Anybody out there? Yes, Nikki, I know you are there - I LOVE YOU!!! But I haven't heard from too many others lately and I'm definitely getting lonely without you!
Well, I'm almost 2 and a half months into my contract, and it sure seems to have gone quickly. Can you imagine? in less than 2 and a half months, I've traveled from Victoria to Buenos Aires, around Cape Horn, and all the way up the west side of south America, been through the Panama Canal twice, all the way up the Alaska Pan Handle to Hubbard Glacier? And of course been back to home sweet home 3 times??? It's pretty incredible. I'm still a little blown away by it all.
Other things have happened as well, I've met men I like, men I really don't like, I've met new friends on the ship - some that have already left for their vacations, been through 3 changes of personnel in a 7 person department - with another change happening this week (BTW). I've adjusted to living in a cabin with a roommate, AND I've adjusted to not getting 8 hours of sleep per night. Right now it's nearly 11pm, and I have to work at 6:30 tomorrow morning - but I don't plan on going to bed for a couple more hours! I've already gotten sick of the food, and really only eat cause I'm hungry now - though every once in a while I still go a little crazy, like when they have a taco station, or an omelet station (MMMMMMMmmmmmm). I've learned how to walk down a moving hallway and not hit walls, and of course keep smiling and saying good evening to the guests at the same time. I've had acupuncture to cure sea sickness, and headaches (and it's still working BTW).
Stacy you'll like this one, I've gotten over my lazyness, I went to the gym 3 nights ago, and got inspired by one of the trainers training a couple of other girls bootcamp style, and I had to do it, I'm still sore, and have been back to the gym every night since - and I'm feeling fabulous now for it!
Most importantly, I'm relaxed, taking fabulous photos, taking things one day at a time, and having the best time of my life....Who woulda thought it? Not me...that's for sure. The worst thing about being on the ship, is not talking to all of you, I miss my family, and my friends VERY much, and really hope that you will be in touch soon.
Okay, well that's my spew for the night, I gotta go call a boy...LOL - maybe that will get your attention...LOL!!!!!
Love you all lots, hugs and kisses! Miss you!
Tabs
Travel Map
Monday, May 26, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Pictures On Picasa!!!
Okay, not much to say at the moment, I'll have more later, but wanted to let everyone know that ALL of my pictures are now posted to Picasa!!! Yippee! I hope it was worth the wait!
http://picasaweb.google.com/tabithav76
Check them out, and let me know what you think, my absolute favorite is in the last Hubbard Glacier album, a portrait shot with the sun glinting off the ocean and the mountains in the background...Hopefully I'll have some more fabulous shots after this cruise to share!
Miss everyone! Lots of love!
Tabitha
http://picasaweb.google.com/tabithav76
Check them out, and let me know what you think, my absolute favorite is in the last Hubbard Glacier album, a portrait shot with the sun glinting off the ocean and the mountains in the background...Hopefully I'll have some more fabulous shots after this cruise to share!
Miss everyone! Lots of love!
Tabitha
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
A Much Better Week
Well, we're now half way through another cruise, and it's been a much better trip so far. Seattle was very nice, warm weather, I even got a little burnt! Our Pier is very close to Pike Place Market, so I went for a stroll through the market, picked up a sandwich from the Cheese Factory, and a drink, and went to sit in the park and enjoy my lunch! It was a really nice day! After that I strolled along the piers, and it looks like there is a lot to explore so I don't think I'll get tired of our stops in Seattle!
Bit of a Funny Story...and a little embarassing...
As we left Seattle I got ready for work but didn't need to be in the bank right away so I decided to go up to the Helipad to take some pictures. I went up, took a few pictures, and then a security guard came running up and asked me where the guest was...Now I was in Full Evening Uniform, black pants, dress shirt black blazer with stripes on the sleeves...and I said I haven't seen anyone, and I've been here for about 10 minutes...He says he got a call from the bridge saying there was a guest on the helipad - they aren't allowed, just crew is allowed - so I guess the bridge thought I was a guest...OMG, the security guard had to call them back and tell them who I was! It was so embarassing! I was so nervous about them watching me from the bridge that I just went to a guest area to finish taking pictures! And I was nervous about going out even though I knew others would too when we went to Hubbard Glacier!
As we sailed out of Seattle it was a beautiful afternoon, and it was nice to take some photo's of the city from the sea. We passed Race Rocks around sunset that night, and I got some great sunset pictures over the western part of the island - it was like a fairy tale it was so beautiful! Sailing off into the sunset!
After last cruise I can tell you I was a bit nervous about heading out to sea that day, and for the next day when we would be at sea all day, but we actually had some pretty good weather so there was nothing to worry about.
We arrived in Sitka on Sunday, and it looks like a really beautiful port, unfortunately because of my working hours I wasn't able to go out, but next week I should be able to. I had another Acupuncture treatment that morning for the headaches that I've been getting since the last treatment, and it felt really good, though clearly my sinuses are part of my problem, my nose completely stuffed up and I had to breathe through my mouth for most of the treatment! Then, after the treatment, I couldn't stop sneezing ALL DAY! It was really kind of funny...but it was really just my sinuses clearing everything out with the sneezing and it stopped the next day.
Yesterday we were in Hubbard Glacier for the 3rd time, but the first time that we had clear weather - it was INCREDIBLE, INCREDIBLE, INCREDIBLE. The sky was so blue, the water was this really beautiful colour, the glacier itself was vibrant, the icebergs were fantastic...I went up to the front of the ship (Helipad) and along with a few other crew members took a tonne of pictures. I think around 185! We were at the glacier for about 2 hours, and I spent the entire time outside, sailing towards the glacier it was pretty cold, but once we stopped and started turning, it was WARM, the sun on your back and just beautiful. Very lucky this cruise I think. Dale, I think there might be a few pic's in there that you might want!!!
