2.11

I took this picture last week as we sailed out of St. Croix. There was a small Holland America ship, MS Maasdam, who left the pier a few minutes before us and we both sailed directly into the sunset. Seemed like a fitting picture to end this blog. 

I do have tons of other pictures and videos, so perhaps once I get home and have a decent internet connection I'll share some of those with you as well. 

2.11

Well folks I only have one more cruise left before I return to the real world. Today my replacement comes onboard so I'll spend my last week making sure he is ready to replace me when I sign off next Saturday.  I know this blog has probably been underwhelming as I haven't had the ability to update it as frequently as I'd have liked, but I appreciate the dedication if you're still reading! For those who don't know, I was offered another contract on a larger ship in Europe, but I declined the offer so once I return to land I'll be there for good! The main reason I decided against another contract is that I would like to try to start making a name for myself outside of the Royal family where growth is limited to, well, cruise ships. 

It's definitely been an amazing past 7 months. If you would have told me a year ago that I'd be living and working on a cruise ship I would have laughed in your face, but now here I am about to say goodbye to my floating home and job in just one week. Both the job itself and the ship lifestyle have been so unique. Where else can you create videos, lower life boats, dress up as an elf, live in a closet, work with people from over 70 different countries, inflate thousands of balloons, hang out with Ms. Puerto Rico candidates, watch the sun set over the Caribbean Sea and have it all be part of your job? I'm definitely glad to have had this great experience.

Here is short list of things I will miss about the Serenade as well as some things I'm looking forward to on land:

MISS

• Everyone I work with
• Waking up in a different location every day 
• Being able to "commute" to work in 60 seconds (depending on elevator traffic)
• Living and working with people from all over the world
• The control of creating projects entirely on my own
• The motion of the ocean 
• Crew parties on the aft mooring deck 
• Watching my work on the big screen in the theater
• The complete darkness of being at sea
• Exploring the islands
• Having a nice gym with the world's best view 
• Dinner's at Portofino's 
• The rare but glorious nap outside on Deck 13
• Waffles and ice cream on the I-95
• Lazy lunches filled with procrastination at Messofino's 

LOOKING FORWARD TO

• Being able to sit up in my bed
• Having access to and using reliable internet that is faster than dialup 
• Living in a room with windows 
• Having a sense of time
• Simple things like sitting on a couch or at the kitchen table
• Eating something other than ship food (rice anyone?)
• Reconnecting with the real world 
• Avoiding the Norovirus
• Cold water from the tap
• Cold water in the shower
• Water that isn't a different color every day
• A shower that drains
• A shower that is bigger than a dwarf's phone booth
• Being able to buy things in a store whenever I want 
• Being able to leave my house without receiving a full body pat down 
• Spending time with friends, family and pets
• Driving my car 
• SNOW!! (I hope)

1.14

It's hard to tell the scale, but this guy was almost 3 feet long!

Castillo San Cristobal

Castillo San Cristobal

Castillo San Cristobal

Entrance to the tunnel  

The tunnel

A walled city

The Serenade peeking through

Happy Puerto Ricans

A very very old tree

Arrrr

1.14

Today Cynthia and I walked over to Old San Juan. It's about a 40 minute walk but it has nice views along the way. Today there was a massive festival happening in Old San Juan that was called The Festival of the Streets. At least that's what I was told the translation meant, Cynthia speaks Spanish. We walked along the streets and traffic was in grid lock as we neared closer to Old San Juan. There were also masses of people walking the streets, all heading in the same direction. We didn't know where they were going or really what the festival was all about, but we just followed the crowds.

Well apparently it's just a really big street festival. Not like close down the streets and set up carnival rides or booths, nothing like that. It was just thousands of people parading around the streets with signs and horns and whistles making as much noise as possible. I can assure you that Puerto Ricans are excellent at being loud. At one point we got caught in the parade(?) route and didn't have any choice but to walk with the crowds down the streets until we found a side street we could escape down. Then we couldn't find any streets that had less then 3 million people on them so we continued to walk the opposite direction until we hit the end of the island. From here we were able to walk around the outside and avoid the crowds as we made our way back towards the Serenade. It was actually really weird because once we were on the edge of the island it was extremely quiet, calm and relaxing but only a few blocks away was complete chaos. 

