On Sunday, everyone was up early. James, Toby, Alessadra and Chris went forth to the gangways and worked disembarking the passengers. I was lucky enough to be on the publix/einstein brother's bagels run to stock up on snacks and last minute christmas sweets. At 12 o'clock, we sailed out of Port Everglades passenger free, bound for Freeport, Bahamas. We all stood drinking strongbow cider on the deck 11 forward balcony- best sail away party I've ever had.
At the moment, the ship is raised 30ft off the ground. On the first night we arrived, they took down all our lifeboats and then raised the ship from the water. Everything is exposed - and it's really fascinating to see the size of those two huge propellers and the scale of the part of the ship that is normally hidden under the waves. The gangway is extremely steep and crazy rickety metal. it feels like climbing up and down a roller-coaster.. and rattles like one as well.
All the cruise staff have to do is a bit of cleaning and tidying. we spent hours scrubbing down the ceramics cart, sorting out our lockers, cupboards and folders and doing inventories of everything. At this point however, we are done with our work.
We've had a big change in our team - Eric (the deputy) and Sam (our CD) have both gone home. We now have Elaine from england as our deputy and ron goodman as our cruise director. Ron seems like a champ- but he's going to be different to Sam... he's much more the traditional style CD- although is a really cool guy and should be lots of fun. I miss Sam already- she is an amazing cruise director and a good friend as well - so professional yet totally nuts at the same time. so glad she is coming back in february.
ON our first night, we went out for dinner at a pizza restaurant with the whole team. Next night we went to Zorba's greek restaurant then hung out in the piazza at port lucaya. it isn't a massively pumping place, but the people are nice and there's lots of good food around. My favourite haunt is the radison resort- it costs $20 to go in but it has everything - a beachside pool, jaccuzis, deck chairs, dive in bar - it's lovely. I went there by myself today because I couldn't find any of my team (they were all still asleep at 11am!!).
Last night James, Alessandra, Brian (compo) and the crazy brazillians went to the "fish fry" at smith's point. basically this was just a massive party at a beach side bar. I had 8 conch fritters for $2, cheap beers and some crazy times on the open air dance floor. The place was filled with locals and tourists alike and the vibe was unreal. we danced the night away. After that, we headed back to Roosters, which is a bar that has been built on top of shipping containers right near the ship yard. it's awesome... although somewhat of a let down after the raging moonlit party at the fish fry.
The ship is kind of a mess at the moment, carpets being pulled up, things being replaced and torn down. we are not allowed to wear thongs for safteys sake. There are several hundred random contractors living on board at the moment as well... they are pretty scummy in general. WHen you walk past a group of them they all sleazily check you out and make comments in portugese. It's really really annoying because, I live here, this is my home .. and you feel violated when people come into your home and act like that.
Officers mess has been moved to the michaelangelo dinging room (with the contractors), which is a ice change - but the menu is very limited (of course.. as the dining room is on skeleton staff).
Apart from that, I've been doing a lot of revision of my trivias and gameshows, tweaking them to take them to the next level in quality.
More updates to come in Dry Dock Diaries soon!
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