Merry Chirstmas!!!!!

We trust that it feels like Christmas for everyone at home. It doesn't for Matt and I. Sun and sand....it's never warm at Christmas time! We went for a walk on Christmas Eve in Honolulu and got quite warm! We had a ship wide Christmas party here on the ship Saturday night up in Spinnakers lounge but Matt and I went to bed instead. We are in the “pit“ at our restaurant which tends to get the large parties. We‘d had an 8 top, 10 top, 12 top, 6 top, 14 top….I don‘t remember what else. It was a good night but our last party didn‘t leave until 11:00 (we close at 9:30) so needless to say we were pooped! :-p
We attended our restaurants party last night with great food and a secret Santa exchange. It was very fun. Today we had a feast in the Grand Pacific which included Alaska King Crab Legs. Matt and I worked the buffet for lunch so we got to go down and eat during our lunch break. For Thanksgiving we had lunch off which was nice but at least we got to sleep in on Christmas and swap gifts before work. There are a lot of families on board this week. 2993 passengers, 662 of whom are kids. One little girl in the buffet had an armful of things she was dragging around with her during lunch. Must have been those Christmas gifts she couldn’t bare to part with yet. J We had two things waiting for us in the mail room! Our first mail and something to unwrap on Christmas Day.
So we are into Week 9! Almost half way there. The weeks go buy just as fast for us as they do for the guests I think. We’ve had a good last two weeks. We are learning our restaurant. It is smaller seating then Alizar, probably only 150 compared to 300. Paniolo is Hawaiian for cowboy by the way. We serve Fajitas, burritos, Nacho’s etc. Unlike main dinning however, once we take the order at the table, we have to put in orders to the cooks, it is a lot of ticket writing and the cooks yell at you if you don’t abbreviate right or put the time down or table number…….you have to fire your orders and a bunch of other things that are not needed in main dinning. It is fun though and Matt and I are enjoying it.
We had time off this last Saturday in Kauai, took a tour thru Kauai Back road Adventures. Wouldn’t recommend it to the guests. It’s just time in a 4 wheel van going along the old dirt sugar cane roads. Saw a couple of neat things but who comes to Hawaii to spend time in a van??? Well, I think most of our guests spend 70% of their time shopping so that might be right up their alley. We were going to go Kayaking up the river but they had an “optional” all crew photo at 10:00. Optional meaning that you didn’t have to go but they weren’t letting anyone off the ship until the photo was over! That put us a t too late of a start to make it there and back before work. Oh well, we have over two months left to try again.
Matt has switched rooms and is now my neighbor! We both have new roommates, haven’t meet them yet, only seen their stuff.
Well, that is all for now! Enjoy the cold for us as it is not Christmas without it!