Today we were back in Juneau and I was able to go out for a short while, I had a Fish Taco at a stand near the pier, and went to my favorite Coffee shop in Juneau for a little rest before walking around for a bit and heading back to the ship.
We'll be in Ketchikan again tomorrow, but I won't have the chance to go out, and probably won't be able to go out for a few weeks in Ketchikan due to the duties I have at this time, but as long as I can get out in Juneau I should be okay with that - especially since we go home every week to Victoria!
We will arrive in Victoria Thursday evening, but I won't be going out this time, some of the family is coming on board for a tour this time, I can't wait to show them the ship!
And I have an update about pictures, a good friend on the ship has helped me get my laptop set up - it was a little more complicated than I thought it would be! So I will be working on getting some photo's uploaded from South America tonight! So you should see them late tonight or tomorrow morning. But, I won't be posting them here or on Facebook, I've decided to post them on my picasa site - http://picasaweb.google.com/tabithav76 - so check out the photo's when you get a chance, I'm not sure how long it will take as I've got A LOT of photo's to upload, so keep checking back for more!
Love you! Miss you!
Tabs
Bit of a Funny Story...and a little embarassing...
As we left Seattle I got ready for work but didn't need to be in the bank right away so I decided to go up to the Helipad to take some pictures. I went up, took a few pictures, and then a security guard came running up and asked me where the guest was...Now I was in Full Evening Uniform, black pants, dress shirt black blazer with stripes on the sleeves...and I said I haven't seen anyone, and I've been here for about 10 minutes...He says he got a call from the bridge saying there was a guest on the helipad - they aren't allowed, just crew is allowed - so I guess the bridge thought I was a guest...OMG, the security guard had to call them back and tell them who I was! It was so embarassing! I was so nervous about them watching me from the bridge that I just went to a guest area to finish taking pictures! And I was nervous about going out even though I knew others would too when we went to Hubbard Glacier!
As we sailed out of Seattle it was a beautiful afternoon, and it was nice to take some photo's of the city from the sea. We passed Race Rocks around sunset that night, and I got some great sunset pictures over the western part of the island - it was like a fairy tale it was so beautiful! Sailing off into the sunset!
After last cruise I can tell you I was a bit nervous about heading out to sea that day, and for the next day when we would be at sea all day, but we actually had some pretty good weather so there was nothing to worry about.
We arrived in Sitka on Sunday, and it looks like a really beautiful port, unfortunately because of my working hours I wasn't able to go out, but next week I should be able to. I had another Acupuncture treatment that morning for the headaches that I've been getting since the last treatment, and it felt really good, though clearly my sinuses are part of my problem, my nose completely stuffed up and I had to breathe through my mouth for most of the treatment! Then, after the treatment, I couldn't stop sneezing ALL DAY! It was really kind of funny...but it was really just my sinuses clearing everything out with the sneezing and it stopped the next day.
Yesterday we were in Hubbard Glacier for the 3rd time, but the first time that we had clear weather - it was INCREDIBLE, INCREDIBLE, INCREDIBLE. The sky was so blue, the water was this really beautiful colour, the glacier itself was vibrant, the icebergs were fantastic...I went up to the front of the ship (Helipad) and along with a few other crew members took a tonne of pictures. I think around 185! We were at the glacier for about 2 hours, and I spent the entire time outside, sailing towards the glacier it was pretty cold, but once we stopped and started turning, it was WARM, the sun on your back and just beautiful. Very lucky this cruise I think. Dale, I think there might be a few pic's in there that you might want!!!
Today we were back in Juneau and I was able to go out for a short while, I had a Fish Taco at a stand near the pier, and went to my favorite Coffee shop in Juneau for a little rest before walking around for a bit and heading back to the ship.
We'll be in Ketchikan again tomorrow, but I won't have the chance to go out, and probably won't be able to go out for a few weeks in Ketchikan due to the duties I have at this time, but as long as I can get out in Juneau I should be okay with that - especially since we go home every week to Victoria!
We will arrive in Victoria Thursday evening, but I won't be going out this time, some of the family is coming on board for a tour this time, I can't wait to show them the ship!
And I have an update about pictures, a good friend on the ship has helped me get my laptop set up - it was a little more complicated than I thought it would be! So I will be working on getting some photo's uploaded from South America tonight! So you should see them late tonight or tomorrow morning. But, I won't be posting them here or on Facebook, I've decided to post them on my picasa site - http://picasaweb.google.com/tabithav76 - so check out the photo's when you get a chance, I'm not sure how long it will take as I've got A LOT of photo's to upload, so keep checking back for more!
Love you! Miss you!
Tabs
Friday, May 16, 2008
The last week was a doozy...
Good Afternoon everyone!
Sorry it's been a week since I wrote, but we've had quite a week! We traveled from Seattle to Ketchikan, Hubbard Glacier, then Juneau and back down to Victoria in the last week, and we had terrible weather...terrible, terrible weather...many of the crew who have done these cruises in Alaska before said it's the worst weather they've ever seen. Anytime we were in open waters, it was rough, windy, rainy, huge swells. For a couple of days we had swells hitting deck 3 and 4! Usually if it's rough they will hit decks 1 and maybe 2...I was VERY sick a few days ago, and after speaking with one of the acupuncturists on board I decided to give it a try...what an amazing thing! I am a total acupuncture enthusiest now! I had the acupuncture, the next day we had really rough waters again and I was fine, I started to feel a little bad in the evening, so she told me just to come back and she'll take care of that, but after that day, we had an even rougher day, and I felt NO sea sickness. It's amazing! I'm so into it, I'm going to try it for some other things as well! I felt so incredible after the treatment and even the next day. The night I had the treatment they had a special party for us in the guest disco, and it was a little rough, but not much, but if it's even a little rough, I don't have any alcoholic drinks cause i don't want to make myself sick in anyway, but that night I had a couple of martini's and danced till 3am! I had to get up at 7am the next morning for work, I was up about 10 minutes before the alarm, and feeling fabulous! I've never felt fabulous after so little sleep before! Can't wait for my next treatment!
