So we are finally rid of the passengers of the 25 day WWII cruise and we are quite grateful for that! I will admit, quite a few nice ones, but the bad ones ruined it for all of the crew. Quite a few passengers from Florida, especially south Florida. Someone asked me the other day where I was from and I said Orlando, Florida (because it's way easier than saying Longwood, Florida and then having to explain it's location!). Another gentleman in the library spoke up and asked me from where in Orlando. I told him where and he said "Oh, I live in Altamonte Springs. Turns out, he's one of our guest entertainers on board - a musician by the name of Kenny Watson. One of our cruise staff that got on board a few weeks ago graduated from FSU the same night with the same major. I told him he looked familiar and after talking we discovered all of that, we had classes together and my sorority and his fraternity hung out together a lot! It's a small world!~
Since the last time I wrote, we stopped in Guam which was neat - since it's an American port, we got to eat some American restaurants that we are familiar with and there was a grocery store where we reconigzed brand names and all of that! Didn't do much because I didn't have much time, but it seemed to be a nice vacation spot with all the resorts and the beautiful water!
Saipan was even nicer - the water was crystal clear and we went on a yellow submarine about 25 meters under the sea. The water was so blue and so clear that we saw all the fish and the white sand floors along with a very large ship wreck and a plane wreck from the WWII time. Very very cool - unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice because we were so far under and they just don't come out well. Was neat to see the way the water filters out color too - as we descended to the ocean floor, people that were wearing anything red soon turned purple...a science project of sorts :) Towards the end of the ride the submarine released fish food and attracted all the fish to the windows so it gave us a great chance to be up close and personal with the fish!
We had a crew party the other night and Katie, Edmark and I painted a huge banner with the theme Goodbye Australia, Hello Asia. Of course, I'm known for making a mess, but it came out really well. We had the crew party on the mooring deck and we had signups for DJ's and bartenders. I DJ'ed for the first 45 minutes and everyone loved it, then everyone else that came played house music, which only some of the European's like...so I got lots of compliments :)
In Naha, Japan, my friend Katie and I hopped on the monorail and took it all the way to the end of the line and visisted a castle. The monorail was an experience figuring out the Yen and how to insert them into machines since nothing is in English. The castle was not the typical castle you would expect, but it seemed to be more of a worship center. Took some pictures of that and headed to grab some lunch at Cafe Smiley. Food was great, but it is definitely a new experience being in a country that doesn't speak the language very well at all! I realized how much I've traveled, but they've always spoken english! So, we order from pictures or display windows :) That night, I went out with my usual dinner group and we found a restaurant that seemed decent. We all picked one thing (off of a very unappetizing menu, if I do say myself) and they brought it out one at a time. There were six of us so we would devour it within seconds of it coming out. The poor guy probably thought we were the biggest group of pigs ever! We devoured everything and after leaving, we decided that it was the best $120 appetizer we've ever eaten because we were all still starving after it was over with!
Nagasaki, Japan was nice - went and walked around a bit. Visited Chinatown, which is the oldest Chinatown in Japan. We walked through there looking in all the shops and found a bread that he loved- in the Philippines, they call it "hopia". It's basically a very very doughy bread stuffed with pork. ABsolutely delicious, because I love doughy! After tons of searching for a restaurant that spoke any english, we found a sushi place that was fantastic - but my nose was running for hours after it because the wasabi is in everything. It was definitely fantastic either way. We stopped and got some ice cream from Baskin Robbins of all places and headed back home.
Weather in Japan has been quite cold, but it seems all the cities are realatively similar - small but very very dense. And the cold weather is not exactly what I expected. Today I worked on the gangway and my pantyhose and skirt did not keep me warm! Today we finally start the new cruise and I have kids again (about 20 of them!) so I should be busy for a while. Makes me happy to be out of the library for a few days~! We are in Kobe, Japan and leave here tonight on a 14 day run to Hong Kong. Get to see China finally :)
Had a party last night with the casino guys and girls in the hallway where they live....always fun. Wine in dixie cups :)
I think that's it for now! Talk to you all soon!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Finally! Please forgive any mistakes!
March 15, 2008
Yes, I know. It has been a VERY long time since I posted. I know you see I posted one I wrote a while back saying I think I found a new way of sending the posts to myself....Well, didn't work. So here I am going to give you all the reader's digest version of what's been happening over the last month and a half! We finished our Australia/New Zealand runs and on March 1st picked up our 25 day WWII cruise.
The last few cruises in Australia/NZ were fantastic - weather was unpredictable - freezing cold one day, boiling hot the next. Overall, pretty chilly though - especially in all the New Zealand ports. Did a few tours - in Melbourne, did two - both involving Kangaroos and Koala's and seeing them. I know Koala's are called Koala bears - but I never truly thought of them that way - just thought they crawled up and down a tree. But one came down out of the tree and walked across the street in front of us. Definitely neat to see! One thing I wish I could have done again that I did when I was here 5 years ago was hold a koala. Laws have changed - in the North, very few places still allow you to hold them and in the south you are not allowed to hold them at all. Studies [apparently] show that holding koalas can take up to three years off their lives. I guess I can consider myself lucky that I was here when I was and did it then. Quite sad that I didn't get to do anything in Sydney that I wanted to do because it was always an embarkation day - so I was a bit disappointed, but hey...I'm not dead yet - maybe another opportunity will find me!
