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My Cabin
Rather cramped, Needless to say I'm looking forward to my roommate to change over so I can snag the bottom bunk. Well it’s been over a week since I’ve left and after a few crazy days with everything being entirely overwhelming, everything is beginning to run smoothly. The flight was amazing, KLM is an awesome airline and I will fly with them again given the chance. Food was fantastic, and the fact that beer and wine were served with it made it that much better. BUT WAIT, there’s more! On demand TV and movies, Managed to watch some Top Gear and Futurama! After landing I had almost 2 hours to kill in Amsterdam and fight the urge to not sleep so that I could try and stay awake till a decent hour that night. After a short flight to London I made it through customs in about 8 seconds by being the only person on the plane without an EU passport and the fact that I was at some far off terminal with hardly any arrivals. When I got out of the airport the instructions I was given to get me on my way to the hotel stopped making sense. I managed to figure out part of it by taking a train to another terminal instead of a bus. After some other
Busy Port
2 P&O vessels at Southampton random confusion with busses I finally found myself at the hotel. The hotel room was really nice, as it should have been considering it cost 280 pounds for the night. I’m glad I wasn’t footing the bill, but totally appreciated the king size. A bus was sent to pick us up at 5:30 in the morning and after a few looooooong hours I was aboard. First couple days are a blur, Lots of training meetings and figuring out scheduling. Staff Captain and the 1st Officer have put together a program for me to follow. I work with a whole bunch of different departments for a couple weeks at a time. First up is working with the Washing Gang. We start work at 4am, and end at 4pm. We get an hour break at 7 for breakfast, and an hour break at noon for lunch. Leaving from Southampton the other day we were in a convoy of 4 cruise ships headed downrange from the port, it’s almost 2 hours to the ocean so you get to see quite a lot, including Queen Victoria’s summer castle! When I boarded I had my big crazy medical checked over by a member of the
medical staff, all checked out, except that the part that was supposed to be filled out by my doctor to say that I am “fit for duty” was actually just stamped. I was to get a copy sent to me filled out correctly or have to get off and do it again. (Estimated price 350 euros) I was told to get the copy emailed the day I signed on, but internet access requires a seapass (ID) card which I had yet to receive. Needless to say a phone call saying “get it tomorrow or you are breaching your contract” put things in motion. So with that in mind the last few days were pretty crazy to say the least, but yesterday morning was a great change of pace. Crossing the English Channel at day break was a really nice treat, especially since the back deck always has music playing on it! Today was a bunch of 90s hits. The weather in France is far better than it was in Ireland a few days ago. I was supposed to go to shore with some cool people I met from Boston but plans kind of fell apart. Oh well, wasn’t a huge
fan of France the first time I went :P
PS: Never step back from a 2 blade razor from a 5 blade. I’m having to shave daily to keep in dress code.
Rob: Thanks for How I Met Your Mother, this show pwns.
Mom: Ignore the Transport Canada medical, I was never informed that the RCCL medical is in place of it.
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Rob Ellis
non-member comment
Awesome Comment
Man your cabin looks like it could be the room you get your medical test in. Also I was totally picturing you sleeping in hammocks it would be much cooler and you could sway with the boat. The bridge looks awesome, does everyone that works on the boat love the song I'm on a boat? Anyways I will keep this short since I know it is costing you money to read this, you should copy pasta all the comments and then go offline so I can ramble more. ps; sasquatch was amazing if you feel like wasting bandwidth I have photos on fb