So, back to our travels, we had a lot of rain in both Juneau and Ketchikan, but it didn't stop me (I'm from Victoria!) I went out had a look through some shops in both cities, I hadn't been out in Juneau before so it was nice to have a look around. It's a cute little town, right at the edge of the pier (like Ketchikan) so you don't have to take time to travel to the city, which is nice when you don't have much time like us crew! Next time if it's nice, there is a tram that goes up the mountain right from the pier, and I'd like to go up to take some pictures of the area and the city from above, it was too foggy this time, and wet of course! My friend Nuno that I was going to go out to take pictures with in Juneau left to be transfered to another ship, so that was disappointing for me, but I've found a new friend that is really into photography! Oh, and by the way, he uses ACDSee Pro 2 and LOVES IT! LOL...
Coming back down towards Victoria we were supposed to do some travels thorugh the Alaska Inside Passage, but unfortunately due to the weather we had to bypass as we were going into the weather, and it slowed us down so much that we were hours behind. We bypassed the passage and we were still 3 hours late into Victoria yesterday! It was incredible. We were all so happy when we were going between the Charlottes and the mainland cause it wasn't quite so bad, and of course once we got inside Vancouver Island it was SO much better last night. I sure hope the next cruise is better...
We made it to Victoria at about 4:30 last night, and I was able to go off the ship at about 5:45, I met up with Mom, Dad, Brooklynn & Kolten for some Ice Cream at Beacon Drive in, and then met up with (ONLY 3) of my friends at the Irish Times pub. I was hoping for a better turn out! But they got my undivided attention...Would it help get you there if I bring some hot ship men (maybe some Greeks and Brazilians?), and sexy ship women (Latinos?) next time???? LOL
Anyways, that's about it for this past week, We'll be heading back up to Alaska again and I'll try to update you a bit more often this time, if the weather is better it should be easiser, as I won't get sick reading and typing! Okay, thanks for reading, and hope to hear from you soon!
Love you all!
Tabs
Sorry it's been a week since I wrote, but we've had quite a week! We traveled from Seattle to Ketchikan, Hubbard Glacier, then Juneau and back down to Victoria in the last week, and we had terrible weather...terrible, terrible weather...many of the crew who have done these cruises in Alaska before said it's the worst weather they've ever seen. Anytime we were in open waters, it was rough, windy, rainy, huge swells. For a couple of days we had swells hitting deck 3 and 4! Usually if it's rough they will hit decks 1 and maybe 2...I was VERY sick a few days ago, and after speaking with one of the acupuncturists on board I decided to give it a try...what an amazing thing! I am a total acupuncture enthusiest now! I had the acupuncture, the next day we had really rough waters again and I was fine, I started to feel a little bad in the evening, so she told me just to come back and she'll take care of that, but after that day, we had an even rougher day, and I felt NO sea sickness. It's amazing! I'm so into it, I'm going to try it for some other things as well! I felt so incredible after the treatment and even the next day. The night I had the treatment they had a special party for us in the guest disco, and it was a little rough, but not much, but if it's even a little rough, I don't have any alcoholic drinks cause i don't want to make myself sick in anyway, but that night I had a couple of martini's and danced till 3am! I had to get up at 7am the next morning for work, I was up about 10 minutes before the alarm, and feeling fabulous! I've never felt fabulous after so little sleep before! Can't wait for my next treatment!
So, back to our travels, we had a lot of rain in both Juneau and Ketchikan, but it didn't stop me (I'm from Victoria!) I went out had a look through some shops in both cities, I hadn't been out in Juneau before so it was nice to have a look around. It's a cute little town, right at the edge of the pier (like Ketchikan) so you don't have to take time to travel to the city, which is nice when you don't have much time like us crew! Next time if it's nice, there is a tram that goes up the mountain right from the pier, and I'd like to go up to take some pictures of the area and the city from above, it was too foggy this time, and wet of course! My friend Nuno that I was going to go out to take pictures with in Juneau left to be transfered to another ship, so that was disappointing for me, but I've found a new friend that is really into photography! Oh, and by the way, he uses ACDSee Pro 2 and LOVES IT! LOL...
Coming back down towards Victoria we were supposed to do some travels thorugh the Alaska Inside Passage, but unfortunately due to the weather we had to bypass as we were going into the weather, and it slowed us down so much that we were hours behind. We bypassed the passage and we were still 3 hours late into Victoria yesterday! It was incredible. We were all so happy when we were going between the Charlottes and the mainland cause it wasn't quite so bad, and of course once we got inside Vancouver Island it was SO much better last night. I sure hope the next cruise is better...
We made it to Victoria at about 4:30 last night, and I was able to go off the ship at about 5:45, I met up with Mom, Dad, Brooklynn & Kolten for some Ice Cream at Beacon Drive in, and then met up with (ONLY 3) of my friends at the Irish Times pub. I was hoping for a better turn out! But they got my undivided attention...Would it help get you there if I bring some hot ship men (maybe some Greeks and Brazilians?), and sexy ship women (Latinos?) next time???? LOL
Anyways, that's about it for this past week, We'll be heading back up to Alaska again and I'll try to update you a bit more often this time, if the weather is better it should be easiser, as I won't get sick reading and typing! Okay, thanks for reading, and hope to hear from you soon!
Love you all!
Tabs
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Weather Delays...
So, it sounds like I might not make it to Irish Times until 6:30 Thursday evening, stayed tuned incase more bad weather postpones us again - I should be there till about 9:30 in the evening.
Tabs
Tabs
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Prince Rupert to Seattle
Good Day everyone!
Thanks Nikki for all your comments! I love to read them!
