It’s So Empty…
The other day I was sitting with a couple people (socially distanced, of course), when Stuart’s boss looks around and goes, “Where is everyone?” He wasn’t meaning that other people were meant to join us, but rather than at some point our ship got really empty.
We knew there were less and less people onboard. Obviously. We hear the horn when the tender leaves with them, we stand on Deck 3 and wave them goodbye. But, aside from when the big groups left (Filipino’s and Indonesian’s), people have mostly been leaving one, two, maybe five at a time. So, each day how many people were on board was going down incrementally but not drastically. This gave the effect that all of a sudden we all looked around and realized that the Chief was right, “where is everybody?”
This particular ship is designed to carry between 1,300 and 1,500 passengers and about 600 crew. Think about it this way, this ship normally will have about 2,000 people on board, right now we only have 121 people onboard, or 6% of the capacity of the ship.
Each afternoon I go up for a swim, and aside from one or two people passing by there is no one there. No one in the pool. No one sitting by the pool. No one having a sociable drink together. It is empty.
In the morning sometimes I go sit at the back of the ship. Once again, no one there. Empty.
The only time you really see everyone is at the daily temperature check and at meal times.
It feels a bit like when you visit a school in the summer time. Like there should be a lot of hustle and bustle, like it’s waiting for the bell to ring and things to start up again. Our little ship doesn’t know when passengers will come back on board, when all the lights can get turned back on again, there’s music playing, people figuring out what to do in port. That day feels really far away sometimes. I guess only time will tell. 🙂
I will say, that for this particular situation being as empty as we are is a good thing – and not just because I get the pool to myself. It’s a good thing because it means that most of the crew that aren’t waiting for a reliever to come onboard have gone home and are with their families again.
So, for today, here’s a little glimpse into what an empty cruise ship looks like.
- Part I: Land Ho!
- Motivation: 3 Months In
- Where Are We Going?: May 2020 Edition
- The Post That Isn’t Much of a Post
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Great post 😁
Ahhh!! It’s so weird!! The dark atrium is actually kinda creepy.