Tinkerblue

CCL LIBERTY Week 7

June 18th to 24th

The LP guy from the office (our company office, not the TV show) arrived to check the discrepancies in our inventory. Oh LP = loss prevention.  Also known as AP. AP = asset protection.

 

 

Crew Party 20th. Nah uh. Siele, Victoria and I had our own cabin party. Mask party. Korean paper masks. Last cruise Siele needed $11.00 to hit her cosmetics target so we each bought a $4.00 mask. Red wine for me, tomato for Siele and lemon for Victoria. We didn't quite get the planning right. We could have used some straws so we could enjoy our alcoholic beverages. 

Went out in Progreso for the second time ever. I bought a postcard to send to Trudy, then realized I don't have her address. So right now it's magneted (is that a word) to my wall.

I did not win at crew bingo this month. Pfft. I did however lose my keys. All of them. My sail and sign, my room key, my drill participation card and my POS card. I apparently left them on the seat in the theatre.

We have finally finished inventory. The discrepancies were within the allowable allowance. No more counting.

Trip to Target and Starbucks in Galveston. I went into Target to buy toothpaste, face scrub and a People magazine and came out having spent $70.00! With all the new to me places in Galveston you'd think I'd do more than go to places I can go to at home.

Very frustrated with lack of a decent internet connection this month. Crew internet is very slow and is not operational in Galveston days. Starbucks is almost non existent, and I can't get connected at the local coffee shop. Argg. Oh well, maybe I'll have to resort to old fashioned letters and home calls.

Came in early on embarkation night for liquor preorders. Got to leave an hour early at the end of the night, went straight to bed!

Books read:

• Chichen Itza, Machu Pichu and Tenochtitlan., The Most Famous Cities of the Maya, Inca and Aztec. By Dr Jesse Harasta and Charles River Editors. The subjects of this book fascinated me. I've been to Chichen Itza and Tenochtitlan and am going to Machu Pichu in November. I'd love to go back to Chichen Itza.
• Whispers by Lisa Jackson

DVDs/shows watched:

• Molly - Mini series about Ian Molly Meldrum. Awesome soundtrack.
• Boardwalk Empire with Steve Buscemi - Season 1 Episode 1
• Call the Midwife - Season 1 Episode 1, 2, 3 and 4

 

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Behind the crew only signs

Those crew only signs?

They usually lead to some where very mundane:

Crew elevator areas

 

 

Crew elevators

 

 

Crew stairwells

 

 

Crew hallways

 

 

Now let's compare to the guest areas shall we?

 

 

Guests - large area, carpet, pretty lighting on the ceiling, mirrored brass or glass doors, wood columns, signage indicating where you are, where to go.

Crew - small, painted floor, industrial ceiling, lots of ducting, narrow doors, no decorations, no signage.

 

 

Guests - patterned tile floor, iron detailing, large, elevator Emma telling you what floor you're on, posters of the steakhouse.

Crew - stainless steel box. That's all I have to say about it.

Guests - carpet, nice and wide, paintings on the wall, big landing area

Crew - narrow, metal, white walls, and don't be dropping keys or passes or anything. If you're lucky they'll only fall down a deck or two and not all 12.

 

Guests - carpet, wide, mailboxes, soothing colours, even the ceiling is painted.

Crew - linoleum floor, white walls, orange doors and funky beige/orange lighting that makes no one look good,

See, not so exciting.

 

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CCL LIBERTY Week 6

Jun 11 - 17th

Started inventory this week. Can I please be assigned to a ship that isn't scheduled for inventory? Please? Seriously. Inventory is scheduled once a year for each ship. I work for 6 months at a time. Just once could I please sign on the week after inventory, the scanning and the check are all completed?

For two days we scanned the Bijoux (or cruise club or promo fashion accessories or $10 item, whatever we are calling it this contract) locker. It's one of the lockers my team is responsible for. It looks immaculate right now. Let's hope they keep it that way.

Had lunch on Lido deck, pork tacos from the Blue Iguana and chocolate chip cookies from the Sweet Spot.

About an hour after we departed Galveston we unfortunately had to turn around and return due a guest who needed urgent medical attention.

Because of the medical emergency it meant we opened the shops at 900pm instead of 630pm. Not a good night $$$ wise.

We docked in Cozumel with Splendor and Freedom. My 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th ship all in one place.

 

(Not my photo, I was stuck onboard)

 

Finally completed and signed all my onboarding documents:

1. Key holder agreement - I agree to look after all my keys, sign them in and out, not give them to anyone else, don't throw them overboard etc
2. Loss Preventation - I won't give unauthorized discounts or give away product, accurately ring everyone through the register, follow the procedures for damaged goods etc
3. Cabin inspection - that every thing was fine in my cabin when I signed on
4. Personal declaration - list every item I brought on board with me so it won't get "confused" with any merchandise from the shops.

 

For someone who is normally overly organized when it comes to paperwork I can't believe it took me a month to do it.

After 9 days I finished port manning. That's 9 days of not getting off the ship!

Books read this week:

None. Well I started two but haven't finished either yet. Instead I watched season three of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Love it. Can't wait for next season.

 

 

 

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CCL Liberty Week 5

June 4th - 10th

Tab D boat drill in Progreso with training. Took just over an hour.

