One contract to the next...

It's been a long time since I posted... in that time, I've completed 7 contracts on Disney Cruise Line and I never dreamed I would stay that long! They say that cruise life is addictive and I can see why... One contract blends into the next with the phrase "just one more contract" being said more and more frequently! I have moved through the Guest Services department with some amazing experiences to my current position as a GSM - guest services manager... the position I dreamed of having when I applied for this job over 4 years ago.

I have been very lucky to have achevied as much as I have in a short time and some of that has been purely being in the right place at the right time and being the right person! I've been a GSM for almost 2 years now and I have had the fortune to experience the last 2 contracts as wedding coordinator and groups manager on-board which has been a whirlwind of cake, pouffy dresses and canapes!

I also had the opportunity to go to our sister ship, the Disney Wonder prior to it's recent dry dock and I experience 4 weeks of Alaskan itinerary as well as a repositioning cruise down the coast and then a 2 week cruise through the Panama Canal seeing Mexico and Columbia along the way!

All this being said..  the taste of travelling to new places has made me decide to put this blog to peaceful rest and start on something new where I can share my experiences of my travels to different places alongside my work. So, please read my blogs and enjoy... here's to the new one!

Officer Life!

A brief post to explain the differences between being an officer, a petty officer and a crew member as I realize that I refer to these terms a lot but with no explanations!

So, the ship is very hierarchical. The "lowest" level, as such, is a crew member. Whilst we all refer to each other as "crew", not all roles are theoretically crew members. These roles are mostly the ones which are not seen below deck - engine wipers, maintenance, deck hands for example - but also housekeeping host/esses, food & beverage host/esses including servers and custodials which are in guest areas - for example, pool hosts. All crew members in these roles share a cabin with either 1 or 2 other people and most of them do not have "guest privileges" which means they have to stick to using the crew areas when they are not working and cannot use the guest areas unless they are at work.

Next up is the "petty officers" - this is pretty much everyone in Youth Activities, Merchandise, Cruise Staff & Entertainment and Guest Services. It's pretty much the same as being a crew member except you get certain "privileges" meaning that you can use some of the guest areas such as seeing a movie in the Buena Vista Theatre or the evening show as long as the guests go first and there is available space - and of course you're dressed in appropriate Disney Look clothing. It does not mean you can eat the guest food or use their restaurants or restrooms. You also cannot use the main pools or the Aquaduck.

Finally there are "officer" positions. This starts at 1-stripe (on each shoulder!) and goes to 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4 (steering committee) and 4.5 (captain!). The main differences between petty officers and officers is that the officers mostly wear the white uniform that people are accustomed to seeing sailors wearing! Also, they get to eat in a different 'mess' which serves (slightly) more Western/rich food as it feeds less people than the crew mess. So, instead of getting pitta bread and hummus in a big bowl... you get stuffed pittas with a choice of chicken or beef ;) You also get a different type of cabin depending on how high up you are - one stripe officers get the same as petty officers but once you get 1.5 stripes you get a bigger room and then certain positions at 2 stripes and all 2.5+ officers get their own rooms, sometimes with a shared bathroom. Once you get to the 2.5+ level you might even get a window in your cabin!

Ultimately though, we all live under the same roof and everyone is very respectful of each other. You can all go to dinner in Cabanas - you just have to have the right form signed and sometimes be accompanied by a manager that's all! That's one of the things I love about where I work - everyone gets to enjoy themselves, even if it's just crew volleyball at the crew beach or an all-crew event in Cabanas. If you put the hard work in, you'll get fun out of it!

Who knows where a Dream might lead?

So, following on from my last post - one day I got called into the office to be faced with the Manager of Guest Services, the new Manager of Guest Services who was taking over imminently and the Assistant Manager of Guest Services.

With all three management people in a tiny office with me, my mind was racing - what did I do?!

Then the words "The role of Clearance Officer has become available and we think you'd be great in the job.... if you want to accept the role you will start in.... one minute's time."

I was pretty gobsmacked. I understand that this won't have much effect on anyone who hasn't been in a Guest Services department on a Disney ship but basically, it was my FIRST contract in GS, I was only 3.5 months in, and this was the biggest responsibility role without actually being a proper manager. I had to sign documents for the CAPTAIN!

I should explain what the Clearance Officer does... basically, you're in charge of the knowledge of who is coming, who is going, what cargo is coming onboard and leaving, anything being offloaded and any special circumstances surrounding docking and ports of call. You have to do the paperwork that will enable the ship to dock successfully and pass Customs. If you mess up the paperwork you could render the ship susceptible to fines and you'll definitely be in big trouble. This was a BIG challenge!

My first thought when I was offered the job was would I be capable of doing it? But with my managers support behind me, I took a deep breath and accepted! It was the best decision I made in my whole contract! I did the Clearance Officer position for the rest of the time onboard - approximately 8 or 9 weeks I think. During that time I had to deal with guests passing away, midnight docking at Castaway, NO docking at Castaway (too windy!), isolated crew and guests (I had to fill in medical forms every Bahamian dock), lots and lots of paperwork and finally, training my replacement when I'd only been in the job 6 weeks myself! All of that, along with the usual guest challenges, answering the phone and assisting in the Cabanas on Castaway Cay and with a couple of weddings in there too. What a fantastically busy way to end my contract!

