Well, the time is finally almost here! I officially got my travel information last week with all the details that I was waiting for. As I mentioned in the last post, I'll be leaving on June 6th and starting on the 7th. I am beyond excited about it all and can't wait to get started!
If any one is interested in seeing me before I leave, please let me know! I'd love to see everyone that I can. Email, call, text or come see me in person! :)
I look forward to updating you all as often as I possible can, but until then I'm going to be counting down until I board the ship! 15 DAYS incase you were wondering! :)
xox <3
-A
Monday, May 21, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Things are finally cruising along!
The process is finally CRUISING along (all pun is intended!) ... I HAVE A SAIL DATE!!
***I wrote my first post back in February as you can see. I wrote that post but purposely never gave out the link to anyone because I wanted to be able to have more for you to read. Now you have two lengthy posts to catch up on even though I bet most of you have already heard me talk about a lot of this. I'd suggest reading the February post first as it might make a bit more sense to you. I hope you enjoy! :)
Well, as you can see my last post was on February 4th, where I was hoping to hear something in the next coming week. That obviously didn't happen since I am writing in the evening of March 20th, BUT I finally have some good news! I WAS GIVEN A DATE TO SET SAIL!!!!
Since the beginning of February, each week has been about the same for me. Each and every day, I hope and pray to hear something regarding the status of my paper work. I would email or call every day, sometimes I would do both. Trying to find information out regarding something that seemed so simple was like pulling teeth. I never seemed to be able to get a hold of anyone or I would never get a response back. Among the few people that I kept in contact with from my interview, there was a guy named Dustin that was basically in the same situation I was in. He was waiting for his paper work to be cleared too with no word on why it was taking months longer than the others. About once a week we would text each other and see if one of us had heard anything. We never had good news for each other until recently. During this whole process, the lady that screened me for my interview, Stacia, kept me pretty sane. She was SOOO helpful that she was contacting these people along with me and we were both trying to get answers. She wasn't getting much more than I was. Finally, a couple weeks ago I asked her if she thought I should send my paper work in again just incase it had been lost, they needed a bit of a refresher, or just a kick in the butt. At this point I could only imagine the reason they would give me of why my approval had taken this long. She suggested that sending my paper work in again might be a good idea, so of course I immediately did. I also suggested it to Dustin and he sent it in immediately too. I sent the papers in on a Thursday and the following Tuesday I got a response stating that they could not be read because they were in an unrecognizable format. My mouth kind of dropped open. I could not wrap my head around it at first. My mind was bouncing back and forth between the thoughts of, "Are you kidding me"? and, " I've never had an issue like this before". I was thinking "Are you kidding me"? because if the fact that they could not open my paper work for the last 3 1/2 months was the issue why did they not tell me SOONER! Then there was "I've never had an issue like this before", because I really never had. When I first had a Mac, there were plenty of people: friends, classmates, and teachers that were still trying to figure out the differences between Mac and PC. I have had that figured out for few years now and hadn't had an issue sending documents since. So, after my initial shock of this response I got to work on trying to convert it to a better format and resent the paper work. Three days later I got an email again saying that that format could not be opened. I really didn't know what to do at this point because I had done everything that I thought would work in the first place. I asked what was suggested as a format and did what I needed to to get that format. That process is another story in itself haha! But regardless I got it into their suggest format (which I still don't understand why they don't tell you how they want it in the first place, but whatever!) and sent in.
All last week I called and emailed to see if the format they suggested worked and I never got a response. Of course Monday I was back at my calling and emailing routine and finally got someone to answer their phone!! (This was only the second time I had actually talked to someone and not had to leave a voicemail) Of course he had to call me back and let me tell you, he did actually call me back. He called me back the next morning at 5:15! I don't think he realized that I was in California when he was calling from Florida, but that's okay because he brought good news. He wanted to let me know that he had just sent me an email and once I got that document back to him signed it wouldn't be long before my medical approval would be complete. Needless to say that I got the document back to him and about 20 minutes later I had an email saying I was approved!!! The next step was waiting for an email from Chris (the man who interviewed me in Atlanta) and that came pretty quickly as well!!
It still amazes me that I was never notified that my paper work was in the wrong format which slowed down this whole process considerably! In about 3 weeks I got the same results that I was expecting for 3 months prior. It really goes to show you that you should check up on your paper work wether it is a application or medical documents.
So, I won't keep you waiting any longer, I will be leaving on JUNE 6th since I start on the 7th!! I will be starting in Tampa, Florida on the Carnival Paradise! Now, if you want to come visit me on board don't book anything on this ship as I will only be on board for 18 days!! Wait until I find out what ship I will be on for the remainder of my SIX MONTHS!! I'm hoping for my sake and your sake if you want to come visit me that I'm some where in the Caribbean because I mean who wouldn't want to take a cruise to the BAHAMAS!! Haha
There are a few last things I'd like to say. First off, thank you for reading all this and baring with me as I continue to learn and become a better writer (I hope I'm not too bad). Second, Thank you to everyone who has supported me through this entire process. I know I have been beyond frustrated at some points and some of you have seen that come out more times than you'd probably like to see, but the fact that everyone has stuck by my side while I follow a dream of mine means the world to me. You all keep my spirits high and a smile on my face. :) Finally, I look forward to updating everyone more. PLEASE don't hesitate to comment, ask questions, email me, whatever it is that you would like to know I will be more than happy to share with you!
