Turkey Day!

Happy thanksgiving to anyone that celebrates it! Even though I am British, I think it's nice to spend a day thinking what you'd like to say thank you for... So, for me, I am thankful for my parents and how supportive they are in whatever I do, thank you to my family for being there for me, thank you to my friends in the UK for welcoming me back whenever I get back there and for being people to do fun things with. Thank you for all my friends in the States and around the world as well as my new friends on the Cruise Line including New Nick who has been there for me through this crazy roller coaster 4 months. I am thankful for my job on the ship even though it's hard at times it provides me with a unique opportunity to work for Disney and provide memories for the guests on their vacations plus giving me experience for the future as well as obviously giving me money to live haha. 

Also, Thanksgiving means it's less than a month until Christmas! I sent my mum a ship ornament for the tree as well as some chocolate peppermint bark which came in a cute Disney tin but I have bought them presents to take home as well. I'm super excited for my mum to come and visit, fingers crossed a cruise on the fantasy comes up on the discounts list!! We just had a thanksgiving dinner in the mess which was good... Every now and again they do theme or recognition nights to thank the crew when we get good results so today we got a thanksgiving one. There was turkey obviously but I enjoyed the corn bread, real actual cheese, pumpkin cheesecake and PROFITEROLES!!!! One of my favourite desserts so that made me excited. 

This cruise is turning out much nicer than the last one. We switched the three and four day round this week so Sunday-Wednesday was the three day cruise and it was awful. The sea was so rough that everyone was suffering on Sunday and Monday night, we couldn't call at Nassau on Monday because we couldn't dock!! Two other carnival ships also didn't manage to get in either. We had to have an unscheduled sea day so instead of working 8-12 then 6.30-11.30 we actually worked 8am-12midnight ugh!! There was 55mph winds! The saving grace was on Tuesday we did manage to get into Castaway thank God. It was grey and raining in the morning but the sun finally made an appearance in the afternoon. The day turned better because they made a contingency plan incase it was another sea day (god forbid!) so they put on a matinee of Believe at 4pm!! Nick, Tyler, Stephen and I went to see it which was only the second time I have seen that show so that was awesome. Then at midnight we got to sneak into the midnight PremEAR at Sea of Frozen which was amazing!! One of the best Disney movies for a long time. 

Back to normality with the schedule from tomorrow with Friday Nassau (hopefully!). I have life raft training but a lie-in is still on the cards. I also finally booked my regular night off for December and my Donald recognition evenings (evening off!) so I don't work the nights of the 2nd, 17th or 30th yay! 

Makes it all worth it

I have had one of the most enjoyable evenings of my contract so far. As I am now classed as having a backstage role it means I don't do welcome line anymore and instead just end up with a random evening shift off and that was tonight... It was also pirate night! So I worked my morning castaway shift with Tyler and kamiko... We spent most of it sweating as we moved a lot of "equipment" I.e. Shelves and metal units to be taken off the ship in a few days because we have far too much of it. Once we were done at 12, Ty and I went over to the crew beach in the most gorgeous weather to have a (veggie) burger at the BBQ and enjoy some fresh air. We came back and I did some laundry and some sunbathing up on deck 13 which was full of crew as there were barely any guests on board. Once that was done, I washed my hair and straightened it before relaxing with a glass of wine and some nibbles.... I forgot how nice that was!  I felt more relaxed than I have in weeks! I went to deck 14 aft to see us leave castaway and took some photos of a pretty good sunset before going back to get ready for the evening.

Firstly I went to the shops to drop in a form as well as buy most of my Christmas presents... $240 later I was done! And that was after discount!! It should have been more like $380!! I am taking almost all of them home at the end of my contract though. But at least it's done now. I wrote my Christmas postcards today as well! Then I went to deck 11 to watch the cruise staff/fab 5 pirate show... It's so awesome I love it. Then changed into heels and met Claire to get dinner at royal palace. I only realised this evening that they change the menu on pirate night and all the restaurants have the same so it wasn't as good as the French inspired menu I had been expecting. Nevertheless I had pot-stickers for appetiser which were really yummy surprisingly. Then I had a pasta dish with scallops and shrimp which was good and a trio of desserts... Randomly I've had a couple before in the crew mess for late night snack haha! 

After dinner I went back to my cabin and was planning to go and see the pirate fireworks but I decided I was too tired so I got ready for bed instead :-) a lovely night off. 

And then it was Christmas!

The day after the Halloween cruise is done, the ship got transformed into Christmas in an impressive two hours between the cruise disembarking and the new 4000 passengers getting on board. To be honest the decorations aren't as over the top as I imagined... Not like the parks. We have a nice tree and garlands in the atrium as well as lots of wreaths over the ship. Merchandise, guest services, pool deck and housekeeping have to wear these Where's Wally style scarves that are red and white stripe. They'd be great if it was cold outside but inside the ship which is already warm it's not so great especially when you're wearing a jacket and pin lanyard as well.... Cruise staff have new activities for the guests for Christmas which I have yet to see but I'm sure are suitably cheesy!

