Katie at Sea

Home and Zaandam....

2008-04-07T14:54:00.000-07:00

I know it’s been quite a while since I’ve update this, so I figured it was time!
Here’s what’s happened since I got off the Prinsendam back in January… I was home for about 6 weeks then I headed back to the Veendam for just one cruise. That was quite an interesting week to say the least. It was the thing where you go thinking that it’s going to be like it was before you left, when in reality it is absolutely nothing like you remember. Some of the people were the same, but there were several new faces. At the end of the day, I was definitely ready to get off the ship. Things just weren’t the same and I was not very happy about it. So after I got off, I was home for a week then joined the Zaandam, where I am now.
So my flight to San Diego was an adventure. I left out of Indy with no problems. I had a layover in Dallas, so I made my way to the gate and boarded the plane. We were waiting for the plane to pull back, but instead the captain came on the speaker and said that there was a mechanical issue that they were trying to resolve. After about a half hour, the captain came on again and said that the plane was not flyable. So we had to leave the plane and they were working on getting us another plane. We were in the terminal for about an hour when they announced that there was another plane for us… in terminal A. We were in terminal C. That meant that we had to get on the people mover to head over to terminal A. So we headed over to the other terminal. In the meantime, I met a couple that was going to be joining the Zaandam with me, so they were worried about missing the ship as well. We made it to the terminal and the flight that was coming in made it ok so we started to board. Once onboard, the captain made another announcement that there were more electronical issues. A guy from the corporate office came on the speaker and gave us a sincere apology and said that it would probably be about an hour and if we wanted to get off and have lunch, we could or we could stay onboard and wait it out. I got off and went to get lunch. Finally when we could reboard, we were able to take off. So my 45 minute layover turned into 4 hours. Not so fun! I got onboard the Zaandam and immediately saw Belinda! Yay!!! The itinerary that we are doing is a 15-day Hawaii out of San Diego. That means 4 sea days out, 5 days in port, then 5 sea days back. Long cruises!!
So my kids that were onboard were fun. Kinda crazy, but fun. The second night two members from the cast were rehearsing in the Loft and they came over to say hello. So from then on, every time the kids saw Daniel and Casey, they got so excited! When we went to the shows, Daniel and Casey would wave to them and they were so happy. We had a lot of fun onboard up in Club HAL all cruise long.
The time that we were in port was great as well. In Hilo, I went with Linda, the associate art auctioneer, to a Hawaiian hot spot… a “only found in Hawaii store”… a place that all visitors want to go when they get here… Wal-Mart! I had to pick up a few things and Linda needed to get some stuff as well, so we made our way there. Waiting for the shuttle wasn’t so fun. We waited for about 45 minutes to go there, then about a half hour to get back to the ship. Long lines! Then the wait to get through security was insane. We had gotten in line just after a tour got back, so there were a ton of people in line.
We had an overnight in Honolulu which was great, but I had to stay onboard for both days. I wasn’t too happy about that one. I can totally understand because I was the new girl onboard, but at the same time, if you took all of the others time that they’ve been onboard and added it up, I would still have more than them. Go figure! Oh well. I’m doing my time, so what can I say? I just lei’d out by the pool both days. A girl’s gotta work on her tan!!!
We then went to Lahania, which is on the island of Maui. Belinda and I got off and had Thai or lunch which was great! The pad thai was fantastic!!! After, we went to Jamba Juice and had a yummy shake! There is a park that is just off the tender terminal that you can sit in and we were chilaxin there, and inside the park is a huge tree, that I can’t remember the name for, but appearantly it is the world’s largest type of this type of tree. Cool! Once we got back onboard, I went for a walk around the deck and while I was there I saw so many whales jumping and splashing! It was pretty sweet! What a great day while in Maui!
Our last Hawaiian port was Kona. I remembered somewhere last year when I was on the Ryndam going someplace in Hawaii and getting a henna tattoo as well as going on a dance boat thing, but couldn’t remember where. Once we got to Kona, I remembered where it was that I had done it! Kona! But this stop I couldn’t do anything because I was going a crew tour that was the Captain Zodiac which was an inflatable motor boat that could get massive air time if you hit a wave the right way. A lot of fun!!! We went to a cove where Captain Cook got killed and went snorkeling. On the way to the cove, we saw some whales puffing in the distance, but nothing too close. The water was…well… refreshing. In this cove, there is a tall cliff that is about 350 feet high. Apparently, near the top somewhere is a farm. About 3 or 4 times a year, a cow gets too close and falls off the cliff. Then the body drifts out into the ocean and sharks get to it. It was a pretty cool story to hear. After snorkeling, we headed back to the ship, ready for 5 long sea days back to San Diego.
The hardest part about going back to San Diego was the hour forwards. There was a 3-hour time difference between Hawaii and the west coast, so we’d lose an hour 3 times back. Not so fun. It was just exhausting losing an hour, but still working all day.
Once San Diego came, it was good to have the kids leave. 15 days is way too long to spend with the same 6 kids, especially with 9 sea days. Ouch!
My second cruise we had 35 kids, which meant that another Club HAL person was coming. He name is Christine and she was on the Zuiderdam before. We’ve compared many Big Zed stories! The kids were all insane! At first, they seemed normal. But as the days went on, we realized how weird they actually were. There was a family of 3 that the oldest had ADHD and autism, the middle girl was normal, and the youngest had cerebral palsy. There was another kid that never wanted to do anything, but was at Club HAL all the time. Whenever we suggested anything, he never wanted to do it. And he complained about everything. There were 2 brothers that at first were ok, but as the cruise went on, became more and more annoying. We had 2 sisters that when they showed up had to be the boss of everyone else. And now my favorite, there was a Mexican family onboard that had 10 kids (between 3 families) and only 4 spoke English. Not so fun for us! And that was just the kids, not to mention the teens! The teens were actually pretty cool tho. There were 5 that came regularly, so they were fun to hang out with.
The sea days out were fine, since we had hour back nights, but we just realized how strange all of the kids actually were. Once we got to the islands, we had the same stops, except instead of having an overnight in Honolulu, we went to the island of Kauai. Of course, I had to stay onboard for Kauai. I had to stay also for Hilo. But in Honolulu, I went ashore with Jillian, who is a girlfriend onboard. We did a long walk to Walgreen’s, then had lunch at Duke’s on Waikiki beach. After many mai tai’s, we headed back to the ship. Good day in Honolulu! After staying onboard, I was off in Lahania again and was able to go whale watching. It was great! We saw a mother with her calf and her male escort. The baby was jumping and splashing! It was great! I was hoping to get some sun, but I didn’t get as much as I was hoping for. While in Kona, I was able to get the henna tattoo that I wanted to get last cruise. I got a turtle on my ankle. It is way too cute! That was my only mission for the day and it was accomplished! Yay!
Holy long sea days back, Batman! The days seemed so incredibly long! Although, to give both of us a break, we decided to have the kids and tweens combined so only one of us was with them and the other one of us was with the teens. It worked out well so we each got a bit of a break from the terrors! The sea days back were definitely long, but somehow both of us made it through.
I forgot to tell the most fun thing…. once we got to Hilo, there were people who were getting sick a ton and we went Code Red… basically, the highest level of sanitization and precautions possible. That meant no serving yourself in line in the Lido, no games in the library, and no games in Club HAL. So the whole time in port (which wasn’t that bad because we were not as busy) and the sea days back we were super sanitizing everything constantly. But we were unable to get out once we got back to San Diego so we had a team come on to basically do the whole ship… and we got to help! Christine and I did the kids room in Club HAL and the team did the rest, then after we did that we got to help do the 3300 books in the library! Not a fun way to spend my morning! There was no crew shore leave until an announcement from the bridge was given, which ended up being 2:00 and all-aboard was 4:00, so it was pretty much pointless to get off.
Now I’m into day 3 of my 3rd cruise and we finally got out of Code Red! Yay!

I promise I'll write more often (Natalia!!!)

