6: 1 Month
I have wanted to write for so long, but just haven’t had time. I have a list of things to write about and it keeps getting longer and longer. I have now been on board the Ecstasy for just over 1 month – it feels like much longer but at the same time not long at all. Time seems to just fly, three cruises = 2 weeks and the last 5 day cruise just vanished somewhere.
For my one month celebration of being on board I thought it would be nice to go to the disco or crew bar for a drink with some new friends, but in reality, I was signed off by the doctor, not to work and given lots of pills. An early night of lots of sleep (I guess it was memorable). The reason: bug bites or a rash that was starting to get infected. And how did this happen? Two days earlier there was a crew excursion in Cozumel. The tour was free but they asked that you give a donation. It was to raise money for the family of a crew member who died while on board (a few days before I started here) – quite hectic news to be greeted with when I first came on board a month ago! Anyway back to the shore excursion. It was so much fun! We got on a catamaran boat and sailed away from the cruise ship – with sun, friends, free drinks and good music. The first stop was snorkelling not too far from the ship and shore. My first time snorkelling and I loved it. We were given all the gear we needed and then just floated in the sea looking down on a world below. I saw so many little fishes and even a barracuda surrounded by a school of fish creating a doughnut ring around it – they didn’t want to get too close. I took an underwater camera with me, let’s hope some of the photos came out, they still need to be developed. Next stop was a beach where we could swim in the sea, go horseback riding, sea kayaking, lie in the sun, eat and slide down big blow up slides and jump on a trampoline (yes in the sea). I did everything except lie in the sun, and for the whole time I am very proud to say I did not get sun burnt.
We started with the horseback riding which was very unexpected – I was not expecting any horses, let alone riding them. I guess wearing a dress with my bikini was perhaps not the best idea and this is probably where I got the bites, but oh well. Next was some lunch then sea kayaking and swimming and sliding down big plastic blow up things which were particularly difficult to get up onto. Eventually all good things must come to an end and we all got back onto the catamaran and headed back to our ship.
The shipboard lifestyle is not all that healthy, but I am doing my best. I would love to sleep more! And I never thought I’d say this, but I would really love some vegetables - there’s only so much broccoli and boiled carrots that one can eat. I try go to gym but it doesn’t happen that often. I did however finally find some museli to have for breakfast. I asked for it in a number of shops and no one knew what I was talking about! I had to explain that it’s like a granola bar but cereal. Took a while...
I was introduced to tagging and cleaning a few cruises ago. A duty two photographers have to do every cruise. I see the little xxxx’s getting closer to my name with each new cruise, I’m not looking forward to the next one! Cleaning is simple, just take all the garbage from the lab and gallery to the garbage room. Tagging and displaying is very time consuming. Almost every picture sold in the photo gallery has a little metal sensor/tag on the back of it (like in many shops back home) so that if people walk out without paying for the pictures, the sensors will beep and we don’t lose lots of money. But each tag has to be put on by hand. Put on to 7000 photos after formal night by hand. Luckily I was paired with a guy who has been working for carnival for many years and is now a master at it. I felt completely useless though. We started at 11:30pm and finished at 3:45am, then luckily get the next morning off. Not much fun.
There is such a variety of guests on board. Last cruise there was a 105 year old lady with her two daughters who looked over 70 as well. As its summer holidays there are kids everywhere! More than 800 children per cruise that I have been on so far. I’m looking forward to them leaving, just a few more weeks. One of the teens’ latest fashion is to wear the tiniest hot pants shorts with the button and fly open, not the most attractive.
