Oh my goodness…it’s the beginning of February 2011!! I haven’t written for quite some time…alright so I promise to update you as best as I can. So I left you at Fiji and Australia…which happened way back in November. Oh dear…3 months ago.
So from the end of November let me just recap as well as I can. After the beautiful beaches and people in Australia and climbing up a waterfall in Fiji we snuck on over to Honolulu, Hawaii and I honestly just went shopping while I was there. From what I saw Hawaii is just beautiful I enjoyed what I saw for the brief moment I was there. After Hawaii we disembarked all of the guests who were on their 69 day Asia/Australia voyage and gained a brand new group of passengers come upon a 12 day Mexican Riviera cruise. Starting in San Diego working our way to Mexico…Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, La Paz, Cabo San Lucas, etc…I enjoyed myself to the full extent in Puerto Vallarta! Wandered from the ship to the beach and came upon this beautiful resort with a good handful of people there…mostly crew from the ship. So I had a couple margaritas and definitely some sunshine there with the dancers and singers from the cast on the ship. 
After our Mexican Riviera cruise we headed back to California…disembarked all of the guests and cruised on up to San Francisco for dry dock which means we stayed there while the ship was getting work done to it…additions and renovations…we were there for about 8 days. I was lucky enough to head to Grandmother’s house!!! I grabbed my friend Aristotle, from the Philippines and we enjoyed such a wonderful time at grandma ‘n grandpa’s house. Eating plenty of homemade food…drinking plenty of delicious wine with every dinner sharing so many memorable laughs and just enjoying the company of family all around us.
Once we finished with our mini vacation in San Francisco I had to mentally prepare myself again and back into work-mode. And we traveled down to Los Angeles, California to embark a full load of guests which is about 1300+/- and we were headed for a Holiday Cruise 14 day through Christmas and New Years to Mexico again and through the Panama Canal and caught Guatemala in there as well. I spent Christmas eve on the beach in Cabo San Lucas…it was different. It definitely was a wonderful time with the people I was able to spend it with and the place I was at, hello!!….It is Cabo we’re talking about! 
Spending the Holidays on the cruise ship was difficult in the sense that I wasn’t with immediate family or any real family for that matter…we performed a nice holiday concert for the guests singing christmas carols up on stage and me balling my eyes out afterwards from all the guests being so appreciative and loving it touched my heart. New years was very low key….YES! So nice. Just got myself dressed up and went to the Queen’s Lounge (theatre) where everything was taking place….went up there about 7 minutes until the countdown…free champagne was everywhere. I think I had a sip of champagne and that was about enough for me. Stayed for the ball drop and balloons and confetti flying everywhere everyone kissing around me and laughing and screaming for the excitement of the new year….2011…really?! I was up bright ‘n early at 5:30am the next morning opening the gym all bright eyed and bushy tailed and quite proud of myself and ready to conquer the new year with full health, anxious and open minded for what this year is going to bring me. I can only imagine.
I met some quite pleasant guests on this quick two week trip…some very memorable ones and I learned a lot from the guests…whether it be from the guests who participated in the classes I held, or from guests that were lucky enough to get personal training from me! hehe ;-) Really though, I’ve met some outstanding people on all of these trips from all around the world…I never would have imagined I’d be meeting people in places I’ve never heard of in the world. Okay so here we go….It was the beginning of January when thee 2011 Grand World Voyage began…and I’ve caught you all the way up until then so far. I’ve really just recapped on the things that truly stick out in my mind which I think is the most important, anyway.
