June 24th, 2013
Well hello again from the beautiful Carnival Dream. Time has
been flying by partly because it has been so busy around here and my contract
has been very broken up for the second half. I’m going to try and update you
the best that I can with all that has been going on.
Last time I wrote Auntie and Uncle had just cruised and we
had met up in Cozumel. Then we had an extended stay in St. Maarten for 4 days.
Nothing too crazy like that has happened since then which is nice, but things
are still busy around here. I had the wonderful treat of being granted a work
break for a week to go home and surprise my brother and just about everyone
else for Kurt’s 21st Birthday! I couldn’t have asked for a better
week. It was just what I needed. I got to see so many of you and make special
memories with everyone. I flew home on Saturday night knowing that it was going
to be a jam packed week full of fun and lots of go, go, go! I tried to rest up
once I landed, but of course after not seeing Mom, Dad, Grama, & Courtney
for 3 months we had to catch up some. Sunday morning we got up and went to
breakfast with Grama and Grampa, which was delicious! We then headed up to the
ballpark with our plan all figured out. Dad was going to drop Mom, Courtney and
I off at the ball park then he was going to go pick up Kurt from the bart
station and Grama and Grampa who were also surprising him! Dad had it all
figured out what trains they needed to be on so they would arrive 6 minutes
apart! It worked perfectly! Once Dad picked everyone up at the bart station, he
then dropped them off to join Mom in line at the ball park. Courtney and I had
went and joined a different line to get into the park so that we could surprise
Kurt later once we got into the game. We also made sure that we got to the park
early so that we could get the free give away which was a 2012 CHAMPIONSHIP
BANNER!! J
Looks good up in my cabin by the way! Once Dad parked the car, he joined a
different line because he had a different ticket and we didn’t want to give
away the secret that Courtney and I were there. Kurt would have known something
was up. He already thought Courtney might be surprising him, but when she
wasn’t waiting with Mom he kind of gave up... Little did he know! Once we all
got into the ball park, Courtney, Dad, and I all met up and waited for Kurt,
Mom, Grama, & Grampa to get situated. We knew where they were sitting so we
could spy on them! Haha When we saw they were all up there, Courtney and I
headed up to surprise everyone! I think Kurt was pretty surprised because what
he said to me when he saw me was, “What up girl?” He never says that to me!
Haha Love you brother! Of course Grama and Grampa were surprised as well. It
still amazes me though that Kurt has a video on his phone that he made a few
months back before his birthday that says “ That he thinks there is a 0.001%
chance that my sister will come home for my birthday” He just knows me too
well. After the game, we all went home and then on Tuesday night Mom and I went
up to Sacramento to have drinks with Kurt once he was officially 21! It was a
long night but lots of fun! Then Thursday we headed up to the lake to start
getting things ready for an amazing weekend!! I was only able to stay about 24
hours, but it was well worth it! It had been so long since I had been to the
lake and the fact that I was there to celebrate my brother’s birthday, I
couldn’t have asked for much more. As I started my journey back to the ship, I
felt so refreshed and thankful that I could have the opportunity to be able to
take a week off from my wonderful job to come home and celebrate such a special
occasion! Something I will always remember!
As I arrived at the gate for my flight, I found out that my
flight was slightly delayed. They were fixing an issue with the plan but said
it wouldn’t take too long. I wasn’t too worried until we were delayed about 20
minutes. I then went and asked what they would do about out connecting flights
to our final destinations, because I was only given one hour to change planes
in Chicago. The lady said they would take care of them, which I was fine with,
I just didn’t want to miss getting back on the ship. Well we took off about 30
minutes late and then landed about 40 minutes late. I was in the second to last
row of a Boeing 777, which means that there is 2 seats, then 5, then 2 again. I
was just hoping my next flight would wait for me and need I remind you that it
is 5:30am in Chicago. Once I got off the plane, I literally had to run out of
the terminal, underneath the taxi way and back upstairs to the next terminal.
Thankfully my next gate was the first one once you got into the terminal and
they were waiting for me. They knew my name already. I felt like I had just
filmed a scene from a movie! I wasn’t too worried about my bags because I
figured they would get them to me and I could just wait at the airport for them
if that was the case. I had made my flight and that’s all that I cared about at
that point. When I landed back in Orlando, I was quite surprised to find my
luggage was the first one on to the belt! I figured since I had 12 minutes to
make my next flight, no way would my bag make it, but it did! I ended up making
back to the ship safe and sound ready for the rest of my contract!
