Christmas in the Caribbean

Merry Christmas everybody!

I'm exhausted, so I'll keep this quick--
The last few days have been super busy. With the holidays they've amped up the entertainment on board a little bit, so there's been a lot to do. I've never not been with family on Christmas. Have certainly never been anywhere WARM for Christmas, and have most definitely never been on a SHIP at Christmas, so there were a lot of new things this year. I've also never had to work on Christmas (or Christmas Eve), so I suddenly feel very grown up, and not necessarily in a good way...

I set foot on land on Saturday for the first time in a week. Was able to do a little shopping at Target (!) for things I didn't know to pack... would have preferred to know ahead of time, but you win some you lose some. One of a multitude of frustrations of starting a new job. On a boat. For 6 months straight.


I moved into my ACTUAL room on Saturday. Not the high class swankiness I am accustomed to, but workable. In reality, the room itself is pretty cozy. "Big" closet, a desk, a fridge, a little couch, coffee table, double bed, cabinets (!), AND, get this, a fold down BUNK BED for guests (which I can't have on my first contract, but fun to know regardless). AND IT HAS A PORTHOLE. It's definitely not a balcony, but I can't say that I would want a balcony now that I live five decks below my previous temporary room. In fact, if I had a balcony we would be in trouble because I neglected to pack my wet suit and scuba gear.

My new bathroom, on the other hand, would probably fit in your bathtub. It kind of reminds me of an airplane bathroom...except with a shower squished in the corner. Literally. A corner shower. I have no idea how a person of a taller or wider stature than myself can do anything other than just stand in that thing. Not much elbow room. In fact, if you're using the toilet, your elbow is in the shower. See handy photo image graphic below:



ALSO--new update--I finally got the first of my two uniforms. This one is the "formal" one, that I am technically supposed to wear every day past 6 when I am working or out in the guest areas (as opposed to the crew areas, where nobody really cares). Luckily for you, there is NO PHOTO EVIDENCE of said uniform. Just picture a homely lady preacher. Then put my face on top. Done. That's what I look like in this thing. It's just black pants (which are too short) and a black jacket (collarless...so w-e-i-r-d) and a black shirt under, but wow. Just wow. I will end my commentary regarding said uniform right now.

Christmas on the ship was fine-- it's the end of the year so there's not a whole lot of money in the budget for the ship to do anything super special, but they tried. There was a special Christmas dinner in the crew mess, of which everything was meaty and greasy, therefore I went with my regular rice and vegetable mess. To a noticing person, it's super amusing to track which leftovers from one night end up in another dish the next day. I swear the chefs just dump together all the uneaten cucumbers and green beans and kidney beans and radishes and mini shrimp from the fancy guest restaurants and toss it in oil or something and then try to serve it to us. It's not terribly hard to be a vegetarian on this ship, though options are basically limited to pasta or rice and whatever leafy/veggie/healthy-ish things you can find. In fact, I think I get the better end of the deal...because the day old meat soups they put together are somewhat less than tempting. That being said-- it's not all bad, and this is one of the newer nicer ships so apparently we have it better than some of the older ones. The crew mess only has certain hours though, so if you miss dinner you're in trouble (though certain people, myself included, can eat at guest restaurants at certain times or if they aren't too busy, so it's not totally hopeless).

Ummm... it's suddenly 1:30am and the clocks are changing forward one hour tonight because of the friggin' time zones that we pass through each week. This was not something I had even remotely thought of as I was prepping for this! Once a week we change an hour forward and once a week we change an hour back. Super exhausting, especially when you have an early morning training or rehearsal (as I do tomorrow). BUT, we'll be in San Juan, Puerto Rico tomorrow so I'm planning to get off the ship and explore a little bit.... cool!

Hope you had a merry merry Christmas!! My Christmas gift to myself was the super soft super comfy comforter that I got at Target when i was in Miami on Saturday...on the advice of my colleagues I got this because the crew cabins don't come with many layers on the bed! I also did my laundry...for free...in the wardrobe office...because that's one of the perks of being in this department. Good deal. Though if I'm feeling super lazy I can pay a dollar and just drop it off at crew laundry...but I'd rather keep my dollar.

Merry merry!
Sweet Dreams,
D

P.S. This is my office! That whole corner is mine, and on the right is the AV Manager's (TD's) desk. The bandmaster and dance/vocal/aerial captains share the desk on the left (you can see a corner of it.)