Week One: Done -April 26, 2006

Only 14 or so more to go....

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Not much to report here. Same old, same old...

Wait. I'm living on a cruise ship. So I guess you wouldn't know what was involved in the daily routines, huh?

Right. I guess it's my job to inform and enlighten then.

I guess I'll try to fill you in on a few aspects of ship life every blog. I'll start on Sunday. In the morning we're in port, so I get off in Galveston and go to an internet cafe, or TARGET, my favorite place around! I also talk to Levi most of the time, since it's one of the only places to use my cell phone. Meanwhile, the ship is picking up gobs of passengers in the Galveston port. When we get back from our morning off, we have to have a passenger boat drill. Boat drill can be fun, but a little tedious.

When all the passengers are aboard, we get them on deck with their life vests on and everything. (So they all feel funny together) I'm a muster station leader. (A muster station is where they go to get onto their life rafts. Don't be like one passenger, though, and ask me why they call it a muster station... -Goodness, the questions these people come up with...-) Anyway, the company chooses entertainers to be the leaders because if there's a real emergency, we have to do what we do best- entertain! (Otherwise, within two hours, people lose the will to live. Or so we're told. No pressure, right?) We count how many people are here, and then listen to the captain mumble things to us over the intercom.

Then we tell them to come here if they hear the emergency signal. (horn blasts seven times and one more loooong blast to finish) Then we tell them to have a nice cruise and not to drink too much. (But they never listen)

Sunday afternoon, right after boat drill, we have a Sail Away party on the pool deck. Sometimes I have to go up with a few other dancers and lead the guests in silly line dances. (Mostly they just watch us do them and sip passively on their drinks that we warned them not to drink too much of, though.) It's hot and sweaty, since we have to wear our "uniforms." (Bright blue, heat retaining jumpsuits. Yuck) Then, that night, we perform in a Welcome Aboard show in the theater. That's pretty fun, and the guests seem to like it. We give them a peek at all the activities in the upcoming week, and we dance a little thing, a few bands play that will be on board, etc. etc. So that's pretty much what I do on Sundays.

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There's nothing much to report really. Everything's really strict right now because there's someone on board from the corporate office who's checking up on everyone. So all the departments on board are really minding their p's and q's. (whatever that means... they're doing it) So we all are behaving this week, probably a reason why there's not much to report....