This role did involve getting up early every single day - on Port Canaveral it was a 4.30am alarm clock, Nassau was 6.30am and Castaway was 6am. Sea Day I got a lie-in and got to wake up at 7.30am ;) To be honest, once I got used to the early mornings it was fine.

Passing on the role to my successor was actually quite sad. I felt I hadn't done it for long enough. Of course, I'm about to embark on my 4th contract on the Dream and 2nd in Guest Services which means there is opportunity to take on Clearance again - I'd happily do it. I enjoyed being in the terminal building on Port Canaveral days and getting to meet the Cast Members that meet our guests before they come onboard. Hopefully I will get to say hi again to all of them when I get back to the ship.

One of the best things which happened during the remainder of my 3rd contract was that my parents got to come and visit! They arrived in late February, stayed for a week, doing a back-to-back cruise. Because I was Clearance at the time, I couldn't see them in the mornings because I was working - but I got to see them every afternoon and even went to Serenity Bay with them on Castaway Cay. I was lucky enough to be approved to have Palo brunch AND Palo dinner with them which I was very appreciative for, as well as eating in the main dining rotation for the first cruise (3 night) as I finished at 8.15pm each night. That was an awesome advantage I was lucky to have, made easier by being an officer! Really, the only day I didn't see them much was the sea day as I had to work most of it.

Overall, I was very blessed with my 3rd contract  - I appreciated all the opportunity I got given and moving to Guest Services was the best decision I made whilst being on DCL. I will embark the ship again on 14th May for my next contract in the department and whilst I will be starting again as a Host working on the phones and the desk, I hope some more opportunity to step up will show itself and we we will see "where a Dream might lead".

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!

A pause

Well, exactly 2 months to the day I got on the ship - I got off it. Luckily it was only temporarily - for one week. Sadly it was a berevement leave as my grandmother passed away and I felt like I needed to go home and attend the funeral because I didn't want to feel so guilty and heartless by staying on a Disney ship smiling and laughing while my family were going through that at home. So I made the decision to go home for a week and support them and my grandfather. I am very glad I made that decision... I'm writing this post from my friend's house where I stayed last night before going to the airport marriott tonight before rejoining the ship tomorrow.

I left last Friday and had to go through all the normal procedures for debarking crew which was really weird because a) I feel like I only just arrived and b) I've only ever left on an ESTA not as a crew member so that was odd. Anyway, it was simple enough (except having to pack up all my stuff and move out of my room which was a giant pain... although it's looking like I might be able to move back into that room tomorrow fingers crossed) and I got the bus to the airport with everyone else. It being the week before Christmas and the black-out starting it meant that it took ages because there were loads of people leaving. When I got to the airport I wasn't going to sit around for 6 hours so I rented a car... after standing in a line for 30 minutes to get the keys and then driving all the way to Downtown Disney to discover it's a nightmare on earth with all the building work and stuff they are doing to the car parks I decided to go to the Florida Mall instead. So I went there and wondered around for a while, grabbed some food... I was super tired because I'd only had 3 hours sleep the night before.

The previous 4 day cruise before I got off the ship was a bit of a stressful one - the weather conditions were not suitable for us to dock at Castaway Cay so after several attempts the captain decided we would have a day at sea instead. Obviously this didn't go down well and it upset a lot of people especially because the Wonder was there the following day so we couldn't just rock up a day late unfortunately. This lead to the cruise being a long and tiring one - I left 45 minutes late on Thursday night and didn't clock out until 1.15am thus meaning I had to be up for immigration at 5am... and therefore getting 3 hours sleep.

So, back to my debarkation day - I was hungry and tired and generally ready to get home. After I returned the car, it was very smooth through immigration and getting onto the plane... I had an empty seat next to me and a 20 year old guy on the end seat plus there were no children around and everyone just really went to sleep. Including me... before the food had even been served. I woke up to eat then promptly fell back to sleep again and slept the WHOLE FLIGHT. I have never ever slept the whole flight especially without some sort of sleeping aid. It was AWESOME.

When I got to London I had to get the national express bus back home which was fine... it took forever but whatever. Then I got to spend the rest of Saturday and the whole of Sunday just relaxing at home with my family all together which is unusual in itself. Apart from the Christmas tree being up, we didnt really celebrate an early Christmas or anything but my Mum did give me a few presents to take back in my luggage.

Monday was the funeral which was an understandably sad day. Finally Tuesday I went to the Mall to get a couple of things and meet up with Hayley for a coffee which was really nice. I did laundry and packed up my stuff before going to get the bus back to London. Checked into the Travelodge at Gatwick which was fine and then went to the airport the next day to get the plane.

The flight would have been fine except the horrible child sitting in front of me who couldn't keep still, screamed the place down every time he got served food and kept letting off bad smells every half an hour. I made friends with the other people in my row who were from Scotland and we were laughing through the whole flight about this kid in front of me. FINALLY after watching 3 movies (eventually gave me an opportunity to watch One Hundred Foot Journey, Let's Be Cops and a great movie about Britain's Got Talent winner Paul Potts I think it was called One Moment) we landed.

