Day 2 ms Zaandam May 23, 2011
My phone rang at 5.30am. Kainoa (the Travel Guide I am replacing) told me to meet him on the bridge at 6am to narrate a scenic cruise talk as we entered College Fjord by reading a script about the glaciers and fjords and history of the area to Guests in winter clothes on the deck. I was wearing shorts like I was in Boynton Beach in a scene out of Star Trek with the Captain and officers navigating the ship through this gorgeous area at sunrise.
Breakfast, presentations and learning about ports, ship regulations, Holland America and rest rooms.
2pm, a presentation on Earthquakes and glaciers in Alaska followed by desk duty with lines of Guests asking what type of whales we were seeing and shore excursions to every single place along the way. The guests are curious and have a million questions. I have 1 answer: “I’m new….”
5.30pm, dinner of many entrees and people all dressed up for formal night (I am still in my Boynton Beach shorts), a tour of my new cabin that I will be moving to on Thursday when Kainoa leaves, my boss is visiting the ship and my first solo presentation on wildlife in Alaska, a 50 slide, 1 hour lecture on stage all by myself. Then drinks in the lounge with the DJ and various crew members that are all telling me the way life REALLY is onboard vs. the way I think it will be. Then an invitation to a party in a crew cabin with more drinks. I decline to come write this and prepare for my talk on “Fins, Feathers and Beaks” on Thursday. So after I post this I will study for an hour or 2 and then go to sleep before another day with Alaskan tour guides who will board the ship for the day tomorrow.
Goodnight.
