Here We Go Again!

Alright, so I have been a colossal failure at the blogging thing, but as I prepare to start my second contract, I’m going to make a second attempt.

I’ll start with a summary of the rest of my first contract.  By some miracle, I managed to finish. There were moments when I thought I couldn’t do it, all the way up to the last week. About 3 months into my contract, I started getting sick at least twice a month. Nothing life threatening, just colds and tonsillitis (more on that later) and aches and pains, but it was annoying and made it very difficult to keep my morale up.

I made a lot of friends, had a lot of fun, and got the hang of the work. LOVE Europe. Barcelona is my favorite place in the world. Italian food is amazing. I had the most incredible meal of my life in Livorno, Italy. Italians know how to eat. I struggled so much in Italy and France because of the language. I got lost in Civitavecci when I decided to wander by myself one day. I’m usually okay with wandering around until I find myself in a familiar place, but I got unbelievably lost that day and started to panic. I had wandered out of tourist area so NOBODY spoke English. Finally found one lady who spoke a little English and told another lady where I was trying to get to, and she kindly offered to escort me back to my destination. The entire time she babbled on to me in Italian, knowing that I didn’t speak Italian and she didn’t speak English. It was comical.

Unfortunately, I lost my camera so I don’t have any pictures to post.

So it was a long and exciting journey and I’m proud of myself for doing it. I can’t say this officially, but as far as anybody I know knows, I am the first female American to finish a contract as an Assistant Waiter with RCCL. Might not be true, but I’m gonna go with it.

Not only did I finish, but I’m going back again! I think I might be insane. So next week, I’m off to Copenhagen to join Jewel of the Seas. Excited to have a fresh start on a new ship, but sad to be leaving my friends on Liberty.

So, why am I going to the Jewel, you ask? Long story. It all started halfway through my contract when I started getting tonsillitis. The medical facility on the ship does the best they can with what they have, but I was getting frustrated. The nurses and doctors and I were on a first name basis. Every time they saw me coming, I’m sure they rolled their eyes. But my work was suffering from the illness and I was determined to get it taken care of. After tears and some harsh words Dr. Carlos wrote to RCCL Miami office and asked for me to be approved for a tonsillectomy during my vacation! This made me happy, but I was sure this was going to be an out of pocket expense for me and I don’t have insurance since the ship covers our medical when we are there. It wasn’t until the day I signed off that I found out that the company was covering the full cost of the surgery!

So on July 10, 2 weeks before I was supposed to rejoin the Liberty in Barcelona, I had my tonsillectomy. I was declared Fit For Duty the day before I was supposed to fly to Barcelona. Unbeknownst to me, my assignment and flight had been cancelled because Miami didn’t know if I would be FFD. So I drove the 3 hours to Chicago only to find out that I didn’t have a reservation. Called the crew helpline and was told that the Scheduler assigned to me was based in Manila, so I would have to wait until 3 AM to get anymore information.

A day later, she contacted me and told me that I had a new assignment on Jewel. Jewel is a lot smaller, so there is less crew and smaller cabins. But I’m excited about the itinerary. I’ll be doing the Baltic ports for a few weeks, which includes Denmark, England, Sweden, Italy, and during the crossing, Iceland! Then on my birthday (September 16.  FYI, I would like the Harry Potter Wizard’s Collection. Only $300) we arrive in Boston and do Canada, Boston, and Maine for another month. After that, we do the Caribbean, but much better ports than the Liberty’s Caribbean itinerary. I’m happy that we will be in Cozumel at the same time, so I’ll get to catch up with some Liberty friends.

So that’s about it. I’ve had a good vacation, making new friends at home, catching up with old ones and spending time with family. This extra week of vacation has been nice to have more time to recover after surgery and watch the Olympics J

Looking forward to my next contract, making goals to switch departments and make better money in Restaurants.  And update my blog.