Thank you again to everyone for all your love and support especially the last few months!!
xoxo
Alyssa
P.S. 76 DAYS UNTIL I'M CRUISIN'!!!
***I wrote my first post back in February as you can see. I wrote that post but purposely never gave out the link to anyone because I wanted to be able to have more for you to read. Now you have two lengthy posts to catch up on even though I bet most of you have already heard me talk about a lot of this. I'd suggest reading the February post first as it might make a bit more sense to you. I hope you enjoy! :)
Well, as you can see my last post was on February 4th, where I was hoping to hear something in the next coming week. That obviously didn't happen since I am writing in the evening of March 20th, BUT I finally have some good news! I WAS GIVEN A DATE TO SET SAIL!!!!
Since the beginning of February, each week has been about the same for me. Each and every day, I hope and pray to hear something regarding the status of my paper work. I would email or call every day, sometimes I would do both. Trying to find information out regarding something that seemed so simple was like pulling teeth. I never seemed to be able to get a hold of anyone or I would never get a response back. Among the few people that I kept in contact with from my interview, there was a guy named Dustin that was basically in the same situation I was in. He was waiting for his paper work to be cleared too with no word on why it was taking months longer than the others. About once a week we would text each other and see if one of us had heard anything. We never had good news for each other until recently. During this whole process, the lady that screened me for my interview, Stacia, kept me pretty sane. She was SOOO helpful that she was contacting these people along with me and we were both trying to get answers. She wasn't getting much more than I was. Finally, a couple weeks ago I asked her if she thought I should send my paper work in again just incase it had been lost, they needed a bit of a refresher, or just a kick in the butt. At this point I could only imagine the reason they would give me of why my approval had taken this long. She suggested that sending my paper work in again might be a good idea, so of course I immediately did. I also suggested it to Dustin and he sent it in immediately too. I sent the papers in on a Thursday and the following Tuesday I got a response stating that they could not be read because they were in an unrecognizable format. My mouth kind of dropped open. I could not wrap my head around it at first. My mind was bouncing back and forth between the thoughts of, "Are you kidding me"? and, " I've never had an issue like this before". I was thinking "Are you kidding me"? because if the fact that they could not open my paper work for the last 3 1/2 months was the issue why did they not tell me SOONER! Then there was "I've never had an issue like this before", because I really never had. When I first had a Mac, there were plenty of people: friends, classmates, and teachers that were still trying to figure out the differences between Mac and PC. I have had that figured out for few years now and hadn't had an issue sending documents since. So, after my initial shock of this response I got to work on trying to convert it to a better format and resent the paper work. Three days later I got an email again saying that that format could not be opened. I really didn't know what to do at this point because I had done everything that I thought would work in the first place. I asked what was suggested as a format and did what I needed to to get that format. That process is another story in itself haha! But regardless I got it into their suggest format (which I still don't understand why they don't tell you how they want it in the first place, but whatever!) and sent in.
All last week I called and emailed to see if the format they suggested worked and I never got a response. Of course Monday I was back at my calling and emailing routine and finally got someone to answer their phone!! (This was only the second time I had actually talked to someone and not had to leave a voicemail) Of course he had to call me back and let me tell you, he did actually call me back. He called me back the next morning at 5:15! I don't think he realized that I was in California when he was calling from Florida, but that's okay because he brought good news. He wanted to let me know that he had just sent me an email and once I got that document back to him signed it wouldn't be long before my medical approval would be complete. Needless to say that I got the document back to him and about 20 minutes later I had an email saying I was approved!!! The next step was waiting for an email from Chris (the man who interviewed me in Atlanta) and that came pretty quickly as well!!
It still amazes me that I was never notified that my paper work was in the wrong format which slowed down this whole process considerably! In about 3 weeks I got the same results that I was expecting for 3 months prior. It really goes to show you that you should check up on your paper work wether it is a application or medical documents.
So, I won't keep you waiting any longer, I will be leaving on JUNE 6th since I start on the 7th!! I will be starting in Tampa, Florida on the Carnival Paradise! Now, if you want to come visit me on board don't book anything on this ship as I will only be on board for 18 days!! Wait until I find out what ship I will be on for the remainder of my SIX MONTHS!! I'm hoping for my sake and your sake if you want to come visit me that I'm some where in the Caribbean because I mean who wouldn't want to take a cruise to the BAHAMAS!! Haha
There are a few last things I'd like to say. First off, thank you for reading all this and baring with me as I continue to learn and become a better writer (I hope I'm not too bad). Second, Thank you to everyone who has supported me through this entire process. I know I have been beyond frustrated at some points and some of you have seen that come out more times than you'd probably like to see, but the fact that everyone has stuck by my side while I follow a dream of mine means the world to me. You all keep my spirits high and a smile on my face. :) Finally, I look forward to updating everyone more. PLEASE don't hesitate to comment, ask questions, email me, whatever it is that you would like to know I will be more than happy to share with you!
