Living ON the Dream!

February 27^th, 2013

Well, it has officially been 5 weeks and a little bit since I signed on to the Dream! It has definitely been an experience so far. I’ve been very busy with everything going on here. Between learning the ship and getting to know everyone on board I’ve kept very busy.

I’m going to try and be better this contract about writing more, but as you can see it’s been 5 weeks already since I’ve been here and I’m just getting around to writing. In my defense, the first few weeks are very hectic with lots to do and learn, so I’ll keep working on it. I’m going to get right into things so you don’t feel left out!

Well I’m sure most of you have heard about the fire on board the Triumph. As I am not on that ship, I do have friends that were on that ship. I have heard from them and they are doing just fine. They are waiting to find out where they are going or what they are doing. Supposedly we are having approximately 75 employees sign on to the ship on Saturday that were on the Triumph. Should be very interesting considering we have about 12 new dancers and singers coming on board as well as these 75 other employees and the others that are coming off vacation. We are going to be pressed for space in terms of rooms available, but I’m sure they have it all planned out. I’m so happy that everyone is safe and sound and they are being taken care of. Something like this really makes you think about life on ships. These are extremely safe vessels, but something like that can happen to just about any ship. I’ve heard many different stories where the crew did an incredible job and I’m not surprised at all. I work with so many hard working and caring people that I know it’s the same way across the fleet. We really do work as a family on board and something like that really shows it.

As just about everyone knows, I’ve had my share of time away from home. I love experiencing new things that is pretty obvious; I mean I work on a cruise ship. No day is ever the same. But, I would have to say that this first month has been extremely tough being away from home. Things have become a lot better in this last week, but I still miss my amazing family and friends. I’ve been creating stronger friendships in the last week and I think that has been helping a lot too. Along with time flying by, I’ve been having more fun and focusing on working out more. Keeping a positive mind set and reminding myself of what is important to me is helping me pull through the tough times. I’ve been trying to keep in contact with everyone better so feel free to email me whenever you’d like. I’m always down for a good conversation. I’ve had quite a few great ones in the last few weeks that have helped me stay positive, so thank you to those that know what I’m talking about. I’m also passing the time by counting down the days until my Mom, Dad, & Brother get to come cruise!! It’s down to 93 days just incase you were wondering guys! J And I get to see Auntie & Uncle in less than 1 week!!! Bring on Cozumel!!!

One of my favorite things about my job besides the beautiful places that I get to go is the amazing people that I get to meet. I’ve found some pretty incredible people on this ship. First off is Rachel; she is the show band singer on board. I feel like I have known her forever, we just clicked right off the bat. Super, super nice and we just have a lot of fun together. Then there is Ben; he is another host here on the Dream and he is absolutely hilarious! He is from London and can make just about anyone laugh! He is leaving soon and it will be very hard to say bye to him. Next is Mel & Biz; Mel is a dancer and Biz is her boyfriend and he is one of the BBoys or breakdancers. They are two of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I can just talk to them whenever and about anything at all. Random, Elie, and Proto are the other Bboys and just plain awesome! All of the Bboys are amazingly talented and they have just awesome hearts and personalities. They are a ton of fun to watch perform and just to hang out with. Michelle is my amazing roommate that is leaving on Saturday! I’m so sad to see her go, but she is ready for vacation. She is super super cool and I’m going to miss her a lot. Joe is another one of the hosts here and he is from England. Again, another awesome guy that is very chill and laid back. He is here basically the same amount of time that I am. He will leave 2 weeks before me in July. Then there are the personal trainers, Keegan and Ben! They are just chill guys that I enjoy hangin out with and they are helping me get in shape! Very thankful for their help. I'm very blessed to have such awesome friendships with all these people!! 

The new cast arrived today so for the next month the dance casts are going to be doing a lot of rehearsals. Jaime is my cruise director. She is absolutely awesome! She has tons of energy and a very very kind heart. Gumbie is my assistant cruise director. Gumbie transferred here just a week or two before I did from the Pride. Also Jaime and Gumbie are going on vacation soon, but they will be back in a few months. Gumbie comes back later than Jaime because he leaves after her. They definitely deserve it though, they were really hard, but then again so do we all!

Last week while we were in Roatan, we were docked with the Conquest so they threw a big party for the crew. Well I decided to go swimming in the ocean, which is a pretty big deal for me… I don’t just walk into the ocean it usually takes me a while to get in, but I walked straight in. It wasn’t very deep and I ended up cutting my toe on a rock. It didn’t hurt too much, but it was still noticeable. I am having a great time and making even more friends. It’s hard at times, but other times I am doing great and forget about the hard stuff. I still can’t believe this is my job. I’m truly blessed. I’m living a dream and living ON the Dream!

Hope all is well with everyone back home… I miss you all and I can’t wait to see you all when I get home.

Smiles, Hugs, & Kisses….

Heading South

I know it has been a while since I posted anything and I’m really sorry about that. I’ve been extremely busy and have less than 1 month before I’m home. Things are only going to get busier I’m sure.