When making a sale, the guest’s name comes up on our screen and we have to call them by name. Some are rather amusing such as a Mr Marvellous and a lady called Laundress. I guess there are similarly entertaining names at home but I have not heard them in a while. Every now and again there is a Martin, Richard, Alice, Vicki and Jessica which always makes me smile. As I’ve mentioned before there are a number of rather LARGE guests. I was so pleased with myself I managed to make an extremely large one (she needed a wheelchair to get around but could walk the few metres to the portrait station) look thinner! The majority of her bulk was hidden by her husband and she looked much better. Then to make things better they bought almost all the pictures the next day : )
When photographing the gangway (as guests get off the boat) in Cozumel there are people in costumes (Indians and dancers) to photograph the guests with. The one Indian always makes me laugh. To get the guests to come closer and actually take a picture with him, he says “Ooo Beyonce” to the ladies (generally the large black ones – very unlike the real Beyonce singer) and he calls the men (also generally large) “Mr Muscle”. It always puts a smile on the guests face, which is I guess what counts. Another of his phrases is “Mexican sandwich” when he has a guest on either side of him. There is also a dressed up Mariachi when in Progresso, he is a Pilipino working on board the ship. One of the guests asked him where he was from (he doesn’t look very Mexican, how come he’s dressed up as the Mariachi) and his reply “an illegal (immigrant)”.
I’m slowly discovering more and more each time I go ashore in our different ports. Galveston has little treasures waiting to be found: amazing old buildings, lots of art galleries, nice boutique shops, a divine chocolate shop and more. It reminds me of Clarens back home. I found a sports shoe store and bought myself some decent shoes for work, what a difference, I don’t feel nearly as tired as I used to by the end of the day! The shoes fit so well, I had my feet measured and had to get wide ones ordered for me. I also got socks from that shop. Guess where the socks are made. South Africa! I left home with so many pairs of socks and have bought more since I got here. Washing and laundry is done in one’s spare time (which doesn’t happen often). I only need to do washing about once every 2 weeks which is lucky as there aren’t too many machines – about 8 washing machines and the same number of driers for the whole crew (900+) – got to plan visits there carefully to avoid queuing.
On my most recent Cozumel visit I took a taxi downtown and took a look at the places suggested to the guests for shopping. It’s all the same stuff, tourist souvenirs. I tried on some boots made from buffalo hide. I was given a “Mexican sock” to try them on with ie. a plastic bag, made me laugh. Unfortunately the boots looked terrible on – they had a pointy toe that curled upwards. I’ll have to keep looking for some nice boots. Who knows how I’ll get them home. Oh dear.
Well that’s all for now. Lots more to tell, but it’ll have to wait.
I’m off to get my washing from the driers. Ciao
For my one month celebration of being on board I thought it would be nice to go to the disco or crew bar for a drink with some new friends, but in reality, I was signed off by the doctor, not to work and given lots of pills. An early night of lots of sleep (I guess it was memorable). The reason: bug bites or a rash that was starting to get infected. And how did this happen? Two days earlier there was a crew excursion in Cozumel. The tour was free but they asked that you give a donation. It was to raise money for the family of a crew member who died while on board (a few days before I started here) – quite hectic news to be greeted with when I first came on board a month ago! Anyway back to the shore excursion. It was so much fun! We got on a catamaran boat and sailed away from the cruise ship – with sun, friends, free drinks and good music. The first stop was snorkelling not too far from the ship and shore. My first time snorkelling and I loved it. We were given all the gear we needed and then just floated in the sea looking down on a world below. I saw so many little fishes and even a barracuda surrounded by a school of fish creating a doughnut ring around it – they didn’t want to get too close. I took an underwater camera with me, let’s hope some of the photos came out, they still need to be developed. Next stop was a beach where we could swim in the sea, go horseback riding, sea kayaking, lie in the sun, eat and slide down big blow up slides and jump on a trampoline (yes in the sea). I did everything except lie in the sun, and for the whole time I am very proud to say I did not get sun burnt.
We started with the horseback riding which was very unexpected – I was not expecting any horses, let alone riding them. I guess wearing a dress with my bikini was perhaps not the best idea and this is probably where I got the bites, but oh well. Next was some lunch then sea kayaking and swimming and sliding down big plastic blow up things which were particularly difficult to get up onto. Eventually all good things must come to an end and we all got back onto the catamaran and headed back to our ship.
The shipboard lifestyle is not all that healthy, but I am doing my best. I would love to sleep more! And I never thought I’d say this, but I would really love some vegetables - there’s only so much broccoli and boiled carrots that one can eat. I try go to gym but it doesn’t happen that often. I did however finally find some museli to have for breakfast. I asked for it in a number of shops and no one knew what I was talking about! I had to explain that it’s like a granola bar but cereal. Took a while...