The Prinsendam in the Caribbean

2007-12-30T16:37:00.000-08:00

A funny thing happened last week… I asked Janice to email in my next ship request on Friday after everything was all set up and ready for the upcoming week. No problem. On Saturday I was checking my email after lunch and I had an email that was from HAL regarding “Your next assignment”. That was quick! So I opened it and had my current ship: the Veendam from July 29 to December 15 then the Prinsendam from December 17 to January 3. WHAT?????? This isn’t right?!!?!? I asked Janice what it was and she said that I was being transferred! Smart… transfer the one that knows what’s going on in Club HAL and bring on 3 brand new people… I don’t know…

So Saturday night I packed quickly and I had my flight for Sunday afternoon. I got to Ft. Lauderdale Sunday evening and I had a room reservation for the night. It felt good to get a good night’s sleep… I needed it! When I got to the port Monday morning, we arrived at the terminal, only to find no ship! Apparently it was in Nassau in dry dock and didn’t leave on time. It was scheduled to leave Sunday morning to be there, but it didn’t leave until 9:30 and it was about 5 hours to get to Ft. Lauderdale. So I was just sitting in the terminal forever. Finally others started showing up. There were some people I knew from the Veendam. So it was good to see some familiar faces. I also met the 2 boy cruise staff and a couple of people from the cast.

Finally around 6:00 we were able to board the ship. First impression… not good! It still smelled from being in dry dock and things just looked dirty. When I first got onboard, the HRO people said that I didn’t have a room! I met up with the Cruise Director and he told me that I was rooming with the other girl cruise staff, so yes I did have a room. I finally was able to take my stuff to my room, and I was told that my room was on deck 5, a passenger deck. Sweet, it’ll be a decent room! NOT SO MUCH!!!! The room was absolute crap! The shower floor is disgusting and to this day I wear flip flops when I take a shower and the best part… I don’t have a hook for the shower head to rest on, so when I shower, I have to hold the shower head! Awesome! So where my room is, there are only 2 rooms in our little hallway, actually, it’s called The Hideaway! The room next door is the boy cruise staff.
So our new itinerary… it’s a 17 day cruise, with 4 sea days! Awesome, right?!?!?!? So here it is…
12/17 Ft. Lauderdale
12/18 Sea Day
12/19 Sea Day
12/20 Sea Day
12/21 Castries, St. Lucia
12/22 Basse Terra, Guadelope
12/23 Bequia, St. Vincent
12/24 Bridgetown, Barbados
12/25 St. George's, Grenada
12/26 Fort-de-France, Martinique
12/27 Basseterre, St. Kitts
12/28 Phillipsburg, St. Maarten
12/29 Gustavia, St. Barts
12/30 Ponce, Puerto Rico
12/31 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
1/1 Sea Day
1/2 Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (our private island)
1/3 Ft. Lauderdale
Pretty sweet, right? I did do some pretty fun things in port, but I started getting to the point where I just didn’t want to get off the ship or do anything. But when I did get off, I had a blast! In Barbados, I finally got off the ship! What I mean by this is… when I was on the Veendam, twice we went to Barbados, and TWICE I couldn’t get off the ship. So I was finally excited to be able to get off! I did a turtle encounter excursion where you get to swim with turtles. I kinda forgot about the part wher you can swim with turtles! I forgot to take a bathing suit so when the boat driver said that we’d be swimming with the turtles, I jumped right in with my clothes on! Yes I did!!! It was a lot of fun! After the excursion, Adam and I went to the Boatyard, the bar where ALL the crew from ALL the ships go to hang out. There was a ton of stuff to do there and the two of us had a blast! It was also Christmas Eve. We had a choir performance for the passengers. There were three choirs; the Philipino, Indonesian, and International. I was of course in the International choir. It was a really nice evening and everyone involved had a really nice time. After was a midnight mass that was also nice. Grenada was Christmas and of course Santa came! And of course, I was an elf. We had our 6 kids (and 1 baby) get their presents and sit on Santa’s lap with pictures and they loved it! The old people also came up to get their picture with Santa. Too funny! It was a fun morning.

In St. Maarten, I went on the “voted best tour in the Caribbean” also known as the America Cup Regatta Race. This is where we were the crew for one of the regattas that has been raced in an America’s Cup race. The boat that we were on was Canada 2 and it raced in the 1987 America’s Cup. Basically, we controlled the direction of the sails. There were 3 professionals onboard to help us. Two were there to tell the main and primary grinders when to grind (turn the crank to move the sails) and one to drive and tell the wenches when to wench. I was a primary grinder, along with 7 others. We took turns and there were times that we were listing so bad that we were touching the water! It was pretty cool! It was a crew tour, so it was only crew members onboard. We all had a blast! Just kickin’ back relaxing and having such a fantastic time that none of us wanted to leave. Oh, but the next day, my back was so sore, it hurt to sneeze! Well worth it tho!

St. Barts is the playground for the rich and famous… and man could we tell! The yachts were everywhere! While we were passing out tender tickets, a gentleman offered Adam and I his tour tickets to go on an ATV tour around the island. So we gladly accepted! Although since we were both working and we couldn’t get off work until we went to open tender, we were in a kind of time crunch. The tour was scheduled to leave at 11, but we didn’t get off until about 11:15 and it was about a 15 minute tender ride over, so by the time we got to shore and able to find someone, it turned out that the tour had to leave already because the same boat that would be taking us was taking another tour as well. So total bummer, but we didn’t make the tour. Boo! So we just walked around the island for just a bit and headed back to the ship. Also, while we were doing tender tickets, the yacht “Octopus” was pulling in. Holy Cow!!!! It’s owned by one of Bill Gates’ partners I guess. Do a google search on it…. You’ll find pics of it!

2 more cruises done...

2007-12-14T14:45:00.000-08:00

In the past 3 weeks you would think that something exciting has happened… or at least something exciting for me to write about. Well, I hate to upset you, but nothing has happened. We had a 2 week cruise and a 1 week cruise, but that’s about it. I did go swimming the waterfalls in Guatemala. I went ziplining and cave tubing (freakin’ awesome man!!!!! Wicked cool!!!!!!) in Belize. I hit up Margaritaville in Grand Caymen. Other than that, I just hung out and I’ve been working on my tan. It’s rough, I know.
Next cruise we are getting 2 new peeps to get ready for the holidays. The ship has been decorated and it’s nice and Christmassy, but it’s funny walking around Belize seeing the decorations and hearing the Caribbean carols. We’re also rehearsing for the choir for Christmas Eve. I’ll update more next week when something exciting happens… like paintballing in Cozumel! Yay!

2007-11-28T10:21:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving week was a lot of fun… but there are some bummer things that happened, as well as some great things! So let me start from the beginning… We were informed about a month ago that we would have 6 staff for this week. Beath from the cruise staff was supposed to get off before Thanksgiving, but she extended a week to do Club HAL for the week. We got closer and closer and still hadn’t heard who was coming. So Thursday night of the previous cruise, Moyra tells me that we’re getting 3 girls, for a total of 5. We could have 2 on kids, 2 on tweens and only 1 on teens. No problem. Moyra said the name of the girls… Jennifer, Alicia, and Kaitlin. (She also said last names, but I’m not telling!!!) When I heard Kate was coming, I was ecstatic! Someone who knows what she’s doing!!! Plus to see her again is great! So Sunday rolls around and I have to stand in the terminal for 3 hours… ugh… passing out info to all the kids. It wasn’t that bad, but I didn’t really like it all that much. When I finished I headed back into the office and I saw Kate and both of us went crazy! I also found out that the other 2 girls were onboard, just taking their Environmental training. So we had our welcome aboard meeting and right after Kate looked at me and said “What was that???” and I told her that was the welcome aboard meeting that we’ve had every week…. Oh my. So anyways, we have our night activities and there were no problems. The next morning was Key West morning. We were supposed to get in at noon and leave at 6. This meant that we had morning activities and night activities, but nothing during the day. I got a page at 8:15 from Moyra and she said that we weren’t going to Key West. Something about engine troubles. So we’re in the Lido having breakfast and the captain comes on the announcements and he breaks the news that we won’t be getting in today and explains more. It was because of one of the propeller shafts not working correctly which meant that we were going way slow and we couldn’t make top speed to get in on time. Bummer. Ok, so two sea days in a row, not bad. On the second sea day, the girls were about ready to die! They weren’t used to constantly going, but they were fine. Wednesday we got into Belize fine and I went zip lining and rappelling! So fun! Thursday was Guatemala… Happy Thanksgiving! None of us got our tours that we put in for so we decided to make our own fun. We went to a resort that was still in the works of getting done, but there were hammocks, beach chairs and of course a bar, so we were good! What a way to spend Thanksgiving! We had turkey for dinner, but for some reason, turkey out of a bag just isn’t appealing. I can’t imagine why… So Friday, there were rumors going around that we wouldn’t be going to Cozumel either, but nothing was set in stone until the captain made the announcement. He had made an announcement the night before saying that we’d get in on time but we’d have to leave 3 hours early. So that’s what we were all planning for. So that was the change for Cozumel. Everything that I’ve heard we were right on schedule. Well, until 9:30 at least. He came on about then and said that we’d be skipping Cozumel as well. The shaft just wasn’t going as fast as it could be and we wouldn’t get in until 3, and we’d have to leave at 6, so it was pointless for us to go. Ugh, another sea day! We had a Mexican Fiesta up in Club HAL for the kids in the afternoon. It was a lot of fun! Everyone was bummed, but I think overall they were in good spirits about the whole thing. The last day was finally coming and it was definitely bitter sweet. My girls were so fun and it was so great having them onboard and I can’t wait to have a posse back for the holidays. So sad going back to just me. We played flippy cup until 3 and Kate wanted me to get up to have breakfast with her at 7… ouch! So I got up to say goodbye and hang with them for the last few minutes. It was a great cruise for the company but a total bummer about missing the ports.

