Tendering, is just…never the most fun operation in the world. Thankfully for this particular run we only have to tender once a week to Bar Harbor, and usually it runs as smooth as clockwork…in fact, I’m seldom even involved.
However, just my luck – the day that my coworker asks me to cover for her because she’s going on a bike riding tour? Is the day the tendering operation just goes downhill on rails. I don’t know what precisely caused the delay – supervisor hasn’t filled me in yet, but we had people stuck in that show room for what felt like hours, and of course you keep people confined long enough the natives start to get restless, and it doesn’t matter that it’s not your fault that things aren’t running as quickly as they should be or that you can’t give an estimate as to when they’ll be back on track – all that matters is that they want someone to blame, and hey, you’re there!
Oi vay, what a way to spend a morning!
At one point, I left my partner at the table so that I could run down to the gangway and pick up the tickets that had already been collected (makes for easier sorting later in the morning and ultimately saves us some time), and the cruise director comes up behind me, gives me a big hug and says
Shaughnessy, sweetheart, I am SO sorry you have to deal with all this madness!
Make it stooooop!
I know, I know…we’re tryin’
I have a cool boss.
When I got back to the show room after the second ticket run it was blessedly empty. I just flung my arms out and spun around in the middle of the dance floor like a child
Empteeeeeeeee!!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!
Thing is, this left very little time for crew shore leave as this port is a short one when we’re going in this direction – it’s a tidal thing I think. But I owed Amras lunch, so it never occurred to me not to head over. There’s a really funky little restaurant in Bar Harbour that has the feel of a 50s diner, and surprisingly reasonable prices (hey, I’m not exactly flush right now!), and they serve some exceptionally yummy cocktails – which normally I would not indulge in with lunch, but it had been one heck of a morning.
Also, probably our last lunch out for a while, since it’s a tight contract budget wise but hey…every so often, you really do earn the right to treat yourself.