Canary Islands, Crossing the Atlantic, and Tortola...

Hello Everyone! Hope you all enjoyed my last post from uh...2 weeks ago? Sorry 'bout that...I'm not starting out too well am i? I should get better now that we are in the Caribbean and into our regular routine!

Okay, so since I wrote last I've been out on 2 of the Canary Islands, Crossed the Atlantic Ocean, been to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands and had one Embarkation day in Puerto Rico...

Canary Islands - I was able to go out in Tenerife, and La Palma, in Tenerife we mostly did some shopping, didn't really get too many pictures (to be posted soon), but it looks like a nice place, rather brown though, not a lot of greenery...They have a really nice shopping street - with no cars and lots of shops. La Palma was really nice and I'd really like to go there again, maybe spend a week...lol We did a bit of browsing in the shops and had lunch in a really beautiful square, it feels very Spanish there (it is a owned by the Spanish, but Tenerife doesn't feel so Spanish). I picked up a few discounted Christmas decorations there so I do actually have a few up in my cabin now.

Hmmm, Crossing the Atlantic - not as bad as I thought, they were concerned about bad weather when we left the Canaries, so we left an hour early, luckily we seem to have missed the storm because we had pretty good weather all the way across, you'd be surprised how warm it was - we were crossing near the equator and it was actually kinda hot and muggy in the middle of the atlantic on day 3! It's a little freaky to look outside and for 5 whole days to only see the ocean...and by day 4 I was definitely feeling a little rough around the edges, like I just needed to be on land, but day 5 was better knowing that the following day we'd be making landfall...

Onship, I did make it to latin night, it wasn't all that great, not too many people came, but I did get to dance...so I was happy - even though it was with an american rather than a latin! Maybe there will be more people next time. I've really made some good friends already, the ladies at the Guest Relations desk are really nice, and the Guest Account Purser (from Vancouver) and I get along really well, we always go out together in port, and eat together. I got to spend my first cruise in a cabin to myself, which was wonderful - I now share the cabin with one of the Guest relations staff but she's supposed to be moving out in 2 cruises, so I may get it to myself again, I won't hold my breath...but it would be nice if I did! We only have 7 more cruises until this ship closes, it's hard to believe that's all that's left! I'm also still training with the GAP onboard so hopefully I can get into the pool for the Guest Account Purser position soon. The current GAP is great at giving me stuff to do and helping me train further.

Okay, Tortola - LOVE IT! Beautiful Island, nice and green, hilly, beachy, lots of bays....kind of a shabby town, but still nice and comfortable. We arrived in Tortola the first time on the 18th, and were able to get out to have lunch in a nice british style pub - where for some reason I had Jamaican Jerk Chicken Quesadillas...LOL, doesn't seem very british! Then we took the slow route back to the ship and wandered through the tourist stalls. We were there again today after embarkation yesterday, and got to do a bit of shopping, went to the supermarket and a department store of some sort, to pick up a few necessities - I'm so excited, I bought a nice brand new towel - the towels we are given on board are terrible! Smelly sometimes, all of them have black stains, you don't really want to dry yourself with them if you open your eyes to look at them! So to have a nice new towel of my own is very nice. We then went back to the british style pub (there doesn't seem to be too many eating options right near where we dock) and had a drink and some nachoes out on the patio. It was so nice - Sorry to hear that you've all been stuck in the snowy winter wonderland of minus temperatures back at home in Victoria! Wish you were all here instead!

Yesterday was our first embarkation day in a US port so it was a VERY hectic day! We had a full crew immigration, US Coast Guard Inspection, Guest turnaround, and an early arrival and late departure! I was recruited to help with the full crew inspection, so my day was supposed to start at 5am, when my alarm went off, but for some reason my body decided that I should get up 15 minutes sooner...I know Mom, I was as shocked as you! So, 4:45, I'm up showered dressed, and waiting at the gangway by 5:45 to get outside and set up the crew passport distribution...Of course guests come first so as soon as they were ready to disembark guests, crew immigration stopped - that was 7:45, and of course it took us a while to get everything back to the ship - breakfast at 8:30, and to the room for a short nap - oh, no, wait...the US Coast Guard decided we needed to do our drill at 9:30 so at 9:15 the announcements started, and as soon as that was over - 10:30 ish, we were back to the terminal to complete immigration...Finished that around 1:30 - just in time to get the dregs of lunch on ship, a brief nap - 1 hour, and back to work, working in the terminal checking guest passports, helping the Financial Controller and the GAP, and finally finishing around 9:00 that night! Luckily I was able to leave a little early as we didn't leave San Juan until about 10pm.

Okay, so that was a really long post, and now I'm going to let you go do whatever else you were planning to do today! I won't wait so long next time!

Love you all! Miss you! Write me soon! Oh, and Merry Christmas from the Caribbean! Thinking warm thoughts for those of you at home in the cold snow!

Tabitha