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Published: April 30th 2011
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Sunrise
What kind of view you get from a $550 a night hotel room in Miami I’ve been onboard for a couple weeks now and figured it was time for an update. Getting to Miami was crazy, the flight had a layover in Dallas (which is a really nice airport btw). But American Airlines is the worst airline in the world; I had to pay for my luggage, no food on the plane (included or to buy), and for some reason the airline decided to delay my connecting flight to wait for all the other late planes to arrive and the people to get onboard. As my flight to Dallas was early, and the connector was late I ended up being in the airport for 6 hours, and stuck on the tarmac for another 2… The only good thing about this whole experience was an incredible display of lightning we flew past. After the plane finally landed I made it to the hotel at 1:45 in the morning for a couple hours of sleep and then on the way to the ship at 6 (which really meant 3 am if you ignore the time change) the driver forgot that he had to pick up more people at a different hotel and ended up driving most of the
way to the ship then getting lost in suburbia trying to find his way to the Oasis.
The ship I was on last year was the second biggest in the world, but this is so much more. I’m starting to understand the layout of her, but still getting completely lost far too often. This ship has a much different feel to it than the Independence, much less social as there are just so many people. To keep yourself identifiable as one of the 2200 crew members you always have to have your ID card or name badge visible. And now the answer to the question quite a few people have asked me; the ship can hold a maximum of 8458 people, and we currently have 8375 (plus or minus a few) people onboard.
The officers onboard this ship are awesome! 5 from Canada (One of which has a cousin that I go to school with), and the rest from Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and even 2 Luis’s from Panama. The Staff Captain and Chief officer are both from Canada, both of which are making sure I learn as much as possible while I’m at sea. I’m currently working out
Tied up in Nassau, Bahamas
A small Carnival ship, The new Disney Dream, and the Norwegian Epic in the background a schedule to finish all the tasks I need to in my training log.
The weather in the Caribbean is surprisingly variable; cloudy, sunny, rain, but always over 28! Asides from the other cruise ships there is hardly any other vessel traffic.
I’ve so far been working on arrival and departures and mostly focusing on familiarizing myself with the ship, all the bridge equipment and the shipboard operations. The ship does 2 different one week itineraries, so I’ve now been to all of our ports of call. All of which have clear blue waters, coral reefs, and gorgeous beaches. One day last week while in Cozumel, I spent a couple hours with some of the officers learning to drive and maneuver the lifeboat.
And now the less than stellar news and some good news, I had hoped that I would be able to spend 4 months at sea then come home for a month and back out for a few more months. But if I come home in the middle I’ve got no guarantee that I’ll be able to get back onboard early enough to finish my 12 months at sea before going back to school. That
Central Park
12000 real plants and over 50 real trees on deck 8, and yes those are skylights for the promenade below! being said; I’ll be home in December.
Enjoy the photos! And as always, emails at gbeier@gmail.com are always appreciated and if anyone would like my mailing address or even my phone number just ask.
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jackie
non-member comment
Duuude that ship looks super intense! Awesome that you're learning lots, hopefully I'll get the same kind of learning experience when I go out. Waiting around at home kind of sucks, but at least its been over 18 degrees every day this week with sun, so im getting a tan before I head to ALASKA ..super gay. lol. Good to finally read a blog post! Keep em coming!