climbing waterfalls!

February 12, 2014: Ocho Rios, Jamaica
I had raft drill this morning, but it wasn’t anything more than: do you know how to find your liferaft? okay, well then you can leave now. After the drill, I went back to the room to call Amanda since she and I had agreed last night to get off the ship together. Johan had invited her to come with a group to climb up a waterfall, so we changed our nonexistent plans and joined the group. I had 5 minutes to get ready! I managed it though! It was a fun group: Martien (now my YPC), Amanda, Johan, Megan, Matt, Cassandra and a girl from the casino. Cassandra organized it, though we didn’t know too much about it beforehand, so she was upset when we found out it was 7 dollars to rent water shoes (required to climb the falls) from the place outside, instead of 3 dollars which is what she had previously been told. Turns out that the $3 rental was INSISDE the park area. It was nice though because crew got a discount on entrance to the falls: $6 instead of $20! We put our stuff in the locker and decided that we didn’t need a guide, so we made our way to the beach, the start of the falls, on our own.

We had a fun climb and quickly realized that we were smart not to get a guide. The guided climbing groups looked absolutely terrified as they held hands and stepped up the equivalent of stairs the whole way up. That would’ve been very boring for us. We were the adventurous ones, finding our own ways up, accidently stepping in holes and walking into rocks, and stopping to take pictures every so often (Matt had a waterproof camera). The climb itself really didn’t take that long, despite our frequent photo stops, what really took longest before we started was the locker-rental for our stuff, figuring out the guide situation, wandering around taking pictures of the falls before we climbed them, and just general confusion of trying to make sure we were all together. We’d told the taxi guide that we would only be two hours, so once we finished the climb, we didn’t have a whole lot of time to get our stuff and walk 15 minutes back to the parking lot.

We had the taxi drop us off in town (only a 5 minute walk from the ship), and we got some lunch (finally, it was after 2 by then!) and wifi before heading back to the ship.

I didn’t really do anything else interesting the rest of the day. Actually, all I did do was take a nap and watch movies.

Take your family to work week

February 2-9, 2014
What a week! I’m not sure how many people have experienced “take your child to work day,” but imagine that, but for a whole week, when you work and live in the same area. It’s a bit bizarre. Here you are, with an ‘adult’ job, thinking you might finally be figuring out a little bit how to be an adult (as much as you can with this type of life on ships, after all, I don’t even have to make my own bed or food!), and then your family comes to visit. It’s not a bad thing, far from it, but it is strange.
My family actually booked this cruise a while ago, before I was even confirmed to be on this ship. Thankfully, this was one of my options and I could join my parents and uncle for their first ever cruise. Knowing this was coming, I talked to my YPC and Event Manager and worked everything out so I could 1) have most port days off, and 2) have permission to visit their rooms and eat meals with them. I worked a few extra port days last week so I could have more time off this week, I ended up only having to work on one port day, and didn’t have to do Open House! And it may seem odd that I had to get special permission to eat with them and visit their rooms, but it’s company policy that no crew member can be in a guest cabin unless working, in which case they have door stoppers to keep the door open. And, if a guest invites us to have a meal with them, we have to get permission from our event manager before we can join them, preferably a few days in advance so they can let the manager of the dining room (or the Pinnacle or Tamarind) know that we have permission. So, I just had blanket permission to be anywhere my family was.
It was a great week. I had the whole day off in San Juan, so I went on a tour with my family (thanks ShoreX for letting me go!), then we went shopping and out for dinner before we just spent time hanging out around the ship. Somehow that was the only day ashore I spent with them. I had fire drill in Grand Turk, so got off later and talked to them on the beach for a while before I headed down the beach in an attempt to find some of my friends at our usual spot. I had to work St Thomas morning, and by the time I got off the ship with Alex to go to the beach, my family had already gone and come back, and Half Moon Cay we just managed never to find one another (easily done because there were two ships there that day, so the beach was very crowded). Aside from the first night, we at least had dinner together, most often in the dining room. It was nice to have a change from eating in the Lido every single day.

