My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
I figured out how to get off the ship! The first couple of ports I got off and walked around the towns (I hadn’t figured out how to do excursions yet), but there wasn’t really anything noteworthy. Then I found Martinique.
Martinique is still one of my favorite ports, even though we only went there once.
There was a beach and a park right off the pier. The island was settled by the French, which was probably why I liked it so much.
I was still in the Caribbean, but it felt very European– they used Euros and spoke french. I found a Carrefour grocery store with free wifi and small things I didn’t realize I wanted on the ship (like honey).
This was the first day I felt like I was on an adventure. On the ship I was still learning so many new things that a day felt like 3 days and I tried to sneak in a nap in every moment of spare time. I think I only walked around for a couple of hours, but I have very fond memories.
Food on the ship: They say you board as passengers and leave as cargo. Many passengers have come up to me wondering how we don’t weigh 300 lbs. I actually lost 20 lbs during my 6 month contract. First of all, we’re always running around from activity to activity and I danced off the calories with noted enthusiasm. Sometimes we would only have 15 minutes to eat; sometimes we had enough time to order off the menu (the same menu the passengers get). In the Officer’s mess there was a line we could eat from. I filled my plate with vegetables and then topped it off with the good stuff. Either way, one of my favorite things to do was to eat at the family table in the Officer’s mess. Everyone is welcome at the family table and though it is typically set for 5 people, we’ve managed to squeeze up to 10 around the circular table. This was the place where I bonded with people from other departments. We met Alan, an engineer who fixed the door on deck 7 and became our ship dad. Delisa in production would slip into her southern accent when a subject came up that she was passionate about. I had some awesome conversations with the Hotel General Manager, who is very important. Some of the most repeated jokes were first delivered at that table.