I was introduced to tagging and cleaning a few cruises ago. A duty two photographers have to do every cruise. I see the little xxxx’s getting closer to my name with each new cruise, I’m not looking forward to the next one! Cleaning is simple, just take all the garbage from the lab and gallery to the garbage room. Tagging and displaying is very time consuming. Almost every picture sold in the photo gallery has a little metal sensor/tag on the back of it (like in many shops back home) so that if people walk out without paying for the pictures, the sensors will beep and we don’t lose lots of money. But each tag has to be put on by hand. Put on to 7000 photos after formal night by hand. Luckily I was paired with a guy who has been working for carnival for many years and is now a master at it. I felt completely useless though. We started at 11:30pm and finished at 3:45am, then luckily get the next morning off. Not much fun.
There is such a variety of guests on board. Last cruise there was a 105 year old lady with her two daughters who looked over 70 as well. As its summer holidays there are kids everywhere! More than 800 children per cruise that I have been on so far. I’m looking forward to them leaving, just a few more weeks. One of the teens’ latest fashion is to wear the tiniest hot pants shorts with the button and fly open, not the most attractive.
When making a sale, the guest’s name comes up on our screen and we have to call them by name. Some are rather amusing such as a Mr Marvellous and a lady called Laundress. I guess there are similarly entertaining names at home but I have not heard them in a while. Every now and again there is a Martin, Richard, Alice, Vicki and Jessica which always makes me smile. As I’ve mentioned before there are a number of rather LARGE guests. I was so pleased with myself I managed to make an extremely large one (she needed a wheelchair to get around but could walk the few metres to the portrait station) look thinner! The majority of her bulk was hidden by her husband and she looked much better. Then to make things better they bought almost all the pictures the next day : )
When photographing the gangway (as guests get off the boat) in Cozumel there are people in costumes (Indians and dancers) to photograph the guests with. The one Indian always makes me laugh. To get the guests to come closer and actually take a picture with him, he says “Ooo Beyonce” to the ladies (generally the large black ones – very unlike the real Beyonce singer) and he calls the men (also generally large) “Mr Muscle”. It always puts a smile on the guests face, which is I guess what counts. Another of his phrases is “Mexican sandwich” when he has a guest on either side of him. There is also a dressed up Mariachi when in Progresso, he is a Pilipino working on board the ship. One of the guests asked him where he was from (he doesn’t look very Mexican, how come he’s dressed up as the Mariachi) and his reply “an illegal (immigrant)”.
I’m slowly discovering more and more each time I go ashore in our different ports. Galveston has little treasures waiting to be found: amazing old buildings, lots of art galleries, nice boutique shops, a divine chocolate shop and more. It reminds me of Clarens back home. I found a sports shoe store and bought myself some decent shoes for work, what a difference, I don’t feel nearly as tired as I used to by the end of the day! The shoes fit so well, I had my feet measured and had to get wide ones ordered for me. I also got socks from that shop. Guess where the socks are made. South Africa! I left home with so many pairs of socks and have bought more since I got here. Washing and laundry is done in one’s spare time (which doesn’t happen often). I only need to do washing about once every 2 weeks which is lucky as there aren’t too many machines – about 8 washing machines and the same number of driers for the whole crew (900+) – got to plan visits there carefully to avoid queuing.
On my most recent Cozumel visit I took a taxi downtown and took a look at the places suggested to the guests for shopping. It’s all the same stuff, tourist souvenirs. I tried on some boots made from buffalo hide. I was given a “Mexican sock” to try them on with ie. a plastic bag, made me laugh. Unfortunately the boots looked terrible on – they had a pointy toe that curled upwards. I’ll have to keep looking for some nice boots. Who knows how I’ll get them home. Oh dear.
Well that’s all for now. Lots more to tell, but it’ll have to wait.
I’m off to get my washing from the driers. Ciao
posted by Vix at 6:37 pm
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