Busy Busy Busy... but what else is new!

It’s been a little while, basically a month, since I wrote last. It’s been a busy last few weeks here on the Glory. I will just get straight into things…

So when I signed back on the Glory, my cruise director that was here when I signed on originally had just signed off medically with some back issues. So, our assistant cruise director (ACD) took over as CD (cruise director). He had never acted as CD before so he was pretty nervous about things. Well with him becoming the new CD that meant we needed an ACD to fill in. The plan was to rotate the duty of being ACD between all the hosts. Well, the head office heard about that and shot it down. They wanted one person to do it so Kim who was the first one to do it, just stuck with it for a while. She was to sign off on the 25^th of August so that is when we would figure out who would do it next. Well with it being my first cruise back since my week vacation and all the other changes that were going on, I’d say it was definitely going to be a cruise where we all needed to work together to get things done. I was feeling very refreshed and ready for all the upcoming challenges and I thought we handled everything that came our way pretty well. When I say everything that came our way, some of you might think that sounds like the cruise from hell. Well, it wasn’t quite, but it was pretty crappy, literally! It started out as just another 5 day cruise to St. John and Halifax, but ended on a bad note. We had a GI outbreak on board, which is never a good thing anywhere, but on a cruise ship it really isn’t a good thing. I won’t describe what it is, but hopefully you have caught my drift already. It is highly contagious and on a ship it will travel real fast. Supposedly we ended up with almost 6% of our guests on board with it and a big majority of them being under the age of 18. They had to quarantine those who were sick to their cabins, but that is only if they listened. We almost had issues docking in NYC because our outbreak was so large that they wouldn’t allow us to dock, but thankfully we were able to do so. There were talks about if things were worse we might have had to all leave the ship and stay in hotels for a couple nights, all kinds of rumors going around, but nothing came of most of them. FYI Rumors travel really fast when you are on a ship because they have nowhere else to go. We tried to get in early to start debarking guests so we could get the ship cleaned and sanitized before the next set of guests go on board. This was also the morning of my birthday! Happy Birthday to me! I got to get up at the crack of dawn to get a bunch of sick guests off the ship! Oh well, part of the job. Anyway, we did end up getting in a bit early, but no one was there to clear the ship so we can’t let anyone off the ship. A lot of the times we port somewhere and we will be on time, but it takes some time to get cleared. So we finally started getting guests off about 630ish I believe, which was a bit earlier than our normal 7am start. But, they had told us and all the guest they would be ready by 6am, so you can imagine the amount of guests that came down at 6am trying to get away from all the sick people. Let’s just say they weren’t too happy and they just think that me and the other hosts do everything on board. We are the customs officers, we tie the ropes off, we direct the guests, and we get their luggage off the ship too, man if I could do all that I would hope I would be paid a bit more. Haha Some guests are just too funny with the things that they think.

Well I had a wonderful birthday in NYC and working of course. Got to have some delicious pizza for lunch and then did a little walking around NYC. With the GI outbreak we had last cruise we had to still be very cautious of things. It was a pretty normal 5-day cruise. I got to go to the steakhouse on board for my birthday with the host team as well a few others. That was a nice treat. We also had a medical emergency on board that required us to get back to NYC early again so we had another early debark morning. The thing about the early debark mornings is that they tell everyone we will be ready at 6am and then aren’t ready until 6:45am. You can imagine how happy guests are that they got up early and still can’t get off the ship.

On the 16^th Jason, our only male on the host team signed off because he was selected to be on the inaugural cast on the Spirit that is starting out of Australia in October! We were all very excited for him and very jealous!! On the 20^th when we’re in NYC I went to the top of the Empire State Building with Josh, Andy, and Meechy! It was a blast!! It was Meechy’s last day in NYC because she was signing off next NYC so it was nice to hang out with some friends and do some sight seeing. I’ll post some pictures so you can all see the view. It was a bit hazy so I wish it had been a bit clearer, but oh well. I also wish I would have had a wide angle lens for my camera but I can’t have it all J

The cruise of the 25^th I was on duty so I couldn’t get off the ship, which was fine. I always know before hand when I’m going to be on duty. I actually kind of enjoy it even though your days are a bit longer, you can really get to know some guests better. You create a following of people that show up to all your activities. There was a huge wedding reception happening on the cruise so they were all there for a good time and followed me around for a lot of my activities it was a lot of fun! Reminded me a lot of home and made me a bit homesick but I’m doing all right now. Of course my duty cruise would not be complete without something happening. This time it was a computer crashing and not just any computer, it’s the computer that runs the automation for the production shows, aka a REALLY important one! Without this computer, we can’t run our shows correctly; it is a huge safety hazard. So that happened our first night at sea and we ended about 5 minutes short of the first show and couldn’t put on the second show because of it. At that time we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to put on the other two shows on the last sea day as well. It’s that big of an issue. We even had to do bingo the old fashion way and turn the tumbler and let the balls roll out. Haha, it was an eventful night that’s for sure. We did end up getting to run the other two shows without the drops so that was nice because otherwise we would have had to go to plan b which I heard is not very fun. But we all survived and we didn’t have too much else happen the rest of the cruise which was nice.