Old San Juan is a walled city, protected by two different fortifications: Castillo San Felipe del Morro and Castillo San Cristobal. It's the biggest European fortification in the Americas. We decided to walk through the forts and were delighted to find out there was no entrance fee today because of the festival! The forts were really impressive looking and fun to explore. There is a secret (not any more) underground tunnel that connects two portions of San Cristobal. Apparently it was the longest underground tunnel of its time. I'd say it is about 1/2 mile. It was really dark and hot inside but definitely worth the walk. We got to see the dungeons which had really cool carvings on the walls from guests who had stayed there. There were also iguanas all over the place as I assume they like to sun bathe on the hot fortress walls. 

On our walk back to the Serenade we saw the sailing ship Bounty. It was used in the first two Pirates of the Caribbean movies and was extremely cool looking. Unfortunately we didn't have time to take a tour, but if I get a chance I might go back and try to go aboard. 

1.11

Our sweet hair nets 

Rope swing 

Me looking stylish 

The bottom of the drop of death 

One of the tree platforms 

Yesterday we had a Charlie drill. This is a drill to practice for a security threat to the ship. In this drill we were searching for a bomb that was placed somewhere in the ship. My area to search is the theatre, but I first have to search the Broadcast room. So I searched the Broadcast room and then returned to the theatre where the other assigned crew members had apparently finished searching. Just as I arrived the Staff Captain and a few other officers walked into the theatre and as soon as I saw them I knew the search missed something.

Well the Staff Captain opened up a locker near the entrance to the theatre and hidden way in the back was a pipe bomb. We were all dead. Or mostly dead. They passed out pieces of paper that either said "dead" or had some sort of injury written on it. We were instructed to spread out in the theatre and assume our dead or injured state. Minutes later the medics and stretcher teams arrived and began to "treat" the victims and move them to a safer location. They were also simulating a helicopter medivac so many of the victims were carried on stretchers to the helipad. It was a very realistic drill and a reminder that something like this could actually happen on the ship or anywhere for that matter.  

After I miraculously recovered from my abdominal bleeding and shrapnel wounds, I felt well enough to go zip lining in St. Lucia. 26 crew members, mostly Cruise Division and some Casino, had signed up for this trip so we all boarded a rickety bus around noon and headed into the rain forest. As is the case with any trip in a taxi on the islands, the ride was almost as exciting as the excision itself. 

After a few near misses we finally arrived at our destination in one piece. We were instructed to rid ourselves of anything that could fall or get caught in the pulleys (sunglasses, lose clothes, etc) and then began to suit up in the harnesses. We also had to wear some stylish hairnets under our helmets to make sure no hair was caught in the pulleys. With the hairnets, helmets and harnesses we looked like we were ready to serve lunch to an angry mob of hungry teenagers. 

After a quick lesson and practice run on a short, slow zip line we hiked deeper into the rainforest and climbed up a super sketchy set of stairs to a platform in the trees. From here we began to zip from one tree to another. Occasionally we would hike to another area and then zip from tree to tree to tree. We also encountered the occasional rope swing to take us over gaps in the terrain. At one point we did a really long zip line to a little platform about 80 feet up a skinny tree. And when I say skinny tree I mean the tree literally moved back and forth about 2 feet whenever someone would zip over to it. If you didn't hold onto the tree you were mostly likely going to lose your balance and well, that wouldn't end well. There were 7 of us in our group with two guides. One guide would zip to the other end first  and be there to make sure you stopped and didn't slam into the tree and the other would help you attach to the zip line on the starting tree.

So picture nine of us all crowed on this tiny platform 80 feet up in a tree that had the rigidity of a piece of licorice. It was pretty crazy. Well we suddenly noticed that there was not another zip line attached to the tree. How were we to get out of the tree you ask? Well we asked the same question and our eyes were directed to a small hole cut out in the platform. It became apparent that we were going to literally drop out of the tree. One at a time we hooked a rope up to our harnesses that ran through a loop a few times and then back down to the ground where someone (hopefully trustworthy) held the other end. We slowly suspended ourselves over the hole and the guide made sure were were centered so when we dropped we didn't whack ourselves on the platform. Then FOOOM! It was a 70 feet free fall out of the tree and then a sudden deceleration at the end as the person holding the opposite end of the rope applied pressure. It was absolutely insane and I loved it. I think everyone, myself included, screamed or yelled on the way down. It was a really cool excision and we were all pretty whipped when we returned to the ship later that afternoon. I have about 30,000 pictures and video of the entire thing but of course the internet is too slow to upload any video so you'll just have to take my word for it: It was awesome. 