How's everyone doing? I'm still very well. I moved my cabin yesterday, the new cabin is all the way forward on the ship, on the tween deck (which is below zero deck - so below sea level), when you are so far forward you can feel the movement of the ship more - so I feel a little sea sick this morning as it's a bit of a rough day. I definitely need to make an acupuncture appointment to get rid of this for the remainder of the cruise, if I have to stay in this cabin, I will feel sick much too frequently for my taste. Otherwise the cabin is alright, it's a bit bigger, more space, there's a desk that I can keep my computer on, I'm still undecided on the shower, it's smaller, but has a better shower head and curtain (meaning it doesn't stick to my ass), so we shall see maybe tomorrow after another shower! The toilet wouldn't flush this morning, but my roommate tells me that this is normal for a rough sea day well, I don't like that so much either.
So, since we last spoke, we've been to Prince Rupert, Vancouver & Seattle...
I didn't think I'd get to go out in Prince Rupert as we didn't arrive until 2pm, and I had to work at 4pm (and we can't go out until most of the guests have gone out), but I ended up having to stay and help the guest account purser with some stuff, so I didn't finish work until 2:30, this meant that I didn't have to come back to work until 6:30 so I had a couple of hours to go out. It was a good thing too, as both pairs of jeans that I had with me were kaput, so I had only one pair of pants and one pair of capri's with me - and you can't do capri's in Alaska yet! So, I decided to go look for some pants, I was told there was a mall within a ten minute walk from the ship so I headed up - it was a crappy little mall, but they had a rietmans - so I headed in there, found 5 pairs of pants to try on, and ended up buying 4 of them! So I am all set for pants now, next I need to find a few more t-shirts I think, but that shouldn't be too hard, there is apparently a fred meyer and a costco not far away in Juneau, and I get to go out there next time by.
After the shopping trip, I went down to Cow Bay, which is just next to the dock (what a tiny little dock by the way!). Apparently it's called Cow Bay because when delivering some cows to the area, they had some problems with docking the boat, so they just pushed all the cows off the boat, and made them swim to shore! So all of the trash cans, etc are painted black and white like a cow. It's a small little area with some port shopping, and a couple little restaurants, I had a drink at the coffee shop, and wandered back to the ship.
After Prince Rupert we had a sea day traveling through the Inside passage between Vancouver Island and the main land, due to the hours I was working, I was able to go upstairs to take a look at about 8:00 that night, but it was the perfect time, it was just as we were getting to the thinest area between the island and mainland, and the sun was starting to go down...mmmm perfect. We could see the coast mountains off the Port side (left) and behind us (aft) the sun was setting. I took about 50 photos it was so perfect. The mountains were beautiful, and the sunset over the water was amazing, it was just like you imagine it to be really. One of the guests was upstairs when I was taking photos and asked if my pictures would be for sale later as it had to be a perfect shot. I was flattered, but of course, my photos are for me (and you - eventually) only!
We arrived in Vancouver a little before 7am yesterday morning, I missed going under the Lion's gate bridge by about 3 minutes, but I knew we'd be leaving the same way so I'd have another chance. Due to us repositioning, we were only off loading the guests in Vancouver yesterday, and not picking up anymore there. No one was allowed off the ship due to the short turn around time, we had to leave as soon as all the guests were off and any deliveries were received. Well, that's not quite true, because we also had a short turn around last night in Seattle, about 10 people got off in Vancouver to rent a car and drive to the port in Seattle in order to be there for guests arriving before the ship arrived. So this means that we had about 8 hours of sailing WITHOUT GUESTS!!! Woooohooooo!!! When we left Vancouver a number of staff had come up to deck 11 to watch and take pictures going under the Lion's gate bridge and Vancouver, and Stanley Park - BTW, you really get a great view of where all the damage from the wind storm last winter - it's still SO evident...quite incredible actually, the sea wall is looking good though!
Due to our sailing without guests, we had some special things going happening for crew on the ship, they did a special crew sale in the gift shops - and you didn't have to be in Uniform!!! And, the opened the Cova Cafe (the onboard coffee shop) so that we could go up and enjoy a coffee in the cafe - this isn't all that special for me (we still had to pay for them), but it is really special for those crew that can't be in those areas when guests are on board. It was really good of those crew that worked those areas to work hours that they didn't necessarily have to work so that other crew could have the privledge of being in those areas. I had a coffee with the manager of the specialty restaurant, Christian, he's a really sweet guy and I think we will be very good friends on the ship.
I took a lot more pictures on the way to Seattle, but I wasn't as impressed as I was with the Inside Passage pictures, it was really sunny so the pictures were a bit washed out. Maybe ACDSee can fix them! I'll have to give it a try. And of course I had to take care of moving my stuff to my new cabin.
Once we reached Seattle I had to go out to the pier (again no one else could go out cause we had a short turn around to leave). As the Apprentice Purser, we take turns assisting the Documenation Officer with Embarkation duties, looking at passports for Visa's etc and it was my turn. Lucky for me, most of the guests had already checked in so there wasn't a heck of a lot to do. It was such a strange turn around, we arrived at 7pm, and departed around Midnight, so late, and I think the guests were probably pretty upset by the time we arrived, as the place that they were being held before getting on the ship looked like a cattle barn... and some of them were waiting all day!
After finishing my embarkation duty, I came back on the ship and our new guest account purser had called the other 2 Apprentice pursers to help her and the documentation purser get a few things done, so I also stayed to help. The poor lady is so stressed right now, she's had a few things go wrong with the last cruise and she hasn't been able to balance. So, I think she felt better that we all jumped in to help...I hope that this cruise goes better for her, especially since we are now doing 7 day cruises, which means less time to get things done.
Anyways, that's it for me, bit of a long post today! I'll talk to you all soon, and I'll talk to you soon!
Tabs
Thanks Nikki for all your comments! I love to read them!