We did a few crew tours too, which are tons of fun and worth the money we have to pay for them. In Picton, New Zealand we did a crew winery tour and visited 4 different wineries. Had an absolute blast considering it was all crew and we started drinking at 10:00 a.m. The cellar master even brought along some sparkling wine for us to drink in between the first couple wineries. Let's just say there were a lot of tipsy crew! :)
In Bay of Islands, New Zealand we did a crew tour where we were picked up in a "Waka" which is a canoe that the Maori tribe used/uses. They're quite stable, but so much fun. It picked up about 14 of us and we paddled for an hour and a half (my arms, back and ass were killing me for the next four days!) all the way out to this raging waterfall. We got some really neat pictures in front of it. The guys taught us these chants that they used to keep rhythm way back when. After the waterfall, we paddled all the way back to the Maori village where we visited a Marae (the meeting place of some Maori's) and they greeted us with the traditional hongi or welcome ceremony. "Kia Ora" is the term they typically use meaning Hello/Welcome/Be well. We were exhausted and running late, so they flipped on the lovely and oh-so-wonderful honda motor to get us home! :)
The WWII cruise has been an eye opener so far. The first two ports were in New Zealand, so nothing different. After leaving New Zealand we headed to our first Island which is Noumea, New Caledonia. This Island reminded me of the Bahamas - everyone else who's been other places said Bermuda or Jamaica. Neat place. We went to a Japanese restaurant where I ate lots of raw fish for the first time and really enjoyed it. Everyone spoke French and ironically, no Japanese worked there. Very expensive there though...for example, chips in the Grocery store costs about 500 francs....you do the math! (a lot!)
Next stop: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Our first third world country stop. Everyone there (and at several of the other islands) had red teeth, which comes from these things they eat out of palm trees called "beetle nuts". They chew on them because apparently they get a certain "high" off of them, but I've also heard they they make their teeth stronger. This island was so dirty which garbage everywhere. The people (which were very friendly and pleasant) were all just hanging around - nowhere to go and nothing to do. Amazing to see and gives me a true eye opener to a culture that truly doesn't have much, but where the people are happy. Walked through town, but there was not much to see at all - and it was SO ridiculously hot, I turned around and walked back home!
Rabaul, Papau, New Guinea - very very awesome culture to observe. As soon as we got there, the volcano was very very active, which is apparently not active too frequently. The smoke was billowing out. When we got off the ship I could feel the ash hitting us like raindrops. I've never seen that before - our clothes were black, our faces were covered and my feet were so black I looked like Fred Flintsone! It was so bad around 1:30ish, that the captain revoked crew shore leave and told everyone that they had to stay inside if they weren't already off the ship - the sulfur content was so high in the air that it wasn't safe for us to be out or even out on the decks. All of the ships crew were out cleaning the ash off of the decks for hours after we left the port - and three days later, still having to scrub things because it was so think on the ship. The lido deck, where there is a glass dome over the pool, was pitch black dark because the ash was coating the glass! We walked through the market, as they called it, loaded with vegetables and baskets made out of palm leaves and banana leaves. One thing I thought was pretty cool was that the women were selling lots of rice mixed with vegetables and various stews but they didn't pack them in tupperware or anything of that nature - they took a banana leaf and made it into a pouch and that's how everything was packaged. Weather there was very hot and humid and ashy :)
We were in Yap Islands, Federal States of Micronesia today. Wasn't much to the place and pretty much everything was closed, but we went to a Filipino restaurant that was very good - a hole in the wall on the water. I enjoyed it. Some of the native dancers did come on board and do some tribal dances which was awesome to watch and the guys enjoyed it because the women did the dances with no tops :)
Tomorrow we are in Guam and I'm very excited about being there for some reason - we all are because there is a K-Mart and a Wal-Mart and shopping for tolietries has not been easy recently and I hear Asia isn't the best for them! We have a very long day though - I have to be up and at work at 6 a.m. to do traffic control for passenger immigration, then we have a full crew inspection (immigration), then the US Coast Guard is coming on board because we are in US territory and haven't been hit with an inspection for awhile. They run all of our drill with us and see that we are all following proper procedure - they ask us questions when we get to our muster stations and just make sure that we are all on the same page. We also have the health and safety inspectors possibly coming too - so it's going to be quite hectic!
I'm very excited about getting to Asia soon - I have booked crew tours in China to go see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tien'amen square (sp?) I also booked a tour in Pusan, South Korea where we will visit a temple, a park and an international market!
We crossed the equator the night of the 12th and there is a King Neptune Ceremony associated with it - it is a ceremony for anyone who hasn't crossed it with Holland America before. Our names were submitted by our managers and I was one of the 26 picked. First we met in the spa and we were "Pollywogs". The had us all hang on to a rope as we walked around the ship in front of passengers while the band played that dun dun dun song. (Good description, eh?). We got to our Navigation Deck aft pool where the whole ceremony was set up and we were thrown in our cage where they threw hot and cold water all over us. They took us two at a time where you were "made fun of" in front of everyone for something regarding your job and then they made you Kiss a fish - mind you the fish was around 40 kg. After that you were sent to the Doctors and nurses (our cast members) where they threw spaghetti and some different cream stuff all over us. It was only a little bit that the first 24 people got on them so we thought we were in the clear. Everyone kept getting called and Whitney and I looked at each other and realized that we were going to be the last ones to go - since our department was hosting it. Just as we suspected, we were called last and had to kiss the fish for 10 seconds. We got to the tables with the food and they emptied out all the remaining buckets of food on us (which was a lot!). So we got up and then they said to sit back down and they filled the buckets up again with the crap that was all over the pool floor and dumped it again! It was tons of fun and a great time - especially since we got our favorite cellarmaster and Bar manager along with the paymaster covered in spaghetti (in their white uniforms) and then threw them in the pool! Great times - and the pictures are even better!
Best question from a passenger about crossing the equator: "Is there going to be a sign so I know exactly when we're crossing it?"
Overall, this has been a hard cruise with very difficult and grouchy guests- never do we get a please or thank you and truly i've never been verbally abused until I met a few of these passengers who think I'm dirt! They're very old - most of them veterans. We did a wreath ceremony for them in memory of those lost and lots of things - but it's all crap to them. All-in-all they just want to get some money back!
We did send out a rescue boat the other day for an unidentified object (looked like a missle) - turns out it was nothing but everyone got a good show of how our rescue team works!
I think i've written a novel and still haven't mentioned half of it! I'll have to get better at this :)
Hope everyone is doing well~!