A not so exciting thing that happened yesterday was that the Serenade went to OPP Level 2. OPP is Outbreak Prevention Plan and it is implemented to prevent the spread of GI cases or Noroviruses which are a big threat to a ship environment as they spread very easily. We go into Level 2 when G.I. cases exceed .5% of guests or 1% of crew. Apparently a guest must have caught the virus in San Jaun and then the symptoms developed after we set sail. Level 2 means the entire ship in constantly being cleaned (high traffic areas every 30 minutes!) with something called Oxivir Five 16 and in some places a chlorine solution. It's a pain because crew members like me (although I'm lucky and haven't been put into labor yet) have to clean places like the theatre and handrails on top of their normal duties. If the number of cases continues to rise, the Level is escalated and all self-service food stops and we the crew have to serve the guests. There is also no shore leave. Let's hope this doesn't happen! 

1.7

 

Well I survived the New Year's cruise. It was a lot of work but it turned out to be pretty fun as well. After all of the New Year craziness wore off the rest of the cruise was just like any other (expect our ports of call where different than normal). On Friday I had a chance to get off the ship in Tortola and go swimming with dolphins which was cool. 

I was really hesitant to go as I'm opposed to the way they capture a lot of dolphins for this type of purpose (see: THE COVE), but my friends convinced me to go and I'm glad I did. I talked to a few of the trainers about it and they explained where they got their dolphins and that they only started with two and they just grow as a family and don't have to capture any more. I got to see a calf who was only 6 days old. Her name is Layli (I think?) and she was so cute swimming along her mom's side.   

I got to hold onto one of the dolphin's fins and have her pull me around as I lay on her stomach. It was a really neat sensation. We also got to kiss them, feed them and do other things as we swam around. I have a bunch of video but of course the internet is too slow to upload so I'll try to just put a few pictures. 

This week we have a new cruise director from Ireland whose name is Chloe. She'll only be with us for one cruise and then next week Marc will be joining us for the duration of my contract. He was here when I signed on in July and seems pretty easy to work with. Nothing much else too report. I'm sitting outside a coffee shop in Puerto Rico and getting really tired so I'm not going to write much more. I think I'm going to head back to the ship and try to grab a quick nap before I start work tonight. 

12.29

Today I woke up to a knock on my door. I got out of bed, opened the door and to my surprise I found Ricky along with all the supervisors in the cruise division. It turns out that 9 cabins in the cruise division had failed cabin inspection so Ricky was marching everyone around to inspect the cabins so it didn't happen again. Well I had literally just woken up and suddenly had 6 people barge into my cabin. Talk about a rude awakening. They didn't know why I had failed cabin inspection, as there was nothing written on the paper that said I failed so Ricky just told me to get  new shower curtain as mine was a bit dirty looking. This is because my shower takes 3 1/2 days to drain after every shower so the curtain is always sitting in dirty water that slouches around as the ship moves. I've had Facilities look at in multiple times but it always seems to clog up immediately after they unclog it. This afternoon I stole a shot vac from the stage staff and attempted to suck the crap out of my drain so we'll see if that makes any difference. edit: it has!

This is a random thought but it literally feels like Christmas was about 2 months ago. I cannot believe that it only happened 3 days ago. It seems impossible. My brain cannot comprehend that it happened in this same cruise. I can't explain to you how long ago it feels. The cruise ship time warp continues…

This is a scattered post, but more randome news: I finally ordered an intervalometer for my camera so I can make some time lapses. I want to show the ship coming in and out of various ports. I also plan on shooting a time lapse of Dancing Under the Stars because Ricky wants to show Miami how the party progresses throughout the evening (morning). Hopefully I can get some pretty cool shots! It should arrive in San Juan by Saturday so hopefully I'll have it for this next cruise!

As I write this post I'm getting eaten alive by some sort of ants that I think could be fire ants as my feet and legs are starting to really burn so I'm going to go. This always happens in St. Croix and yet I continue to sit in the same spot on my computer. Yes, crew members can get pretty desperate for internet. 

