8.30

This morning we had a divisional safety meeting. I'm in the cruise division which includes performers, musicians and cruise staff; essentially everyone involved with entertaining the guests. The cruise director went over some safety issues that he was aware of and then people could voice any safety concerns that they had. The cruise director as read us some comments from guests that concern our division.

Following the meeting the ship held a Charlie drill, which is a security threat to the ship. This could be a bomb, stowaway, etc. This drill began because a bomb threat was called in to guest services. There are different stages of the drill and people are assigned different duties according to their emergency number. In the first stage I search the areas I'm familiar with, as it is easier to locate something that is out of place in an area that you often work in. After I've searched the broadcast area, I report back to the cruise director. After stage one nothing was found, so we moved to stage two. During stage two we found a suspicious object in the Tropical Theater so we had to evacuate the theater and the response teams and local authorities (Barbados) came in to investigate. It turned out to be a false alarm. I'm not sure where the object was found, but the entire drill lasted about 2 hours.

8.28

Today was a very busy day. Normally Sundays are slower for me because it is our turn around day, but today was extremely busy. We have a new port and shopping guide, so I had to shoot some video with her in the morning. She's been doing her job for a while so she was very prepared for the shoot which was great and made things move quickly. After I finished shooting with her, I had to go shoot the Miss Olympia candidates that were on board.

This event was very strange. The girls were competing for a television show (Telemundo!). The crew from the TV station only spoke Spanish, so it was a bit difficult to figure out what was going on or where they wanted me to go or not go, but we made things work. There were about 40 girls and they were split into 4 teams of 10 or so. After they ate lunch and pampered themselves, they held a photo and video shoot and did some interviews. After the interviews they held the first event which was a relay race on our track.

So to paint this picture in your head, image all of these girls sprinting around the track in skimpy bikinis and athletic shoes passing the baton to each other, jumping up and down, cheering and just being over enthusiastic. Now picture the shocked look on the guest's faces as they walked out onto the pool deck and looked up at the track one deck above to see this crazy event happening. It was hilarious to see them stop and stare. After all the teams ran in the relay race, we moved on to the next event (after some makeup).

I'm pretty sure the PR people sat around and thought, "What would look good for TV? Girls in bikinis rock climbing?" Yep. The 2 guys who had to "work" at the rock wall were in heaven as they helped the girls put on their harnesses. They kept calling other crew members to rub it in their face. The rock climb was a timed event, so only one girl climbed at a time. I wished they would have raced each other because the wall can handle more people, but that didn't work out for the TV logistics. Just as the last two girls were set to climb it started to rain, so everyone ran inside to seek shelter. I followed as I didn't want the camera equipment to get wet, but I also wanted to eat more of their yummy food! The rain stopped so everyone rushed back outside and the girl was hooked up to the wall ready to climb when it started to rain again, so back inside we went. It was nearing 1700 and they had to be off the ship by 1730, so they decided to move on and shoot the closing interviews. Unfortunately they couldn't shoot the last event which was suppose to be volleyball on our sports deck due to the weather.

Overall, it was a very unique experience. I'm in the process of putting together a 5 minute piece highlighting the event. Right now I'm running a 30 second promo I made last night with the girls promoting the Cruise in Review DVD because I'm going to add this event on the DVD. Hey, girls in bikinis sell and it's more money for me!

8.27

Today was actually pretty relaxing. I finished the CIR DVD last night (this morning) around 300 , so I was able to not set an alarm and slept until almost 1100 today which felt great. I leisurely got up, ate some brunch and then went up to the office to tidy up some things and get ready for the start of another cruise.

I didn't really feel like going out today (St. Thomas), but I felt like doing something so I went to the gym. We have our own crew gym, which is actually pretty decent, but we're also allowed to use the guest gym if it isn't busy. There is hardly ever anyone at the gym when we're in port so I knew it would be fine and I was right. There were only two other people besides me and one of them was another crew member.

It's really awesome to use the guest gym because it is on deck 12 all the way forward and surrounded by glass on three sides. The view is always amazing and it just seems really relaxing to workout surrounded by water. It also provides entertainment while you're exercising. For example today while I was running I was watching sea planes taxi, take off and land in the water directly in front of me. I've never seen a sea plane in operation in person so I found it really cool to watch. Sometimes the view can be a problem because occasionally I catch myself sitting on a machine or bench just staring at something out the windows and suddenly realize I haven't done anything for 5 minutes but sit and stare!

8.27

Check out this picture from our sister ship the Monach. This is the view from the cruise director's cabin. Irene looks pretty intense on the water!!

8.26

Unfortunately I haven't had time to write much of anything, but I thought I'd at least share with you some pictures of the Serenade coming into Curacao early Wednesday morning. Obviously I didn't take these pictures as I was on the ship, but a crew member we were picking up shared them with us!

Things are going to be busy this weekend as we are getting a new "Port and Shopping Guide." The Port and Shopping guides have their own channel dedicated to all things shopping, so we'll have to work with the new one to create material for the channel. Also, on Sunday Ms. Puerto Rico is coming on board (I have no idea why) so I have to follow her around the ship all day Sunday to record her every move. Things could be worse.

8.22

Impending doom in San Juan...