Aaaahhhhh the Caribbean!!!!

2007-11-12T12:57:00.000-08:00

Well we’ve finally made it to the Caribbean… and man, were we ready! On the Montreal to Tampa cruise, nothing really exciting happened. I had three kiddos that were great. While in Bar Harbor, I was able to go on a lobster bake tour that also went to Acadia National Park (which I went to the cruise before) and there were 3 busses for the tour, which meant that three escorts could go, so it was me, Tisa, and Elaine. Tisa is the library manager and Elaine is the future cruise consultant. We had a blast! We went to town on the lobster! For starters, we had oysters. I’m not so much a fan of oysters, but these were fresh and good! Then, there was corn, bread, coleslaw and potatoes… and of course LOBSTER!!! It was so good! For dessert, what else do you have in Maine but blueberries! We had blueberry cake! Holy cow… so good! I got the recipe too, so I’ll try it when I get home. I highly doubt that it’ll be as good as it was here tho. While in Charlestown, I didn’t realize the history. I took a horse and carriage ride around town and it was beautiful to see all the mansions and to hear the stories from the Civil War. That was also our first glimpse of sun! We had a beautiful day there so a lot of us were getting excited for the upcoming months of sun.

Ah Tampa… I got Annie on as a visitor and that was definitely trouble enough! Well first off, we have a “crew window” which means that we can only get off at certain times for a little bit. For example, if the window is open at 11, it may close again at 11:15 and we can’t get off again until the next window at noon. So it sucks basically. Plus, I had stuff for Leslie (the port lecturer that got off 1st New York) to take off to give to her, so I had to go with the disembarking crew to go thru customs. So about 10:00 Annie was able to come onboard and about 10:15 they called the disembarking crew. So we took that stuff off, but the window was now open on the top of the hour. So I took Annie around on a quick tour of the ship and we had a quick lunch in the Lido and we got off at the 1:00 window. We went shopping… mainly for Club HAL stuff. So that was Tampa. Then we had boat drill as usual. Well, super complainy if you can believe it… I had a set of parents from H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS!!! The dad started complaining right away at boat drill because he and his wife were in adjoining rooms and they were at separate boats. Ugh. Then at our welcome aboard meeting we mentioned that port day activities were available, but very limited because it’s only me. We haven’t even left the port yet and the dad says to sign up the kid for every single session. Not only is he three, and not only did he run around and scream the entire meeting, but he’s not even a cute kid! I told Moyra right away that I would not do well with him! The parents also wanted Key West for port day activities, but Moyra said with the short notice before port, schedules couldn’t be changed for tomorrow, so no port activities for Key West. So he came to the 8:00 activity and was absolutely terrible! He was even worse there than in the meeting. The next morning was Key West and we didn’t arrive until noon, so I had morning activities for everyone and mom came to pick him up and asked about the hours for the port day activities. I told her that I needed to talk to Moyra for the exact times, and she said that afternoons are better for him. I definitely made a mental note to have them in the morning instead! Moyra and I agreed that for Belize and Guatemala I would have the activities 9-11 and Cozumel 12-2 because we had another late arrival. I told the parents that and they said that that would have to work. The next day was a sea day and again, he was terrible. But the good thing was that he didn’t come at night because he was in bed. So Belize City is a tender port, so mom brought him up at 9 and I guess dad and the baby sister got off earlier. At 11 he was picked up and I heard them talk about going out again, so I wouldn’t see him again until night. I was talking to Tisa and we said that we wanted to go to lunch ashore, so we made a meeting time of 12:30 on the gangway. We got on the tender boat and guess who got on 5 minutes later… that’s right… the not-so-smart family. Dad came over to me and said “Oh this is why you didn’t want to have the port activities, so you can get off!” I just sat there and chuckled. Why do some people have to be so stupid???? I got back and got a call from Moyra that she was going to have a meeting with the dad and she would have to give him full hours for the activities. He was mad because I got off the ship to have lunch while in port. I’m not happy about this…. So basically I’m on the ship babysitting for free this pain in the butt for the week. My thoughts…. if you’re not going to spend any time with your kids while on vacation, why bring them??? Guatemala was ok, and he’s still a pain in the butt, and Cozumel morning, since we didn’t get in until 1, they said that they would take him ashore and cancel the activities. THANK GOODNESS!!! Shore Ex was able to put together a tour for 15 crew members to go swimming with dolphins and they asked me earlier in the week if I could go. I was panicking and trying to re-arrange schedules so I would be able to go. When they told me they cancelled, I was so happy! So when we were in Cozumel, I went swimming with dolphins (again… I went last December in Tortola!)!!!! It was so fun and because it was all crew members it was a lot of fun! Cozumel is going to be the crew’s “play port” because of all the amazing things to do there! The last sea day was fine… and for the afternoon activities after the not so smart parents picked him up, all they said was thanks… no tip at all! For all that time I spent with him, I deserved something! I was not happy!!!! Not to mention, for all the kids I had and as big as brats they were, I got nothing for the cruise… Oh well… I didn’t even mention the goofy teens I had… that’s another story entirely!!!

The second 1-week cruise went much better! It was Halloween! I had 5 kiddos and 4 teens, but I never saw them, and the kids were a lot of fun. There was a brother-sister, 2-brothers and one girl on her own. This week, no one even mentioned port activities… but then again, I found out that that since I’m the only one in Club HAL that I’m not supposed to have port activities… why didn’t I know this last week???? Halloween was so much fun! The two brothers came as a ninja and an army guy, the brother-sister came as a Renaissance Princess and an ostrich jockey (it was one of those blow-up and step into costumes… too cute!!!) and the one girl forgot to bring a costume, so I made her a puppy. Too cute! And I forgot to mention that I went as Glenda the good witch! We went trick-or-treating around the ship and everyone loved it! There was a costume party for the adults up in the Crow’s Nest… there were several categories and winners… one category was “Never to be seen again” and the winner was a lady dressed up like Brittney Spears with bright pink hair braids… ugh… and there was of course a “Best Costume” and the winner, well it was a pair, was Adam and Eve… two OOOOLLLLLLDDDDDDD people dress in a flesh-colored costume with drawn on, um, “parts” and fig leaves drawn on specific areas as well. When I first glanced, I really thought they were naked! It was funny, but kinda gross at the same time, and really scarring. When we were in Guatemala, I went horse back riding and it was at a resort where after we could go swimming or lay by the pool. I definitely chose the swimming part… right along with the swim-up bar and the water slides! It was a lot of fun and I met some really cool guests. The rest of the cruise was fine… no major hiccups at all, so it was fun.

This cruise we’re on a 14-day southern Caribbean cruise. So far, we’ve been to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, Grenada and Venezuela and we’ve got Bonaire, Grand Cayman, and Aruba left. It was so fun to go back to St. Thomas after not being there since January. I went snorkeling on a catamaran and of course on the way back… open bar! The girl bartender was serving up Painkillers, a mixture of pina colada mix, orange juice, rum and nutmeg (I think that was all…). I’ll tell ya, after 3 you were definitely not feeling any pain! I met three crazy ladies onboard and we talked about getting lunch after and I said that we needed to go to the lookout up the hill. We took the tram up and had a great lunch! Not to mention a Bushwhacker each! Oh how I’ve missed those! While in Dominica, Tisa, Stephanie and I rented a taxi and headed up to the famous water falls. They were gorgeous! I’ll need to get my pics from Tisa tho… I forgot to take my camera with me! Silly Katie! We were able to splash around in them but not really swim. There was a hot water spring and a cold water fall. The cold was super cold! I couldn’t get off in Barbados, but next time I will… and in Grenada, Stephanie and I walked around the pier then under a tunnel to the other side of the island. That island was so gorgeous, I couldn’t believe it. I guess 30% of the world’s nutmeg comes from Grenada. That’s a lot of nutmeg! In Venezuela, people had heard rumors that there was nothing to do and that if it were possible to just stay on the ship. It would be easier than tendering over to do nothing. Well, I’m not the kind of person that stays onboard just to stay onboard… Viv, James and I (Viv is the asst. shop manager and James is a musician) found a beautiful beach that was a 5 minute walk from where the tender dropped us off! It was gorgeous! The water was warm and there were very few waves, but when they came they were fun! It was great!

