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.