Part 2: Port Day!
Port Days are generally slower than Sea Days but my schedule isn’t as set in stone.
Every day, I work 8am-10am to open the library and get the morning people before they head off on their days in port. (The only exception to this is Home Port Days which are another kettle of fish entirely). We usually dock at either 8 or 9am so it’s pretty slow up here port day mornings.
Then, this trip, I usually work either: 4-6pm and 8-10pm or 6-10pm depending on what time we leave the port. A 5pm departure (quite common) is the 4-6, 8-10 while a later departure is the 6-10. Off the top of my head, I’m fairly certain that this is generally my schedule through until I get off although there might be the occasional funky day – I think when we come back to Panama and Gatun Lake, I work some random afternoon hours. The 4-6 hours can be busy since that’s Happy Hour up here and such, but generally, none of those hours are crazy.
That still gives me at least ~6 hours to get off the ship and either do an excursion or just explore the area. This trip has been light on the crew being able to join the excursions due to, I believe, full bookings by the passengers. It’ll be lighter again, just like Alaska, once we get to the 10-11 day cruises and with more options too, I believe, so probably more excursions then.
Pretty much my jobs are similar on Port Days when I’m at the desk: try and keep things tidy, check-in and out books, answer questions, assist where possible with Gabriela’s internet stuff, etc.
Some of my non-traditional jobs (or traditional jobs done in a non-traditional way for various reasons):
1. Setting out and taking down puzzles (this included, once, moving the entire outside outline of a puzzle from the tinny, tiny crossword table to our large puzzling table considering a 1000 piece puzzle would never fit on the maybe 2 foot x 2 foot table with pieces. Odd Job #52)
2. Lending out dry erase markers for the glass covered, giant New York Times crosswords we have.
3. Correcting Quizzes (and often being told my answer keys are wrong, both politely and not)
4. Convincing people that the quizzes are a) not rigged and b) not something I come up with
5. Explaining why the library is not officially on the map as “Library”
6. Volume and language control on the music in the area
7. Bridge, as mentioned before
8. Explaining the internet and often getting the Look for the prices
9. Hand in hand with that is helping people log on
10. Also, helping people print boarding passes or check their e-mail.
11. Lending board games/giving out decks of cards
12. Compiling Team Trivia score totals
13. Stamping Bingo sheets with a ‘Bingo’ stamp
14. Being the only Sudoku answer key available (not a bad job by any means!)
15. Folding newspapers
16. Explaining that I only get a limited number of newspapers every day and if they’re gone, they’re gone, please try and the Front Office.
17. Device charger (iPods, cameras, e-readers: I’ll do them all assuming they have their computer charger with them)
18. Chair Wrangler
19. Mind reader (although I think that goes with any customer service job)
20. Decorator
21. Translator/Linguist
22. Magician
23. And Cameraman! (for our scenic cruising days!)
No comments:
Post a Comment