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This is a long one – just putting that out there before you get started.
September 4 to November 9, 2024
Our last day in Yokohama was so weird. We had been there every 10 days for the last four months and it blew my mind that we were not coming back. I took my mom to her meeting point and then to the bus that would take her to the airport. I then went to find Hiroshi to say goodbye. Back in the office I couldn’t help crying. Everyone assumed that I was sad my mom was going, but I would see her for Thanksgiving. Who knew if I would ever see Hiroshi again? We just really liked working together. When he asked if we could link professionally, like, after a week, I was so glad the feeling was mutual. I take responsibility for my events so I usually do the majority of the preparation to make sure it’s done the way I liked it. Hiroshi was the only one that I trusted to prepare as well, if not better, than me. Hiroshi just made everything easier and more fun. I could relax because I could trust that he would pick up the ball and play. His absence was noticeable. So that was a hard goodbye, which is all part of the lifestyle.
Luckily I still had Andi!
Suddenly we were on a different ship. There was no more Japanese programing. Everything was in English. Getting used to the announcements only being in English was as difficult as learning to wait for the Japanese interpretation had been in the first place. It was so disorienting. Though I had spent most of my career with English speaking guests, and lately with Australians in particular, it was an adjustment to go back.
My lounge was PACKED for trivia once again.
The poor boys had to learn how to deal with the Aussies en masse. It was a lot for me and I had navigated this before!
Osaka, Japan
Joseph Latham, who I had worked with on the Coral Princess, had taken a new job at a theme park in China. When I told him that I would be on the Diamond Princess, he said he would come visit me. It finally happened on our last Japanese port. Joseph had lived in Osaka so he knew his way around. He had a long weekend so he flew over for a couple of days to see friends and see me while I was there. This was the only time we stopped in Osaka.
Mikiko had finished her role as Cruise Director, but she stayed on as a guest for an extra week. Joseph had worked with Mikiko when he had worked on the Diamond before the pandemic. They were excited to see each other.
On the Coral, Joseph managed to weave an anecdote about Japan into absolutely every conversation. Oh yes, we made fun of him (though I may have become this person now). He loves Japan and Japanese culture. He speaks Japanese fluently and Mikiko said his Japanese is excellent. When he was Cruise Staff on the Diamond, he would check everyone’s spelling and grammar not only in English but also in Japanese. We were heading in similar directions so Mikiko and Joseph caught up with each other’s lives in Japanese as we traveled by subway to – I had no idea where we were or where we were going.
We walked around the city and then stopped at Joseph’s favorite ramen place.
This conversation today was enthralling. I had spent the last four months being the only member of the team who did not speak Japanese. They included me but I was still an outsider. It was so cool to be able to talk to Joseph and compare our different experiences on the Diamond Princess. When Joseph had been on the Diamond, the same team had been working together season after season for years. They were like a family. Joseph is a Brit, but he could speak Japanese with them and he passionately studied the culture and how it came to be. My team didn’t really all hang out together as much as other teams I’ve worked with. Everyone kind of did their own thing and I tried to hang out with each of them outside on port days (with an occasional night in the Izumi Japanese Spa after hours). I had asked my Japanese teammates so many questions about Japanese culture, but Joseph was able to explain things from both a western point of view and from his perspective of learning about Japanese culture. He got what I didn’t understand (and knew how to explain it to me) better than my Japanese friends did because they were in the middle of it. Joseph was able to fill in so many gaps about things I had wondered about. The Japanese are so polite culturally that they couldn’t be as brutally honest and direct. Joseph wasn’t at all concerned about offending me. He could tell me what they were probably really thinking when I was suspecting that they were just being nice.
It was so thrilling to be able to talk to someone who had had a similar experience being one of the few westerners and navigating between the different cultures.
Manilla, Philippines
I was so excited to be able to get off the ship in the Philippines. We have so many Filipino crew on Princess that it felt like an honor to be able to see the place where they are from. I mean, I knew it would just be a taste because we were just there for the day but when we had these single stops in so many countries I had never been to before, I felt so lucky get so many good ports off (for those of you who are just joining us, I was part of the crew, which means we had IPM, which stands for In Port Manning – for the ship this means we have a minimum number of crew who stay onboard in the event we have an emergency to direct everyone off the ship. For the Entertainment team, this means that whoever is IPM, since you have to stay onboard for emergency duties, you can do the activities for the guests who stay onboard. So while we’re in port, even though we want to get off the ship and don’t understand why all of the guests aren’t getting off the ship, which is what we would do, some of us are designated to stay onboard for safety. And Entertainment. Everyone else who is IPM just takes naps, sunbathes and does laundry. I’m pretty sure). I asked the Filipinos what they recommended doing in Manilla, and they all said they would be going to the mall. Well, Okay!
