Reykjavik

When I was seven or eight, my grandparents (the Roos side) took a cruise similar to this one (I don’t remember the exact itinerary) and brought my brother, sister, and I each a Hard Rock Cafe Reykjavik shirt. Now, I wasn’t exactly sure where Reykjavik was located or even how to pronounce it, but I was sure I was going to visit there someday. I assumed that “someday” would come sometime around the age my grandparents were when I had the time and the means to travel all the time. Little did I know that I would make it there while still in my twenties . . . Thank you Uncle HAL!

We were scheduled to arrive in Reykjavik on July 23 and stay until 12:00nn on July 24, but due to a few weather-related itinerary changes we arrived on July 21 and stayed until 12:00nn on the 23^rd. Although I was bummed to miss Labrador and Greenland, it’s hard to complain about an extra day in Iceland.

Shortly after we arrived, my parents and I headed into town. The port is a mile or two from downtown and the line for the shuttle was longer than any of us had patience for so we found Dick and Louise, a couple my parents had befriended at trivia, and caught a taxi (which turned out to be cheaper and more convenient anyway). We all had a good laugh because when we stepped out of line a man scream, “Hey, there is a line! Ever heard of courtesy or manners?” Someone told him that we were headed for the taxi stand, not cutting the line; then we went, prepaid the taxi driver, and piled in. As the taxi driver was closing the door the same man and his party came and tried to join our taxi without paying. I wonder if he has ever heard of courtesy or manners.

We wandered around a little before heading up to the main church of the city. Iceland was not a place I expected to see large churches, but they were there. Unlike the ancient, ornate Catholic churches found throughout much of Europe, the churches we visited on this itinerary were a little more modern and mostly Lutheran. We took an elevator to the top of the clock tower to see the city. I didn’t realize that the windows were actually the face of the clock until I noticed the minute hand blocking my view . The colorful houses and rooftops made for a beautiful view.

Knowing we still had a day and a half in the city, after visiting the church we took it easy and wandered into a few shops. The needlework they do in Iceland is amazing and I found a blue knitted hat that I love. My mom bought a matching hat in red so now we can be twins (I never got a picture of us in our matching hats). After a stopping in a few more shops we headed back to the ship so I could go back to work.

The next morning, we headed into town as soon as I finished my morning shift and did our own walking tour. We wandered through a small park that had a pond and several monuments honoring local writers and artists. We spotted some gorgeous, water-front houses from the distance, obviously Reykjavik’s higher end, but when we got closer we realized they were made of corrugated steel. A bit different from the fancy houses in the US, but the steel probably withstands the weather better than other materials. After our walk we found a pastry shop. Many of you know that I believe one of the best ways to experience a place is through the food, especially the pastries. I would like it to be known that I come by this belief naturally as both my parents feel the same way. Not knowing what anything was, we asked the lady at the counter and selected three treats to sample: a doughy ball made with ginger and dipped in chocolate, something that was basically a cheese Danish but decorated like Neapolitan ice cream, and Iceland’s version of deep fried dough dipped in dark chocolate. The Danish was good, but nothing special, the other two were amazing! After our treats we headed back to the ship where I went to work and my parents met their tour to go swimming in the natural hot springs.

Our final day in Reykjavik was a short one with an 11:30am all aboard time. My parents wandered down to the terminal building to check emails and purchase a few gifts from the craft stalls, but by the time I finished my morning shift there wasn’t much point in getting off. I just went up to the sports deck and snapped a few more pictures of the city from a distance. I felt like I had been able to see a fair amount of the city and I had no regrets. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Reykjavik, or any part of Iceland for that matter, take it! Even if you have to wait twenty years to get there it is definitely worth the wait.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

I was thrilled to realize that I would be able to celebrate my dad’s birthday, July 23, with him this year. I love any reason to celebrate, birthdays in particular, so I am always sad to be away from family on birthdays (it happens more often than not, but it still make me sad). I was even more thrilled because we were scheduled to arrive in Reykjavik, the port he seemed most excited about. The fact that we arrived in Reykjavik two days early didn’t really matter, he was still able to spend part of his birthday there.

I wanted to make the birthday special, but my dad is among the most difficult people in the world to buy gifts for. He doesn’t mean to be difficult, he would be happy with anything, but he has everything he needs and usually can’t think of anything he wants. I joked with my mom that I was going to say, “I brought you Iceland, happy birthday!” but I decided better of it. After thinking for about a week, I asked my dad if he would like to go to Pinnacle Grill, HAL’s “premier” (read: surcharge) restaurant, for lunch. My parents had dinner at the Pinnacle once on a previous cruise and they have had to listen to me describe my meals in delectable detail each time I have gone, so I thought they might enjoy it. My dad agreed that he would rather have that than an object.

