’twas the night before Christmas, when all through Sixthman… not a keyboard was typing… no phones were ringing. No internet was connected and wireless cards were tucked away… It was almost as if we’d taken the time to enjoy the holiday…
The holidays have always managed to sneak up on us at Sixthman and fall smack in the middle of the most “all hands on deck” time of the cruise cycle. Final sign offs on event merchandise, last minute schedule adjustments, emails to guests with booking numbers and boarding information, bands sending us their new drummers info (three days prior to sailing – make sure you catch their set), it’s all coming together at once and in a BIG way. A sense of real ownership and pride in the events starts to ensue as all of the details are fine tuned. And then as the last passenger boards on the first day of the cruise, it’s of the same feeling as putting the star on the top of the tree after you’ve stategically strung all of the lights and hung every ornament precisely on the branches. You can step back for a minute, look at what you’ve created and admire all of it’s beauty. Sure there may have been a few missing branches in the back that needed some extra strands of tinsel (missing bands), maybe the tree leans a bit to the left (need to book the rest of those port side cabins) and you had to stick an extra lego under there, but it’s standing and with some minor tweaks and adjustments, it’s balanced (stacked line up and sold out!), chock full of individual ornamentation, each with it’s own memorable story. Once that last passenger boards, the star is on the tree and it’s time to plug in the lights and see what we’ve created.
For the majority of the calendar year our events are our jobs for most at Sixthman. A really amazing one with great coworkers and customers and the guarantee of there never being a boring work day. But still – 8hrs at the office and then you go home and get on with the rest of your day. Come December the job begins to form into a lifestyle, one that we get ready to share with 2500 others at a time on 5 cruises over 3 months. But before we do that we have to literally pry the Blackberry’s and Macs out of each-others hands and force ourselves to step out of the cruise lifestyle and remember that as much as we love our excel sheets and email edits there is a holiday season that our families still expect us to be around for. We’ve been made to promise at Sixthman that no matter how deeply we love plugging in that tree onboard and getting the ship moving, we be sure to take the time to put the star on our own tree at home.
So in a “long winded round about on the edge of cheesiness” way the above was just a reminder past on, to take the time to enjoy the holidays, whichever you celebrate, because the work will surely be there waiting for you when you get back. And although your coworkers “TOTALLY” understand why that email had to be sent before you opened presents – pretty sure the rest of the family and friends just think you’ve lost it.
Whatever tree you decorate or however you spend the season, Merry Holidays to all, I hope it’s glowing and full of memories! See you on a cruise!
Melissa
p.s. – I didn’t contradict myself. I wrote this on Monday and I hope you read it on Friday