Ever wondered how is it like to work on one of the biggest cruise ships in the world? This is my experience, my life and my view as an employee on one of the many cruise ships sailing around the world.
We all pray for a fast contract and some of us get it. I was one of the lucky winners and my 6 months onboard felt like 6 weeks but now I am so exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open writing this.
The last week of the contract is the worst. Your friends are constantly reminding you you’re going home, you try to remember who you forgot when you went shopping for presents, you need to write your handover notes for your reliever, and the list can go on and on. I tried to keep a low profile on my last week onboard, partly because I knew I will end up drinking all night with my friends, partly because I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my boyfriend before going in vacation. Of course it didn’t end up as planned, it never does, and now I am suffering the consequences.
Signing off in Galveston is a pain in the bum. From the first second you step on the pier you can see and feel the lack of experience and organization needed to properly run an operation of that size. Long lines at the custom check, both guests disembarking and crew signing off, long lines at the luggage pick up due to the poor organization of the luggage into quadrants by color (Royal Caribbean is using the color tag system to disembark the guests), the pier staff running around like headless chickens and on top of all that, the layout of the pier adds up and make it look like we are running a mad house. You might wonder what’s wrong with the layout of the Galveston pier. Well, I have 2 words for it: GIANT BARN. That’s all it is in my opinion and I really hope they will upgrade it by the time we are coming back on the next season because it really makes our work harder and longer.
Finally I made it through custom, I put my luggage in the complimentary shuttle the company provided for us, and then the wait begins. And we wait, and wait and wait, until you start thinking “what the hell are we waiting for???”, then you realize you’re not alone, there are quite a lot of sign off crew (each week around 40-50 in average) and some of them are still in the line for custom check. “No problem”, you think, “I can have a smoke until everybody gets here”. After half of pack and 2 hours later, finally the bus leaves for the airport which is one hour away.
Name: Ariana Home: About Me: Born in a small town, ended up working around the world. I love to socialize, see places, make new friends. Always there to help, even when nobody is asking for it :-)And now I am learning graphic design as well, check out my other blogs.
