Hermitage – Costa Rica – [01/08/2014]

Posted on January 12, 2014 by GypsyShaughnessy

Brooke-Shaden-photography-17It occurred to me today that I have perhaps fifteen books in my cabin…some half-read and partially abandoned (though never totally), some not even touched, at least two or three that are brand new.

Plus my audiobooks…we won’t go into the audiobooks.

*sigh* maybe it’s time to admit two things:

1) I’m lonely. I never fall into the written word quite this much if I’m not.

2) I may have a bit of a problem with books.

*sigh*

Many of my bosses in the past have commented that I need to relax more; one even officially said that I need to learn to give myself a break. As I recall that made my Big Brother chuckle when I passed it on.

She doesn’t realize that that’s just…you?

Not everyone knows me as well as you big brother…

I paraphrase of course, the actual conversation was probably longer and more convoluted than that, but that was the gist of it.

I suppose the long and the short of it is this: I apologize in advance if I grow silent this contract. Some contracts for me are outgoing ones, and some are not. Italy? Italy was an extrovert contract; out in every port, up every night. This season on the flagship? Gearing up to be an introvert one. I find myself with little desire to get off the ship except for brief moments at a time to make sure that I get some fresh air and some vitamin D into my system.  I’m sure once we get more along the route into the ports that offer ocean swimming and such I’ll pull myself out of my self-imposed hermitage and venture out into the world again, but for now I find I’ve somewhat drawn into my shell. I would say I’d been hurt in some way to cause it, but nothing springs to mind. I suspect I’m just tired…

I don’t know why it’s taking me so long to settle into my own skin this time. It hardly ever does, but it is. I have long stretches where I’m totally fine, and then long stretches where I’m so far off my game that my game may as well have left the country…

I don’t get it…

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A Perfectly Working Machine – At Sea – [01/06/2014]

Posted on January 12, 2014 by GypsyShaughnessy

High-Tech-Retro-Pin-Ups-2The internet is the one thing created by humanity that humanity does not understand – Criminal Minds

I am starting to believe that every time you buy a new electronic device, it should come with a mandatory registration in a basic class that shows you how to use it. Because really, all this cool stuff we have? What good is it if we don’t know how to make it work right?

Yeah, you can tell that I spend most of my time these days working with various iPads, iPhones, iPods, tablets, macbooks and …a lot of other things, some of which I have utterly no clue how to navigate. But what the hey, they come to me, so I gotta learn how to teach them what to do.

Hey, at least I’m learning a lot!

The truly shocking thing? Okay, shocking for me at least – I know some people are going to roll their eyes at this – I’m good at it. I never honestly thought I’d be good at this. I’m a book girl, a grounded-down traditionalist who honestly doesn’t really have a good grip on technology. You want the latest on the newest toys? Ask your five year old nephew not me! But…half-way through the first week and I…am finding I can do this. Somehow, I’ve retained my old metaphorical juggling skills (though I’m really embarrassingly rusty on the literal ones), and I am finding that – as stressful as it is (and trust me, it is stressful) – I can keep all the balls in the air without anything crashing to the ground.

At least not yet.

People have always told me I have the personality for customer service. I suppose that’s true, but the reality is that every day I step out of my cabin I simply treat it like a role. I have to, because sometimes my heart is cracked in two right down the middle and with this job you simply can’t let that show. Combine that with the fact that I – at least like to think – am a genuinely nice person, and I want to make people’s lives easier, and I suppose that makes me the ideal candidate for what has essentially become a high pressure hospitality job.

But goddess help me it’s tiring.

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Further Donations to the Blood Bank – At Sea – [01/05/2014]

Posted on January 12, 2014 by GypsyShaughnessy

Girl-fantasy-bookThere is perhaps, one day of the world cruise that remains my favourite. One day that I’m very protective of. I don’t even like sharing it with my co-librarian, though he’s a sweet person, and he seriously only wants to help.

The day they bring up the quarterly order.

200! 200 books! Everything I asked for except the German/English dictionary which I suspect got to me as a request too late to order, since everything else is there.

