Christmas cruise & Crayzee passengers

At last! Christmas is over! You know I thought joining on an Xmas cruise would be fine, and for the most part it was! But I forgot just how busy things were the last time I did it. 

Embarkation day, so this day starts at around 7am with the regular’ get off my ship’ procedures.  Then, we clean everything and prepare the ship for the next cruise, and then it all starts again. Now for the Xmas cruise of course there are decorations everywhere, and we had 3 girls dressed up and singing acapella carols as people board the ship. I distinctly remember one guy coming up the gangway and yelling ‘carols....really!’ Why the hell would you come on a xmas cruise and then complain about the xmas stuff..... I don’t get it! One guy explained later on that they had come to sea to escape xmas, well to be honest they would have been better off in their house, because we go full out cheesy xmas here.

Now to be fair, the Australian crowd is SO much nicer than the American, I’ve done over 2 years on American ships and the aussie passengers are simply here to have a good time, and thats exactly what they do. Amercian attitudes can be a little, shall we say challenging. Not all of them mind you. 

So myself and another staff member are the choir directors again and we directed the xmas choir for the past 13 days, somewhat stress full because didn’t have any of the music for the xmas songs so we were pretty much directing as we went along, it was pretty successful though.  However, I was expecting some good comment cards from the singers, they were full of praise after the show and yet we only got 1 official comment. We were a little peeved to say the least. 

Christmas day was insane, we started with mimosas in the office and bacon rolls, little bit of drama with kitchens but nothing major. Secret Santa happened, lots of fun, aided by mimosas of course. Then off to work, we did a ‘Ginger Bread House decorating competition’ very, very busy but so much fun! Also, all of the officers sang carols in the atrium, very cheesy but also, surprisingly fun.  

Now for some reason, on Boxing Day everyone was so miserable! My theories are that they knew they were going home in a few days and realised they were never going to experience my amazing enthusiasm, obviously.  But to be honest usually that does happen on an xmas cruise, for some reason that I really can’t think of, the day we get the most complaints is xmas day. Weird.

So now begis the new years cruise, lets see what crayzeeness this will bring!

Booze Cruise and start to Xmas season

What a crazy couple of days! I joined the ship a few days ago on a two day ‘booze cruise’ sailing from Sydney to Melbourne. I’ve never seen a cruise like it! Passengers are basically there simply to party, one passenger described it to me as a ‘cruise fix’. Cruising can be very addictive I suppose, is such a relaxed way of travelling. Everything is done for you right down to the finest detail, and its actually cheaper than travelling on your own due to all the stuff that’s included in your cruise price. So people do tend to come back again and again, we must be doing something right then.

Anyway, this short one was insane, the night club was going until 4.30 in the morning when usually due to the industries demographic of a more ‘senior’ clientele, the night club doesn’t usually even go until 1am most nights. Well, that and all the early mornings in port, people are slightly less inclined to party all night usually. However this one, right from the word go we were having problems with intoxicated passengers. For example during the safety demonstration we had 2 guys who wouldn’t take their life jackets off when they were asked, he was slurring all over me and smelt like a homeless person. He claimed he thought we were sinking. Anyway we dealt with it but that’s just one example of what happens on a ‘booze cruise'.

Ooh and speaking of the safety stuff, I’ve gone up in the world. I am now 2^nd in charge of my muster stations, this basically means its my job to check off the crew who manage the passengers when they arrive to make sure they’re all accounted for. And then if for some reason the 1^st in charge doesn’t make it to the station, I then take over. No pressure!

Oh yes, and I also have my own room now which was a nice suprise when I arrived, only because the office sent a guy and a girl as the juniors and obviously we cant share, I feel bad though, she has to share with a purser.

So yesterday we sailed out of Melbourne, Australia. Bound for New Zealand, and its the Christmas cruise! So far passengers seem very friendly, not particularly energetic but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But we did have to turn back to Melbourne after we had sailed because a lady fell in her cabin and injured herself so we had to get her to a hospital in a tender boat, fairly dramatic but such is the cruise life!

I’ve been talking to a few people who have been here for a few months and they say that this is a really quiet ship, and I can see where they’re coming from. The crew bar has been empty 3 nights in a row now, maybe that’s because its been a hectic few days at work I don’t know, but this is very disappointing. I’m used to crew bars having at least more than 5 people in them in the evening, regardless of work stuff.  Oh well, there’s a big crew turnover in the new year so maybe it will liven up, the people here have been here a long time so I suppose they’re over it

.

Anyway those are my musings, at least the jet lag has gone :)

See ya next time!

Flights, hotels and sun burn

So really quickly before my 30 mons of free Internet runs out.

Flight was okay, Korean Air very hospitable, top notch customer service. But really bad turbulence, particularly over the equator which is apparently normal.

Met a new friend in the hotel lobby since we arrived early so they hotel hadn't got our rooms ready yet, out of our frustration we bonded over a rant about hotels....very British of us but there we go.

We then decided not to waste the only full day of Sydney we will have this contract and went to visit the opera house and darling harbour. Had a fantastic time! It's crazy how you an meet someone in a completely random situation and then make an awesome day out of it.

Forgot to put a memory card in my camera though, my bad!

Completely unprepared for the heat, walking around Sydney all day and then experimenting with the hotels disturbingly unimpressive pool, has resulted in a mild case of lobster face. That'll make a good first impression tomorrow.

Now abusing the 30 minutes of free Internet in the lobby, after being disturbed in the shower by an impromptu fire drill by the hotel staff...fun fun.

Got a room mate for the night, from Canada. Teen Dj, nice guy.

Running out of net time now, so ciow xxx

And so it begins....

So I'm leaving for Sydney, Australia tonight.

I've spent the best part of 2 weeks packing for this and I'm still worrying about whether I've forgotten anything. All the familiar anxieties are kicking in, for example..

Will my bags be over weight?
Will the flight get delayed?
Will we get stuck in traffic and miss check in?
Do I have enough cash on me for food?
Etc etc etc

The thing is, after all this panic I know that once I get to my seat on the plane it wont matter any more. So the panic really wasn't worth making myself sick over it all. Still, its a family trait. We like to travel but when we do we turn into quivering wrecks!

Mother's been equally crazy in the last few days, since I'm leaving so close to Christmas she took it upon herself to throw a big Christmas party for the whole family yesterday. So instead of enjoying our time together in my last few days we've been stressing out and at each others throats half the time.

Anyway, right at this moment I'm trying to finalise my packing without the dogs seeing the bags, last time I got the suitcases out they literally sat in front of the door and refused to let me leave.

So tonight I've got a 25 hour journey with 3.5 hours in Seoul, South Korea to break it up. Flying with Korean Air, supposed to be pretty good but we will see.  Here's a taster.

Then a day and a night in Sydney so I'm gearing myself up to hit Sydney big time. If I've only got a day there I am going to make the most of it!  Plan is to get the train into the city, I'm making it my mission to see the Sydney Opera House up close before I join the ship.

So wish me luck, I'll post again once I've made it to the hotel.

Hmm I wonder if I will be sharing a room this time....