Day Four: What a Day!

Today was our first port day. We docked in Bermuda at 8:00 am. The passengers were pretty much able to get off of the ship immediately. The crew had to stay on to do their weekly emergency drill. This week they did a “Code Bravo” (fire) and Abandon Ship drill. Well, I was a little nervous about what to do, but I figured that it would all work out. I don’t think I mentioned it yet, but the crew is expected to never travel where the guests can. We are to use a specific hallway called the I-95 that is a below the decks where the guests can go. Now, I am starting to figure out that this does not necessarily apply to me since 1. I’m in the cruise staff/people that the guests are supposed to see and interact with and 2. I live on a guest deck. My neighbors paid a lot of money to be next door to me. Anyway, I was trying to go to my emergency station in the back hall, but then talked to my roommate about using the guest halls since it was an “emergency.” We decided that was good. I thought I found the restaurant where I was supposed to go, but I was on the wrong floor for the actual entrance. I was told to go upstairs and then told to cut through the galley. I kind of got lost there, too. I eventually found my way and they took attendance. Then we had to go to the theatre for another part of the drill. I was following some guy because I didn’t know where it was and we ended up sitting there for a few minutes. Then we were told to leave and go to our abandon ship spots. Well, to get the life jackets was a RIDICULOUS crowd of people. People were SHOVING to get their life vests. And this was a DRILL! Whatever. I was completely shocked though. So the girl we followed from the theatre told us to stand in a specific spot. The people around us were all having attendance taken, but not us. And only half of us were left. And we were now with the J8 sign, not the N8 sign. Oh well, she told us to stand there. So then, the English crabby guy comes town and tells us to go to our chute stations (where we would go through a chute to a life raft if we immediately had to get off of the boat). We assumed that’s were we were since the lady told us to stand there. Wrong. So we went to the other spot and stood there for a few minutes until they told us the drill was over and we went on our way.

Other than that, the port days are amazing. Once every so often you will have “Port Play” which is a 5-hour shift where you are in charge of any kids who sign up. It costs the parents money (unlike the other program times) and it’s while we’re in a port where the guests want to visit. Rarely anyone actually goes to it so it’s usually a chance to hone your Guitar Hero Skills. In the evenings of port days, we are expected to only work from 6:45-10:45 unless there is another activity on the schedule. I do not have port play this week, so I have all three days off with the opportunity to spend in Bermuda! Today .I met with a bunch of the other YCs (Youth Counselors) outside so that we could go to the beach. We took a bus from near the ship that we thought would take us to our beach of choice. It didn’t, but we had a beautiful scenic walk that took about 15 minutes to get to our beach of choice. Wow. It was absolutely amazing there. We climbed up on some huge cliff type things to look out at the ocean. Then we walked down the beach to a place where we could swim and lay out. We had a blast playing in the waves. The only downside was that on my first big wave I got hit and fell into the sand. I scraped my knees a bit. On my SECOND big wave I got hit and thrown into a rock. Much worse. Big, bloody scrape. Icky. Oh well, the water was great, laying out was a blast, and it was fun to play in the waves. When we were finished, we just caught a bus back. I went to the shopping mall near where the ship was docked to do a little shopping. I didn’t buy a ton of souvenirs because I figured I could go back next week and get them if I didn’t find anything else.

Program tonight was outer space adventures. We pretended to fly to the moon, created our own aliens, and played on the helipad. We used the parachute and lay down to look at the stars. It was a blast.

After program, we all got ready to go out. I figured that I should at least go out the first night of my first week. We met in the crew bar for drinks before we went out where they were more expensive. That’s right, we have our own bar where the beers and Smirnoff Ice’s are only ONE DOLLAR! Awesome. At about midnight we took a ferry for about 30 minutes to the town of Hamilton. Some bar owner is paying for this ferry so that everyone will come and spend money at his bar. We danced the way there on the ferry. Once we docked, we walked a few blocks to the bar. It was packed. We danced, I tried something called the “Dark and Stormy” (rum and gingerale), and I got an ego boost from the creepy locals who would hit on me (in case you are worried, Jim has NOTHING to worry about). We caught the ferry back at 3:15. On the way back, we sat at the front of the ferry and got to look out on the water as we drove. Beautiful. What a job. I made it back to the room, but I am exhausted. Good night!