And when I say everything, I mean everything. The entire Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum series (the guests are going to go nuts, I don’t know one of them that doesn’t adore Evanovich), the two new James Patterson books everyone’s been asking for, the entire Kay Hooper Special Agent series; 20 Agatha Christie titles, all with beautiful matching covers.  The new Emily Giffon, the new JD Robb, the Dan Brown (FINALLY)

And then there’s the stuff that I personally am phsyced about: the most beautiful hardcover special edition of The Mists of Avalon I’ve seen in ages (second time in one contract that book has fallen into my lap…I’m thinkin’ that’s a sign), the entire Thursday Next series including the new one that I didn’t even know had been published, the whole Wheel of Time series (ALL of it, ALL 14 books!), a biography of Gypsy Rose Lee, the 10th anniversary edition of American Gods, hardcover of Fragile Things, and an illustrated edition of Stardust. Two volumes of true ghost stories…

Yes, I know how to build a library. I know it reads like a lot of fantasy, but we also got our share of mystery, crime, at least two new biographies, several titles that have been requested for ages. After four years, I have finally managed to update the entire fiction section, pulled 200 books out that were from so many years ago that they hadn’t been checked out in at least three years; all of which will be donated to the residents of Pitcairn Island (they are seriously desperate for books there), and later on to the Philippines (I am determined to help where I can)…

Yeah, fangs are running out again…

If you need me…I’ll just…be over here…

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Prepare to Greet Our Clientele – Fort Lauderdale, Florida – [01/04/2014]

Posted on January 12, 2014 by GypsyShaughnessy

cc75c41f47c6056a6e49d4951acfd1be-d6erqrwIt won’t be a novelty; we mostly have seen them all before
Prepare for the usual…
You should be aware of what’s in store
We’ve served them on the Baltic and the Oceanic, Olympic, Majestic and today’s the same there’s nothing changed
– Titanic: The Musical

Their tastes are simple; they simply want the best…

For three seasons I’ve done this cruise, and I’ve always felt grounded in myself and ready for whatever it might bring me. I know my place in the machine, and even though I’m a cog in a much larger system, I’m a strong one. I’ve always been able to depend on myself.

Now, going into my fourth season at it, I’m definitely missing that steadiness. I don’t feel even remotely ready. The carefully done make-up feels like a theatrical mask and not one that’s the kind of role I’m good at playing (I’ve always been more of a character actress).

I can still play the part of course. Every curl set, every stroke of mascara in place, if I work hard enough at it, I can even make my eyes sparkle. Not the same kind of sparkle as the real thing of course, but enough to fool most except Family.

But I don’t feel ready.

I just look ready.

And perhaps if I continue looking ready, looking like I fit in with the world flags draping the lobbies, with the the white gloves and the perfectly polished nails, the perfectly turned curls, the silk stockings and crimson-waxed smiles and everything else that goes with this voyage (and it’s a voyage, not a cruise)…then I’ll eventually feel ready.

Because ready or not, here they come…

Giving deference to their preferences is our chief art
We play our part in a perfectly working machine
You should ever be aware this is a privilege great and rare
A special burden that we bare in our respective lives…

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Return of the Gremlins – At Sea – [01/03/2014]

Posted on January 3, 2014 by GypsyShaughnessy

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-woman-computer-frustration-image26574382The last day of the cruise is always the busiest. The last day of the cruise with an entirely new internet system was something myself and my trainers and co-workers were dreading to begin with (I was joking that I was going to miraculously develop the flu or some such stupid thing just to get out of it).

And then…in a case of the world’s worst timing. The gremlin’s struck again.

We all woke up this morning to no internet signal.

None. Whatsoever.

No one can log in. Not crew, not pax, even our email connection to corporate (which is usually the last thing to go down) is spotty if functioning at all. We are, pretty much, cut off from the outside world as a whole.

On a day when 1300 passengers are all going to want to print their boarding passes. When there’s a huge storm on the East Coast that is grounding half of said flights anyway and people want to know about that.  Seriously, this couldn’t have gone down on a worse day. Especially since I’m still trying to return about 200 books that are constantly coming back….