12.28

I forgot to mention that early on Christmas day (between midnight and 5:00) we were involved in a search and rescue operation with the U.S. Coast Guard to search for a crew member from the Celebrity ship Summit who went overboard. We searched for about 5 hours and then were released from the search to continue on to St. Lucia as other Coast Guard ships arrived. We found two life rings but unfortunately no body. After searching 2,000 square miles the Coast Guard decided to call off the search yesterday with no results. While it is only speculation, many suspect suicide was the cause of the overboard. It is possible for crew members to get depressed, especially around the holidays, as we work long hard hours and are away from our family and friends for a prolonged period of time. Our thoughts are with the friends and family of the Summit CM. 

More uplifting news: Last night we were on our way from St. Kitts to Antigua when we had to turn around and return to St. Kitts to medivac a guest. We didn't even tie up when we returned. We literally just pressed the ship against the pier, opened a bulkhead door, quickly transferred the guest to a waiting ambulance on the pier and then backed away. It was pretty impressive how little time the whole operation took. Hopefully this speed helped save the guest's life. 

Kurtis' birthday was yesterday and we had a rock night in the crew bar. Typically in the crew bar the sound system is always blasting Latin, Caribbean or house music but Kurtis requested the keys to the DJ booth for his birthday and setup a Rock n Roll playlist. It was a lot of fun to sit around and listen to "real" music for a change. There were about 8 of us and we just blasted rock music until 3:30 in the morning.  Unfortunately the crew bar is always filled with smokers as that is one of the few places where you can smoke so I always have to purge my lungs and take a shower every time I leave the crew bar. 

12.27

12.27

Wow I must say I'm impressed that people are still reading this blog. That's dedication! 

Well Christmas has come and gone and I must say I'm glad the holidays are wrapping up. As you can imagine, things are much more busy this time of year than normal. There are a lot more special events, shows and basically things to entertain the holiday crowds. 

We had a special Christmas (excuse me, Holiday) Show in the theatre which I had to create some video elements for. Most of the work went into this 2 minute animated video I created which was essentially opening credits for the show. It introduced the singers, dancers, stage staff, tech team and the orchestra. I shot individual video of each person and then put them on Christmas balls that dropped in and out of the video. It's hard to explain the entire concept but it turned out pretty well. It was projected on the massive sike while the orchestra played behind the video. It was cool because we recorded the orchestra playing the music to a click track so I was able to edit to the song. Then when they played the music live it lined up exactly to the video because they used the click track. 

The day before Christmas Eve I helped set up a massive balloon drop that was to be released during the Christmas Eve celebration the following night. We worked until about 3 in the morning to fill 750 balloons and stuff them into this net we had constructed and suspended above the Centrum on Deck 10. Now I wasn't in charge of the design of the balloon drop, I was just helping the stage staff put it up. In fact I told them that I thought it wasn't going to work and it turns out I was right!

When they went to release the balloons on Christmas Eve the rigging lines that were supporting the forward part of the net broke and the entire mass of balloons began to drift down towards the side of the Centrum in a massive blob. The video of the chaos is pretty hilarious. Stage staff sprinted down the stairs to Deck 8 where the ballon mass got stuck and were finally able to cut the net and free the balloons. So the balloons just rained straight down on one side of the Centrum rather than dropping from the center as planned, but the guests thought it was funny and everyone had a good time regardless. 

Christmas Day was super long and it was definitely weird to be celebrating Christmas not only while I was working, but while being on a cruise ship in 85 degree weather. However I was so busy the entire day I didn't really feel homesick because I didn't have time to worry about anything! The following day I slept until 11:30 and it felt great to recharge my batteries. Just in time to gear up for the New Years celebrations. 

And the show goes on… 

12.17

A few pictures to spice up the mass of boring text on this blog. (click image to enlarge)

First photo was recently taken in St. Croix. The rest is what my cabin looks like decorated for Christmas. When my sister visited she brought me the worlds smallest Christmas tree and some other things to spice up my cabin. It does make it more cheerful!

12.17

It has been eons since I've written anything on here. In fact I'm not sure if anyone even reads this anymore so if you do read this post, comment and let me know! 

So a quick recap of the last month or so includes a visit from my family, Thanksgiving, a few new ports of call and a whole slew of other things that I can't even remember. 