How's everyone doing? I'm still very well. I moved my cabin yesterday, the new cabin is all the way forward on the ship, on the tween deck (which is below zero deck - so below sea level), when you are so far forward you can feel the movement of the ship more - so I feel a little sea sick this morning as it's a bit of a rough day. I definitely need to make an acupuncture appointment to get rid of this for the remainder of the cruise, if I have to stay in this cabin, I will feel sick much too frequently for my taste. Otherwise the cabin is alright, it's a bit bigger, more space, there's a desk that I can keep my computer on, I'm still undecided on the shower, it's smaller, but has a better shower head and curtain (meaning it doesn't stick to my ass), so we shall see maybe tomorrow after another shower! The toilet wouldn't flush this morning, but my roommate tells me that this is normal for a rough sea day well, I don't like that so much either.
So, since we last spoke, we've been to Prince Rupert, Vancouver & Seattle...
I didn't think I'd get to go out in Prince Rupert as we didn't arrive until 2pm, and I had to work at 4pm (and we can't go out until most of the guests have gone out), but I ended up having to stay and help the guest account purser with some stuff, so I didn't finish work until 2:30, this meant that I didn't have to come back to work until 6:30 so I had a couple of hours to go out. It was a good thing too, as both pairs of jeans that I had with me were kaput, so I had only one pair of pants and one pair of capri's with me - and you can't do capri's in Alaska yet! So, I decided to go look for some pants, I was told there was a mall within a ten minute walk from the ship so I headed up - it was a crappy little mall, but they had a rietmans - so I headed in there, found 5 pairs of pants to try on, and ended up buying 4 of them! So I am all set for pants now, next I need to find a few more t-shirts I think, but that shouldn't be too hard, there is apparently a fred meyer and a costco not far away in Juneau, and I get to go out there next time by.
After the shopping trip, I went down to Cow Bay, which is just next to the dock (what a tiny little dock by the way!). Apparently it's called Cow Bay because when delivering some cows to the area, they had some problems with docking the boat, so they just pushed all the cows off the boat, and made them swim to shore! So all of the trash cans, etc are painted black and white like a cow. It's a small little area with some port shopping, and a couple little restaurants, I had a drink at the coffee shop, and wandered back to the ship.
After Prince Rupert we had a sea day traveling through the Inside passage between Vancouver Island and the main land, due to the hours I was working, I was able to go upstairs to take a look at about 8:00 that night, but it was the perfect time, it was just as we were getting to the thinest area between the island and mainland, and the sun was starting to go down...mmmm perfect. We could see the coast mountains off the Port side (left) and behind us (aft) the sun was setting. I took about 50 photos it was so perfect. The mountains were beautiful, and the sunset over the water was amazing, it was just like you imagine it to be really. One of the guests was upstairs when I was taking photos and asked if my pictures would be for sale later as it had to be a perfect shot. I was flattered, but of course, my photos are for me (and you - eventually) only!
We arrived in Vancouver a little before 7am yesterday morning, I missed going under the Lion's gate bridge by about 3 minutes, but I knew we'd be leaving the same way so I'd have another chance. Due to us repositioning, we were only off loading the guests in Vancouver yesterday, and not picking up anymore there. No one was allowed off the ship due to the short turn around time, we had to leave as soon as all the guests were off and any deliveries were received. Well, that's not quite true, because we also had a short turn around last night in Seattle, about 10 people got off in Vancouver to rent a car and drive to the port in Seattle in order to be there for guests arriving before the ship arrived. So this means that we had about 8 hours of sailing WITHOUT GUESTS!!! Woooohooooo!!! When we left Vancouver a number of staff had come up to deck 11 to watch and take pictures going under the Lion's gate bridge and Vancouver, and Stanley Park - BTW, you really get a great view of where all the damage from the wind storm last winter - it's still SO evident...quite incredible actually, the sea wall is looking good though!
Due to our sailing without guests, we had some special things going happening for crew on the ship, they did a special crew sale in the gift shops - and you didn't have to be in Uniform!!! And, the opened the Cova Cafe (the onboard coffee shop) so that we could go up and enjoy a coffee in the cafe - this isn't all that special for me (we still had to pay for them), but it is really special for those crew that can't be in those areas when guests are on board. It was really good of those crew that worked those areas to work hours that they didn't necessarily have to work so that other crew could have the privledge of being in those areas. I had a coffee with the manager of the specialty restaurant, Christian, he's a really sweet guy and I think we will be very good friends on the ship.
I took a lot more pictures on the way to Seattle, but I wasn't as impressed as I was with the Inside Passage pictures, it was really sunny so the pictures were a bit washed out. Maybe ACDSee can fix them! I'll have to give it a try. And of course I had to take care of moving my stuff to my new cabin.
Once we reached Seattle I had to go out to the pier (again no one else could go out cause we had a short turn around to leave). As the Apprentice Purser, we take turns assisting the Documenation Officer with Embarkation duties, looking at passports for Visa's etc and it was my turn. Lucky for me, most of the guests had already checked in so there wasn't a heck of a lot to do. It was such a strange turn around, we arrived at 7pm, and departed around Midnight, so late, and I think the guests were probably pretty upset by the time we arrived, as the place that they were being held before getting on the ship looked like a cattle barn... and some of them were waiting all day!
After finishing my embarkation duty, I came back on the ship and our new guest account purser had called the other 2 Apprentice pursers to help her and the documentation purser get a few things done, so I also stayed to help. The poor lady is so stressed right now, she's had a few things go wrong with the last cruise and she hasn't been able to balance. So, I think she felt better that we all jumped in to help...I hope that this cruise goes better for her, especially since we are now doing 7 day cruises, which means less time to get things done.
Anyways, that's it for me, bit of a long post today! I'll talk to you all soon, and I'll talk to you soon!
Tabs
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
OMG, So much is happening!!!
Good Day! How's everyone doing today? I'm quite well! I tried to login yesterday to update you on what's going on, but while in the Hubbard Glacier area we didn't have Internet service - I hope that doesn't mean we never will when we are at Hubbard Glacier each week!