Stood in a giant line at customs to be told I was going to Secondary Inspection - first time in my 16 times into the USA this has happened!! The lady exclaimed "oh, you don't need to come in here it's fine!" and then promptly couldn't find me on the manifest for incoming crew members on the C1D visa... cue a 15 minute phone call to Disney who also couldn't find me as an incoming crew member. I have changed at this point from laughing and joking to slightly freaking out before the Disney person on the phone said she'd finally found me. I have a sneaking suspicion it involved a call to the ship because it took forever. So, she gave me the stamp and off I went to find my bag.

The final drama took place at the luggage carosel... I'm standing there with it going round and round and I can't see my bag anywhere. I eventually went over to the woman who was working there and told her that I couldn't see it anywhere. She checked her list and watched it go round for a couple of minutes with me before telling me she had no idea. I start to freak out! Then she goes "You did travel with British Airways didn't you?"

Errrrrr... I travelled with Virgin Atlantic.

FAIL! It was so embaressing!!! We laughed about it and I went to the other carosel to retrieve my lonely bag that had been put to the side. Finally after 1.5 hours since we landed I left the airport to meet my friend who picked me up and we grabbed food before I came back to his house and crashed on the sofa. Annnnnd now I'm here. I think a brief visit to WDW is on the cards to see the Christmas decorations and then it's off to the airport marriott to continue my 3rd contract!

I'm back again!

Well I’m back here on the Dream and almost three weeks into contract number three… it’s going really well! I’m settled into my new department, they were all very welcoming and with every day I’m there I ask less questions so that’s good. It’s definitely very demanding… if merchandise was a country road then guest services is a highway! 

There’s a lot more responsibility in this department – firstly you’re handling money. That alone requires plenty of concentration and filling out forms correctly (if you’ve read my blog for a while then you’ll know my life revolves around filling out forms for everything!) and then we do things like change gratuities, move guests into different rooms, track down lost luggage, make housekeeping requests… all the way down to running around the ship to source carrot cake for a guest! No joke, I did that today.

I definitely feel there’s an element of being a server in this job in the sense that in both departments you have to constantly be thinking about several things at once, chasing up jobs that need doing and multi-tasking along with working out when you can fit things in. Even just right now I’m on my break but I know when I go back at 5.30pm there will be at least three things for me to do and several rooms to visit all around the ship to drop things off.

But overall I’m loving it. The schedule is much different to merchandise – you work either an early shift, mid shift or late shift… last week I was on the early shift so I started at 6-7am and finished at 8-9pm… this week I’m on the mid shift so I start at around 9am and finish anywhere from 10pm to midnight-ish. And then there is the late shift where you don’t start until about midday but you finish at 1-1.30am in the morning. Of course we are open 24 hours a day so we have one crew member who works a night shift… maybe one day I will be given the responsibility to do that. I hope so because it’s a good opportunity to show you can cope alone and also you get the whole daytime off!

Since I’ve been back we already had a character meet and greet with Mickey & the gang dressed in their Halloween costumes which was fun. I think we just have one more Halloween cruise which starts tomorrow and then… CHRISTMAS! I’m very excited for the festive season this year! We also had our crew Halloween party which was great fun – I went as a 90s kid but I saw some great costumes… Russell from Up, a ghost of the titanic survivor, lots of clowns, frozen Anna, Pocahontas, Rapunzel, Jasmine, lots of witches, the joker from Batman, a box of Crayola crayons, the list goes on. Everyone makes a lot of effort for the Halloween party and that’s no mean feat when you have limited access to shops and creative sources like glue, glitter, make up and paper! We have a recognition party on Saturday to reward us for some great results for past voyages and we even have a dinner in Cabanas coming up… I will be starving myself in preparation. We also just changed our schedule and now we are in Port Canaveral on Mondays and Fridays… so nobody knows what day it is now, I have to actually think about even where we are each day! I can’t get off the ship much now I’m in GS… in 3 weeks I’ve only been off the ship twice – once in Nassau and once in Port Canaveral.

The only thing that has been weird so far this contract is the fact Nick isn’t here. He gets back in 3 weeks. It’s been good to be able to adjust to my new job before he gets back but I will look forward to hanging out with him once we are both back here together. My mum and dad have just booked flights to come and sail on the Dream in February – super excited!

Here we go again... contract number 3!

Quick update before I go back to the craziness of the ship in 3 days time! As requested by my friend Hayley, I will try to update more often (easy to say, hard to do on the ship!) but I might move towards more specific blog posts because my life is very repetitive! It's also quite hard to keep within certain guidelines about posting... as you can imagine the world is a very open place with the internet and blogging at our fingertips and it's all too easy to get into trouble when you're posting about a company such as Disney. I love working for Disney so I am not negative about the company but remember, my opinions are just that - my opinions. They are not official word on behalf of the company and so I have to be careful :)

Anyway, what I can say is that I'm returning to the ship.... AS GUEST SERVICES!!!! This is the role I've always wanted to do whilst working at Disney, preferably in the parks of course but that won't happen right now so the ships are the next best thing! Also, they didn't change my start date (this saturday, 12th Oct) and they only shortened the contract by two weeks so I finish on the 20th March 2015 (prospectively of course!). Nick finishes his contract on March 7th I believe so we will overlap 6 weeks on vacation which is pretty awesome.

