Who's The Daddy: Adventures of a very posh cruise ship worker
It’s an inescapable fact that time speeds up as you get older, but Daughter #2 is already halfway through her second tour of duty in the Caribbean working on the world’s biggest cruise ship.
The regular voice notes she sends us on WhatsApp are our portal to a life that’s literally half the world away. To say we live for them is an understatement. In fact, I could probably recite every one she’s ever sent from memory.
Daughter #2 doesn’t sugarcoat it, these people work hard for their money, making sure everyone’s holiday is magical. However, their time off is like the star prize on a prime time TV game show.
Just this week Daughter #2 and a couple of her shipmates spent a morning on a boat trip around the insanely beautiful island of Saint Martin. The pictures and video she pinged us stopped us in our tracks.
Then there was the trip to Daughter #2’s friend of a friend’s family’s restaurant in Cozumel, where she had the meal of her life, fajitas cooked on a sizzling plate under your nose.
There’s also the mornings off in Miami, where Daughter #2 went shopping for a filtered shower head for her cabin, like you do, because the standard ones ruin your hair (who knew?)
Plus great seats for the aqua show, where, among other things, Olympic divers plunge into a thimble of water from the edge of space.
It’s not all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, there is some serious graft to be done. All day, every day. Such as wearing a vest on turnaround day with “Ask Me” written on it in large letters. And what with our American cousins being a lot more gregarious than your average Brit, the wearers of the vests get asked a lot of questions.
As well as working on a ship that sails around heaven on earth all day, the job can also be incredibly rewarding and humbling. One of Daughter #2’s duties is to look after Make-A-Wish families on their cruise. This non-profit foundation helps fulfil the dreams of seriously ill children.
And Daughter #2 is great with the families and the kids. It’s a skill she has that can’t be taught and is one of the best things about working where she does - Miami and the Caribbean - that and escorting the ship’s new puppy on board and hosting the puppet show.
Also, a weird thing has happened to Daughter #2’s voice. As well as becoming gravelly from all the air conditioning, her accent has become waaaaay posher. Maybe it’s down to the fact Americans think all British people were educated at Hogwarts and talk like Harry Potter. But Daughter #1 posted in our group chat that it sounds like she’s gone to private school with Johnty and Bonty.
Daughter #2 is due back in the UK in August, which isn’t too far away. From four and a half thousand miles away, we get the feeling she’s enjoying life in her sun-soaked bubble and if she’s offered another contact she’d escape the UK for another tour of duty and enjoy her youth in a magnificent bubble.
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