Joining MSC Preziosa

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My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my new employer.

December 2024

After the airline lost my luggage (you can guess where this story is going) when I was trans-shipped from the Caribbean to the Coral Princess in Australia, I pack just a little more carefully. I have learned not to put the power cords that charge all of my electronics in my checked bag (since that was the one that was lost for 3 days). I packed by splitting my outfits between my two cases – one formal gown in each, a blazer in each – everything I had two of I split up in case one of my suitcases didn’t make it. My flight was a bit complicated at the start – I flew United from Sacramento (yeah – MSC flew me out of Sacramento, whereas Princess deemed this impossible and insisted that I could only fly out of San Francisco. Points for MSC) to Chicago and from Chicago to Munich. Then I flew Lufthansa from Munich to Hamburg, where I would transfer directly to the ship which left the same day. On my booking all of the flights were linked, but when I tried to select my seats, on the United website I could only select seats for my first two flights. On the Lufthansa website, I could reserve my seat for the final flight but it directed me to United to check in and access information about my bags. So that was my first red flag.

When I checked in for my flight in Sacramento my bags were tagged to Munich. That was my second red flag. I asked what was up with that since I was flying to Hamburg and the guy at the desk told me not to worry about it- everything would be sorted out at the other end. Many years ago I had changed planes somewhere in Spain and had to collect my checked bags and re-check them in between flights, so I concluded this was a similar European situation (although not so unusual – when I returned, I had to collect my bags in Seattle, as the first port of entry, and recheck them before continuing on to Sacramento) and I dismissed the problem and went to find my gate. By the time I landed in Chicago I was nervous. I called my mom and Ron Voyage to figure out if I should be worried. My layover was less than an hour so all I could do was find a United agent who told me they couldn’t do anything but I should find a Lufthansa agent in Munich. When I landed in Munich I rushed to the customer service desk and explained that my bags were tagged to Munich but I was going to Hamburg, and I would need my bags when I got there. What do I need to do? The guy tapped away on his computer keyboard and reassured me that my reservation had been updated and my bags would be re-tagged to Hamburg. Great. I was still skeptical that everything was going to work out, but I had done everything I could think of to do.

I landed in Hamburg with a text message that my bags had missed my flight. Of course.

Well I guess that was better than waiting at the carousel for bags that were not coming. I went directly to the lost luggage counter to make a claim and told my contact at MSC what had happened. I gave them the tracking numbers, described my bags and took a taxi to the ship. With just my backpack and my rolely bag. Which was, ironically, all the luggage I had when I traveled carryon-only for a few months in Europe, but now I felt like those bags carried nothing!

I checked in for the cruise with no problems and tried to contact the Cruise Director to let them know that I had joined the ship. Now what was I supposed to do?

My friend Niki who had told me about the job told me that there were social media influencers onboard so I should make sure to show my best self. I told her I had no luggage. So…

I went to my balcony cabin and made arrangements to meet someone around 6pm in the Atrium. I saw a weird British guy looking around and figured out he was looking for me. He took me to an office where a very tall Italian Goddess looked me up and down and reassured me that she had some clothes I could borrow. I was somewhat relieved. Most of the cruise staff I’ve worked with are super skinny (including the boys in Japan) and it’s difficult for me to find costumes on the ship that fit me, much less other people’s clothes that I can wear. We sat down and made sure that Guest Services was in contact with the Port Agent and everyone was looking for my luggage. They had found my bags and they were being sent to Hamburg. My bags would arrive around 7pm which was the time the ship was meant to depart. A lady at the airport had given me hope that if I was on a cruise ship they could probably get my bags to me in the next port (or a port sometime this week). Declan (the British guy), empathized with my situation because he had lost a case once, and then spent the next entire cruise with his bag chasing him from port to port. Well shoot (not the word I would have preferred to use).

So here I was – new job for me, new cruise line for me, relatively new position for the company, and my only option was to dress like I had just spent the last 24 hours flying across the world on a plane. There was a piece of me that was relieved – what were they going to do? No one knew what I was supposed to be doing (including me). No one had been doing my job on this ship before I got there. So how about I just walk around in my jeans and sneakers and figure things out until my luggage arrives? I mean, if they want me to represent the company, I should have the things I need in order to do that, right? Like not look like a hot mess?

