Late night take two, my birthday and dragonflies

I have been so busy the last two weeks!!!!

I have not denied my blog I just literally haven't had time to sit and update.

Okay so... Firstly the stockroom. There's been ups and downs through the last two weeks and its been a steep learning curve especially regarding dealing with managers and peers. I have got quicker at processing delivery and the last three deliveries we have got out between 10-11am so that's good. Sea Treasures stock takes a lot longer than Mickeys because its all clothing so that's a lot of hanging and folding plus the stockroom is jam packed with clothing so it's a struggle to find where to put things sometimes. I am still learning about priorities and what order to do things in order to be most efficient which just takes time. I have learnt how to say no to people which is a hard thing when people call you needing something for a guest... Instead of spending your evening running up and down the I-95 you have to tell them that the guest will have to wait and you can take the product up but not immediately otherwise nothing in the stockroom would ever get done... The guest doesn't suffer because often they can just come back after dinner or the show and it makes no difference to them or we can even deliver it to their room. 

Also, on Thursday last week I had to battle against the ship listing to one side for the whole of stores morning because the tides were weird or something and they had to counteract it so all the trolleys had a mind of their own moving away when you weren't looking! THEN on this past Thursday stores morning, we got attacked by dragonflies of all things! They open up the side of the ship into the loading bay so they can take on supplies and apparently a swarm of dragonflies came in... Thus we ended up with them flying around the I-95, in the loading bay and in the stockroom! Initially I thought it was only 3 or 4 in there but after a coworker got rid of 3 for me and then I found another one (eventually killed 36 hours later by Tyler and I plus help from some packaged clothing and a good aim)... And then I found two dead ones this morning (Saturday morning!) which took me by nasty surprise! Sooo all in all I guess there must have been at least 6 in there! GROSS!

Next... My birthday! Actually it was a bit of a non-event because a) I made it one and b) it was castaway day. This meant that half the crew were on morning like me but on the island (whilst I was on the ship) and the other half were afternoon (including nick and Clare) and then there was only about an hour of us all free at the same time before I had to go to work and then joined at 6.30pm by everyone else. Plus the evening shift was super busy so it really was a non-event. I wore a badge though and it was nice to be wished happy birthday by guests. I did go to the crew beach with Tyler in the afternoon and was joined by Chris and Claire so that was nice, I went in the sea and got sunburnt so it was nice for a few hours. Got some earrings and a charm from my mum and cards from Lauren, Tyler, Clare, the merchandise team and Captain Guus which was cool! 

Other fun things include the D-Lounge party we had (themed as wine and cheese) as a reward for good results from the captain. I wasn't going to go but it was a fun night in the end and we got two glasses of free wine, good times. We also got rewarded with another late night in Nassau! This was only at two days notice so I didn't put in dining reservation or anything. Instead I went to Atlantis with Nick and we played some blackjack and slot machines before meeting Tyler and Clare for dinner. It was very yummy at a place called Olive's. I had a flatbread thing with chorizo and then shared a dessert with Nick. It was nice to eat in the evening not on the ship for the first time in 3 months! We walked around the marina for a bit before going back and then we watched a movie for a while and I fell asleep of course. A few nights ago we also had a broadway night in the bar which was fun, main stage performers were going for it of course which was hilarious and impressive at the same time. I like that about DCL - entertainment crew will happily be friends with and interact with people like merchandise whereas in the parks it would be seen as very strange for that to happen. I guess it's because there's no "separate" area for entertainment on the ship unlike in the parks. There's lots of fun things coming up so watch this space for that!

Lastly something scary happened last night. After a rocky evening because of high winds and it being pirate night so it was busy with fireworks and stuff we all finished at about 11.45pm and went back to our cabins. I knocked on nicks door to say hi because he had finished early as it was pirate night as he is a pirate master and we were just standing chatting about to go to bed when suddenly over the PA with no warning was a "red parties, red parties, red parties" announcement - for real! I have never heard it without "for exercise only" preceding it. Basically there was a small electrical fire apparently and was nothing serious, it didn't impact guests at all but it was nevertheless a bit scary and exciting because we didn't know anything about it and for all we knew we would be summoned to our assembly stations so I had to stay in costume and wait further announcement just in case. They put the message out to the whole ship including guest staterooms so apparently about 20 minutes later there was a stand down and apology from the captain but I never heard anything in the crew areas. So at about 1am I went to bed satisfied I didn't need to be on guard to wear my lifejacket last night! 

