March 30, 2012
The Sign Off Meeting at the end of each voyage is my responsibility. This is a meeting where we gather all crew members preparing to leave us at the end of the current cruise to prepare them for the tasks that must be completed before they leave the ship, the details of their disembarkation day, and to remind them of things they should do on their vacation should they be returning to a Celebrity ship in a couple of months. Most, in fact, do return to Celebrity and the greatest number of those return to our ship.
I always welcome them to the ‘Best Meeting of Their Contract’ and their energy is high, knowing that they are going home in just a few days.The meeting covers a lot of detailed process but I tend to liven it up with a steady patter of jokes throughout to get keep their attention since the attention span in the room is as distracted as high school seniors preparing for graduation. For those who have signed off before the process is familiar and the meeting is probably overkill. But for those who are signing off for the first time they hang on every word, intent on not making a misstep that could stand in the way of them successfully traveling home. Beyond delivering the content, though, there is a ongoing emotional reaction that I experience. The longer I’ve been on the ship the more faces are familiar to me, more faces have names, and those names often have shared memories. This begins the two day process during which you truly begin to grieve the loss of new friends at least for the time being, if not forever.
That is one of the hard realities of life on a ship. You consistently are saying goodbye not sure if you will ever see the other person, again. We always bid goodbye expressing that we look forward to ‘seeing you soon,’ but there is no guarantee. With no real expectation it becomes a wonderful surprise if we see them at a sign on meeting two months later. But so many more seem to go than ever return.
As I proceed steadily through the second half of my contract I draw closer to my own Sign Off Meeting. Many thoughts race through my mind during my descriptions of the process. Will I conduct my own sign off? How will it feel to walk down the gangway and then turn and look at the ship that has been a part of me for virtually every hour for the previous four to five months? How will I spend my time at home? Will I ever walk up that gangway, again? None of these questions have definitive answers but as each day passes they become more pressing both intellectually and emotionally. This was heightened when Laura left. She had always stayed in the back of the room when I conducted the meeting, but on the day of her Sign Off Meeting, she expressed her thank you as a senior officer to the departing crew and then quietly slipped out the back. Her absence from the meeting was a glaring reminder of what was actually taking place.
Two days after the Sign Off Meeting we reach port and the Disembarkation takes place over the course of the morning. That morning we rarely have to mourn the loss of friends. In the midst of signing them off we are already beginning to sign the new crew on. By the time the day ends they are on their flights and we are heading back out to sea. Goodbyes and new Hellos are simply the consistent rhythm of life on the ship.
And the adventure continues . . .
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