{"id":187,"date":"2011-04-25T18:56:16","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T18:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.wordpress.com\/?p=187"},"modified":"2011-04-25T18:56:16","modified_gmt":"2011-04-25T18:56:16","slug":"straight-from-the-heart-transatlantic-04252011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=187","title":{"rendered":"Straight From The Heart – (Transatlantic, 04\/25\/2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the end of every cruise the shipboard crew presents a Crew Farewell, our chance to say goodbye to the people that have touched our lives and shared our existence for however many days they\u2019ve been guests on our small slice of the ocean.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve experienced the Crew Farewell show many times in the short year I\u2019ve spent on ships. My first contract was on a seven-day run, where the show was performed at the end of every week. When the cruises are that short, the \u201cdog and pony show\u201d becomes something of a joke \u2013 we\u2019ve only known these people for 7 days, how much can you really know about a person, who you are basically only serving in a customer service\/hospitality position, when you\u2019ve only interacted with them for one short week. \u00a0Too often we would change the words (because you can\u2019t really hear the bulk of us singing, only the cast is in the front with microphones) to something off-color, or comical or downright ridiculous.<\/p>\n

However the impact of the Crew Farewell\u2019s message changes drastically the longer the cruise becomes.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t do a full debark show for our segment guests, the passengers who were only onboard for a small portion of our circumnavigation of the globe \u2013 instead, we do it only once, for the guests who are leaving us in the states tomorrow ,after having sailed with us for 110 days.<\/p>\n

After an experience like this, it\u2019s impossible to look at something like the Crew Farewell as just a sappy, cheesy joke that we\u2019re compelled do to . After 110 days with the same people, you know them, you know their hopes, some of their fears, where their kids are in school, you hear about pet\u2019s deaths, about birthdays, grandparents, nieces and nephews. You share your own lives with them; a select few may even end up knowing your secrets, your sorrows, your heartbreak. You make friends that you don\u2019t want to see leave; you touch lives in ways that mean these people may never forget you. After 110 days, you\u2019re not just bidding farewell to paying passengers, you\u2019re saying goodbye to a very unique kind of adopted family.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the crew itself. Because we\u2019re not just saying goodbye to the guests, we\u2019re saying goodbye to each other. To people that you\u2019ve lived with, worked with, played with, loved with, lied with, partied with and fought with for the last three or four months of your life. Unlike shorter cruises, where the turnover in the crew is consistent and people leave and arrive every week \u2013 the world cruise is two huge turnovers all at once. Once the knowledge sets in that three-quarters of your friends are leaving, you feel the loss.<\/p>\n

We all walked in through the audience to the tune of \u201cWe Are The World\u201d, and when we had assembled on stage, we stood there and looked at the cheering, crying, standing ovation in front of us, \u201cladies and gentleman\u201d our boss says, \u201cthis is your crew. This is your shipboard family.\u201d<\/p>\n

In short, there was not a dry eye in the house \u2013 except mine, and that was only by sheer force of will \u2013 when we all piled onto that stage and listened to our supervisor make his speech about how we<\/em> were the real \u201cGems\u201d on this \u201cGems of the World Voyage\u201d, at one point he actually turned to the crew and said thank you to all of us \u2013 something I\u2019ve never seen any cruise director do before. And yes, even he was crying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just the guy they give the microphone to every night. I couldn\u2019t do it without each and every one of you, and too often, I forget to say \u2018thank you\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

At the end of the song that we always perform, which in and of itself is usually a tear jerker, my entire team piled on top of each other, all decorum and professionalism forgotten, still in our smart casual evening uniforms, in a many armed, crying, crushing group hug in the middle of the stage, then we went out into the audience, pausing every five steps to exchange words, to exchange tears and gratitude and embrace our favorites.<\/p>\n

And then suddenly I found myself pounced on \u2013 as only a child can pounce \u2013 by one of the children on board, whom I have no idea how I\u2019ve managed to make such an impression on, who held onto me so tightly that it seemed she thought she\u2019d fly away if she let go.<\/p>\n

And it was at that point that I wondered if I\u2019d forgotten how to cry, because if anything was expected to tip me over into waterfall territory, you would think it would be that.<\/p>\n

But no, the tears came later; the tears came when the Captain came over the intercom for the final voice from the bridge announcement:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Atlantic crossing has been like waking up, from a dream, from a fantasy, coming back to reality \u2013 to the knowledge that our 110 days together are over.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSaying farewell is not easy, especially for people we have spent so much time with. On some Grand World voyages there is a bond that grows between guests and crew with lasting friendships as a result. I share these feelings, and truly hope to find you again on future voyages as guests and as friends. Stay safe, and healthy, with fond memories \u2013 and goodbye until we meet again. Thank you for putting your trust in us as we travel around the globe, and on behalf of all the crew and ship’s staff, I hope we have succeeded in giving you the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Tomorrow we will find out whether or not everyone was as happy as they said they were, tomorrow the ratings will come down from above, the evaluations will be handed out and the judgments will be drawn, but for now? For now, today is about tying up the last of the loose ends, exchanging the last of the photographs, grabbing people\u2019s email addresses and making last minute additions to facebook. Today is about helping friends pack, sipping too hot coffee, cementing memories and using up too much Kleenex.<\/p>\n

Today is about saying goodbye to a voyage that has in more ways than one changed my life, altered the way I look at reality, and more importantly, the way I look at myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat night the halls were alive with the pattering of feet, as messangers were sent back and forth from cabin to cabin, each bearing the same desperate message: Promise me you\u2019ll keep in touch! And they did promise, and they all really meant it, those promises would not begin to fade for at least a year, maybe two.\u201d \u2013 David Eddings<\/em><\/p>\n

Or, perhaps better said,<\/p>\n

\u201cLove in every language, straight from the heart, pulls us all together, never apart, and once you learn to speak it, all the world will hear, love in every language fluently spoken here\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Fair winds and following seas,<\/p>\n

Till next,<\/p>\n

Shaughnessy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of every cruise the shipboard crew presents a Crew Farewell, our chance to say goodbye to the people that have touched our lives and shared our existence for however many days they\u2019ve been guests on our small … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grand-world-voyage-2011","category-theme-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-31","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}