Yes, I know. It has been a VERY long time since I posted. I know you see I posted one I wrote a while back saying I think I found a new way of sending the posts to myself....Well, didn't work. So here I am going to give you all the reader's digest version of what's been happening over the last month and a half! We finished our Australia/New Zealand runs and on March 1st picked up our 25 day WWII cruise.
The last few cruises in Australia/NZ were fantastic - weather was unpredictable - freezing cold one day, boiling hot the next. Overall, pretty chilly though - especially in all the New Zealand ports. Did a few tours - in Melbourne, did two - both involving Kangaroos and Koala's and seeing them. I know Koala's are called Koala bears - but I never truly thought of them that way - just thought they crawled up and down a tree. But one came down out of the tree and walked across the street in front of us. Definitely neat to see! One thing I wish I could have done again that I did when I was here 5 years ago was hold a koala. Laws have changed - in the North, very few places still allow you to hold them and in the south you are not allowed to hold them at all. Studies [apparently] show that holding koalas can take up to three years off their lives. I guess I can consider myself lucky that I was here when I was and did it then. Quite sad that I didn't get to do anything in Sydney that I wanted to do because it was always an embarkation day - so I was a bit disappointed, but hey...I'm not dead yet - maybe another opportunity will find me!
We did a few crew tours too, which are tons of fun and worth the money we have to pay for them. In Picton, New Zealand we did a crew winery tour and visited 4 different wineries. Had an absolute blast considering it was all crew and we started drinking at 10:00 a.m. The cellar master even brought along some sparkling wine for us to drink in between the first couple wineries. Let's just say there were a lot of tipsy crew! :)
In Bay of Islands, New Zealand we did a crew tour where we were picked up in a "Waka" which is a canoe that the Maori tribe used/uses. They're quite stable, but so much fun. It picked up about 14 of us and we paddled for an hour and a half (my arms, back and ass were killing me for the next four days!) all the way out to this raging waterfall. We got some really neat pictures in front of it. The guys taught us these chants that they used to keep rhythm way back when. After the waterfall, we paddled all the way back to the Maori village where we visited a Marae (the meeting place of some Maori's) and they greeted us with the traditional hongi or welcome ceremony. "Kia Ora" is the term they typically use meaning Hello/Welcome/Be well. We were exhausted and running late, so they flipped on the lovely and oh-so-wonderful honda motor to get us home! :)
The WWII cruise has been an eye opener so far. The first two ports were in New Zealand, so nothing different. After leaving New Zealand we headed to our first Island which is Noumea, New Caledonia. This Island reminded me of the Bahamas - everyone else who's been other places said Bermuda or Jamaica. Neat place. We went to a Japanese restaurant where I ate lots of raw fish for the first time and really enjoyed it. Everyone spoke French and ironically, no Japanese worked there. Very expensive there though...for example, chips in the Grocery store costs about 500 francs....you do the math! (a lot!)
Next stop: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Our first third world country stop. Everyone there (and at several of the other islands) had red teeth, which comes from these things they eat out of palm trees called "beetle nuts". They chew on them because apparently they get a certain "high" off of them, but I've also heard they they make their teeth stronger. This island was so dirty which garbage everywhere. The people (which were very friendly and pleasant) were all just hanging around - nowhere to go and nothing to do. Amazing to see and gives me a true eye opener to a culture that truly doesn't have much, but where the people are happy. Walked through town, but there was not much to see at all - and it was SO ridiculously hot, I turned around and walked back home!
Rabaul, Papau, New Guinea - very very awesome culture to observe. As soon as we got there, the volcano was very very active, which is apparently not active too frequently. The smoke was billowing out. When we got off the ship I could feel the ash hitting us like raindrops. I've never seen that before - our clothes were black, our faces were covered and my feet were so black I looked like Fred Flintsone! It was so bad around 1:30ish, that the captain revoked crew shore leave and told everyone that they had to stay inside if they weren't already off the ship - the sulfur content was so high in the air that it wasn't safe for us to be out or even out on the decks. All of the ships crew were out cleaning the ash off of the decks for hours after we left the port - and three days later, still having to scrub things because it was so think on the ship. The lido deck, where there is a glass dome over the pool, was pitch black dark because the ash was coating the glass! We walked through the market, as they called it, loaded with vegetables and baskets made out of palm leaves and banana leaves. One thing I thought was pretty cool was that the women were selling lots of rice mixed with vegetables and various stews but they didn't pack them in tupperware or anything of that nature - they took a banana leaf and made it into a pouch and that's how everything was packaged. Weather there was very hot and humid and ashy :)
We were in Yap Islands, Federal States of Micronesia today. Wasn't much to the place and pretty much everything was closed, but we went to a Filipino restaurant that was very good - a hole in the wall on the water. I enjoyed it. Some of the native dancers did come on board and do some tribal dances which was awesome to watch and the guys enjoyed it because the women did the dances with no tops :)
Tomorrow we are in Guam and I'm very excited about being there for some reason - we all are because there is a K-Mart and a Wal-Mart and shopping for tolietries has not been easy recently and I hear Asia isn't the best for them! We have a very long day though - I have to be up and at work at 6 a.m. to do traffic control for passenger immigration, then we have a full crew inspection (immigration), then the US Coast Guard is coming on board because we are in US territory and haven't been hit with an inspection for awhile. They run all of our drill with us and see that we are all following proper procedure - they ask us questions when we get to our muster stations and just make sure that we are all on the same page. We also have the health and safety inspectors possibly coming too - so it's going to be quite hectic!
I'm very excited about getting to Asia soon - I have booked crew tours in China to go see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tien'amen square (sp?) I also booked a tour in Pusan, South Korea where we will visit a temple, a park and an international market!
