My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
I knew, going into this contract, that things would be different. I was mentally prepared to give up some of the fun freedoms we enjoyed in order to be cruising again, but the reality turned out to be much harder than I expected. I think it was harder because it started out strict, lightened up for a month, and then tightened up for a much longer time than I was prepared for. I had tried to make the schedule that decides who will stay on the ship while we were in port as fair as possible, and then it didn’t really matter for a month. Jayson and I had been planning our birthdays for a while- his was on a sea day and we would both be off the next day. He wanted to go to Sabatini’s and have a fancy cocktail in the Take 5 Jazz Lounge (on deck 6). We couldn’t do any of that, so he got cake.
We spent the next day hanging out by the crew pool. There were cards and presents and as much of a surprise party that we could get away with (you know, without having a party).
By the time my birthday rolled around, we had a new Cruise Director: Marcus, from Canada.
I hadn’t met Marcus before, but I’d heard about him. During my first contract, Stephanie from the UK was my Cast Manager (the one in charge of the Production Cast). She was such a huge help to me. I adored her. She was engaged to a Cruise Director named Marcus. Now, four years later, we meet. Marcus was like a breath of fresh air (or as I used to say in high school, a fresh of breath air). I was nervous that he would take over the scheduling that I had commandeered but he let me do my thing and even asked for my help when they needed to make last minute changes. He wanted to hang out with us between events. Though there wasn’t much we could do, he made sure I would be celebrated on my birthday.
I have to admit I was worried. I was crying to my mom before my birthday because I like to take responsibility for my happiness and say I’m going to go out and have a great day, who’s with me? But I didn’t have much to work with. I could go eat in the Officer’s Mess. I hadn’t really been hanging out with the team lately. My mom offered to buy me a massage, but we didn’t have deck privileges. My low expectations led to a very satisfying day. My friends came to hang out with me by the pool, I had pizza for lunch, Paolo, the music manager, made me Brazilian coffee and we hung out with some musicians I hadn’t really hung out with before, and then that night, there were snacks and a themed not-party.
Everyone showed up and I felt celebrated.
A couple of weeks later, the numbers of covid cases finally started to go down. Crew who had disappeared came back. We had production shows again, we could serve ourselves in the mess, we could get coffee. And then, after a full month of being on board, we were let out in Bonaire.
I was so hungry for adventure. In Bonaire I rented a kayak and took it out as far as I could, turned around to come back and then went out again. I searched for more adventures and signed up to go parasailing in St Thomas. They cancelled the morning of, so I rescheduled for our next St Thomas and realized my mom would be there for that one! Instead I went to Secret Harbor beach with Paolo and set off to find more adventures.
I only found slippery rocks, but it was still a great day on the beach. My mom and Ron Voyage came on for my last 20 days, so in the next post I’ll share the pictures she took of me doing my job (and what we did ashore).