It’s been a little while, basically a month, since I wrote
last. It’s been a busy last few weeks here on the Glory. I will just get
straight into things…
So when I signed back on the Glory, my cruise director that
was here when I signed on originally had just signed off medically with some
back issues. So, our assistant cruise director (ACD) took over as CD (cruise
director). He had never acted as CD before so he was pretty nervous about
things. Well with him becoming the new CD that meant we needed an ACD to fill
in. The plan was to rotate the duty of being ACD between all the hosts. Well,
the head office heard about that and shot it down. They wanted one person to do
it so Kim who was the first one to do it, just stuck with it for a while. She
was to sign off on the 25th of August so that is when we would
figure out who would do it next. Well with it being my first cruise back since
my week vacation and all the other changes that were going on, I’d say it was
definitely going to be a cruise where we all needed to work together to get
things done. I was feeling very refreshed and ready for all the upcoming
challenges and I thought we handled everything that came our way pretty well.
When I say everything that came our way, some of you might think that sounds
like the cruise from hell. Well, it wasn’t quite, but it was pretty crappy,
literally! It started out as just another 5 day cruise to St. John and Halifax,
but ended on a bad note. We had a GI outbreak on board, which is never a good
thing anywhere, but on a cruise ship it really isn’t a good thing. I won’t
describe what it is, but hopefully you have caught my drift already. It is
highly contagious and on a ship it will travel real fast. Supposedly we ended
up with almost 6% of our guests on board with it and a big majority of them
being under the age of 18. They had to quarantine those who were sick to their
cabins, but that is only if they listened. We almost had issues docking in NYC
because our outbreak was so large that they wouldn’t allow us to dock, but
thankfully we were able to do so. There were talks about if things were worse
we might have had to all leave the ship and stay in hotels for a couple nights,
all kinds of rumors going around, but nothing came of most of them. FYI Rumors
travel really fast when you are on a ship because they have nowhere else to go.
We tried to get in early to start debarking guests so we could get the ship
cleaned and sanitized before the next set of guests go on board. This was also
the morning of my birthday! Happy Birthday to me! I got to get up at the crack
of dawn to get a bunch of sick guests off the ship! Oh well, part of the job.
Anyway, we did end up getting in a bit early, but no one was there to clear the
ship so we can’t let anyone off the ship. A lot of the times we port somewhere
and we will be on time, but it takes some time to get cleared. So we finally
started getting guests off about 630ish I believe, which was a bit earlier than
our normal 7am start. But, they had told us and all the guest they would be
ready by 6am, so you can imagine the amount of guests that came down at 6am
trying to get away from all the sick people. Let’s just say they weren’t too
happy and they just think that me and the other hosts do everything on board.
We are the customs officers, we tie the ropes off, we direct the guests, and we
get their luggage off the ship too, man if I could do all that I would hope I
would be paid a bit more. Haha Some guests are just too funny with the things
that they think.
Well I had a wonderful birthday in NYC and working of
course. Got to have some delicious pizza for lunch and then did a little
walking around NYC. With the GI outbreak we had last cruise we had to still be
very cautious of things. It was a pretty normal 5-day cruise. I got to go to
the steakhouse on board for my birthday with the host team as well a few
others. That was a nice treat. We also had a medical emergency on board that
required us to get back to NYC early again so we had another early debark
morning. The thing about the early debark mornings is that they tell everyone
we will be ready at 6am and then aren’t ready until 6:45am. You can imagine how
happy guests are that they got up early and still can’t get off the ship.
On the 16th Jason, our only male on the host team
signed off because he was selected to be on the inaugural cast on the Spirit
that is starting out of Australia in October! We were all very excited for him
and very jealous!! On the 20th when we’re in NYC I went to the top
of the Empire State Building with Josh, Andy, and Meechy! It was a blast!! It
was Meechy’s last day in NYC because she was signing off next NYC so it was
nice to hang out with some friends and do some sight seeing. I’ll post some
pictures so you can all see the view. It was a bit hazy so I wish it had been a
bit clearer, but oh well. I also wish I would have had a wide angle lens for my
camera but I can’t have it all J
The cruise of the 25th I was on duty so I
couldn’t get off the ship, which was fine. I always know before hand when I’m
going to be on duty. I actually kind of enjoy it even though your days are a
bit longer, you can really get to know some guests better. You create a
following of people that show up to all your activities. There was a huge
wedding reception happening on the cruise so they were all there for a good
time and followed me around for a lot of my activities it was a lot of fun!
Reminded me a lot of home and made me a bit homesick but I’m doing all right
now. Of course my duty cruise would not be complete without something
happening. This time it was a computer crashing and not just any computer, it’s
the computer that runs the automation for the production shows, aka a REALLY
important one! Without this computer, we can’t run our shows correctly; it is a
huge safety hazard. So that happened our first night at sea and we ended about
5 minutes short of the first show and couldn’t put on the second show because
of it. At that time we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to put on the
other two shows on the last sea day as well. It’s that big of an issue. We even
had to do bingo the old fashion way and turn the tumbler and let the balls roll
out. Haha, it was an eventful night that’s for sure. We did end up getting to
run the other two shows without the drops so that was nice because otherwise we
would have had to go to plan b which I heard is not very fun. But we all
survived and we didn’t have too much else happen the rest of the cruise which
was nice.
When I got back into NYC, one of the hosts, Laura, is
engaged and wanted to go wedding dress shopping so Dana and I went with her. It
was a lot of fun and she found a gorgeous dress!! We had some lunch and then
went back to the ship. It was a fun relaxing day and now I’m here in St. John enjoying
some time to catch up with everyone. It’s been so nice and refreshing. When I
get back on board there will be a new cruise director who will take over on
Monday when I get back to NYC. Should be an exciting time because there are
even more changes coming up! Only 34 days until Mom and Dad cruise! Yay!! 91
until I’m home and 117 until I’m back in Kansas!! I love what I’m doing but I’m
also very excited to see everyone again. Miss and love you all!
Love and Smiles,
<3 A
Times Square on my Birthday!
Looking uptown towards central park
Looking downtown towards the freedom tower
Me, Andy, Meechy, and Josh
