If March is always the hardest point of the GWV, the hardest point of March is always the week when the big bosses come.
Once a season the CEO of the line comes aboard to host a Q&A, award the various medallions for the guests who have been sailing with us for an astonishingly large number of days, and to host various meet n’ greets and cocktail parties for said guests. For the guests themselves, it’s an honour, a chance to have their questions answered and in a lot of ways just one big formal party for a few days.
Behind the scenes and below the waterline? The ship thrums with the extra pressure of having our bosses’ boss onboard. Our already high standards are pushed even higher and at the end of the day we’re all very happy to see our own four walls. And this season there’s an extra layer added to all of this, because it’s not just our CEO who’s aboard…his boss, the CEO of the entire parent company, is also onboard. The uber-boss, someone who is so high up on the corporate food chain that someone like me is nothing more than a teeny tiny little bug on the windshield…trust me, you’ve never felt more like a cog in the wheel than when this level of executive is sailing with you.
And, in case that wasn’t already enough, in addition to the big bosses…we also have a rather exalted guest speaker onboard with us this season.
An Archbishop.
Nope, I am not even remotely kidding. His Grace the Archbishop Desmond Tutu is sailing with us, with his family, as a guest speaker until we arrive in Cape Town in three days’ time. Needless to say, this is a great honour for all of us and a once in a life time experience and opportunity for many of the guests. His speaking events are ticketed, with half the guests assigned to go on the first day and the other half the next. Crew has been invited to attend either day as long as there is room for us as obviously things like this are primarily for the passengers though we are far from excluded. Personally I know that while the historian in me would love to be witness to such an event, it’s unlikely that I will be able to attend for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is scheduling.
But yes, the corporate circus has well and truly come to town…and the best we can all do is just keep our heads down, do our jobs to the standards we always do, and hope not to get noticed all that much…