The problem with having joined this contract later than the rest of my team is that it means I stay on long after the rest of the team has gone home. Of the 10 core people I worked with over the last three or so months, only two of us remain. There\u2019s a new team of supervisors, a new captain, a new entertainment team. The turnover is huge, and it feels very, very surreal.<\/p>\n
I was warned that working the world cruise would alter the way I looked at shorter cruises. Now I see very clearly what those people meant.<\/p>\n
Today we begin the two week relocation cruise that will ultimately put the ship in Seattle where she\u2019ll begin the 14-day Alaska summer run. From now on, she\u2019s just another ship, as of a few hours ago there\u2019s not a single sign that the World Cruise ever took place. A friend of mine pointed something out that made my heart do a double take, he mentioned that he could smell fresh paint yesterday during our last day at sea \u2013 and the penny dropped: they\u2019ve painted the bow.\u00a0 If you look at our ship\u2019s bow now, there\u2019s no sign of the huge elegant green World Cruise 2011 decal that graced the expanse of white only yesterday.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve become just another ship in the fleet again. Not particularly different than any other.<\/p>\n
A few passengers have remained on for the relocation, a smattering of familiar faces still walk our halls. But for the most part, everything and everyone is new.<\/p>\n
I stood on the gangway this morning and said my farewells to everyone, I\u2019ve held back more tears than I care to admit, and I\u2019m sure that in the privacy of my own cabin those tears will come in earnest. But for those of you who express concern that this life is painfully transitory, those of you who wonder how I handle constantly saying goodbye to people that I\u2019ve come to love \u2013 take heart. It\u2019s true that my life is<\/em> transitory \u2013 if you really think about it so is everyone\u2019s \u2013 but with every tear that I shed, every person I say goodbye to, there\u2019s always the chance that someone will board that I will squeal with joy and shock to see. Even now, my very first roommate from my very first contract is moving in down the hallway from me. Passengers who know me from previous ships are wandering up to my desk and saying \u201cI know you from somewhere\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n Am I lonely? Of course I am. It\u2019s difficult to see people you\u2019ve come to love leave you standing ship-side while they traipse down the gangway to shore-side friends and family, but I\u2019ll get over it \u2013 as I\u2019ve gotten over so many things since I started this bizarre path I seem to currently be on.<\/p>\n Faraway places with strange sounding names\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The problem with having joined this contract later than the rest of my team is that it means I stay on long after the rest of the team has gone home. Of the 10 core people I worked with over … Continue reading