Lunch, like every meal at the Pinnacle, was divine. If you ever have the opportunity to eat lunch at Pinnacle Grill I highly recommend the chicken, sun-dried tomato, and arugula pasta. At the end of the meal, the manager surprised my dad with a beautiful chocolate silk cake. We had already had desert, so my parents took it to their room to eat later.

I was not able to have dinner with my parents because of my work schedule, but I had arranged with my friend Joseph, the 2^nd Executive Chef, for a cake. I told my mom to tell the server that Joseph had something for them and Joseph personally delivered the cake.

Happy Birthday, Daddy! I hope you enjoyed it!

Charm Bracelet

While I was home this summer I was able to act as Maid of Honor for my dear friend Megan. It was a beautiful wedding and I was so grateful that I had been able to arrange my schedule to be there. As a bride’s maid gift, Megan gave me a beautiful charm bracelet with a cruise ship charm attached and told me to fill it with memories of all the places I visit with my job. Because I am five, I was thrilled to discover that that the ship opens and says “Take me away...” inside.

I have a charm bracelet that I started as a teenager and it is full of memories such as family vacations and high school graduation, but I am excited to have a bracelet to commemorate this phase of my life. It’s like scriptures: I have one copy of the Book of Mormon and the Bible from when I was a kid, a set from high school and college, a set from my mission, and a set for now and each is marked differently to represent what was important to me and what I needed to learn at that stage in my life. If I only had one set, all the markings would become jumbled and some of the meaning would be lost. I guess the comparison might be a stretch, but just as each set of scriptures represents spiritual phases of my life, each charm bracelet represents the adventures and milestones of my life.

I never found charms in any of the Scandinavian countries I visited on Voyage of the Viking and I still have several weeks of the seven-day Canada/New England run we were doing earlier this summer so I have been “shopping around” to find a charms I really love to represent these ports. I am not worried; my friend Jo is on a mission to make sure that I find charms I love (I think she and Megan would get along very well). So far I have only added two charms, one from England and one from Ireland, but I know that by the time I leave ships I will have a bracelet full of memories.

Hobbies

Working on ships, it is nice to have a hobby to keep busy. When I first started ships, I was shocked bby how many people knit or crochet in their down time, but it makes sense because knitting is portable and doesn't take up a whole lot of space. I thought about learning to knit, but never really pursued it.

My friend Jo knits and crochets like crazy. Give that girl some wool and she will have a complete project within a few days. I realized how much she loves it when we were in Iceland and I asked her what her plans were. She replied, "I've heard of a few great wool stores and I have some birthday money so I am going to go buy tons of yarn for some projects I want to do." That is actually what she did.

I mentioned to Jo, in passing, that I thought I would enjoy needle work, so on our next port day she took me to a wool store (well, it was actually a grocery store that had an entire wool section), helped me choose some yarn to learn with, and sat down with me that night to help me start a scarf.

I wish I had "before" pictures of the wool or at least a picture of my first efforts, but I guess you will have to wait to see the finished project. I refuse to let my scarf look like a first try , (I don't want sympathetic comments like, "It was a good effort), so I ripped it out a few times but I now have a few feet completed. My next project is going to be a hat.

I have learned that I really love knitting because I can do it while watching tv, reading, even while sitting in the OB and talking to friends. As a fidgetter, I like having something to do. Jo and I have taken to having girls' nights on the last night of the cruise (the only night I am off work by 7:00pm instead of 10:00pm) where we knit, eat junk food, and watch either Big Bang Theory, SNL, or the Olympics (my friend Krista's mom recorded the Olympics and sent them on DVD). Sometimes others join us, but we are usually the only two who knit.

I apologize in advance because I am really excited about this skill so all my readers my have to put up with pictures of my projects while I learn. Something to look forward to!

Corner Brook, Newfoundland

Our first stop on VOV was Corner Brook, Newfoundland. The city of Corner Brook is a small town and they were thrilled to have us. Volunteers from the tourism office were stationed on the ship, on the pier, and along the main road to answer questions, give directions, and hand out locally-made saltwater taffy.

The town, while clean and well-kept, is sustained by a paper mill, so it has a very distinct odor and certain areas look very industrial. The weather was pleasant, partly cloudy and just cool enough to need a light jacket so my parents and I decided to explore some of the natural beauty. One of the volunteers directed us to a pathway along a creek up to a pond. It had rained all day the day before we arrived so the trail had that wonderful fresh, piney smell that wooded areas get after storms. I love that scent and as I type this I just want to stand in a damp forest and take a deep breath – the yard of my parents’ cabin always smells like that after rain.

Although we were not the only people from the ship who had made our way to the pond, it was quaint and scenic. If I were an artist, which I am most definitely not, I would spend some time there with my easel and brushes. Geese glided gracefully across the surface, and local family fed the ducks that waddled along the shoreline, and a historic inn was nestled in the trees just across the water. I could have stayed there much longer than we did, it is so easy to feel close to God in a place like that.