We have new movies on the on demand including elf, national lampoon Christmas vacation, the grinch and apparently we will get home alone and things like that next month so that's good. I bought a pink Christmas tree for our desk but Clare my roomie doesn't want to decorate until after her birthday which is the 27th so we are waiting for that. 

Other than that, it's been same old same old. We got a massive delivery yesterday which I only got about half way through yesterday which is a bummer because now I have to try and find the time to get through the rest of the boxes whilst also working on stage as well. I only get the first night of the cruise exclusively in the stockroom unfortunately. The only difference of the cruises recently has been the weather. It's got VERY windy the last two weeks - there were gusts of over 50mph the other day. This means the ship has got very rocky especially on the first and last nights of the cruise. We actually had to do a last minute late night in Nassau on Monday of last week because the weather was too crap to leave so at 5pm we were about to get ready for work when the Captain came over the PA to inform everyone we would leave at 2am instead soooo the shops couldn't open hahaha. Night off for us! There was the risk that we would have to do an additional sea day if we couldn't dock at castaway the next day but lucky for us we didn't get an enforced 14 hour day because the weather cleared up enough to dock even though they were giving out ponchos on the gangway!

It probably contributed to working slower in the stockroom because it's harder to be productive when you're losing your balance constantly and bumping into the fixtures! 

Next week I have my night off on Tuesday... As I don't do welcome line anymore I get a night off per month. It's pirate night I think so I'm hoping to do my Christmas shopping, get dinner at Royal Palace with Claire and then see the pirate show. Maybe go take some photos of the Christmas decorations too.

This is my 50 day mark too... 50 days until freedom! It will be so wierd to go where I want, do what I want, not have work and drink as much as I like haha!

Happy Halloween from the Disney Scream!

Even though it is the 1st November, the whole ship is celebrating Halloween tonight as the guests have their Halloween/Pirate night and more importantly the crew have their Halloween party hosted by main stage and character performers which is sure to be very entertaining!! 

Confusingly I have spent the day getting ready for Christmas actually. We received all our Christmas goodies in yesterday during stores so Tyler and I volunteered to go into work today on the sacred Friday sleep-in day to help put it all out. With four of us it still took over three hours but there is some really good stuff and I'm sure it will all sell well. We had all the Halloween stuff on 40% off yesterday so there was lines waiting to go into the store but then I spent the whole evening down in the stockroom battling the movement of the ship which was rather violent last night! 

I'm trying to think what I have been doing and it's hard to remember because it all blurs into one. Generally my week goes something like this:

Sunday: embark day of the 4 night cruise. Start at 7am and receive all the stock onto the ship, sort it to go upstairs or into the stockroom. Spend a couple of hours unpacking stock and hanging/folding clothes then when everyone is done upstairs I finish at 11am-ish. Spend 11-3 either on the ship, using Internet at the terminal or going to Merritt Island Mall or Walmart. Back at 3pm, traffic control for guest drill at 3.40-4.10pm, spare time between 4.10-5.45pm then work from 5.45pm to 11.30pm which for me is in the stockroom unpacking boxes and processing delivery.

Monday: Nassau. Start work at 8/9am until around 12 doing stocktake (known as counts) and every other week we have to do crew drill between 10-11am as well. Spare time in Nassau between about 12-6.20 then work from 6.20-11.30pm.

Tuesday: Castaway Cay. I work doing stock pulls and tidying between 8am-12 and then free time from 12-5.20pm before work 5.20-11pm. If you work as a regular merchandise crew member then you work either 8-12 or 12-5 on the island and start work at 5.30pm or 6.30pm depending and finishing at 11.30pm if you're the later start.

Wednesday: Sea Day. Work in mickeys mainsail from 9am-11pm with two one-hour breaks. It's a killer. If you're the late shift on the island the day before then you work 10am-12 midnight instead on sea day.

Thursday: embarkation day again. Basically repeat exactly Sunday.

Friday: Nassau. Sleep in day!!! We don't start til 6.20pm so we get the whole day off basically. It's amazing. 

Saturday: Castaway Cay. Repeat from Tuesday except we all work until midnight whether you start at 5.30pm or 6.30pm. 

So that explains why I'm so busy! I work about 70 hours a week and I still don't know how I do it! 

Add in the trips to the crew bar, hanging out in the corridors, eating late night snack in the mess or in tonight's case the Halloween party in D-Lounge and you realise I really don't get much sleep. Your body goes into a state of being constantly tired which you get used to. I can't really lie down when I have relaxing time because I always fall asleep! Same goes for watching movies. Even if they put on a movie in the Buena Vista Theatre for us it always starts at midnight so I inevitably fall asleep! Nick has nicknamed me Granny because of my sleeping habits!