My turn to come in an hour early on embarkation night and take pre-orders for liquor.

Had lunch on the Lido deck, a burger from Guy's Diner and key lime pie from the Sweet Spot.

Crew party in the Hot and Cold Nightclub. Theme was Dress to Impress. I wore shorts, a tank top and wedges. Yep, dressing to impress.

Team lunch to celebrate hitting target in May at El Abuelo Gerardo in Cozumel. Tacos arrachera, a cold Bohemia beer and good company.

High tea in the staff mess including lamingtons! They were a bit odd looking, but tasty.

Lost it at work, like really mad, upset, disappointed, took to my bed in tears during my break frustrated. Won't say too much here because it involves work and other people but I've never felt so... I dont even know what it was. I felt disrespected, untrusted, unwanted, there was a lack of confidence in my abilities, I was second guessed at every step, micro managed and had words put into my mouth that I did not say. Whatever. It's done. Hopefully there won't be a repeat.

Team drinks and finger food in the crew bar after last sea day. After such a crappy day I so did not want to go. However it was made incredibly clear that not going was not an option. I went. I drank a beer. I ate a platter load of spring rolls and crispy fried chicken wings and drumsticks. Nothing like emotional eating to end the day.

 

 

Finally drew the short straw and started my first port manning rotation. Not sure how I managed to make it to the end of week 5 before my first

Missed the guest safety briefing because I was in the medical centre having the doctor examine my freezing toes. Seriously they feel like blocks of ice, they're all white and they hurt. Verdict....constricted vein somewhere in my leg, not a blood clot. So wear compression socks for work, sleep with my legs elevated and wear socks to bed. So three problems...

1. I hate wearing socks at the best of times, I cannot sleep in them, I always kick them off. What am I supposed to do? Glue them on?
2. I'm a side sleeper. Ever tried sleeping with your legs elevated while on your side? It's not overly comfortable. My cabin steward very kindly supplied me with another pillow. Now I have to learn to sleep on my back. Which I think makes me snore. Oh my cabin mate will love that!
3. Anyone know where I can buy compression socks? Black. Preferably of a cool comfort/no odour fabric, like bamboo? And not $50 a pair. I need 10 pair, and I am not spending $500.00 on socks. Socks that I hate to wear.

Books read:

• Night of the Blackbird by Heather Graham
• The Light Between Oceans by M.L.Stedman
• Trail of Broken Wings by Sejal Badani

Some useless trivia I learnt this cruise:

A visit to Chichen Itza is one of the shore excursions guest can purchase when we dock in Progreso, on the Yucatan Peninsula. I was lucky enough to visit Chichen Itza back in 1997 when I was volunteering at Our Cabana. During a rare five day break Jo, Allison and I flew to Merida and explored the nearby Mayan sites of Chichen Itza and Uxmal. Hopefully I'll make it back to one or both this contract.

Anyway...

I was reading about Chichen Itza. The Itzaes (the people of Chichen Itza) controlled a sea port and had salt. Lots of it. They had one of the largest salt works in Mesoamerica. Capitalizing on the sea going trade and all the salt made Chichen Itza very important, becoming the most famous city of the Mayans. Who knew that salt was difficult to find way back then? We use it every day, apparently too much of it. But back in the Mayan day it was an important nutrient, hard to find and very expensive.

You know the expression, "worth it's (or his) weight in salt"? Well know you know where it comes from.

 

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Crew Only....

 

What's behind all those crew only doors?

 

 

 

Wouldn't you like to know?

Maybe I'll tell you one day...

But not today!

 

 

 

 

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CCL Liberty Week 4

May 28th - June 3rd

 

 

Moved to the bottom bunk

Met my new cabin mate, Angelique from South Africa

Fancy Caribbean themed lunch served in the crew mess. My favourite was the Caribbean fudge pie. What? Of course dessert was my favourite.

Training for stair and hallway guides. That's me. I get to stand in the stairwell and tell guests how to get to their muster station.

Training was then followed by another boat drill. I think I've now down more boat drills this month than in my previous 4 contracts put together.

First pay cheque of this contract.

First round of liquor pick up for me.

Because I was on liquor pick up I was exempt from loading. 25 pallets! It was a good loading to miss. Except the remainder of the team worked from 10am to 3pm to get all the pallets unloaded. I felt a little bit bad about that, well until I fell asleep. I had planned to go out in Galveston. But. See previous sentence...until I fell asleep. Woke up in time for the guest safety briefing.

Re-orientation training. Better late than never I guess. should have done this my first week on board but somehow my name never came up. I'm now refreshed on how to deal with sexual harassment, guest wth disabilities and elevator eyes. So I did learn something new. The term elevator eyes, I knew the concept but had never heard that particular phrasing for it.

My night off. Woohoo. A beer, laundry and movie watching.

 

Books read this week:

• To Love and Protect by Debbie Macomber. Okay so technically I started this last week, but I finished it this week.
• Hitched by Carol Higgins Clark. Mmm, apparently I've read this book before. Probably on this ship 3 years ago as I borrowed it from the crew library. Didn't make much of an impression then, nor did it now. I was halfway through before I realized the storyline was familiar, and even then I couldn't remember what happened.
• Off the Record by Bonnie Hearn Hill

 

 

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