When I got back into NYC, one of the hosts, Laura, is engaged and wanted to go wedding dress shopping so Dana and I went with her. It was a lot of fun and she found a gorgeous dress!! We had some lunch and then went back to the ship. It was a fun relaxing day and now I’m here in St. John enjoying some time to catch up with everyone. It’s been so nice and refreshing. When I get back on board there will be a new cruise director who will take over on Monday when I get back to NYC. Should be an exciting time because there are even more changes coming up! Only 34 days until Mom and Dad cruise! Yay!! 91 until I’m home and 117 until I’m back in Kansas!! I love what I’m doing but I’m also very excited to see everyone again. Miss and love you all!

Love and Smiles,

<3 A

Times Square on my Birthday!

 Looking uptown towards central park

Looking downtown towards the freedom tower

Me, Andy, Meechy, and Josh

Heading back to the Glory

Well Hello Everyone, 

Some of you are expecting me to be writing to you from somewhere in the warm Caribbean, but others of you have heard that I didn't even really make it there. That's right, I'm back on the Glory currently in Canada today. I did leave on the 31st to head down to Miami to fly to Belize to get on the Conquest, but Miami was as far as I got. 

The morning of the 31st, I had to check out of my room, drop my bags off, and go thru immigration before I could get off the ship. The night before I was packing my things up and had decided that I was not as efficient as I could be and that I should really get another suit case when I get down to Miami. Until then I had to work with what I had, which was way too much stuff. Shocker! I ended up with 2 checked bags and 3 carry ons. Don't ask me how I was going to pull this off because I was heading to the airport and still had no idea. I get into immigration and I have my three carry ons with me and the MSA lady tells me that I have 2 packages waiting for me in the office that had just showed up this morning. (BTW, the MSA is the office basically, any mail, ID issues, lost name tags, that kind of stuff you take care of there) I had been expecting these packages but also hoping they could be sent to the Conquest so I wouldn't have to worry about carrying the extra weight. Well, that obviously didn't happen so here I am with 3 carry ons to carry and now 2 pretty good size boxes. Oh goody! lol So, I called Mom and woke her up :) and asked her if I could open them so I could try and distribute what was in them so I could carry things a bit easier. Well, thankfully I had asked Mom and Dad for a new back pack for my birthday and they had found the one that I wanted and that was inside so I got to use that to carry some stuff and it was very helpful! The back pack that I had, but left at home I had used all through high school and college, needless to say it was time for a new one, so Thank you Mom and Dad! :) You are the bestest!

I arrive at the airport and thankfully they don't weigh my bags because I would imagine that at least one would have been over weight. My flight to Miami was nothing out of the ordinary, and I got to the hotel and everything safe and sound. Decided I would just have a relaxing night and not go out or anything the first night. Got to catch up with a lot of friends and family so that was nice. The next day, I got up and went to a mall and did some shopping. It was a pretty cool mall called Dolphin Mall. It has a lot of the outlet stores which was really nice. I found a new suitcase and a few other things, but I spent the afternoon walking around there. It was pretty big so you definitely needed some time to walk around.  I did treat myself to a manicure and pedicure, which felt amazing. It was during my pampering of myself that I received an email saying "Do not get on the plane tomorrow, you are heading back to the Glory on Monday". Well, it didn't say it like that but it was pretty close. The CD (Cruise Director) Josh on the Glory had been having some back issues and he needed to sign off medically so they figured it would be easier for me to come back since I knew the ship already and everyone than having someone new come and have to figure everything out. When I got off in Boston, the ship headed out to New York to relocate. So Wednesday the Glory was in New York, but by the time that I found out about heading back to the Glory, I would not have made it in time. Chris, my ultimate boss said that he would wait to fly me out to New York on Monday rather than trying to get me on there earlier when they port in Canada, just because it'll be less hassle. I was very thankful to hear that because last time I tried to fly into Canada from Miami, it didn't work too well. So, they had me switch hotels so I was closer to the head quarters and there was a little bit more around there. So I tried to meet up with Chris on Thursday but he ended up having a super busy day so we planned for the next day. He did pass my number along to some of the guys in the office so they contacted me and I went around Miami with them and went to dinner. It was really fun driving around Miami in a convertible! Friday I went into the office to help out the guys and meet up with Chris. It was pretty fun, not too many people in the office, but it was nice to see the other side a bit. I got to help book the flights of all the comedians that fly on board. I also got to pick my next ship! I'm very excited about it!! I'm happy to share with you that my next ship will be the Dream!! I'll start in January and I will be based out of Port Canaveral which is close to Orlando, FL. So if anyone wants to come cruise with me, I'll be there, January 19th thru the 20th of July, I'd love to have some of you come join me. I'm super excited about the ship and the run. I will also know the sound tech as well. He is the same one that is on the Glory right now and will be signing on just a couple of days before me. His name is Josh. 