My mom, dad and sister came down for the Thanksgiving cruise. It was really great to spend (some) time with them and hang out in their room which felt like Richie Rich's mansion compared to my cabin. Unfortunately for me Thanksgiving meant additional work so I didn't get to spend as much time as I had hoped with them, but I still got to have a few delicious meals with them and we even went sailing as a family in St. Maarten which was great. 

A lot of my time Thanksgiving week was spent making daily videos telling the story of a turkey that was getting chased all around the ship and on different islands by a chef. Yes, 4 years of college education and I'm making turkey chase videos. But it was actually a lot of fun and the guests seem to enjoy the videos. The final video showed 6 chefs chasing the turkey around the ship and down into the Centrum (central area of the ship) where it cut out and picked up in live action as people watched the chefs try to catch the turkey only to be stopped by the Captain who "pardoned the turkey". It was quiet a site to see. 

What else has happened… I went 4wheeling in St. Maarten and explored both the French and Dutch sides of the island. I wore my helmet camera and took some pretty cool video which I'll post if I ever have an internet connection faster than dial up.

Here is what I had written about 4wheeling which I never posted…

"Yesterday I went on a 4Wheeler excision in St. Maartan. It was pretty cool to see most of the entire island from a 4wheeler. If you didn't know, St. Maartan is split into two different sides. A Dutch side and a French side. As you can imagine, they are completely different. We ate lunch in the French side and it felt like I was in France but with the addition of Palm trees and 85 degree weather. It was rather bizarre. As we were sitting outside along the street eating lunch at a small restaurant a police van screeched to stop outside of the restaurant with its siren blaring and an officer jumped out. He began yelling in French demanding to know who's vehicle was parked on the street across from the restaurant. He walked through the restaurant asking everyone and I guess no one took ownership. After about 5 minutes he got back in the police van and took off. It was very strange. After the officer left we resumed our lunch. I had a delicious shrimp shish kabob and a petite pain which I guess is a French donut. It sort of tasted like a pretzel crossed with a Chineese donut minus the sugar. 

We also stopped at a buttery fly farm. It was actually really cool. A guide walked us through the room (?) which is a large area enclosed in screening to keep out any predators. She showed us various specious of butterflies and let us hold different caterpillars while showing us what type of butterfly they turned into. After she finished talking we just walked around and looked at the various butterflies. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to photograph various butterflies when they landed on the plants. It was a game of cat and mouse that lasted about 15 minutes until I decided 100+ photos of butterflies and leaves where butteries had been milliseconds before was probably enough. 

Next we hopped back on the wheelers and headed towards Airport Beach. As you may have guessed from the cleaver name, Airport Beach is a beach located next to an airport. And when I say next to I mean the runway is 15 feet from the beach. There is the ocean, then the beach, then the runway. You may have seen pictures of people hanging on to a fence and getting blown back by the thrust from jets taking off. Well this is the place. There is a bar next to the beach that has a chalk board with the list of departures and arrivals so people know when to expect a plane. I must say it's pretty awesome. Following airport beach we had to head back to the ship because some people had to get back for a rehearsal. We were actually cutting it pretty close so we were really hauling on our way back. In fact there were some people that weren't comfortable going that fast so we left them in the dust. Literally. On the way back I rode with Tamara (our Light Tech) because she was riding with Hugh who had sprained his ankle playing soccer at the olympics the previous night and had to be on a 4wheeler that wasn't going to go as fast. Let me tell you it was a good thing he didn't ride with Tamera because we were cruising. We were continuously trying to stay in front of Patricio and Brittany as we raced back. I was sitting behind Tamera I was constantly looking behind us to make sure Patricio wouldn't try to sneak around us. If he did start to edge up I would yell to Tamera and we would box him out. It was a pretty intense battle as we made our way back to the ship. Judging by the glares we were getting from our tour guide who was on the 4 wheeler in front of us, I don't think he liked our little game."

It's hard to believe but Christmas is next Sunday. It's so strange to think that Christmas is in a week. I am in a complete time warp and literally don't know what time of year it feels like. Yes we have a huge Christmas tree in the Centrum and I hear Christmas music and we have caroling and Christmas shows but my body is still confused as to the time of year. The hot weather, working literally every single day and constantly revolving around a 7 day schedule really has my mind confused. But the good news is I'm not counting down the days to the end of my contract because time is moving so fast!

