March 7, Emily at work at the ship's Guest Services Desk, mid-ship, Deck 6.
Our Trip to Hawaii, March, 2025
Emily
Who was Emily? She was a member of the ship's staff that worked at the Guest Services Desk mid-ship on Deck 6. We first encountered her when we had a question about our account and she happened to be on duty when we needed some information. As she looked at our account on her computer, she noticed we were from Rochester, Minnesota, and asked us, surprisingly, if we had ever heard of the Bleu Duck Kitchen. Though we had never eaten there, I was familiar with it and its location here in Rochester. It turns out, she was from Wisconsin, and actually lived in and went to school in Rochester for a while, and knew the owner of the Bleu Duck quite well, considering him almost like a second father to her, speaking to him often (via text and e-mail.) She also knew many of the people who worked at the Bleu Duck.

We asked Emily to write down her name on a piece of paper for us, and the name of the Bleu Duck's owner so we could go say hi to him for her. (As I write this, it's been a few weeks since we've returned, and we still haven't gone there yet.) We'll do that one of these days, maybe staying to eat if he's there (though I hear it's quite expensive.)

Then, on Thursday, March 6th, after returning from our trip to Waimea Canyon, as we were leaving our room to go for a walk around the ship, our room steward caught us in the hallway and gave us this,

a bottle of Chardonnay and some fancy chocolate-covered pineapple snacks. It was compliments of Emily, and it really surprised us. (We shared the snacks with our next-door neighbors, Teresa and Steve, and actually brought the bottle of Chardonnay home in our checked luggage. It made it safely.)

As we walked around the ship that afternoon, we headed over to the Guest Services Desk and found Emily there. We wanted to get a picture with her, so she asked one of her fellow associates to take one for us.

And that's the story of us running into the very happy, smiley, and helpful Emily (we dealt with her more than once during our cruise), a "local" woman who we met, quite unexpectedly, thousands of miles away from home. We ended up giving her a big tip before we left the ship. Now we have to get to the Bleu Duck.