This has been a rather hectic month so far. To start with, 3 weeks ago we had our annual DNV audit. DNV is the company that certifies Royal Caribbean ships as being safe to sail. Only a few minor things came up in the production areas as issues and we were luckily able to fix them right away, but there were other areas of the ship where more work was needed. Nonetheless everybody worked hard to get everything resolved all over the ship and actually we did very well overall. The week after was our SQM audit. SQM is our internal regulatory system which governs how we operate internally as a company so they look at many of the same things as the DNV guys, with an added focus on overall management of the ship and how well we comply to company policies. Once again there were a few issues here and there, but overall everybody did quite well. At the same time SQM auditors came onboard, the new ice cast also arrived to start rehearsing Ice Odyssey for two weeks.
Now this week, I have my mother and a family friend visiting, while at the same time we have cast install ongoing, and also a large group who are using the theatre and/or pool deck almost every night for an event. It's just been crazy and it's not going to get better right away either. Next week we have a certain important person coming onboard and while I will not say who it is for their own privacy, suffice to say that it is an individual that is very important when it comes to Royal Caribbean's ice shows in particular. I have to work extra hard to make sure that all of my lights are in absolutely perfect order for next week. On top of that, next week we also have our next Lounge Technician coming onboard who is a re-hire (thank goodness) will have a one-week handover before our current Lounge tech signs off at the end of the week. Next week we will also have a new cruise director starting. All of this had made it a bit of an unfortunate time for my mom to be onboard because I cannot be away from work as much as I maybe could at other times of my contract. However, I have still managed to get away enough to visit Ravenna with her yesterday as well as eat dinner in the Dining Room. The second half of the week should be a bit better, except for the many ice show rehearsals that will be going and and will definitely get in the way a bit.
Only 80 days left til my vacation (by my estimate). So far I do not have a definitive replacement/sign-off date but I can definitely feel the difference in the length of this contract compared to the last one which I had extended by 5-6 weeks.
Also, anyone looking to cruise Asia next year needs to book NOW. My mom just booked her two cruises for next year and apparently the cabins are already slim pickings even though the Voyager Asia cruises opened up for bookings only 3 weeks ago or so.