We crossed the equator the night of the 12th and there is a King Neptune Ceremony associated with it - it is a ceremony for anyone who hasn't crossed it with Holland America before. Our names were submitted by our managers and I was one of the 26 picked. First we met in the spa and we were "Pollywogs". The had us all hang on to a rope as we walked around the ship in front of passengers while the band played that dun dun dun song. (Good description, eh?). We got to our Navigation Deck aft pool where the whole ceremony was set up and we were thrown in our cage where they threw hot and cold water all over us. They took us two at a time where you were "made fun of" in front of everyone for something regarding your job and then they made you Kiss a fish - mind you the fish was around 40 kg. After that you were sent to the Doctors and nurses (our cast members) where they threw spaghetti and some different cream stuff all over us. It was only a little bit that the first 24 people got on them so we thought we were in the clear. Everyone kept getting called and Whitney and I looked at each other and realized that we were going to be the last ones to go - since our department was hosting it. Just as we suspected, we were called last and had to kiss the fish for 10 seconds. We got to the tables with the food and they emptied out all the remaining buckets of food on us (which was a lot!). So we got up and then they said to sit back down and they filled the buckets up again with the crap that was all over the pool floor and dumped it again! It was tons of fun and a great time - especially since we got our favorite cellarmaster and Bar manager along with the paymaster covered in spaghetti (in their white uniforms) and then threw them in the pool! Great times - and the pictures are even better!
Best question from a passenger about crossing the equator: "Is there going to be a sign so I know exactly when we're crossing it?"
Overall, this has been a hard cruise with very difficult and grouchy guests- never do we get a please or thank you and truly i've never been verbally abused until I met a few of these passengers who think I'm dirt! They're very old - most of them veterans. We did a wreath ceremony for them in memory of those lost and lots of things - but it's all crap to them. All-in-all they just want to get some money back!
We did send out a rescue boat the other day for an unidentified object (looked like a missle) - turns out it was nothing but everyone got a good show of how our rescue team works!
I think i've written a novel and still haven't mentioned half of it! I'll have to get better at this :)
Hope everyone is doing well~!
I wrote this on January 23rd!
It’s been a while since I’ve last written. My computer won’t charge and is being a pain as usual! So, I don’t have the internet time to sit and write a blog entry! But I found a way around it – so we shall see if this method works!
I’ve been on a couple excursions since the last time I’ve written. In Burnie, Tasmania I went on an excursion called “Taste of Tasmania”. We went to the Anvers Chocolate Factory, the Tassie Wildlife Center and the Honey Farm.
The chocolate factory was amazing! It’s just an old cottage style house surrounded by tons of flowers. This guy started – about 20 years ago – just making truffles and chocolates as a hobby for friends, family and selling small batches to locals. One day a Japanese business owner said he wanted to purchase enough for all of his staff for Christmas, but since it was nine months away he would fax his order because he wanted to make sure not to forget anyone. Well, this guy who makes the chocolate thought nothing of it – just another small sale. Three weeks later he receives the fax to find out that this guy had hundreds of employees and wanted something along the lines of 2 tons of chocolate. The guys said, I’m sorry, I don’t have the time/money/manpower to produce that for you. The Japanese business man told him to check his bank account tomorrow and he’d put enough money in for him to hire some people to make all those chocolates. The next morning, sure enough, he had $180,000 AUD in his account to produce all of this chocolate! Pretty cool story, eh? So that was the beginning of the Anvers Chocolate Factory!
Anyways, we got there and were served tea and each seat had either a [HUGE] slice of chocolate cake or chocolate/mint cheesecake. I hate mint, but the cheesecake was absolutely fabulous – top notch! We went outside following the cake and sampled their vanilla fudge, truffles, and other kinds of chocolates that they make and I’ve never had fudge I’ve like that much. (Yes, Aunt Louise, I want to send you some but shipping is out of this world!) I saved the card so maybe when I’m rich I can order some and have it shipped!
The next stop was the Tassie Wildlife Center where we saw wombats, Tasmanian Devils (they’re vicious!), kangaroos, wallabies, koalas and several Joey’s! We didn’t get to hold them like when I went to the wildlife park in Brisbane several years ago – but it was so cool to see them. At the park, they served us a bar-b-q lunch with lamb-burgers and salads, but they all had curry! Yuk!
As if we hadn’t had enough foods and sweets, we went to a Honey farm in Chudleigh, Tasmania. They produced tons (like 40-50) different kinds of honey. I don’t like honey, but I did try a few and it was interesting to see the different types that they created. We also were treated to ice creams they made from honey, which again I didn’t think I would like, but I tried a Vanilla Honey Ice Cream and it was by far the second best Ice Cream I’ve ever tasted. (The first is the Hokey Pokey Ice Cream they make in New Zealand with vanilla and real honeycomb pieces – trying to find out if there’s a way to ship that too ;) )
Spent another day in Melbourne after that – walking around just for fresh air and exercise! In Sydney I had IPM AGAIN. We only have one more turnaround day in Sydney so I’m praying I can do SOMETHING like the bridge climb before leaving here!
When we hit Tasmania again on this cruise, I went on a Pioneer Museum and Unique Crafts tour. I was a bit nervous that it was going to be boring and cheesy – but it ended up being quite cool. We went to a place called Creative Paper. They make paper out of cotton, denim, plants, lavender, and ‘roo poo’! Yes, kangaroo poo! It was neat how they did it and we even got to make our own. Unfortunately, we weren’t there long enough to let it dry so we couldn’t bring it home, but they did give us another piece. There were huge statues made out of paper mache – really cool place to see how it’s all done!
We stopped at Burnie Park and walked to a small waterfall which was pretty and then onto a museum, which was the anticipated boring – but the paper place was worth it!
Other than the excursions, life is pretty good here. I’ve made lots of friends – especially because Whitney from my last ship is now leaving here March 1st instead of May like originally planned to be with her boyfriend on another ship! Honestly, I’ve being hanging out with the Filipino Security guards and other guys in the Crew Mess and the PO (Petty Officer’s Bar). They seem to be some of the most fun people on board! They all told me they though I was snobby when I first got on – just because I was quiet- now I’m one of the only females they hang out with. I’m having fun though! Only 3 kids on board this week so it’s been pretty quiet and I’m just trying to relax and enjoy!