This was convenient because the Americans onboard were very upset that we did not have a pickleball net on the ship. Pickleball is not a thing that people do in Japan, so we had been trying to find a net for months, but Japan did not have any Pickleball nets. We looked. Everywhere. We searched every store that had anything sporty. So Andi had promised the guests that we would go out in Manila and find a pickleball net. Cherry, my favorite Learning and Development Manager (she does the crew trainings and goes above and beyond to make these scripted trainings engaging) told us which store would have a pickleball net and her favorite restaurant in the mall. She was so excited to go home. Her husband had made special arrangements to come meet her at the mall with their son. She was so excited to get to spend the day with them in the middle of her long contract. She was going to the mall and eating traditional Filipino food. So that’s what I wanted to do.
Andi and I took the ship’s shuttle bus to the mall.
This mall did not mess around. It was massive. And they were ready for Christmas. In September.
I usually love using GoogleMaps (I think this is one word and I am not going to find out if it isn’t) in places I’ve never been before. Cherry had given me the name of the sports store, and the name of her favorite restaurant. But this mall had like six stories. GoogleMaps did not know how to tell us where to go. We managed to find the sports store and they had a pickleball net! Andi was elated. And so relieved. These guests had been asking about this net for days (not normal-length days – those kind of days that felt like 3 days, especially when I am met with Devil-eyes for not caring about Pickleball).
We tried to find the restaurant that Cherry had recommended, but it alluded us. GoogleMaps told us we were there, but we couldn’t find it. We asked a bunch of people, and were about to give up, until finally the fifth person we asked told us it was on the fourth floor. I really wanted to eat authentic Filipino food. In the Philippines- even if it was at a mall.
As usual, we ordered way too much food and then ate all of it. It was delicious and Andi conceded, once again, that he was glad we had gone to the authentic place instead of eating at Burger King (which we watched some guests do from the window and then made fun of them later.
Back on the ship
The whole team is togeth — oh wait. It’s not. The whole team being together happens so rarely that I love taking a picture to capture the moment. Who is missing? ME! Andi clearly took this picture so I don’t know where I was. Or how I got this picture.
With the end of the Japanese season, the team was turning over. Carlos, who had replaced Hiroshi, had been on the Diamond before, and he had been Lei’s roommate on their last ship (which was not the Diamond). They were good friends. Lei (pronounced lay) had just had a baby (well, his wife did most of it) so he would video chat with them (his wife and baby) while we had lunch (with the time difference it’s hard to find a time to call). Lei had been working mostly in Asia and this was only his second contract with so many English speaking guests. He just had the best attitude and was so funny. My favorite story that he told was when he had taught a line dance class. It was Country Western night and part of the story involves riding a horse. Well Lei had learned that in English, most plural words end with an “S” so the word horse must be plural. So if there was just one, it would be a Hore. So he was talking about riding his big hore, and he could tell that the guests were not laughing at the joke he was telling. A guest suggested that he use the word pony instead. No! he said- ponies are small and this cowboy was riding a big animal – a Big Hore. Later the guest explained what word he was saying and Lei was so embarrassed. I thought this was hilarious. I have so much appreciation for anyone who learns another language. Lei sometimes needed some extra time and attention for communication, so I would slow down when talking to him to make sure he was able to understand. He was such a team player and was such a positive person that the patience required to take that extra time was effortless. Another one of my favorite moments with Lei was when he was going outside at the same time that Andi and I were leaving the ship in Taiwan. In the terminal there was a picture of things that were forbidden to take ashore and one of those things was a flower lei (like they have in Hawaii)- Lei pointed it out and told us that he was not allowed to go ashore in Taiwan. He cracked me up.
