The last two weeks I haven’t been up to much of anything. I have been so sick! I had some sort of flu or virus that just completely kicked my butt. I couldn’t sleep at night and all day I’d just be sneezing and aching. I was constantly freezing yet to touch my skin I was burning up. All I did was work and sleep - or try to sleep. I kept taking cold and flu medication which was doing nothing. After a week of no improvement, I was finally given penicillin which seems to be kicking it as I’m finally [View Full Entry]

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Today we’re back in Cozumel and I was so excited because we had a crew tour on offer! Cozumel is such a great port but as a crew member it’s usually spent either taking advantage of the places with wireless internet or partying. For far too long I didn’t see anything beyond the shops and bars in Cozumel. I tend to feel pretty proud of myself when I actually get out and do something in this port. Then when it’s something offered with fellow crew, it’s especially exciting because you get the sight-seeing plus the social aspect! Near the island of [View Full Entry]

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Spring break is still upon me here on the ship. 300 teens - and my participation rates have been around 80% so I am intensely busy. Which also means, of course, teen tours are still running. Today in Cozumel, I ran my third teen tour in the last 10 days! I took a group of five teens to the adventure park for an afternoon of high ropes and snorkeling. The group was really fun; we enjoyed the day greatly. For the first half of our tour, we were suited up in safety gear. There was a whole team of guides working [View Full Entry]

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Today we’re in Ocho Rios, Jamaica and it’s the last port day I have with Ginny here. We’d talked about a few different things we could do today, but then I had teens sign up for the tour being offered this cruise, so I had to chaperone. But I was able to arrange for Gin to come on the same tour I’d be taking the teens on, so we still got the day together. The adventure for the day? River Tubing on the White River. I’ve done a couple of river tubing tours in other ports, but this one was a [View Full Entry]

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Ginny is still here cruising with me (oh, and we did luck out with a guest cabin and dining room table again this cruise!!) and today we’re in Grand Cayman. I think the best thing to see in Grand Cayman is Stingray City, so I’d recommended it to Gin and she was all for it. She also wanted to do some snorkeling during her time down here, so we did a combination tour today. We were bused across the island to board our motor boat that took us out into the sea. We stopped at three different snorkel spots today. We [View Full Entry]

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Today we’re in Grand Turk. As part of my teen program, every cruise I offer a shore excursion where the teens get to go on a tour in port with their friends and me - no parents. Gin, who is cruising with me, and I had had plans to go on a tour of the island and hang out on the beach afterwards. But with such a high teen count, of course I had enough teens sign up to run the tour this cruise, so I had to work. Ginny went off on the bus tour on her own and I [View Full Entry]

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I’ve been struggling to adjust to being on this ship. But now, two weeks in, I have something very exciting to occupy me - Ginny has come to cruise with me! Ginny is going to be here for 2 cruises - 10 days - and I’m so happy about that. We’ve also completely lucked out. Though she was booked to stay in a crew cabin, a guest cabin was available, so she got to move in there. Plus there’s an extra bed in there for me - so I’m sleeping in a cozy guest bed this cruise! Then we got seating [View Full Entry]

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Half Moon Cay is a private cay in the Bahamas owned by Holland America Line (part of the Carnival Corporation). Last spring when I was on the Liberty, during one of my last cruises, we changed itineraries to go to Half Moon Cay. But because it’s a tender port and everything on land is run by crew from the ship, it was a hectic day and unless you were working crew, you couldn’t get off the ship. So I’d only ever seen Half Moon Cay from the ship looking ashore. Today we were in port there. My current schedule of activities [View Full Entry]

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I’m on the Destiny now, the third ship in the last 9 weeks. I’m so exhausted. Whenever I’m not working, I’ve been sleeping. And there’s lots of work to do. There always is when you first arrive on a new ship. I’ve gotten used to signing onto a new ship and knowing so many people from previous contracts. But this time it’s strange, there’s very few people that I know here. I don’t know why that is. Maybe because I’ve been here, everyone’s now scattered elsewhere? I don’t know. It’s strange being back [View Full Entry]

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I haven’t been good at properly updating and letting people know what’s been going on lately. I apologize to the friends and family who’ve been wondering and trying to find out. I’ve had a couple of really frustrating weeks and right now I’m not very happy. While for the most part, this blog was created for my family and friends to be able to follow me while I lived and worked away from home, I’ve always strived to keep the focus on the travel aspect of my work. Professionally, it’s not right to comment in detail on work here, so I’ve [View Full Entry]

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