The one thing that I’m surprised about is that I’ve been in the sun quite a bit and I’m getting a slow tan, but that’s ok… I’ve been wearing my sunblock and re-applying as necessary. Another two months and it’ll be GREAT!!!!

Sorry this was so long and I will try much harder to update this regularly. I’ll also include pictures when I get a place that has free internet. But it’s hard when I HAVE to go to the beach!

Montreal.... what???

2007-10-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

This past cruise we said from New York to Montreal and it was a pretty quiet cruise. While in Bar Harbor, I took a tour that was a carriage ride around Acadia National Park, then we drove to the top of the mountain. After, the thin to do in Maine is of course get lobster, so one of the guests that was on the tour with me and I went to get a lobster roll! Yummy! It was quite amazing! The next day in Halifax, I went to Peggy’s Cove, a small fishing village that was started by a lost lady named Peggy. I can’t remember the details…. But while we were there we had a lobster lunch. This was a full-on lobster! We got the whole thing, eyes included! We got down and dirty and it was great! While in Quebec, it was Canada’s Thanksgiving, so pretty much everything was closed. That meant that it was a great day to catch up on emails! There is free internet in the terminal so we set up shop and had a long day online. We left at 10pm and headed to Montreal. Quebec night we had a party in the bar that was a sports theme. I went as a lady golfer and of course I had a caddy! Everyone loved it! There were cheerleaders, a swimmer, Serena Williams, a couple of boxers, and a surfer just to name a few. It was great! That was to celebrate on of the officer’s birthday. Glen’s birthday is coming up this cruise and the theme for his is going to be “Bright and Tight”. Yeah, not to sure about that one. Still haven’t heard about any other Club HAL staff coming… but then again we won’t have a lot of kids until Thanksgiving. So I think I can handle the few number of kids on my own until then. While in Montreal, Viv and I were able to see Marie Claude! So here’s the story… I turned in my visitor request form, and she was approved, no problem. We were due to get in at 9:30 so I emailed her and told her 9:30… on debark days, we’re usually on time, if not early. So I was guessing that I would be able to get off right away and have a long morning with her and have a nice visit. Not so much. We not only didn’t get in late, but we had only one gangway, which meant that crew couldn’t get off until all of the passengers were off. So we were finally tied up by about 10:15 and debark started about 10:30. So I’m trying all I can to get off and security won’t let me pass. Ugh. Marie Claude told me that she had a yoga class at noon, so I was getting worried that she wouldn’t make it, or if she did, that I wouldn’t be able to see her. So after an hour and a half of waiting, I was finally able to get off to see her. She was there of course, and had been there since 9:30, so she missed her class. I asked her what she wanted to do, and she said the only thing she wanted was lunch in the Lido. But we had one little problem. The lady in the terminal wouldn’t let her pass without an ok from her supervisor. After trying to get him, it didn’t work. So I saw Mike, our Hotel Manager, and explained what was going on, and he said that since she’s on the visitor list then she should be able to get onboard. So with some extra persuasion, she was finally able to come onboard. We were finally onboard at 1:00. Security told us that visitors had to be off by 2. Ugh, only an hour after all that waiting! So the three of us went up to the lido to have lunch and we got up to date with everything and it was almost 2 and we had to go. Viv walked us to the gangway, and Marie Claude asked if I wanted to drive around with her for an hour. So we quickly ran down to my room and got my sweatshirt and purse and headed out. She said that her house was about 15 minutes away so we could go there for a few minutes and come back. It’s a plan! That was before traffic. It took way longer than 15 minutes, which meant that we only had a few minutes to stay at her apartment. All aboard time was 3:15, so we thought that leaving at 2:45 was enough time to get back on time. Again, this was before traffic. So she’s weaving in and out trying to get me back on time, and we turn down the street that the terminal is basically straight down from , and we have all green lights! Yeah, I’ll have no problem! Well, then we get to a school bus that has it’s lights on. So we’re pretty much parked in the street. The only street that is next to us is a one-way in the opposite direction that we want to go. So there’s no where we can go. This time it was about 3:00. Now I’m starting to get nervous. I hate cutting it so close to all aboard time. Finally we start moving and we pull into the parking lot at 3:09 and I make a mad dash for the ship, get thru security and back onboard at 3:14! Yeah! Never again am I going to make it that close! I had a great visit though with Marie Claude an Viv did too, so it was well worth it. But next time with an hour before all aboard, maybe just somewhere close to the port is the best place to go!

I’m just looking forward to the last Canada/New England cruise before the Caribbean. We all need some sun!

Pics!!!!

2007-10-08T09:47:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Here are the pics I promised! Sorry it took so long... I had to wait until I could use free internet in port to upload because of how long it would take to do. There's a bit of everything! Enjoy!

The Baltic.... North Atlantic.... Canada and New England!!!

2007-10-01T14:04:00.001-07:00

So I’ve finally made it back to the U.S.! After a month in the Balitc and an 18-day crossing of the North Atlantic, we made it to New York on September 9th. While in the Baltic, we went to Copenhagen, Oslo, Warnemunde, Aarhus, Tallin, St. Petersburg, and Helisinki. That was absoutely amazing! While in Oslo, I did a harbor tour that I was also able to see the famous ski jump. I also went to Catherine’s Palace in St. Petersburg. Wow! It was amazing!!! The hallways themselves seemed to go on forever! Also in St. Petersburg, I went out with some HAL Cats and Jana to Revolution, a 4-story night club. We didn’t get back until 5 in the morning! Warnemunde was just like a scene out of Hansel and Gretel. In Copenhagen I took my picture with the Little Mermaid statue and Mike and I rode the world’s tallest swings. It was great… except for the part when we started to sway from side to side when we were at the top. We could see all of Copenhagen from there. After the amazing run in the Baltic it was time to head east. On the 18 day-er, I saw that Dick and Robyn Woods was on board with me (they were an adult couple that was SAS with me!!!). We made a few stops in Norway, then to the Faroe Islands. When we stopped there, it was of course the 1 day out of the year that whales are caught. We pulled in right next to about 250 pilot whales laying on the ground. I really didn’t like that, except I found out that every part of the whale is used for food somehow, and it was only done once every year or every other year. So because of that, I’m ok with it. We also stopped in Iceland and Greenland and while in Iceland, I went to the Blue Lagoon, a hot spring about an hour from where we docked. It was amazing! I had 7 kiddos on that cruise and the brother/sister that I had also took that tour. It was fun to hang out with them for a bit off the ship. Their dad was a professor on Semester at Sea in the 70’s, so when I told them I did it, they knew exactly what I was talking about! We made our way to Newfoundland, then eventually on into New York. Unfortunately no crew were allowed off the ship that first New York. Boo! We had a Coast Guard drill and inspections to go thru, so that was our delay. We headed north and headed to Newport, Boston, Bar Harbor, Halifax, Sydney, Charlottetown, Saguenay, and Quebec, finally ending in Montreal. I was looking forward most to Charlottetown, since Anne of Green Gables is set there. Because Mother Nature doesn’t always cooperate, we were not able to go the first trip. Boo! But when we were in Bar Harbor, mom called and said that Will was born that morning! Yay! So when people ask when he was born, I say “first Bar Harbor” because I have no idea what the date was! On the way back down to New York, we were able to go to Charlottetown this time and yes, I did the full Anne experience! We went to the Anne museum as well as Green Gables. It turns out that the Anne museum is where L. M. Montgomery grew up and her aunt lived in Green Gables. So they are actual places, and her family still lives there. Her cousins now run the farm and garden. In Boston, I met up with Rob (he sailed with me on the Ryndam while in Mexico!) and we went saw the Green Monstah! Fenway was the coolest! We got to sit in the Green Monstah seats, as well as the oldest seats in baseball. After Fenway, we went to Cheers! Yeah, the Cheers from the TV show! It was great!! It definitely was not a long enough day tho, and I’ve decided that I want to go back to see more. I forgot how much history is there. The next day in New London, I saw Randy (from the Zuiderdam) and Chad (from the Ryndam)! It was so great to see them again! We had a good chance to catch up. Again, not enough time, but time well spent. This time when we got to New York we were able to get off. I headed out with the sound guy and a spa girl and we met up with a girl that was on here, but she got off last New York (Jana). Jana took us to Times Square, we walked on Broadway and we sat for a while in Central Park. It was a great day! I’ve definitely decided that I’m going back! I want to see a show on Broadway and I want to see 42nd street at night. Now we’re heading back up to Montreal, and there I’ll be seeing Marie-Claude! That’s about it for now… and thanks to PJ I’ll be able to update this more often! Enjoy reading! I've also tried uploading pics but because the speed of the satellite isn't that fast, I'll have to wait until I'm in port with free internet to upload... ugh.... Ciao for now!

