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Published: July 21st 2013
Week 1
complete!
Arrived at
Port Canaveral this morning after the most amazing, terrifying, mind blowing
weeks of my life. Now I have spoken about how they have drilled safety into our
minds this week, but that was just a small portion of what else that has been
going on!
However, throughout
the boring bits of being constantly stuck under sea level listening to the poor
safety officers drone on about “red parties, red parties, red parties”, there
have been some perks along the way.
This week,
the Disney fantasy cruised along the Eastern Caribbean, stopping at 3 ports
along the way. After 2 days stuck out at sea, we arrived at St Maarten on
Tuesday. After a quick 1 hour drill of life raft training, I was literally
dragged off the ship and onto the island by my roommate Jay. Jay is an amazing
character from Jamaica who has been onboard for the past 3 months. I must say
there are so many times that I thank my lucky stars to have her as a roommate
as she really has been an absolute to rock to have to guide me and ease me into
ship life. As
I said, she literally dragged off the ship just to get back to normality
and remind me as to why I wanted this job in the first place. Ship life should not always evolve around work,
eat and sleep! Not specifically in that order of course!
After disembarking
the ship, we walked over to the water taxi that took us across the bay to the
main street of St Maarten. As expected, the crystal blue waters and the
spotless beaches met us on the other side with locals trying to sell us Jetski
rides and St Maarten souveigners. As you walk down the road, sounds of the Caribbean
such as reggae and slow beats echoed out of most restaurants and bars. I was
lead by Jay and the rest of her Jamaican gang to a more of a rustic restaurant
that was completely outdoor with only palm trees and thatch roofs as some sort
of protection against the elements. Behind the bar were 2 local women with
countless beads swinging through their hair. Now clearly they were great pals
with Jay and the others as we were each given a complementary drink. So far,
the decision to get off
the ship was going splendidly if I do say myself!
After a few
hours on St Maarten, we left the island with our next destination being St
Thomas. We arrived on the island at about 7 o clock the following morning. St
Thomas belongs to the US, so us new crew were all subject to immigration that
morning at 7:10 that morning! Luckily it wasn’t too painful as it was a quick
hand out of I-95’s and a lecture on always keeping the slips on us at all times
with a lovely reminder that it costs $350 to replace! Good times!
Unfortunately
I didn’t get a chance to go explore St Thomas as I thought it would be a good
idea to catch up on some sleep lacked from the night before. These days I see
myself not so much of a party maniac, but I feel that anything I have missed
out on, will be made up for in the next few months!
I didn’t feel
that I missed out on much at St Thomas, but the views of the area were
stunning. That same afternoon we set off for our final stop off which would
involve another full day out at sea. On these days, the activities onboard are
at the most busiest for obvious reasons, the kids club being one of them. The
kids are dropped off by exhausted parents who spend the rest of the day at the “adult
only” areas. After all, we do offer a holiday for every one!
Friday was
our final full day; however we didn’t get off to a great start! We were delayed
for arrival at Castaway Cay, due to a detour to Nassau because one of the crew
members ended up having issues with internal bleeding. This delayed our arrival
by 5 hours and we only got there at lunch time. Apparently this happens a lot
as only 2 weeks ago, the same thing happened due to a guest medical emergency
and we were redirected to the closest American Port. But I suppose that these
things happen and contingency plans are there for everything! This means that
for that day, instead of a tour around the Disney privately owned island, we
were given our very own virtual tour below deck in a windowless room!
After a
very brief dock on Castaway Cay, we made
our final trip back to Port Canaveral.
We were officially handed over by Human Resources to our various departments.
Even though we have had brief few hours gaining some idea as to how our
department works, we all feel pretty relieved that our first week is over and
we are no longer considered the newbie’s of the crew!
Onwards to
week 2, where we shall be exploring the western side of the Caribbean. There are
not as many sea days as the Eastern cruise, but I do feel that the work has
officially started!
Ciao for
now you beautiful humans!
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Reg
non-member comment
Your blog
Sarah, I love reading your blog, please keep it up. You write well and I am very interested to hear all about your work and your travels. You have every reason to be very proud of yourself. Much love, Reg