My Second Contract: The Reality of Ship Life from my POV.

Hello my beautiful dreamers! As always, I hope you are doing great, enjoying life, and following your dreams.

The other day, I was going through my Facebook Memories when a video from 2009 came up. Watching it brought a smile to my face, but it also brought back a lot of memories, memories about that contract, my second contract with the company. I remember going into that contract with hopes of seeing new places, forgetting someone, and meeting new people. Sad but true, I also hoped to maybe run into someone from my past, my first real love, about whom I was obviously mistaken. (You can read about it in an older post called Prince Charming?).

You should know that the contract did not go 100% as planned. I did meet new people and made friends, and I did get to see new places, but I was also working in a somewhat toxic environment filled with a lot of stress. Yes, maybe I was immature and didn't look at the bigger picture, and I was carrying a lot of nonsense in my mind.

The second contract is never the same as the first. For me, and I am quite sure for the majority of people, the first contract is the best. Why? Well, because you know nothing, Jon Snow, hahaha! You arrive wide-eyed, everything is new, and if you get a great team to work with, then you are all set.

I was expecting the same from my second contract, even though, like a lot of us crew members, I originally said I was only going to do one contract (the joke was on me, that wasn't true!). If I am not mistaken, the first Cruise Director on that ship was a man from Canada who, to be honest, made it seem like the contract was going to be amazing. He had (and still has) an incredible ability to entertain and be loved by guests, which makes everyone's life easier because his ratings were always high. Remember that during this time, I was part of the Cruise Director’s Staff, so my life was relatively easy. I believe we (the Cruise Director’s Staff and the Activities Manager) had a great first part of the contract with him, but then he signed off, and everything changed, unfortunately, not for the better.

The "new" Cruise Director arrived, and I say "new" because I had never worked with that person before, though the CD (Cruise Director) already had a reputation, and unfortunately not a good one. I must say I feel a bit embarrassed for judging the CD back then, because at the time I didn't know, or rather, I didn't understand, the stress the CD was going through.

Ship life is not for everyone. You are away from family and friends, working for six to eight months in a row without a day off. There is no way to escape, and even though you are ALWAYS surrounded by people, you can feel very lonely. What I am trying to say is that you have to be emotionally stable, or at least in tune with your emotions. I am not saying the job doesn't have positive sides; I am just saying that you need to be ready for it, because it is not just a way of making a living, it is a way of life.

At that point in my life, I was doing okay, but when we got the "new" Cruise Director, work and life became much harder. Back then on ships, we didn't have the ILO regulations, which monitor how many hours crew members are working and, most importantly, resting.

The previous Cruise Director had amazing ratings and knew how to get along with everyone (and still does), especially the Hotel Director. When this "new" Cruise Director arrived, the ratings dropped, and they dropped seriously low. A lot of pressure was put on the CD, which in turn put the senior staff under a lot of stress, especially the Activities Manager. I remember he didn't know what else to do to help with the program.

New rules were added. For example, all of the Cruise Director’s Staff had to attend the theme night parties, which started around 11:00 PM and ended around midnight, and then we all had to be at the gangway for crowd control at 6:00 AM, when there were almost no guests awake.

I am not going to lie: we were not getting proper rest. The long daytime hours and late nights left us exhausted and in a bad mood, which made it difficult to get along. With all of this on top of a broken heart from my previous contract, I was getting fed up and feeling somewhat depressed.

We tried asking the Activities Manager to talk to the Cruise Director, but the CD did not want to listen to anything. The boss just wanted the ratings to go up, while we were exhausted, and unfortunately, we were not on the CD's side.

To be honest, later in life I came to understand the frustration and probably the desperation the CD went through. Replacing the Canadian Cruise Director was definitely not easy. Add to that the Hotel Director and Head Office constantly asking for reports and explanations of what was going on, it must have pushed the stress levels over the top. I still do not approve of the methods the CD used, as the ratings did not go up and we were simply worn out.

At that point, as I mentioned, I was exhausted and feeling depressed. I was fed up, so I felt I had to quit, and I did. Somehow, I convinced myself that I needed to go home and get a "normal job."

When I decided to quit, I still remember the Activities Manager’s reaction. He was sad; I think in a way he felt he had failed as a manager, but to be honest, he was great and did everything he could with the authority he had.

Looking back, that Cruise Director was not, and is not, a bad person; the CD was just under immense stress. I met the CD again later in life when I became the Activities Manager working with the CD, the CD was different: calmer, more experienced, and confident in standing firm. I later found out that besides being stressed about work during that contract, the CD was also going through relationship problems. The CD must have felt so alone, very alone.

I am not going to lie: I still had good moments on that contract. I met amazing friends and saw beautiful places I had never seen before, but my mind was not in a good place, and having your mind in the right place in that type of job is everything. I had to leave and try to find my way back to myself. I know nothing terrible was happening, but when your mind plays tricks on you, it is tough to actually see the good.

Always take care of yourself, love yourself, and always find someone to talk to.

P.S. That Cruise Director is doing great now, and I am very happy for the CD I wish the very best, the CD made it all the way to the top and learned how to face the stress and fears of the job. :)