 If things go well in this new department I'd like to work the contract system to be able to get off for Christmas 2015 - that would be amazing! It's all about planning ahead and swapping end dates usually. This year I'm missing my 4th Christmas in the UK in a row which is a bit of a bummer... it's definitely the biggest sacrifice you make working on a cruise ship - not specifically Christmas but those important family events throughout the year; birthdays, weddings, days out, holidays etc. Celebrating Christmas aboard the ship is still fun and we come together as the Dream family but nothing beats getting up early, eating chocolate for breakfast, unwrapping the presents, having family Christmas lunch, watching the Queen on TV and rubbish Christmas movies all day - whilst it's cold and windy outside!

Anyway, so I get a new costume which is a white skirt with black (Hogwarts-esque) blazer and the same shirt underneath I wore in merchandise. Also with the new role comes varied shifts at last so not the same thing week in week out. It does mean I will not have as much time in port, will work a few more hours and probably will end up on night shifts at some point as guest services is a 24 hour a day role. I also get to NOT do cycle counts, deliveries or traffic controller duties running up 9 decks of stairs twice a week which is rather exciting!! I'm sure there are the equivalent things in GS that are less exciting but I'm ready to discover them.

I also get a cabin a bit further up the I95 and obviously a new roommate who I don't know probably so that's a nice air of mystery to be revealed on Sunday! Bring on the new chapter...

Vacation...finally.

Well I know I didn't post for a while but it was mainly because I was so focused on getting to the end of my contract and once you get into the last 6 weeks it is just a case of counting down and maintaining your energy and stamina! I started packing 2 weeks in advance because I was so eager to get off the ship but now that I've done 6 days on vacation, I'm ready to go back haha!

Going through the debark procedure was a lot more straightforward than before, because I knew where to go and who to find. It was sad to leave Nick behind on the ship but I went back to Canaveral 4 days after I got off so we went for lunch which was nice... and hopefully I'm going back there next Thursday to see him again.

I managed to work the system pretty well and use my Donalds (shift off recognition reward) for 2 of my 4 last Castaway shifts as well as being Welcome Line on my last cruise which was great! When I got off the ship, Florida Nick came and picked me up and we got Cheesecake Factory before going to Downtown Disney (which is a total mess right now thanks to all the revamp they're doing) and we went to see a movie called Into The Storm which was really good - like a new version of Twister!

Then I moved into the All Star Sports for four nights which was okay. I was using the Disney transportation which I quickly remembered is pretty horrible especially after park close but seen as my number one aim of this vacation was to not spend too much money, I had to deal with it. On Monday I headed out to Magic Kingdom as my first stop (of course). New Fantasyland is finished now which is good, no more cranes to be seen, however there are walls up all around the castle because they're making more standing area which in the long run will be a good thing. I tried to use the new Fastpass + system but I don't like it too much so far just because as a Cast Member, I can't book them in advance online and that means I either stand in the (longer) stand-by lines or I can choose from the Fastpasses that are left which are generally for the less popular rides and/or the less popular times of day. Either way, I ended up doing Pirates, ate lunch at Columbia Harbour House, did Jungle Cruise, saw the brand new (and AWESOME) 3pm parade Festival of Fantasy, saw Philharmagic and walked around the shops before leaving and going back to the hotel. Chilled at the hotel for a couple of hours before then heading out to Hollywood Studios with the idea of seeing the new Frozen themed fireworks however when I got there I realised how crazy busy it was especially as it was EMH. I got pizza and went on Star Tours (old habits never die) before deciding to bypass the hat/fireworks area and go on Tower of Terror, saw Fantasmic and then did Aerosmith on single rider. It was midnight by the time I got back to the hotel so I was pretty exhausted!

On Tuesday I wanted to go to EPCOT and I arranged to grab lunch with Tyler before he went to work so I got to the park at about 12.15pm and we got chicken nuggets. He went to work and I went to chat to people at the Rose and Crown which was fun. I walked around the whole world showcase, enjoying the chance to take it all in without having to rush anywhere but I decided not to do any rides whilst I was there because I was still tired from the day before. I probably should also mention that this week has had almost record breaking temperatures in Orlando, between 97-99 F each day with a heat index of 110-120!!! So, I called it quits and went back to the hotel and literally lazed around for the whole evening.

Wednesday, I decided to go to Animal Kingdom. I got there at about 11.30am and went to see the Festival of the Lion King in it's new location which is much more spacious. Then I got lunch at the quick service Yak & Yeti which was ok, did front row single rider Everest (awesome!) before going to do Dinosaur. I had a mickey bar whilst waiting for the Fastpass for Nemo I had got when I got into the park. When I was half way through the show I realised I had mistimed my day and I should have left the park at 3pm in order to get to the Dolphin resort to pick up my rental car at 4pm - oops! I couldn't get out of the show until 3.40pm and so after rushing to the front of the park and hoping the bus was there (it wasn't), I called Alamo and they sent a shuttle to pick me up... so I ended up getting my little Toyota Yaris from the WDW Car Care Center which was pretty painless in the end.

With some wheels in my possession, I went out in the evening to get food (Chick Fil A) and stop by Walgreens for a couple of things.

Thursday, I had to pack up all my stuff and put it in the car (took three trips to the room!) before driving to Port Canaveral to meet Nick. I picked him up and we got lunch at Fish Lips for a couple of hours before he had to go to work. I drove over to Cocoa Beach and looked around the giant Ron Jons before heading back to Orlando and going to the Premium Outlets to kill some time. I got my sister a pair of UGG boots (the equivalent to £85 instead of £140 in the UK!) and bought a couple of things in Charlotte Russe before Florida Nick called and said he'd got home. I was staying at his apartment for a few days so I drove over to meet him and we went out to get Thai food.