Okay, so lots to update you on! We went to Icy Straight Point the other day, it's fairly close to Sitka, a very small bay - only one ship can come at a time, but they apparently are so busy that after today they won't have a day without a ship until mid september! Unfortunately we aren't coming back there! It's a beautiful little bay, surrounded by snowy mountains, the tender from the ship to the dock is only about 5 minutes, and you go out at this old Cannery that's been converted into shops, restaurants and the excursion meeting point. I didn't get into the town itself, but I have been told it's not so great. The cannery area was really nice though, the shops were fabulous with local arts and crafts being sold, and the food smelled really good - too bad I didn't have enough time to try the halibut and chips! You can also walk around the point to have a look around, there's a nice walking path, and you can even go wlking in the woods. The big point here is the zipline - OMG, it's freaky! It's the longest zipline in the world I'm told, and it looked a little scary - even for me. I don't even know how you get to the top, it looks like you come off the side of the mountain! It looked like everyone doing it had fun though!
Next day, we were at the Hubbard Glacier, what a magnificent site! Incredible! So BIG! We were told ahead of time that because it's so early in the year we will probably only be able to get about 6 miles away from the glacier - so quite a ways, but, our fabulous captain made it in further though all the icebergs, and we were only about a mile away. Unfortunately that makes me think of global warming, if we were able to get that close when normally at this time of year you would be 5 miles further away. I took 127 photographs this day of the glacier, the area, and of course the icebergs, what blew me away was the colour of the ocean here, it was so aqua, it reminded me a bit of the Caribbean ocean colour, but clearer and crisper in the way that the cold weather makes this clearer and crisper!
Today we were in Juneau, Alaska, unfortunately I didn't get to go out as it was my turn to work the afternoon shift, and we had a boat drill in the morning, so no one could go out in the morning. Oh well, there's always next week! We were so busy, I didn't even have time to run upstairs and take a few photos from the ship - though, it didn't look all that exciting from the couple of glimpses I got of outside. I'm excited about going out next time though!
Okay, last couple of things to update you on, we have received word about when the changes will be made for the bank and our positions. We have someone coming from Shore side to help with the transition some time in June! So Soon! We also answered some questions to Theo (The Financial Controller) about what we want to do going forward, so I imagine they will plan on what they will do with us next when they come on board as well. I hope to have the opportunity to train into other positions (2nd officer) so that I can make a bit more money, and have some more responsibility. This means that depending on what's decided I could be changing positions and possibly even my ship as early as July! I now have som disappointing news. I have to move to a new cabin tomorrow, I will be sharing with my co-worker Tunde (who I really like) but I will be getting the top bunk again, and of course sharing, she and her old roommate do like perfume a lot, so I was concerned about moving, and having my allergies be a problem, but she's been so sweet, she's requested a really good cleaning, carpets, walls, bedding, curtains, etc. She's so sweet, I think she will be a good roommate, but I'm still so disappointed that I have to share again! I've been so spoiled before!
Oh, have to tell you about my embarrassing incedent from yesterday...I was asked to help with the payroll audit, for this, you have to go with payroll, the financial controller to meet with the captain, staff captain and hotel director and they pick out a few employees names to audit and ensure that the payroll is being done correctly, etc. Well, yesterday was a bit of a rough sea day, and we had to go up to the captains office, deck 8 forward (the very front of the ship, next to the bridge), I got so sea sick...I didn't throw up, THANK YOU! But I was pale as a ghost and sweating profusely, it was so embarassing to be sea sick in front of the captain! So I have now decided to meet with the acupuncturist to have a treatment to get rid of the sea sickness, she promises me it will work for this entire cruise! I'm excited about that, I'm also considering trying it for weight loss assistance - to go along with the diet and excercise of course to see what it's like. She also indicated that she can resolve the sea sickness for good, but it'll take a few treatments, and it is pretty expensive. $50 for 2 treatments - crew price...I don't think I'm quite ready to spend that much, so we'll give it a go for the sea sickness this cruise and see how things progress.
Next up, tomorrow we will be in Prince Rupert, I'm not sure if I'll get the chance to go out as we are there later in the afternoon.
Anyways, better get myself off the internet, so I'll talk to you soon!
Love you! Miss you!
Tabs
Okay, so lots to update you on! We went to Icy Straight Point the other day, it's fairly close to Sitka, a very small bay - only one ship can come at a time, but they apparently are so busy that after today they won't have a day without a ship until mid september! Unfortunately we aren't coming back there! It's a beautiful little bay, surrounded by snowy mountains, the tender from the ship to the dock is only about 5 minutes, and you go out at this old Cannery that's been converted into shops, restaurants and the excursion meeting point. I didn't get into the town itself, but I have been told it's not so great. The cannery area was really nice though, the shops were fabulous with local arts and crafts being sold, and the food smelled really good - too bad I didn't have enough time to try the halibut and chips! You can also walk around the point to have a look around, there's a nice walking path, and you can even go wlking in the woods. The big point here is the zipline - OMG, it's freaky! It's the longest zipline in the world I'm told, and it looked a little scary - even for me. I don't even know how you get to the top, it looks like you come off the side of the mountain! It looked like everyone doing it had fun though!
Next day, we were at the Hubbard Glacier, what a magnificent site! Incredible! So BIG! We were told ahead of time that because it's so early in the year we will probably only be able to get about 6 miles away from the glacier - so quite a ways, but, our fabulous captain made it in further though all the icebergs, and we were only about a mile away. Unfortunately that makes me think of global warming, if we were able to get that close when normally at this time of year you would be 5 miles further away. I took 127 photographs this day of the glacier, the area, and of course the icebergs, what blew me away was the colour of the ocean here, it was so aqua, it reminded me a bit of the Caribbean ocean colour, but clearer and crisper in the way that the cold weather makes this clearer and crisper!
