New boss is on board... and the bleach continues

You know how sometimes you just wonder if it is ever going to end? Where that elusive light at the end of the tunnel is? Well I gotta tell you the crew on Mercury are sure beginning to wonder. We did sail from San Diego on the 27th and the bleaching has continued. We have received various instructions from various people, spray and wipe, to spray and leave on, to spray and wipe again, and now we are back to just spraying. The unfortunate part of the 'just spray' theory is that the ship looks awful. Streaks running down what used to be clear glass, or reflective mirrors ~ it now looks like my car after it hasn't been washed in over a month and someone has written on the back 'Wash Me'.

We do have 2 folks onboard from Head Office to 'manage' the complaints from guests about the condition of the ship. I know these two have been running their tails off. They were previously in our office, so we would get a bit of a sneak peek at some of the complaints. To be quite honest, it is amazing to see what people are asking for ~ trying to get something for nothing. Each passenger was made aware of the situation at check-in and were given the option of not cruising, Celebrity would pay for their return flight home and credit the cruise allowing them to cruise on another date. Despite declining this offer, people are now coming out of the woodwork looking for any type of discount/credit possible. Amazing really.

The other big event of note is Stefanos' arrival. A permanent DSM, he is now here and I am once again the assistant. To be quite honest, I am ok with that. It means that I am not the one who is going to get the phone call in the middle of the night to fix the phones, or cause the server has crashed. The hard part is going to be getting used to do what someone tells me to do again. My routine will have me back to doing the night audit in the morning ~ so yes 6am will be coming early. This time however, I do need to wait for the process to complete which I hope means I will have more time to write and do all those things I have felt I just didn't have time for.

The other exciting note is that we are going to be meeting up with the Infinity next cruise. It has been over 2 months since my brief but expensive visit with Akis. We are lucky as both ships are going to be docking in Acapulco in about a week. I have already let Stefanos know that I will be taking the day off! It is also good that this is a late port ~ we don't sail until 11pm ~ so I do have a lot of time to see him. This will be good as I know the distance has been taking it's toll.

Hard to believe though ~ only 6 weeks and then I'm done this contract ~ don't have the tan, but maybe that will change if Stef doesn't work me too hard. =)