I hates gremlins!

We finally got the system back at about 11:30 in the morning, which had the effect of making the afternoon that much busier, but there’s nothing much we can do about that. Thankfully, management does have my back, and after this? I’ll definitely be more sturdy on my feet as far as conflict goes!

Though I swear if one more person yells at me today for something I can’t fix… *sigh*

Aw well, at least we only go through it once a cruise!

Posted in Below the waterline, Holiday Cruises 2013 | 4 Comments

World at Our Feet – At Sea – [01/02/2014]

Posted on January 3, 2014 by GypsyShaughnessy

worldatmyfeetIf you don’t know you can’t pick yourself up by the scruff of the neck and hold yourself at arm’s length maybe you can – Polgara The Sorceress, David Eddings

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that there was a time when I didn’t live on the flagship. When the World Cruise was something I knew absolutely nothing about. My very first contract, what seems like a very long time ago Toffy – who was my EM at the time, long before she became my shore-side supervisor – called me into her office to figure out what contract I wanted to do next.

Well, I heard that there was this cruise that went around the world, that’d be cool…someday.

Of course they can’t jump you from a seven day Alaska run to a 114 global circumnavigation; you have to prove yourself first, which I didn’t know at the time. I wasn’t trying to ask for the top, because I didn’t know it was the top. It just sounded interesting.

And four seasons later, here I am.

With really no idea how I got here, how I ended up with so much responsibility on what has always felt like rather a frail pair of shoulders, and how I ended up with…a career? I’ve never stuck with a job this long in my life. Except dancing, and that’s never been a career, merely a passion that I hoped would one day lead to a career, that I still hope someday might.

But, for now, well? Here I stand, and here I’ll stay…

With Grand Cayman behind us, there’s now nothing left in front of us except one more sea day and then the turnaround chaos of Florida. Already the ship is starting to show signs of the change-over. This afternoon, 51 Christmas trees were bundled up and rolled away to be prepared for offloading in our final port, from there they will go into storage to be tidied and redecorated for next season. The giant nutcrackers that have graced the atrium doorway on the lower level have been dismantled and packed away and the last of the artificial snow that we so carefully sprinkled down from the balconies at the beginning of the cruise has been swept away. Orchids have replaced the poinsettias in the buffet restaurant and the background music program hasn’t played a Christmas carol in the last 48 hours.

A lot of people don’t realize that there is no turn-around time between these journeys of ours. Once we reach Florida, everyone will fall into their respective roles, working like a well-oiled multi-cogged clock until everything that needs to be accomplished, we’ll shuffle through immigration, run the drills we need to run, drop crew off, pick crew up and we’ll debark one manifest’s worth of passengers and pick up another very different one…

And then, within hours, we’ll sound those three long blasts on the ship’s whistle, and disappear over the horizon again…

Four seasons…and I never thought I’d make it one…

Just goes to show how life can surprise you sometimes.

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Looking Across – Grand Cayman – [01/02/2014]

Posted on January 3, 2014 by GypsyShaughnessy

LookingAcrssIt’s so surreal when one can look across the water from their current ship and see the ship they just left before the holidays. It’s like looking into a snippet of your own past. Not that I don’t seem to spend a lot of time these days looking back to this past summer.

Of course the crew on that ship are all totally different now. The rest of ‘my’ band debarked shortly after Amras and I did, and shortly after that most of the management team changed over as well. I suspect there’s only one person I know there at the moment, and I’m supposed to be meeting her for lunch if we ever get to open tender – which seems to be taking forever this morning. Apparently everyone is feeling too lazy to go and see Grand Cayman!

Come on people get off the ship!

It ultimately only took about two hours to clear the ship to open tenders. Which timed exactly to when I finished work.

Thing is, today I was just going from one ship to another, so I was still in uniform when I got to the tender platform

You must be going across to visit the sister ship

What gave it away?

We can’t visit ship to ship out of uniform without a visitor’s form being filled out y’see.