Today we were in Juneau, Alaska, unfortunately I didn't get to go out as it was my turn to work the afternoon shift, and we had a boat drill in the morning, so no one could go out in the morning. Oh well, there's always next week! We were so busy, I didn't even have time to run upstairs and take a few photos from the ship - though, it didn't look all that exciting from the couple of glimpses I got of outside. I'm excited about going out next time though!
Okay, last couple of things to update you on, we have received word about when the changes will be made for the bank and our positions. We have someone coming from Shore side to help with the transition some time in June! So Soon! We also answered some questions to Theo (The Financial Controller) about what we want to do going forward, so I imagine they will plan on what they will do with us next when they come on board as well. I hope to have the opportunity to train into other positions (2nd officer) so that I can make a bit more money, and have some more responsibility. This means that depending on what's decided I could be changing positions and possibly even my ship as early as July! I now have som disappointing news. I have to move to a new cabin tomorrow, I will be sharing with my co-worker Tunde (who I really like) but I will be getting the top bunk again, and of course sharing, she and her old roommate do like perfume a lot, so I was concerned about moving, and having my allergies be a problem, but she's been so sweet, she's requested a really good cleaning, carpets, walls, bedding, curtains, etc. She's so sweet, I think she will be a good roommate, but I'm still so disappointed that I have to share again! I've been so spoiled before!
Oh, have to tell you about my embarrassing incedent from yesterday...I was asked to help with the payroll audit, for this, you have to go with payroll, the financial controller to meet with the captain, staff captain and hotel director and they pick out a few employees names to audit and ensure that the payroll is being done correctly, etc. Well, yesterday was a bit of a rough sea day, and we had to go up to the captains office, deck 8 forward (the very front of the ship, next to the bridge), I got so sea sick...I didn't throw up, THANK YOU! But I was pale as a ghost and sweating profusely, it was so embarassing to be sea sick in front of the captain! So I have now decided to meet with the acupuncturist to have a treatment to get rid of the sea sickness, she promises me it will work for this entire cruise! I'm excited about that, I'm also considering trying it for weight loss assistance - to go along with the diet and excercise of course to see what it's like. She also indicated that she can resolve the sea sickness for good, but it'll take a few treatments, and it is pretty expensive. $50 for 2 treatments - crew price...I don't think I'm quite ready to spend that much, so we'll give it a go for the sea sickness this cruise and see how things progress.
Next up, tomorrow we will be in Prince Rupert, I'm not sure if I'll get the chance to go out as we are there later in the afternoon.
Anyways, better get myself off the internet, so I'll talk to you soon!
Love you! Miss you!
Tabs
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Victoria, Nanaimo, Inside Passage & Ketchikan!
Hello! Sorry it's been a while, I've got a lot to catch you all up on. And by the way, I haven't seen any comments lately - maybe no one is reading???
Okay, so I was back home in Victoria on Wednesday, had a great visit with the family - I miss you all so much, thank you for coming! We had lunch at Boston Pizza near Kevin's work (my brother for those of you who don't know who Kevin is) and a great visit. After lunch we headed to Mom's office for a quick stop before heading back to the ship. We really got a good comparison to the size of the ship, as we were coming back, we were looking at the ship, and we saw the Coho Ferry coming from Port Angeles near the cruise ship, and the Coho looked like a dinky toy compared to the ship! It was so funny, we were all laughing! I'll never look at a ferry the same way again. LOL! Next time we are in Victoria will be May 15th, and I want to try and see people if you have time! I am planning to go off the ship with some co-workers to have some dinner and I will post and let you know where we will be so that if you get a chance you can come by. We will be in Victoria from 2pm till 8pm that day, I hope to get time off the ship from 3pm till 7pm, so we will definitely settle some where for people to visit! I will post more when I have more info!
After Victoria, we slowly made our way to Nanaimo, as you can imagine it really wouldn't take long at even half speed so we went really, really slow. I managed to get a few decent shots of the sunset that night outside Victoria! It was a very nice send off from home! It was very unfortunate that I didn't get to go out in Nanaimo, it was a port I really wanted to visit - HAHAHAHAHA - no wait, I offered to work the long shift that day, why would I want to go there? LOL, so it was onward to the Inside Passage, we missed a lot of the northern Vancouver Island area due to it being dark and all, but the Northern Passage of Alaska was during the day, really unfortunately this time I didn't get to see much due to the hours I was working, and when we were in the 'good viewing areas'. Apparently some guests saw some whales, I told them it was a good thing mom wasn't on the ship or they wouldn't have seen them. HAHAHAHAHAHA...
Today we were in Ketchikan, Alaska, I really liked this port, it's such a cute little town, with beautiful mountains surrounding it, there is still lots of snow on the mountains, and it was quite cold still today - I even heard a local complain about the cold! I went with 2 co-workers for chinese food today, and then wandered around the town by myself and did a bit of shopping. Town is right at the pier so you only have to cross the street to get to the stores. I bought a few things that I needed mostly, a jacket (so I won't freeze next time!), a t-shirt, and a few more magnets for posting things up in my cabin. I would have liked to have stayed longer as I didn't get to explore it all, but of course, now that we are in Alaska for the summer, there's always next week!
Tomorrow we will be in Icy Straight Point which is supposed to be really beautiful, it will be a tender so it time off the ship will be more limited than a docked port, but I should have the time to go out, take a few pictures and explore near the pier. Apparently this is such a small place, that they can only take one cruise ship at a time here. Can't wait to see it!
So, life on the ship is changing a bit as well, we have had a few changes occuring in our department, as I think I already mentioned, Albert joined us in the bank at the beginning of the last cruise, and this cruise we had Ricardo join Albert and myself in the bank, and we have a new guest account purser joining to take over for Veronica, her name is Liza. So far we all seem to get along fairly well, and I'm keeping an open mind that things will stay this way. Having 2 guys to work with in the bank seems pretty good, as they are very relaxed and easy going. Due to the change over with Anna leaving, and these guys just being brand new to our ship (they've both done the job before), I am left with a lot of extra duties right now. I am in charge of Stamps (what a pain in the behind!), charging gratuities, bingo reconciling, copying for Theo, preparing the schedule, and making sure these guys are doing what they need to do. It feels really good, but I can definitely do with out some of these jobs! We will start to transition some of these jobs later this cruise and next cruise, but they will still rely on me for help, as some of the things we do on this ship are different than they are used to from other ships.
