Fort Lauderdale/Sea day

Nov 18th and 19th
Fort Lauderdale/Sea day

Home sweet home, after four months, I’m finally back in the U.S.A! But unfortunately, I spent the entire day on the ship. Due to it being our first day in the country, and considering that the ship has about 1200 people working on it not from the states, we needed to go through an entire crew immigration before being allowed off the ship. That took about half the day however, and then after making a few phone calls home, there wasn’t really anytime left to still get off the ship. So I just spent the rest of the day onboard, kind of anticlimactic after 6 sea days, but it was nice to at least sea Florida from the ship. The dancers and skaters all went home the 18th, which is sad. It’s hard to see them go, but they certainly deserve to return home.
We played a welcome aboard show that evening, or a watered down one because the new dancers weren’t yet ready to perform that show. Following that, we had our parade, something we’re going to have to get used to doing every 4 or 5 days…whoopee…
The 19th was a sea day spent traveling to Cozumel. Like most sea days, nothing super exciting that day. I did however have a side job to do in the morning. On the ship, there are a number of part time jobs that musicians and dancers often end up filling because of our relaxed schedule, and the jobs are so small that they don’t warrant bringing a new employee aboard. So that morning, I was working with the discover shopping people in the shopping show that they do n the first sea day of each cruise. The show simply presents where the best places to shop are and gives tips and finding what you might be looking for, along with giving away a bunch of free prizes throughout the show. So my job is to help make the show run smoothly by handing out maps and other materials that could be helpful in port, distributing coupon books to those who decide to by them, and just dealing with the guest as they come in and out of the presentation. It’s a three hour job, and at $10 per hour, is a nice way to just make some money on the side that I don’t have to feel so bad about blowing in the ports. That aside, the rest of the day wasn’t anything too spectacular, just the usual shows at night. But tomorrow will be Cozumel, and with that, my first time in Mexico!