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

The Countdown is On!!

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

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'!!!

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! :)