Here It All Is

13 October 08
At sea - enroute to Acapulco, Mexico

Whew - what a hell of a few days!! I am wiped out :(

Ok, backing up to catch everyone up to the last week or so. I got back on the ship on Tuesday evening .. went and signed back on, unpacked, showered and off to the Wardie I went :) It felt good to be back and a lot of people were glad to see me (which is always a nice feeling no matter what) Had a fun night out as usual .. turns out I didnt have to work on Wednesday as the cafe wasn't going to be ready. Wooo hooo! So got up late and was able to have one last day of doing nothing before the craziness began again.

Andrea and I wanted to go into town for dinner .. so I grabbed Juan (the MTN tech onboard to help me set up the cafe) and he grabbed Miles (from PCL Corporate) and we went to the Cheesecake Factory. Yum yum and not the stupid-heads like they are in Seattle :) After dinner, we headed back to the ship and .. where else? The Wardie! Had a blast there .. everyone drank a little too much and we all decided to check out the status of the ship at 2am .. it was hilarious! I had to have a good night .. I had been told by the cruise staff that they were told by PCL that *I* was going to be running the library, as well as the internet cafe. I was effing fuming! Of course I sent an email off to my shoreside manager right away - but still .. it was getting towards the weekend and the first cruise left on Sat at 4pm!

Back to the night in the wardie - here are pics from Tues and Wed night:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=bf232dhz.9p6rbfrn&x=0&y=3h14h5&localeid=en_US


Thursday we had to get up and get moving on the set up of the pax i-cafe. Lucky for me it wasn't ready till 11am .. so Juan called me then and I got to have a little of a lie in that day too. We grabbed lunch and off we went to get things rolling. However just before we went to the pax cafe area, we noticed that we were going to be sailing under the Golden Gate again (we were heading out for a day of sea trials) And the coolest thing happened - we got to see the Blue Angels practicing for the air show on Saturday! It was soo cool - I have goosebumps just writing about it now. Of course my camera battery died, but its ok; they were so close to the ship, they kept buzzing right over us. Once we got out to sea it was soo rocky! There was a really strong wind or something; after a few hours of rocking and rolling all over in 22ft swells, the Capt came on and said he cancelled the trials because 'if the ship can handle these seas this well, she will pass the trials anyway' He then turned us around and headed back to San Fran. I think we got to the dock around 8.30pm but we were still in the cafe. We got most of it done by 9pm that night . 18 pc's all wired and setup. Some of the network connections weren't working, so we would have to come back the next day to finish. I fell into bed that night at 10pm! No wardie for me ..!

Here are a few pics of the new cafe:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=bf232dhz.aeel2nbn&x=0&y=-b716tn&localeid=en_US


The next day we had to setup the crew i-cafe. Luckily that is only 8pc's. We had that one done in 2 hours! We broke for lunch, then went back and finished the pax cafe. We were all done by about 3pm or so. We were now at Pier 35 (near Fishermans Wharf) and a handful of us wanted to go ashore and out for the evening. I went back and took a nap; the plan was to meet in the Wardie at 7pm or so and then go from there. Everyone made their way there eventually .. we never leave when we want to! Jake convinced us that we needed to go to In And Out Burger for dinner LOL. At least it was cheap :) It was actually good .. better than McDonalds but I still think Burger King is the best. (Oh and actually - I didnt have to pay for dinner at the CCF or In and Out - Juan was using the expense account!! YAY!)

Here is Jake, very happy to have his 4x4 burger (4 burgers and 4 pieces of cheese)
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=bf232dhz.5ccbg0jn&x=0&y=ot7gud&localeid=en_US
(dont ask me what is up with the pink sparkly pig - it is in the crew walkway of the SF terminal!!)

Saturday was the big day .. finish it ALL up and then hang on! The pax were coming :) Embarks started at noon, so I got all my signs and stuff reaady and as the first pax came onboard .. I ran for the hills :) LOL but my desk is right next to the gangway .. so people would think I was the information desk .. so it was better to just not be there at all. I came in to work around 2, but I was dying to go top-side to see some of the Air Show. Luckily, I could hear when the Blue Angels started performing .. :) So I got up there around 3 something when it was a little quiet in the cafe (all the pax were watching the show on the top decks too!) I got some great pics and it was soooo cool for them to be buzzing the ship and Alcatraz:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=bf232dhz.6v6tgk7n&x=0&y=-e0mlkv&localeid=en_US


The sailing out was good .. but we hit some high seas again and I thought 'oh boy, its going to be a long 3 days to Acapulco!' Luckily by the next morning it was all nice and calm .. and has been ever since WHEW! It has been crazy freaking busy in the cafe/library .. since MTN didnt get an answer about the library deal by Sat, so I had no choice. Oy freakin Vey! It has been an actual mad house until this afternoon. I have been constantly interrupted by pax wanting to ask library questions (do you have such-and-such book? I cant find .. OMG I was going to jump overboard) I have barely spent any time with my own pax. Luckily I have sent several emails to my manager shoreside over the weekend and she was beside herself angry today. She promised she will get me a resolution soon and to just hang in there. I told her I didnt mind helping, but I was going crazy with the amount of pax. I mean shit, I am only ONE freaking person!
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