There is still no news about what will happen with our jobs next. My projection is that once we are into the regular routine of 7 day cruises to Alaska they will start the process of transfering things over to guest Relations. One person in Guest Relations said that she heard it's supposed to be done for June or July. I expect that once we've trained them in the job, we will have to support them for a while in ensuring that they are doing everything correctly, and backing them up when they have problems. So hopefully I will get the training I need to move onwards and upwards before the end of my contract in September!
Other news on the ship, I'm still prospecting for a new boyfriend, there's a few guys I find attractive, but now I have to get to know them better to see if they are worth my time or not. I still don't have a new roommate (please everyone keep your fingers crossed), so hopefully I won't get one for a while, and can keep my room to myself! It's so nice this way!
Anyways, that's about it for shiplife today, please send me a note or leave a comment to let me know you are alive and well! I miss you all, and hope to see you in Victoria on the 15th!
Love,
Tabs
Okay, so I was back home in Victoria on Wednesday, had a great visit with the family - I miss you all so much, thank you for coming! We had lunch at Boston Pizza near Kevin's work (my brother for those of you who don't know who Kevin is) and a great visit. After lunch we headed to Mom's office for a quick stop before heading back to the ship. We really got a good comparison to the size of the ship, as we were coming back, we were looking at the ship, and we saw the Coho Ferry coming from Port Angeles near the cruise ship, and the Coho looked like a dinky toy compared to the ship! It was so funny, we were all laughing! I'll never look at a ferry the same way again. LOL! Next time we are in Victoria will be May 15th, and I want to try and see people if you have time! I am planning to go off the ship with some co-workers to have some dinner and I will post and let you know where we will be so that if you get a chance you can come by. We will be in Victoria from 2pm till 8pm that day, I hope to get time off the ship from 3pm till 7pm, so we will definitely settle some where for people to visit! I will post more when I have more info!
After Victoria, we slowly made our way to Nanaimo, as you can imagine it really wouldn't take long at even half speed so we went really, really slow. I managed to get a few decent shots of the sunset that night outside Victoria! It was a very nice send off from home! It was very unfortunate that I didn't get to go out in Nanaimo, it was a port I really wanted to visit - HAHAHAHAHA - no wait, I offered to work the long shift that day, why would I want to go there? LOL, so it was onward to the Inside Passage, we missed a lot of the northern Vancouver Island area due to it being dark and all, but the Northern Passage of Alaska was during the day, really unfortunately this time I didn't get to see much due to the hours I was working, and when we were in the 'good viewing areas'. Apparently some guests saw some whales, I told them it was a good thing mom wasn't on the ship or they wouldn't have seen them. HAHAHAHAHAHA...
Today we were in Ketchikan, Alaska, I really liked this port, it's such a cute little town, with beautiful mountains surrounding it, there is still lots of snow on the mountains, and it was quite cold still today - I even heard a local complain about the cold! I went with 2 co-workers for chinese food today, and then wandered around the town by myself and did a bit of shopping. Town is right at the pier so you only have to cross the street to get to the stores. I bought a few things that I needed mostly, a jacket (so I won't freeze next time!), a t-shirt, and a few more magnets for posting things up in my cabin. I would have liked to have stayed longer as I didn't get to explore it all, but of course, now that we are in Alaska for the summer, there's always next week!
Tomorrow we will be in Icy Straight Point which is supposed to be really beautiful, it will be a tender so it time off the ship will be more limited than a docked port, but I should have the time to go out, take a few pictures and explore near the pier. Apparently this is such a small place, that they can only take one cruise ship at a time here. Can't wait to see it!
So, life on the ship is changing a bit as well, we have had a few changes occuring in our department, as I think I already mentioned, Albert joined us in the bank at the beginning of the last cruise, and this cruise we had Ricardo join Albert and myself in the bank, and we have a new guest account purser joining to take over for Veronica, her name is Liza. So far we all seem to get along fairly well, and I'm keeping an open mind that things will stay this way. Having 2 guys to work with in the bank seems pretty good, as they are very relaxed and easy going. Due to the change over with Anna leaving, and these guys just being brand new to our ship (they've both done the job before), I am left with a lot of extra duties right now. I am in charge of Stamps (what a pain in the behind!), charging gratuities, bingo reconciling, copying for Theo, preparing the schedule, and making sure these guys are doing what they need to do. It feels really good, but I can definitely do with out some of these jobs! We will start to transition some of these jobs later this cruise and next cruise, but they will still rely on me for help, as some of the things we do on this ship are different than they are used to from other ships.
There is still no news about what will happen with our jobs next. My projection is that once we are into the regular routine of 7 day cruises to Alaska they will start the process of transfering things over to guest Relations. One person in Guest Relations said that she heard it's supposed to be done for June or July. I expect that once we've trained them in the job, we will have to support them for a while in ensuring that they are doing everything correctly, and backing them up when they have problems. So hopefully I will get the training I need to move onwards and upwards before the end of my contract in September!
Other news on the ship, I'm still prospecting for a new boyfriend, there's a few guys I find attractive, but now I have to get to know them better to see if they are worth my time or not. I still don't have a new roommate (please everyone keep your fingers crossed), so hopefully I won't get one for a while, and can keep my room to myself! It's so nice this way!
Anyways, that's about it for shiplife today, please send me a note or leave a comment to let me know you are alive and well! I miss you all, and hope to see you in Victoria on the 15th!
Love,
Tabs
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