New Beginnings – Fort Lauderdale (04/26/2011)

The problem with having joined this contract later than the rest of my team is that it means I stay on long after the rest of the team has gone home. Of the 10 core people I worked with over the last three or so months, only two of us remain. There’s a new team of supervisors, a new captain, a new entertainment team. The turnover is huge, and it feels very, very surreal.

I was warned that working the world cruise would alter the way I looked at shorter cruises. Now I see very clearly what those people meant.

Today we begin the two week relocation cruise that will ultimately put the ship in Seattle where she’ll begin the 14-day Alaska summer run. From now on, she’s just another ship, as of a few hours ago there’s not a single sign that the World Cruise ever took place. A friend of mine pointed something out that made my heart do a double take, he mentioned that he could smell fresh paint yesterday during our last day at sea – and the penny dropped: they’ve painted the bow.  If you look at our ship’s bow now, there’s no sign of the huge elegant green World Cruise 2011 decal that graced the expanse of white only yesterday.

We’ve become just another ship in the fleet again. Not particularly different than any other.

A few passengers have remained on for the relocation, a smattering of familiar faces still walk our halls. But for the most part, everything and everyone is new.

I stood on the gangway this morning and said my farewells to everyone, I’ve held back more tears than I care to admit, and I’m sure that in the privacy of my own cabin those tears will come in earnest. But for those of you who express concern that this life is painfully transitory, those of you who wonder how I handle constantly saying goodbye to people that I’ve come to love – take heart. It’s true that my life is transitory – if you really think about it so is everyone’s – but with every tear that I shed, every person I say goodbye to, there’s always the chance that someone will board that I will squeal with joy and shock to see. Even now, my very first roommate from my very first contract is moving in down the hallway from me. Passengers who know me from previous ships are wandering up to my desk and saying “I know you from somewhere”…

Am I lonely? Of course I am. It’s difficult to see people you’ve come to love leave you standing ship-side while they traipse down the gangway to shore-side friends and family, but I’ll get over it – as I’ve gotten over so many things since I started this bizarre path I seem to currently be on.

Faraway places with strange sounding names….