January 29/30

January 29, 2014
Grand Cayman
I worked port day this morning. It wasn’t too bad, none of the kids came until 10 and the 4 of them just played MineCraft all morning until lunch. Meghna was supposed to come up at 12 to take over, but she wasn’t there by 12:05, so I had to take them down for lunch alone. We got down there and she was eating lunch with the rest of the staff (Michelle and Martien just got on board today for YPC training). She somehow had it in her head that it was sea day schedule, so she didn’t start until 1.

Thankfully she took over the rest of lunch, so I ran down to the room, called Alex and we went to the beach like we’d planned. We didn’t have a whole lot of time there, but it was still nice, just hanging out in the sun for an hour before heading back for all aboard time. There was a bit of stress with the taxi because the driver insisted upon filling the bus to capacity before leaving, so we sat there for about 20 minutes before we finally made our way back to the ship. Luckily, there were still plenty of people ashore and little line for the tender so we were early for the last crew tender.

It was movie night, so instead of killing an hour waiting in my room, I hung out in Club HAL and watched the Smurfs until a teen came in and I had to head over to the Loft. The teen and I just played xbox and Skip-Bo until he left, and then I sat and read until it was late enough for me to leave.

January 30, 2014
Cozumel
Meghna worked until around noon, but after that, she, Will (HAL Cat), Alex and I got off and went for lunch. We went to the same restaurant that we went to last time with the cast. We hung out there for a while, just hanging out and of course getting wifi. Once everyone had finally exhausted their need for internet, and we all ate, we left to go back to the ship. I didn’t really know what else to do, so I went back as well, knowing I couldn’t go out with them later because I had to work at 7 while they were all off for the night. I met up with Kim (photog) back on the ship and she said she was going to the movie showing at 4, so I went with her after I changed. The movie was “Cinco de Mayo,” I only made it through about 30 minutes of it. It was in English, Spanish and French, with English subtitles. I ended up nearly falling asleep a few times, so I regretfully told Kim I had to go, and went to the room to nap instead.

Club HAL was rather quiet. Alicia, Martien and Michelle went to the office and I ran the theme night alone, not many kids were there anyway because they probably were having late dinners or something. Not a bad day at all :)

back to 'normal' cruising

January 28, 2014
It’s a bit of a joke among crew members when we make plans to go out for lunch together off-ship. Whoever is invited does go, but the second we sit down and order, and receive the wifi password, all communication in real life stops, and everyone is drawn fully into the virtual. Of course, most of the time we’re doing important stuff, talking to our families, catching up somewhat with friends on land (or on other ships in my case), checking bank accounts, reading up on the news around the world, etc, etc. So going out to a meal ashore isn’t so much eating a meal together as having someone else walk and sit at the same table with you while you’re all focused on the internet.

I’ve been as bad as anyone about that this contract. And I’ve recently realized just how bad that is. That’s why lately there have been so few blog posts; I’ve been trying more to be involved in what’s going on around me instead of what’s going on far away. Spending time with the people I’m with while I can. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that quite a lot of people left this Fort Lauderdale; more precisely: the cast. I’ve been with this cast since June, so we’ve gotten really close. Two of the dancers I’ve even worked with before. It was their last few days last cruise that I realized that they were leaving and I may not see them individually again for a very long time, and I may never see more than one or two of them at the same time. Most everyone that was here when I joined this ship for the first time in June has now left, it’s bizarre for me. Of course, that’s ship life (the quick friendships and constant goodbyes), but I’m usually the one leaving instead of everyone else. I didn’t realize what it would mean, coming back to one ship for a second long contract, that everyone else would be leaving me before I left them. The ship is an entirely different one from the one I joined in June; it’s obviously the same ship and the atmosphere is still great among us, but the people have all changed and I’m finding it strange trying to get used to it. I do realize why now some people request to have a ‘permanent’ ship, once you’re on one ship for a long time, it feels even more like a family even though the people may change. Even with a ‘permanent’ ship placement, sometimes there are opportunities to fill in on other ships with different itineraries just for a change every so often.



Anyway, on to what’s been going on the last few days. The Blues cruise ended with another theme night, which perfectly coincided with Club HAL’s: pajama night! One of the HAL Cat bands actually got permission and went to Tamarind in pajamas. Amazing what we can get away with during charters! We got comfy and went to the last concert in the showroom for a while after work, then went to the OB to spend one last night with Christine and the cast before they left.