Every turnaround day, I seem to be stuck on IPM, which means I have to stand at the Gangway and greet all oncoming passengers. I swear if I hear “Is that your real name?” one more time I’m going to scream! All the guys on the lido always say…Sydney’s in Sydney or Sydney’s moving to Melbourne! It’s funny though – on the ship everyone has started calling me Syd – that never happens! It’s all fun though!
I’ve been on a couple excursions since the last time I’ve written. In Burnie, Tasmania I went on an excursion called “Taste of Tasmania”. We went to the Anvers Chocolate Factory, the Tassie Wildlife Center and the Honey Farm.
The chocolate factory was amazing! It’s just an old cottage style house surrounded by tons of flowers. This guy started – about 20 years ago – just making truffles and chocolates as a hobby for friends, family and selling small batches to locals. One day a Japanese business owner said he wanted to purchase enough for all of his staff for Christmas, but since it was nine months away he would fax his order because he wanted to make sure not to forget anyone. Well, this guy who makes the chocolate thought nothing of it – just another small sale. Three weeks later he receives the fax to find out that this guy had hundreds of employees and wanted something along the lines of 2 tons of chocolate. The guys said, I’m sorry, I don’t have the time/money/manpower to produce that for you. The Japanese business man told him to check his bank account tomorrow and he’d put enough money in for him to hire some people to make all those chocolates. The next morning, sure enough, he had $180,000 AUD in his account to produce all of this chocolate! Pretty cool story, eh? So that was the beginning of the Anvers Chocolate Factory!
Anyways, we got there and were served tea and each seat had either a [HUGE] slice of chocolate cake or chocolate/mint cheesecake. I hate mint, but the cheesecake was absolutely fabulous – top notch! We went outside following the cake and sampled their vanilla fudge, truffles, and other kinds of chocolates that they make and I’ve never had fudge I’ve like that much. (Yes, Aunt Louise, I want to send you some but shipping is out of this world!) I saved the card so maybe when I’m rich I can order some and have it shipped!
The next stop was the Tassie Wildlife Center where we saw wombats, Tasmanian Devils (they’re vicious!), kangaroos, wallabies, koalas and several Joey’s! We didn’t get to hold them like when I went to the wildlife park in Brisbane several years ago – but it was so cool to see them. At the park, they served us a bar-b-q lunch with lamb-burgers and salads, but they all had curry! Yuk!
As if we hadn’t had enough foods and sweets, we went to a Honey farm in Chudleigh, Tasmania. They produced tons (like 40-50) different kinds of honey. I don’t like honey, but I did try a few and it was interesting to see the different types that they created. We also were treated to ice creams they made from honey, which again I didn’t think I would like, but I tried a Vanilla Honey Ice Cream and it was by far the second best Ice Cream I’ve ever tasted. (The first is the Hokey Pokey Ice Cream they make in New Zealand with vanilla and real honeycomb pieces – trying to find out if there’s a way to ship that too ;) )
Spent another day in Melbourne after that – walking around just for fresh air and exercise! In Sydney I had IPM AGAIN. We only have one more turnaround day in Sydney so I’m praying I can do SOMETHING like the bridge climb before leaving here!
When we hit Tasmania again on this cruise, I went on a Pioneer Museum and Unique Crafts tour. I was a bit nervous that it was going to be boring and cheesy – but it ended up being quite cool. We went to a place called Creative Paper. They make paper out of cotton, denim, plants, lavender, and ‘roo poo’! Yes, kangaroo poo! It was neat how they did it and we even got to make our own. Unfortunately, we weren’t there long enough to let it dry so we couldn’t bring it home, but they did give us another piece. There were huge statues made out of paper mache – really cool place to see how it’s all done!
We stopped at Burnie Park and walked to a small waterfall which was pretty and then onto a museum, which was the anticipated boring – but the paper place was worth it!
Other than the excursions, life is pretty good here. I’ve made lots of friends – especially because Whitney from my last ship is now leaving here March 1st instead of May like originally planned to be with her boyfriend on another ship! Honestly, I’ve being hanging out with the Filipino Security guards and other guys in the Crew Mess and the PO (Petty Officer’s Bar). They seem to be some of the most fun people on board! They all told me they though I was snobby when I first got on – just because I was quiet- now I’m one of the only females they hang out with. I’m having fun though! Only 3 kids on board this week so it’s been pretty quiet and I’m just trying to relax and enjoy!
Every turnaround day, I seem to be stuck on IPM, which means I have to stand at the Gangway and greet all oncoming passengers. I swear if I hear “Is that your real name?” one more time I’m going to scream! All the guys on the lido always say…Sydney’s in Sydney or Sydney’s moving to Melbourne! It’s funny though – on the ship everyone has started calling me Syd – that never happens! It’s all fun though!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
God's Got this Under Control!! :)
January 12, 2008
Ok – So it’s been awhile, I know. I had some computer trouble. Our cabin steward cleaned our carpets without warning and I had my computer under the desk on the floor. He picked it up to clean it, but put the computer back on the wet carpet and it seeped into the computer! It took it a few days to dry out…made me really nervous for a bit! So we’ll see how long it lasts from here!
I went on the Maori excursion where we went into the city of KeriKeri (pronounced KittyKitty) and saw the oldest stone building in New Zealand then it was onto the Manginangina Forest to walk through and show us some native plants to New Zealand and what the Maori’s first came across when going into the Bush. Nothing really other than GIANT trees - second largest tree to the California Redwood. It takes 8 people holding hands to reach around the entire circumference of the largest tree.
Next was the Maori tribal house where the local tribe actually meets. The South Island Maori’s allow people to come in and go through the typical protocol and visit the house, unlike the North Island Maori’s. So, we got to go in and see the inside –it was lined with intricate carvings of their typical faces signifying the sacred lives of ancestors that have been lost and the walls were lined with photographs of all the local tribe’s ancestors. Really neat to listen to them speak their native tongue and see how sacred it truly is to each of the members. I loved it!
