Day 9: Bar Harbor, Maine

Oct 19, 2011 23:25

I had no idea I'd like Bar Harbour as much as I did. It was a brisk fall day today but for me it was perfect. I'm doing really well adapting to the life and am building better and better bonds with my coworkers every day.

I started at 6:30 today but had to wake up at 5:30 because we share a shower. That being said I knew right away that today was going to be a great day. Of all things my sign of this came from some hard boiled eggs. Most mornings I have a couple hard boiled eggs to get me through the morning. Often the shell will stick to the egg and making getting into it a royal pain in the ass. Every once in a while the shell will come right off one of them but never both. Not today! When the first one came right off I looked at the people I was eating with and told them it was going to be a good day, and when it happened again on the second one I told them it was going to be a GREAT day. They looked at me like I was crazy. I didn't care because, call me crazy, I knew what I was saying was going to be true. Some people read horoscopes, some palms, some crystal balls. I read hard boiled eggs and the eggs don't lie. (Wow I sound like I've lost my mind)

Today was our first American port which meant we had to meet with American immigration and clear all 2,500 guests and 1,000 staff. I had the task of facilitating the American's on board which were somewhere in the 1,000 to 1,500 range and I dealt with every single one of them. For 2-3 hours I had to read cabin numbers to an officer who cleared them through the computer while at the same time I had to check their passports to ensure that they were American. It was like the never ending line. Whenever I looked up to see how the line was going I could never see the end. In fact it felt like it would never stop. Now, as you all know, I'm a guy who likes to talk but I can safely say that I've never spoken so much in my entire life. I actually didn't stop for the whole time. If I wasn't reading cabin numbers and names to the officer I was greeting and making small talk with the guests as they passed through my station before proceeding onto the customs officials. By the end of it my mouth was so dry I'm pretty sure that had I coughed dust would have come out. Mind you I wouldn't have traded it for anything. An experience like this can be very frustration for guests and I'm confident that I was able to make this at least a little better for all of them with how I carried myself throughout. Is it odd that I'm passionate about good customer service? If you said yes then sucks to you, it's what I love.

We had to tender into Bar Harbour as it's not big enough to have a cruise ship terminal. (Tendering is when the passengers are ferried to shore in smaller boats that hold about 100 when full). Today, as always, I was after a good lunch when I got to shore and boy did I find it this time. Just a bit up the main drag was this little deli that made the best lobster roll I've ever had. Huge chunks of lobster smashed into a tiny bun. I'm pretty sure I was grinning ear to ear the whole time and then for an hour after.

I didn't get many good pictures today but there are still a few of the town including an ancient clock out front of the First National Bank, a shot of the main street with the mountains in the background, some of the scenery, downtown with a tender coming back to the ship, a close up of one of the tenders, and lastly my buddy Oscar in one of the ugliest shirts I've ever seen (his band leader choose it, he has it in different colours too, can't wait).

That's all for now, buenanotte (good night). :)