Drew on a Boat: Days 46 - 51: Jamaica, Sea, Florida, Sea, Sea, Netherland Antiles

November 29, 2011 19:39

Wow has it really been almost a week since I last wrote? The days here are really starting to go by insanely quickly. Time flies when you're having fun? Time seems to go by much quicker when I'm having to put up with bs at work. Over the past week I've had some serious ups and downs and even started looking into ways I could get fired to get off this ship. Extreme? yes but that's just how annoyed I've been over the way couple weeks. If I didn't hate quitting so much I'd find a way off but I'll just grin and bear it, at this point it's only another 4 months and I'm outta here. And besides, Mom and Dad booked their cruise today for Feb 11-17 so I should probably stick around for that. :p

Jamaica was very bitter sweet. We had VERY limited time (2 hours) in port because of a crew safety drill but we made the most of what little time we had. We tore off the ship and headed right for a restaurant on what they called "The Hip Strip" in downtown Montego Bay. We hit up a pub right on the water with a beautiful beach with private access. We ordered lunch then tore off into the water while we were waiting for our food. Did a little bit of snorkelling again and saw some small white striped fish about 5" long. I was about to put my feet down and stand up for a sec when something told me that looking where my feet were going first was a good plan. I looked down and saw that I was about to step on a beautiful white flat fish with light sky blue circles all over it. Glad I didn't step on the poor guy! After our short swim my lunch of Jamaican jerk chicken was ready. Delicious! Once we paid and left we had about 10mins to look in the shops before boarding the bus back to the ship. Happy Thanksgiving to us! Short lived but awesome, luckily we go back a bunch of times.

Another uneventful sea day and we were back in Fort Lauderdale for a delightful 11 hour day. I was off for the morning and used the time to find a diner for a nice breakfast, some good internet, and a chat with mom before grabbing some groceries and a delicious Boar's Head sub from Publix before I dove back into the craziness at 12. We worked 12-12 with a one hour break from 6-7, makes for a long day. It was a really strange embarkation day though because it really wasn't that busy. That is until about 11:20 when the entire ship started calling for extra pillows. I've never heard our night housekeeping manager sound so depressed and he sounded that way every time we called for another pillow order. I was actually worried that at some point we were going to call and he was going to tell us that we simply had no more pillows. Luckily that wasn't the case. Most passengers were very accepting with the fact that it took a bit of extra time to get pillows because of the high demand. Most of them. Tina had one guy tell her off so badly over the phone that I could hear him yelling through the phone from the other end of the desk. "Just get me some fucking pillows!!!!!" He was so heated about this he came to reception to continue to take a strip off of her while threatening to make as much of a scene as he had to to get some pillows. While he was doing this I was on the phone with the housekeeping supervisor quietly instilling a sense of urgency to get some pillows to the desk as fast as possible. They showed up a couple minutes later, he grabbed them and we never heard from him again… Some people…

The past two days were relatively uneventful except for the fact that after working 11hours and finishing at 12 our genius boss scheduled us in at 7am the next day. It's always nice to know the person you're working for cares about you eh? On top of that I was traded to the other shift for some unknown reason and in the process lost all the people I like working with and that I go out with in port every time. Awesome. OH! and to make yesterday even better my new shift and I apparently missed some test call from the elevator emergency button to which we were all given an extra hour of work. Highlight of the day was the massive rubber band fight Patrick, Viktoriia, Cathalina and I had. Best job ever maybe? How many days left in my contract? Just over 4 months? Crap. First and last time with this company? Booyah.

Today we were in Curacao in the Netherland Antilles which, from what I was told is quite similar to Europe. I went out with Anatollio, Stacey, and Viktoriia to their downtown which was packed full of high end shops, low end vendors and some incredible colours and architecture. To reach the shopping district you have to walk across a floating bridge that will pivot out of the way when ships have to get past it; pretty cool. We saw it happen while waiting to cross over. It was super hot and muggy and a late morning rain was very welcome before heading back to paradise for a 1pm start.

Right now I'm sitting in my cabin listening to The Black Keys trying my best to escape reality before I have to be back at the desk in 20mins. Tomorrow we're in Aruba and I get to go out with my old shift and work with them on account of the fact that we missed Costa Maya last week or whenever it was. Aruba over another Mexico day? I'll take it! Here's hopping for a good night and a great tomorrow. :)