{"id":5589,"date":"2020-01-13T08:40:26","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T16:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5589"},"modified":"2020-01-13T08:40:26","modified_gmt":"2020-01-13T16:40:26","slug":"old-vrs-new-manta-ecuador-01-13-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5589","title":{"rendered":"Old vrs New \u2013 Manta, Ecuador \u2013 [01\/13\/2020]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"She\u2019s sparkling clean this new-born ship
\nBut one old thing is clear
\nThe orders they propose above
\nWe execute down here
\nWe\u2019ll watch from here as up above they catch a whiff of glory
\nThis wonderous ship may be brand new
\nBut it\u2019s the same old story<\/em><\/p>\n

or<\/p>\n

My dear Mr. Latimer prepare to greet our clientele
\nOur meeting is imminent, our having just rung the dinner bell
\nIt won\u2019t be a novelty, we mostly have seen them all before
\nPrepare for the usual, you should be aware of what\u2019s in store!<\/em><\/p>\n

And ready or not, here we go. Three ports under our belt and I\u2019m still adjusting to the fact that somehow Amras and I got ourselves signed up for a Grand Voyage. By accident. How did we manage that? We took this contract because it was the only one available that would allow us to be on the same ship together (we\u2019ve been married 7 months, and I think we\u2019ve physically been in the same place<\/em> for about\u2026two of those until this point! We definitely wanted a ship together!).<\/p>\n

The department meetings are a lot smaller these days what with all the changes that have shifted down. There\u2019s very few of us left (the other positions still exist, but they\u2019ve been moved to half-guest status and as a result no longer have to attend team meetings\u2026it\u2019s rather strange), but we had a lot of new joiners at the beginning of this contract. The conversation from our supervisor went something like this:<\/p>\n

So, how many of you have ever done a Grand?<\/em><\/p>\n

My hand, and perhaps three others rose slowly into the air. As I looked around, I realized that all these new people? They are in for a heck of a ride\u2026Grands are a different beast, you can have been with the company for a decade, and if you\u2019ve never done a grand? You\u2019ll feel like you\u2019re fresh you\u2019re your first contract\u2026in some ways, in some other ways of course, they\u2019re exactly the same. Not surprised, our boss continued on (and I paraphrase here, the meeting was a few days ago):<\/p>\n

So, let me tell you about these guests. At the mariner\u2019s welcome aboard party this morning we had over 600 people, and that\u2019s just the mariners. These are people that have been cruising for years and know everything inside and out. And they want to know you<\/u>. They will ask you to dinner, they will ask about every corner of your life\u2026make sure you put up a wall and hold it when you need to. Because they want to know everything<\/u><\/em>.<\/u><\/p>\n

And she\u2019s right. The guests do<\/em> want to know everything about everyone. And in some cases, they already do. There are people on the ship right now who know Amras and I from several previous contracts, who greeted us like old friends. We couldn\u2019t walk more than a few feet on embark day without someone stopping one of us. This one cruise where I always had someone to talk to at the sail way. Some people are here that I never expected to leave the flagship (and just to clarify, this isn\u2019t the flagship!).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s strange, I never really think about how many long cruises I\u2019ve done until it actually comes up. Somewhat like the movie A League of Their Own<\/em> \u201cI was never really part of it, it was just something I did that\u2019s all\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes you don\u2019t want<\/em> to admit you\u2019ve done a Grand, sometimes you don\u2019t want to draw that kind of attention to yourself. You don\u2019t want to be \u201cthat\u201d girl (and trust me, I\u2019ve had teammates who are \u2018that\u2019 girl). And yet\u2026<\/p>\n

And yet\u2026<\/p>\n

Well\u2026<\/p>\n

I did have one team member actually ask me afterwards just how many World Cruises I have done, her jaw dropped a little when mutely held up five fingers and added \u201cand four Grand Voyages\u201d\u2026sometimes it feels weird to actually say it out loud.<\/p>\n

How did you get so lucky<\/em>?<\/p>\n

And I paused in my steps as we wandered around the sail away party\u2026<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t lucky\u2026not really. I was requested back. I was \u2026very good at my job.<\/em><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s it really. I don\u2019t want to be the one who brags endlessly about how much she has done. I don\u2019t want to be \u2018that\u2019 girl, but I am good<\/em> at these cruises. I know what these people want, I know how to walk the very fine balance between letting them in and keeping them safely away. I know what they expect. And why do I know that? Because I\u2019ve been doing these cruises for almost ten years<\/em>. And because I am damn good at my job. Because I put up for years with them making me cry over trivia and standing up to them over the internet, I\u2019ve run their book clubs and literally held their hands through family disasters. I know<\/em> these guests. Or at least I know enough of them to know how to handle them. They don\u2019t scare me, not anymore.<\/p>\n

Walking onto a Grand Cruise for me is like putting on an old comfortable cardigan; it\u2019s possibly shrunk a bit in the wash, it maybe doesn\u2019t fit as well as it used to, but once you wear it a few times you find it stretches out and sits comfortably across your shoulders like the day you first put it on.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re in an area of the world where I\u2019m perhaps not always the most at ease (I\u2019m not a big fan of South America\u2026too hot), our cabin is tiny (don\u2019t get me started) and the A\/C only works sporadically, in the last few days we\u2019ve put in four separate work orders and had at least two visits to the HRM (because he agrees that having a working shower in this part of the world is\u2026kind of important!) but hey, we\u2019re together, and we know<\/em> what we\u2019re doing\u2026<\/p>\n

What can I say? We\u2019re on an adventure\u2026<\/p>\n

And we have totally<\/em> got this\u2026<\/p>\n

And no guests, no matter how foolish or demanding are going to ruin that for us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She\u2019s sparkling clean this new-born ship But one old thing is clear The orders they propose above We execute down here We\u2019ll watch from here as up above they catch a whiff of glory This wonderous ship may be brand … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[4,8,108,17,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-grand-cruises","category-grand-south-america-antarctica-2020","category-reflections-below-the-waterline","category-sadie"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-1s9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5589","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=5589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5592,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5589\/revisions\/5592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}