I'm still here!

I know the blog posts have become few and far between but it gets hard to find the time to sit down and write. I really should make more effort to contribute to my blog because not only is it nice to read back in years to come (as I have done with my Florida blogs in 2008 and 2010) but it's also nice for other people to read. I do occasionally get emails from people that have read my blogs about my time working for Disney or if they are going to embark on something similar, it's good to have a reference.

So, as a mid-year resolution I will try to blog more. This will make my friend Hayley happy who always stalks my blog and gets disappointed there is no new posts... ;)

So, I went back to the ship and within a couple of weeks a great opportunity came along and I got promoted to being the Guest Service Systems Coordinator. This job required me to check guests into the Onboard Check-In Program which is something we offer for guests travelling on certain airlines (Delta, US, JetBlue, American, United) and means that their boarding passes can be printed the day before leaving the ship and their luggage can be sent ahead of them - the last time they see it is outside the stateroom on the last night of the cruise until they get to the home airport and pick it up at the carousel. I also was in charge of the Deck 11 arcade - filling the machines, ordering stock and keeping it all in working order as well as tackling any guest challenges.

I LOVED doing the arcade... on a Port Canaveral morning once all the guests had disembarked it was like an oasis of peace up there on Deck 11, just mindlessly threading hooks onto the little toys and making sure everything looked pretty before the next 4000 guests came on board. The walk from Deck 3 forward to Deck 11 aft wasn't so fun - especially at 8.15pm on Pirate Night! Sometimes you had to run up there when the toys got stuck or if an arcade card wasn't working - haste can make the difference between a happy guest and a not-so-happy guest! It was also a great opportunity to make some magic, like the time I got challenged to a game of air hockey with a 8 year old (I let him win...) or giving out the free 10-minute game cards so they could play for a while longer without affecting Dad's wallet!

The Onboard Check In Program was also a fun challenge. It uses an automatic system which links to the airport bag handling company so random errors sometimes got thrown up and you'd have to try and fight the computer to make it work but if it did, it was a great relief. If you couldn't, and it unfortunately happened sometimes, you just had to use your best Guest Service skills to try and fix the situation... so, it provided some good challenges for me!!

So, I was really getting into the swing of this role when.... I got changed to Clearance Officer!

My next post will cover this role and the rest of my contract number 3!