The rest of the weekend I just kind of took it easy. I did go tour Marlins Park which was awesome! I'll post some pictures on the bottom of the post. From the ball park I walked about 3 miles to downtown and Bayside which is super close to the cruise port. I tried to meet up with Harrison from my host college because he was on the Valor which was in port, but he was Host on Duty so he couldn't get off the ship. It was a big bummer, but oh well. I can't do much about it. So I enjoyed a lunch by myself while looking at the Carnival Valor. Sunday I just hung out and repacked all my stuff so that it would be easier to travel back to the Glory. I had a 6am flight back to NYC on monday morning. Once I got back on the Glory it was just like old hat obviously since I hadn't been gone very long. I had missed one cruise. Some people knew I was coming back, others were surprised to see me. Either way it has been good to get back. I was a bit bummed I didn't get to go to the caribbean for a few weeks, but I'm happy I get to spend my birthday with people that I have known for a little while now. It's gonna be nice and fun. Plus, who wouldn't want to spend their birthday in NYC!! I'm really pumped about that! 

Anyway, I'm going to get going back to the ship, but I'll talk to you all soon. Take care until then.

Love and Smiles,

Alyssa

These are a couple of my closest friends here on the Glory!! Meechy and Josh 

Switching things up!

Hey guys,

Well I know I just posted a blog not too long ago, but it took me a while from the time I wrote that to the time that I actually posted it. I figured I’d write one and post it actually after I was finished. The reason it took me so long to post the last one was that I finished it on my second sea day of the cruise and then the following cruise I was host on duty, which means I can’t leave the ship for a whole cruise so I wasn’t able to go get any free Wi-Fi. When you are on a cruise ship for so long, your first stop off the ship is usually to get some free Internet.

So, I am going to back up a bit to last cruise. I was host on duty as I said earlier and that means that I have to stay on the ship from the morning we arrive in Boston until the last sea day obviously. Then, the following morning when we arrive in Boston I will no longer be on duty. As host on duty, you must run all the activities while in port for those guests that either choose to stay on board, come back early, or leave the ship late. The activities are usually a basketball free throw competition, beanbag toss (what the ship calls it) or corn hole (what I call it), and then a mini golf tournament followed by a trivia usually. Most of the time you have the same people following you around to the activities so you kind of gather a little mini family. I really enjoy this part of being on duty because you can really get to know some guests. It’s really nice. Other things that I have to do while on duty are: pick up the bingo cards, set up for some activities (fun hop, 60 seconds or less, prepare for deck Olympics, etc.), put out the morning puzzles, and do the morning trivia every morning. Again, most trivias you have the same people showing up all cruise long so you can kind of get to know them a bit more as well as them getting to know you.

Oh, I don’t think I have mentioned this yet, but our entire host team has nicknames so when I came on board they had to think of one for me. Suzie, our Cruise Director’s wife, thought of one for me; she decided on Alycious. Everyone decided that it fit pretty well so I now introduce myself as Alyssa but around here I go by Alycious. I have guests calling me Alycious once in a while lol I’m finally getting used to it. At first it would catch me off guard or I wouldn’t recognize it lol. But now, I’ve gotten used to it and I will respond to it just like Alyssa.

Well the last couple of cruises have flown by. Since our last 4 day cruise, We have had two 5 day ones. The first one I was on duty, this last one just flew by. I think it was because there was a lot going on at home that I was thinking about. Happy Belated Birthday Cameron!! And Happy Birthday Aunt Betty!! I hope you both had wonderful birthdays. I was definitely thinking about you guys and I definitely watched Spiderman on your birthday Cam. I wish I could have been there to celebrate with everyone, but I’ll try and make it back for next year.

As of right now, I’m sitting on one of our open decks writing to you all (although, you won’t be reading this until 2 days later). Today we were in Boston and it was our last day in port here until September. We will be back here in 5 days but it will just be to debark the guests then we will take off for New York City for our relocation. We will just have an over night and embark guests the next day in NYC. I’ve really loved what I have seen of Boston, but I’m very excited for NYC. Today I was lucky enough to go tour Fenway Park!! I had been pumped about this for the entire cruise because I had planned it as soon as we left Boston the time before. I went with two girls from Camp Carnival, which is our youth program here on board. Kellie, Meechy, and I all went together and had a blast. It was nice to spend a day out enjoying baseball with some girls that enjoy baseball as much as me. I was completely in awe of Fenway. All the history that is there and just the fact that I can say I sat on the Green Monster is pretty cool. I would have loved to catch a game, but maybe I can in September when we start coming back to Boston. I even charged my phone while I was in the press box!! How many people can say they did that?! Haha not too many! Well I will post some pictures that I took on the bottom of the post so those of you who have never been there can check it out.