Yesterday, Nick went to work and I went out to a shopping mecca called Winter Garden Village to find me some Panera Bread for lunch :-D I'd been waiting for 8 months for Panera! They really need to open one near the Port, they'd do great business. I got a bit distracted there and ended up going to a few stores including Bath and Body Works. Eventually I left and drove to Magic Kingdom where I was determined to do the Mine Train now it is finally open after 2 years of waiting... well, it was good. But just good. I waited for an hour (which isn't too bad considering some of the lines it's had) but I was sandwiched between two particularly annoying families and it was about 100 degrees so I was melting. After I got off the ride I went to Gaston's Tavern and got a Le Fou's Brew. I've tried to cut out drinking anything other than water (in my fancy new water bottle with a Brita filter in it) in the parks in an attempt to stay healthier and save money but I made an exception for Disney's version of Butterbear because it's also really good. After that I went to see the line for Space Mountain which said 30 minutes but ended up being nearer 50 minutes (thanks again to Fastpass+) but it was still great to do it. Nick got off work so we went to EPCOT where we'd been for about 10 minutes when the heavens opened and we got trapped in France for 45 minutes waiting for the storm to pass. I was hoping for a lower deck table at the Rose & Crown for dinner but because of the rain, we ended up sitting inside. We finished eating in perfect timing though and saw the fireworks from the viewing area which was great. I had the cheese plate, fish and chips and the bakewell tart - the food was great! It's definitely improved from when I was there especially because they've gone back to the classic menu. Also, our server introduced herself and then instantly told me she'd read my blog which was hilarious!

Today I have just chilled out. We went to the pool in the apartment complex and now I've just spent the afternoon using (FREE) internet and watching TV... yay for vacation!

8 weeks to go!

Sometimes it feels like the week will never end here… and the rest of the time you wonder where the time went. The week is a blur of stores mornings, counts, Castaway Cay, seeing the characters, napping, See Ya Real Soon and of course, selling paintings. My point is, I only have 8 weeks left! Actually, 7 weeks and 4 days after today. I even got my flight details which is a little bit crazy! They won’t give me the return flight yet though because my medical runs out during my next proposed contract so I have to get it updated during my vacation time and then they will give me the rest of my flight details. 

A few things have changed since I last posted… Nick got a new job as HR training officer which is super exciting for him – it means he has taken on an officer role, thus now walks around in “whites” with 2 stripes on his shoulders J He also moved cabin to the other end of the ship so it’s a little bit weird to not have him just down the hallway from me. It seems to be working out so far – it’s a new challenge for him which is good. On the slight downside it means that his contract got extended again so now we don’t finish on the same day anymore… sad face. Our vacation in Orlando is no longer – so I have to find people to hang out with for 2 weeks as I’m not changing my flight home and so I’m not going to lie, I’m a little disappointed that we won’t get to go to Disney together. Then he was supposed to fly to England to see me which will still happen but just a little bit later in the month but unfortunately our already-booked trip to Disneyland Paris will have to be undertaken with someone else. But hey, these things happen and ultimately the pros outweigh the con that our vacation will be rearranged because it gives Nick such great opportunity.

In other related news, I have put it to “career navigate” which basically is a posh way of saying move department. I do enjoy the team in merchandise and the perks of the QIP payment and less hours compared to other roles is really nice but the job doesn’t challenge me at all and I want to learn something new, so I have put in to change to Guest Services. We will see what happens, I am happy to trundle along in merchandise for now but I thought I’d take a step out the very comfortable comfort zone I found myself in and see what happens.

I’m doing pretty well in saving money this contract – I’ve really resisted buying stuff on the ship. This is helped by not working in the Deck 3 stores because that’s where the temptation comes in! I’ve made a list of the stuff that I want to buy as gifts for people and I’m going to try to stick to that especially as now vacation will probably cost me more as I won’t be able to split the cost of stuff between two people.

We’ve had a couple of trips out this contract, we got to go to Downtown Disney about two weeks ago which was awesome!!! We got about 2.5 hours there which actually was just about sufficient because I went to World of Disney, then had lunch at Earl of Sandwich with the other Nick, then Tren-D, the kitchen shop, Art of Disney (which I now have a whole other appreciation for because I basically work in one) and finally grabbed an ice cream from Ghiardellis because getting back  on the bus to come back to the ship. We also did a trip to the Premium Outlets a few weeks ago and Nick went to Mall at Millenia but I couldn’t make that one because I was welcome line.

And an obligatory weather update, the weather at Castaway Cay has got to disgustingly hot level. Yesterday it was 95F (34C) with 1 mph wind… i.e. NO BREEZE! It was vile. It takes all your energy out of you – I’ve never been a fan of powerade and stuff like that but I can’t get through a shift there without it! 

Almost (half way) there...

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!!

Quarter of the way

Well, the contract is progressing… I am about 6 weeks in now which means about a quarter of the way through. Apologies for not having updated this blog more but to be honest, I go round in circles twice a week to the same places so nothing much out of the ordinary happens!

