Saturday 29 November 2014

Weeks 3, 4 and 5 on the Oasis of the Seas

I had planned on having a post up for Saturday of the end of week 4. That did not happen. I haven't written anything over the past 2 weeks. Mostly because I'm lazy, but also because I have actually done a fair bit over the last couple weeks. 
Let's see, the end of week 2, I managed to get off in Fort Lauderdale, and found a post office (ok, Office Depot, but they have stamps and mail things), as well as a Walgreens where I bought a few things I needed (laundry soap, bathroom soap, contact solution, chocolate). It's only about a 15-20 minute drive and the shuttle/taxi thing only costs like $2 each way, so it's not too bad.
So far I've determined that Eastern cruises are much more, turbulent, for lack of a better word haha. I think we're further out into the Atlantic so it's rockier. The sun also sets sooner in the Eastern so we usually end work a bit earlier.
I've managed to get taken out on the flow rider, which sucks when it happens. You're relatively dry, loading someone in and they latch on to you, won't let go and you can't break their grip and end up on your ass and soaking wet. And of course everyone laughs. You also get splashed when people wipe out right in front of you. Which is sometimes funny, and nice if it's super hot, but when you're already kind of cold, it sucks.
Didn't get off in any of the ports week 3. I was hoping to visit Labadee and Falmouth this week, however I think I have stuff I'm supposed to do so maybe not. It's hard when you have enough time to sit around and be kind of bored, but not enough to get off and explore without stressing about being back on time. I managed to get off in all 3 ports week 4 though. Didn't do too much, wandered Nassau and found free wifi at Dunkin Donuts, went to Emerald Beach in St Thomas as well as looked in some shops, and went to lunch and shopped a bit in St Maarten. There are so many things that I see that I want to buy, but I have to keep telling myself I don't have the space and I have time. I have however bought a bunch of postcards. Probably almost 40, to send as well as for my collection. By the end of like month 2 I'll have forgotten which postcards I've sent to people or bought for myself.
I've gone out for dinner a few times, because sometimes it's hard to face the crew mess. It tends to be the same food almost all the time. One can only eat so much pasta and bread. I'm seriously going to get fat. I've gone to Johnny Rockets, which is probably my favourite. It's $6 for all you can eat off the menu essentially (minus the milkshakes, those cost extra but I don't care because they're delicious). Johnny Rockets is kind of like a 50's style diner with burgers and stuff. I've also been to Sabor, which is Mexican. There's not a whole lot there that I'm excited about but the quesadillas I had were pretty good. Plus it's cheap. Windjammer, isthe  guest buffet style dining room, we just need to make reservations and it's $3 to go, it was really good. Fun to go on formal night. Most recently went to Giovanni's, which is the Italian restaurant. Again, not a whole lot on the menu that I was excited about, and it's kind of expensive, but I suppose once in a while it wouldn't be terrible. The steak I had was delicious. I don't eat much meat in crew mess.  Except for bacon at breakfast. Again, going to get fat.
I've now officially seen all the shows. Actually watched all 4 during week 4. Rather busy week haha.  The shows on board are Oasis of Dreams, the aqua show, which is amazing. I could watch it every week. Actually watched it twice this week, the second time was the front row where you get soaked, but it's super cool to watch from there. There's also Frozen in Time, the ice show. Which is also a very impressive show. Didn't have the best view, so I'd definitely like to go see that again. There are 3 Canadians in both the ice and aqua shows, which I thought was fun. Another one of the shows is CATS, which is a full on Broadway style production. So it's almost 2 1/2 hours long. Phenomenal singing, dancing, set and costumes, but it's definitely not for everyone. I might go see it once or twice more but I  won't be seeing it every week. The last show on board is Come Fly With Me, an aerial/acrobatic/musical show and oh my god is it amazing to watch. It's another one I could watch every week. Starting hopefully next week the aqua cast will be putting on another show, which is about 25 minutes, and it's supposed to be more of a silly/comedy type performance. I've seen them rehearsing while working the rock wall (we have a great view of the aqua theatre), and it looks really funny.
I'm actually struggling to remember what all I've done. As much as I have done, it doesn't seem like that much, and my days all seem to be running together.
At the end of week 2 my emergency position was changed from basically being extra staff to be runners for things, to being assembly station leader. Which is just great, let's take someone who has no idea what they're doing and stick them in this position. And then for my second time being leader, we had the coast guard on board making sure everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing in case of an emergency. I was close to having an anxiety attack. Luckily we passed on our first try and they didn't ask me specifically any questions. Which, even though I would've been freaking out, after all the studying I did, I kind of wished they had.
I've gotten my picture taken with almost all the Dreamworks characters on board. I also bought myself a stuffed Mort. He's kind of creepy but makes me laugh. Somehow the ship managed to get a copy of Penguins of Madagascar in 3D, so we got to watch that this week. super funny, and I got my picture with the Penguins and got a free poster. I think my favourite characters on the ship are the Penguins and King Julien. I'm going to try and see how many pictures I can get with all of them over the course of my contract. Everyone thinks I'm a little ridiculous but I don't even care. It makes me laugh.
This week in Labadee I only got to get off the ship because I had to do lifeboat filling. Which isn't exactly a picnic. You are crammed into a hot and crowded boat with 369 other people in Haiti, which is like 31 degrees, and you sit there for like 20 minutes while you wait for everyone to fill in. And you're wearing a stupid life jacket and isn't the most comfortable thing in the world to wear. 
My job itself is going pretty good so far. I haven't gotten out much the past week to practice flow rider, mostly because we had so many lessons booked, and because of that I had to do a lot of doors. I'm finally being trained on zip line landing though. It's really not too difficult. I think I have to do one more supervised session on it and then I can be on my own. Then hopefully next week or the week after I can be trained on launching. I'm now also part of the glow party. Which means I get to dress up in a fluorescent shirt and dance around with people. There's also a choreographed dance that I'm struggling to memorize, but I also missed doing this week because no one told me when it was supposed to start. Whoops. Only downside to glow party is that it doesn't start till 11:30 at night. Which is when I like to be in bed. I want to be part of the Dreamworks parade but I'm not allowed. At least not until the other sports staff who are in it leave. Which I think should be before Christmas. 
I can't believe Christmas is in a month. There's already Christmas decorations up on the ship. It's going to be weird not having any snow for Christmas. As happy as I am to not have to deal with it, not having a white Christmas is a little sad. 
I also can't believe I've already been here for a month! Time seems to be flying so far. I had my 30 day evaluation. I meet expectations and they still want to retain me, so that's good. I apparently need to be able to teach lessons by 90 days or I'm not performing my duties and they can get rid of me. Only problem, I'm not a very good teacher. So I'm a little concerned with how that's gonna go. The cool thing though is that we get commission from the lessons. And even though right now I'm not doing lessons, I do doors so I still get included. We were averaging about $25 dollars a voyage, but our thanksgiving cruise this past week we had a lot of kids and a lot of lessons so I think we got over $100.
Im having a tough time remembering what else I've done and what I've written so far, so I think that's all from me. It's weird that I've only been here for a month, but I'm finishing week 5. Because we're counting by cruise voyages. 

