Part Deux

Holy Cow I cant BELIEVE that I have been on this ship for a month! It's crazy how fast time passes here. SO, after one month of ship life this is what I have learned:

First there is a difference between staff and crew. I fall under the staff category, so do your casino workers, Entertainment staff, sales, etc. Crew members on the other hand are housekeeping, maintenance, and wait staff. Now I don't really see much of a difference besides the job description but that is where I am wrong. On the ship I am allowed to 'guest privlidges', meaning, I can go to the lido deck on port days and eat lunch, or work out in the guest gym. Crew, however, can not. Also below the ship we have a staff mess and a crew mess. The staff can eat at either mess. The crew can only eat in the crew mess. The difference between the two is in the staff mess there are waiters who clear your plates and deliver your food if you choose to order some. In the crew mess you clear your own damn plates and get our own damn food. So moral of the story is if you decide to work on a ship sign on as staff not crew.

Next, be careful who you smile at. On our ship we have 55 different nationalities, and not many of those nationalities speak English as their first language. But, despite a little language barrier I was determined to make friends. I figured an international way to say 'hey I'm nice would you like to be my friend' would be to give everyone a nice big smile as I passed them in the hallway. When I told Justin, a member of the camp carnival staff, my brilliant plan he told me that when I smile at people they don't think I want to be friends with them they think I want to have sex with them. Needless to say I haven't been smiling as much anymore. lol :)

Last, find something that works and don't change it at all. I have found that there is a lot of repetition in my line of work. Carnival wants consistency from week to week to maintain excellence. Which is understandable but a little annoying. For example on our teen movie night I am only allowed to show the movie Beastly. I will be watching the movie Beastly every Wednesday night for the next six months..Ufdah.We also take the kids to a show on Friday night, the amazing gravity defying juggling/comedy routine. Its a great show but it doesn't change from week to week and I mean at all. For example, the juggler calls a male volunteer from the audience each week to juggle hatchets over his body as the volunteer lays on the stage. Amazing right! Well for protection the juggler gives the man a yellow construction helmet to cover his face with so he doesn't flinch, and you know, get hit in the face with a hatchet. Well ,the male volunteer took the helmet from his face and moved it a little south if you know what I mean. The crowd went nuts with laughter, as did I. I didn't, however, laugh as hard when a different male volunteer did the same thing the next week and the week after that. In the same vein, we have a newlywed show on the ship. The last question they always ask the couples is always 'what is your husbands favorite condiment?' Every week the elderly couple mistakes the question for 'what is your husbands favorite condom' and the woman always says "we dont have to worry about that any more" and the husband always says "Trojan". Its funny, but it's a little dissapointing for me to know all these moments are staged. Like finding out Santa isnt real.

Questions Answer time..

Thanks for the questions.
Sarah I preformed a wonderful rendition of no scrubs. The kids then asked if I could sing a song they know next time. And my heart broke a little bit.

KJ There are many good looking men on the ship and its nice because I have yet to pay for a drink at the crew bar :)

I have not made a kid cry. But the staff at camp carnival who work the night shift sometimes try and make the kids cry. Why?! Well if a kid is crying we have to call the parents and have them pick up their kids. If all the kids are picked up the staff get to leave. Tricky tricky. But I would never do such a thing. haha

Thats all I have for you this week. I miss everyone at home so much message me and call me to give me updates on your lives! I love to hear from everyone.

Peace Out