Counting down the days ‘til dry-dock

Today is Christmas eve but I have to say it definitely doesn’t have the same feeling as at home.  I’m going to talk to my family on the phone tonight so that should help but in many ways it’s just not possible to replicate the home Christmas experience.  Many of the crew members on board have children at home and I can’t even imagine what it must feel like to be away from them at this time of year.   Christmas cruisers expect everyone to be at the top of their game and they expect a great deal of extra activities, a tall order when so many crew members are missing their families.

Explorer of the Seas will be presenting a Christmas variety show on Dec. 25 (tomorrow) featuring the Ice and Production casts and the Cruise staff.  In terms of crew activities, Christmas dinner will be served in both the crew and staff/officer messes.  Following that, there will be crew ice skating offered in Studio B and then a midnight party on the back deck.  It should definitely be a fun night.

In addition to the chaos of the Christmas and New Years’ cruise dry-dock also looms, starting January 3rd.  Many supplies have been brought onboard already and we’ve all been briefed on the procedures of dry-dock and what to expect.  I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to hear that we should be working about 8 hours a day (9-6), I had been thinking more like 10+ hours per day just because of the shear amount of work to be done in only 10 days.  Nearly every entertainment venue on the entire ship has SOME form of work planned, many receiving new lighting and/or sound equipment.  It’s going to be a lot of work for us.

I should also add that I’ve definitely been taking advantage of the free room service for 15 days that I won in the crew auction.  It has been great being able to relax in my cabin and have dinner brought to me for once.