Oh Captain, my captain.

Oh Captain, my captain.
Thursday, February 14, 2008

Today we had lunch with the captain in Versailles. It was thrilling. He looks like Santa Claus—a gentleman, perhaps in his late 50s, with white hair and a white beard. He regaled us with stories of fuel tonnage, arsonists on ferries and what he does on vacation (Rides his harley on 13-day trips in Thailand during the celebration of the Thai King’s birthday). We all had so much fun….a great cast outing.

Then, I tried to do laundry. I picked the two laundry machines that weren’t working---I called the crew electrician who wanted to know what staircase I was near---and I didn’t know. I tried to get some help from other crew members—and then I just gave up. Gave up. The reason I was doing laundry was because now we have crew privileges. Yup, I’m heading back to crew bar!!!!

We actually got crew privileges on San Pedro day. We tried to go to crew bar that night---but it was DEAD as it usually is on embarkation day. While for us, embarkation day means a jaunt to the lovely San Pedro post office, a pop into the salon for some Aveda products, and perhaps, going to the public library, and then eating delicious sandwiches while catching up on all things internet, most of the crew have double crazy duties on embark---and only get off for a short time. For example, our room stewards, have to clean the rooms, say farewell to the debarking passengers, strip the beds, take out a weeks worth of cruise flotsam and trash, and then re-make the bed, scrub the hell out of the bathroom, and then turn around and start learning a whole new set of passenger names and making nice to try to get the tip.

And I can’t imagine the kind of work that the luggage guys have—hauling the bags from the pier to the rooms---ugh! So exhausting.

Anyway, after realizing how very hard the room stewards work, and since they weren’t leaving us with laundry bags like they did on the Spirit, and the fact that Keith does his own laundry, I decided I could do laundry today. And it was super-frustrating.

So, then I went to the gym, and worked out for 50 minutes, catching the tail end of Nanny Diaries and then the second half of Stranger then Fiction. I love that movie—and I want to watch it again and again.

But, back to last night. My cast was teasing me about how excited I was to go to crew bar—I was treating it like it was my coming out ball. But it’s just so much more real then any other place we can go to. And I just am not that into Spinnaker or the Pearl Martini lounge or the Carousel. The Red Lion is just fine, but it’s primarily a walk-through place. The Bier Garten is lovely when it’s nice weather but often is too windy to sustain for very long. I just really really like going to Crew Bar, and hanging out with friends.

Last night, after a failed attempt the night before, we finally got down there. And man, it was fantastic. Our cast (minus Derek) bought each other rounds, and everyone was sitting together, but turned and chatting with another group of crew members. Megan was talking to the new magician, I was chatting with Hernan, a Youth Counselor from Argentina who I knew and adored on the Spirit, as well as Matt, a much maligned YC, who I find delightful. Mark was chatting with some folks from the cruise staff from the Phillipines, and Tilliski was yukking it up with some of the YCs (Canadians, Australians) while Keith talked to the airbrush tattoist (Romanian, really Translyvanian, within ½ an hour of Count Dracula’s castle. For real). I mean, in what other place can we have those conversations? And the beers are real real cheap. I love it, and am surprised by how much I missed it. I don’t think I’ll be there every night, nor do I think it’ll solve the world’s that we get to interact with so many different nationalities…but, it is a big part of why I love this cruise job. And last night, we got it back.

I may try to do laundry later today---it’s Valentine’s Day, so the restaurants will be packed, so I should be able to get a working machine as most of the crew will be working.

For now, I’m off to walk the track with our international receptionist. We’ve had a change in itinerary due to a medical emergency—so we are veering off-course to drop the sick passenger off at Puerta Vallerta, which means that we will be late getting into Acalupulco tomorrow. I’m curious to see if we’ll be able to tell the difference in itinerary just by looking and I hope this passenger is ok.

The San Pedro post office, by the way, has a museum in it’s basement, and was a former Military hospital, built in the 30s, now converted to a post office. For the past two weeks we have been serviced by the same gentleman, who each time give us news on the PO Box, until finally, this week, gave us the honor of having PO Box number 1. As Megan might say, “That seems crazy.”

This whole ship life is freaking crazy.