My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
It was February 28th. As of March 1st, masks would be recommended rather than required for guests. The Enchanted decided to start following that rule a day early.
We’d been told for months that a new cruise staff was coming, and for one reason or another, no one had shown up. Now Angela had left which meant that if no one showed up today, either I would be doing Karaoke by myself or Jayson would be working an unfairly long day. My pager went off while I was greeting people at the gangway and it was Giana! She was on the ship and found a schedule outside her locked cabin. She saw that Marcus was doing a Medallion Class Presentation, so she got ahold of me. Luckily Dan walked by at the perfect moment, so he was able to get her squared away. Giana had worked with Dan when they did the Return to Service on the Majestic earlier this year, so she was at least a little familiar with all of the new protocols. It’s crazy how things change. It was tough my first couple of years where I would fly all day the day before to join a ship, spend the night in the hotel, wake up crazy early to get to the ship and then go straight to work where it was assumed that I was the most rested because I had been on vacation. And I was only flying across the country — A few ACD’s did the same thing but they had flown halfway across the world! Then joining the Enchanted, I had seven days in a mini suite to recover from flying all night. Now Giana had left her house in Ohio at 2am, flown all day and then got on the ship at 3pm. Now we know when someone joins the ship, they shouldn’t be expected to work that day. Giana had some time to rest and then joined me for Karaoke, and after that we changed the schedule so that we wouldn’t have so many people needed to work early and late for turnaround day (and water shuttles the next morning).
My mom came out for what turned out to be my last full on Sail Away Celebration (the next cruise we ended up doing a shorter version in the piazza because of weather).
Here is my full outfit (I didn’t know my mom was taking the picture).
At 5pm we had a meet and greet with Fleet Manager, JC, where he gave us our first assignment: four pages of terms to memorize before we met with him two days later. He would be training us to better articulate the Medallion Class Experience. Princess had spent lots of money on this new technology that the guests didn’t love because the crew hadn’t been properly trained on how to talk about it. So we would learn how to talk about the features of the Medallion Class experience in a fun and interesting way, hopefully without overwhelming and confusing everyone. I asked JC to come to my Welcome Aboard Trivia because I talked about some of the Medallion Class experiences and I wanted to make sure I was doing it right. He said he’d be there. I ran over to the Crown Grill where my mom and Ron Voyage were having dinner. I had 20 minutes. I finished my mom’s appetizers, put in my order and she finished mine. I gobbled up the lobster and all my favorite sides, and then ran off to greet people outside the theater and tell them where they could find the dining rooms.
It was my first time hosting something without wearing a mask in almost three months. With JC in the corner I was hyper aware of all the mistakes I was making, but he loved it. He said he didn’t realize how funny I was, and then we figured out that this was really the first time he saw me host something when I knew what I was doing. He is very critical, so I was surprised to get such good feedback (I mean, I was asking for it). He also gave me a couple of ideas to make it even better which I am looking forward to implementing on my next ship.
On formal night, Ron sat in his other favorite seat for Rock Opera because there were Sign Language Interpreters where he had sat before.
This was very exciting for us because my sister studied to become a sign language interpreter and there is a lot of signing in the show.
St Thomas
The night before St Thomas, the training times were moved earlier so those who could would be able to have some time to get off the ship (I wasn’t one of those people, it was my turn to stay on and do the activities). After doing the last game show the night before (Yes/No) Marcus and I woke up SUPER early to film the wake show before we started training at 8am. My mom came to watch too.
That afternoon we had Parrots in Princess Live. There is a lady in St Thomas who raises parrots and she comes on the ship to talk about it. I had seen her presentation in the Piazza on the Caribbean Princess many times. She was back in a different venue (since we weren’t allowed to do a lot of things in the Piazza for Health Code reasons) here on the Enchanted.
After the show I escorted her back to the gangway. Two of them just sat on top of the cages.
After that, my mom’s team won Afternoon trivia!
I always laugh because I literally tell my mom the answers to a lot of the things I do over the phone, and then when she gets to the ship she can’t remember the answers. When people find out she’s my mom, they’ll invite her to be on their team- it’s more so that she doesn’t have to be on her own than because she knows all the answers. This time, she picked a good team.
The next day (on another port where we couldn’t get off the ship) we had a safety drill. I told my mom she could come hang out and watch.
Giana was my new Deputy Leader (formerly known as Second in Charge). We figured out that Giana was on the Sun Princess with my mom on the cruises right before the pandemic. My mom had sent me an email that there was a Junior Assistant Cruise Director from the US that couldn’t get off in South Africa because she didn’t have a Seaman’s Book (it’s like a blanket visa for crew). It was Giana! I had kept that email and applied for a Seaman’s Book as soon as I joined the Enchanted.
