I thought it was about time I blogged again, and I finally
found some time to do it in! I appreciate that my posts have been very much
more sparse than my first contract but in all honesty, there’s less to talk
about. I spend my time going round and round the Bahamas, eating at the same
places and doing the same thing every day. Every now and again there is the odd
day that is different and when you live the repetitive lifestyle that I do, you
appreciate those days – like today for example. I was welcome line for the
second time this contract and I ended up being paired with Ana, my roommate who
is actually finally into her last cruise of her contract. We were very lucky and
got the permission to eat at Palo this evening – it was SO GOOD. I feel like
the crew mess food has been worse this contract than last… or maybe it’s just
because I’m sick of it. At Palo I had the calamari for appetiser, chicken
breast (PROTEIN!!!!) for entrée with ricotta and pepper stuffing and then the
server went overboard for the dessert and brought us chocolate soufflé,
panacotta, tiramisu and then 4 scoops of different ice creams! The mango and
mint sorbet was amazing as was all the desserts really. This was all after having
the pancetta, parmesan, roasted peppers, breadsticks and garlic pizza bread
which preceeds the appetiser – and is my favourite part of the Palo experience
for sure.
After we were done at Palo, which coincidentally was the
first time I’ve eaten dinner in there during daylight – summer is finally here!
– we went to see the Golden Mickeys. I love the new cast, I think they are very
talented and so it was my second time seeing that show with Dream 7 as they are
known. The last cast were also great but these guys are my favourite I think! I
bought a couple of gifts from the stores afterwards and walked around and chatted
to a few people before coming back to relax in my cabin where it’s now almost
11pm and my night off is almost over.
One thing that is definitely different
about this contract is that I feel like I know more people around the ship –
officers, entertainment cast, random people like security and HR compared to
when I was here before. It helps that I’m the merchandise CAST representative
so I go to a meeting twice monthly about living issues and things like that so
I get to meet lots of the officers of different departments there and also now I’m
in the gallery I do crowd-control for the Captain’s Signing which means I get
to chat to the Captain twice a week which I find quite fun.
So yes, I’m not ignoring my blog, I just don’t want to make
boring posts saying how we went to Nassau again or Castaway Cay again… talking
of Castaway though… IT GOT HOT. Ugh. It’s okay when you do the morning shift
from 8-12 but afternoons are a killer. I think part of it is that all you do is
sell the same things – suncream, towels, buckets and the odd t-shirt and have
the same conversations with guests over and over all afternoon. Don’t get me wrong,
I appreciate being able to work on a beautiful island like that and of course I
still love working for Disney but it’s still a stamina test in that heat. When
I was at CAST meeting a couple of months ago, one of the carpentry crew members
said he wanted to thank his managers for letting them have “shore leave” at
Castaway for the finale of the Dream Olympics (aka the DCL Games) and it was
awesome to have gone in the sea at Castaway… i.e. it was his first time at the
crew beach. That alone made me appreciate being in a role on the ship which
allows me to visit the crew beach at least 4 times a month if not more, eat BBQ
twice a week on the island and enjoy the sunshine even if I am working… so I’ve
also learnt this contract to appreciate the good things I guess, even if
everything else is getting you down.
Nick and I have finally booked the good old All Star Sports
for our WDW vacation in August. Now just to work out the other details and we’ve
at least got the first part of our vacation sorted. Then to plan the England
part which is gonna be crazy!!