Tonight the Cruise Division is having a wrapping party to wrap over 700 gifts for the Adventure Ocean kids. These are the kids who enroll in our children's program while onboard. We're starting around midnight and just wrapping until there are no more gifts to wrap! Should be fun? 

It's going to be a busy next two cruises as both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve fall on turn around day. We'll be sailing on Christmas day so we'll have to keep the guests extra entertained as they'll be stuck on the ship. It will definitely be weird for me to spend Christmas away from my family in the middle of the ocean, but I plan on buying a phone card so I can try to call home from the ship for the low low price of….

I also just found out that there was an earthquake 14 miles off the coast of Puerto Rico this morning while we were sailing in but I didn't feel any additional motion in the ocean. Good thing!

Well I think I've written plenty for now. Congratulations if anyone is still reading my ramblings! Let me know if you are still actually reading and if so, I'll try to keep writing things! 

11.5

I've gotten very lazy, I know. To recap what you've missed: Work, sleep, heat. And food.

Actually it's been a fairly eventful week or two. Allow me to indulge you:

After a crew drill in St. Lucia one of our lifeboats could not be retrieved from the water. Something was wrong with the mechanism that pulled the boat back out of the water. We typically leave St. Lucia around 17:00, but I noticed it was 20:00 and we still hadn't left yet. We couldn't leave without one of our lifeboats (Titanic anyone?) so we continued to sit in St. Lucia until the engineers could figure it out. I suggested we just tow it behind us but no one seemed to appreciate my suggestion.  We finally set sail around 21:45. Keep in mind the guests had no idea what was happening and didn't know we were supposed to set sail much earlier so we HAULED to get to St. Croix on time. We typically cruise around 12 knots and at one point around midnight I noticed we were doing 22 knots! Oh and it turns out the lifeboat wasn't actually completely fixed. They pulled it out of the water and back up to Deck 5, but they couldn't retract it all the way back into the ship so part of it was hanging out over the water. Every port after St. Lucia they would put the lifeboat back in the water to work on it. I'm pretty sure it's fixed now. 

Well, incase you missed it, Halloween happened. And incase you were wondering, yes, people love to celebrate Halloween on cruise ships (at least this one!). Sunday night we worked from midnight until 3:00 to decorate certain areas of the ship. We hung spider webs, set up projectors, piled up pumpkins, ect. Oh and we even built an awesome haunted house in the conference center. The guests awoke on Monday to a completely different looking ship. Monday night we had costume parties, parades and dances; all of which had to be recorded by yours truly. I picked up a Grim Reeper outfit in St. Thomas that I wore which made it a little difficult to operate the camera, but it was totally worth it for the looks I got from the guests. 

This past Wednesday was the start of the crew olympics. Basically the different departments on the ship compete against each other in a variety of events. The first event was the Quest. Now the normal Quest gameshow that the guests attend can get pretty crazy, but crew Quests are about 100 times more insane. I'm actually surprised no one was injured from the two hundred or so people running around full speed in the Safari Club completing Quests. The next event is Dodgeball.

On Thursday I returned to the private island water park where I had gone my first week. Ricky (cruise director) treated the cruise division to a trip there as a way of saying thanks because our division has been having such high ratings. About 30 of us went and it was a ton of fun. I will try to post some pictures and video (internet is too slow). It was the last time we'll be in Aruba (major bummer) as our itinerary is changing in one week. 

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. 

9.29

Today I was suppose to go on a snorkeling trip to swim with stingrays but I found out this morning that the crew excursion was cancelled. Major bummer. I was all set to go snorkeling this morning and now I'm just sitting in a casino bumming free WiFi. Oh Well.

9.28

Last night I was working late in the broadcast room (what's new?) when the cruise director called me around midnight. He was finished with work for the night and wanted to know if I'd like to go out for drinks with him. Of course you say yes to drinks with your boss no matter how much work you have left! So I sprinted down to my cabin, changed into something nicer than my current late night editing outfit (gym shorts and t-shirt) and met him in the Vortex.

The Vortex is a night club on Deck 13. It's surrounded by glass and has really great views in the day time and it is the perfect location for a loud nightclub at night because the noise is isolated from the staterooms. I've been doing a lot of work for Ricky lately but haven't had a chance to talk much with him about things other than work, so it was nice to just talk about random things. After about an hour we met a few other crew members there and all and all it was a great time. 

