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As you may recall, I had pretty high hopes for the Golden Princess. I was off the Caribbean! I was going to the other side of the world! And my friend and mentor was on board! Was it everything I wanted it to be? No. Did I get a whole lot that I didn’t know I wanted?
Absolutely.
One of the biggest differences in this contract was that the proportion of work days vs. days to play was much higher than the itinerary on the Caribbean. There were more sea days, more Turnaround days (where some or most of the ship disembark in the morning and are replaced by new guests pretty much immediately after that), and we were often understaffed. There also weren’t as many port days that weren’t worth getting off the ship (those were great days to catch up on sleep). I think I was warned of this before going in, but the reality was, surprisingly, spiritually exhausting. It was also really difficult to make plans for adventures in order to get the most out of my time off the ship. So, though I expected to feel more fulfilled by the opportunity to see the other side of the world, I was ultimately more impacted by the interactions I had with the friends I made on board.
As usual, the day I embarked was the earliest day of my contract. I went downstairs for breakfast at 5:30am for a 6am pick up from the hotel in Vancouver. I was brought on board around the time my coworkers were starting work on their earliest day of the cruise.
My friend and former Cruise Director, Matt, now Entertainment Director was woken up to come to pick me up and he filled me in on the drama.
The new Cruise Director, Corey from New Zealand, joined with me, so the rest of the team wasn’t really sure of his expectations.
Matt had worked with Corey when Matt was a Junior Assistant Cruise Director and Corey was a Deputy Cruise Director. In the old hierarchy, Deputy was under Cruise Director, but they did all the scheduling busy work. In the current hierarchy, there is no Deputy. The scheduling busy work is done by the Entertainment Director (among other things) who is ranked above the Cruise Director. So the last time Corey and Matt worked together, Corey was Matt’s boss. Now Matt was Corey’s boss. Matt wasn’t very good at following the rules as a Junior. Corey is a big fan of rules being followed.
ALSO on the team was Matt Baker. Matt Baker was the Cruise Director before Corey. Matt Baker had worked as a Cruise Director for another company for many years, took 10 years off to open a pub in Wales (where he’s from), but was now back in the business with Princess. He had just stepped up from Assistant Cruise Director to be Cruise Director for the last couple of months on the Golden. We were about to do a crossing (30 days with the same people) with me, who had mostly done 7 day Caribbean Cruises (so we did the same stuff every week) and 3 other cruise staff who were all on their first contract with Princess (so they hadn’t done a long cruise either). ED Matt (for Entertainment Director– the last Entertainment Director had also been a Matt — there were so many Matt’s it was hard to keep track of which Matt one was talking about), who had arrived on the Golden less than a week earlier, had asked Matt Baker to stay for the crossing to help us out. So Matt Baker was the boss last week, and now he was one of us. I was honestly really excited to see the drama play out. The other members of the team were Micah from California, who was hired as an Assistant Cruise Director because of his previous work experience, Lauren who was originally from Liverpool, but had lived in Gibraltar since she was 12, and Rhea from Canada who was at the end of her contract and would be leaving us in Hawaii.
The first night was 70’s night. I had never done 70’s night on the Caribbean, and the only costume they could find for me was a horrible vest. I’m not a big fan of theme nights and I hated my outfit, so I was pleasantly surprised and delighted when Matt Baker came out dressed as Austin Powers and hosted one of the best theme nights I had ever experienced. So that’s what they were supposed to be like!
The first couple of cruises were like a party bus. We had one Sea Day and then we were in Ketchikan, Alaska. It was cold and raining so I bundled up. I found some crew with Walmart bags who directed me to the free shuttle at Walmart. This Walmart was amazing—I’d been stocking up while I was packing trying to get all the brands I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get on the other side of the world. The stuff at this Walmart in Ketchikan was cheaper than it was at the Walmart in California! I got snacks, a lamp, an alarm clock for when I didn’t trust my phone, a door stop—things I didn’t know I wanted until I’d come on board. After that I walked around the pier and then the town, taking advantage of the opportunity to call home while I was still in the US. One more Sea Day and then we were back in Vancouver where a bunch of people got off the ship and more came on. I was on the late drill. There was an issue with the weather or travel or something so people were coming on in bunches hours after we were supposed to leave. I think I did 5 late drills. A couple of days later we were in Victoria for the morning, then we were in San Francisco where some people got off the ship and others got on. The cruises were so short and people came and went – some stayed for a couple of days, some did longer segments, so there were no beginnings and no endings. I think I did more late drills that week than I did in my first two contracts. Matt would let me sneak peeks at his strategy as he planned the entertainment to find the balance between having enough variety and not being too repetitive for those who were staying on. Meanwhile everyone was getting used to the new Cruise Director and we were gearing up for the crossing. Corey and I would share Zumba. I would do Pop Choir. Lauren would do Line Dancing. Micah had Bingo. There were some more cruise long activities—progressive trivia, mini Olympics, scavenger hunts, ping pong tournaments, etc.
Seven days after I boarded, we docked in San Francisco. I set my alarm for 6am so I could watch as we went under the Golden Gate Bridge. I had done that with my mom when we went on my first cruise (ever) to Alaska in 2007. I woke up and turned on the bridge cam, only to find that we were already docked.
I had retaken my medical right before I left, and the original hadn’t arrived in the mail before I left for Vancouver, so Wendy and Stu came out to bring it to me. I had to stay on the ship that day, so they came on and got a tour of my new home.
That evening I kept sneaking out to the open deck between activities as we went under the bridge.
And then it was official. Everyone was on board to go to the other side of the world. Some had joined in Vancouver, some had joined in San Francisco, some had flown over from Australia and were heading home. But we would all be together for the next month.