We have started the DCL Games which is basically the Dream’s Olympics. Each department makes teams to enter into the events… we are entering in dodgeball, football, trivia, scavenger hunt, weight lifting and volleyball as well as anything else I don’t know about! I am only actually taking part in trivia… as we know, physical sport isn’t my thing! We went to watch the volleyball at Castaway Cay on the crew beach yesterday which was hilarious… merchandise got slammed by entertainment so it was a pretty quick game! It was cloudy in the morning but the sun finally came out in the afternoon and I was finally a morning shift yesterday so it was the first time I’d got to the crew beach since being back. We chilled out in a hammock for a while after the volleyball and Nick carried on playing some friendly games. The weather is really variable at the moment – last week it rained at Castaway then the sun came out after 3 hours and burnt me so much I could barely stay at work! Luckily the sunburn has faded now so that’s good.

We had a late night Nassau last Monday which was good. Nick and I were proper guests for the evening because we first went to see Villains, then ‘So you think you know your family’ in Evolution, then we had dinner at Royal Palace then we watched The Dreamers performing in the Atrium before going to see ‘Match your Mate’ in Evolution at the end of the evening. It was a really nice evening. I got to have the Grand Marnier soufflé that I had at Royal Court on the Fantasy and it was just as good as I remembered!

I’ve been avoiding getting off the ship very much so I can save money. I just sent home $1000 so that’s a good start but the rest of my wages I’m going to keep in dollars I think. 

Nick 1 came to visit me on Sunday with his friend Breckan who used to work on the Dream too, she was in YA. We got lunch at Chilis and then they took me to Walmart which was awesome. Other than that and a couple of trips to McDonalds in Nassau I haven’t really been off the ship that much since my last post. We have a new thing called In Port Manning where a certain amount of people have to stay onboard on port days so it kinda limits you anyway – my days are alternate Mondays and Thursdays. Tomorrow is an IPM day for me but I got scheduled Welcome Line so that’s all good… then on Friday I get to lie in again… and then Saturday I have a Donald scheduled for my Castaway shift so no working on the island for me! This three day cruise should be lovely!!

I can’t remember if I mentioned it already but I am in yet another location now – the art gallery on board. This has been a great opportunity to learn new things about a different kind of merchandise as well as HOW to sell things. It can get a little quiet at times but today’s sea day has been rather busy! Talking of which I had better get back to it…

Back to ship life!

Another sea day, another blog post!

So I've been back on the ship for just over two weeks. Not much has changed really and I've slipped back into the lifestyle reasonably easily. It is always a shock to the system to go from sitting around to working 70 hours a week with much less sleep!! The weather has been very variable but we've just about made it to Castaway every time... thanks to Captain Guus. All the other ships seems to have been less successful with the winds so that's good. I've been off in Nassau twice - once for McDonalds and McWifi and once to go look around the Disney Wonder. Thats means I've stepped onto all 4 ships now which is awesome.

They have a new rotation where about once every 4/5 weeks you stay onboard for a Canaveral shift to work in Whozits & Whatzits or Quacks which is open for guests when they've first got onboard. I have done it once and it went quite well actually - the guests are excited to be onboard :-) I am aiming to save more money this contract so actually working on port days is a good way of doing this haha.

I shared my cabin with a Brazilian girl called Juliana for the first two weeks and was on the other side of the i95 to the usual place... next to a watertight door. I didn't like being that side much and the bathroom always smelled funny. Anyway, I put a request in and now I've moved back into my old cabin 10712 with Ana, my old roomate. So far so good. I also spent my first two weeks in Sea Treasures which was very different to Mickeys Mainsail. It pretty much only sells clothing and a few home items. It was much slower paced and there was hardly any tidying to do which sounds great but I know I have to be the kind of person to be busy all the time so I think I preferred Mickeys... and that's where I got moved back to on Sunday.

I am hoping to eventually end up in White Caps which is the duty free high end store with the handbags and jewellery but we will see what happens!

I'm hoping to find some time to do more fun stuff at Castaway... we already went snorkelling on a catamoran which was fun even though the sea was a little bit cold. Next up I want to rent a bike and cycle round the island!!

I'm back!

Well, it's been a while but I am back for a quick update!

As I last wrote, I made it to the end of my contract... the next day was much easier than I thought. I realised the key was to go to do everything 15 minutes earlier than they said, which meant I beat the queues of the other 150 people getting off (biggest debark group for the year) so I got my luggage scanned at the x ray machine, picked up my final pay, settled my crew account, said goodbye to everyone and then went to D-Lounge. As I was getting off as a guest on an ESTA it meant that I was the first crew to get off the ship so that was easy and suddenly... I was free!!!!!

It honestly felt amazing to get out of the terminal building and know I didn't have to go back at 3pm. I was excited for vacation, the sun was shining and I was super happy to be off the ship after the most crazy last two weeks. I waited around for Nick 1 to pick me up and then we went to his house. He had work in the afternoon so I just tried to sort my luggage out (packing in a tiny cabin is a nightmare by the way) and then had a bath (amazing) and fell asleep on the sofa watching TLC.

So, I had a lazy few days around Disney - caught up with lots of my friends who were in and around Orlando which was nice. Then on the Thursday my mum flew in from England and we checked into the Caribbean Beach Resort. It's okay, better than I thought it would be but it is huge. We had a pirate themed room which was cool. On the Saturday we went to Port Canaveral to join the Disney Fantasy for a week!