Home... again!

2007-07-13T19:55:00.000-07:00

I know it's been forever since I've posted and I'm sorry! It's been crazy in Mexico and Alaska. But the good news is that I'm home and I've uploaded pictures and I can now email and make calls more frequently... but not for long! I'll head back out on Aug 1st to join up with the Veendam in the Baltic! I head to Copenhagen, then make stops in Finland, Estonia, and St. Petersburg, Russia! But more on that when I head over! Let's see... I think by the time Mexico was over, everyone was ready to not be there anymore! We couldn't take any more stops in Topolombapo for the 18-hour tour that went to Copper Canyon. Although I did go and it was nice, I don't think I'd do it again.

I also went on an ATV in Puerto Vallarta! It was coolio!!!

This is one of my favorite pictures from Loreto...a favorite stop of mine!

Here's our first day in Juneau when a bunch of us went to the top of Mt. Roberts. All of the ships had received an email about there being record snowfall this year in Juneau and to stay on the marked paths. So basically it was everything that had been cleared out, and nothing more. Well, we didn't listen! We went sledding (with no sled!!) down one of the hills and passed the signs that warned us about avalanches. Later that week there was another email sent out, again to all the ships, remind crew to stay on the designated paths and not to wander off. Oops!

This is when a group of us went rock climbing and rapelling in Skagway. Great day to go!! Well, any day that dosen't rain in Alaska is a great day! But we all had a lot of fun and I would definetly do it again!!!

Ziplining in Ketchikan was great too! There was only one line that I didn't make it all the way to the end... but I think only 2 people did on that line! Would I do it again? Heck yeah!!!!

The cruise staff the night of a game of flippy ckup. Yes, those are the ropes that are used to tie the ship up in port. No, we're not supposed to be climbing on them. Woops!

I also drove a 4 x 4 in Haines up a mountain. We saw 3 bears at the lodge where we had dinner. That was exciting! Once we got to the top of this mountain, we defintely had a snowball fight! I even got snowballs thrown at me while I was driving! It was a lot of fun!!!

I caught crabs! No really, I did! They were cute little dungoness (sp??) and across the back of the shells they were about 6 inches. And man they were tasty! One of the guys working at the restaurant actually went to IU too! He grew up in Indy and decided to move up to Alaska and now has his residency there. It's funny where you meet people!

This is when I went in a float plane over the Juneau Icefields. We flew over glaciers and landed at a lodge where we had a salmon bake and were probably less than 2 miles from a glacier. It was awesome! On the way back I got to fly co-pilot! But I wasn't able to touch anything. Boo.

My last week onboard I went whale watching. We saw some amazing whales, but of course my camera didn't get any good shots of them. All humpbacks, but we did see some stellar sealions and harbor seals along the way. They were cute! I had a great contract and I'm definetly looking forward to doing a lot of adventurous things in Europe! I'll also be better on keeping this updated. Sorry for being so bad!

Hola Mexico!

2007-03-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated this, and I do apologize. It’s been crazy busy with Code Red (or as Lee puts it… Beyond Code Red… thanks Lee!!!) so it’s been kinda difficult for me to have some free time to type. So I need to go all the way back to Tahiti to update you. Tahiti ended up being absolutely gorgeous. Bora Bora was my favorite place to go, and I think I want to head back there. All of the sea days back to San Diego were great! My favorite day was when we had a cruise-activities-staff-challenge day. This is where Rob, Eric, Allison and myself were one team and the guests were another team! It was great! I won when we played basketball, I got the highest score when we did football toss, and I made the winning putt for tic-tac-putt! So overall I personally did great. As a team, well, that’s a different story. We definitely lost at Scattergories, trivia and overall lost in football and tied in basketball. But it was a great day and we all had a great time.

Then Code Red started. We were doing great, but all of a sudden, people started getting sick about day 27. There was just a huge outbreak and no one knows what caused it. So the last two days of that cruise were not fun and it led into the next cruise. It was kinda hard saying goodbye to everyone on San Diego morning. We had grown so close to so many people that they became friends. But I did exchange emails with them, so we’ll keep in touch that way and I’ve had many invites that if I want to visit, I’ve got a place to stay. This is also the cruise that Meghan (the senior), Eric and Rob headed home. We got 3 new guys in San Diego. Pat, Donald and Glenn. Pat is our new senior and Donald and Glenn replaced Eric and Rob.

Mexico cruise #1… started out in Code Red and it was a Jazz cruise. So let me put it this way… there were about 30 jazz groups that played at random times during the day taking up all of the rooms that are normally used for other things and well as keeping people who were not part of the group out. Oh yeah, that meant that 800 people could go into rooms at the given times, where 400 couldn’t. Out of the 400, there was a group from Minnesota of about 100, and 300 were just “normal” cruisers. Those 300 normal cruisers were not happy to find out that the jazz group was on. It took away from their whole experience. Kind of a bummer. Other then the jazz group taking over everything and being in code red, the cruise was fine. We found out that there is absolutely nothing to do in Topolompampo unless you go on the Copper Canyon tour and if you know you’re going to be back, there’s really not much to do in La Paz, Loreto, or Mazatlan.

Mexico cruise #2… also started out in code red, but this time, we super sanitized in San Diego, delaying the embarking process until about 5. The cabin stewards still didn’t have the rooms ready, because of all the sanitizing, and the guests were not too happy to hear that as they were getting onboard. Luckily, it wasn’t too long for all of the rooms to be ready. We then carried on still in code red. I was DJ for the week… and I even got a cool DJ name! DJ t1t. The way I got this name was I like to tell stories… and Pat doesn’t exactly have the patience to listen to my lovely stories, so whenever I start a story, he always starts… this one time… so it got shortened to t1t, so that’s how I became DJ t1t! But he couldn’t put it in the program as that, since it looks like something else! So when you’re the DJ, you basically have an easy week. There are no early mornings (since in theory, you’re up late) which means no IPM days and no tendering days. It also means that people don’t get to know you since you don’t do any port day activities. But the group that goes to the Crow’s Nest gets to know you! I formed a posse of 5 guys who came up every night and made my week fun! They were awesome to hang out with and made my week fun! I also had a stalker! This guy was everywhere I went and it started getting quite scary! So my posse was there to protect me if I needed it. But no harm was done. I let Pat and Mike know about it, so they were also on the lookout for me. By the end of the cruise, we really got to know each other and also exchanged emails, so now if I want to go to Seattle, I’ve got a place to stay!

Mexico cruise #3… started out 2 days late. We were tied up in San Diego until the 15th so do SUPER sanitizing. Everyone onboard was put to work and went through on the 13th for the first time after everyone left and completely wiped down everything onboard. We tried a new sanitizer, so we were carrying around buckets of liquid everywhere we went. That took about 4 hours, and we had the rest of the night off. Sam and I went out on a date finally! We went out to dinner and just walked around like you’re supposed to do on a date. But there were no flowers included… because they couldn’t be brought back onboard! But that’s ok… On the 14th we went through and wiped everything again. This time it didn’t take as long since we had an idea of what we were doing. Plus, we just wanted to be finished. On the morning of the 15th, embarkation started at 11, so everything had to be ready by then. Everyone came on with good spirits, even though they knew they were missing 2 days of their cruise. So far, no major complaints have been submitted. No posse. No stalker. It seems that everyone is here to have a good time and that’s exactly what they’re doing. And even some good news! While in Cabo San Lucas, we went from code red to code yellow! That means that things are going to go back to somewhat normal behavior.

Things are going great so far. The only downer is that Sam leaves on the 23rd.  I can’t wait to have a normal cruise… without all the complainers about not being able to do something, or someone getting sick, or the crew doing too much for them. It amazes me that no matter what we as a crew do, someone is always going to complain about something.

I’ll try to do better this time about posting. Sorry for taking so long to post. Email me with updates with you! Oh, I’ve also got the address for San Diego if you want to send any goodies to me! Just email me and let me know that you want it.