It’s a very strange experience walking the halls of a ship you so recently debarked. There are whispers of memories and ghosts around every corner. In this case they were at least all good ghosts, but it was still…strange. Halfway to my old roomie’s office (where I was picking her up to go to lunch) I started to wonder if perhaps I should have just met her ashore.

You are so on the wrong ship! You belong here!!!

Nope, I belong where I am…for now anyway. Feels weird though…

Once she got sprung from work, we ambled across the street and climbed the stairs to Margaretiaville (there’s one in nearly every port around here) and sat munching nachos (not as good as the ones in Grand Turk) and sipping Hurricanes – until eventually, we both returned to our respective tenders and our separate ways.

And as we were walking back to the pier the flagship caught my eye, and there…gracing the vast white expanse of her bow, is the emerald green logo:

Grand World Voyage 2014

And it hits us both while we’re standing there…

Oh my Goddess….48 more hours…

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In Like A Lion – At Sea – [01/01/2014]

Posted on January 3, 2014 by GypsyShaughnessy

fairy_dust_by_juli_snowwhite-d3ikxzmNew Year’s Day has come in like a Lion, and 2013 definitely did not go out like a lamb, at least not out here.

The seas were rough enough last night (and still are this morning) that everything in the crew cabins that wasn’t secured was tossed helter skelter – and our cabins are mostly on or below the waterline, so that should give you an idea what life was like top-side during the evening.

Of course, you can’t cancel New Year’s Eve. So the show went on, despite the fact that every few moments the ship would lurch and the dance floor would drop out from underneath you! I lost track of how many glasses of champers were dropped (at one point an entire tray went over, I felt so sorry for the poor beverage steward carrying it!). Thankfully everyone was good humoured about it, as there really isn’t anything we could have done. The ship would tilt, everyone would fall slightly sideways together, and laugh, and get back up. Eventually it became kind of a dance in and of itself.

Except of course, when the rocking triggered the balloon drop five minutes early, which…was unanticipated. After the poor stage crew spent ages getting them up there in their net in the first place, Mother Nature goes and turns against us! There was nothing to be done of course except just watch the balloons tumble…with five minutes still to go before midnight! One of those moments where we were glad we had an understanding crowd this time around, because by that point no one really cared.

Can you believe that just happened?

Honey, at this point I’ll believe anything!

Thankfully, the rest of the countdown went without a hitch, the confetti fell in a sparkling snowfall from the ceiling, the balloons were burst by a multitude of spiked heels, ticker-tape flew from the balconies like something out of an old Love Boat episode, and no one remembered the words to Aulde Lang Syne, but then no one ever does…

Normally I would kick off my high heels and head for the after party, but with the seas being what they were I was exhausted by the time midnight rolled around. I went upstairs briefly, but I hid in my usual corner behind the DJ Booth – chatting with one of my fellow team members (new year’s eve the singles tend to team up for the sake of commiserating…I’ve discovered it’s an oddly good way of making friends) – staying safely out of sight of those who might attempt to ask us to dance; because by that point there was no way we were staying on our feet. I can wear my ‘Dorothy’ shoes for hours and still be comfortable, but in those high seas, it was my ankles that were starting to grumble.

When we were satisfied that we had fulfilled our duty of seeing and being seen, we made our way to the nearest crew staircase, shed our shoes, and crept – giggling somewhat – down the cold metal stairs to the warmth of our respective cabins; grateful – as usual in these cases – to slumber away the first few hours of the new year.

After all, work still comes early out here, even on New Year’s Day.

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Postcards from the Edge – At Sea – [12/31/2013]

Posted on January 3, 2014 by GypsyShaughnessy

postcardsOver the years, New Year’s Eve has been a great many things to me.

When I was a child, and actually well into when I was a young adult, New Year’s Eve was a working night. I grew up the daughter of a musician, and New Year’s Eve is the only night of the year that musicians actually make any money (and even less so now because of the insane take-over of synthesization and the over-popularity of DJs and the fact that people simply won’t pay for a 12 piece orchestra anymore…but I totally digress) – so my New Year’s Eve was always spend at home entertaining family, waiting for Dad to return from work. I will forever associate the advent of the New Year with the taste of Ritz crackers, smoked oysters and garlic sausage, the sound of my mother’s laugh and the perpetual smell of my grandmother’s cigarette smoke.