Well, this next part is just about as surprising to you all as it is me because I had just finished telling you about getting ready for relocation. I finished writing about Fenway and it was time for me to start working for the evening so I shut my computer down and went to get ready. As I’m getting ready to head up to the Lido deck for our sail away party, I see our cruise director and he said he wanted me to stop by after I finished sail away. That was fine with me because he has had me do that before just because there are little things I’m working on to try and be an even better host. That is what I figured he wanted to talk about. Well I come down after sail away and he let me know that I am being transferred. I’m being sent to the Conquest because they need some help on their ship and the Glory is the only ship in the entire fleet that has 4 hosts and we are only budgeted for 3.5 hosts. I’m not sure where you can find half a host, but oh well. So yes, I’m only being transferred temporarily to the Conquest as of right now. This will be my last cruise on the Glory and I will debark in Boston and miss the relocation to NYC. I will then meet the Conquest in Belize on August 2^nd. I will be there until the 24^th of August and then fly back to the Glory. The Conquest is out of New Orleans and does a couple of different 7-day runs while I’m there. I’m sad to be leaving here so soon because I’ve started to make some really good friends, but I’m also excited because I get to do some more traveling and have some more adventures. The thing that I’m least excited about is that I have to pack again and lug all my crap through the airport and all that jazz, especially since I’m going to be traveling internationally. Yes, I know my life is rough. Haha I don’t know too many hosts that can say they have been on 3 different ships in their first 2 months with the company. The whole reason I am going is because I am the newest one to this ship, the girls have contracts that are ending soon and Jason needs to stay to balance out the girl to guy ratio. I’m perfectly fine with transferring; I’m honored actually that Josh, my CD, has enough faith in me to send me. It is only going to make me an even better host. I’m also very excited that I will be back in the Caribbean for a little while. I’m going to try and get as tan as possible while I’m there. I’m feeling a bit white since I wear long pants and a sweatshirt just as much as I do a tank top and shorts.

Well, I think that’s enough excitement for now as I will be posting this tomorrow when I get into St. John, New Brunswick. I got lucky and don’t have to do gangway in the morning so I can get off the ship a bit earlier. For those of you that are reading this and are either on their way up or already there, I hope you have a blast at Lake Almanor. I had been doing a good job of keeping it off my mind that I had even forgot that it was the end of the month already, but then I was talking to Mom yesterday telling her that I was getting transferred and she didn’t even want to tell me what she was doing on Saturday because she knew it would make me upset. As hard as I tried to keep it in, I ended up crying. I’m definitely going to miss being there with you guys. I hope to skype with you all on Sunday maybe? If not I’m sure I will have a day off before I head to the Conquest. I hope everyone has a drink and an extra bite for me while you are up there. J Also one last major thing as well, congrats to my absolutely amazing friends Elizabeth and Ande!! I wish I could be with you two today to celebrate the joining of your lives. I’m definitely thinking about you guys. I’m there in spirit. 

Love and Smiles to everyone,

Alyssa

ps. I'm attaching the link to my cruise director's blog. He is a pretty cool and funny guy. I also got mentioned in his last post! :) http://bigsexyinc.com/

Me sitting on the GREEN MONSTER!!!

Meechy and Kellie!!

Yes, I charged my phone in the press box!!

The red seat is where the farthest home run was hit in the stadium. 

First few weeks on the GLORY!!!

Hello All,

I hope the month of July is finding everyone in good health and a festive spirit. I can’t believe that it is the 10^th of the month already and I have been doing this for a month already. Some days it feels like I just started, others I feel like I have been doing it for months already. Either way I still can’t keep my days straight. Haha I think today is Tuesday and that is only because that is what my computer is telling me. For all I know it might actually be Wednesday in Canada and no one told me. J Being on an itinerary that does 4 & 5 day runs causes you to really lose track of your days. I’m in port in Boston every other Saturday, but then that will change because we do three 5 day runs in a row so it will shift everything a bit. Right now, I am currently on a 5 day cruise and enjoying an afternoon off in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I have been on the Glory for 13 days now, and I’m finally feeling like I’m getting in the groove of things. I am staying busy and that is not an understatement. Between all the trainings and new ship things I have to learn, along with how this ship does things I’ve been learning a lot. We also had an ACD handover, which is when the current ACD (Assistant Cruise Director) is leaving on vacation so another ACD comes on board to take his place. Sometimes the ACD that is leaving would come back from vacation and want to go to a different ship, but in this case, John is coming back in September. So the ACD that we currently have is Pete and he is only here for the 2 months that John is going to be gone. Our Cruise Director (CD) is Josh aka Big Sexy (from Chicago). The other hosts are currently Kim (from Chicago), Dana (from Ohio), and Jason (from Chicago). Kim is signing off at the end of August, Dana is sometime in September and then Jason is the beginning of November right before dock.

