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Oh boy, what a doozy! I didn’t know how easy I had it on the Enchanted Princess! I remember the test cruise on the Enchanted as being so much more exhausting than I ever could have imagined. On the Coral, our test cruise would be less than 48 hours- they would embark, we would go to sea for a day and then we would come back to Brisbane. On Enchanted we had a nice dressing room behind Princess Live where we did most of our events. We had enough room to keep everything we needed (pencils, papers, prizes, props) in there, so the Test Cruise was a matter of remembering how to do our jobs again. On the Coral, we had activities in three venues and we kept the things we needed (pencils, papers, prizes, props) in a locker that had one key that we shared with the team. Late the first night of the test cruise, there was a blackout on the ship. I slept through it, and the power came back on, but the next day everything technical needed to be reset. Now, not only did I need to figure out how to get what I needed from the locker ahead of time for each of my events, I had to bring three backup plans to each event in case the projector, the laptop or whatever else I might need might not work. It was nuts! Luckily I’d been hosting for my previous contract, but figuring out the logistics was the challenge this time. It was like a nightmare where everything goes wrong, except I was awake. Our stage staff were superheroes though. They wedged in time to troubleshoot as much as they could. The test guests were all employees of Princess and Carnival who worked in Australia and their families so they went along with the technical difficulties with good attitudes as we worked out more kinks than we ever thought we would need to.
Oh! This is Kevin- our new Cruise Director from Canada:
Between the test cruise and the first real cruise, we had a day to reset and sleep before we welcomed our first guests. On Enchanted we were up close in the middle of the action for the ceremony. The Coral’s Piazza is much smaller, so we smiled and waved from Deck 8 this time.
Our first guests will be sailing on the Coral Princess longer than any of us- they booked consecutive cruises for the next two years! I’d never heard of anyone cruising for that long!
And then the Craziness ensues. I didn’t know how good I had it on Enchanted with ten day cruising- each cruise we had five or six ports to recover from the two or three Sea Days. On Coral our first cruises had Turnaround Day, two Sea Days then another Turnaround Day or Turnaround, Sea Day, Water Shuttle port, Sea Day, Turnaround Day. All the hardest days stacked up together! When we finally got to seven day cruising, we only had one long day where we docked at the port a week– those are the only times when we can lighten up the schedule of events and take a breath (for whoever isn’t covering the activities that day). Meanwhile, Kevin was trying to keep the entertainment fresh and varied, so instead of using the specialized trivia and gameshows that we had prepared and practiced over the years, we were putting together all sorts of new ones that we hadn’t done before. There was a point when it seemed like we had been in service well over a month- I should probably tip my room steward again. I looked at the calendar and it had been ten days.
Finally we had our first long port day, docked (rather than anchored with water shuttles). The night before Kevin called and said there was an extra ticket to swim in the Great Barrier Reef if I wanted it. How could I turn that down? I would have to rush from Zumba to the Explorers lounge the next day to catch my tour. I was so excited. The weather was cloudy and grey (after all, it’s winter in Australia) and it started to rain as we walked to the catamaran that would take us to the reef. When I connected to the wifi on the boat I had 27 unread messages. Jack (one of our Juniors) had tested positive for covid and because of the rules set for us by the Australian government, he and William (his roommate and thus his close contact, and our other Junior) would be isolated for the next seven or eight days. Our team of four would now be a team of two. This meant that I would return from my tour at 6:15pm having swam in the ocean, and then, starting at 7pm I would be hosting all of the activities in the Universe Lounge. The first activity was a game show that I hadn’t seen and didn’t know what it was, it was built to be a full team gameshow, but I would be doing it all on my own. Joseph was onboard so he could prepare everything for me.
The boat rolled over the waves for a couple of hours and I regretted not having taken any motion sickness medicine. We were able to sign up for private snorkel tours with a marine biologist, and my group was first. We donned our wet suits and followed our guide against the current, navigating the salty waves splashing in our faces. She brought up a sea cucumber from the bottom and let us stroke it. It was like a giant live eggplant. She pointed out some shells at the bottom, but with the grey clouds, the visibility wasn’t great. After about 20 minutes, another escort (who I knew from my muster station) and I decided to go back to the boat for lunch. I’d seen the reef! I was trying to relax and enjoy myself without worrying about my night ahead. There was nothing I could do to prepare from that boat. I hope I’ll get to see it again sometime with nicer weather.
That night (with lots of support from Joseph’s preparation) went off well. We ended up staying at the port overnight, and so many guests came back onboard to enjoy the entertainment where they’d already paid for food and drinks. On Enchanted I hosted four events in a row during the Super Bowl- everyone else was upstairs. Now it was happening more and more often. Joseph was the DJ, so I did the morning activities. I didn’t manage to get off the ship again until William came out of quarantine a week later. The guests were really fun though. There were holidays in Brisbane so the crowd was much younger- we were actually able to do 90’s music trivia!
Finally Jack and William came out of isolation and for a couple of days I actually had time to put together the events I hadn’t done before (ever or on this ship) before I was doing it in front of guests.
Then my mom and Ron Voyage joined the ship! They’re on for 26 days. My mom is recovering from a broken leg, so she’s in a wheelchair (although she’s increasing her mobility on crutches day by day). When she missed a step in Mexico a couple of months ago we were afraid that this trip may not happen, but I’m very fortunate that she still came all the way across the world to see me, and that Ron is being such a trooper helping her.
With the covid restrictions, I can only hang out with her in public areas where I don’t remove my mask, so Ron brings her to my events and then I can hang out with her in between hosting events. It’s really nice that she’s on for such a long time. Those little bits of time make such a difference for my spirit.
Well the day after my mom arrived, William tested positive. We shuffled the schedule to cover his events and I became the DJ for the cruise. Luckily, the party people had all disembarked on the previous cruise, so my DJ shifts were much shorter. I was able to get off in Sydney- which is significant enough to tell you about in my next blog post. Then, five days after my mom arrived, I started getting symptoms and I tested positive for covid. The story of the isolation that allows me to tell you these stories, I will also save for a future post. See you soon!