It wasn’t until I was in my early twenties that I realized one could actually go out on New Year’s. I remember coming down the stairs to go out for the very first time ever and feeling my heart wrench because it seemed like I was breaking tradition, like I was flouting the very law of my family’s existence. At 22 years old, I still asked my parent’s permission to ring in the New Year elsewhere than in front of my own fireplace. After that it somewhat became a new tradition: Christmas was for the family, New Year’s Eve was for my friends.

These days of course, I’m out here for New Year’s. On a pitch black sea that at the moment seems determined to roll us as much as possible on the way to 2014. Ship-board New Year’s celebrations are very different from what I would prefer if I were given a choice. Despite the requirements of my rather wonderful job, the truth is that I’m really not all that good with strangers most of the time, particularly if there’s any kind of alcohol involved. I do drink yes, but not a great deal (okay, usually not a great deal), and only among those I trust – and I’m really not that good with being around people who have been drinking. And let’s just say that most guests don’t seem to mind kicking off the New Year with a hangover…

So, on nights like this, I pull my connections to my Pack close, and remind myself that we’re not really all that far apart. In miles we might be, but I know that at some point tonight we will all be thinking about each other, all vaguely wishing that we could all be in the same place. And that has the odd accomplishment of putting us in the same place – at least for a few fleeting mental moments.

No, it’s all you, you’re part of me now, I’ve got ya right here…

And so as I work through the final moments of 2013, and prepare to head for the ballroom to shine and sparkle and stumble through all the people who think they can dance – I swear I will feel several sets of steps fall into place beside mine, feel the weight of invisible hands on my shoulders, and I’ll remember – that never once, in 31 years, have I rung in the New Year truly alone.

Alright 2014…let’s see what you got…

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Suspended… – Panama Canal – [12/30/2013]

Posted on January 3, 2014 by GypsyShaughnessy

Dreams on the BalconyI never thought I would see the Panama Canal, let alone be sitting at my desk watching it slide past the ship for the 5th, perhaps 6th time – and that’s not me purposely name-dropping, I honestly have lost track.

After all this time, it’s still beautiful. All stepped terraces and lush greenery, with the occasional splash of a red tile roof to remind you that yes, there is civilization here. In fact, there are moments today when we’ll be sailing right through the middle of civilization. I wonder if the citizens of the area even notice the ships anymore, of if they’ve become just another part of the scenery, like the rest of us would view cars or buses going by on the street outside our door.

The Canal has not changed much since it was built all those years ago, they say the only real change is that the mules that operate it are now electronic instead of living animals, which is a good thing in the long run – but the system has remained the same, tried and true throughout the centuries.

They’re expanding it to hold the new so-called mega-ships, and something in me just totally rails against that, though I can’t quite put my finger on why.

For the most part, this is a slow day for us. The guests are mostly up on deck watching the world slip by on either side of us, and the rest of us are happy to take the opportunity to catch up on work that well – work – has kept us from doing (there are rather a lot of levels of work here 😉 ). When I walked into the library this morning it was blissfully empty, but once we were through the first lock it started to gradually fill up, but for the most part it’s still just people staring out the window. One of those days where for the most part the world seems to be content with itself.

We really need more days like that…

Sitting here, enjoying the unexpected rush of peace in the office (which really doesn’t happen very often these days) movement outside the window caught my eye. At first there does not appear to be a breath of wind stirring outside, and yet a small patch of palm trees is tossing as if in a gale. In a place like this, where one feels so removed from civilization at the same time one feels so aware of it, it’s easy to imagine all kinds of things that might be causing such a tempest in the canopy. Is something jumping from tree to tree? Something running swiftly through the undergrowth in search of prey or shelter?

Or is it just the wind, dancing in the leaves like a child in sunlight?

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