One of the guests requested a Disney Trivia, so for the second time this contract, I got to do my “Princess Animated Movie Trivia” for my mom. The lady who requested the trivia won, which was especially fun. It seems like more often than not, when people make special requests, we put it in the schedule for them and then they don’t even show up. It was fun that she really enjoyed it.
I get so many compliments on this dress, even though it is the most unflattering thing I wear.
We did You Be the Judge again and my mom got some good pictures.
On Island Night (the night we have the deck party), I took my mom to the guest hallways around my cabin so she could see approximately where I lived.
After several hard days of training, JC was impressed enough with our efforts that he gave us the day off in St Kitts. Once again, I had to get off the ship because it was likely to be my last chance.
We walked along the water and I ran into one of the Stage Staff who I knew when we worked together on the Golden Princess.
I went back and took a three hour, much needed, nap and then we met up with Senka when she got off work.
In the past, my mom and Ron would have liked to invite people to their suite, or they like to take their favorite crew members to dinner, but that wasn’t allowed right now. We figured out that if we got together on the pier, no one would get in trouble, so that’s what we did and we had a lovely time. I thanked Senka for sharing her time off with us and she said that she liked my family so much that she would enjoy spending time with them even if I wasn’t there. I really enjoyed that they all liked each other.
That night we had the Liar’s Club Gameshow.
If I had to choose just one thing I do to be my favorite (luckily most of what I do is my favorite) I would have to settle on Liar’s Club. There are three panelists and we have four obscure words. We tell stories and give definitions of the words and the guests try to guess who is telling the truth. I love telling absolutely ridiculous stories and then seeing the surprise when my definition is the correct one. My goal is for as few people as possible to vote that I’m telling the truth. I love telling the stories, I love weaving the stories together in a theme, and I especially love when I can adapt a story that is based on my experience to the word. On other ships Cruise Directors would change up the words so often that we wouldn’t always be given the chance to keep practicing and making the stories better and better. Sometimes the Cruise Director would be on the panel with other officers so I wasn’t part of it at all. This cruise was awesome. In the beginning we had two panels and we would alternate every other cruise. On my panel (with Jayson and Angela) we picked words together and I really liked them- I got to tell stories that were loosely based on my life with some good jokes. We did those words (with one change) my whole contract. When Jeremy went home, I got to take his place on the other panel too, so I got to do BOTH Liar’s Club’s. I loved it. With those words I asked if I could tell a personal story and then made each one my sarcastic version of a fairy tale. The guests loved that too. I loved getting comments the rest of the cruise from guests about how much they enjoyed my performance.
The next morning I was back up on the Sports Court doing Zumba
I loved it when Security would join in!
I was studying for JC in between activities- we had Arts and Crafts in the afternoon.
That night was the Captain’s Circle Party, where my mom and Ron were 3rd Most Travelled.
My first couple of years, I would be assigned to work the Captain’s Circle Parties. I would listen to the number of days the most travelled guests had and compare it to my mom’s- if she were here, would she be most travelled? It was pretty fun to see it transpire in real life. I stood by the door as people came in (as usual) but when it came time for the ceremony, I went and sat with my mom (I was told to do that, but it still felt weird).
Here we are dressed up for formal night:
The last night I do Beatles music trivia. This one is meaningful to me because I started doing it with Matt on the Caribbean Princess. This trivia was one of his babies. Back then it was a rundown trivia. On the Golden Princess, Matt was Entertainment Director so he couldn’t host it, but he let me host it with Lauren who is originally from Liverpool. I also like to host it because my mom is a huge Beatles fan. She doesn’t like much music, but she loves the Beatles. On other cruises (you know, that I’m not working) Beatles music trivia and Marriage Match would be the only onboard activities she would go to (now she goes to check out things other people do that I might be interested in). Somehow this was the first time she was seeing me host Beatles Music Trivia (last cruise and this cruise).
I also love this trivia because I don’t have to do too much to make it a success. The music itself brings back so many memories that I feel like I’m just pressing play, and so many people come up to me afterward telling me what a great activity it was. I think they just got to take some time to relive their youth a little.
And finally we have our grand finale, Hollywood Hiccups. It’s the only thing we do (besides the Sail Away Celebration) as a whole team. It’s a trivia where we act out famous movie scenes and then the guests answer trivia questions while we change costumes and sets. It is rough and silly and fun, and it’s best when we don’t really know what we’re doing. It’s the most fun thing we do together as a team.
I think Marcus must have just told a joke in this very unflattering picture.
And then, once again, the cruise was over. It was a relief that I didn’t have all of the emotions of it being my last cruise- I was exhausted. And I still had to study for the next session with JC. Next up is my last 10 days.
Sounds like you are having the time of your life! Nice Edie could join you.