veendam log - 7 nov 2007
I’m typing this while watching Serenity on television. Yey! We also get ESPN and TNT so I’ll be able to follow the NBA. We get CNN so we get the news. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hairspray and Blades of Glory are included in the movie schedule. There’s actually a sufficient amount of interesting TV that we can watch to kill time.
But there usually isn’t much time to kill because it goes by so fast. However long I think my break is and I think I’ll be able to take a long-enough nap, it seems as though I’d just closed my eyes when my alarm goes off and I have to get ready for my next shift.
Of course it’s different during port days and I get to go out. Like this Wednesday, when we arrive in San Juan, Minnie, Machel and I all end our shifts at 8:30PM. All aboard time is 11:30PM. That gives us a full 3 hours to do whatever we want until the ship leaves. I can’t wait!
You know that tingly feeling you get that makes your heart feel full? I felt it today. I’d forgotten what that felt like and it’s great to feel it again.
I got a good review during my appraisal a few days ago. Our GRM was happy with my performance. Her only advice for me was to read up on the Marine Hotel Directives as there’s a lot of information there that will be very useful. I’ve begun reading it – I do it when it’s quiet at the Front Office – and there’s a LOT of literature. Nakakalula. Good thing I don’t have to memorize anything. I just need to know where to find the information.
We’re on Day 3 of the Western Caribbean cruise: Voyage 543. It’s a 14-day cruise, and on the very first day, I already had an interesting encounter with a guest.
She approached the Front Office complaining that her A/C was too hot. She was getting all huffy and demanding, even threatening to disembark if the problem didn’t get fixed before we set sail. I looked at her and just let her talk.
All of a sudden she tells me, “This isn’t making any difference to you at all, is it?”
I was taken aback. I told her that I was listening to her and taking note of her concerns. Admittedly, I was telling myself that she was being a little too dramatic, but I was listening to her.
Anyway, someone was sent to check the temperature of her A/C and it turns out that it was the temperature we maintain for the entire ship. She was informed but we sent the Facility Manager to do something about it anyway.
Later in the evening, during my last shift, she came back to the Front Office and apologized to me for the way she acted earlier. She says she was just really tired from everything that happened that day (although I don’t know how tired she could have gotten since she lives in Tampa). I accepted her apology and wished her a good evening.
My roommate says ship life is like one long “Big Brother” season. She’s right.
Everything that happens is magnified. We’re so contained that everyone knows everybody else and everybody else’s business. Well, everyone except me because I’m oblivious to everything that doesn’t concern me or the work I do at the Front Office.
There are still so many crew members whose names I don’t know. I know their faces because I see them everyday, but unless I dealt with them for work or met them at an event, I wouldn’t be able to give their names if my life depended on it. What makes it even more frustrating is that they know who I am. They know my name. They even call me by my nickname, which is very disconcerting.
And everyone’s impression of me is that I’m suplada. The reason is that I always say no when a guy asks if he can call me in my cabin. Is it my fault that I would much rather sleep or watch TV when I’m in my cabin? And can anyone blame me for not wanting to be called by a guy who’s married with 2 kids?
