My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
Shortly before we went out of service for Wet Dock, I went on a Crew tour. As I went through these pictures, I could not remember which island we were on. It was one we didn’t go to that often. By process of elimination, I’m pretty sure it was Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic. They’d scheduled this tour on a previous visit to Amber Cove when I couldn’t go. I think this week, I was IPM (had to stay on board and work) in Puerto Rico, but I was off in Amber Cove, and a couple of my friends who never get off the ship were going too. That made it extra special. Days before, I was obnoxiously singing the “Don’t go chasing waterfalls…” song, making up my own words, or unnecessarily explaining that I would, in fact, be chasing the waterfalls.
We were divided into two busses, so on the advice of the crew who had gone before, I made sure that my favorite people were on my bus and would therefore be in my group. We arrived, we were given life jackets, helmets, water shoes, a bottle of water, and were told to put our stuff in the office, not to be seen until the very end of the adventure.
It was strange, at first to be hiking in the weird shoes and no pants through a rocky area that looked like an empty construction site. We were told that the water would not be cold, but “shockingly refreshing” or something like that. So it would be cold– we just couldn’t complain about it. We came to a brook and picked our way through. I was surprised by how dry my feet were, and how warm the water felt around them (it turned out the water was much colder when we got to the deeper caves).
This is my friend Jill. She’s the Senior Production Manager, which basically means she’s in charge of all the production staff on the ship, and sits in the booth and calls the Production shows and major events that take place in the Princess Theater. Correct me if I’m wrong, Jill, but I’m pretty sure that’s her job. Jill is one of my absolute favorite people, but she works so much that I don’t get to hang out with her nearly as much as I would like. Any chance that I run into her is a treat. Jill is from Philadelphia and thus one of the few fellow Americans we have on the crew. I worked with her most of both contracts and she is one of those people that I clicked with pretty much instantly. When I met her I could tell we’d be friends and the more I got to know her the more I liked her. She is one of those people who is absolutely impeccable at her job yet is totally down to earth and human about it. I marvel at her management style and if I had any interest in doing production, I would want to work with her. It’s not a surprise that she’ll be doing the inauguration of the newest Princess ship, the Sky Princess. I always loved when our paths crossed on a professional level but I loved it even more when they crossed on a personal level. She is warm and fun and funny and she pronounces swim suit like the Italians (a trend I started with 2 1/2 people)– swim sweet — because the Italians pronounce all the vowels. She’s one of those people that it blows my mind that we haven’t actually spent that much time together because when we do, it feels like she’s one of my oldest friends. So basically, I love Jill. If you like Jill, I will probably more deeply respect your opinion of things. And if Jill likes you, you automatically get a spot on my list of people who are good people, you know, before I form my own opinion.
Eventually the foliage got greener and the path grew narrower and steeper as we climbed the hill. We huffed and puffed up the mountain, and took a moment to take a break on this picturesque bridge.
I don’t know who the guy to the left of me is, but the guy to my right is Mauro, a beautiful bartender who was also in my Muster station (so I was kind of his boss there). He is as nice and capable as he is pretty and absolutely delightful. One time in Cozumel Matt and Andi and I accidentally kidnapped him. We were taking a taxi into the town and ran into him outside kind of near the taxis. We asked what he was doing, and then without really waiting for him to answer, we said we were taking a taxi into town to go get some lunch, did he want to join us (we had to get our money’s worth for a taxi– the more bodies, the better!). He came along answered our pestering questions about the nuances of his job, but then when we got to the restaurant, he said he had to go to the shop for some stuff. We went to the restaurant and realized that we’d kind of bullied him into coming and had basically kidnapped him, but then he came back to the restaurant and joined us for the end of the meal. So it all worked out. Anyway, next to Mauro are two Aussies, the one kneeling is Alicia (she was the one wearing the yellow swim suit in the blog where we went snorkeling and went to see the sunken ship) and her friend who would soon be transshipped to the Coral with my friend Stef). Next to them is Melicia, a bartender with a really cool name that she has to Americanize on her nametag so guests will get it mostly right, Chris who I’ll tell you about in a minute, and the last guy is Alan, a 2nd engineer from Ireland, who I hear is a nice guy. You always have to take a picture where it looks like you’re having fun too.We did. On the left is Chris. He’s not only very tall, but also one of my favorite people who I can never spend enough time with. He is British and a very important engineering officer with three stripes, and on my last week, I was able to watch about 15 minutes of his “Technical at Sea” talk in the Princess Theater where I think he explained what he does and was able to put it in context for guests. In that lecture he was so funny and relatable. Technical stuff does not resonate with my brain well at all, so I was very impressed with how he was able to tell his technical story in a way that guests (and I) could understand. It’s truly a talent to be able to explain complicated things to people who possible have very little context about what you’re talking about. Chris works during the day fixing things and in the evenings he goes to the production shows. Yes, the same production shows every week. I love how much of a fan he is. Later he can be found in the crew bar where I find him to be one of the best conversationalists. During this contract I struggled with my characteristic positivity. I found that the thing most people (including myself) talked about was complaining about their job. I wanted to shift that. So I started asking people what was the best part of their day. I looked online (with our fast Medallion internet) and looked up conversation starters. Chris was the person who embraced this idea the most. When he went home for vacation, he would post something on Facebook and say “This was the best part of my day, what was yours?” Now when I notice I’m experiencing the best part of my day, I think of Chris. Here we are resting and taking a break after our big hike. On the back row from the left is a guy I don’t know, I’m blanking on the next guy’s name, but he plays guitar and sings in Crooner’s lounge and the Piazza, then there’s Neil, the singer who looks like a Ken doll, Simone who was now the very first Associate Hotel General Manager (which makes her really important), one of the dancers (if Matt were introducing her at the Voice of the Ocean, he would call her Rachel) then in front there’s me, Jill and Rebecca, a singer who I don’t know well but she just comes across as one of the kindest people in the whole world. If you’re reading this and you can remind me of the names of those two I can’t remember, please let me know and I’ll update this.
Oh boy. Ok. So we finished our little break, climbed up over the hill, and then down the stairs and over a bridge. We were given two choices: We could jump from way up high, or climb down the ladder and jump in from the bottom right by the water. There were so many people ahead (I’d fallen toward the back of the group) that we were able to have many discussions about our preferences before we actually had to make the decision. I said I wasn’t going to decide until I saw the options. Then it was clear. When would be the next time I had a chance to jump off a cliff like that? Plus, in my experience, the anticipation was way worse than the actual thing. It was still really scary. It was approximately a 30 foot drop.
It was really fun to be here with friends. Each time someone jumped, everyone else would cheer for them.
I took the plunge. I fall was longer than I thought it would be and then I was under water for longer than I thought it would be. I changed my mind! That was way scarier than the anticipation! Also the water was very cold and my feet were definitely wet by now.
After we jumped, we swam into this little nook where we climbed over a rock and then slid down it to come back. Waterfall Slide #1!
Here are the people who chose the less scary option. The water wasn’t as gross as it looks.
We swam through these caves and then periodically we came across a rock slide. Sometimes it was a big fall and sometimes it was a little one. None of them were as big of a deal as the first jump.
I think there were Seven Waterfalls that we slid down.
Here we are at the end! We made it.
And here we look happy about it!
We hiked back to the camp, got some lunch and then on the way back we sang along to the radio that played Spice Girls and other 90’s pop music. It was one of those days that turned out to be as awesome as I thought it would be.