Well the last time that I wrote a blog we were still doing 4 and 5 day runs out of NYC. Since then we have finished those and started with our week long runs. We did 5 of those then relocated to Norfolk, Virginia. Our last two cruises were 4 & 5-day runs and they were pretty normal. Nothing too out of the ordinary happened. We moved on to 7-day cruises and I was on duty for the first one. That meant it was my first time in Maine and I couldn’t check it out. Good thing we were going to be back the next week. With me being on duty, everyone knew something was bound to happen. I think we might have a pretty smooth cruise, just little things here and there. That was a first though. The only thing different about this first 7-day cruise was that we did the run a bit backwards. When we left NYC we first headed to Halifax, then St. John, Portland, then Boston last. When we have a run like this where we head to Canada first, that means the guests have to do some sort of immigration when we first get back into the US. It’s kind of a pain because they will have to do something again when we get back to NYC. Thankfully this was the only cruise that was like that. The other four weeklong cruises went Boston, Portland, St. John, and Halifax. The weather was really nice for most of the month of September. It might be a little chilly here and there and then a bit of rain once in a while but for the most part it was still in the 70s even in Canada.

From my last post I had to wait 34 days for mom and dad to get here! Well they have come and gone now. The have been gone for almost that long now. We had a great week together! It started off the right way by being able to catch some of the K-State game in New York City! We were able to eat together quite a few times and spend lots of time together on and off the ship. I’m pretty sure mom and dad enjoyed it as much as I did. They got to meet some of my friends on the ship. Trevor walked around Boston and some of Portland with us. We didn’t have too much planned in the ports, but Mom decided she wanted to see Peggy’s Cove in Halifax so Bobbi and Emily joined us for that too. It was a gorgeous place and a perfect day for pictures. I was glad that mom made the decision to want to go! We did luck out and were able to spend a few extra hours together because we had a medical emergency and had to return to Halifax the night we left so we were delayed getting into NYC. That morning we were also supposed to drop all the guests off and then head out to Norfolk, Virginia to relocate to our new home port, but our delayed arrival also messed up the arrival of another ship. We were supposed to try and be out of the port by 11 but we didn’t arrive until then, so the other ship had to sit out in harbor until we finished debarking all the guests and loading all the other materials on. Supposedly the ship had traveled all the way from Europe so I felt bad that they had to wait even longer.

When we set sail for Norfolk, it was really neat! It was the first time I had been on board with no guests and let me tell you the nicest thing is being able to wear whatever clothes you want around the ship! I could wear jeans and a sweatshirt!! We were able to walk around where ever we wanted and could take pictures of skyline. It was pretty awesome! And of course you know if there are no guests on board, there is going to be a party! They already had one planned out. Each month different departments are in charge of planning different events for the month. There is usually at least one party in the nightclub, a couple of different food nights, sport activities, karaoke, and sometimes excursions off the ship. It wasn’t too long of a trip down to Norfolk, because we still made it on time the next day into port. I was on port manning the first cruise out of Norfolk, which I didn’t think would be too big of a deal and it wasn’t really. It was so nice to be looking out the windows and seeing crystal blue waters and being able to walk outside to the open deck and wear shorts and not have to have a jacket on. The first day we were in Nassau and it was relatively boring, I bet there weren’t more than 300 people on the ship out of about 3200! I obviously couldn’t get off because I was doing activities all day, but no one showed up to the first 3! I was just walking around the ship entertaining myself. Good thing I’m an entertainment host! J After a while, things started to pick up finally and some people were coming back on board. We were in Nassau overnight so a lot of people went out to the clubs and stuff. I got a nice 7 hours of sleep that night so I could get up and work the next morning! Haha it wasn’t as bad as it sounds until you hear about all the fun you missed out on! Oh, well… It’s not the end of the world. After two days in Nassau, we were in Freeport, which doesn’t look like much right at the port, but I guess there is stuff to do when you get away from the ship; a lot of nice beaches and what not. It’s just another port that I’ll have to check out when we come back next cruise. Oh, also so I’m on duty this cruise and nothing is normal unless something happens right? Well, our dj had a family emergency and had to go home, so that left our host team to dj in the nightclub. It doesn’t sound too hard, I know, and it’s not. It is just really boring and lonely. We all took turns doing it so that the same person didn’t get too lonely too long.