Last stop was Waitangi Treaty Grounds where all the treaties were originally signed. There was a HUGE canoe that some of the Maori’s came to the island on. Beautiful property right along the beach!
That night we had a surprise birthday for Arnout, one of our engineers. He’s dating Christina, a cruise staff. Christina bought black lights for the OB (officer’s bar) and she filled alcohol bottles with water and dropped glow sticks in all of them so the room lit up. We all wore white t-shirts and wrote not-the-most-appropriate things on our shirts with highlighters so we all lit up! It was tons of fun! We all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
Didn’t get an excursion in Taraunga so I went to the gym in the morning and headed out to walk around the city for a few minutes and hit the most beautiful beach for an hour or so. The sun here is way different than back home, so an hour is a lot. Got a little burned and I had 15 sun block on – but still better then having nothing, right? The beach was beautiful though – neat to see beaches with huge trees growing all around!
My favorite place is now Picton, New Zealand. I didn’t get off the first cruise because I had IPM, but this cruise I walked around for a while. Great little city (reminds me of a town slightly bigger than Ray City, GA) – lots of local crafts and store to see and visit! So I walked around for a few hours and it was wonderful – cold but wonderful!
Today I went on the Taieri Gorge Railway. It was a train that took us through the beautiful scenic parts of Dunedin. This is how I remember New Zealand with the rolling hills and just beautiful scenery! It was a 5 hour trip with lunch, wine and tea and just a wonderful day. We opened the windows and just enjoyed the fresh air. Its times like that when I take a deep breath and remember why I love my life right now! Phenomenal day! You should see the sand spurs that they have here…they are the size of ping pong balls, but they don’t hurt – they’re quite soft and pretty colors. I took a picture if I ever get to post any!
I think that’s all for now – lots to update on, I know! I love hearing from you all so thank you for all the emails! Makes me feel loved J
Hope all is well and everyone’s New Year is going fantastically!
Ok – So it’s been awhile, I know. I had some computer trouble. Our cabin steward cleaned our carpets without warning and I had my computer under the desk on the floor. He picked it up to clean it, but put the computer back on the wet carpet and it seeped into the computer! It took it a few days to dry out…made me really nervous for a bit! So we’ll see how long it lasts from here!
I went on the Maori excursion where we went into the city of KeriKeri (pronounced KittyKitty) and saw the oldest stone building in New Zealand then it was onto the Manginangina Forest to walk through and show us some native plants to New Zealand and what the Maori’s first came across when going into the Bush. Nothing really other than GIANT trees - second largest tree to the California Redwood. It takes 8 people holding hands to reach around the entire circumference of the largest tree.
Next was the Maori tribal house where the local tribe actually meets. The South Island Maori’s allow people to come in and go through the typical protocol and visit the house, unlike the North Island Maori’s. So, we got to go in and see the inside –it was lined with intricate carvings of their typical faces signifying the sacred lives of ancestors that have been lost and the walls were lined with photographs of all the local tribe’s ancestors. Really neat to listen to them speak their native tongue and see how sacred it truly is to each of the members. I loved it!
Last stop was Waitangi Treaty Grounds where all the treaties were originally signed. There was a HUGE canoe that some of the Maori’s came to the island on. Beautiful property right along the beach!
That night we had a surprise birthday for Arnout, one of our engineers. He’s dating Christina, a cruise staff. Christina bought black lights for the OB (officer’s bar) and she filled alcohol bottles with water and dropped glow sticks in all of them so the room lit up. We all wore white t-shirts and wrote not-the-most-appropriate things on our shirts with highlighters so we all lit up! It was tons of fun! We all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
Didn’t get an excursion in Taraunga so I went to the gym in the morning and headed out to walk around the city for a few minutes and hit the most beautiful beach for an hour or so. The sun here is way different than back home, so an hour is a lot. Got a little burned and I had 15 sun block on – but still better then having nothing, right? The beach was beautiful though – neat to see beaches with huge trees growing all around!
My favorite place is now Picton, New Zealand. I didn’t get off the first cruise because I had IPM, but this cruise I walked around for a while. Great little city (reminds me of a town slightly bigger than Ray City, GA) – lots of local crafts and store to see and visit! So I walked around for a few hours and it was wonderful – cold but wonderful!
Today I went on the Taieri Gorge Railway. It was a train that took us through the beautiful scenic parts of Dunedin. This is how I remember New Zealand with the rolling hills and just beautiful scenery! It was a 5 hour trip with lunch, wine and tea and just a wonderful day. We opened the windows and just enjoyed the fresh air. Its times like that when I take a deep breath and remember why I love my life right now! Phenomenal day! You should see the sand spurs that they have here…they are the size of ping pong balls, but they don’t hurt – they’re quite soft and pretty colors. I took a picture if I ever get to post any!
I think that’s all for now – lots to update on, I know! I love hearing from you all so thank you for all the emails! Makes me feel loved J
Hope all is well and everyone’s New Year is going fantastically!
Kia Ora
January 3, 2008
Day 16 out of this 18 day cruise is almost over!!! Let’s just say this many days with the same kids is a long long time! We finally got sound in Club Hal – the electrician came in and fixed it all for me J I told him he was my best friend and he just laughed at me like I was crazy! But that made my day yesterday. Our Explorations Café Manager was quarantined yesterday for 3 days, so I didn’t even work in Club Hal yesterday – I just worked in the library to help out. She’s not the most organized person – all of the shelves are out of order and it looks like a bomb went off in there – so me and a couple cruise staff got it looking pretty spectacular!
Today I went on an excursion called Kiwifruit and Tarangua Sights. (We’re in the city of Tarangua in New Zealand) We went to a place called Kiwi 360 which was a huge Kiwi Orchard that grew primarily Kiwi fruit, but had lots of the stone fruits and tons of other various fruits growing on trees. I can’t believe how amazing Kiwi’s are! They are basically a self-sufficient fruit – they never get water or have a water supply going to them, the roots just dig themselves deep enough into the ground to seek water. They have the green Kiwi Fruits and the gold kiwi fruits. I didn’t get to taste the gold, but everyone said it was delicious. There are these huge pine-looking trees growing all around the orchards to protect the Kiwi’s from the winds. I also didn’t realize that they grew just like grapes do!