When I got back on board, everyone was happy to see me and I
was happy to see everyone as well. They had made me feel like I had been gone
for months and not just one week with all the warm wishes that I had received.
Jaime was coming back from vacation on this day as well. She is the cruise director
and had been gone the last 6 weeks so it was nice to see her again. Although, I
did miss Willie, he was a lot of fun to have around, but I know I’ll be seeing
him again sometime. Things weren’t as crazy as I thought they would be with me
being gone for one week. Although we were starting to prepare for Gumbie (Assistant
Cruise Director) to leave for vacation and his replacement would be here in
just a few weeks. We found out that Marcelo was going to be coming to cover for
him and he had been here before so it should be pretty easy for him to come in
for such a short period of time. Gumbie left in the middle of May as was to be
gone 5 weeks. Three weeks into the time Marcelo was here, he got word that he
need to go to a different ship and cover as Cruise Director. So he left and
Jase took over as ACD for the remainder of time that Gumbie was going to be
gone. Those two weeks flew by and Gumbie was back in no time. Part of the
reason that those two weeks flew by so fast was because Mom, Dad, and Kurt came
to cruise!!! YAY!!!
Well it was an adventure for them to get to the ship and
leave for the ship, but we had a really nice time for the week that they were
here. They came for an Eastern cruise, that meant that we were going to stop at
Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. Getting to the ship took them a bit longer
than planned. Delays out of San Francisco, caused them to miss their connecting
flight in LA that would get them to Orlando. So they sat around for a little
bit and ended up having to fly through Dallas on two different flights and then
take two different flights again to get from Dallas to Orlando. Mom and Kurt
flew together and Dad had to give up his first class seat to fly by himself on
different flights than Mom and Kurt. They ended up making it to Orlando about 6
hours later than planned and about an hour apart from each other. All that
matters is that they made it to the ship before it set sail! June 1st
was the first day of hurricane season and Mother Nature definitely let everyone
know of it. It rained all day! Once they got to the ship, I got them on board
extremely fast! Dad liked that after all the hassle of flying. Once we got on
board I showed them around a little bit. The lay out of the Dream is very
similar to the Glory that Mom and Dad came on last October, and the Freedom
that we all went on back in 2011. The only major thing that is different is
that Lido is on deck 10 not deck 9. They added an extra deck of cabins to the
Dream class ships. Our first port of call was Nassau and we went on a Segway
tour! It was a lot of fun! None of us had ever done them before and it was a
blast! No one even fell off! The next day was a sea day and we got to take some
family photos with Nag one of our professional photographers on board. He is
awesome and got some incredible pictures. I’m sure some of you have seen them
already because Mom has been toting them everywhere! The day after that we were
in St. Thomas and we headed over on a tour to St. John. It was really cool! A
bit rocky getting over there, but Mom, Dad, and Kurt were able to snorkel. I’m
not a big snorkeler so I just hung out and relaxed. The following day we were
in St. Maarten and we went on a really cool island tour and did a bit of
shopping. We then had two sea days back to Port Canaveral. I got to eat dinner
with them every night so that was a real treat. We went up to the steakhouse
and got the special treatment! Overall it was a fantastic week and it was sad
to see them leave, but it meant I got to rest up.
For the month of May, I was nominated as team member of the
month. I thought they might have the party while Mom, Dad, and Kurt were there,
but it happened the following week. I was just honored and humbled to be
nominated and felt that I shouldn’t even be in the same room as some of those
people. I know I work hard, but everyone else that was nominated works even
harder than I do!! It was a true pleasure to be in the same category as the
rest of the nominees. I didn’t win, but it was still very cool to be nominated.
Last cruise we had a medical emergency for one of our crew
members and had to have him medi-vac’d off the ship. We had to change our route
and arrived back in Port Canaveral late Saturday so debark was a bit messier
than normal and we left late as well. But we are back in Cozumel today and back
on schedule. We also had USPH (United States Public Health) come on Saturday.
We have been waiting for them since March and they showed up when we were going
to have a mess on our hands already, but we passed with a 100!!!! Perfect
score!!! I’m so proud of our entire team and all the senior management for
keeping everyone on top of things even when they weren’t showing and we hoped
they did.
I now have less than 4 weeks until I’m on vacation! I’m very
excited and my body is ready. It’s going to be sad to leave, but I’ll be
excited to come back and see everyone again because I’m coming back here for my
next contract! I’m extremely ready to see everyone at home though and have some
quality lake time!!! J It’s concert season too!! Hope all is well with everyone at home! See
you all in 25 days!!
Smiles! <3
