10.24

Well Stelian has left me and Kurtis has returned. A reminder: Kurtis was the broadcast tech who was here my first week, but then left for vacation and Stelian was his temporary replacement. So now I'm back with Kurtis until the end of my contract. 

Kurtis seems like a good guy. He's been working on the Serenade for quite some time and I believe this has caused him to acquired a "I'll do whatever the hell I want" attitude. I would write more but, unlike many internet users, I'm aware that the internet (and this blog) is accessible by anyone, so I won't go into details. 

This past cruise we lost four crew members due to drug and alcohol violations. RCI has a very strict zero tolerance policy if you're found drinking or doing drugs while on duty. Well you can't do drugs whether you're on or off duty, you get the point. The idea behind this is that we as crew members are supposed to be able to perform our emergency duties at any time of the day, thus we have signed our life away and are subject to be breathelized or screened for drugs at anytime. BAC is supposed to be below .04 if you're on duty and below .08 if you're off duty. Now you're probably thinking, "There is no way the crew stays below .08 when they're drinking in the crew bar until 5:00 am" and you are correct. However, everyone knows that if they are tested and blow over .08, they are immediately dismissed. And when I say immediately, I don't mean when the current cruse is over and we return to San Juan. I mean where ever we are, whatever island we're docked in, you pack your bags and get off the ship then and there. They don't mess around. 

I write this entry as I wait to move my laundry into the dryer. Yesterday I went to do my laundry and as I got close to the laundry room I began to see wet footprints on the the ground. I opened the door and water began to flow over the door jam and into the hallway. Now normally this might stop people from doing their laundry, but time is precious on the ship and there were people wading in the water moving their clothes around. I hoped up on the counter to wait for a washer to open and only sat there for a few minutes when facilities came in with a big sucking machine and told us to leave while they cleaned up. Long story short, I'm doing laundry today because I couldn't get it done yesterday. I know, earth shattering news from the Caribbean Sea. 

10.12

Today Stelian took me on an excursion in St. Lucia for my birthday. He had gotten tickets to a 4x4 excursion that traveled to the rainforest. We met on the pier at 8:00 and loaded into the back of a Range Rover. It as about an hour drive to the rainforest and along the way our guide told us all kinds of information about the island. We stopped to look at various fruits and other vistas along our way to the rainforest. 

The ride in the Range Rover was insane. We were going so fast up and down these twisty roads that everyone kept falling into each others laps in the back of the 4x4. The tires would squeal every time we'd take a turn because of the speed. Apparently this is just how people drive in St. Lucia. Also, everyone honks their horn as they fly around corners to let oncoming traffic know they're coming and to get out of the way. Literally every corner there was honking. Every single corner. In a country covered with twisty roads. It was loud. 

As soon as we entered the rainforest it began to rain (go figure). It was just a little rain, it was and all out Caribbean downpour. Now usually these intense downpours last for about 10 minutes and then it goes back to pure sun and heat, but in the rainforest the rain was relentless. We all gathered under this little hut where a man lived "off the grid." He grew his own food and lived on his own without any electricity, plumbing, etc. We ate some of his fruit that he had grown (mango, bananas, apples, cocoa, pineapple and some other strange ones I can't remember). It all tasted amazing as it was literally on the plant/tree minutes before eating.  

As we stood under the hut it looked like the rain wasn't going to stop before we had to leave to go back to the ship and we hadn't gotten to explore any of the rainforest on foot. Stelian and I decided to brave the rain and go out on our own. We were wearing bathing suites so it didn't really matter if we go wet. As we meandered through the forest, we came across a really cool waterfall. The water was really silty because of all the rain, but I decided I wanted to try to walk behind the waterfall. As you can see (hear) in the above video, Stelian was pretty excited I was doing this. His narration says it all. 

After getting our fix of the waterfall, we returned to the hut where everyone was loading back into the 4x4s. It was still raining so we had to put the flaps down on the trucks. As you can imagine this made things rather stuffy in the back of the Range Rover. Did I mention one of the Range Rovers broke down so we had to wait with it in the rain until another truck could arrive? I was glad to climb out of the back when we finally made it back to the ship. But even with the rain and breakdown it was a really cool excision and made for a great birthday! 

10.11

It's been ages since I've written anything. For some reason I feel like my free time has been few and far between lately and the time I do have free, I prefer sleep over blogging. I'm also lazy when it comes to writing. 

This past cruise we had some big cheeses on board with us from Miami to do "Anchored In Excellence" presentations. Essentially they reported on what the company is doing fleet wide and also specifically how the Serenade numbers look. Our officers also made presentations to the Miami folks regarding the performance of our ship. A few weeks earlier I had made some videos that they showed during the presentation. The folks from Miami really liked the videos and decided to distribute them to the entire fleet! I was pretty pumped to hear that! 

This past Friday night it became extremely windy outside. I was working late in the broadcast room and the ship was rocking and rolling. After I finished my work I decided to go outside to check out the conditions. Well before I even got outside I could tell the wind was intense because it was hard to open the interior doors of the ship due to the pressure difference. As soon as I opened the door to the outer deck a huge mass of air rushed into the ship and almost blew me over! I literally had to bend over and physically push myself as I walked towards the bow. You can't see much of the ocean at night (go figure) but I could hear the waves crashing against the ship and feel the spray even way up on deck 12. After I crossed the bow and began to walk in the other direction with my back to the wind I was immediately pushed along at a jogging speed as I tried to walk. It was actually a lot of fun! Stelian gets sea sick pretty easily (and he chose to work on a ship?) so he wasn't very happy Friday and Saturday. He was downing Gingerale trying to calm his stomach. 

Today we are in Barbados. I milled around the town for a bit but it was mega hot so I didn't too much walking. I went to the beach and swam for a bit and I'm now in the cruise terminal using their WiFi.