Worst. Cruise. Ever.

Or at least that's what the guests have been saying lately. My supervisor seems to think this is the worst European cruise that he's been on, and he's been on the ship for 6 years. Here's a bit about why...

First off, we were supposed to go into Cannes, France as our first port. We were tendering there, but the wind was too strong, so we had to miss our first port. Which always sort of sucks, but it really doesn't start things off on a good note.

The guests seem to be a bit "cheap" this cruise too. Which I sort of don't like to say, because I hate grouping people in like that, but they don't seem to want to pay to book tours, but of course, none of them have done any research on the ports themselves, and have no idea on how to get around on their own. Nevermind the fact that none of them seem to understand the concept of a line, and just seem to gather on the sides of the desk because they can't seem to decide where they want to go. And then get mad at us when we tell them that the excursions desk or the foreign exchange is closed, but if they join our line we can help them out. (For those that don't know our ship setup, our desk is in the middle, and the other two are on each side of us, but there's no real separation of the desks, only a big column on each side, which I admit is sort of confusing).

Then of course we dock in Rome on a Sunday. Which means a lot of things are closed, like the Vatican Museum, where the Sistine Chapel is. Of course, travel agents should inform their guests of this at booking... but now it's our problem when they get onboard.

Then for a few days, things seemed to be going alright. We went to Venice, had our overnight (I ended up buying a nice paperweight that was sort of expensive, but it is Murano glass, and I got it for 10 euros off, I'll post a picture if I ever get my computer working with the internet).

Today, or I guess last night however, was the icing on the cake. The captain announced that we would again be missing a port, this time, Valetta, Malta. We of course had a sea day yesterday, and tomorrow is a sea day as well, before we return to Barcelona the day after that. Three sea days in a row. So now, the guests are cranky, they don't understand why we're doing this, and they seem to think that we're trying to get the guests to stay onboard so they'll spend money. Like our idea of a good time is to keep people onboard who clearly don't want to be there, so they can come and make our lives miserable? Like none of us wanted to get off this ship, because we are stuck in the crew areas, and a lot of people haven't even breathed fresh air in days?

Anyway, the captain is giving his "Captain's Corner" talk at 11:00 am today, and I'm VERY glad that I'm not him. We may have a possible mutiny on our hands. I have never been more happy to be on night shift than I am right now. I only had 3 or 4 guests coming to me, not the huge lines before. I think my favourite line though, was Tina told me that a guest was rather upset with her, and said, "well who should we talk to about this weather?" to which Tina replied, "I think God, ma'am." Tina is leaving soon, and really doesn't enjoy guest services. She's got a lot more nerve when it comes to talking back to guests that the rest of us.

So, that's pretty much been the fun that has been this cruise. Aside from the lady who always comes to see me at 7:00 am to talk about how dissapointed she is that there's no bibles in the staterooms. Apparently I should start reading it, but I should start with the new testament because the old one would just confuse me. She was a real joy to talk to early in the morning...

Malta & Night Shifts

Our tour in Malta ended up being pretty cool. They had a minibus rented for us, and then drove us all over the island showing us all the important sights. They had some really pretty churches, and the scenery was very nice. We went to see where they have a blue lagoon, it was such a nice colour, but I'm sure the pictures don't do it justice. It's pretty hilly in some spots, and they have really straight streets (not like at home) so some of the streets look like San Francisco.

It was nice to be on tour with all crew and not have to worry about guests, I must admit. It was a very relaxing day. We even had lunch too, I had a pasta with octopus, but it wasn't all that good unfortunately. The day was very hot, and I managed to get a little bit of sun. But I have definitely lost any hopes I had of a tan, we'll see if I manage to get back to anything in the next couple of weeks.

Night shifts were mostly okay, in the beginning at night it's usually busy, and the same with early in the morning. Aside from that I didn't mind it too much. Except for the fact that it really did tire me out. I even did have a missing person, and I seemed to do everything fine... actually it was two girls, who really just stayed out too late, and their mom's couldn't find them, but of course you have to take everything seriously just in case.

Mom and Dad made it onto the boat okay, but I haven't really seen them aside from the first day after the boat drill for a bit. They arrived taking pictures of me in my nice flourescent green vest, so you've got those pictures to look forward to of me. They've moslty gone out on tours, and when they came back I've been asleep before my shift. They do stop by the desk to say hi though, so I've seen a little bit of them.

Tonight I'm trying to stay awake to get back on a regular schedule, so we've booked dinner in one of the specialty restaurants, Portofino, which is Italian, so that should be a nice meal. They're off to Rome today on a long tour, so they'll have some time to rest once they get back. I guess they'll have pictures to show everyone once they get back, before me. But of course, I've only got one cruise left before I'm home after that, so not too much longer now.

Colourful boats

A Blue Lagoon

The inside of a church.

Scenic view of the island.

The outside of the church we were in.

The outside of a church that we didn't go in. If I remember correctly, they have tonnes of churches in Malta. I think our guide said that they commonly say that they have at least one church for every day of the year, which is a lot for a fairly small island.

A statue outside of the church that I thought looked pretty.

One of the streets in Malta. They said that people often think of the streets as being similar to those in San Francisco. Very long, straight streets that are very steep.