backdated 15-4

The trip so far.
Well I’m just about completed my training week in the Mexican riviera. It’s been 13 hour days and intense surroundings – but let’s face it – Im currently lying on the aft of deck 14, baking in the Mexican sunshine.

This is pretty much the best job ever. In fact, for me, I’d hazard to say “best ever”.

There are 8 of us training this week as JACDs.. 4 from England, 2 from Canada and then me. There’s also another Australian who has been transhipped to train with us.
Our training up to this point has pretty much consisted of immersion in ship life – we’v e been doing a lot of observation and a lot of learning about safety on board.- for example, I now know that the sound you really don’t want to hear is 7 short blasts of the ship’s horn followed by one long blast. Uh oh.
Alongside observing, we’ve also been participating in many activities as well.


The cruise staff are your hosts for activities- from board games sessions, single passenger meet and greets, quizzes trivia and gameshows (includging blanketty blanks and jeprody), running hilarious pool games (where one guy ended up with a watermelon in his bathers), hosting arts and crafts (ceramics, journaling, paper crafts, napkin folding, photo frame making- SO MUCH FUN), running sports tournaments (ping pong, shuffleboard (which I can now play), bball and mini golf If something is happening on the ship, the cruise staff are involved. There are also shifts called “swanning” where you wander around talking to guests, asking questions and making introductions. Of coure, theres also Bingo (which is for heaps of cash) and plenty of other things that have currently escaped my mind.

Its also in our job description to teach Line dancing (which is my new love – it is GLORIOUS) and to dance at the skywalker’s disco every night for 1-2 hours. When we start on our own ships, our job will be 8:30-midninght with breaks between activities throughout the day. But its just so much fun – we’re chatting and fooling around all day long.

We got to practice on mic for karaoke introductions and got to go on stage in the 800 seat theatre to practice our welcome aboard introductions, which we will be making at the beginning of every cruise.
Getting around this massive ship is a bit of amission, Im constantly llost in crew areas- I ended up in the bouson’s workshop yesterday.

Alcohol is CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP I the cruise bar, however we’ve been banned from there so far this cruise as we have 13 hour days every day and hagovers are probably not recommended.