Here's me and Sam in Puerto Vallarta. Good times.

Here I am swimming with sting rays. Yes, sting rays. In Bora Bora. Cooh, huh?

Cruising the So' Pac...

2007-02-10T02:38:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I know it’s been a while, and I apologize for the delay. But I am having a great time as ACD (Assistant Cruise Director) and I am so happy to be back onboard the Ryndam! It’s great to see some of the people that were here when I was previously… Becky, Sam, Matt, Stephan, Lorrence, and a ton of cabin stewards, bar staff and Lido guys just to name a few. I’ll tell you, cruise staff is completely different from Club HAL! But the way that I’m thinking of it is that I’m working with the big kids now instead of the little kids. The first night onboard for intros, Meghan told everyone that I’m new and since then, I’ve had nothing but good feedback about how well I’m doing. Everyone has said that I’m doing a great job and they are enjoying coming to my activities.

So people I work with…. Mikey, the cruise director, is awesome! He’s been working on ships for about 5 years and people love him. He definitely has the “cruise director voice” when he’s introducing shows tho! But he is so fun to work with and he’s making my first weeks onboard really enjoyable. And he’ll be here until May, so that’s most of my time here. Meghan, the Senior Asst. Cruise Director, is still here. She was here when I left in September, but she’s leaving when we get back to San Diego. She is also great to work with. Allison, Rob and Eric are all ACDs with me. Allison is my roomie and she’s been on ships for 2 years and all over the place. She is now running into guests that she’s been on other ships with. Too funny! I was here with Rob for a few weeks before I left and he is still just as fun. Eric is also former Club HAL, so it’s fun to talk about stories with him. He also knows Kate from their first ship. Rob and Eric also leave when we get back to San Diego. I have an awesome team that I’m working with and it’s going to be a complete change once SD rolls around!

So far here’s what’s happened…. The first 5 sea days went by super fast! We had all day activities and that helped to make the days go by faster. We first got into Hilo and Becky, Luanne and I rented a car and drove to a black sand beach. Good times! We saw a bunch of sea turtles and it seemed that they were in a playful mood, especially since one was doing flips in the water! About 10pm, we did some scenic cruising past the volcanoes, and holy cow, it was awesome! I’ve never seen anything like it before. During the passing, one of our guests lei’d me. Don’t worry, all he did was give me a lei! Day 2 was supposed to be Maui, but because of the swells, we weren’t able to tender so we had an extra sea day. In Lahaina I went on a trip… it was a tiki party boat with an open bar! Yay! My first Mai-Tai! MMMM! I also got a henna tattoo of a sea turtle on my ankle. It’s super cute! I got a gift from the guest that lei’d me… a license plate that says “I GOT LEI’D”. It’s awesome!!! And the best part… he’s about 85 and the cutest! We pulled into Honolulu with no problems then on Tuesday and I had the WHOLE day off! Usually we have to work at night doing something, but I didn’t have to! It was awesome and I felt like I was totally skipping out on something. We went to Waikiki Beach and ate at Duke’s. I guess Duke’s is a super famous restaurant that I’ve been told about by several people to go to. Good stuff man! We had an overnight in Honolulu, so pretty much the entire crew decided to go out and we all went to one of the clubs in town and had a great time. On Wednesday we went to Waikiki again and had a chill day. After Honolulu, we went to Nawilwilli and it was rainy and chilly, so not exactly the best day to do much of anything. Plus, where we were ported, it was hard to go pretty much anywhere. It was pretty safe to say it was definitely a good day for a movie and a nap… which I accomplished!

We had 5 more sea days before getting to Tahiti. Day 1 of Tahiti was Raiatea and unfortunately it was rainy all day. I got off for a little bit, but didn’t want to get too wet, so I bought some post cards and called it a day. Not to mention how expensive it was there! My 3 post cards were $2.10! I guess I’m not going to be buying much!! Day 2 and 3 were Bora Bora. Beautiful!!! On the first day, I had IPM…In-Port-Manning, which means that I can’t get off the ship and I had all of the activities to do onboard during the day. It was a long day, but it was ok, because it was again rainy, so I didn’t miss out on much. Day 2 I went on an excursion and I went swimming with rays and snorkeling after. The rays were amazing! They came right up to us and brushed up against us. It was the coolest feeling! Just about as cool as swimming with dolphins. Snorkeling was ok… but I am much more of a diver and wanting to get down in with the fish instead of looking at it from atop. And the best news is… I had a chance to get rid of my tan lines from my bathing suit! So I’ll have to work hard to not get more tan lines!

That’s where we are now… we’re on our way to Papatee and I’m IPM again. I’ll really try harder to update this more! Talk to ya all later!

I'm home (again)!!

2007-01-07T18:12:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't posted in a while... sorry for that! But with Christmas and New Year's, it's been a crazy two weeks. So here's a rundown of what happened for Christmas and New Year's this year.
First of all, for the Christmas cruise, the president and CEO of Holland America decided to take his family, his WHOLE family (all 22 of them) on the big Zed. I actually got to talk to him a few times and he was pretty cool. Anyhoo, here's what happened (and I'll just do the major things!)... Christmas eve the cast did a show that was created by one of the cast members and it was really good. After the show, there was caroling by three choirs: the Filipino, International and Indonesian. I'm sure you can guess who made up the Filipino and Indonesian choirs, but the International choir made up everyone else, including me! It was really fun to sing in. After that, we had drinks in the fancy restaurant onboard. Christmas morning I went to mass, then the Youth Staff got to be elves to help Santa pass out presents. So all morning, I was an elf. Yay. We had normal afternoon activities, then there was an open bar for us before dinner and later for the passengers, there was a black and white ball (a formal dance where everyone wears either black or white) where we again had an open bar. It was a good night! The rest of the week was normal.
New Year's week comes then. NYE started for us about 10:30 with another black and white ball, and yes, there was an open crew bar as well as champagne. Trust me, I had my share! Once midnight rolled around, the captain rang the bell and baby new year and father time came out. Good times were had by all. New Year's on a ship is definetly something to experience!
Now I'm home, altho a short time. I leave again on the 22nd to head to Hawaii and Thaiti! Yay! I'll try to do better at posting!

This is me in Tortola. And that's Elektra!

Three bad weeks (the three before Christmas)

2006-12-18T17:28:00.000-08:00

So last week’s passengers were super ridiculous. They were rude, really not smart, and my favorite, it seemed that they were all WT. I know that’s not nice, but seriously, it was bad. So it’s pretty safe to say that all of us crew members were extremely excited for Saturday to roll around.

But I guess that was a little too ambitious, where a group of over 600 who subscribes to the magazine “The Nation” is onboard. I was talking to one of the guys who registered the group and I then found out that the magazine is a far left wing political magazine based out of California. Yay. Let me tell you this.... For those who don’t know, I’m not interested in political stuff. I don’t follow it. I’m lucky I know who the VP is (I know that’s really bad...). So, my point about this is that I really don’t want to get into a political conversation, let alone with someone from The Nation. Well, I was working at the Club HAL open house from 2-4 and one old lady came in and I wanted to clear up what the view of the magazine was. I was talking to the cruise director after I met the registeration guy and the CD said that it was a right wing. So I asked her simply is it a left or right wing? That’s it, nothing else. She proceeds to go on about how since I’m from Indiana that’s a red state and I really want to be a blue state and that I need to think one way and this and that. Not fun. And I think my favorite part is the t-shirts they’re selling. Seriously, come on. So I didn’t think that I could be any more excited to see Saturday then I am now. And the worst part... I’m on teens by myself and I don’t know how much I like my kids. I think they’re warming up tho. So I’m sure it’ll be better.

And next week, the CEO of HAL is coming onboard. The fun times just keep rolling in. (I really think I’m ready to go to Hawaii and Tahiti, ya think?)

There was a good thing that happened... we had an entertainment party in Club HAL last week and Lori was the bartender. Not a smart move. But we all had a great time. Here's one of the pictures from the Club HAL staff!

Slow week two weeks ago

2006-12-18T17:26:00.000-08:00

So I know that I haven’t posted anything recently, but noting too exciting has happened since my last blog. Other then my camera breaking and I had to buy a new camera, that’s about it. Oh, and since I sat on my computer and cracked the screen, I’m using Kate’s computer now. So I don’t know when I’ll be posting pictures on my site. Sorry for not being able to see my progress....

One thing that I do want to say is... I am so tan! Pretty much the only thing that I’ve been saying for the past three weeks has been “Look how tan I am!!!” and yes, I am still tan! It’s quite enjoyable having a good tan. And don’t worry, I’ll be working on it more until I leave!

