First few weeks on the GLORY!!!

Hello All,

I hope the month of July is finding everyone in good health and a festive spirit. I can’t believe that it is the 10^th of the month already and I have been doing this for a month already. Some days it feels like I just started, others I feel like I have been doing it for months already. Either way I still can’t keep my days straight. Haha I think today is Tuesday and that is only because that is what my computer is telling me. For all I know it might actually be Wednesday in Canada and no one told me. J Being on an itinerary that does 4 & 5 day runs causes you to really lose track of your days. I’m in port in Boston every other Saturday, but then that will change because we do three 5 day runs in a row so it will shift everything a bit. Right now, I am currently on a 5 day cruise and enjoying an afternoon off in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I have been on the Glory for 13 days now, and I’m finally feeling like I’m getting in the groove of things. I am staying busy and that is not an understatement. Between all the trainings and new ship things I have to learn, along with how this ship does things I’ve been learning a lot. We also had an ACD handover, which is when the current ACD (Assistant Cruise Director) is leaving on vacation so another ACD comes on board to take his place. Sometimes the ACD that is leaving would come back from vacation and want to go to a different ship, but in this case, John is coming back in September. So the ACD that we currently have is Pete and he is only here for the 2 months that John is going to be gone. Our Cruise Director (CD) is Josh aka Big Sexy (from Chicago). The other hosts are currently Kim (from Chicago), Dana (from Ohio), and Jason (from Chicago). Kim is signing off at the end of August, Dana is sometime in September and then Jason is the beginning of November right before dock.

Our itinerary changes a bit coming up soon so it’ll be fun to readjust to everything. After this cruise is over, we will do our last 4-day out of Boston, followed by three straight 5 days ending on the 31^st of July. After we debark all of the guest on the morning of the 31^st, we will head out and have a 1-day relocation to New York City!! Only crew on board so I heard that there are some pretty good parties that day. J We will then continue with 4 & 5 day cruises out of NYC, then on September 8^th, we will start 7 day cruises out of NYC. The 4 & 5 day cruises will go to the same two Canadian ports that we currently go to out of Boston, but when we start the 7 day cruises, we will add stops in Boston and Portland, Maine. I’m really excited to be able to go back to Boston and especially check out Maine with all the fall colors that will be out. Then October 13^th, we will have another relocation and head down to Norfolk, Virginia. When we get to Virginia, we won’t be there too long, we will do a 6 day, 2 day, 6 day, then a 5 day. After those 4 cruises our ship heads into dry dock for 2 weeks from the 2^nd of November until the 14^th. I am not exactly sure where the dry dock will be, I’ve heard a couple of different things. Guess I will find out soon enough. I’m not exactly sure what will happen to me either when the ship goes into dry dock. I will have a month left on my contract, so I could possibly get transferred somewhere else, or get put up in a hotel for 2 weeks, or even sent home for 2 weeks. Anything could happen and I probably won’t know until the last minute. My sign off date is the 2^nd of December though so after dry dock I wouldn’t be on this ship for too much longer.

It is an absolutely gorgeous day here in Halifax, about 75-80 degrees. I’m out on one of the open decks for the crew on a lounge chair writing to you all. I wish I could say I was on the beach in Cozumel, but Canada will have to do this time. I really miss the beach and the warmer weather, but if I can keep getting weather like this, I’ll be all right with it. Haha The crowd that comes to cruise out of Boston is a lot different than the crowd that comes to cruise out of Tampa; that is for sure. But the job is still the same. I do a lot of the same activities as I did on the Paradise. We have lots of trivias throughout the cruise, we do Game Show Mania, 60 seconds or Less, Gender Showdown, Love and Marriage show, Liars club, Deck Olympics, Mixology Contest, Men’s Hairy Chest, and we even have a Murder Mystery that lasts all cruise long and of course we have lots of BINGO games. I have been a part of most of the activities except, Liars club and Love and Marriage. Liars club, I will help with next cruise and Love and Marriage hosts don’t normally help with because Josh our CD hosts it. I also have show watches where I have to walk around and tell all the guests that don’t like to listen to the house rules that they can’t take pictures during the shows. It is amazing how each show is so different. The other night I had to do both show watches and the first show no one took pictures and then the second show, everyone was taking pictures. I had to keep walking back and forth and what I found funny was that I kept walking in front of the same people to tell other guests to stop, then they tried to start taking pictures. They must have thought I was just walking over to say hi or something. Haha I just didn’t get it. I also find it funny when guests try to be sneaky about it, like we can’t see what they are doing. So I will tell you now, if you come visit me on a ship, please don’t take pictures during the show. It is out of respect for the dancers and it is against the International Copyright Law. Thank you J Some of the other things that I have to do is gangway assistance and debark in the mornings when we get back to Boston. Those are some early mornings, but they don’t bother me. I can sleep when I am dead. Right Mom? J For the next couple of weeks I also have to help with the Comedy Club. I will be running the mic and lights and all the technical stuff. We are short on technicians so the hosts have learned to run the club and will do so until we are back to full staff in the tech department. I will also have to occasionally host the comedy club. Jason does it on a regular basis, but when he is host on duty it rotates between us girls who aren’t on duty. If anyone doesn’t understand any of the games I mentioned above feel free to ask me about them, I’d love to share more with you guys.

I am now in the middle of the 4-day cruise. I got busy and stopped writing, but I am back now. I am currently in St. John. I was supposed to have a training this morning, but it got cancelled so I was able to get off the ship for a little bit and went and got something to eat and used some free internet. I went with Pete to a restaurant called Cora’s; they only serve breakfast and lunch. I had a HUGE crepe with Nutela and bananas in it. It definitely wasn’t the same as Grama’s but still delicious. I just kept eating and I’m not sure how, I was so full. In the end, I didn’t finish it. I spent the afternoon doing laundry and enjoying a bit of relaxation time. You learn to really cherish the time off that you get because when you are working it is go, go, go all the time. I like that though, although a nap here and there is nice too. J Well, I hope to talk to you all soon. I know there are a lot of people reading this and I do my best to talk to everyone that I can. I’m often online in the middle of the day which I know is hard for a lot of people, but I would love to hear from everyone. Hope all is well.

Love and Smiles,

Alyssa