After we took a tour of the Orchard, we went inside to the store (of course!), but in the Courtyard they served scones with Kiwi Jam and home made whipped cream, slices of Kiwi (that they picked back in April and they still tasted amazing!), and Kiwi Juice along with Tea. Quite a cool trip – learned a lot! Did you know that a kiwi has more Vitamin C than an orange and more potassium than a banana?
Next we headed to a winery called Mills Reef. They didn’t grow the grapes there, but at a vineyard 5 hours away. We sampled wines for about 30 minutes, but none of them really impressed me…they were all really dry! And that was really all there was to the excursion!
Other than that, life is going good….just relaxing a lot lately. The ship is a lot quieter than my last one, but I’m trying to give it a chance!
That’s all for now! Another excursion tomorrow about my favorites – the Maori’s. Will update soon!
Day 16 out of this 18 day cruise is almost over!!! Let’s just say this many days with the same kids is a long long time! We finally got sound in Club Hal – the electrician came in and fixed it all for me J I told him he was my best friend and he just laughed at me like I was crazy! But that made my day yesterday. Our Explorations Café Manager was quarantined yesterday for 3 days, so I didn’t even work in Club Hal yesterday – I just worked in the library to help out. She’s not the most organized person – all of the shelves are out of order and it looks like a bomb went off in there – so me and a couple cruise staff got it looking pretty spectacular!
Today I went on an excursion called Kiwifruit and Tarangua Sights. (We’re in the city of Tarangua in New Zealand) We went to a place called Kiwi 360 which was a huge Kiwi Orchard that grew primarily Kiwi fruit, but had lots of the stone fruits and tons of other various fruits growing on trees. I can’t believe how amazing Kiwi’s are! They are basically a self-sufficient fruit – they never get water or have a water supply going to them, the roots just dig themselves deep enough into the ground to seek water. They have the green Kiwi Fruits and the gold kiwi fruits. I didn’t get to taste the gold, but everyone said it was delicious. There are these huge pine-looking trees growing all around the orchards to protect the Kiwi’s from the winds. I also didn’t realize that they grew just like grapes do!
After we took a tour of the Orchard, we went inside to the store (of course!), but in the Courtyard they served scones with Kiwi Jam and home made whipped cream, slices of Kiwi (that they picked back in April and they still tasted amazing!), and Kiwi Juice along with Tea. Quite a cool trip – learned a lot! Did you know that a kiwi has more Vitamin C than an orange and more potassium than a banana?
Next we headed to a winery called Mills Reef. They didn’t grow the grapes there, but at a vineyard 5 hours away. We sampled wines for about 30 minutes, but none of them really impressed me…they were all really dry! And that was really all there was to the excursion!
Other than that, life is going good….just relaxing a lot lately. The ship is a lot quieter than my last one, but I’m trying to give it a chance!
That’s all for now! Another excursion tomorrow about my favorites – the Maori’s. Will update soon!
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Looking back but Stepping Forward
January 1, 2008
So my New Year’s Eve was much better than anticipated! For after hours sitting we only had 2 sign up and the other girl (well..she’s 32,so not a girl) said she’d do it because she had no interest in celebrating. So I gladly got my formal dress on and dressed up and headed out! In our Van Gough Lounge we had a huge countdown with champagne toast for the New Year. Our band was playing on the stage and people were dancing everywhere. Lots of the crew piled into the lounge too for the countdown so we celebrated together. My New Years Eve kiss was Whitney because both of our boys are elsewhere L But we had no problem enjoying ourselves.
After the countdown we headed up to the Crow’s Nest (the ship nightclub) which was abosolutely packed – but all of the cruise staff (4 of them) a few of the officers and myself were on the dance floor for about 2 hours straight. You can see the pictures start out great – we all look fresh and good and they end with our hair up and we’re sweating like crazy!!! But it’s one of the best New Year’s I’ve ever had! Finally!!!!
I must say that looking back, this is the first year I’ve ever fulfilled a New Year’s Resolution…to lose 20 pounds and be happy! I doubled it!! Woohoo! I definitely want to lose another 15-20, but for now, I’m content with keeping it off and maintaining what I’ve done already! I think my resolution for this year is just to keep up what I’ve accomplished in the last year – getting rid of the negative crap and just relying on myself for happiness! Really…at this point in my life, looking at it all – what more could a 23 year old ask for???
I hope everyone at home has a wonderful New Year’s – you guys should be celebrating in the next few hours! Enjoy it!
Happy 2008 friends!
So my New Year’s Eve was much better than anticipated! For after hours sitting we only had 2 sign up and the other girl (well..she’s 32,so not a girl) said she’d do it because she had no interest in celebrating. So I gladly got my formal dress on and dressed up and headed out! In our Van Gough Lounge we had a huge countdown with champagne toast for the New Year. Our band was playing on the stage and people were dancing everywhere. Lots of the crew piled into the lounge too for the countdown so we celebrated together. My New Years Eve kiss was Whitney because both of our boys are elsewhere L But we had no problem enjoying ourselves.
After the countdown we headed up to the Crow’s Nest (the ship nightclub) which was abosolutely packed – but all of the cruise staff (4 of them) a few of the officers and myself were on the dance floor for about 2 hours straight. You can see the pictures start out great – we all look fresh and good and they end with our hair up and we’re sweating like crazy!!! But it’s one of the best New Year’s I’ve ever had! Finally!!!!
I must say that looking back, this is the first year I’ve ever fulfilled a New Year’s Resolution…to lose 20 pounds and be happy! I doubled it!! Woohoo! I definitely want to lose another 15-20, but for now, I’m content with keeping it off and maintaining what I’ve done already! I think my resolution for this year is just to keep up what I’ve accomplished in the last year – getting rid of the negative crap and just relying on myself for happiness! Really…at this point in my life, looking at it all – what more could a 23 year old ask for???
