January 25, 2009

Working on a cruise ship provides a lot of good-byes. Goodbye to land life, family, friends, cable TV, and Taco Bell. Goodbye to cooking your own meals, making your own bed and folding your own towels. Goodbye to driving, finding parking or de-icing your car,

But what can be more difficult is saying good-bye to the people you meet on the ship. It’s like saying goodbye to summer camp counselors when you were a kid, but it happens every few weeks.

Recently we had to say good-bye to both of our room stewards, Gerald and Jun. They were finally getting a vacation after working 9 months straight with no days off…EVER. I really liked these guys, they looked out for us and in turn we looked out for them. More than once on the incredibly and stressful NY port days, when they have to turn their rooms over in a matter of hours and were also responsible for getting everyone’s luggage to the right rooms Rance and I made sure they got food. We would go up to the garden and get a plateful of pizza or sandwiches and leave it in our room with the understanding that whenever they had a moment they could come in and eat. If we didn’t do that, they were expected to work through the day with no breaks.

In turn if there was anything we ever needed Gerald and Jun would get it for us. Gerald hooked me up with the tailor on board and he had my five pair of pants tailored to perfection in less than a day and delivered them back to my room free of charge. (Though I did tip him handsomely.) Gerald also commandeered a soft, downy penthouse pillow for me after I complained of my lack of sleep on the cardboard pillows that are standard in the hovel we stay in. –

At Christmas time Rance and I gave Gerald and Jun Christmas presents and Gerald got teary-eyed saying it’s the first Christmas he had been away from his family and how much our thoughtfulness meant to him. Which of course got me teary eyed and we both stood in the hallway with tears in our eyes and hugged.

The great thing about these good-byes is that now there are hellos. Like a few weeks ago when Rance and I got to see our friends from production cast on the Jewel who all happened to be in NY at the same time. And then a few weeks later we got to see our friend Christopher and spend the day with him. And then just this week we got to see our friends Roman and Sasha who are currently on The Dawn, which was parked right next to us in Tortola.

I get to chat with friends from all over the world on Facebook; from Serbia, Belarus, Australia, Hungary, Canada, The Philippines and even Nashville TN. And sometimes I’m even surprised by a face that I said good-bye to a year ago on the Jewel that is now suddenly with me again here on this ship.

So I’ve learned that the hardest good-byes are required before you can have the best of hellos.