Well, unfortunately, a ship is a community. Giada (the Italian Goddess) ‘borrowed me’ (I am so delighted by the words that people use when English is not their first language. I hope to be someone who speaks other languages someday) her clothes that were more professional than my travel clothes. They got me the little pack of stuff you get when your luggage doesn’t arrive. Luckily I had been smart enough to put all of the underwear I was bringing in my carryon so at least I had that. And my jewelry (not sure why I made this decision). So I had sneakers, jeans, two new MSC T-shirts, jewelry and the power cords for all of my electronics. I was so glad I didn’t have to dance at the Sail Away Celebration and host karaoke which is probably what I would have been doing as Cruise Staff at Princess.

The next day Declan showed me around the ship in my borrowed clothes, so I could listen to his answers when guests asked him questions for which I didn’t yet know the answers. Also, that night was Gala Night. Great. I borrowed a dress (that I wanted to keep) and some shoes (that were just slightly too small and I never wanted to wear again) from Nicole, the Cruise Staff Manager (from Namibia). For some reason my swim suit was in my carryon (one should always be prepared for a hot tub or swimming pool when traveling even when you are not stopping at a hotel on the way) so I wore that as a strapless bra. I braided my hair and wore the jewelry that happened to be in my suitcase. I still felt like I had just stepped off of a plane. I asked if there was a shop on the ship that sold makeup – on Princess they do makeovers sometimes and I thought maybe, for formal night, someone could do my face since they wanted me to WALK ON STAGE and smile in front of over 1000 people when they introduced all of the officers, International Hosts and me. When we had walked around the ship earlier there had been a guy near the shops with a ponytail. Declan told me to go see this guy with a ponytail and he would take care of me. I wasn’t really sure what this meant, but I got dressed, went down and found him.

Hi, I work on the ship, but I lost my luggage and it’s formal night and I have to go on stage and is there somewhere I can use some makeup or get a makeover or something? I felt like a wet squirrel. He was very pretty and Turkish, but I was in distress. He charmingly (bleh) said he didn’t have makeup but he could make my skin look better than having makeup. Ok. Fine (you know that I am not trying to belittle his efforts – I am recognizing that he is being dashing but I did not have the capacity to do anything with this acknowledgement). So he gave me some very expensive-seeming facial that involved gold and putting black stuff on my face and taking it off with a magnet. I told him I probably wasn’t going to buy any of this stuff because it seemed way out of my price range. Because I hadn’t gotten paid yet. Because I just arrived yesterday. He was apparently okay with that. I don’t know what we talked about. After the facial, apparently my face was glowing like whatever makeup was supposed to do. I thanked him and walked off trying to figure out where I was supposed to go. He called after me and asked how he could find me again. I told him I don’t know – I don’t have WIFI or cell service and the people I work with barely have a way to find me if they need me. So I told him to ask Declan. Declan could figure out how to find me.

I went to the theater and everyone was very impressed with my miracle makeover. I mean, I kind of was too. I looked almost as good as when I have all of my own stuff.

So that was my first two days and the rest of the week at least had port days where most of the guests left the ship (I love it here). I got a name tag that I only wore when I was standing next to someone who could knew the answers to questions people might ask me as if I worked there.

Niki (the original MSC US Ambassador who brought me into this job) was impressed that I had a balcony cabin and requested pictures from the balcony. Unfortunately we didn’t always park in town. And it was December.

So the balcony cabin is bigger than an inside cabin. And while I didn’t spend much time on the balcony, I did like having cell service in my cabin (For my position I get a 40% discount on ship WIFI – which turns out to be more than I want to pay for per day for personal use. And in my opinion, if they want me to have WIFI to work, which I would recommend, then they should provide it). And I liked being able to see out the window. I had a balcony for my first two cruises (one on each side of the ship) and the rest are inside cabins. I kind of wish I’d gotten the balconies at the end, cause now I know what I’m missing 😉

After the sea day we were in Rotterdam, Netherlands, so Declan promised to take me shopping. In the morning we learned how to use the computer system to track the guests’ comments and how to print the invitations for the cocktail party I would host, and then we left the ship! We took the tram to the city center where we stopped for lunch. We ran into Zyla, the Cruise Director who is from the Netherlands, at the same restaurant we chose, so it seemed like we had picked a very authentic place to go.