Lauren, my favorite Entertainment Director ever, finished her contract (after extending and extending) in Hong Kong (I went to Disneyland and wrote about it in a separate post), and we were left without an Entertainment Director until Kelvin arrived when we got to Australia. Which was something like 10 days or two weeks (time is different on ships). Andi was excited to step up as Entertainment Director for a bit because he was thinking about applying for the role. I warned him – It was hard. I had been trans-shipped (from places I wanted to go to places I did not want to return to) to support Cruise Directors who were being left unsupported. Every Cruise Director I had worked with before in this scenario had not been worried about it, and ultimately ended up being a crazy person because one person cannot do the work of two people who each usually work 14 hour days. I was just grateful it was Andi, because I liked him so much more than the other Cruise Directors I had been through this with. But I was much more apprehensive than he was.
So, obviously, when Lauren left, I quickly burned myself out trying to support Andi while he tried to do two people’s jobs at the same time. In the afternoons Andi would take a nap while I double checked the schedule to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be, make sure everything could be covered, and make sure that the events in the schedule were events that people on the ship knew how to do. Andi would tell me to rest and take care of myself but I refused because I didn’t want to be the one stuck making up an event because no one looked ahead and changed it to something we knew how to do before the schedule was locked to be printed. I justified prioritizing what needed to be done before taking care of myself because I thought I was taking care of my future self. Unfortunately, there was simply too much work and I was chasing something elusive. As I burned myself into the ground I started falling apart (and getting irritable and grumpy) and Andi kicked me out of the office – forcing me to NOT WORK and REST. This made me even angrier – I was so mad that he wouldn’t let me find the problems before they became problems because I was sure that no one else was looking for them and the consequences would fall on me. There wasn’t enough time. I argued that I couldn’t rest until I’d ensured a smoother path for my (and everyone else’s) future (which was honestly the next three days, even though there were always three more days to look at). Andi tried to tell me that if I didn’t take care of myself, he was much worse off without me (and to be fair, he wasn’t as well off with a burned out Kelly, but I couldn’t see that from the middle of the storm). Andi saw himself, and me, as more important than the perfection I was seeking. If everything fell apart, we would get through it. We would improvise. Nobody died. Seriously? He was so much more forgiving than I was of myself.
But we did get through it. And Kelvin (who I knew from the Golden and the Coral and Andi knew from the Coral but not when I was there) arrived. From the other side (this being the end of my contract), I admitted to Andi that he was right and he’d taught me a lesson. I’m never going to get it done. I should have taken all the naps so that I could have been a better me when I was doing what I had been hired to do. I need to prioritize myself and my health because no one else is going to do that (except Andi, and he’s not always going to be my boss, unfortunately) so that I can be my best when I work. If I always put the work first, I’m probably not going to get around to taking care of myself and the work that I love will probably suffer. It was a big lesson (that I still forget to practice sometimes) and I will forever be grateful to Andi for caring about me enough to force me to see it.
I know that crossings are difficult, but the trap I always fall into is thinking that they will end. I always assume that when we get there and the guests who are on forever get off the ship we will be able to breathe again. We went from a crossing into a 7-day nightmare cruise into a 14-day New Zealand run with 4 sea days on each side. So I didn’t really get to sleep until we had a few ports in a row in New Zealand. So it sucks when I think the crossing is over and I’ll be able to get some rest and then it doesn’t get any easier until the time of the crossing is doubled. And then this happened:
Second Round as Cruise Director
I had three weeks left of my contract- one week in Southern Australia and then two weeks in New Zealand. Masahiro was being trans-shipped to the Coral Princess and Kosuke had finished his contract. We had one week before their replacements came. I had gone over the schedule meticulously to make sure we could do everything with just four cruise staff – one of whom was a DJ who was up late every night in the night club and couldn’t work in the mornings. We had a busy week with two turnaround days (where two of us would need to be up early for disembarks, which meant we would have to stand down early the night before and that night) two water shuttle ports (where two of us would have to be up early to hand out tickets, which meant we would have to stand down early the night before and that night, and the third person would have to do the activities in the evening with the DJ as well as the activities in the morning while the other two were handing out tickets) and two sea days (where everyone worked). It would just barely work. On the first turnaround