En route to Sydney, Australia. Arrive on 2-Feb.

My world cruise is broken up into nine legs, each about 14 days long. The current leg ends at Sydney, Australia on 2-Feb, with 60 guests leaving and 57 new guests coming on board. So last night we a farewell/thank you from the crew.

After a show (last night’s show focused on the music of Paul Simon), the Captain takes the stage, says a few words and then the Cruise Director invites the various crew departments down to the stage: hotel (cleaning, butlers, etc.), bar, restaurant, laundry, galley, reception, deck, and so on. There the ship HR hands out awards that are voted on by the guests (everyone got a survey the day before), which include a financial bonus. Finally, a slide show with pictures taken during this cruise leg is shown, with the vast majority of images being of guests.

I liked this. This is the kind of stuff that keeps people coming back.