08.07.09

08.07.09

Victoria, British Columbia

We slept in a little on our last full day on our cruise... by "a little" I mean, until 8am when Mom called to see what we were doing. We hopped out of bed and met up with them for a fun, fancy breakfast in the dining room. MMmmmm!

Afterwards, we all went to the Culinary Show which was pretty cool and included a very brief tour of the galley. 

We then went on a tour of the backstage area of the Princess Theatre. Provided by the Dance Captain. This was also a Q&A time, so we got some pressing questions answered... like, where do the girls change. And the answer would be "in the same dressing room with the boys". Nice. They are spending a lot of extra time rehearsing right now as they just got a new company on board and are doing new shows.

Next, we had lunch... Pizza because "Pizza" hadn't had enough of it the night before. And, it's really good:) We were quite happy to see our regular dinner waiters working in the pool area and we got EXCELLENT service from them! They were pretty pleased to see us, too... Well, the kids.

Ben and Carly went to KC for the last time afterwards, and Ryan and I and Mom went to see the "Life at Sea" presentation. Another Q&A, this time regarding what it's like to live and work on a cruise ship. Super interesting... 

Points of interest:

~ their friends and family can cruise at a significantly reduced rate if there are empty rooms available.

~ they do a 6 month contract then get time off and can then sign another contract

~ their cabin assignments are based on rank and the officers have suites.

~ they get fired for fraternizing with "guests"

~ they can (and most likely do!) work up to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week with NO days off.

~ the ship is based out of Bermuda... so they don't have to follow US labor laws (but THEY didn't bring that up, we knew that from before...)

~ they will only be required to do that jobs they were hired for, so waiters would never go around making beds when their shift was over, for example.

Afterwards, we did a little packing (no one wanted to pack). We then went to our last dinner in the dining room and got some pictures with our favorite waiters!

We went off the ship in Victoria at around 7:30pm, when we got to the Port. Mom and Dad were smart and had already decided they weren't going to get off the boat... it was REALLY cold and windy.   (this picture is for YOU Sue...)

Unfortunately, the ship was docked about 5 miles from town and we didn't have much time there anyways, so we took a couple of pictures and just got back on board.

We went to our room and I packed a little more and we watched Star Trek on the TV (did I mention this is a REALLY good movie?) and relaxed... Ryan and Ben went up to listen to the RAYS game on the XM radio... 

then Carly and I met up with Mom and Dad for the "Princess Idol" finale... There were 4 singers and they were not that great. But funny, so entertaining anyways.

Off to bed for our last night on our fabulous Rockin' Boat. We are so sad our week is almost over!