While at Margaritaville this week, I was talking to Jeff (an ACD onboard here) and Kate and I was looking at my Hawaii/Tahiti itinerary, and I just happened to notice that out of my 30 days, only 10 of them are sea days! Awesome!!! And, I have an overnight in Honolulu and Bora Bora! So who wants to joine me?

I have the best teens!

2006-12-01T20:52:00.000-08:00

So I think I had quite possibly the best teens in the world this week. There was always someone at every activity, they were all nice to each other, and they thought that Alyshia and I were cool!

I don’t think that I’ll be able to look at karaoke the same way again after seeing Bryce perform his Britney rendition. We finally found something for them to do when we had “The Loft After Hours” but 3 days in a row it kinda got a little repetitive. We had a wonderful time at our prom and everyone pulled out the glam for it. But for some reason, they didn’t like the 50’s and 60’s choices I made for them. It was fun music tho! Alyshia and I highly enjoyed it.

The week was rounded out with a fun day at Half Moon Cay (Cay is pronounced Key) and during basketball, I just sat around and chatted up a storm with some of my boys. Aahh, teenage boys. The random things that were brought up. Our t-shirt signing was great. I usually don’t get one signed, simply because I would end up with a ton. But about 20 minutes into it, was asking where mine was. So I decided to have one signed. The things that were written were so sweet and I’ve decided that it’ll be my down-day-pick-me-up shirt. We really had a great week and I am really going to miss them all. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll run into them again on another “dam” ship. (It’s about time that I’ve used that term!!)

Gobble Gobble

2006-12-01T20:47:00.000-08:00

So this week is absolutely crazy with kids! Thanksgiving week is nuts, but it is so fun, I can’t even describe it. There are 300 kids onboard (the kids 3-17) and we got 5 new girls for this week. One of the girls is staying until March, so Club HAL will have 4 for a while. So get this with our names… there’s Kate, Katie, Lori, Leah, Amy, Alycia, Sondra and Sarah. Craziness, huh? I’m working with Alicia on teens and there is a really good group that comes to the Loft to hang out. There are 100 teens onboard, but about 25 are coming. It really makes for a fun week. But I’m noticing that there are already 2 couples! That’s something that we definitely don’t encourage, but they’re teens, and want to do it anyways….

So Thanksgiving on a ship was definitely a different experience. First of all, we have no idea what day of the week it is, so for me to know it was Thursday was a stretch. Second, we’re in the Caribbean, so because of the most excellent weather, no one realized that it was November and chilly enough to be Turkey day. I called home on Wednesday from St. Thomas and dad mentioned that they were going to PJ’s for dinner tomorrow. It didn’t even dawn on me that it was for Thanksgiving. I walked upstairs to the kids room and they were making pom-pom turkeys and that’s when I remembered that it was Thanksgiving (keep in mind that I had gone to the beach since the conversation with dad, so any memories of what we talked about for the next day were gone…). I took a wild guess that they wouldn’t want to make pom-pom turkeys. But we did have a prom Thursday night, which was so fun! It really was nice to see everyone dressed up. We had a great time. We even had a king and queen. Good times. We did have turkey for dinner and all the traditional things to go along… mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, brussel sprouts (huh?), and of course pumpkin pie. The “cruise staff family” sat together (Club HAL, the Assistant Cruise Directors, the Senior Assistant Cruise Director, the Cruise Director and the DJ), and we reminisced about traditions from back home. Several times it was mentioned about the amount of alcohol consumed. It was good, but not like home. I think the best part of the meal was the free wine that the servers were coming around with. Of course I’m not going to pass on that option!

So I got my new contract info too…. I get home from here January 6, which I knew, but then I leave for the Ryndam on January 22 to do a 30-day Hawaii/Tahiti cruise, followed by 10-day Mexican Riveria cruises, then the first week of May heading up to Alaska. I’ll be onboard there until July 8. 6 months. Yay! So guess where I’ll be for my birthday then… beautiful Seward, Alaska! Aren’t you jealous? Oh, Seward is kinda smelly like and armpit (it’s a fishing town, so it smells like fish… MMMMM), teeny-tiny (it has I think 6 streets, maybe), and two Chinese restaurants. Not only those wonderful qualities, but it’ll be debark/embark day (where old passengers get off and new ones get on, AKA turn around day). Wow. (Can you hear the sarcasm in my fingers ad I’m typing this? It’s definitely there, I promise!!!) It’s really not fair…. Belinda gets to spend her birthday in Maui. I get Seward.

That’s about it for now…. Oh, if you want to send me stuff (which I very much enjoy getting mail) you totally can!!! And if you need a hint, you can send money for me to get an internet card!!! I have the address for Ft. Lauderdale for me to get stuff there. Thanks in advance!

Top Ten

2006-11-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

So week two went by without any problems. I was doing the kids/tweens this week… we only had 15 onboard, so they were combined and most of them were under 7, so it was all good. Half of them were from England. But they were fun. I didn’t get any other “Katie, don’t be naughty” statements from the kids this week. (Remember the story I told about the kiddos from England in Alaska when they said I was naughty for stealing the captain’s clogs? That’s my reference there…) But other then that, nothing major with the kiddies.

So in Grand Turk, I had the chance to go snorkeling, and really go snorkeling, and I had a pretty fun time. There were two snorkel sites that we went to, both in wonderfully fabuloso water. The first was a reef site. It wasn’t really all that impressive, and there were no fish. I’ve seen so much better. But overall it was ok. The second site had a ton of fish! Grouper, small colorful fish, and the best part, a BARACUDA! How cool was that?!?!? It was about 5 ft. long and had the ugliest mouth! It was way cool tho! After snorkeling, I came back to the Zuiderdam and found out that there was a surprise fire drill. I checked with Lori and she said that I was ok that I wasn’t there. Since in a real event, there would be a chance that not everyone would be onboard, so it was fine. Kate, Rochelle and I headed over to Margaritaville then for pretty much the rest of the afternoon. We met up with some other Big Zed peeps and had a great time. We got a “big” drink, and another, and another, and somewhere in there, there was a contest for a chance to win a t-shirt. Oh the crazy things people will do for a t-shirt. Yeah, I was one of them. We had to go on a random scavenger hunt around the pool. I made it past the first two rounds, the on round 3 we had to get a salt shaker. Well, I knew there was one on the table where we sat so I went straight for that table. So did Jeri. Se grabbed it pretty much out of my hand! I had to run to the very far table, and needless to say, everyone else beat me. But on the way, I also received a battle wound. There was a paved sidewalk that I was running on and stepped in the gap between the cement and mulch. My big toe went in and I got scratched on my toe. No big deal (well, at that point I couldn’t feel anything anyways…) until I got back to the ship and my foot really hurt. So I looked at it and I also bruised my foot where I fell in. Ouch. It’s really not that bad. I promise. I have a picture of it that once I figure out how to post, I’ll post it.

Tortola was kinda slow. I realized that if you don’t have someone to walk around with or a trip to go on, it’s really not all that people say it is. I’m sure that if I found the right place to hang out, it would be great. But on the flip side, I’ve got another month and a half to have fun there. I’m not worried.

St. Thomas was ok, since I had IPM… again! It started off super early since we had immigration for the passengers to go thru. We met up in the Cruise Director’s office at 6:30… a.m.! Oh my. We got to our positions at 6:45 and people started going thru at 7. I got to pass out cards that ok-ed them to get off the ship. Everything was finished by about 9:45, and we were waiting for 3 people (all from the company that does the cast costumes and choreography. So needless to say that we weren’t happy that we had to wait for them.), so when those 3 went thru, we were finished. There was a HotMan (Hotel Manager) meeting at 10:30 about “Premium Service” blah blah blah. We (Club HAL) had to be there pretty much because if we weren’t doing what we’re supposed to do, the other services onboard would have a difficult time doing theirs. Such as the spa, gym, shops and casino. Yuck. Not a fun way to spend the morning. But to make up for it, I went and got a pedicure! I’ve noticed that salt water, sand and chlorine aren’t a good combination for pedicures. But now I have pretty toes, so I’m not worried. I went up to the bow then to call some people and went and laid out on the back deck, then took a nap. That pretty much sums up St. Thomas.

On Friday we spent the day in Half Moon Cay, which is Holland America’s private island in the Bahamas. We still had activities to do on the beach. I had sand castle building and some water games (drip, drip, pour…a.k.a. duck, duck, goose but with water, and we had water balloons), but kiddos only came for the sand castle building. It was fun otherwise.