I was delighted that Heineken was one of the only choices available in the crew bar when I had been on the other side of the world – in Japan and Australia, and here we were at Heineken’s home.

Declan and I both ordered some potatoes with bacon and onions and egg – my favorite breakfast (which is pretty much eggs with anything else)! And it was amazing. This was Declan’s first contract with MSC in his role as Master of Ceremonies (and also apparently the unofficial British Ambassador). He had worked for Disney Cruises before. I had a great time talking with him about that. We went to Primark (which is a chain in Europe with great clothes at great prices) but my body is not very similar to a Netherlands body which is very tall and long, and I tried on about 20 different items before purchasing the only pair of black trousers (pants means underwear in British) and some black flats that I could wear to get me through the next few days looking more professional. And I was able to get just enough toiletries and cold medicine (yep! I also couldn’t breathe through my nose – and do you know how much cold medicine I had brought with me in my checked bags?!) to get me through until I was reunited with my stuff. It was so frustrating. I didn’t want to buy stuff that I already had in my suitcases, but the body gel provided in the shower wasn’t quite making up for all of my toiletries.

I think when we went to Zeebrugge (Belgium) I slept off my jetlag and went to lunch in the buffet.

In Southampton I found a shop with enough clothes that fit me that a few of my colleagues thought that my luggage had arrived. It hadn’t. But once I reunited with my luggage in Hamburg, I tell you – there is nothing like having my own shampoo and face wash and makeup and my own clothes and my own shoes. I washed my hair and styled it (well, I put coconut oil in it to keep it from frizzing) with my products and put on a little makeup and felt like myself again.

At Princess I used to be strategic with my appearance. I would start a sea day with Zumba where I got hot, red-faced and sweaty, then I would take a shower and show up in my uniform where I looked a little better but then I would teach line dancing where I got more sweaty. And then by the time I did afternoon trivia I looked okay, but boy, by the evening? Especially if it was formal night? I didn’t have to do much to get compliments all over the place. That’s why I like to set low expectations – it’s so much easier to impress.

Well this time I had a whole week of low expectations. I had to taper my transformation in case I really needed to impress anyone.

So now I was human and I felt like I could adequately represent the company. I spent my evenings sitting in my lounge in case the Americans needed my help.

I spent my days going out and exploring the ports. I was so happy to be here.

The holidays came and I didn’t have to spend every spare moment making up activities that we would only use once a year – I just showed up for the parties!

After being in Japan with two different cultures, well, Japanese and ‘western’ as we called the non-Japanese-mostly-English-speaking guests. Here we go to five different countries and I can’t even tell you how many languages. All of the announcements are done in, I think, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and probably some others. Unlike in Japan, I can’t guess what language people speak by looking at them. I have to listen for a North American Accent to try finding the Americans.

At first I was nervous to greet people in the hallways and elevators because I couldn’t guess their language (nor did I know all the greetings) but then I realized that when people greeted me in German or French, I didn’t mind, so I resumed talking to everyone.

Everything is so different. It is such a different vibe. l’m having a great time learning the MSC product.

Then in January, some big wig from head office was coming onboard. It was Sam Hawker Thomas, who I had worked with my first contract on the Caribbean Princess! She had been with us when we installed the Detourist project (there’s a blog post about this), all the new (then) game shows, and the High Seas Heist – a week long mystery for the guests to solve. I loved Sam. She was one of my favorite people to work with. I learned so much from her and she was so supportive and fun, that she gave me the space and support to be my best. Sometimes when people from head office come onboard it feels like they’re looking to find the things we were doing wrong and Sam is a master of framing this task as coming to help make us better. Throughout my time at Princess, every time I saw Sam, she had a different, more important job, overseeing a bigger project. The fact that she worked for MSC was one of the reasons that I took this job. I was so excited to see her that I felt like I was Will Farrell and she was Santa.

I had come back from port and was hanging out in the doorway of my inside cabin (where my phone could get cell reception) in my pajamas when I heard, “is that Kelly?!” I loved that everyone on the ship was nervous about what her eyes would see and here she found me in my pajamas. We squealed and hugged. She was only onboard for a couple of days, so I went to see her at one of the parties for a quick chat before she left the next day.

So I think that’s all I have to say about life onboard for now. I’ll tell you about my adventures and then let you know more about how it all went onboard later.