Looking from the Outside In

Every night that my family was on our cruise, we would come back to our cabin with the beds tidy and ready for bed, sheets unfolded and a cute little towel figure waiting for us on the pillows. Every morning when we came back from breakfast our beds would be made, the trash emptied and new towels were on the racks. This took some serious hard work and organization. It made me think about how hard these ship workers really work all day every day.

In the newsletter we received each morning with that day's schedule of events and important information I read that there was a total of 1,200 workers on board of the Voyager of the Seas. This includes stateroom attendants, waiters and waitresses, bar tenders, hostesses, desk help, captains, nurses, chefs, mechanics, performers, event coordinators and many more. Not once did I see one of these workers have a frown on their face nor did I hear a complaint or any sign of stress or unhappiness. It was quite unreal.

One thing I did not expect before I got on board of the ship was the amount of foreign workers there would be. We had waiters and staff help us anywhere from Mexico, Peru, China, Romania, South Africa, Greece, Japan, Philippines, Honduras, Lithuania, France, Jamaica and many other places all over the world. They were all there to do one thing-work.

What amazed me is that they all seemed to enjoy their work. When talking to our dinner waiters, who were both from the Philippines, we discovered that these people work 6-8 months at a time per contract. Many are on their fifth or sixth contract of their career. They have families back home and they are earning money to send back to them. Ursela, our assistant waiter, had a little boy back home. I do not know how she leaves him for such long periods of time.

Many of the accents that these workers spoke with showed that English was not their first language. This is just another example of how determined and hard working this crew really was. It was so easy to be kind and use my best manners because I wanted to "give back" as much as I could. I can't imagine working in the same bar for eight months straight, on a boat, without my family. Even if it was just a smile I hope it encouraged them even more.

I think we can learn a lot from people like this. In my opinion it really showed the power of what people are willing to do in order to support their loved ones and make a living for themselves.