So, all of that along with working 70 hours a week means I've been a busy bee!

All pinned out

The rest of the DVC cruise was as crazy as the first two days. I ended up in Whozits for the sea day which initially I was bummed about but then realised that I got a good deal. Firstly because it was less pin craziness. Secondly because it was a great place to have good chats with guests. Thirdly because sea day on that cruise was also pirate night so it was fun to have the pirate masters up there in the evening. However 13 hours in Whozits was super tiring... But I'm pretty sure we took one of the top amounts of money ever in there that day. Everyone on that cruise seemed to want to spend spend spend in all the stores. 

Ooh another huge highlight that day was the fact that my break fell at 11.30am for my lunch. Its a bit early really but then I realised it was perfect timing to get out on Deck 14 (the outside crew deck) and catch the drive by of Castaway Cay... and seeing the Disney Wonder! Last year I briefly saw the Wonder in San Francisco port but it was so amazing to see it from the Dream. Oh, and hear the horn battle!!! Its rare they get the chance to do this so I was super happy I was on break at just the right time. I even skyped my Mum during it so she got to hear some of it too! Anyway, we got out at 11.20pm that day which was nice and early because everyone was exhausted including the leaders. 

Wednesday was the final day of the cruise and we were back at Castaway. I was on the afternoon shift so I got lunch at the BBQ beforehand and then I was at the small store. It was alright just very slow. We got back around 4.30pm so I just bummed around before the last crazy shift of DVC. Finally it was done and I was so happy to crash out that night!

Since then it's been normal cruises full of screaming kids, Spanglish and craziness. On Sunday we had a rediculously small delivery of only 5 pallets (instead of more like 13) and so we all got done by 9.30am! Tyler and I ran to our cabins, changed and then ran to ginger dans car (who came to pick us up) and he drove us to disneyworld!!!! We went to magic kingdom for 3 hours - we saw dream along with Mickey, ate at caseys corner, I sneaked down to deployment to surprise Florida nick and say hi to him and then we saw MiSiCi parade before having a Starbucks and then driving back. Got back on the ship at 3pm perfect timing! It was an amazing day to get out of the ship bubble and have fun although exhausting haha.

 I also finally got confirmation of my newest role that I've been given... I am now going to be taking over the main stockroom for the stores. It mostly revolves around mickeys mainsail, sea treasures (apparel) and white caps (high end merchandise) whilst the crew shop and art gallery deal with stuff themselves. It's been known for a while to me that I would be doing this role but I had to keep it a secret because certain people had to be informed first. But now everyone knows so I can write about it. My role will be most crazy on a Sunday and Thursday because that's when we get our stock deliveries in at Canaveral. I have to start at 7am and we unwrap all the boxes from the pallets before piling them up to be scanned so we can ensure we have everything we should have. Then we sort them into trolleys to take up to the stores or trolleys to put into the stockroom. Tote boxes of clothing and random stuff have to be organised and then that evening/next day they are sorted, hung or folded in the stockroom.  

Its definitely more responsibility as I will be a key holder to the stockroom and have to know everything. I have to expand my knowledge and skills too so it's a challenge. It's gone well so far, I haven't been handed over the keys or wave phone (!) yet though. Thursdays delivery was a beast so we still have stuff to sort tonight from it. I will have less guest interaction but I still have to work in mickeys for show dumps and if we are short so I still get to do the guest thing too. 

I met Florida nick yesterday for lunch, we ended up in cocoa beach and had Thai food which was very yummy. Then he took me to Walmart so I have a cupboard full of snacks once more. My mum also just booked flights to come out and meet me in January when I get off the ship which is really exciting! I'm going to try and get us a few days on the wonder or the fantasy because I think that it would be fun to be a guest not crew for a while! 

It's my birthday in 9 days!