Giving deference to their preferences is our chief art
We play our part in a perfectly working machine
You must ever be aware
This is a privilege great and rare
A special burden that we bear in our respective lives
Putting the tropical ports and warm waters of Mexico and the Caribbean to our stern, and entering the promise of a bright new year, we literally have the World before us. Glittering and full of promise…and also slightly threatening, like a thunderstorm is beautiful, but only if you know how to harness its power.
At long long last…welcome to the Grand World Voyage 2012.
I have fought so very hard for this contract that now that it’s starting it feels almost surreal. There have been a lot of people that have been quite worried about me, myself included at times (there have been more than a few panicked email that have winged their way out to various Family members over the last month, you know who you are and thank you so much for your ongoing and never-ending support.)
You can feel the energy pulsing through the ship, pure, unadulterated, excitement. For some this is their first World Cruise, and they’re looking around them in awe, unable to believe that they’re really here. Some however, are old friends, who come up to me in the hallways and exclaim how glad they are to see I’ve come back, who greet us with hugs and air-kisses and smiles. At dinner, we will hand each of them one single long-stemmed red rose…
Welcome Home
Because more than ever, this now becomes home. The World Cruise team is a family, slightly dysfunctional and not always harmonious but family none-the-less.
Underneath all that of course, the cruise is a lot of work. Remember what I said about the swan? Before I left work last night, I spent an extra hour going around with a ruler and setting every single book straight, I cleared every surface, rechecked every return. And this morning I came in and did it all again, because an entire drop-box full of books (read: about 100) came back over night and had been left haphazardly all around my desk. I pulled all the travel guides that relate to the entire 112 day itinerary and stowed them safely in the back room, had my medical exam completed and scrubbed and uploaded 1100 new names to the check-in database.
And then of course, the day really started.
Embarkation day morning of the GWV is a little bit unlike any other that you’ll ever work your way through. Everything has to be that little bit extra, that little bit more. My normal prep-time in the morning on a standard contract is approximately twenty minutes: pin back my hair, dab on a bit of lipstick, a tiny bit of mascara and I’m good to go. My prep time for this morning? An hour. Hair curled and set back, full make-up, new nylons, pressed uniform (new uniform actually, fresh out of the plastic), earrings, nail polish, and yes – for those of you who are mentally adding it – hematite. This day of all days, I don’t go without my walls.
One hour into opening time and the library is already busy, but these people know the score, they know the drill, you don’t have to teach them anything – in fact, they could probably teach you. I’ll spend three quarters of my day reshelving so that everything still looks perfect when corporate comes through.
And then, at about 4:30 this afternoon, there will be three blasts from the ship’s whistle – the modern day equivalent of “three heavy hearted cheers” and we’ll be off…
For those of you who will be continuing to follow my drifting life through these pages until such time as I finally alight on land again, the first part of the itinerary is as follows:
Day 1 – Fort Lauderdale
Day 2 – At Sea
Day 3 – At Sea
Day 4 – Dominica
Day 5 – Barbados
Day 6/7 – At Sea
Day 8 – Belem, Brazil
Day 9 /10 – At Sea
Day 11 – Recife Brazil
Please don’t kill me, the job might just succeed in doing it for you by April J