Saturday 8 November 2014

Oasis of the Seas So Far

So far, this has been a wild experience. Not just including the rollercoaster ride of emotions before leaving, and stressing out about everything once I got here. The ship is huge, biggest of Royal Caribbean's fleet, and it's hard to keep track of where everything is. I'm getting better, but I still get lost on occasion. I've also had a whole lot of training, safety and security training, and all the things about living and working on a ship, as well as job training.

Everything also just seems so unreal. It's November and it's 28 degrees out, I can walk around in the middle of the day when we're in port, even get off the ship, I just can't get over that I'm actually here. So far I've only managed to get off in Cozumel week one, and Nassau week two. Didn't do much off the ship, mostly just wandered a little bit through the tourist areas, hopefully as time goes on I'll explore a bit more. I'm definitely hoping to get back to Atlantis at some point.

My room is small, but that was expected. This is actually our second cabin, it wasn't ready when we came on so we were in the extra crew cabins. I've even managed to find a home for almost all of my stuff. And the some stuff that doesn't have a home is mostly because after the initial putting everything away, I've been super lazy. I have the top bunk, which isn't terrible. If you leave a chair at the bottom of the ladder it makes life way easier. There's a tv for both bunks, and a light and a shelf (our first room didn't have shelves and I was annoyed), and then we have our curtains. My room mate is American, also a new hire for sports staff so that's nice.

The sports staff department consists of 19, plus a supervisor and a manager. There are only 4 girls. I'm the only Canadian, a couple Americans (though one's leaving this week), 3 from England, Portugal, Spain, quite a few from Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Trinidad and Tobego, and I'm sure there's more that I just can't remember. They seem like a pretty good group of people, though they all seem to drink a lot.

The job itself seems alright. We run the climbing wall (5 decks high), zip line (82 feet, 9 decks up), and the flowrider (surf simulator). We also occasionally do set up for events and doors (scanning cards to check for show reservations). The hours vary quite a bit, especially with having to do doors, we can start anywhere from 7:45 in the morning, to not starting until after noon on port days, and we can be done by 6pm, or doing doors we can finish at 10:45 at night. We also sometimes get random hours off in the middle of the day, sort of like split shifts. It's not  horrible, it's just hard to get into a routine. We work 7 days a week, sometimes we can be "on call" and get a port day off, which so far isn't too bad because it's not like I have much I can do on my days off anyways.

We get to clock our hours practisin on the flowrider, which is kind of cool. We need to get good enough so that we can teach lessons. I don't suck as much as I did my first time but I'm still not great. At the end of every cruise our staff does what they call a flow show, which is a half hour show with them doing little skits and tricks and things. It's super cool. So maybe by the end I'll be good enough to take part haha.

All in all it's been a pretty hectic last 2 weeks. Stressful, and a lot to learn but interesting as well. Hopefully I get a few more chances to get off the ship in port and get to explore a bit.

I think that's all I have to report on my first 2 weeks on the ship. Stay tuned for more updates over the next 6 months.