day, Carols and I did disembarks so we were the early ones. There was a highly contagious gastro intestinal thing going around, so out of an abundance of caution, the whole crew did a massive sanitization of the ship. Carlos showed up to sanitize saying he didn’t feel well, so Andi sent him to bed because we would need him later. A couple of hours later he was signed off medically (this doesn’t mean he left the ship – just that he was isolated in his cabin and was not allowed to work until the medical center deemed him fit for duty). So we were down to me, Lei and DJ Hammer. There was one point when someone was looking for Carlos to check guests into their muster stations (for Embarkation Day), and as I greeted guests on the gangway with Lei, I explained that Carlos was signed off, but – don’t worry- DJ Hammer would be filling in for him, but he needed to finish his DJ set in the Piazza first, which would finish in 10 minutes. I pointed at Lei standing next to me and DJ Hammer one deck down mixing the tunes and explained – this is our whole team right now. Every day we made two schedules: one for if Carlos was released, and the backup plan if he wasn’t. We managed to get through three days before Carlos was released, with a tight schedule now even tighter. After waking up early for disembarks for the second time that week (you know, we usually try to spread that around when we are fully staffed), while Carlos had been back at work for only a few hours, Andi came into the office and said, “The good news is, nothing has happened yet, but the bad news is I’m not feeling so good. Be ready.” If he went down, I would be the one to step in for him. Both of us were hoping that Andi would just burp and be fine, but it could also go the other way or, you know, the other way, or in this case, both ways, if you know what I mean… I still hadn’t heard from Andi when it was time for me to do the 6:30pm music trivia, so I showed up, put out the papers and pencils, put my powerpoint slide on the screen and placed my pager right next to my laptop which played the music for the Diva’s music trivia (which I loved hosting). Sure enough, it went off at about 7pm (still in the middle of the trivia), so I casually asked the production manager, over the microphone, to call the number on my pager and continued. A few moments later, the production manager ran up front to give me the message that I had been anticipating. I told him to page the rest of the team- I needed someone to get to the Explorer’s Lounge now to do my next trivia so that I could run to the Princess Theater to host the show. After a few missed calls and trial and error, DJ Hammer showed up. I pointed to the power point, gave him minimal instruction to run the event and dashed to the theater. I ran by Kelvin, the Entertainment Director, on my way to the area backstage and introduced myself to the Guest Entertainer. I tried to call Andi, but he didn’t answer (I later found out he was still in the Medical Center). What do I say? There were about 800 guests who had just joined that day in Adelaide. Was this a Welcome Aboard Show? Should I address the fact that I wasn’t the Cruise Director who normally hosted the theater? I was so glad that I had done this before. Because this was a last minute change, I introduced myself (usually there is a pre-recorded introduction). The lights went down and in a low voice, I said, off-stage, “Welcome to the Princess Theater, now please welcome your host, Kelly!” the band started playing and I walked out. Then I don’t know what I said, but I at least had the correct name of the Guest Entertainer. So that was good. The show started and I ran to my cabin at the back of the ship to put together questions for Majority Rules, which I would now be hosting between the shows. I dropped off the stuff for Majority Rules in the Explorers Lounge, ran to the theater, took off the show, ran back to Explorers Lounge, hosted Majority Rules for the first time solo (Joseph and I had co-hosted it for crew before we had guests on the Coral Princess), stole half of Andi’s jokes and then ran back to the theater for the second show. During the second show I went to the office to redo the schedule for the next day, which, thank goodness, was a port day. Luckily I wasn’t IPM (yep – I was supposed to have some time off), so I could step into Andi’s schedule and film the wake show for the day after that, the next day and figure out a game plan.
I just realized that last paragraph was one very long paragraph, but it was that kind of week – every time I thought there would be a chance to catch my breath, another shoe would drop.
Andi had told me the wake show was scheduled to film at 9am so I was up, showered, dressed – like with hair and makeup (which is not what usually happens as an ASSISTANT Cruise Director), and a couple of minutes late (I mean, real Cruise Directors are always running late…) only to figure out that it wasn’t scheduled to film until 3pm (which was great because I did not have enough time to prepare what I wanted to say as much as I wanted to)- which was the same time that I was scheduled to do Andi’s trivia. I called Carlos in and asked him to cover Andi’s trivia so I could film the wake show as well as could he also do my trivia after that so I could get dressed in formal for the the first Captain’s Circle Party. I spent the day in the office figuring out what I was going to say on the wake show and now looking at the schedule to see how it would work without Andi. There’s a chance I ate lunch.
