Wednesday, July 7, 2010

A day in the life of an on-duty Hospitality Hostess...

7am - alarm goes off. Hit snooze.

7:12am - I have 18 minutes to be dressed and through the breakfast line if I want to eat. Grrrr... fine, I'll get up!

8am - Steward's department devotions (includes Crew Services/Housekeeping/Laundry, Dining Room, Galley, and Hospitality departments). Sarah shared her testimony.

8:30am - I get handed the pager. Great, first day back and I'm on duty.

9am - make up a cookie basket and place it outside the cabin door for our one crew birthday today. Usually there are several on one day!

9:15am - grab a bucket of cleaning supplies and head up to cabin 7217. Gotta love cleaning a family cabin by yourself.

10:45am - help Sarah and Caitlin finish making beds for crew arriving tomorrow. It's nice to work ahead.

11:30am - oh wow, I have crew arriving at noon today! Hurriedly notify dining room to save meals and make sure my uniform is ready.


11:45am - lunch is leftovers from last night's African meal... :P Get caught talking to a nurse about my interest in the Jaipur foot and Dr. Ardill's prosthetic clinic in Nigeria.(To read more, click here)


12:15pm - change into uniform and make sure dining room table is set up for arrivals. Who knows when they'll get here!


12:45pm - crew member arrives. Sit down to lunch with him and talk about his home in Tasmania (the island just South of Australia)


1:15pm - Dr. Frank's family arrives. (Dr. Frank came for just 3 weeks to do VVF repair surgeries, but decided to stay on longer and pick up extra patients from the surgeon who called in sick. His daughter and three little girls flew in from Uganda to join him here.) At least someone was excited about leftovers from Tuesday's African night!


1:45pm - change back into "normal clothes." T-shirts, capris, and Chacos are amazing!


2pm - start baking more cookies. We go through between 100-200 cookies a week!


3pm - pager goes off. Dr. Frank needs an extra set of sheets for the futon in his family's cabin.


4:30pm - I have a function to set up for tonight... Ah! Arrange tables and chairs, set up for coffee/tea/juice/water/snacks (or CTJWS as it's written on the office whiteboard), and get everything ready to go out at 6:45 pronto.


4:50pm - my cookies flopped. Grrrr... I'll deal with it tomorrow.


5pm - hamburgers, homemade french fries, and brownies for dinner! We have a supplier for good potatoes again; 2½ weeks without any kind of potato dish is WAY too long!


5:20pm - make a cup of tea and head down to the cabin for a few moments rest. Change back into uniform.

6pm - give a ship tour to two crew members. One arrived yesterday and one was my noon arrival.

7pm - change out of uniform into comfy sweatpants and A&M t-shirt. Caitlin was amazing to set out the cookies and brew coffee for me so everything was ready for the function already! :)

8pm - clean up after the function. Wash dishes, put serving table away, rearrange furniture, and put extra cookies back in the freezer.

8:45pm - lock up the office. I'm done for the night, but the pager is still mine til 8am tomorrow.

*life is good... a busy life is better!*

2 comments:

  1. WOW! WHAT A DAY. GO GET'EM TIGER!!!! :-)

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  2. Sure beats A&P, A&P, A&P, laundry, and A&P! Mom

    ReplyDelete