Our itinerary changes a bit coming up soon so it’ll be fun to readjust to everything. After this cruise is over, we will do our last 4-day out of Boston, followed by three straight 5 days ending on the 31^st of July. After we debark all of the guest on the morning of the 31^st, we will head out and have a 1-day relocation to New York City!! Only crew on board so I heard that there are some pretty good parties that day. J We will then continue with 4 & 5 day cruises out of NYC, then on September 8^th, we will start 7 day cruises out of NYC. The 4 & 5 day cruises will go to the same two Canadian ports that we currently go to out of Boston, but when we start the 7 day cruises, we will add stops in Boston and Portland, Maine. I’m really excited to be able to go back to Boston and especially check out Maine with all the fall colors that will be out. Then October 13^th, we will have another relocation and head down to Norfolk, Virginia. When we get to Virginia, we won’t be there too long, we will do a 6 day, 2 day, 6 day, then a 5 day. After those 4 cruises our ship heads into dry dock for 2 weeks from the 2^nd of November until the 14^th. I am not exactly sure where the dry dock will be, I’ve heard a couple of different things. Guess I will find out soon enough. I’m not exactly sure what will happen to me either when the ship goes into dry dock. I will have a month left on my contract, so I could possibly get transferred somewhere else, or get put up in a hotel for 2 weeks, or even sent home for 2 weeks. Anything could happen and I probably won’t know until the last minute. My sign off date is the 2^nd of December though so after dry dock I wouldn’t be on this ship for too much longer.

It is an absolutely gorgeous day here in Halifax, about 75-80 degrees. I’m out on one of the open decks for the crew on a lounge chair writing to you all. I wish I could say I was on the beach in Cozumel, but Canada will have to do this time. I really miss the beach and the warmer weather, but if I can keep getting weather like this, I’ll be all right with it. Haha The crowd that comes to cruise out of Boston is a lot different than the crowd that comes to cruise out of Tampa; that is for sure. But the job is still the same. I do a lot of the same activities as I did on the Paradise. We have lots of trivias throughout the cruise, we do Game Show Mania, 60 seconds or Less, Gender Showdown, Love and Marriage show, Liars club, Deck Olympics, Mixology Contest, Men’s Hairy Chest, and we even have a Murder Mystery that lasts all cruise long and of course we have lots of BINGO games. I have been a part of most of the activities except, Liars club and Love and Marriage. Liars club, I will help with next cruise and Love and Marriage hosts don’t normally help with because Josh our CD hosts it. I also have show watches where I have to walk around and tell all the guests that don’t like to listen to the house rules that they can’t take pictures during the shows. It is amazing how each show is so different. The other night I had to do both show watches and the first show no one took pictures and then the second show, everyone was taking pictures. I had to keep walking back and forth and what I found funny was that I kept walking in front of the same people to tell other guests to stop, then they tried to start taking pictures. They must have thought I was just walking over to say hi or something. Haha I just didn’t get it. I also find it funny when guests try to be sneaky about it, like we can’t see what they are doing. So I will tell you now, if you come visit me on a ship, please don’t take pictures during the show. It is out of respect for the dancers and it is against the International Copyright Law. Thank you J Some of the other things that I have to do is gangway assistance and debark in the mornings when we get back to Boston. Those are some early mornings, but they don’t bother me. I can sleep when I am dead. Right Mom? J For the next couple of weeks I also have to help with the Comedy Club. I will be running the mic and lights and all the technical stuff. We are short on technicians so the hosts have learned to run the club and will do so until we are back to full staff in the tech department. I will also have to occasionally host the comedy club. Jason does it on a regular basis, but when he is host on duty it rotates between us girls who aren’t on duty. If anyone doesn’t understand any of the games I mentioned above feel free to ask me about them, I’d love to share more with you guys.

I am now in the middle of the 4-day cruise. I got busy and stopped writing, but I am back now. I am currently in St. John. I was supposed to have a training this morning, but it got cancelled so I was able to get off the ship for a little bit and went and got something to eat and used some free internet. I went with Pete to a restaurant called Cora’s; they only serve breakfast and lunch. I had a HUGE crepe with Nutela and bananas in it. It definitely wasn’t the same as Grama’s but still delicious. I just kept eating and I’m not sure how, I was so full. In the end, I didn’t finish it. I spent the afternoon doing laundry and enjoying a bit of relaxation time. You learn to really cherish the time off that you get because when you are working it is go, go, go all the time. I like that though, although a nap here and there is nice too. J Well, I hope to talk to you all soon. I know there are a lot of people reading this and I do my best to talk to everyone that I can. I’m often online in the middle of the day which I know is hard for a lot of people, but I would love to hear from everyone. Hope all is well.

Love and Smiles,

Alyssa 

On to the GLORY!!

