Blogging and Sea sickness

That is the one thing about blogging, while you are an aspiring blogger, you have to write on a daily basis but once you are rich and famous then you can cut back on the blogging because by that stage you would be able to hire a ghost writer, or all you do is just recycle hate mail and comment on that. Well, from the look of it most bloggers write to themselves and hope in vain that someone out there will take pity on them and read their thoughts.
I have done some further research and it is highly recommended that a blogger watch what they write in case something they wrote aeons back rears its ugly head and bites them in the ass (Poor donkey). The USA laws are pretty strict about a lot of things and there have been cases where bloggers have lost their jobs, etc due to some small reference they made on their blog to their company. So, I think I will steer clear of bad mouthing my company for awhile. I will say one thing though, that our company could make a lot more money if the clowns from Miami got their act together; not only that but the crews would be much happier too and with a happier crew, so too will the guests have a much more enjoyable time.
Where are we today? Well, we are approximately 16 hours from New York. The sea is trying to scare us but by now the guests are either too tired or too drunk to care. Last night was really rough and the vomit cleaning team (yes, we have those teams) had a lot on their hands…or should I say, on the carpets, the floors, the tiles…I do sympathise with the sea sick guests, because in my navy days, it was part of the job description that you had to be seasick every fifteen minutes…and for those of you who have had the honour and privilege of serving on Warrior class Strike Craft off the South African coast line, well, you know what I am talking about.
But on cruise ships, with stabilisers and the general size of these floating hotels…there should be no real need for being ill, however, for a lot of people, motion sickness is a common thing and all those funny little anti sea sickness products out there…nope! On a cruise ship, they might offer the vague assurance that a teddy bear offers in the middle of the night, but when it comes to the real seas and working in a tight battle group formation, they don’t. Andrenaline is a good alternative.

A sailing we will go!

So! Here we are once again in fantastic Freeport! But never mind, we are shortly on our way to New York and from there we will disembark our happy tourists and send them all home, tanned, fatter, more tired and drunker than when they first came on board. In essence the cruise line industry can be considered a business of excess. On our ships you will find free food in abundance, plenty of alcohol, lots of sun and time to lie around and do nothing but, for New Yorkers…well…they don’t know how to relax and so, every waking moment for them is an epic struggle and fight in their little lives.

An example of this would be at the lunch time buffet line, here there is plenty of food, enough to feed a small, hungry country but the guest’s battle and push and shove and fight each other just to get a meal. You would think that this was their last meal on earth! Come on people! This is a buffet line, you take, you eat and you come back for more, ad nauseam…but no, they have to stack their plates high with all kinds of food and then rush off to find a table not occupied by a European guest, quietly supping his esspresso while reading, and then to rush back again for more plates of food. Quick! Quick! Winter is almost upon us! We need to stock up on our food supplies!

I have seen guests, make their way down to the casino midnight snacks table and empty the large platters into handbags, hats, etc…really folks! Have you not heard of room service? Room service is the best! No matter what time of day or night it is, you can order up food from the Bell Box and it is delivered faster than any pizza delivery…except of course during spring break or on a rough sea when everyone orders from Room Service and the poor waiters have to run up and down a heaving ship serving food to seasick or drunk guests.

I make no apologies, the American tourist is really not my favourite, but hey! I get paid in the almighty dollar…well, not so almighty now…but in some third world countries, the dollar is still king. So I have no cause to complain that much.

As for the European guests…well, there is a different kettle of fish! But more of that the closer we get to Europe.

A mouse farting into the wind

Well, as the title describes this, this is another attempt at a blogging in the seemingly endless sea of bloggers. So I have no real great expectations for this but to see where it takes me.

Right now, we are leaving Nassau, Bahamas and are on our way to the port of Freeport...yes, we are in pirate country but we missed it by a few centuries...thank goodness for that, but it seems as though time has not caught up with parts of the west and east African coast where piracy is still a good days work.

Yes, we are sailing in a huge floating palace called the Norwegian GEM...one of the newest cruise ships around...and instead of parading her where she belongs, we are roaming the small islands of the Caribean. The islands, well, "exotic destinations"...for someone from afield as Europe or somewhere in States, then yes, this could be labelled, at a stretch of the imagination as "exotic". Now, don't get me wrong, some of these islands are incredibly beautiful in terms of beaches, jungles, blue waters and reefs...but for all the beauty there is also the downside.

But enough of that, it is 01h50 in the morning and I am still trying to download some software from our incredibly reliable MTN internet connection. This company is really going all out to bleed the crew dry but that is a story for another day.