Third time's the charm?

While I was working today, I got another phone call... my ship assignment has been changed. After first being given an assignment, then the date changing, and now the ship AND date changing, I certainly hope everything is sorted out.

I will now be working on Explorer of the Seas, sailing out of Cape Liberty in New Jersey. My contract will start on October 1st (so I'm back to the original date). Explorer of the Seas sails several different itineraries. I'll be starting in Canada/New England and Bermuda, and then as the weather gets cooler the ship will move to Eastern Caribbean routes. Explorer of the seas is part of the slightly smaller (compared to Liberty) Voyager class of ships.

Unfortunately, my mom and my sister had booked a cruise on Liberty of the seas for Christmas week so that they could be with me for the holidays, and then they were going to spend a week in Aruba which had already been planned. Now the cruise has had to be canceled. There is no cruise on the Explorer that they would be able to visit me on because the cruises are mostly 10-14 days in length as opposed to a week. It was extremely lucky that it happened today though as today was the last day my mom could get the deposit back on that cruise. The flight on the other hand is costing a lot more money now that they are back to flying straight to Aruba instead of spending a week in Miami first. I guess we've learned our lesson now not to book any cruises to visit me until I'm actually ON the ship.

Although I will miss seeing them for a week, I am very happy with the new routes I'll be sailing as there is a lot more variety. Also, the cruises are longer so I can only hope that means a greater variety of on-board shows and guest entertainers.

I have spoken to the cruise hiring agent and they have informed me that Royal Caribbean is going to be paying for my new air ticket to New Jersey (since I had a non-refundable ticket to Miami). So that's great news.