Working in paradise isn’t always paradise

Working in paradise isn’t always paradise. 

 

Greetings everyone,

I decided to make this separate blog page.  I’m going to keep my old site up as the “blogs of the past” but I will be posting new stuff here, and then updating the other page with my entries from here.  This way I can post blog entries as often as that cruise line with the big red whale tail funnels has someone fall off their ships…so in other words a new post every day. 

 

So if you can’t guess by the title of this entry I’m not in the best of moods.  Today is Easter and holidays add to that but also vacation is soon and I’m just getting excited to get a nice break. 

 

The ship has been boring recently.  My friend Sashi is on vacation and a few other friends also went on vacation.  I’m just trying to use my free time productively.  Yesterday was Saturday so we were in Honolulu.  I love Honolulu. I love it I love it I love it.  I’m a big fan of the resorts and just the vibe of the city.  Before we set sail today I was standing on the Lanai looking all the hotels at Waikiki all light up.  I could picture what was going on over at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and wished I was there.  PS its funny how people I just met know that’s my favorite hotel here from reading my blog.  Everyone agrees though their beds are amazing!!!  Ok now I’m in a better mood already

 

Anyway back to the day.  I set the alarm for 8 am and after a half dozen snooze button pushes I rolled out of bed and got ready for the day.  I decided to go to Ala Moana mall with my friend Louis.  He was in the same training class as me in Piney Point MD and we are 2 of the 4 or so people left from that class.  We headed to the mall and went to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays.  I felt sick after my first bite and I should have learned my lesson because last time I came here I was locked in my cabin for two days.  I shouldn’t blame that on the restaurant though, I was having lunch with some cruise critic friends and her son gave me that fantastic sickness.  After lunch and a quick trip to Wal-Mart to pick up a few supplies I headed back to the ship and went to the cabin.  I decided why waste the rest of this beautiful day in Honolulu in my cabin so I headed down to Aloha Tower.  As I walked there I was trying to remember if the Pride of Aloha was scheduled to be in port today.  I also realized that the next time I see the ship will be the last time I see her.  I feel like we are in a family full of cancer patients, one drops off as time goes on.  Anyway the ship wasn’t in port so I picked up some water and headed back to the cabin.  I took a quick catnap and got ready for passenger lifeboat drill.  Drill went as planned, informed people where to go..told them how original their Titanic jokes were (they have been playing Titanic for the past few days..It’s funny how everyone watches that movie so much).

 

After drill I headed to work.  I have been a little paranoid about things in the buffet over the past few days.  From time to time they get really serious and strict about FDA rules (and they should be) but here is my problem.  My night job is to deep clean the outside beverage station. We get inspected every morning but then twice a week the ship has a team of people doing the inspection (captain, staff captain etc).  I clean the beverage station from 11 Pm till about 2 am.  During my last contract they would do inspection at 2 Pm the next day and if it was dirty I would get yelled at.  Keep in mind so many things happen to that station from the time I clean it till inspection.  My nightmare is when I just finish cleaning and then I see it coming…the 72-year-old lady who has one and only one thing on her mind..hot chocolate.  I have learned over the past three contracts that all it takes is one hot chocolate powder packet to destroy hours of cleaning.  It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion.  She grabs the packet and doesn’t shake it to make sure the powder is on the bottom..she tears the top open and you see a cloud of the brown powder shoot everywhere but of course she doesn’t notice this.  Step two of this disaster..without holding the packet into a nice cone shape she just turns it upside down over her mug and 50% goes into the cup, 30% around the base of the cup and an impressive 20% goes beyond physics and lands 4 feet away.  At this point a tear starts to form in my eye but I would have never guessed the worst was yet to come.  She takes her mug (its Saturday so we might as well call her Rose Dawson to go with all the Titanic jokes) and fills it with hot water.  I mean fill it..all the way to the top.  Rose sets it down on the counter so a bunch splashes out but here it comes..she reaches for a stir stick.  The situation has gone from code yellow to dark dark red.  She starts stirring her drink like she’s digging for a lost Canadian penny at the bottom of the cup.  When she’s finally finished 75% of her drink is on the counter but she’s marching back to her cabin with a delish beverage.  Rose is a hurricane..everything is peaceful and beautiful till she comes roaring in and just tears that stuff up and leaves it like a battle field.  As long as she doesn’t realize she did this though I’m happy..

 

So yeah that’s why I always hold my breath going into work..you never know what someone will say to you about your cleaning job from the night before.  Wish me luck tomorrow. 

 

20 days left till two VERY exciting weeks and I cannot wait to tell you about it.  The plans are final I just don’t want to post it quite yet but I will in a few days. 

 

 

PS Happy Easter everyone

 

James