Storms, tummy bugs and other such delights!

---

I am writing this as our ship sits here just outside of Miami. This being a Western cruise, this is a bit unusual for our itinerary. I say this because over the past week we have been on a bit of a mission to avoid a massive tropical storm that has been hovering over the Caribbean Islands. Our complete Eastern itinerary was changed thanks to this monster. However, I say monster when, really, it was a just a bit of an upset in the winds and rain. But as I was saying, we did a complete detour.

Week 3 was my official week of no longer being in training and receiving what we call, my “Mickey ears”. For the past 2 weeks I had been wearing a little red rosette attached to my name badge as a symbol and a bit of a warning to say that I am new therefore I know nothing, and guests must avoid asking me all cruise related questions as I am as lost as they are! But, I finally got that removed in a bit of a ceremony at the end of my second week! So I can now say that I actually am a little bit more intelligent as to what I’m supposed to be doing as opposed to 3 weeks ago!

Gosh, I really can’t believe how quickly these past 3 weeks have literally flown by. Right, sorry, back to the purpose of this blog!

As I said, we had to change course. Now one of the reasons why Disney Cruise lines seem to be so popular is based on the fact that we have our very own private little island called Castaway Cay. For those golden oldies, you might remember a movie called Splash! Starring Tom Hanks I think? Please forgive me if I get this wrong but I have never seen it! This island is where they had filmed it and Disney decided to buy it and set it up like something out of The Swiss family Robinsons; complete with sunken ships and washed up debris to set the scene. The aim is to have a place that the guests can have to themselves. There is only one ship that is allowed to dock at a time to use this island so you know that every single guest there is from the Disney Fantasy! During the other days of the week, the other ships in our fleet will make their appearance, but of course we all have our own schedules. We normally aim for the Friday, being our last day, of the cruise but because we wanted to guarantee our guests a full day on the island, we arrived on Sunday morning. All us staff were warned the night before to say that we would not be stopping by St Maarten but instead we would go to San Juan and stop over at Castaway early on in the week. A bit of a bee in our bonnets for us all, but the game faces were on, ready for what a week we had in store! Turns out that San Juan was a favourite amongst the staff thanks to the more entertaining side of the place, as well as a bit of a change of scenery. But when we got there, the tour guides and port of adventure teams were all on strike, giving our guests more reason to complain. I can honestly say that the whole of last week was a bit of shambles, ending with a lovely little medical emergency stop off at Nassau to top it all off! While this was all going on, I was stuck in a small, dark medical room in quarantine thanks to a nice stomach bug I had picked up somewhere along the lines. I am still not sure whether it was a good thing to be locked in a room for 36 hours with no human contact whatsoever or out there in the sunshine dealing with angry holiday makers.

I did get a chance, however, to gain some of that vitamin B I had lost by venturing out into St Thomas the following day with a mix of South African and English girls. We were tipped that there was a complete stereotypical version of an exotic beach right next to the Marriott Hotel on the island. Although it wasn’t a secret, we at least had our free Wi-Fi and our virgin cocktails to remind us just how amazing it were to be us! Gems such as these are just so lovely to have, as us cruise staff doesn’t have such luxuries as free and unlimited internet and cell phone signal in the big open waters. We would consider the whole message in a bottle thing, but throwing anything into the sea would automatically give you a W-Gangway. This expression is commonly known by us cruise staff as getting the sack. So not exactly ideal!

We spent a good afternoon on that beach making friends with our waitress who had the typical Bahamian way about herself with a very laid back attitude to most things and enjoying the island life. She wasn’t a student that you would expect to be waitressing, but quite a mature woman. A hoot to say nonetheless!

After a bit of a choppy week with slightly rough seas that came with the tail of the storms that were happening in other parts of the Caribbean, we arrived this morning to a miserable rainy Port Canaveral waiting for us. For many of us, it would have been our last week of work until we go on leave. For the remaining behind, we push on forward! It has come to a point now that I am at that stage where it starts getting a bit emotional on Saturdays. I say this because after a certain point in your training, we crew start getting to know each other just that little bit better and we do develop friendships. It happens all very quickly thanks to the environment that we work, eat and sleep in. So when people leave for their vacation period, a portion of the family that you have gotten used to does change. Of course we also get the returners and the new hires. I, myself, was one of those people a mere 3 weeks ago. It just shows how different this kind of job is to your usual 9-5 kind of thing. There is always a constant flow of people coming in and out of your life. But that's just how it works!

Onwards to week 4, where we shall be cruising the Western Caribbean. Who knows what this week shall bring!



Ciao for now you beautiful humans!

---