Here and There

About 3 weeks ago I got my tag off that says “Earning My Ears.” Basically it was my safety card if I did anything wrong. I could just say that I’m new and didn't’ know any better. Now that I don’t have it I actually have to know my stuff. It’s been good though. I like not having to shadow somebody and just follow them around the whole time. I’m getting to know where everything is now without having to ask someone too. I still don’t know if I want to do another contract or not yet. There are a lot of ups and downs. It is really cool though being able to be on a cruise line and seeing the different innovations and products aboard the ship.

One of the things that I find super cool within the Oceaneer Club and Lab is the hand washing machines. Yes the hand washing machines. Basically they are these boxes and you stick your hands into these two little blue holes. Water stars to spray out in like a spiral motion around your hands. There is soap in it too so you basically just stand there for a minute or two and then dry your hands off.

Here are some more interesting random things about the ship.

1.) There is what’s called the I-95 for crew members aboard. It is basically this long hallway that stretches the entire length of the ship. It’s how we get to any guest area without actually walking in the guest areas. You can get to anywhere from it. the majority of the crew cabins also branch off from here. Other things along the I-95 are the crew laundry, waste room, crew mess, exit gangways, crew lounge, costume and wardrobe, and crew office.

2.) I live on stairwell 19. The stairwells go from 19 to 2 all the way through the ship. The numbers go backwards from the front of the ship to the back. This means that I am at the very front of the ship or Forward. One of the things about living at the front is that it is very rocky. The ship moves the most at the front because that is where it hits the water first when it moves. I get to hear a lot of loud crashing noises when the ship goes up and down. Yay. Honestly though it is not that bad. At the beginning I suppose living Forward helped me get over seasickness very quickly, and it is nice when you are taking a nap or going to bed because the ship kind of rocks you to sleep J What was worst for me in the beginning was that my room in particular is right next to the anchor. So every time the anchor comes down or up (roughly every other day) I hear this terribly loud grinding noise accompanied by the shaking of our entire cabin. After 4 weeks though I seem to have acquired a superpower that allows me to sleep through the noise. I’m glad it happened because otherwise I would probably be dead on my feet.

3.) Everyone aboard a ship is terrified of what is call GI or AGE. It is a virus common on ships where you are basically on the toilet or throwing up all the time. Because of this, we take extreme precaution in all areas as far as cleanliness goes. In the Youth Activities department in particular we have to 3 bucket almost every single toy in the facility. 3 bucketing means that we wash the toys in soap, then water, and then bleach. The toys are cleaned every single night. Yes this means they are clean, and yes it also means a lot of work. Not only are all the toys 3 bucketed every night, but also the whole entire space we use. Every room in the Oceaneer Lab and Club gets cleaned. Basically we are always clean and ready for a new group of people to come every night. The only procedure that is different when we get a new group of cruisers is that the dress-up clothing gets taken out to be washed and we rotate in a new set from backstage.

4.) Other precautions as far as GI goes is that every time we go into the crew mess we have to wash our hands, and every time we leave the crew mess we wash our hands. They even have cameras set up to make sure people do. I’m not sure how often they actually use but they are still there. If you do happen to catch GI you are put on isolation in the Medical Center and only allowed to eat certain types of foods. If you neglect to tell the medical center that you have had symptoms of GI and they find out you could get fired, even if nothing happened. An outbreak of GI across the whole ship could cost the company and us way too much to not be handled with care. Even guests are subject to stern GI policies. If a child throws up or has diarrhea they are not allowed back into our space at all until they give us a slip that says they have been cleared by the medical center.

5.) Along the same lines as cleaning, we have inspection in our cabins every Thursday morning from 9:30 until 10:30. At this time we have to be dressed with beds made and assigned life jackets sitting on top of our beds. If your room is not clean they will either make a note for you to fix or clean it, or they can write you up. You can be in your room but if you are they can ask to look in your cabinets. Usually people will just get breakfast around this time and come back later if they don’t have to work right away.

6.) I am an officer! Well technically I am a petty officer on board the ship. There are like three levels of rank on the ship. Officers, petty officers, and… other people. I’m not sure what they are called. Maybe seamen. Youth activities and many sections in the Entertainment department are petty officers mainly because we have a lot of guest interaction. Basically we get more privileges like housekeeping and being able to use some of the guest sections of the ship while we are not working. Petty officers are half a stripe and officers are ranked depending on how many stripes they wear on their uniforms.

