Days 39 - 45: Sea, FL, Key West, Cozumel, Honduras, Sea

November 23, 2011 12:16

This block of days goes in two very distinct directions. The sea day, Florida, and Key West were great… The rest? Not so much. Let's start with the good news.

As usual the last day of the cruise was hectic with question after question about disembarkation followed by a crazy morning in Florida filled with passengers just trying to get off the ship and on with their lives. The nice thing about that day though was that whereas I worked first thing in the morning that meant I had the afternoon off to spend some time running errands and relaxing in Lauderdale which is a nice simple port and an easy place to get some peace and quiet for a bit.

Now I'm not saying that all of Key West is like this, but in the area near the port it is extremely tacky. Gift shop after gift shop with crappy tours galore. The saving grace of this day was when I found a nice pocket of wifi I was able to steal for a while and then a lovely 2nd floor restaurant with a nice patio for lunch. It was so delightfully serene. I had a nice shady table overlooking the street below that was just enough removed that you could barely hear the vendors and passerbys. I was able to have a couple beer, a nice lunch and read for an hour or so before returning back to the ship. Really a lovely end to my time ashore.

From here on this cruise has been pretty shitty.

Monday we were back in Cozumel and it was our turn to stay on board for the day while the other shift had their turn out; not fun but no biggie. Then yesterday we were in Honduras, a place we'll be back to a few times. We had to tender in and my shift was scheduled off all morning then starting at 1 ensuring we had no chance to leave the ship in the process. 2 days in a row locked on board with nothing to do while the other shift got 2 days off in a row. When I asked my boss about this she said "sorry that's just how the schedule was". I'm sorry, don't you make the schedule? Was there any particular reason we got the crap schedule while the other shift got a drastically better one or are you just playing favourites?

Now today, while we're at sea, we finally get a shift where we start at 7 and have the afternoon off… on a day we can't leave again. And to make it even better we're scheduled to be able to go "out" tomorrow in Jamaica however there's a crew safety drill so by the time it's all said and done we'll be lucky if we get a couple hours ashore. Real glamour job we've got here.

What really kills me is the complete lack of leadership and motivation that we receive. We only hear about the negatives. If something goes wrong we get a firm talking to right away. Yet have I once been commended on all the positive comments I know for a fact get written about me on the comment cards? After we had some poor scores for Reception and were told essentially to improve or else and I took it upon myself to make sure that our scores improved (which they did, drastically) did I/we get a "good job" talk or a pat on the back? No.

We hear all the day that "you're not a team" and they're right. The problem is it's coming from our direct supervisor who has apparently forgotten or just doesn't know that every team needs a leader and in the work place the leader needs to be the middle manager. It's their job to direct and motivate the staff on the line. It's their job to be there for the line and to support them so the line can focus on the guests and not have to worry about all the bs that goes on behind the scenes. Instead of being there for us though we're constantly fighting battles against the person who's supposed to be our leader. The same leader who's always looking to place blame in the process creating animosity between team members. Gee, I wonder why we're not a team?

What kills me too is that just today we all got individual sit downs about logging absolutely everything we get called for. "I've told you all over and over again that his needs to be done and it still isn't". OK, in that case maybe it's time to look inwards instead of passing the blame to your staff. Is there a chance that the methods being used are flawed? We're all competent people and possess the basic skills to log requests but still aren't. Why not try a different method? A different approach? Because I'm pretty sure that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is a sign of insanity. It's like continually pushing a door to try and open it when all you had to do was try pulling.

Sorry for so much negativity I'm just pissed off. There's no excuse for bad moods all the time. People really need to lighten up. I mean come on! We're living on a cruise ship going to some of the most beautiful places in the world every day. Who shit in your cereal?