August 17, 2011

ST MAARTEN

 

Yesterday was St Thomas, but I didn’t get off the ship, though I had plenty of time.  The reason is I truly believe I was cursed.  Yes, cursed.  This whole cruise has been a long nightmare, and until last night’s karaoke contest I would have been hard pressed to find something positive to say about either the crew, or the guests.

I don’t know if it is the full moon, or what…

On the 15^th at lunch time I had a run in with my food allergies.  I am fatally allergic to peanuts and, depending on how much I ingest, pretty darn allergic to their cousin soy beans.  I generally can stay clear of both by avoiding any food where I cannot read the list of ingredients, and of course all Asian foods.  In the mess hall, since I got there late due to my Dreamworks Family photo call, I had very little to choose from.  Basically Caribbean Rice and some Indian style Beef Stew.

I’m not sure if I have mentioned it before, but on this ship RCI has an agreement with Dreamworks, and we host several members of the Shrek and Madagascar family.  Everyday there is a photo opportunity for the guests with one group or the other.  We, as Cruise Staff, host this for the photographers.  Basically there is a queue we set up and monitor.  That day was Shrek, so we had Puss in Boots, Shrek and Fiona.  The one thing that sticks in my mind from that session was this poor girl who was severely handicapped.  To the point of being practically a vegetable.  It was heart rending to watch her parents lovingly wipe the drool that constantly formed at the corner of her mouth.  There is a lot of karma being worked out there.  She is unable to talk, feed herself, and is confined to a wheelchair.  I am not sure what her disease is, but I asked the father how old she was, and she is 18.  They had brought her, and due to her disability and her wheelchair I suggested they just stay to the side after their photographs to minimize the traveling they had to do with the wheelchair.  All the family members of Shrek were amazing, but I can only imagine what they were saying to themselves inside their costumes.  It brought tears to more eyes than mine, I know.  That is love.

After that it was chow time, and off to the Mess Hall I went.  I remember looking down at the brown rice of the Caribbean Rice thinking, “I wonder if it is really brown rice, or if it is soaked in soy sauce.”  I think it must have been soaked in soy.  Not 15 minutes after eating it I felt that funny tickle in the back of my throat that is the beginning of my allergic reactions.  Going back to my room I figured I would take a benadryl and ride it out.  Nope.  I just kept getting worse.  I debated with myself for a while, then decided that it would be better, since I was not sure I would not throw up and therefore did not want to man my next duty in public, if I went to Medical.  15 minutes after that I was hooked up to an IV being loaded with more benadryl, steroids and what not.  Well, it seemed to me the cure was worse than the symptoms, because I was absolutely looped.  No more work for me that day.  I was sent back to my room.

Some people like this…I don’t.  I can’t think of anything more boring than to be stuck in a small space with no windows.  So to keep myself from going crazy, and since I was feeling somewhat better, I reformatted all the various Trivia games we host on the ship.  The folders we have been using to store the question sheets are in terrible shape, as are the question sheets themselves.  It’s been bothering me for some time, to tell you the truth.  There are a ton of misspellings, grammatical mistakes, and even incorrect answers.  So, since I had nothing better to do, and Amy gave me the go ahead to charge it as work hours…I worked from my bed.  Between 7PM on Aug 15 and 7PM August 16, I recreated 36 Trivia games; taking out duplicate questions, correcting grammar and spelling, creating a format that looks professional and uniform.  I finished them yesterday and printed them on hard stock paper.  On Saturday when we are in port I will get some laminating sheets from Office Depot, laminate them and they should be ready to go.

I also rebuilt 6 folders of karaoke music that had fallen apart.  There are a lot of little things that have fallen through the cracks.  It’s like being home in Key West…if you ignore the little things growing so rapidly in the yard you will end up with a jungle.  Apparently Ralph has been having a time doing that.  From the sound of it the yard is amazing now…wish I were there to see it.  For the first time in 8 years we, according to Ralph, have fully green and grown lawns.  I’ve never seen that at our house.  One of them is always in a state of decay it seems.

Back to the ship…

Thinking that the curse had to be lifted now that I had spent a day in bed, my first event was Lead on the Doors for the Headliner show.  Lead means I have control of the computer and the guest lines, and supervise the Youth and Sports Staff that are manning the doors and scanning the guests’ cards.