It was awesome going through the embark process as a guest! In fact, the whole cruise was awesome. We went to St Thomas and St Maartin, did port adventures for both to explore the ports. We ate SO MUCH FOOD which was yum yum. My favourite thing was the Palo brunch which was on the last sea day, incredible. We also had Palo dinner as well. We went to Castaway Cay and it was a little cold but Mum seemed to like it. Pirate night was fun. We had a nice room with a balcony which was so nice to go and sit out on. Overall it was just a great experience!!

After that I flew to California where I met Nick 2 and we had another fantastic week. We stayed in a hotel about 15 minutes from Disneyland which was such a big room it was more like an apartment. We went to Disney a couple of times, went to Magic Castle (which is an invite-only restaurant/magic experience... pretty cool!!), went around the Santa Ana/Anaheim Hills area and mostly just relaxed and caught up on sleep. Sadly, after a great week I had to go home and finally got back to Bristol where I stayed for the next 5 weeks not really doing much - going to the gym, staying inside from the horrible weather and catching up with people before I left again.

We went to the Harry Potter Warner Bros studios which was awesome as well. All too soon it was time to pack up again, do three more flights (thanks Disney!) and get back to Orlando. On return, I went to Citricos with Nick 1 and Eric before joining the ship the next day... more on that soon!!

I did it!!!

I survived!! 

So my last two weeks of my contract were even more crazy than normal because of Christmas and new year... Sound familiar? Yes, I finished this contract at the exact same time as EPCOT so had a similar experience at the end. We went back to having the sea day on a Wednesday which I've decided I don't like as much as having it on a Monday. Christmas Eve we didn't end up finishing until quite late so we just had a drink at the bar and then called it a night. Christmas Day was the sea day and I was on my last day as Fairy Godmother in Training so that was quite a long day but we had some nice conversations with guests. Lots of chocolate and sweets were involved. I found the guests more sympathetic that we were away from our families and stuff on the cruise line versus in the parks so that was nice. 

Boxing Day was canaveral and we had quite a large delivery so that was busy. I rotated into the zone in mickeys that had quacks which is our small stall out on the pool deck and the location of the sculls and scurry make up. So on pirate night I retrained Amy up there and that was fun. New Years Eve was pretty awesome... Some of us finished at 1030 and started at 9 then next day and some finished at 1130 and started at 10am... I was one of the "lucky" ones that finished at 10.30pm so Tyler came round and we, along with Ana, shared some bubbly and watched half of the ABC Christmas Day parade on demand which made me super excited to go back to the parks! Then at about 11.15 we headed to Deck 11 where we watched the entertainment and saw the fireworks which was awesome. Then we went to deck 1 aft which had been decorated out really well by guest services and was a fire and ice theme so one half of the loading bay (because that's what it really is!) was the bar and themed like ice and the other half was the dancefloor themed like fire. It was good but we were tired and had already enjoyed the night really so we just stayed a while and then Tyler and I just chilled out in my cabin until about 2am then called it a night. 

New Years Day was somewhat of a struggle!! The whole crew were tired and the guests equally so! I was in sea day quacks for half the day so I went straight to the stockroom at 9am and then restocked the quacks location before staffing that up on the pool deck until 3pm. It was quite fun and I had some good chat with the guests... It was a killer watching all the food coming out of cabanas and Flo's though!! After that I went back to mickeys until midnight... Yes my New Year's Day was a shift from 9am until midnight! Memorable! 

The rest of this week has been rediculously easy in comparison. The next day I was on welcome line so that was super easy - I went and saw the golden mickeys in the evening before napping and packing. Yesterday we were off the whole day as it was Friday Nassau so I went to McDonald's then worked in the evening. Today I had to work 8-10am helping the crew shop but then I was done for the day because I am leaving as a "guest" so I can't work for 24 hours before I leave the ship! Ha! I did three trips up and down the ship returning all my costumes, returning my micros card, payed my account off at the crew office and signed the Bahamian book which is some customs thing. I also got my key to the world card so I can debark as a guest. I decided to go and see frozen at 3pm (4th time!) for something to do and when I returned, Ana was freaking out because guest services had been trying to contact me... Turns out they mis-marked me as off the ship so thought I was still on the island! While I went to guest services to sort that out, security phoned my cabin to ask Ana if she had seen me which thankfully she had otherwise I would have delayed the ship leaving as they would have thought I was still there! Oops! 

That brings me to now. I am just killing some time before going to see Believe tonight which I'm super excited for as it's the show I have seen least... Only twice. I've pretty much packed everything now. I just have to take my luggage to be inspected by security tomorrow, attend immigration at 5.30am ugh, settle my pay check at crew office, get a manager to check off my cabin and finally say goodbye to everyone.

So excited!!

Merry Christmas from the Bahamas!

Okay so it's still a couple of days before Christmas but I don't know my chances of getting online for blogging so here is my festive post. 

