Every so often I remember that I’m living on a ship that’s probably double the size of the Titanic. It’s an eerie thought really, especially when you stand on the dock and look up at the bow and realize the lines are really very similar. We’ve come a long way since those days – and yet sometimes I’m struck by how some things haven’t changed.
I wonder what they’d think of us for one. Yes, our ships now have full broadway style three-story theatres, but the shows we stage in those theatres? Would probably make a proper upper-class lady faint sometimes. There’s not nearly as much obvious class seperation, and children are allowed to run around almost unsupervised (all of them don’t enroll in the onboard children’s program you see). I wonder what they’d think of the fact that we wear skirts that *gasp* show our knees, let alone our ankles.
And yet the more things change, the more they stay the same. The days of Edwardian lace might be gone, and we no longer confine people to steerage, but the crew’s place is still “seven decks below” (well, it is on a ship this size), and the desire, the need, to please the people that provide your bread and butter and – quite literally – keep you afloat , never changes.
Last week our ship made top ratings in the fleet. Quite an accomplishment, and quite a turn around. We’re justifiably proud of ourselves. Now though, the trick is maintaining that..because anyone can pull of that kind of thing once, but doing it consistently is far trickier..
For now though, I remain
Ever yours,
Shaughnessy