Nope, the curse was still active.  It was a total cluster of chaos.  No matter how many times I told people that if they did not have reservations they needed to be in the queue to the left, they wouldn’t listen.  Card after card showed red/no ticket.  They were getting frustrated, I was getting frustrated.  Finally, it was the 10 minutes point where I let in the Standby Line.  I told the Youth Staffer to let them in, meaning scan the cards and admit them.  I turned around to answer a question from a guest and 15 seconds later turned around to find that some 90 guests had seemingly evaporated.  There was no one.  I went to the Youth Staffer and asked where they all had gone, ignoring the sinking feeling in my stomach.  “I let them in, like you said.”  Yup, some 90 guests had just walked in.  Calmly I reiterated the process for the new guy. 

After this I had an hour to get ready for the Karaoke Contest.  Feeling rather sick to my stomach at the thought of the night to come…if the past four days have been any indication.  I went to the office and saw Amy.  She said that she would stop by at the beginning around 10:30PM. 

“Ummm, 10:30, did you say?”

“Yes.” She replied.

“We start at 10PM…you’ll be popping around half way through.”  She looked at me for a moment with an ‘oops’ expression on her face. 

“It’s listed in the Compass as 10:30PM!”

“Amy, we’ve always started at 10.”

Yup…the curse.  That’s all right, I thought to myself.  Just roll with it. 

I gathered the prizes together, took them back to my room…walked up to the Helipad Bar and asked the bartender for a double Johnny Walker Red….took it back to my room and began to warm up for the show.  I was hoping that my voice had come back.  Between the coughing, which is much better now, and the swollen throat from the allergy attack, I had no idea what would happen.

SUCCESS!!!!  The whole evening was incredible!  The singers were amazing, the audience was vocal and engaged…it was just perfect…Thank God.  Another Black woman, named Lilly, was the winner, but honestly it could have been any of the three finalists. 

It really was an incredible night, and was a complete turn around for my luck this week.  All singers were above average, and the final six were great.  It was so hard to know who to root for.  The final three were a South African gentleman named Clarence, a 16 year old Colombian named Sebastian, and Lilly, our African American.  Sebastian is a young Ricky Martin and the girls were screaming for him like it was a rock concert.  I have never heard such screams….for all the singers actually, but for these three it was something special.  They were all very good sports and all had a great time giving the gift of music.  Lilly had something special though.

At the start of the Contest I sang Cabaret.  I sing it now always in memory of Mary Jo, who typifies for me the Elsie in the song.  Half way through Earlon got distracted and ejected my disk.  I just kept going a cappella.  The crowd loved it and gave me rhythm by clapping it out for me.  In the last round Lilly did something similar.  She was riffing on a song and the song ended…but she didn’t…she kept going for about 6 more measures bringing her song to a very stylish and jazzy end.  The crowd went insane.

After such an incredible night I just did NOT feel like going back to my cabin.  The Indians were celebrating India Independence Day and were hosting a party for the crew in Studio B.  They had that place decorated like you would not believe!  Women were wearing saris, men wearing traditional clothing, Indian music was being played by a DJ, and there was free beer and wine for the crew.  Easily a third of the crew was there, packed.  Here’s a few pictures of the night, and some video.

After a bit of that, and seeing that it was 3AM already, I went home to sleep and get ready for my gangway duty this morning.  I am tired today, but MUCH happier with everything.  I am beginning to wonder though if I really want to continue on past this contract.  I am almost at the halfway point.  I am tired, and this is a WHOLE lot of work.  I enjoy it, but this might be a job for a younger person.  It is so hard being away from those you love, and being out of contact.  It is lonely, and face it, that pay is not great.  We will see how the next few weeks go.  Amy is leaving next week for a week, then comes back for two weeks as Cruise Director, then she is gone again for a month of vacation.  It will be interesting to see how my 90-Day Review goes…which she will be doing as Cruise Director, oddly enough.  I am trying to keep my spirits up, but rooming with a 24 year old, as nice as he is, is a drawback.  Rooming with anyone at 44 is difficult.