{"id":2096,"date":"2013-04-29T03:47:16","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T03:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2096"},"modified":"2013-04-29T03:47:16","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T03:47:16","slug":"riding-the-tail-wind-at-sea-04202013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2096","title":{"rendered":"Riding the Tail-Wind \u2013 At Sea \u2013 [04\/20\/2013]"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the b\"elvgren$footloose1944\"<\/a>eginning of the World Cruise it seems like it\u2019s never going to end. Those 115 days stretch in front of you like some kind of vast highway lazily making its way towards some far off unreachable horizon. You look at the scala screens and see \u201cDay 1\u201d scrolling across the bottom and you rolls your eyes and think simply \u2018here we go\u2019<\/p>\n

And then before you know it, those same screens are scrolling the words \u201cDay 106\u201d\u2026and the horizon isn\u2019t so far away anymore.<\/p>\n

Hard to believe it, but we\u2019re almost finished. I have slightly longer left aboard than some of the team as my contract extends into the relocation cruise this season. The upshot of that is that they\u2019ll be dropping me off practically at my front door \u2013 which makes for a lovely switch from flying, at least I won\u2019t have to worry about luggage charges when the time comes!<\/p>\n

But even I only have 20 or so days left.<\/p>\n

As usual at the tail end of a world cruise, there\u2019s an odd sense of melancholy that kind of sweeps through the ship. For me this season is particularly unusual as I won\u2019t be returning to my dear flagship for quite a while longer than usual. This is for the best and for a very good reason but it still feels odd every time the realization hits me.<\/p>\n

At any rate, come May 1st<\/sup> there will be a huge shift over in crew and passengers alike, and the guest mentality will change. Not necessarily for the better or worse, things will just be different. As my boss keeps reminding me \u2013 the world of the rest of the fleet is totally different from the world of the Grand cruises. I\u2019m glad to remind myself of that sometimes, because to be honest it can be easy to forget.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m gradually starting to tackle the issue of packing. Some things \u2013 like the beautiful tie-dye sari I wore to Carnival last night \u2013 will not be needed during the relocation, so they can be neatly packed away now. So can my \u2018big dresses\u2019: my prom dress, my under the sea ball gown, and my black full length. Any formal nights that are coming up on that last twenty day stretch in the tropics aren\u2019t going to be ball gown occasions; instead I have a beautiful knee length black number that will perfectly fit the bill.<\/p>\n

Yup, that\u2019s me, a dress for everything.<\/p>\n

The ship is starting to show signs of the upcoming wrap-up. As I\u2019ve said before, the word \u2018final\u2019 is starting to creep into everyone\u2019s vocabulary: \u201cfinal\u201d deck sale, \u201cfinal\u201d prize voucher redemption (though that hasn\u2019t been announced yet), and pretty much anything else you can tack the word \u2018final\u2019 on. Little signs are everywhere that the voyage is swiftly drawing to a close. The paperback exchange has gone from empty to overflowing within the space of a week, and I\u2019m fighting the urge to \u2018rescue\u2019 even more books than I already have.<\/p>\n

There are still some things that are on the line-up that we aren\u2019t sure when they\u2019re going to happen yet. The end seems to have crept up on us so quickly. We still don\u2019t know when we\u2019re going to have the Pajama Party for example.<\/p>\n

And behind all that, already, I find myself slowly starting the prep work for next season. If you\u2019re doing your job right, there\u2019s very little rest for the wicked on the flagship \u2013 when we go home for vacation we don\u2019t always leave it all behind, even though we should. Even though I should. I\u2019m doing as much as I can before I leave, since I am under a strict order from my shore-side supervisor not<\/i> to work on my holidays, it\u2019s an order that she knows full well I\u2019ll ignore, but it makes her feel better to make it (and if she\u2019s reading this she KNOWS that\u2019s true) \u2013 and there\u2019s not as much to be done as there could be, I can afford to take the occasional evening to simply read and enjoy the sensation of the world going by around me.<\/p>\n

The past is unchangeable, the future is unknowable, today is a gift, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s called the present.<\/p>\n

Clich\u00e9 yes, but still oh so very true.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

At the beginning of the World Cruise it seems like it\u2019s never going to end. Those 115 days stretch in front of you like some kind of vast highway lazily making its way towards some far off unreachable horizon. You … 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":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grand-world-voyage-2013"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-xO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2096","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=2096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2098,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2096\/revisions\/2098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}