3rd Week in Bahamas

Central America Caribbean » Bahamas
December 1st 2008

Published: December 2nd 2008

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swills82

Thanksgiving Crew Party

None of us in the photo are American but we had fun with our new counselors: Monica (Mambo - Peru), Bogumila (Bumblebee - Poland), Steph (Twix), Me (Jazzy), Emily (Canada - Meow), and Nicole (Dizzy)

After our two week repositioning cruise, we’ve changed our itinerary for the last time until after I go home for vacation. We’re currently doing Great Stirrup Cay (NCL’s private island); Nassau, Bahamas; Freeport, Bahamas; and Port Canaveral, Florida.

Our first week in these ports was pretty cold. In Nassau, I was able to spend some time with one of my mom’s co-workers/friends who has a timeshare on the island. Judy and her husband John were great. I caught the bus to go see them (super easy). When I got there I asked the bar tender if he knew where Judy P was and he pointed at John standing next to the pool, telling me that was her husband. I went over and he took me to Judy. Judy and I spent awhile chatting, then they brought me to happy hour, then invited me to stay for a delicious home cooked meal. It was like a taste of home.

Great Stirrup Cay was cancelled the first week, which made for an extra day at sea and inventing another whole day of activities for the kids. In Freeport, the girls and I fell asleep on the beach wrapped in sweaters. In

At "our" pool

Soaking up the sun in Freeport

Port Canaveral, we went to the mall, although it wasn’t very big or exciting. Not such an exciting first week. The cold front passing through really made things colder.

Week 2 in these ports was our INSANE week with children. We had 336 kids onboard and 9 staff working. We were sent 4 new staff members, but 3 out of the 4 were new hires, so they required training. They did really well though too and were a huge help. We never had any time off and working 13 hour days was not unheard of. We managed to get through it fairly well though. Only a few complaints from parents and MANY MORE thanks and congratulations from others. I was forced to learn things like how to write an incident report, how to deal with screaming parents who want their 12 year old in the teen program, and how to go about written warnings for staff members who miss their duties and then lie about it. I had a nervous breakdown by the end of the week, and am SO ready for the new supervisor to come and take over, but all in all we did well.

As

Loving Life

for ports, I worked in Nassau so I didn’t get off, and Great Stirrup Cay was cancelled again. By the time we got to Freeport, I was SO ready to get off. The others found a spot on the beach while Nicole and I explored. We found some nice lounge chairs by the pool of the resort so we parked ourselves there. No one said anything so we got the others and we all spent time around the pool. It was fairly cold again but we still soaked up what sun we could and decided it was better than being home in the snow (sorry guys!)

We were in Port Canaveral for the American Thanksgiving. Everything was closed except for a little European restaurant and the movie theatre at the mall, so Steph, Nicole, and I took advantage of both. We saw the movie ‘4 Christmases’, which was funny and cute, yet felt weird as it was Christmas and not even December yet.

Week 3 hasn’t been much of an improvement yet at all. Today we finally got to Great Stirrup Cay (1st time in 3 weeks!) but it rained all day. I got onto the island, had