That evening started early (before 3pm). I had looked at the schedule and couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to host the shows and the Captain’s Circle Parties at the same time. Wasn’t this when Andi would have me host the Captain’s Circle Party? I asked Kelvin what I should do, hoping he would host the Captain’s Circle party for me – surely that would be appropriate for an Entertainment Director who was an ex-Cruise Director and who was going to be at the party anyway to introduce the Captain’s Circle Host, but he said, nope! You can do it! Just put on the show, run to the back of the ship and that will be the perfect time to introduce the party! Great. So that’s what I did. I went backstage to meet Sean O’Shea but the guest Entertainer from the night before was there instead. What alternate universe had I walked into?! It turned out that they (the two Guest Entertainers) were buddies and the guy from the night before (I knew his name 6 months ago when this actually happened, but I can’t remember it now that I finally have time to write about it) was going to play a song with Sean O’Shea and that’s why he was backstage. Okay. Cool. (this actually was really cool and Andi was so upset he didn’t get to see it, but I didn’t really have time to acknowledge how cool this was) The shows were closer together because that night was the Back to the 80’s Deck party! Which, because of adverse weather, was being relocated to the Grand Plaza. Of course! So obviously for the first show I neglected to mention (on purpose) where the party would be held because by the second show it had been decided that it would be relocated (See? I learned things! Last time I said there would be a deck party at the first show and by the second show it had been moved). Because that was what had happened the last time I was a Cruise Director! So we did the party in the Grand Plaza and it was great cause it was built that way.
So a couple thousand people knew that Andi was the Cruise Director and I wasn’t and they weren’t too concerned about where he was, and then there were the 800 people who joined in Adelaide who wouldn’t get a proper hello until turnaround day in Melbourne. And they didn’t know who Andi was and I didn’t necessarily say who I was. And I was taking this about a half day at a time with two plans: one with Andi and one without Andi.
After watching the Cruise Director for years trying to figure out if I would love it or if I would hate it and miss my old job, I have to say what I was doing as the Cruise Director was easier than it looked. I don’t mean that I was a natural – I’m sure half the people were saying I was better than any Cruise Director they had seen and the other half were saying that I had no idea what I was doing and I shouldn’t be up there. The thing was – I agreed with both of these opinions. But I didn’t hate it. Honestly, filling in for Andi wasn’t as difficult as trying to delegate the things I couldn’t do because I was being Andi. I think I’d really like being a Cruise Director if I had a Kelly or a Hiroshi or all of the other amazing Assistant Cruise Directors who I’ve worked with who have made me feel like I could share the weight of the world that I insist on taking on my shoulders. I’ll tell you this – I have a lot to learn when it comes to being the host for four to six thousand guests, because I haven’t really done that. But when it comes to being that person’s assistant, I’m pretty awesome, and I really missed having a me.
So there was a chance that Andi might be signed back on for the next day, but he wasn’t. I had gotten through the day where I was supposed to supposedly get some rest, but instead I was the Cruise Director (ahem) again. But the day after that I was IPM. And we had a drill. So I would have to be me as much as I could and be Andi, and I would have to delegate when I couldn’t be both. I would tell someone how to do what I did for Marriage Match and everything else…. but, … hold on.
Shit. I was going to have to host Marriage Match.
I would like to point out that this is the first time I’ve used a swear word in this blog. And I’m using it. Because I really did not want to host Marriage Match.
I do not love Marriage Match. My mom loves it, but I have sat through it so many times that I find it kinda boring and repetitive. I don’t really do relationships, so if people want to fall in love that’s great, but their dirty stories all start to sound the same after a while. I always felt so much pressure to find good, funny guests who were entertaining and not too drunk. In the US market I could stereotype people and pick good ones. I was pretty good with Aussies as well. The gameshow, for me, was about trying to select the funniest people based on a very short interview. Then I would cross my fingers and hand it over to the host. Andi blew me away when I saw him host Marriage Match. He consistently made it a great show regardless of how funny the guests were (which removed a lot of pressure that I was putting on myself). How did he do this? I asked him and he just said he loved the gossip. This fascinated me while I simultaneously dreaded hosting Marriage Match. I think my issue is that I don’t know how to be as a host for this particular gameshow. I stay away from sexy as a host which makes talking about sex on stage awkward. Women are judged differently from men, especially as THE host of a ship. I’ve got the assistant-thing down pretty good, but I’m obviously still growing into the bigger role. I had hosted Marriage Match once on Enchanted, with Marcus (the Cruise Director) at the podium, which made me feel so much safer. It was fine. I got through it. And did not even want to think about how I would do it better. This time I would be hosting with Lei, who struggled to understand any English, much less Australians. I was dreading it (because of me, not because of Lei).