9.25

Well it's been quite some time since I've written anything. Honestly nothing too noteworthy has happened this past week, but here are a few things you may have "missed":

I am not from England. I have never been from England nor will I ever be from England. I have no idea why, but it's quite often that someone will ask me if I'm from England. At first I thought it was because I was speaking English without some sort of other heavy accent on top, so maybe people just assumed I was from England because of the "clear" sounding accent. However, something happened at dinner last week that got me thinking about my reasoning again. 

I was sitting at dinner with people from all over the world, including another American. She asked me where I was from and I obviously responded with Pennsylvania. The person to my right (who is FROM ENGLAND) turned to me and said, "What? I thought you where from England?" So now someone from England thought I was from England. I clearly don't sound like him, but he said I looked like I was from England. Who knew. 

Typically when we have boat drills and our life boat goes in the water, it's only filled with about 5 crew members so the large boat is quite spacious. Well last week they decided to fill a life boat to it's capacity of 150 people. So they rounded up 150 unlucky crew members and stuffed us inside the boat. Let me be the first to tell you that you don't want to be stuck in a life boat with 149 other people. To say it was cramped would be a gross understatement. We were lucky because most of the crew members were not wearing life jackets, which add a considerable amount of bulk to a person's body. I can only imagine what it's like when all 150 people have life vests on. I think I'll swim. 

The new hotel director wanted to create some videos that highlight crew members who have done something special for guests in which the guests have noticed and reported it to another crew member. This award winning series "Anchored in Excellence" will be on your local cable access channel this spring. The two scenarios I was told to recreate where as follows: Two guests board the Serenade and go order coffees from one of our coffee shops. The barista greets them and takes their very complicated coffee order. The guest's pay with their Sea Pass card and go on their way. Cut to: The next morning, same coffee shop. The barista see's the two guests from the previous night approaching, greets them by name and asks if they want the same order from last night (she recites the order perfectly). Well as you can imagine the guests are BLOWN AWAY that she remembered all this information. Wow, what a great cruise line! 

The other scenario involves a photographer in our photo gallery who comments on how nice a guest's camera is. The guest then explains that the camera broke today and they are worried that they lost all the pictures. The photographer offers to take a look at the camera and we find out the next morning that she has recovered all of the pictures. Hooray! These were actually a lot of fun to shoot because we reenacted the scenes with crew members playing the guests. As you can imagine, there were quite a few outtakes! 

We have a new captain beginning this cruise. I have not met him yet, but I will tomorrow night when I shove a bright camera light in his face. I've only heard him on the PA system, but he sounds like a friendly guy from Canada!

9.17

Today I walked around St. Croix for a while. I had never had the time to get off in St. Croix, so it was my first time. I decided to just walk down the coast to see what I could find. After I was out for about twenty minutes it began to rain. Rain storms in the Caribbean are really intense for about 5 minutes and then it stops and the water instantly evaporates from the heat and in 20 minutes it's like it never rained. So I took cover while it rained and then continued to walk along the water. I came to this really cool fish market where they were selling all sorts of different types of fish. There were also kids walking around with random musical instruments each playing different songs. It was pretty chaotic. I didn't buy any fish and continued to walk past the dock area. I ran out of normal road to walk on so I decided to turn back and walk along the road towards the ship. Because St. Croix is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands, they have a lot American cars so I felt right at home as big F-350s rumbled by me. 

This evening is the farewell show where I get to screen the CIR preview. I made it a little shorter this show because I feel like last time it was starting to feel less like a preview and more like you were beginning to watch it. This week I cut it down from six to four minutes and made each segment about 20 seconds shorter. I think this will (hopefully) hold the audience's attention better. I think tomorrow I have to start work at 700 because we have to run the departure slides. Apparently we'd somehow gotten out of it the past few weeks, but I guess this week we're back to running the slides. I think we basically just hangout in the broadcast room and wait for someone to call me to let me know they're ready for the next group of guests and then I change the information that displays on the TVs and monitors throughout the ship. Sounds like an exciting morning to me. I think after I do that I'm going to go out and try to find a less expensive drug store to buy some supplies I need. Hopefully I can find a place where I don't have to spend half of my life savings on soap. 

I'm getting eaten alive by some sort of flying spider like thing as I write this. This is my first encounter with bugs in the Caribbean and they are not pleasant! Closing my laptop now.