Thank you again to everyone for all your love and support especially the last few months!!
xoxo
Alyssa
P.S. 76 DAYS UNTIL I'M CRUISIN'!!!
Saturday, February 4, 2012
The very beginning...
I had thought about creating a blog about my upcoming adventures and others had told me I should as well so I'm going to do my absolute best to keep this as updated as possible. Please bare with me as I am learning this along the way and feel free to comment whenever.
To start things off, I'm going to explain the process of how I got to where I am. I went on my first cruise when I was in 4th grade and absolutely loved it. I said to myself, I'd love to work on a cruise ship some day. When I was 9 years old that sounded like just another one of my dreams I'd like to reach. It went along with becoming a professional dancer, a teacher, and now to work on a cruise ship. If you would have told me when I was 9 years old that I would only accomplish one of them, I wouldn't have believed you. Today, I'm perfectly alright only reaching one of those and the fact that it is working on a cruise ship makes it that much more okay. On a side note, I do feel that I have and will reach those other dreams of mine in some way. I have been a teacher and a mentor for many young lives through The First Tee program and I'm pretty sure that my dance skills will come in handy once I'm on board my ship! Anyway, when I went off to college my dreams of becoming a teacher became distant because calculus and I didn't get along very well. I switched into the Hospitality Management Program and couldn't be more happy with that decision. Once I got involved in the program, I knew that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I love being able to assist others and enhance a guest's experience. I enjoy everything about the industry, but I found myself wanting to do the things that not everyone thought of. I wasn't crazy about the restaurant aspect, the hotel side I could handle, but I really wanted to do something sports related, event related or even my dream... work on a cruise ship! I still would like to do something event or sports related when I'm done with the cruise industry, but I'm going to give this all I can for as long as I feel appropriate.
Graduating in May, I decided that I wanted to take the summer off from looking for a job to spend some time with my family. I started looking for jobs in September after returning from a trip to Kansas to see my second family! I found some awesome internships that I applied for and I also applied with Carnival Cruise Lines. The only company I heard back from was Carnival. I sent my application in and was contacted a couple of days later asking for my resume. A couple of days after that I received an email stating that I would be called for a phone interview. I was beyond excited at this point that I'm on my way to reaching a long time dream! The recruiter who called me was super sweet and very nice. She made the conversation very comfortable and told me that I had helped her day end well because I was so excited about this. We had a chat about what life would be like if I got the job, if I was comfortable being away from home, and what the rest of the process would be like if I was to continue. Ultimately in the end she offered me the chance to go to Atlanta for the interview process! At this point I'm so excited that things were going so well and things were slowly becoming real.
I flew to Atlanta at the beginning of November just for a quick overnight trip. On interview day, I was surprised to find myself somewhat relaxed. Of course, I was a little nervous because this interview could decide things for me for a while. I think I was so comfortable because for the first time in a while I was confident that I was capable of doing this. My education and my experience over my life time had gotten me to where I was and I had nothing to be worried about. I was prepared for this and the only person that could mess things up was me. I was not going to let that happen! I knew that I was just going to be myself and show them that I was perfect for this job. So the interview took most of the morning and then the afternoon was just for the one-on-one interviews. The morning was more of an information session along with an activity that really tests your personality. While I waited for my one-on-one, I was with many of the other candidates enjoying lunch talking to the people that were going in and coming out of their interviews. I felt that it was going to be very laid back going in and the more people that came out of the room proved my feelings to be true. When it was finally my turn to go inside I was already at ease. I basically just had a normal conversation with a few questions thrown in there but it was still very relaxed. I walked out of there feeling very confident and hopeful.
I flew back to California that same day and was anxious from the moment I left the interview room. I just wanted to know if I had made it or not. Well, I didn't have to wait long because I got an email the next evening. It came at a good time because about 10 minutes before I received the email K-State had lost their football game to Oklahoma State in a heart breaker. I was instantly in a better mood after reading my exciting news! Celebrating started immediately!
Since then I completed everything I've needed to and sent in my paperwork to get the hiring process started. I sent my paper work in between the middle and end of November and I've been waiting to hear anything ever since. I'm really hoping to hear something within this next coming week, but then again I've been hoping that for the last month or so too. That is where I'm at currently and I will continue to update everyone as often as I can. I will also be doing my best to send out emails periodically. I will warn you now, that some of the same stuff might be on here and in my emails so I apologize now for the repetitiveness that might occur.
I hope that you all enjoy reading about my experiences and stories. I will try and post pictures on here as well as often as I can. I am beyond excited to start working and find out my ship information. I hope to have some more good news soon.
Until then, keep crossing your fingers please! :)
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