What Halloween Means To This English Transplant

I am not predisposed to reminisce. Professionally the primary reason I look back is to review the what, the why and the how we did something, to work out improvements for next time we do that ‘thing’. In my personal life, I rarely yearn to return anywhere, I much prefer to break new ground, visit new places, experience new things, taste new dishes.

So as an aside, this might be a good moment to apologize to most of the people around me for being a change junkie and probably driving each of you a little crazy, at least some of the time… status quo is not for me.

Today however is different, and I do find myself looking back for an unusual moment. On October 31st 1999 I signed on to my first contract on a cruise ship at the age of 33. My great career master plan was lodged in the idea of getting away from anther cold English winter, which probably would have entailed working backstage in a draughty theater for 12 shows a week, costuming a Pantomime (my American friends are going to have to google that on their own time, it’s way too complicated to explain here.)

Little did I know that might have been my ‘sliding doors’ moment, because the decision to fly to Miami to join the legendary SS Norway for one 6-month contract literally changed the course of my life, and as usual it is a change I have thoroughly embraced.

I met the man who would become my husband, within 6 weeks of being onboard, and it’s been an adventure in largely unchartered waters ever since. Within a year I switched onboard careers from Costume Manager to Concierge, then by 2003 moved into a Norwegian Cruise Line shoreside role in the Onboard Revenue Team. Projects in IT and Entertainment followed until I found my tribe in Hotel Operations leading the Guest Services teams from 2007. By 2011 I started to support charter operations, including for Sixthman, and on October 31st 2012 I sailed on my (and NCL’s) first KISS Kruise. What a way for an English girl, who grew up only associating Halloween with Scooby-Doo cartoons, to celebrate this strange holiday.  

Spooky Fact #468026 I have spent Halloween on the KISS Kruise every year since. But now I find myself at home in Atlanta, having celebrated my 5-year milestone as a permanent member of the Sixthman team this year, but still somewhat puzzled by this holiday, and wondering what the evening will bring. Had we been able to sail this Halloween I would have notched up my 9th KISS Kruise, which in the KISS Navy ranks me as an Elite Fleet Lieutenant, not bad career progress after all from no stripes when I first signed on to the cruise line on October 31st 1999…