Tropical storm Irene has been looming since Saturday. On Sunday the Coast Guard actually closed the port of San Juan, allowing no ships to enter and we were told we had to leave as soon as possible. Typically on Sundays we arrive in San Juan at 800 and set sail with our new guests at 2000. However, this time we weren't allowed to keep to our normal schedule. Apparently the captain negotiated with the Coast Guard and worked out that we could stay in port until 1700. While we did get to stay a few extra hours, we still had to leave some guests behind because of our early departure. I'm told about 200 guests missed the ship. Major bummer for them.

It was pretty cool to literally watch things go from a semi sunny normal day to a super windy clouds of death type of day over just a few hours. The wind started to really pick up in the afternoon and it started to rain on and off for the rest of the day. The crew was instructed to secure anything that could move on the ship as we were expecting 20 foot seas that night (we typically have 4 foot seas).

At the beginning of every cruise we hold a mandatory guest safety drill in which guests have to go to their assigned assembly stations. Some of these assembly stations are located outside on decks 5 and 6. It was actually so windy that the captain turned the ship off course so the wind was blowing into our stern while the drill took place so it was easier to stand on the decks!

I help seat people in the theatre during an emergency. I stand at the top of the theater and ask to see guests Sea Pass cards as they enter, which have their designated assembly station on them. We have four different zones in the theater and often you get guests that aren't even suppose to assemble in the theatre. As I stood there it was pretty funny to watch guests walk as the came down the hallway into the theater. Everyone was zig zagging back and forth and it looked as if they were marionettes all connected by the same string!

The good news is we are now about 150 miles from Irene, which actually turned into a hurricane. The seas are smooth again and everyone is happy!

8.19

Today I went sailing in St. Maartin. It was a crew tour that I had signed up for a few days earlier hoping I would have time in my schedule to get off the ship. Luckily, I did some extra work the days prior and had enough time to leave the ship for a few hours and man was it worth it!

We stepped of the ship and were greeted by a man on the pier who took us to a small dock where he gave us some information. We were going to be racing sailboats that competed in the Americas Cup. He asked us if there was anyone in our group from Canada (there was) and he made her team captain of the Canadian boat Canada II (KC-2). Then he asked if there was anyone from the United States (there were a few) and he made Allison a team captain of Stars & Stripes (US-55). He then had each of the captains pick crew members for their boat. The captains picked back and forth until every person was assigned a boat. I was picked for the Stars & Strips team (of course).

A tripoon with 40 or so plastic lawn chairs bolted to the deck came up to the dock and we hopped on, each team sitting on one side of the boat. As we putted out away from shore, each person was assigned a position on the boat. There were main grinders, primary grinders, back stay somethingerothers and a few other positions that I can't remember their exact title. I was assigned to be a primary grinder. My job, along with three others, was to crank these winches to move the jib (more on this later).

As we motored along we could see Canada II and Stars and Stripes sailing towards us. We slowed down and Cananda II came up right along side and tied onto our boat. The Canadian team boarded and then we waited for Stars & Stripes to come along side and then we boarded as well. The boat was amazing looking! It had the two wheel cockpit setup and just looked like it was built to race (I know, it was). US-55 had three "real" crew members: Captain Morgan (yes, that was his real name) and two other mates. After we separated from the taxi boat they began to tell us each about our job positions and how the race would work.

Essentially it was a four (or three?) leg race, following Americas Cup rules which means the race begins with a running start, which was really cool. There was a judge in a motor boat who was monitoring the race. He held up a green flag meaning that the race was about to begin, then as soon as a white flag went up, we had exactly 6 minutes before we could cross the starting line. This means we had to tac back and forth at just the right speed so we could cross the starting line in front of KC-2, but not a second before the 6 minutes elapsed. We were battling back and forth with KC-2 and timed it just right so we were on our starboard tac and she had to yield to us as we crossed the starting line.

The best part about this race was that it was really a race and everyone really wanted to win. It wasn't just a generic leisurely touristy sail excursion, it was a let's go as fast as possible to beat these guys race. You could tell the captains of each ship really wanted to win too and were determined to do so. As soon as we were under way everyone was really put to work with their jobs. The captain would command the main grinders as they controlled the mainsail and depending on what tac we were on, the first or second mate (they were in pits on the port and starboard sides) would command the primary grinders. This explanation may not make sense, but the winch we were controlling as primary grinders was essentially a big steel shaft that came out of the deck. Out of the main shaft, extending to the port and starboard sides were 4 handles. Two people stood on the port and starboard side facing forward and two people stood on the port and starboard side facing aft. Imagine 4 people shoulder to shoulder but every other person is facing the opposite direction and there are handles in front of us. Now that I have you thoroughly confused I will move on. The first mate would yell things like, "standby grinders, second gear" and then "grind!" At that point we'd crank our handles as fast as we could in the desired direction (depicted by the gears) which would pull the jib until we were told to stop.

The race was so much fun but by the last leg we were probably 6 boat lengths behind Canada II. We gave it everything we had and as we neared the finish line we actually passed Canada II and were leading by about a foot. Unfortunately at the last minute Canada II crept past us and won by literally 2 or 3 inches. We were devastated.

Despite the loss, everyone had a great time. On our way inland the Captain let people drive the boat which was really cool. We then moored the boats about 300 feet from the shore and were told we were allowed to jump off the boat and swim while we waited for the water taxi to come get us. So we all hurled ourselves off the deck into the water and swam around for a while. The taxi picked us up about 20 minutes later and took us to the ships' office where we were given free rum and, more importantly, FREE T-SHIRTS! Nothing gets me more excited than a free t-shirt! I also bought a picture that was taken from the judges boat as we began the race [see photo of a photo].