So we did the drill and I did the activities I could and had to delegate some stuff to film the wake show. That night was Bravo, a production show I hadn’t hosted before. I asked the Cast Manager to send me a video of what I was supposed to do – I had to say something like “The cast and company of Bravo!” at a certain time and then walk out. Chris, the Music Manager, was playing the drums toward the back of the stage so he could nod at me when I was supposed to do something. I definitely did not do it the right way either time. It’s okay. Nobody died. And we can laugh about it.
And I hosted Marriage Match. Ugh. I really hate not doing things well. I was adequate. I asked the questions. I tried to look like I was having a good time and I tried to listen and respond and be in the moment. I think most of the guests who would enjoy anything that happened did enjoy it. The next week when the comments came in, one guest said that I was terrible. I mean, I agreed with him. So I was glad that only one person cared enough about how bad I was that they felt like they had to say something.
And the best part was that Andi was still not coming back the next day! Which was a Sea Day! I only cried a little bit. Actually I was crying the whole time. I was so tired. I really wanted to enjoy this opportunity so I was trying to focus as much attention as I could on that.
Okay. How do we do a Sea Day under-staffed and it’s too late to change the program?
In the morning I was hosting Zumba and then I would shower before hosting the Officer’s Vs. Guests event at 11. Andi was supposed to Introduce the Culinary Demonstration at 10 and then host the Kendama (a traditional Japanese toy) challenge at 10:15. Everyone else was busy. I asked Kelvin for advice – I could ask a dancer to do dance fitness and then I could do Andi’s stuff? No, you don’t have to do that! said Kelvin – He would do the Culinary Demonstration so I could do Zumba. So I would have 15 minutes to shower and change in order to be on time (which is 15 minutes early) for the Kendama challenge. And what was I supposed to wear? Was I dressing as me or as the Cruise Director? I wore my uniform in the morning because I didn’t have time to dress nice enough to be a Cruise Director yet.
I had some trivia or something and the True or Moo Gameshow at 2pm and the Wake Show at 3pm, which I would have to be dressed like a Cruise Director for. We were also filming for the first day of the next cruise, so it would be much better if Andi hosted it because he would be the Cruise Director again by then. There was a rumor that Andi would be back.
If he wasn’t, we had a show in the theater, a comedian in Explorers at alternate hours and the International Culinary Parade, which I usually hosted and I would just have to run back and forth to take the shows on and off and they would just have to wait for me.
And then it happened just in time. Andi came back. He hosted the Wake show. All I had to do that night was the International Culinary Parade.
I asked for a full day off in Tauranga (my favorite port in New Zealand) the next week (of which I ended up spending more than 16 hours sleeping).
When we arrived in Melbourne we had two new Cruise Staff.
The last two weeks we had enough people to do everything. Including Halloween. I could breathe. And go outside.
I still love him.
Fiordland New Zealand
On the Golden Princess, we didn’t often end up making it into Fiordland National Park for scenic cruising so I always set my expectations low. But we made it in on Friday, March 13, 2020. The same day the world shut down. So I found it fitting that we also made it in when it was November 5, 2024 in the US. That’s all I’ll say.
And then my contract was over. I didn’t know then that this would be my last contract with Princess (oh, don’t worry- you’ll get the story later). I loved the Diamond Princess. I loved that my cabin was between the officer’s mess and the wardi, and right below Club Fusion and 3 minutes from the Explorer’s lounge. I got to develop my Liar’s Club routines. I got to do my crazy rules for music trivia. I got to meet Lauren (well, I’d met her before but, you know) and Hiroshi and Ksenia and Kotoha and Dave and Lexi and (oh my gosh I’m not going to be able to name everyone and I’m sorry if I left you out but I’m so glad we were able to meet) and reunite with Andi who I loved even more this time around. I got to feel SO out of my element and thrilled to be on what really felt like the other side of the world in Japan. I really loved getting to soak in this unique culture. I am now one of those people who compares every experience with what it is like in Japan. Like what I used to do with Italy. Guests who knew me from the Golden recognized me five years later and returning to Australia felt like a reunion where I got to see so many of my friends again.
After getting to step up as Cruise Director twice, I went home to apply for the role. But first, my flight wasn’t until midnight so I still had a full day with Randi the Red in Melbourne….