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