Our next cruise was a 2-day cruise to nowhere, which is basically a big booze cruise. The bar manager was very happy, but was also wishing it was just slightly longer so he could get even more revenue. For this cruise we literally went straight out from Norfolk, turned around and came straight back. The next cruise got a little more interesting. It was planned to be a 6-day cruise, with 3 days in port. Well, I’m sure you all heard about Hurricane Sandy and that’s when she started. Sandy had just formed when we were in Norfolk, so we had one full day at sea then we were supposed to get into Nassau at 11am the following day. We had had another medical emergency and had to go back to Norfolk, so that delayed us getting into Nassau a couple of hours. That was just the beginning though. Instead of staying over night in Nassau like our itinerary said, we stayed 6 hours! We had to head out because the hurricane was heading straight for the Bahamas! Our next port was out of question too because it was Freeport, which is also the Bahamas. We started to head north and thought we could make it to Port Canaveral (Orlando) to make up for port time, but they had closed that port as well due to high winds and potential flooding. I’m not sure why they would do something like that, it’s not like there was a hurricane or anything coming! Haha Well the guests ended up having a 5-day cruise with only 6 hours in port. At first, I think a lot of people were upset, but then started understanding and ultimately just wanted to get off a rocky ship. So, we arrived back a day earlier than we were supposed to, but still many guests thanked us for doing a great job throughout the whole ordeal. After all the guests had gotten off the ship, the crew was not allowed off the ship and we were going to set sail at 6pm to head out to sea. We didn’t have much of a plan of where we were going yet, but it was safer for us out to sea than it was hanging out tied up in port.

So out to sea we went. It was extremely rocky and I just kept thinking, thank goodness there are no guests here, they would have been freaking out. Just about anyone would have been. Most of the crewmembers seemed to handle it all just fine. I thought it was kind of fun haha It was just like a giant roller coaster! I’ll try and put up some pictures so you guys can see what I’m talking about. We would be listing from side to side as well and rolling from front to back. We ended up being at sea for a total of almost 4 days once we dropped everyone off in Norfolk. So that meant that all crewmembers had been on board for at least a solid week with only a couple hours when it wasn’t rocky because we were docked in Norfolk. A solid week of avoiding a hurricane and riding out the waves will really get to you. Everyone was so anxious to get off the ship when we got to Ft. Lauderdale that the line to get off the ship was about 500 people long. We just waited for a while for it to die down so we wouldn’t have to wait too long, I mean by then what is another 20 minutes. We ended up having 2 full days in Ft. Lauderdale until the ship was going to leave for dry dock down in Freeport. Everyone that was at the end of their contracts or vessel transferring to a different ship signed off on different days. Some signed off on the 31^st of October, some on the 1^st of November and the rest on the 2^nd before the ship left for Freeport. Originally they had told everyone they would be signing off on either the 31^st or the 1^st, but we quickly figured out that it could be the 2^nd too. I signed off the 2^nd. Even with no guests on board we still had to do port manning. I volunteered to do it the first night and that ended up kind of kicking me in the butt. Everyone went out and had a great time since it was Halloween and I was on board bored out of my mind. I was just walking around the ship because I didn’t want to be stuck in my room. At that time the ship was already in dry dock mode. That means that all the glass and windows get covered with cardboard, the floors covered with cardboard as well. Basically anything that can be damaged in any way shape or form gets covered. It also means that you can’t do anything on the ship. Everything is shut up and blocked off or covered. Also for dry dock they only keep so many of each department on the ship so I was chosen to vessel transfer and then come back.

Well the next day I was able to get off the ship and grab some lunch and dinner. We also went out to get drinks with a group from the ship. It was a really fun last night with everyone. Since I didn’t sign off until the 2^nd, I got to meet our new ACD (Assistant Cruise Director) Eversen. He signed on on the 1^st so it was nice to be able to meet him before I came back to the ship after dry dock.

Well I’m currently on the Freedom, but only for a few more days and then I will fly back to Miami and get on the Glory on Thursday!! The team here is absolutely awesome! I’ve gone from an all girl host team on the Glory to an all guy team here on the Freedom. They are all great guys and it’s going to be sad to leave them even after only 10 days. I’ve been able to go to some different places than the Glory will go to. I actually just finished a run that Mom, Dad, Kurt and I did back in 2010. I was in St. Thomas, Antigua, Tortola, and Nassau. Yesterday I was in Ft. Lauderdale and today I’m in Key West. Tomorrow is a sea day and then Wednesday I will sign off in Grand Cayman and fly to Miami to stay over night. It’s times like this where I sit here and think about all I have done and the things I’m going to do in the next few days that I can’t believe this is my life!! I’m getting paid to go to these amazing places!!

Well, again I apologize it has been so long since I wrote last. I hope everyone is doing great! Feel free to shoot me an email or call me whenever, I love hearing from everyone. I'm going to try and put together a slide show for when I come home so I can show you guys more pictures and videos. I’ll be home soon to see everyone! Miss you all!

Love and Smiles!

These are some pictures from when Mom and Dad came cruising! This is Peggy's Cove in Halifax

Dad, Mom and I in Boston!

Bobbi, Me and Emily at Peggy's Cove

Me, Dad and Mom again

 My awesome girls!! Lolly, Bobbi, and Laura!! The best host team EVER!!!

 Hurricane Sandy! 

 The atrium covered already

 Me, Laura, Lolly, Bobbi, and Matt all dressed up for the Halloween party!

 Leaving New York!!

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