Landed & On The Move....

I am now resting at home with my family in Ohio after a turbulent last few weeks on board the Westerdam. This last summer with Holland America Line has been the biggest disappointment yet with how a company manages their product. On the plus side I'm very thankful that they have offered me the opportunity to meet great people and see the world. I literally traveled the world. I must say that I should've gone with my instincts in March to not extend on the current contract into the summer months. However everything happens for a reason and I have learned so much from staying on board no matter how frustrating. The pinnacle of my frustration came from learning that the company spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace plastic decorations and umbrellas in the Lido pool area for a new pool party atmosphere. Up until the actual event I thought the night would have party music, events, and a BBQ buffet. It did have music. What happened to the other two expectations I have no idea. There was a buffet, but it was cupcakes and ice cream. Over $100,000 was spent in the entertainment arena for cupcakes and ice cream. We have costumes falling apart after being worn by several casts since 2004, sets deteriorating, a revolving stage that has been requested to be fixed since April, and out of 80-100 some odd lights on stage we have about 40 operating because of burnt out bulbs or defective lights. Yet the company sees fit to spend ridiculous amounts of money on plastic cartoon plants and umbrellas for a cupcake social that received poor attendance. They also spend this same amount of money on cartoon like instruments (that the band doesn't actually play) and plastic food for a silly show in the dining room that runs through all courses of the meal. Most of the feedback I've heard from this show has been a negative response. It goes to show just how much the company cares about the entertainment that actually gets seen on the big stage for a production show. I hear about sound boards crashing (as it has happened to us), set pieces falling and breaking, moving parts becoming inoperable, and equipment going faulty in the show lounges on other HAL ships. All these things affect the show in some way and it takes them half a year to fix them. Yet it's urgent to get some stupid event up and running that costs more to build than to fix the problems with the production shows or even in some cases problems happening mechanically around the ship. I realize that every company has mismanagement problems in some way. I just feel that this one has just jumped off the page with it in the last few years. Especially with the new Signature Class ships coming out. They are also refitting some of the smaller ships with Signature Class upgrades. This will cost millions of dollars. Meanwhile they are cutting back on the variety of entertainment by reducing the amount of guest acts on board and making the casts do more shows (which will inevitably be similar to shows already out there) and the lead singers performing a night of their own. Casts are going to be reduced from 10 to 7 or 6 in some cases. It will practically be like going to see the same show 7 times (for a 7 day cruise). I don't think I will be returning to this company nor can I recommend it to anyone. It just doesn't seem as appealing as it was when I first stepped on board. Doing library duty and teaching line dance class was better than doing some of the humiliating things the cast has to do now.

On a more positive note the adventures during the last part of the cruise were fabulous. In Acapulco a group of us headed off to a water park. I was excited because I had heard of this one slide where you end up in this big bowl type thing and plop out at the bottom into a pool. Essentially you get flushed. The day started off sketchy. It was a bit humid, overcast, and rainy. This was fine because it was warm and we were going to get wet anyway. We arrived at the park and it began to downpour. That lasted for about 20 minutes and we were in the water and on the slides. Oh well. At least we weren't getting sunburn. We took the plunge and did get flushed. It was great!! You slide down this one tube so fast and then whoosh, and you end up in this big bowl swirling around the edges. When you lose momentum you plop out the bottom and seeing people come out on their landing was the most hilarious art of the ride. We were all over the park just having a blast and all of a sudden the clouds parted and the sun made its debut about noonish. Fabulous!! The day just got better. About 20 minutes later the thrill rides began to open up including a swing bungee. Three of us got together, got harnessed up, and then we were lifted some 150 feet into the air. I didn't know what to expect and I wanted to bungee again that day anyway. My friend yanked the cord on the countdown and we were off. It was awesome!!! Free fall came first and then we caught the tension in the cord and began to swing. It was like flying out over the beach. It felt so good and had my endorphins going. We ended the day hanging out for a wonderful lunch at the Hard Rock Café. A few days later we landed in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. This is the place where the past few times I've ziplined. This visit was no exception. The day started out hot and sunny and then the clouds rolled in just before we caught our bus. This part of Costa Rica is a rainforest so I wasn't surprised, but I was hopeful it would clear up. We got to the site (a new one for me) and it just down poured. Again, it did this for about 20 or so minutes. So we did our first line in the rain. It was okay. It was a warm rain. On the next few lines, the sun dominated again. Awesome!! I love when that happens. The tour was just as good as the ones I've been to before. This was a double-lined zip wire. Safety first of course. Still there's something to be said about the single line zip at the other place. The lines at the place we went to that day seemed much longer though. It was great. Some of them we didn't have to worry about braking. We could just enjoy the ride. Even better. After a full day of careening through the trees we headed back pretty tired. For me the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. I had seen all the other places and traded some of my days off for other days in previous cruises I wanted more. I was basically just getting ready to go and enjoying the people I was around while doing it. I still have the travel bug so now I do want my Broadway dream once I get to NYC, but I wanted to book a land tour next. Preferably in Europe. I do have to get back there someday.

Now it’s a few weeks here in Ohio and then off to NYC. My friends are wonderful and already looking out for me as far as living conditions. I may have something good for NYC living soon. I hope the jobs come just as easily.