Thanksgiving Cruise

What a week. This was my first 8 day cruise and it feels like a whole month has passed. It felt way longer than the 9 day cruises I’ve done. I was bored on days 1 and 2, but the busiest I have been on days 3 through 8. I’ve worked several days that were between 9 and 13 hours. I think most of the extra work came from the Thanksgiving Festivities, but we’re also installing 1 new ice show and 4 production shows at the moment. In addition, I had unusual port days as well.
Our first stop this cruise was Port Canaveral in Florida. I got up early and talked to my family for a couple hours before heading to the mall to do almost all of my Christmas shopping (the rest of you get key chains from the ship!). Then I got to spend the afternoon with my friend Seni! Seni has been a character is past blogs and I traveled with her all last year. She lives in Florida and graciously took the afternoon off work to take me to WalMart and out to lunch. Thanks again, Seni! In weird news, I had been to that WalMart before- 2 years ago. I managed to get Seni onboard that afternoon so she is my first visitor! We didn’t have much time, but she got to see my cabin and open her wedding gift.
I spent the next day with a head broadcast tech from another ship that we were docked with in Nassau, Bahamas. I also got to go on his ship and check it out so that was pretty cool. His ship is the oldest in the fleet and is more what I expected to be living on. His cabin was about half the size of mine and he would be my boss on this ship! I really liked their crew area and their staff gets to order off the guest menus at dinner- so those are nice perks. I could definitely see similarities between the ships, but his is in the smallest class while mine is in the newly formed middle class.
While I learned a lot hanging out with him for the day, it cut into my Nassau time. I only had enough time to grab dinner at the Hard Rock Café before I was due back on board to shoot a game show. Earlier in the day, during boat drill, I saw the Atlantis Hotel- it’s huge and gorgeous.
The next day was Thanksgiving and I was in CocoCay in the Bahamas. CocoCay is similar to Labadee, Haiti- it’s a private resort. I slept in and called my family before heading out to the island. I had to shoot a Cruise in Review piece while I was out there, so I wandered around with the camera for a couple hours. I had a blast filming and it’s all very pretty, but there was so much to do that I would have like to have the day off. They have wave runners, parasailing, aqua park, and giant, inflatable water slide. Maybe next time. The day ended was a magnificent sunset- right before it rained on us. I shot about an hour of footage all day and I turned it into a 2 minute piece for the DVD. It was favorite thing to work on since my contract started and everyone was saying how much they liked it at the Farewell show tonight- so I’m pleased with it. I’m getting much better at editing and looking forward to doing fancier edits in the coming weeks.
Like I mentioned, I spoke with my family on Thanksgiving. I was fortunate enough to call in time to talk to my parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle, and my sister. It was great hearing from everybody, but it still made me sad that I couldn’t be there. I’m generally busy enough that it doesn’t bother me, but it hurts when I stop to think about what I left- and I definitely spent time doing that seeing how it was Thanksgiving and all… in light of that I thought I’d put together a list of some things I’m thankful for. So if you care, here it goes (in no certain order):
My family. I miss them everyday, but I’m extremely thankful that I have loving and supportive parents who encouraged me to go on this adventure even if it takes me away from them. Not everyone here has that. Lots of crew members don’t look forward to vacation or even talk to their families very much because they ask them to come home. That has never happened to me and I’m so thankful for the love and support that I get on a daily basis.
I’m thankful for a best friend who is teaching me what it means to truly be a friend.
My job- this blog may not always reflect this, but I’m truly thankful for this incredible adventure I’m on and this job that got me here. I wake up on several tropical islands a week and spend hours having fun, dancing, filming, and editing every day.
A Savior who loves me and leads me. Expect more on this at Christmas, but the rest would be meaningless with out this one. I don’t have to worry about what will happen to my family and friends while I’m away. I don’t worry about keeping this job or finding the next one. Ultimately it’s not up to me. Instead of finding that limiting, I find it extremely freeing. I will go to all the places on the globe and still feel restless, because I’m not home yet.
YOU! If you’re reading this I apparently mean something to you and you mean something to me (would like to think that there are strangers who read this too, but I doubt that). Thanks to all of you faithful and sporadic readers for your love, encouragement, and prayers!

So there we have it, I’ve made it through Columbus Day, Halloween, Veteran’s Day, and Thanksgiving. Up next…the first day of deer season…haha…just kidding…that was for you dad!

Sorry, no pictures to post this week. As I mentioned I didn’t have a lot of time off. Look for pictures next week, but “next week” for me will be about 2 weeks for you since I’m on a 12 day cruise (a cruise is a week in my mind- doesn’t matter if it’s 5 or 14 days- the first day is always my Monday and the last day is always my Friday). I’m off to San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Dominica, Barbados, and Antigua. Beach, excursions, and shopping here I come! Happy winter Pennsylvania! Did I mention I was thankful for my new job?