, we did some people-watching and realized that the Dancing with the Stars people had once again rented out the “Oasis” cabana by Club HAL (big shaded building with hot tub, tables, bar service, and a slide into the water), so we got to see all of them walk by to get there.
After we finished our two hours of waiting for kids, we headed down the beach, found a spot with the solo guitarist (he’s actually a guest this week, and friend on board next week because he wanted to stay on for the blues charter and his contract ended yesterday) and stayed there. It was nice, we swam for a while, and the DJ, Courtney, Amanda and Meghna joined us. Us girls sat enjoying the sun reading while the boys started throwing a football, which then turned into most of us heading into the water to play Frisbee. Megan, Kimbalee (a new photographer) and Johan joined us for that as well. It was fun, just hanging out, running/swimming/jumping after the Frisbee and just getting some relaxation time in. After laying out and reading a bit longer (it got a bit too chilly/cloudy to stay in the water playing Frisbee), Johan started bugging us to build a sandcastle. So, build a sandcastle we did, and everyone else ended up starting a sand-throwing fight, which then ended up in everyone (including me because they ganged up on me as I was sculpting the castle) diving into the water to wash off the sand that was starting to dry onto our backs, arms, legs, faces.
We still had over an hour, but we got a bit concerned after 15 minutes or so of drying off, because the beach was starting to empty, so we packed up and got on the tender. Good timing though, because Derek Hough and a few of the other Dancing with the Stars people joined us on that tender! Of course, I was too shy to ask for a picture with any of them, so that didn’t happen but maybe next time I’ll have photographic proof I met someone famous!
embark day for Dancing with the Stars-At Sea finale
January 12, 2014
Another embark day. I didn’t have anything to do today, so despite agreeing to go ashore with Courtney to go shopping, I called her and told her I was sleeping in a bit longer and would see her later in the day (she wanted to go out around 8:30). So, I ventured out on my own. I wasn’t on my own for long though, because while I was in Publix getting some snack-food, I ran into Stef. She is the wife of one of the band leaders over the summer, the band leader that is Emilys best friend and ‘big brother.’ Emily had told me the other day that he was on the Eurodam, but I didn’t know his wife was. So, we both finished our shopping and agreed to get lunch/wifi together and catch up for a bit. It was nice, we went to a smoothie place and got a smoothie each (mine was strawberry and yoghurt, yummm) and some food. It was a nice long lunch. Then, I introduced her to Plato’s Closet and we both shopped for a bit before I decided it was time to head back to the ship. Of course, once back on the ship, I went to the Bow and called Mom and Dad and Mom again and talked until we left port.
The night was a bit eventful. We had 5 kids show up, and they were all just a little bit awkward. One has a mom who’s part of corporate, two others have been on 22 cruises (one has special needs so that was stressful for me), and the other two were just really really shy. It went fine though, they made friends with each other once we got them doing something and the night went by somewhat quickly.
Meghna and I went to the show afterwards. It wasn’t the normal “Listen to the Music” first night introduction show though. Well, it wasn’t JUST “LTTM.” In the middle of the show, where they normally announce the On Location Team (the librarian, DJ, and party planner-and YPC depending on the cruise director), they took the time to introduce all of the Dancing with the Stars-At Sea ship finalists. Because this cruise is the finale cruise for 2013, one winner was voted on each cruise on each ship on HAL (the last night of the cruise) to be in the running, but only one winner from each ship was chosen to get a free cruise and be part of this DWTS At Sea finale cruise. They introduced all of them and then had one of the pro couples give a demonstration of the Viennese Waltz just to get the excitement up for this cruise (not that this crowd needed it, they’d all obviously come just for this; the showroom had standing room only, and I’m pretty sure the ship was leaning forward because all the people were there and not spread out over the whole ship! This cruise is going to be eventful, I can already tell!