BAM….January 5, 2011….It all begins. Theeee Grand World Voyage…110 days long. Ready for this? Ft. Lauderdale, Florida we were granted with about 1300 guests…and we have 600 crew on this ship…thee beautiful and elegant, ms Amsterdam. We started with a taste of the Caribbean onto Grand Cayman Islands…I had to stay on the ship but it looked beautiful from the gym! Then onto Puerto Limon, Costa Rica…I went to the beach with a good group of friends…swimming and crashing into the waves trying to show the wave I’m stronger than it….ha ha. Laughing so hard having such a blast next thing you know my legs are stinging and burning so badly! I’m jumping up and down trying to brush whatever is all over my legs making this awful stinging sensation…I didn’t know what to do! I was jumping and yelling to my friend Aristotle that something was biting my legs or something!!! Whatever it was I wanted it away from me….NOW! I ran as fast as I could getting my feet sunk into the thick sand and the waves preventing me from getting ashore sooner…Aris was just looking at me like I was crazy like I had ants in my pants or something then realized I wasn’t joking around. I was laying on the beach rubbing my legs like I was about to start a fire trying to make the pain go away…of course the one thing I thought would be fun to experience hearing my other friend say “You have to get some urine to make the sting go away.” Of course at the time I could care less that there was someone else’s urine splashing down my legs but it did indeed take the burning away…then my legs in some parts were swelling up so I snagged some ice from the bar. That was the exciting thing that happened to met in Costa Rica….I did however get a nice cheap french pedicure right off the ship so that was another highlight. 
<----Very interesting…there was SWAT team there guarding the beach in Costa Rica at Playa Bonita (beautiful beach)…and yes there are little kids right next to him. Much different from what I’ve ever seen or experienced. I felt safe, I guess. :- )
After Costa Rica we headed to Manta, Ecuador…I however didn’t get off the ship I was working and enjoying the views from the inside. OoOoh and then we have Callao, Peru (LIMA) I went with a bunch of the Casino crew…one of the girls Eloisa, is from Peru so she was so generous and brought us to her mother’s house and her mother, grandmother and aunt all made us an authentic Peruvian meal that was absolutely mouthwatering and so filling! Peru was really such a special place and so beautiful….the people were so pleasant and warm and come night we ended up going to the Casino (of course…I’m with casino dealers ; ) ) I gambled one full dollar….I won $0.60…then lost it all. ha ha ha…that is my way of gambling! After the casino we headed to the night life and went to this bar/restaurant and enjoyed a beautiful peruvian meal, again! mmmm My goodness….authentic Peruvian Ceviche…it can’t get much better than that. Wow my mouth was watering before, during and after the meal. If you’ve never tried Ceviche…you definitely need to….Mmm Mmm Mmm!
Easter Island, Chile was next on the itinerary and by golly was it unbelievable…I was lucky enough to be an escort for a passenger tour. I don’t even know how to explain Easter Island…it is so sacred, beautiful and mysterious on the story and theories of all of the statues and how they were formed and moved and everything. 
See what I mean?! So surreal…It really was an experience to witness all of it. I noticed when we were in the area with the picture with the two statues just next to each other…if you look above that It just looks like all of the rock is statues if you look at it too long…everything looks like it has a face on it somehow!
After 5 straight grueling sea days we arrived in Papeete, French Polynesia (Tahiti)..I again stayed on the ship I had to work but it looked really beautiful and I heard the beaches and resorts were just stunning!
The next two days were some of the best days of my life!!! ….BORA BORA, French Polynesia…just give me a couple seconds to catch my breath from the exquisite beauty that was brought to my attention from this destination. Nice deeep breath in through your nose…..and exhale breathe out through your mouth. Did you smell that…that was the fresh exotic air that Bora Bora has to share in all of your senses. Are you just itching to know what I explored in Bora Bora?!…Maybe I’ll wait a couple more months to inform you.
Okay okay don’t twist my arm so hard! Getting ashore me and a handful of people were eager and ready to make the absolute best of everything Bora Bora has to offer…we chose to hop on a private tour to swim with sharks, fish and stingrays….as well as snorkel to the coral reef. Let me repeat that….I swam and played with stingrays…while sharks were in the vicinity minding their own business and these bright and pretty fish were swarming all around us. The stingrays really were like puppies…they were so playful and just would brush up against you and want you to pet them I suppose. They felt so soft, rubbery and a little slimy and rugged around the edges…and their tails were long skinny and very hard like a tree branch.
