I’ve been working on board a ship now for almost a year and I’ve never once been seasick. I’ve survived tropical storms, wind gusts, and even children being sick on me, yet none of it phased me in the slightest. Hurricane Isaac, however, made me feel like I was going to lose it. I was standing there, in full Detective mode, discussing case details with the children when I felt the ship pitch to the right and suddenly my future flashed before me. I could see myself blowing my lunch on the first few rows of Junior Detectives seated before me. I paused in my speech and took a deep breath as the ship pitched back to the left. Yup, I was definitely going to lose it. I went to the side and steadied myself against the briefcases we stack against the wall and continued. Luckily, I kept it together for the duration of the program, but for a moment there things were a little iffy.
The rest of the cruise was pretty miserable. Isaac rained out our first day at Castaway, after we were over an hour late at docking due to the choppy seas. The next day was a sea day, and I can honestly say I’ve never seen it look more miserable outside. We ended up having to reschedule Pirate Night and the fireworks for the next day. Parents and kids alike were not pleased. So we rolled into Nassau, to find it full of sunshine (yay!) but that night during the Pirate show, the fireworks failed to go off due to technical difficulties. You can probably imagine how the guests were feeling now. They finally managed to get the fireworks to go off on the last night of the cruise. Of course, many of the Edge children didn’t get to see them because I was scaring the living daylights out of them with Ghost Voyagers.
Ghost Voyagers is a program we have on board aimed at the teens and tweens. We sit them down and explain that we are sailing through the Bermuda Triangle, which is true, and that strange and mysterious things have happened throughout history in this area. We tell them about Blackbeard and the Mary Celeste, and then we tell them about Tina. The story of Tina is a sad and tragic one that I will not repeat here. If you want to hear it, ask me when I get home. The terrifying part is that sometimes Tina is listening. She likes to send us signals when she is there. That really freaks the kids out. This last cruise Tina was very communicative and we had one girl start crying on us. Later that evening when I got home, my roommate informed me she was on Deck 4 when the horde of Edge kids went running by, scared for their lives, and she counted seven crying. Ghost Voyagers for the win! Normally we do not advocate making the children cry, but in this case they want to be scared. They get what they asked for.
Speaking of getting what you ask for, at the moment that’s not really working out for me. When I initially agreed to extend my contract until October 28, (a full two months, people) it was under the impression that I would also have an extended vacation allowing me to be home for Christmas. Well according to the latest roadmap (ie the giant schedule of everyone’s lives and contract dates) I am STILL returning on December 9. This is not okay. Six months on board for only six weeks off? Excuse me, rude! So I am doing my best to stay calm, but I am not accepting this lightly. I am trying every option I can to remind them of their promise and to get my vacation extended. So say a couple prayers and keep your fingers crossed that everything works out. If I am back on this boat before Christmas I will NOT be a happy camper. I love my job, but I love spending holidays with my family more. If you’d like to see the downward spiral of depression that I go through while celebrating Christmas at Sea go have a look at December’s blogs from last year.
Everything should work out well though since there’s about to be a big shake-up in the Ent Host department. Rumor has it some of our hosts are going to the Fantasy and some of the Fantasy hosts are coming here because they have an abundance of trainers and we have one. When that all goes down, contract dates will be different and it will hopefully work to my advantage to have an extended vacation. I’m just hoping they don’t have too many Ent Hosts because then I am the one that gets stepped down, since I’m still technically on a Temporary Line. I don’t receive the permanent line until I come back from vacation. See what they did there? Ensuring I will return by offering me a permanent line? Sneaky. (Granted I was going to return anyway, so there was really no need to try and entice me with a permanent line.)
Moving on to brighter things, I get to have a decent meal this cruise!! My amazing roommate (who thinks she is leaving me in a few weeks to go home, silly Australian) put in a dining request for us and it got approved! We will be eating at Animator’s Palate on Sea Day (aka Pirate Night)! This will be the second time I’ve eaten in Animator’s. I’ve also gotten to eat in Royal Palace twice (once for Captain’s Breakfast, and once for winning the YA Raffle) and Cabana’s twice. The only restaurant, besides Remy and Palo (which I’m technically not allowed to go to), that I haven’t eaten in is Enchanted Garden. Contract goal for next time around! So far my favorite has been the appetizers at Royal Palace and the entrees at Animators for dinner, and the whole of Cabana’s for lunch. Ask my family about Cabana’s, they’ll tell you of its wonders.
The only other thing worth reporting is that I was nominated for Counselor of the Month. We still don’t know who won, and if it wasn’t me that’s okay too. It was a surprise to be nominated since Ent Hosts are usually forgotten, so that’s good enough for me. (Although it would be nice to win, since that means I get to eat another good meal!)
Until next time,
See Ya Real Soon!
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