So Kate and I have been talking about all of the great things about working onboard and we compiled a list of “Top 10 Reasons to work on a cruise ship” and here they are….

10. Lido food… well for breakfast and lunch at least!
9. All of the nice and adorable officers.
8. Seeing the bridge at night and doing watch with the officer on duty.
7. Swimming in the turquoise water at every port.
6. Low kid count = a LOT of time off!!!
5. White sand beaches.
4. Snorkeling and diving in coral reef.
3. One word: Margaritaville!!!
2. Stargazing on the bow without passengers.
And the number 1 reason….
1.Sunsets.

I feel like I just wrote a book. Sorry this was so long! Oh, I have the address for Ft. Lauderdale if anyone would like to send stuff. Just email me and I’ll send it to you.

2006-11-15T21:13:00.000-08:00

So here's the picture I wanted to have in my blog last time. That's the Big Zed, aka, the Zuiderdam, behind me. My home until January 6. I'm in Grand Turk, right off the beach of Margaritaville. Super sweet!

Lobster Anyone?

2006-11-11T20:10:00.000-08:00

So on Wednesday we spent the day in Tortola. Well, like half a day. We were docked from 7 am to 2 pm. I really didn’t understand that, since we’re so close to the other islands. Oh well. Something about cruise I guess I’ll never understand. So Tuesday night Kate and I were at the late night comedy show and one of the sound guys asked her if she wanted to go sailing with a group in the morning. Kate told him that she had IPM (In-Port Manning… for IPM you can’t get off the ship for the day) and she couldn’t go, but she asked me if I wanted to instead, and I figured why not? So in Tortola I went sailing! There were 6 cast members and one sound guy and me and it was awesome! I’ve never been on a sail boat before, where there are sails and the wind drives you. It was so peaceful with just the sound of the ocean and wind. Not to mention the 85+ degree weather and sun and 50+ foot deep water that you could see straight to the bottom. And it was turquoise. Amazing. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures from that, but I’m sure I’ll go again and most definitely have the camera out and ready!

So we got to a little cove and parked the boat for about an hour where we were snorkeling and swimming off the side. The water was amazing! I couldn’t tell if the air outside was warmer or the water was! I absolutely loved it! We got back to the ship and got on our way. I took a shower before work and I saw that I was a little pink. No big deal right? Yeah, before bed I looked again, bright red on my shoulders, back, and chest! But the good thing… it doesn’t hurt and I’ll have a killer tan! It’s just a start to what I’ll have until January.

Thursday was filled with fun in Grand Turk. We docked at 11 (which meant we had morning activities, and of course no teens showed up… long morning) and there were 4 kiddos that had lunch with Lori, Kate and myself, so after lunch Kate and I got off and headed toward Margaritaville! Yes, I mean Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville! There was a huge pool and it was right off the beach. In the pool, there was a swim up bar (my first swim up bar BTW!) and when in Margaritaville, you gotta have a margarita! Kate and I were at the pool for a bit, then headed over to the beach. And of course, the turquoise water was wonderful! We did some snorkeling but it wasn’t that good. The most interesting thing we saw was a blue and yellow itty bitty fish. From what I’ve heard snorkeling is much better on the other side of the island… all 8 miles away. Yes, Grand Turk is 8 square miles. We went back to the pool for a bit but nothing exciting happened.

That’s it from the big Zed for now. Also the picture of me in front of the big Zed. Gosh, it’s rough. If there is no picture, it didn't load right. Sorry. I'll try to figure it out for my next post. It's a really cool picture!

The Big Zed

2006-11-07T15:44:00.000-08:00

So I got onboard the “big Zed” with no problems on Saturday. My luggage came off the plane in like 5 minutes, which was fabulouso! I hopped a taxi to the port, met up with ship’s security, and found Lori and Kate. It is so good to see Lori again! I also met Kate and found out that she’s from New York. She’s super coolio! I knew that I wasn’t expecting to get a cabin the same size as the one on the Ryndam, and I knew that I was getting top bunk, but I wasn’t expecting to not have carpet and the bed being super uncomfortable! I definitely am not a fan of my bed here! It’s ok, I think I’m gonna go to Kmart in St. Thomas to get an egg crate to sleep on. Kate had the same problem and she got one and said that it’s helped out a lot. And the climbing the ladder to my bed is not so fun either. I gotta watch my liquids toward the end of the day since it’s not so fun to climb up and down (a) when you’re still asleep, and (b) when it’s super dark in the cabin. What I am excited about is that my cabin is along the outside of the ship, so I’ll get to hear water splashing alongside the big Zed. Good times. Also, my shower is no longer just a corner that you couldn’t turn around in… oh no, it’s BIG! Yay!

So I’m on teens this week and so far I’ve had very few participating. There are 27 13-17 year olds onboard, but only 1 is coming to activities. Not so fun for me. We left Saturday night and there were rumors about not going to Half Moon Cay because of weather conditions. So we found out first thing Sunday morning that we couldn’t go. We would have to tender to the island and it would be too rocky for us to drop anchor and for us to use the boats. So we had an extra sea day. It was ok, but I am definitely looking forward to going next week.

While we were in St. Thomas, we had a Coast Guard inspection. That basically meant that we had a fire drill, followed by a general emergency drill. The duties here are different than they were on the Ryndam. Basically, all I do is for a fire drill is go to the front office and wait for further instructions. But we passed with no problems! After the drill, I finally got a chance to explore the ship and find out where everything was onboard. I found it all and decided to lay out for a bit. Oh it was so nice! I got to lay out in November! How sweet!!!

So that’s it for now… nothing else exciting… for now! I’m sure I’ll have plenty of stories to share! And of course I’ll be posting pictures as well. Club HAL is way different here then on the Ryndam. Ok, time for some sun!

I'm leaving on a cruise ship!!!

2006-10-22T20:05:00.000-07:00

Well I've found out where my next destination is going to be! I'm leaving on November 4 to go to the Zuiderdam and the Caribbean! Yay! I get to spend two months in fabulouso weather and darn, miss out on that Indiana winter. No heavy coat. No scraping windows in the morning. The beach. Scuba diving. Need I say more? Of course it goes without saying that of course I'm excited and most definitely ready to go! Fall in Indiana is nice, but it's getting cold and I'm not so much a fan of that one. I'm looking forward to my new adventures and, most importantly, getting a TAN finally!!!! Awesome!

Back Home

2006-09-13T17:17:00.000-07:00

So I made it home from my first contract alive and well. Here's how my day went on September 10th, 2006....
5:30 Wake up/change/brush teeth/etc. morning stuff
6:00 Get in line to get my September pay from the paymaster, while waiting in line for 30 mins being entertained by the cast
6:45 Take luggage and life jacket to the gangway
7:15 Take life jacket to bridge (but I get to see Hottie Sean, so it's all good!!!)
7:25 Debark Ryndam for the last time :(
7:30 Wait in line for customs (to get off the ship, not to leave the country)
9:30 FINALLY make it thru customs (some lady was holding up the line and had to have EVERY article in her suitcase inspected... ugh...)
10:30 FINALLY get the shuttle to go to the airport (I was with Karen, Peter, MaSean, Raymond and Natalie). While on the shuttle, the craziest driver is at the seat. He talks about random things, that we already know; he bounces us back and forth when approaching a yellow light; he radios into base the passengers, only to find out that I wasn't supposed to be there... that I was supposed to be in a taxi
11:00 Arrive at YVR to go home... excited to be on the same plane as 15 other Ryndam buddies! :)
11:15 Check in with the lady at the counter, and I notice that my ticked says MSP instead of DTW. I question her and she said that my route was changed, and because of that, I was upgraded to first class! Yay! So not only did my day get made that I was upgraded, but I had a thrid piece of luggage and I didn't have to pay for it! Awesome!
11:30 Board the plane headed toward MSP... I sat next to Nurse Debbie too!
12:00 Take off!
Sometime between 12:00 (West coast time) and 10:00 (Indiana time) I arrived back in Indy
10:30 Mom and dad meet me at the airport and as my luggage is coming off of the baggage claim, dad goes to get the car. Well, I didn't realize that he'd be pulling up in a LINCOLN NAVIGATOR!!!! Holy cow! Sweet ride!
11:00 Get home... settled in.... time for bed!

11:15 (Monday morning) Wake up
12:00 Go to lunch with mom and PJ
1:00 Ready to go back to the Ryndam!

I had a super fabulous time while I was away and I can't wait to go back! Come visit me on my next contract!!!!