Week 5

I haven't posted all this week.. I'm starting my 6th week! I can't believe how fast my time here is going! We just finished a Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, and Freeport trip. I hung out at the beach in Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay which was very nice. We're only making that trip 2 more weeks so I've got to enjoy my time there!

I had a good group of kids this week. Another small group, but they were fun. They participated in most things and had a good time. Last night they all give me a Club O2 shirt which they had all signed with sweet notes. It was such a nice surprise!

We found out this week that our ship is now #1 fleet wide for having the best youth program! A big part of that is because the teen programs ratings going up. Very exciting!

Coast Guard

This morning we had coast guard come and run a boat drill with us. They do this on every ship approximately every 6 months. They ensure that we all know what to do in an emergency and they make the call if we set sail or not. If things don't run smoothly and we seem like we have no idea what we're doing, we don't leave port.

We do what we usually do for boat drill. I had to run up to my club (on deck 10) only to find that the fire door was closed and I couldn't get it! The stairs that I take to get up there were also closed off because they were doing a fire drill so I was frantically running around calling my supervisor to figure out what to do! I finally got in and then had to go down to deck 3 which is where the youth counsellors meet and then I went to my assigned literacy. I am the only American and only girl in my raft, so I really hope I never have to be on that thing..

It's very nerve racking because the Coast Guard can ask anyone a question on any of the emergency things we've learned, and apparently they are very intimidating. Luckily, idiot get asked anything, although I'm confident I would have known the answer!

I'm out in Baltimore now waiting on food from Cheesecake Factory!

Training

I've had to do all kinds of training since I've started here. Some inconveniently have to be done on days we are in port like Grand Turk and Freeport, but it's all part of the job!

Our training center ladies try to make it as fun and short as possible; they are great. So far I've had to do a few environmental trainings, which I don't understand at all. First off, we learn about things I don't understand, and secondly the environmental officer is from Italy and is very hard to understand.

I've also had to do Crowd and Crisis management where we learn how to control crowds in case of an emergency. Most of it is interesting, except they show videos of ships sinking or catching fire and it scares me just a bit..

Disney

I finally got to go to Disney today! It was so much fun! Everything I expected and more. I didn't get to pose with a lot of the characters because there were long lines and we didn't feel like waiting, but we saw the parade so I saw most of them during that! I took a lot of pictures on my camera so I'll put those up eventually!

Grand Turk

So we had a sad event happen in Grand Turk this week. A woman was found face down in the water and was dead. Not sure what happened; if she had a heart attack or couldn't swim. I haven't heard a lot of details about it except that she was probably in her 70s. We left Grand Turk about an hour and a half late because they were taking her body off the ship and her family left with her. We do have a morgue on board here, but it's ultimately up to the family as to what they want to do. If they want to wait until we get back to home port or leave. That would be such a hard decision to make! Grand Turk is a very small island with a very small airport so it would not be easy to travel back, but it also wouldn't be fun to wait out the rest of the vacation.

I'm not sure what Carnival does; I don't think they would pay for the trip home, but maybe they bring a private jet in? And I'm sure they reimburse their cruise or offer then another one.

Very, very sad.

Boat Drill

Yesterday I had my first boat drill. Boat drill is where they test us/refresh us on what to do in an emergency. Every Sunday we do a safety briefing with our guests where we wait at the muster stations (where the lifeboats are) and the guests come and we line them up, just so the guests know where they go in case of an actual emergency. During safety briefing I stand at muster station D and hand out wristbands to kids under the age of 11 so in case they are separated from their family, we know where to take them.

Boat drill is for us crew to complete our full emergency duties. So if there was a real emergency, I wouldn't just go to muster station D and hand out wristbands. I would first go up to deck 10 and make sure Club O2 is clear. For us camp staff, we meet at the Ivory Piano bar on deck 3 and bring any children with us. We then take the kids to our specifies miter station (mine is D) and we reunite them with their families. If we cannot find their families we keep them with us. We ALWAYS keep unclaimed children with us. We are then supposed to go back into the piano bar with any leftover kids, but our supervisor argues this. She says why would you and any children come back into the ship where something is going wrong?! So she tells us to wait at the muster stations.

Then we wait for the announcement for crew to reach their final destination. Mine had been a crew muster station on deck 4, but it is now muster station D. Which is nice because in case something does happen, I don't have to go anywhere!

I also had crowd and crisis management training yesterday. We just learn what to do in an emergency, how to be assertive and keep people calm. They showed us a video of emergencies that have happened on ships, one of which was a cruise ship in Europe that sank in 15 minutes. Thank guys, that didn't scare me or anything...

We also have I wear our lifejackets the whole one during boat drill. Here is me in mine- Hot, I know!

Atlantis!

Yesterday we were in beautiful Nassau in the Bahamas. I think this may be my new favorite place on our trip. It is gorgeous there and there is so much to do. Right off the ship there are shops and all kinds of restaurants like Señor Frogs. Some of the Entertainment staff went to Breezes yesterday which is basically a beach bar with all you an eat and drink, etc.

I went to the Atlantis with 3 o my friends. It was an $8 can ride there an we paid $80 with our crew IDs (the tickets are usually $175). Our ticket allowed access to the water park, beach, and aquarium. The ground there are so beautiful, and the aquarium is awesome! I took a few pictures from my phone and some on my underwater camera that I will upload later. Enjoy!