As I sit here writing, I’m people watching at the Newark airport with the beautiful skyline of New York City behind me. I wish I had time to go to the city, but I don’t and I’ll be back in just over a month. Yes, I said I’ll be back in a month!! I found out that I am going to be on the Carnival Glory. The Glory is currently based out of Boston with 4 and 5 day cruises to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In August, the homeport will switch to NYC while continuing to go to Canada. I’m excited I get to spend my birthday in New York!! Haha then October we will move down to Virginia and start heading to the Bahamas. November, we will have the first two weeks in dry dock as we get ready to roll out Fun Ship 2.0. It’s a huge roll out fleet wide that is taking several years to do so I’m excited that I get to be on a ship during a roll out. Now, I don’t know if it’s guaranteed that I’ll stay on during the dry dock or not yet, but I’m sure I’ll find out soon. After the dry dock, we head on down to Miami and keep heading to the Bahamas throughout the winter months. I’m very excited about my ship and my itineraries as they are always changing and really going to keep me on my toes. If you want to book a cruise to come see me on the Glory, you can go to carnival.com and specifically select the Glory and I also suggest selecting the date range of July 2012- December 2012 so that you get the right itineraries up.

Anyway, the last couple of weeks have been incredible and very busy all at the same time. The four of us “chickens” as they called us got so very close that it was hard to leave everyone yesterday. We had been doing all kinds of things all over the ship, like deck parties, trivia, game show mania, watching the production shows, debark and tender dispatch, and bingo. We also had to cover karaoke for a couple of nights because the host was sick. I lost my voice doing that because when your shift is just getting started you need to have someone singing to try and attract people into the lounge so I had to sing a few songs. I think I’m going to keep my other job because I’m definitely better at that!

As the last few days of our training were going by we were definitely trying to take advantage of the time that we could spend with the rest of the crew. Everyone was so sweet and welcoming to us that we had created some amazing bonds already and knew it was going to be hard to leave. We had a big group go out for lunch when we had our last day in Cozumel. That was a lot of fun. Also the week before we had the chance to go on a crew only excursion and we got to go to a beach and just hang out for a couple of hours. It was amazing!! The unlimited beer and margaritas didn’t hurt either! J I still can’t believe that this is the life I’m living!

I have gotten to know our break dancers on board pretty well and they found out that I love to take pictures so we got together and had a couple of photo shoots. It was an absolute blast and with the theater as a gorgeous backdrop we were able to create some amazing images. Some of them made me wish that I had more equipment because I know I could create even more awesome shots, but with what I had it was really good.

We also had a nice graduation from our college. At our graduation we received our daily uniforms, before that we were wearing a white team member shirt with khaki shorts (Not the most attractive thing I've worn). We also got our ship assignments at the ceremony so it was an exciting afternoon!

Well now as I wrap up this shorter post, I’m in a hotel room in Newark, NJ. I never made it to Canada. I was going to be late and wouldn’t have made the ship in time so I got off my flight and got my bags off and then went about changing my plans. I will now meet my ship tomorrow in Boston! With that I have the day off today to go and explore NYC!!! I’m really excited!! I’ll have some more pictures for you guys later, but until then here are a few.

 This is Dustin, Cathy, and Harrison. We all grew extremely close and will be friends for the rest of our lives. 

 At our graduation we got our ship assignments and our "blues" which are our every day uniforms.

 This is Ivan, he is one of the break dancers on the ship and we wanted to do a photo shoot together and this is just one of the awesome shots we created together.

 This is Randy, he is the other break dancer on board and we got some amazing shots as well. It was a blast working with these guys! 

 This is the beach that we got to go to with the crew. It was a beautiful day and I couldn't have asked for more!! Anyone care to join me next time??

Gettin' On Board!

Getting on Board

Wow! What are first few days!! Everything has been so much fun so far and I’ve already learned a ton. I know there is tons more to learn before I find out my next ship. Which I’m hoping might be at the end of this cruise, but we will see.

Anyway, the first night when I got into Tampa it was warm and humid, surprise surprise. I had already decided that I probably brought too much when I was tired of carrying all of my luggage through the airport. Well, I made it from the airport to the hotel with no issues; I even got to experience a little Tampa traffic. It is really no different than California traffic, just too many people getting off of work at the same time that don’t know how to drive. When I got to the airport I met up with Dustin, who I had kept in contact with from my interview process so we met up for dinner. We had both been told that there would be two others joining us, so we were somewhat curious to where they might be, but didn’t see anyone that we thought could be them. After dinner we decided to talk a walk around the city to check it out. It really is a pretty cool place. I wish I had more time to be there and see more, but hopefully I will some other day. Dustin and I found the River Walk that had a path all along the river (which was extremely disgusting if you ask me) and we saw that it could take us to the Cruise Ship Terminal so we decided to try and make our way over there. On our way, we saw the Tampa Convention Center, which I think also had an arena or something as a part of it because I kept seeing signs of where University of South Florida would play there. The Convention Center looked extremely nice though. It was really big and had some cool views of the city and water. We also saw some beautiful houses and yachts along the way. As we came up on the first of their few cruise terminals, we found the Tampa Aquarium right next to Cruise Terminal 2. It looked like a pretty awesome place, but had closed for the night so we couldn’t go inside to see more. We looked at terminal 2 and it didn’t look like the ship would be there, but maybe the next one so we took a walk down to #3 and thought that looked more like it might be there. We finally decided that we should probably head back and see if we can find the other two that were coming. As we turned around, we saw huge storm clouds coming in fast, and I mean we couldn’t make it two blocks without getting soaking wet because it was pouring fast. We were trying to make it back to the convention center where there were large over hangs that we could sit under and wait for it to pass, but we didn’t realize how fast we had actually walked because it was a lot farther to the convention center. We eventually made it even though we were soaked already. The storm finally passed and we were able to make it back to the hotel.

