28 Jan - 5 Feb

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Hi All, thanks for joining my blog, i'm looking forward to sharing the next 9 months with you!!!

28 January
I departed at around 8pm on Friday from Johannesburg, SA with Delta Airlines to Atlanta, Georgia (17 hour flight!).
From Atlanta to Miami only took 1h and 30 min on the connecting flight.

29 January
Juan and Brandon picked me up at Miami airport on Saturday morning. They took me through to Fort Lauderdale and showed me the yachts that they work on, they are amazing, both privately owned yachts, it looks like a hotel/house inside. They took me out to FL, we went to Rock Bar, right across from the beach in the main road. What an amazing vibe!!! We had frozen margaritas while listening to spanish music in the background surrounded by palm trees. FL is beautiful, def. a party town!!

30 Junuary
Sunday morning on the way to Miami port we stood in traffic for about 2hours, there was a race around the port and they blocked off all the roads around the Port. People in Miami are very health concience. When the Taxi finally dropped me off (with a scary looking taxi fare) at my ship Royal Caribbean- Liberty of the Seas I was amazed at what i saw.... wow, was this really gonna be my home for the next 9 months?!?!? Because Miami is our main Port, it actually looks like an airport, it's insane, metal detectors, luggage areas, etc etc..
We waited about 3 hours for embarkation beacuse the ship had just came out of dry doc (where there are no passangers on board because of renovations that have to be done) and they had to sign off all the contractors before the new sign-on's could sign-in. When I entered the ship I went straight into the training room, handed in all my papers, had a quick tour through the ship, then had training for the rest of the day.

31 January
Royal Caribbean- Liberty of the Seas (May 2007)
Currently the 3rd biggest Ship in the world.
Crew +- 1,400
Passangers +- 4,400

My first week was mainly training and I started work on Monday the 31st of January.
Our working hours are from 8am to 10pm with 1hour lunch and dinner. I have 1 and a half days off each cruise. Your off days are always on Port days (days at sea are just too busy at work). I had the day off at Belize City & Costa Maya, then on embarkation day in Miami as well. Usually we have off from 8am - 2pm, then you return to work till 10pm.

Belize city I could not go onland, I had training and a fire drill (on every cruise, all the crew has 1 fire drill, usually on embarkation day. This is for all passangers and crew so that everyone know what to do and where to be in an emergency to abandon ship.)

Costa Maya (Mexico) I had training and work till 2pm, after which I could finally go onland and walked around in the port. There are shops everywhere, a big poor & bars everywhere... party place! It is so beautiful, the water is the most amazing blue I have ever seen. We went to lunch at a place called Senor Frog. It have a crazy vibe, there's a DJ with loud music, waiters are dancing all over... I'll load some pictures as soon as I buy a notebook. We didn't have enough time to go explore and travel, but hopefully next time.
When we got back to the ship we tried to walk around without getting lost..... impossible!!! The ship is huge!!! I live on deck 1 and the Spa is on deck 12 in the front of the ship. I have an Ocean view from my work station, it's beautiful!!

5 February 2011
De/embarkation in Miami was not too great, instead of getting off I had Immigration till around 12. When you are a new sign-on you have to go to immigration in order for you to get your US Crewman's Landing Permit. It serves as a passport, you need to have it whenever you enter a US Port.
Started work at 2, every embarkation we have Spa tours untill 4pm to 5pm. Spa tours are for all the guests (passangers) to see what we have to offer in our Spa, and for them to start booking. Once we leave the Port, we start a normal working day till 10pm.

Well there you go.... my first week in a nutshell!

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