Granted it was my very first time snorkeling for real…I think I did a decent job swimming around. Yess I did get scrapped by some coral all around my legs and feet and I did take a nice BIG deeep breath while I’m underwater…realizing too late that I had gone under too deep gulping a large amount of salt water choking underwater. That was a fun lesson to learn. You know me…i ‘m always learning things the hardest way possible. Someday I’ll learn…..maybe. Anyway it was such a radical experience and I wouldn’t change it for anything that I’ve ever experienced! For only $40…we were on the tour for just about 6 hours…getting toured around the entire island and seeing all of the stunning resorts…there is nothing else to compare it to. Bora Bora is it’s own rare beauty and I will never forget anything that I was able to enjoy there.
Dear Bora Bora, I love everything about you. Everything you have to offer and share to me and my lucky friends. You truly granted me with the best possible experience I had ever imagined…your water is so clear, precious and sparkling. You are so romantic with your stars at night all over the sky…I can only imagine what it would be like to share with someone special and listen to the waves splashing so delicately up against the rocks…oh wait…maybe I wasn’t witnessing that alone. ; ) Sigh… And the way your sunshine kissed my skin so deeply felt so warm and pleasant until a couple days after when I was shedding my skin as a snake would….however I have zero regrets because I am lucky enough to say I was sunburnt in bora bora. I couldn’t have been happier with the ending memories from spending a full day and a half all around your beautiful and oh so handsome self. I ‘d love to meet you again soon. Until then…stay yourself and lovely and continue making thousands of people smile with your charm and bliss about yourself. You definitely are a one of a kind...ahhh beautiful Bora Bora. Big Smiles & Happiness, Jen.
Well….now how do you feel now that I’ve updated you on what is happening all in my life…mostly everything I’ve filled you in on. I kick myself for waiting this long to update again….so much had been happening and everything was really hectic and I honestly wasn’t focused on just one thing. I lost myself for a second there…but I’m back and like always…better than ever. Life is going really well at the moment…I know I have a lot going for me and after Bora Bora we actually just explored a bunch of islands around the Pacific Ocean…Cook Islands, Alofi, and Tonga but I had to stay on board for all of them and patrol the gym. : )
After Bora Bora and all of the beautiful small islands…we’ve arrived in New Zealand…starting first with Auckland, New Zealand! I was again, lucky enough to escort a passenger tour and we went on an America’s Cup sailing yacht tour…where I learned a bit about sailing and grinding to raise the sails…I also was able to steer the boat…I’m quite the natural! ha ha…must have been all of those fantastic years working at the Marina. Shout out!! Love you marna crew! Sailing can be very relaxing…and I would definitely be interested in doing more of it…except with not 30 people on it next time….I think it would be more peaceful and enjoyable. My opinion ; –)
Ahhh Beautiful Auckland, New Zealand. I like you. And today we’re in Tauranga, NZ….will be in NZ for the next week all in different ports. Should be a nice time…after New Zealand…we have Australia…again!! : ) I’m completely content with this itinerary. Keep it comin! Hope you enjoy all of these updates. If you ever have any questions on what I’m doing where I’m going or anything…feel free to just ask…write a comment within the blog and I will be sure to reply when I take the time.
You will hear from me soon and more often. Thank you for being patient and reading all of my updates and following my journey.
Just a couple pictures from a few nights out on the ship…theme night some of us spa girls dressed as engineers ha ha….and then just regular formal nights all dressed up getting ready for the entertainment shows. It’s a good life.
We had a nice time though..just quickly exploring the town..it was very cheers-like….nice to get some civilization around and order a sandwich from Subway…haha. The little things in life that you tend to miss while being on a ship…trust me, it happens. We had to head back to the ship fairly early that day…so enjoyed it while we had the chance. :) 
