No Air Air, No Air Air, No Air Air, No Air Air

Ok. So no more mention of my life being groundhog day. I’d rather groundhog day than what happened on-board on Sunday.

Everything went pretty normally for sail away – we have auditiors on board this week so there was a lot of pressure to “do things right” but everything was going well. I finished sail away party and returned to my room. I was reading the new books I ordered from amazon.com – the joy of origami and dollar bill origami. I had just found a dollar bill and was putting the first fold in my origami moth when… complete darkness.

Now, as you know I have an inside cabin so the darkness was total. I just sat there for a few seconds. Then I heard Mark in the corridor “what’s going on , then”. I found my way to the door and thankfully, when I opened it , the emergency lights were on. We went to visit Collette, who has a nice window in her deputy cruise director cabin and also some chips. It was odd to just sit there but we had to wait to be advised by the captain. When no announcement (or crew alert signal) came, we sat back and relaxed- realsing that it was a power shortage and that, whilst uncommon, it was nothing to really worry about- the engine room would get the generators back on soon.

It was surreal, the Emerald Princess dead in the water. All the elevators returned to deck 7 and went out of use (thank goodness no one was stuck). You could still see Miami in the distance. Eventually the captain notified us and the passengers that we were having engine difficulties and that they were being fixed. Cruise Director gave us all to go out on deck and swan, allaying the fears of passengers and checking that everyone was ok. It was actually really nice up on deck, all the passengers walking around in the late afternoon sunshine. I was chatting to some really cool people when:

“this is the bridge, assessment party assessment party proceed to deck 11, zone 4, passenger staircase”.

The bridge calls an assessment party when smoke detectors or some other indicator shows that there could be a fire. Having been in the staircase on deck 11 only four minutes before, I became disturbed. I made my way to the same staircase on deck 15 and craned my neck down to see if I could witness any drama, but there was nothing. However, because I was there I got roped in to guarding the staircase and stopping people from going down. It turned out that the assessment party was called because someone smelled burning, and a fuse in the elevator shaft had blown. Thank goodness.

But we still weren’t moving. Eventually the majority of the power came back on (bvut not the air conditioning) and we returned to our rooms to get ready for the Welcome Aboard Show. By this time, The ship had started to get really hot- with no A/C to cool the rooms and passengers leaving doors open and constantly going out on to deck. It was getting stifling. And my formal uniform is a polyester long sleve top and a polyester jacket. SWEATY. I was on doors, so I was swannign around in the theatre at 8pm when… total blackout. Passengers seated in the theatre were not impressed. We joked around with them and Mark & I sung Proud Mary (with dance moves). The ship started to get really hot.

Over the next few hours the power was constantly going on and off as the engine room tried to b ring the fourth generator back online. We were running around, getting water for disabled passengers, swanning the people sitting in the theatre, assisting passengers. Most people were uncomfortable, but a lot of people with mobility difficulties were stranded on whatever floor they were on when the elevators first stopped working. I spent half an hour helping a gentleman with a respirator up the stairs. His family were there with him and we had to get him from deck 6 to deck 14. He kept pushing himself and couldn’t breathe and it was really scary. But he made it.

Afterwards I played my ukeulele for people and made them sing & bought lots of people water. The heat was stifling. At 10pm, Tim called us to the office and put on some activities. There was a quiz, a gameshow, putt putt challenge in the piazza and I was doing paper flower making in the wheelhouse bar... in the dim emergency lighting… at 10:30pm!! That’s the most hardcore my paper flower making class will ever get!

But at 10:35pm, full power came back. They reset the theatre and we did the welcome aboard show at 11pm. For a greatful and appreciative crowd who showed unusual dedication for seeing the WABS. Bless them.

However, as I was onstage at 11:30pm, I missed my 18-20’s get together in Skywalkers… for which I feel really bad. Hopefully they forgive me.

What a day. But it wasn’t over yet. Sitting in Horizon Court eating chicken at 12:15am, the Captain made an announcement that due to the delay we would not be stopping at Princess Cays. Which means 2 sea days in a row! EEK!!

When I woke up the next morning, it seemed as if the whole thing had been a dream. Everything on board is back to normal (apart from the whole two sea days thing). I must say I was so impressed by the passengers on Sunday, 95% of them maintained a positive attitude and kept smiling. The engine room were amazing – I can’t imagine how stressful the whole event must have been for them. It is absolutely wonderful that we are sailing en-route to St Maarten today because of their hard work. Also, the galley staff – imagine no air-conditioning in a windowless galley. They are absolute champions.

But the best news is that everything is back to normal. The Emerald Princess sails again! With extra time in St. Maarten (and me on IPM).