When we made it back to the hotel, I went up to my room to change my clothes and my room key wouldn’t work so I had to go get it fixed and came back up. When I came back up I found someone’s bags in my room. I was a bit taken back by this because first off I wasn’t expecting them and second, I had one king size bed in my room. So, I took a walk down stairs again to ask them about this and they said I had a roommate, I said okay, that’s not a problem, but I only have one bed. They said “Oh, really? Well we expect you two to cuddle up.” I said that’s fine I’m going to have to get to know her sooner or later. Haha Well, my roommate ended up being Cathy from Canada. She is super cool and very easy to get along with. We have a lot in common and we are still roommates on the ship now. The hotel brought a roll away bed up for us too so that we didn’t have to get to know each other that well that soon. Haha Also, since I had a roommate we thought maybe that Dustin would as well, especially since he had 2 beds from the beginning. Well we went down to the front desk to ask if he would as well and they said no, so I think they messed up and gave him our room and me his room, oh well though. It all worked out. So, later Cathy and I were in our room hanging out and Dustin was in his room and all of a sudden the fire alarm starts going off and the manager comes on the loud speaker and tells us that it is not a drill and we need to evacuate. This all started just after 12:15am, I’d say we were outside for about 15-20 minutes maybe, it was definitely great people watching time. We had some very interesting people staying at our hotel. After all the commotion had calmed down, I think I finally got to bed about 2:30 or 3:00ish. Between being excited, everything that had went down that night and the time change I didn’t feel tired until about then.

The next morning the three of us got up, ate some breakfast and took the shuttle to the cruise terminal. We were all a little nervous, but pretty excited at the same time. We arrived at the terminal and had to ask where the employee entrance was and headed that way. The fourth member of our college would be meeting us here and we did finally get to meet Harrison. We went through the whole security and paperwork process and headed to check out our cabins. Cathy and I continued to room together and Harrison and Dustin are rooming together. We met Mat who would be our college trainer. He is from England and a real funny guy. After we dropped some of our stuff off in our room, we headed to get some lunch, then went on a few tours around the ship, and finally got our “very attractive” uniforms. We have to wear these cargo khaki shorts and white t-shirts that say team member on them. It isn’t too bad, but for those who know me pretty well know that I’m absolutely against wearing white and khaki together. It drives me crazy!! I’ll survive though, I will get some different shirts soon. In the evening we got to watch the game show, bingo, and the welcome aboard show. All were great and I immediately started thinking about it from an employee’s point of view rather than a guest’s point of view as I had in the past. The first day was a good one and made me very excited for the rest of the training.

Friday was our first day at sea and it started with a bang, literally. We had to have our blood pressure and blood sugar checked, so we couldn’t eat for at least 6 hours prior to the test, which was supposed to start at 8am. It didn’t start until 9am so I hadn’t eaten in about 9-10 hours and I was probably a little dehydrated because I didn’t have a water bottle with me. So, I was the first of our foursome to go get “pumped and pricked” as we were calling it. I went in, things went fine, I walked out to the hall way to wait for the other three, started to feel a bit dizzy but didn’t think it was a big deal because I had felt that way before and thought it would go away relatively fast. Well, it didn’t next thing I knew I was waking up on the ground with a headache. Besides the headache, I felt fine. I wasn’t dizzy anymore. I got checked out by the doctor and he said everything seemed fine and he agreed with me that he just thought it was because I hadn’t eaten in a while or probably been drinking much water. I’m completely fine now, I promise. I just wanted to get my name out there to everyone because word spreads like wildfire here on board when things happen with the crew. Just like Cathy, some people heard her sing for the first time and now everyone is coming up to her telling her they hear she is amazing, and they aren’t lying! She really is!! After an eventful morning, we just did some more training and shadowing to become more familiarized with everything. Oh, a side note, know one heard about my morning so that was a good thing! Friday night was our first Captain’s reception; we had to get all dressed up for a night full of activities. We had the reception then had a break for dinner followed by watching both production shows at 6pm and 8:45pm. We also popped into the Karaoke lounge for a little bit then also the Punch liner’s Comedy Club.