Nothing much exciting has happened since I last posted... Well, nick went on vacation last Sunday which has sucked. It's very strange to see someone literally every single day and then for them to disappear almost in a puff of smoke! I keep expecting him to be on the phone when it rings or to come knock on my door. I've kept busy since he's been gone considering its Christmas which is lucky... The 2nd day after he left we had the worst counts session ever because everyone kept getting their numbers wrong and it just sucked... We left at 3pm!! We used to get out around 11-12 even with crew drill in the middle but 3pm is plain rediculous. Then I had less than 3 hours off before going back to work for pirates. Seen as nick has now left and he was the main pirate master, I have done it every pirate night since so after our short break it was time for pirate night... Then after work was done we had midnight gingerbread house making! That was a lot of fun, my house eventually collapsed because I put too much candy on it. The bummer was that cabin inspection was the next day so we were not allowed to take it back to our cabins, hence we stuffed our faces until we felt sick then enjoyed destroying them.

Wednesday was castaway as the itinerary has switched around at the moment and the sea day is on Mondays. I was actually on a Donald in the end because I couldn't have the planned one on Tuesday night as it was pirates. I slept in a bit and then left with Tyler because it was cabin inspection anyway. I went to castaway and got pretty fried in the sun for two hours before having BBQ lunch and then heading back to wash my hair and boring things like that. 

Thursday I saw florida nick as he came to visit. I signed him onto the ship and gave him a quick tour and then we got longhorns for lunch yum.

On friday I got news from my mum that she's booked the Disney fantasy for a week in January when she comes to visit me!! I get to be a guest for 7 days!! I already put in for palo dinner and brunch reservations. My vacation plans are finally coming together, I will spend 4 days in Orlando with Florida nick and his roommate Eric then my mum arrives and we have a day in Orlando before going on the cruise for 7 days then she flies home the day after we disembark. Then i will fly to California on the same day as she goes home to visit nick and then I fly home a couple of days after getting back from that. God knows what I will do at home! 

So I guess quite a few exciting things have happened this week really. 

The weekend was pretty standard. We had a late night meal for merchandise Christmas celebration which was ok... Not as good as the last one though. We have a tacky sweater party tonight in the crew bar then tomorrow is Christmas Eve!! They are putting on a midnight mass which I would like to attend if I get out in time then the crew bar is Christmas music... See how tired I am! Wednesday is Christmas Day but also a sea day so it will be a crazy one...

So I would like to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my friends and family, I can't wait to be home and see everyone again. Not long!

3 weeks to go!

I can't believe I'm finally on the last leg of my contract. Since thanksgiving everything has been reasonably as normal... The seas calmed down a lot so we haven't had any more bad weather like on my last post. I don't know if I mentioned it but Clare moved cabins (to next door actually) so I ended up with my own cabin for a week which was amazing. You never appreciate your own space until you work on a cruise line! Then on the 1st Ana moved in... She's from Portugal and an absolute sweetie. She's so nice and quiet and easy to live with so I'm really happy about that because we will share until I leave. However I was coming down with a sore throat when she moved in and then I had my night off on the 2nd and I literally just slept for the whole evening. It felt like a waste of an evening off but I didn't have any dining reservations, nobody else was off and I felt rubbish so probably a good thing in the long run. In the end, I tried to take vitamins and sore throat stuff for a week before giving in on the Saturday and visiting the doctor for the second time this contract. She said it was an upper respitory system infection, gave me antibiotics and Saturday night off. Again I spent it sleeping and it took a few days but eventually I felt better in the middle of the week.. I think it was just the result of pure exhaustion to be honest. 

The following weekend I talked to my manager and decided to give up stockroom. I had wanted to give it up before Christmas anyway because I'm leaving in January but we found someone that was keen to do it and so it was all swapped before I could catch up with myself. It did mean that I ended up as fairy godmother in training which I saw coming! I had the training 4 months ago but they only just found me a costume so now I'm spending most of my time as a FIGIT. I do makeovers to little girls where they get basic make up, glitter, face gems and pixie dust - it's a smaller version of Bobbity Bobbity boutique as they have at WDW and the fantasy. It's fun but you have to stay in character constantly and really give a lot during your shift... Still I'm preferring it to being in the stockroom. Don't get me wrong, I learnt a lot during my time as stockroom but towards the end I found it very stressful and I didn't really have much support from the rest of the team so it was difficult. The girl that has taken over has done an awesome job so far and whilst making me feel like I was rubbish in there, it's good that the stockroom is getting sorted in time for Christmas, new year and the inventory which happens in February. 

Moving on from that anyway....

We had another late night Nassau. It's unheard of with captain Henry but we passed our inspections and coastguard with flying colours so it was the crew reward. I didn't manage to get palo reservations like I had hoped but Tyler, nick and I went to Hard Rock Cafe and had dinner and a cocktail before going to Señor frogs for another drink which ended up as 3 drinks and a bit of a mad evening. It was hilarious and well needed. Nick and I went back to the ship at 10pm (I know, so late! Hahaha!) and promptly fell asleep. The next day was my first shift back on the island and I started at 8am so that's was fun!

I had to change my shifts off around a bit so I actually only have two mornings and two afternoons left on the island which is exciting because I'm not a huge fan of working there. I love the island don't get me wrong, but working there is different. Including today I have three sea days left (scheduled ones anyway!) and I have welcome line on my very last cruise which is awesome because it means I get that Thursday evening off plus the Saturday off too because I'm leaving on my ESTA so I can't work the day before. So even though now I don't have any evenings off until the 2nd January I'm sure there's lots of fun things coming up with Christmas and new year around the corner....

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!