Embark day went smoothly. It’s strange to be going back to a normal work schedule. After all, the last time we had a ‘normal’ cruise was New Years; since then, it’s been two Dancing with the Stars and the Blues cruise. Really, it’s been a month and a half since we’ve had normalcy on this ship! I’d nearly forgotten what it’s like. Anyway, I went out with Meghna and Alex to get lunch and do some shopping and just hang out for a bit before I had to be back for Open House (at 1 instead of 12 this week, I love that extra hour, especially since no family comes before 1 anyway, unless they’re truly desperate to get rid of their kids for the week. Don’t laugh, I’ve seen it, it’s sad). Alex came back to the ship with me, it was an interesting shuttle ride, took about 30 minutes when it should take 5-10, but there was a lot of traffic and we had to drop some people off at the terminal hidden away in the back of the port all alone.

I went up for Open House, and met Alicia, our new YPC. Well, she’s not exactly a YPC, she’s a YPC trainer, here to train two of my friends from other ships (who are coming on in Grand Cayman). Seems like this cruise is going to be interesting. From the schedule, Meghna and I will be working, while the three of them are just doing training stuff. Not quite sure how that works out in being fair, but we’ll see. Michelle and Martien are cool, so they’ll come help us out at nights more than likely, despite what the schedule says.
28 kids are on board this week; one teen has come by so far, and most of the kids have at least registered, if not stayed for at least some amount of time. I had about 6 for Welcome Aboard party.

Today we were in Half Moon Cay. It’s nice to be back here, it’s been two weeks! Meghna and I got to do Island Activities (big surprise that none of the kids signed in, especially after we told the one family that came by that the kids couldn’t get in the water if they were signed in). So, after our hour of scheduled activities was up, we headed down to the beach and settled in for the next few hours. Slowly more people came and joined us, we swam some, joined Cassandra and her sister in the cabana they rented, sunbathed, I finished the Hobbit, and ended up taking an unplanned nap. I still managed to be back onboard half an hour before the last crew tender. It was a good day.

It was a lazy afternoon filled with laundry and reading, then I was on teens for the night. I helped Meghna with the kids though, and we kept the door open just in case a teen came so I could run next door with them. No teens came though, so Meghna and I worked together for Brave the Night. She left, and I had to hang out in the Loft by myself until midnight. I just watched a movie, it was a good movie at least, one of the few that have been on the ship TVs lately.

St Thomas/Grand Turk

January 23, 2014: St. Thomas
It was my port day, but no one signed up again, so I got to get off the ship. I slept in and waited for Christine and Meghna to finish their raft drill and we all went to lunch. Johan came with us and we went to town, shopped a bit and ended up at an outdoor restaurant where we got a snack (they got local beers to try) and of course, wifi. We stayed there for quite a while, then I got a bit paranoid about getting back to the ship on time, so we left (it helped that I had had a headache since I woke up this morning). I took a nap until dinner to try to get rid of the headache, and didn’t really stay out or do anything after that. I attempted to stay up and hang out with Alex and Meghna listening to music on the aft deck, but I just wasn’t into it, so after about 20 minutes, I went to bed.


January 24, 2014: Grand Turk
Again, I had most of the day off. We didn’t get to Grand Turk until 2, so I had nothing to do all morning. I had breakfast, attended the fire drill visited Christine in Club HAL, had lunch, then took a nap until we could get off. We basically just hung out on the beach, I read and sunbathed while everyone else got wifi, and we all swam around with the dog for a while. He remembers me from previous weeks, swam right to me in the water and kept swimming back and forth between me and Alex as we took turns holding him to let him rest from swimming.
I had to leave early to get back and get ready to help with Bingo, then work. Bingo was extremely busy; there were 7 of us selling the cards and we were selling for about 30 minutes. The showroom was full. I only had about 20 minutes for dinner and the lines were long so I ended up with pizza (quicker line as fewer people know or think about getting pizza for dinner). Alien Night ended up being more of a smattering of various activities. They got bored making their own aliens so they started having a dance party instead. As long as they’re entertained. It was fun though, just goofing off, choosing random songs for the three of us to dance to.

start of the blues cruise

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! :)

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).