Another embark day. I didn’t have anything to do today, so despite agreeing to go ashore with Courtney to go shopping, I called her and told her I was sleeping in a bit longer and would see her later in the day (she wanted to go out around 8:30). So, I ventured out on my own. I wasn’t on my own for long though, because while I was in Publix getting some snack-food, I ran into Stef. She is the wife of one of the band leaders over the summer, the band leader that is Emilys best friend and ‘big brother.’ Emily had told me the other day that he was on the Eurodam, but I didn’t know his wife was. So, we both finished our shopping and agreed to get lunch/wifi together and catch up for a bit. It was nice, we went to a smoothie place and got a smoothie each (mine was strawberry and yoghurt, yummm) and some food. It was a nice long lunch. Then, I introduced her to Plato’s Closet and we both shopped for a bit before I decided it was time to head back to the ship. Of course, once back on the ship, I went to the Bow and called Mom and Dad and Mom again and talked until we left port.
The night was a bit eventful. We had 5 kids show up, and they were all just a little bit awkward. One has a mom who’s part of corporate, two others have been on 22 cruises (one has special needs so that was stressful for me), and the other two were just really really shy. It went fine though, they made friends with each other once we got them doing something and the night went by somewhat quickly.
Meghna and I went to the show afterwards. It wasn’t the normal “Listen to the Music” first night introduction show though. Well, it wasn’t JUST “LTTM.” In the middle of the show, where they normally announce the On Location Team (the librarian, DJ, and party planner-and YPC depending on the cruise director), they took the time to introduce all of the Dancing with the Stars-At Sea ship finalists. Because this cruise is the finale cruise for 2013, one winner was voted on each cruise on each ship on HAL (the last night of the cruise) to be in the running, but only one winner from each ship was chosen to get a free cruise and be part of this DWTS At Sea finale cruise. They introduced all of them and then had one of the pro couples give a demonstration of the Viennese Waltz just to get the excitement up for this cruise (not that this crowd needed it, they’d all obviously come just for this; the showroom had standing room only, and I’m pretty sure the ship was leaning forward because all the people were there and not spread out over the whole ship! This cruise is going to be eventful, I can already tell!
another last day of the cruise
January 11, 2014
Last day of the cruise. I found out yesterday that Meghna, my original roommate from the summer on the Nieuw A is transferring for a few weeks from the Eurodam. She’s going to be my roommate again. Strange after 5 months. Anyway, it was a lovely day in Half Moon Cay. Ethan and I did the island activities, and Christine went back to the ship to do port day (since one of the parents requested it for her daughter so she could go to the spa instead of horseback riding). We hung out on the beach and just enjoyed the sun until the day ended all too soon. I went back to the ship and started working on condensing my stuff again since I’ve spread out quite a bit around the room, not having a roommate this week.
Christine called around 5 to let me know that we were approved to go to Canaletto with Cassandra and Claudine (another ShoreX who I rarely see, but we’re friends) to celebrate Claudine’s last day. So, I quickly changed and got ready and dropped my change of clothes upstairs in Club HAL. I’m still not impressed at all with the new Canaletto menu. I like the idea, the “family-style” way of eating: share two appetizers, two pastas and one large plate between two people (so, we got four appetizers, four pastas and one large plate for four of us; I only ate one appetizer and had a whole pasta to myself). The food just isn’t that great, it’s all vegetable dishes or seafood. Oh well, it was still nice to have dinner somewhere other than the Lido. Well, Canaletto is technically IN the Lido, just a sectioned off area with table service and an entirely different menu.
Anyway, after dinner, Christine told me that since we haven’t had kids showing up to Club HAL at night (the one who has been coming for after-hours was in the show tonight), I could just stay in my smart-casual clothes and hang out until 9:30 and go to the show. Of course, the one night I’m in a skirt and heels at work, one kid does show up. It was too late to change then though, plus I’d realized I’d forgotten to pack my shoes in my bag. He didn’t stay for long, just long enough to finish watching How to Train Your Dragon and start playing a video game; his mom basically just dropped him off to get him out of the room while she packed. So, I met up with Ethan and we went to the show. It was a packed house for the week’s finale of Dancing with the ‘stars’-at sea. It was pretty cool though, because it was a theme cruise and we had all these pros on board, they got three of the pros to be judges instead of the usual 3 or 4 crew members who have the night off and know nothing about dance. It was a tough competition, but all of the dancers were really good!