I’ll post more later but I wanted to get a little bit up first. 

Training

Sorry I haven’t posted anything recently. Life has been so busy and I have literally had no free time. Training week started out with just a couple hours in a room and then the rest of the day to explore Disney World!!! The first day we went to the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Everyone had a blast and we ended up eating at this dinosaur restaurant that is like Rainforest Café, but dinosaur themed. Before that, we were able to see the fireworks and light show called Fantasmic. It was amazing! The next day was our Disney Traditions class. This was basically an all day class about how Disney got started and the ideas and concepts that make Disney and Disney Cruise Lines the company that it is today. After that we still had the night off so we went to Epcot and wandered around there for a while. Epcot has a whole area devoted to themed sections of different parts of the world. We ate “in Germany” and had some snitzel and beer :) Fireworks started again right as we finished dinner. Then we went back to out hotel because we had to be up the next morning at 5 am in order to get on the bus that would take us to the ship. Our first day was full of a lot of classes and information. We got a tour of the ship as well and ate at the crew mess. The food is basically the same as anything you might get at the dinning commons on a college campus. After that it was more meetings and taking a picture with Mickey and Minnie Mouse. We met with our managers next and saw the spaces we would be working in. The whole rest of the week was more meetings about on board safety, security, and activities.

During the first week we docked at Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, and Cozumel. Unfortunelty due to weather we were not able to stop at Grand Cayman, but that meant that we got a longer period of time at Costa Maya. We were able to get off the ship then and had lunch right on the beach. Later that night we also went out to this place called Senor Frogs. It’s really popular with the staff and I’ve seen it at almost every port we have been to so far.

The Disney Fantasy stops at Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island) every Friday during the week. While here we had a tour of the island, ate at the crew bbq, and also toured the kids spaces with our manager.

During this whole week we were also able to work some in the Oceaneer Lab and Oceaneer Club. These are the children’s spaces on board the ship. These spaces are for children ages 3-12. The Lab is geared more for older children and the Club is geared more for younger children. There are tons of activities in both spaces. Maybe I’ll try and go further into detail on them in another post. Some things I don’t think I can put up on the internet though. For training I got placed in the Oceaneer Club. The nice thing about the Club is that you generally work later, get off earlier, and have shorter breaks. The Labbies on the other hand, generally work earlier, get off later and have really random long breaks.

This week we had an Eastern Carribean cruise where last week was a Western Carribean. The ports for this cruise were St. Thomas and San Juan. At St. Thomas there is this small pizza shop right off the dock that the crew like to go to because there is free wifi and the pizza is amazing. You can get one slice but it is gigantic. They fill it with all kinds of toppings and you basically have to eat it with a fork and knife. My favorite stop so far though has been San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was so pretty and full of personality. Plus there was a Starbucks which just makes everything better :) Also, at both of these ports I get cell service! They are United Stated ports so AT&T supports cell phones here. I’ll be trying to get off at these ports as much as possible. Sometimes our schedules though do not really allow us to get off though. Even though we may have a one hour break, that is not enough time to get off the ship, go out and explore, and then get back on the ship in time for work.

Today I worked the snorkel area on the island. This basically means that I just made sure that everyone was wearing their life jackets and had their snorkel gear when they went into that section of the water. I also did lunch for the kids which went by pretty quick and then went for a run. It is so beautiful there and it was so nice to be able to be out in the sun. I had a four hour break and now it’s back to work on the ship until midnight. I’ll update again as soon as I can, hopefully with more details about the Oceaneer Club and Lab. I miss you all!

Pre-Departure

Hello! On to the next adventure. This Saturday I will board the Disney Fantasy to start work as a Youth Activities Counselor! I feel sea sick already. I have been studying and reading various internet articles, blogs, and youtube videos to try and figure out what to expect these next coming months. What I've figured out so far: 1.) Be prepared to battle sea sickness your first couple weeks 2.) Training includes watching lots of disturbing videos about ships sinking and nasty cuts and diseases you might encounter 3.) People can smoke inside the crew cabins! (I really hope my roommate is a non-smoker) 4.) The food brings you back to those glorious days of freshman year in college eating at the dining commons, edible but not gourmet. And 5.) It's worth it. From what I've seen and heard so far is that it's a lot of work, but such an incredible experience and worth doing. I hope that I can make the most of this experience and really enjoy the ups and downs of life at sea. Forget about the American Dream, I want the Disney Fantasy.