Basically the whole first cruise was just watching and checking things out. Sorry this has been so lengthy. I’m typing it on word and then pasting it to my blog when I have Internet. I’m also realizing that if I keep typing out absolutely everything you guys are going to be reading for 4 days!!! Haha just kidding, probably not that long, but pretty close. Well, we had time off in Cozumel that we were able to get off the ship. We first went to find a free wi-fi place so we could all catch up with our family and friends. I was happy to hear that little miss Willow was born! Congrats to the Baechler family!! Don’t let her group up too much until I get to meet her! After we went to hang out at the beach for a little bit, then found a bar that was for crew only, which was pretty cool. We heard it was a bit expensive for the quality of drinks that you get, but they have a fresh water pool that is just steps from the edge of the ocean, I thought that was pretty cool. The next sea day was more training and shadowing. There are some things we get to participate in, like the deck parties. I think those are a blast, but you all know I love to dance! Dad, I now know the correct steps to the Wobble so we can do that dance together when I get home or you come visit!

As I was typing this I was in the middle of my second cruise, which is a 5-day cruise with stops in Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Today we were in Grand Cayman, I wasn’t able to get off, I had training all morning, but hopefully next week. Tomorrow, we are able to get off in Cozumel though, we are planning on going on a crew only event where we get to go to a beach and have a catamaran ride with some food and drinks. Should be a great time!! Oh, also, I’ve met one couple from Lyons, Kansas so far and the gentleman was super excited that I had gone to K-State. I’ve also seen one guest wearing a K-state shirt, but I couldn’t track him down because I was working. Oh well, I’m just happy to see some purple. I also just before I am posting this, I was working out in the gym this morning and the tv was on ESPN, but it was in Spanish, but I got to see that Matt Cain threw a perfect game!!! I was sooo happy!! Please tell me the Dodgers lost last night too?? I didn’t have time to stick around and find out.

I miss you all terribly. I got to talk to a few of you while I was in Tampa on Monday so that was a nice treat. I’ll be back there on Saturday again, so if you feel like calling, leave me a message or text me and I’ll get back to you. Hope everyone is enjoying reading about my adventures.

Love Always,

Alyssa

The time is finally here!

Well, the day is finally almost here. I can honestly say that I'm beyond excited, nervous, anxious, happy and sad all at the same time. I'm so thankful for all that I've been able to do the last couple of months while I've been getting ready to leave. I just thought I'd share a little bit with you guys. 

First off, at the end of March my amazing family all got together to celebrate my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary!! It was a wonderful weekend and I can speak for everyone we all had a blast and made memories that will last a life time. Congrats again Grama & Grampa, I love you both very much.

The month of May was really busy and went by way too fast. It started out with a trip down to Palm Desert and Newport Beach with my parents. We started with a baseball game in Rancho Cucamonga and finished with another in Fresno. In between those two games, we spent some time in Palm Desert, got to see Jeff the Bestest :) in Long Beach, caught up with some of my parents' friends from Orange, and took a walk on the beach in Newport Beach. It was a great time and I think we all wished it would have lasted longer.

About a week after we got back was "Tee" Day! For most of March, all of April, and half of May, I was helping out with the Make Dreams Real Golf Tournament. It was an amazing experience and I had a great time learning all kinds of things and doing what I love. If you want to learn more about the Make Dreams Real Endowment Fund I attached the link, so you just have to click on the name. Everything went pretty smooth and everyone had a great time. This year was extremely successful too.

After the tournament was over, the Corporate Challenge took place for The First Tee of the Central Valley. It was another great event with a good turn out. The kids all had a wonderful time watching all the exciting play. 

The next day I headed up to Angels Camp for the Frog Jump and the destruction derby. Our family was cheering Party Artie on!! Party Artie was driving the family sponsored car which took third place and was awarded the most aggressive driver!! Artie definitely had the best hit of the whole derby. Congrats to everyone involved!

Next on the calendar in May was getting to see my beautiful cousin graduate from high school! Taylor graduated from St. Mary's in Stockton and we couldn't be more proud. Everyone had a great time at the graduation party too. 

Last but not least in May, I got to help celebrate the 3rd birthday of the cutest little girl I know. She was surrounded by most of her family and lots of bubbles and cake pops :) I was certainly blessed being able to see my family as much as I have the last few months. It was wonderful.

My last weekend in California was definitely one for the memory books! I was able to do things that I love to do, see things that I love to see and spend time with those I love to spend time with. I got to catch up and hang out with one of the coolest people I know, Ms. Natalie. She is spending some time at Berkeley this summer and came all the way from Singapore so we got to spend the weekend together. We got to take in TWO Giants games, (They won both btw!) spend some time with my family, and check out Half Moon Bay and Ghirardelli Square for ice cream!! It was so much fun and the weather couldn't have been better! Miss you Nat.

That's a little catch up on my life since March, its been crazy busy, yet so much fun at the same time. I'm thankful for all the time I've been able to spend with everyone. I'm sad for the things that I'm going to miss out on while I'm gone but I'm going to do my absolute best to keep in touch. I look forward to seeing everyone when I get back. I'll try to post again soon.

- A