Last day of the cruise. I found out yesterday that Meghna, my original roommate from the summer on the Nieuw A is transferring for a few weeks from the Eurodam. She’s going to be my roommate again. Strange after 5 months. Anyway, it was a lovely day in Half Moon Cay. Ethan and I did the island activities, and Christine went back to the ship to do port day (since one of the parents requested it for her daughter so she could go to the spa instead of horseback riding). We hung out on the beach and just enjoyed the sun until the day ended all too soon. I went back to the ship and started working on condensing my stuff again since I’ve spread out quite a bit around the room, not having a roommate this week.
Christine called around 5 to let me know that we were approved to go to Canaletto with Cassandra and Claudine (another ShoreX who I rarely see, but we’re friends) to celebrate Claudine’s last day. So, I quickly changed and got ready and dropped my change of clothes upstairs in Club HAL. I’m still not impressed at all with the new Canaletto menu. I like the idea, the “family-style” way of eating: share two appetizers, two pastas and one large plate between two people (so, we got four appetizers, four pastas and one large plate for four of us; I only ate one appetizer and had a whole pasta to myself). The food just isn’t that great, it’s all vegetable dishes or seafood. Oh well, it was still nice to have dinner somewhere other than the Lido. Well, Canaletto is technically IN the Lido, just a sectioned off area with table service and an entirely different menu.
Anyway, after dinner, Christine told me that since we haven’t had kids showing up to Club HAL at night (the one who has been coming for after-hours was in the show tonight), I could just stay in my smart-casual clothes and hang out until 9:30 and go to the show. Of course, the one night I’m in a skirt and heels at work, one kid does show up. It was too late to change then though, plus I’d realized I’d forgotten to pack my shoes in my bag. He didn’t stay for long, just long enough to finish watching How to Train Your Dragon and start playing a video game; his mom basically just dropped him off to get him out of the room while she packed. So, I met up with Ethan and we went to the show. It was a packed house for the week’s finale of Dancing with the ‘stars’-at sea. It was pretty cool though, because it was a theme cruise and we had all these pros on board, they got three of the pros to be judges instead of the usual 3 or 4 crew members who have the night off and know nothing about dance. It was a tough competition, but all of the dancers were really good!
Saturday, January 11, 2014
DWTS show!
January 9, 2014: St. Thomas
Annnndd nights like tonight are what make my job all the more amazing!
This cruise and next, we’re playing host to a few celebrities and quite a lot of professional dancers as part of “Dancing with the Stars- At Sea” which started last year. Tonight, the stars, dancers and other troupers put on a production show for us. It was really impressive, especially considering they haven’t had a whole lot of experience doing these dances, lifts and jumps on a moving stage! I didn’t really know some of the celebrities, but I did recognize Kym Johnson from the show and Sabrina Bryan from “Cheetah Girls.” The dancers performed the Viennese Waltz, the jive and the cha-cha in pairs and as a big group. An hour of really great dancing. Sadly, my camera died a few dances in, so I didn’t get a lot of pictures. I hope they do the show again next week so that I can take my DSLR.
Most of the day was rather calm. I had a raft drill this morning, and then was on call for the afternoon shift at work. Yet again, no one called, and no one showed up for the night session. It’s been a really quiet cruise, with 30 kids on board, we’re surprised that none of them have come to even play video games.
Annnndd nights like tonight are what make my job all the more amazing!
This cruise and next, we’re playing host to a few celebrities and quite a lot of professional dancers as part of “Dancing with the Stars- At Sea” which started last year. Tonight, the stars, dancers and other troupers put on a production show for us. It was really impressive, especially considering they haven’t had a whole lot of experience doing these dances, lifts and jumps on a moving stage! I didn’t really know some of the celebrities, but I did recognize Kym Johnson from the show and Sabrina Bryan from “Cheetah Girls.” The dancers performed the Viennese Waltz, the jive and the cha-cha in pairs and as a big group. An hour of really great dancing. Sadly, my camera died a few dances in, so I didn’t get a lot of pictures. I hope they do the show again next week so that I can take my DSLR.
Most of the day was rather calm. I had a raft drill this morning, and then was on call for the afternoon shift at work. Yet again, no one called, and no one showed up for the night session. It’s been a really quiet cruise, with 30 kids on board, we’re surprised that none of them have come to even play video games.
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