After we left the pond, we walked back to the main square where my mom had stopped earlier to speak with a representative from a zip-line company. Somewhere along the line my mother had gotten the idea in her head that she wanted to zip-line on this cruise and my dad was nothing but encouraging. She was a little bit worried about whether she would actually be able to do it because she doesn’t like heights but she loves roller coasters so I didn’t think it would be a problem. My dad and I would have loved to have gone with her but I had to work (that pesky job!) and my dad was still recovering from a total knee replacement, so we dropped her off for the tour and we headed back to the ship for lunch.

My dad was sitting in the library and I was at my desk a few hours later when my mom walked in with a HUGE smile on her face. She was almost giddy as she said, “That was one of the coolest things I have ever done!” I had to laugh because she said the same thing about parasailing when she cruised to Hawaii a few years ago, but having done both I would have to agree that zip-lining is much more exhilarating. I was really proud of her for trying it.

Although Corner Brook was one of the places on the itinerary that topped my bucket list, it was a beautiful town and a nice day. It was a great place to start a fabulous trip.

Voyage of the Vikings

Generally, HAL sticks to the same itineraries each year. They may make minor adjustments such as adding a never-before-visited port, but the bones usually stay the same. As such, crew members hear about cruises from other crew members who have done those itineraries. Last year, shortly after I started with HAL, I heard of the Voyage of the Viking, a thirty-five day itinerary that leaves out of Boston and explores Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland, and Scandinavia each July. I decided that sometime during my time with the company I was going to work that cruise, I didn’t care how much begging it took. Imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when my contract coordinator asked me to take a contract on the Maasdam, the ship which does the Voyage. I didn’t even have to beg and plead (but trust me, I would have).

This year’s itinerary had a few variations from last year and the ship made a handful of maiden calls (first time ever visiting a port). We made a few more itinerary changes throughout the cruise due to inclement weather, but we stopped in places I had hardly dreamed of visiting and saw scenery that took my breath away.

My parents, who have never met a cruise itinerary they didn’t like, were jealous from the moment I described the cruise. A few weeks before the start of the cruise the stars collided with a combination of my parents’ work schedules and last minute reduced rates and my parents were able to book passage for the first half of the trip from Boston to Amsterdam (about 250 people sailed just the first half, and they were replaced by another 250 guests for the journey back to Boston). This was the first time my parents have sailed with me when I was working and it made the trip even more special.

Even though I have heard from friends how amazing this cruise is, it was much better than I ever expected. Whether or not I am ever again assigned to the Voyage of the Viking, it truly was a once-in-a-lifetime privilege.

Michael W. Smith and Friends

Every so often, companies charter a cruise ship for a week. These companies buy out the entire ship and often provide most of their own activities and entertainment, then they market and sell the cruise. In July the Maasdam was chartered by Inspiration Charters, a company which organizes Christian cruises, for the "Michael W. Smith and Friends." The week was basically a music festival at sea headlined by Michael W. Smith, a well known Christian singer/songwriter.

Throughout the week, I had the opportunity to attend some of the events: speakers, comedians, concerts, etc. I was able to see Michael W. Smith, Sean Hannity of talk radio (I didn’t stick around for long so I don’t know if he got into politics, I just heard him talking about his faith), Scott McIntyre of American Idol fame, and a Cajun band called L’Angelus, among others. All of the performers, along with their “people” (managers, etc) were really friendly and kind. A group of us were talking to Michael W. Smith’s, Chad (I think, but the name isn’t really relevant) manager when my friend Rebecca mentioned that her contract was ending and she was heading home to Salt Lake City for a month. Chaz mentioned that MWS had a show scheduled in Salt Lake while she was home. Rebecca said, “Oh, my sister loves his music. As soon as I get home I’ll have to see if we can get tickets.” Without hesitation, Chad wrote his email address on a slip of a paper and told her not to be silly, that he would be more than happy to have some tickets waiting for her if she would just send him an email to remind him. I was impressed; he didn’t have to do that.

As a special thank-you to all the crew, MSW held a CD signing/ Meet & Greet for crew only. Of course my camera died the meant my friend went to snap a picture of me, so she took the picture on her camera and I still need to get it from her so I will post it later.

On the last night, I was hanging out with several crew members on an inconspicuous back deck when some of the performers happened upon us and ended up hanging out with us for the remainder of the evening. Scott McIntyre and his wife were very sweet people and Johnny, from L’Angelus, kept us laughing (again, pictures to when I get my memory card back from my roommate).

Not everyone enjoys working charters and, although it was a great cruise, I can understand how some charters might be a bit difficult. I can’t speak for every charter company, but I would be more than happy to work another Inspiration cruise.