I mentioned in my previous post that I worked on a cruise ship ... hm, river cruise ship that is. There is a huge difference between working on an ocean liner and river cruise ship. Its not only the size and locations but also other things, I'll get to it later.
So, what it is like to be a crew member?!? I think I'd better start from the very beginning. You get the position and start to be all excited about you new job which sounds promising as far as the travelling opportunities go. It's all new which means exciting, at least for me. OK, it was March and I started my new job in a position as a Program Manager. Wow, it sounds like a fancy position but to be honest with you, it is just the name which is fancy. I embarked the vessel in Germany and talked to my boss in the loby of the ship. Due to the fact that I was in the hotel department my boss was basically the hotel manager NOT the captain. My boss, let's call him Mr B, is a nice guy and let me to walk around freely and get familiar with the environment. So, I walked around, looked in every corner and let myself be blown away with my new work environement. I was the first crew members to board the ship and the only guys I met where from the nautical department. I met the captain, the second captain, chief engieneer and some sailors. As a coincidence, they all came from a country which is a neighbouring country to mine. Conveniently enough, theri langauge is not my native language but since my dad comes from the same country, I happen to speak their language just as good a native. I was relieved and glad to see that there are people from my cultural background. What I did NOT know was that me bonding with the nauticals and especially the captain was gonna my curse for the rest of my work period. Mr B could not handle the fact that he does not have the ultimate responsibility for the ship but the captain does and the fact that within an hour I was speaking very casually with the captain simply put me to a list of people who are ... let's call it "not the nice guys". I know it is rude to speak a foreign language when there is even one person in the room who does not understand that particular language, but what you gonna do if there are many guys talking to you and joking and stuff. Well apaerantly, Mr B had zero understanding for people talking other language than his native language in his presence. And that's how I got my boss to dislike me BIG time within one hour of my being on the ship in less then half a day. YAY, well done ... I'm being sarcastic here, for those of you who think I'm cheering ... I'm not ... ha ha ha.
As we started to talk, I could sense his irritation so I excused myself and went to my cabin (I will totally get back to that later, you need hear about the looks and size of the crew cabin). The rest of the crew was scheduled to come in the evening, on a train that I thought would arrive too late. Obviously, none of the other 40 people cared about coming to their new job at 10 PM. They all came from the same direction so they met up on the train and talked and made friends. And then there was me, the one who came half a day earlier, made friends and enemies at the same time and felt as an outsider among a crowd that already seemed like folks who grew up together.
I don't wanna give at all away at the beginning so stay tunned as I tell you about the hard work of preparing a ship to a season opening ... and most importantly ... crew members: characters, rumors, relationships and so much more ...
Take care and don't forget ... you too have a unique story, share it!!!
Babye
Allie de Rose
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