I hope everyone at home has a wonderful New Year’s – you guys should be celebrating in the next few hours! Enjoy it!
Happy 2008 friends!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
The bright side of life...
December 30, 2007
Today was a pretty boring day! I had In Port Manning, so I couldn’t leave the ship – so I slept in kinda late, went to the gym, took a shower and didn’t start work until 4 p.m.! But what does suck is that I found out we have to babysit until midnight tomorrow night – so there’s no celebrating with friends AGAIN! Damn…Then, I heard that the one day we’re in Russia, no crew is allowed to get off!! What kinda crap is that??????
Yesterday was great though – I was up really early for an excursion that was a tour of Christchurch and Canterbury. We started the morning by heading out to a lookout point just to look over the city of Christchurch, which is beautiful (as is all of New Zealand…maybe I should marry a Kiwi??). Then we headed out to Riccarton House and Bush (which means forest). Riccarton House is a Victorian home which is one of the oldest buildings in the Canterbury plains owns by the Deans family who is highly influential here. The house was beautiful with tons of imported woods and luxurious things around the home. The gardens around the home were spectacular – as is every garden here. Christchurch is known as “The Garden City.”
Next, we headed off to Homebush Stables in Homebush. We started with a sheep herding demonstration and there were sheep that were only about weeks old. You’ll have to see them when I eventually post the pictures! I also have a video of the sheep herding as well as the sheep shearing demonstration. The sheep he sheared (?) had 18 months worth of wool on it, so I think it lost about 30 pounds of wool!! We walked around the property which was amazingly beautiful and the family still lives in the home there! There was a woman who turned the wool into thread and we watched her use a New Zealand made spinner to thread it all around a spool. After all of that, we headed inside for a great dinner that was made for us – food was fantastic!!!
The next stop was the Antarctic Center. Basically, the US Antarctic Research Center is located there also. But, you can go on a Hagglund ride and see blue New Zealand penguins. There is also the Antarctic experience where they give you booties and a jacket and send you into a room covered in ice and snow (really slippery!!) with a snow slide and an igloo. The lights dim down really low, the wind picks up and the temperatures drop to -17 degrees Celsius! It was a bit cold for my taste. We didn’t get to explore too much because the rest of the tour was quite rushed, so we only have 45 minutes to see the entire attraction unfortunately! L
Our last stop was the Art Center of the City. We literally had about 20 minutes there which really stunk because there were lots of local artists there who had tons of beautiful jewelry and I had no time to look! I also found some New Zealand wool boots – I think I might be investing in some before we leave here J They had a great fudge store – I wish it wasn’t so expensive to ship because I’d love to send some to Aunt Louise! It’s fantastic – they had bailey’s fudge and double chocolate and probably 15 other flavors!
I guess that’s about all for now – I still haven’t posted any pictures like I said because the internet is so freakin slow! I will try and find a place tomorrow in Wellington that I can get some!
Happy New Year! I’ll be celebrating it long before you all will, but I guess there’s not much celebration with 3-7 year olds!
Here’s to a great 2008!
Today was a pretty boring day! I had In Port Manning, so I couldn’t leave the ship – so I slept in kinda late, went to the gym, took a shower and didn’t start work until 4 p.m.! But what does suck is that I found out we have to babysit until midnight tomorrow night – so there’s no celebrating with friends AGAIN! Damn…Then, I heard that the one day we’re in Russia, no crew is allowed to get off!! What kinda crap is that??????
Yesterday was great though – I was up really early for an excursion that was a tour of Christchurch and Canterbury. We started the morning by heading out to a lookout point just to look over the city of Christchurch, which is beautiful (as is all of New Zealand…maybe I should marry a Kiwi??). Then we headed out to Riccarton House and Bush (which means forest). Riccarton House is a Victorian home which is one of the oldest buildings in the Canterbury plains owns by the Deans family who is highly influential here. The house was beautiful with tons of imported woods and luxurious things around the home. The gardens around the home were spectacular – as is every garden here. Christchurch is known as “The Garden City.”
Next, we headed off to Homebush Stables in Homebush. We started with a sheep herding demonstration and there were sheep that were only about weeks old. You’ll have to see them when I eventually post the pictures! I also have a video of the sheep herding as well as the sheep shearing demonstration. The sheep he sheared (?) had 18 months worth of wool on it, so I think it lost about 30 pounds of wool!! We walked around the property which was amazingly beautiful and the family still lives in the home there! There was a woman who turned the wool into thread and we watched her use a New Zealand made spinner to thread it all around a spool. After all of that, we headed inside for a great dinner that was made for us – food was fantastic!!!
The next stop was the Antarctic Center. Basically, the US Antarctic Research Center is located there also. But, you can go on a Hagglund ride and see blue New Zealand penguins. There is also the Antarctic experience where they give you booties and a jacket and send you into a room covered in ice and snow (really slippery!!) with a snow slide and an igloo. The lights dim down really low, the wind picks up and the temperatures drop to -17 degrees Celsius! It was a bit cold for my taste. We didn’t get to explore too much because the rest of the tour was quite rushed, so we only have 45 minutes to see the entire attraction unfortunately! L
Our last stop was the Art Center of the City. We literally had about 20 minutes there which really stunk because there were lots of local artists there who had tons of beautiful jewelry and I had no time to look! I also found some New Zealand wool boots – I think I might be investing in some before we leave here J They had a great fudge store – I wish it wasn’t so expensive to ship because I’d love to send some to Aunt Louise! It’s fantastic – they had bailey’s fudge and double chocolate and probably 15 other flavors!
I guess that’s about all for now – I still haven’t posted any pictures like I said because the internet is so freakin slow! I will try and find a place tomorrow in Wellington that I can get some!
Happy New Year! I’ll be celebrating it long before you all will, but I guess there’s not much celebration with 3-7 year olds!
Here’s to a great 2008!
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