St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.

Today we woke up in port at St. Thomas, we had a boat drill and a scheduled blackout to take care of. The blackout consists of powering down all the equipment and then pulling the main power on the ship. (I admit, it was a bit creepy seeing all the dark hallways.) Then we power everything back on and be on our way! So I go ashore with a buddy and we hit this bar named Ship Wrecked. It's pirate themed of course, all kinds of cool stuff in there like a manican casting a line over the ceiling, a female manican busting out of her plaid tied shirt and capris. It surprised me to see the US Football team logos inside. They had a Denver Broncos sign and a Steelers sign too. But it is a US Territory (I should find out for shore) and they accept USD and such. The guy brings our tab which is $60! Holy crap right!? couple$12 burgers and $25 pitcher of some French beer that I felt should have ben much colder! and then $10 gratuity included "For Our Convenience" psh.. We walk down the road to hit Kmart and Radio Shack and I notice all of the cars are much like the ones from home. (several Grand Cherokees in the line of course!) What I found odd about that is that the cars drove on the wrong side of the road! Then I focused on the fact that the driver was still on the right side of the car! So the passengers side with the median, and the drivers side with the sidewalks! Weird eh?! Couple hours later we make it back to the ship and I fell asleep watchin another movie! haha Rock On Crew! -Ben

San Juan, Puerto Rico

So yesterday we ported into San Juan, Puerto Rico. We were two hours late and couldn't leave the ship until about 6pm due to a medical emergency where we had to helivac a guest out because they were terribly sick. We're on a higher alert and are being told repeatedly to wash our hands more regularly to prevent the spread of any other illnesses, as this is flu season of course! I get off the ship with some friends and we grab a cab to the Mall. (I know, not the best thing to do in a foreign country, but I'm with friends and checking things out anyway!) So we share a cab for about twenty minutes and arrive at this huge mall! We wander around, have some Taco Bell (me and this Boston kid were feinding!) and wander the mall some more. We branch off and see other ship people wandering the mall shopping for things and then head back after we hit Borders. We get back to the port and were'nt allowed in. So we had a few freak outs, then realize its for safety purposes, because the ship next to us was sailing away and they dint want the huge ropes that were tying it to the port, to wack us in the head as we walked by! haha I wander around, have a pina colada at this little stand, then a beer at a sidewalk restaurant where other ship friends were sitting. So the gates open up and I get back on board just in time to a show we call "Love and Marriage."

Voyage 413

Hey Guys, we left NJ a few hours ago and now we're on this schedule 21-Dec Cape Liberty Cruise Port, New Jersey 4:00 PM 22-Dec Cruising 23-Dec Cruising 24-Dec Labadee, Haiti 8:00 AM 5:00 PM Tendered 25-Dec San Juan, Puerto Rico 12:00 PM 8:00 PM Docked 26-Dec Philipsburg, St. Maarten 8:00 AM 6:00 PM Docked 27-Dec Roseau, Dominica 8:00 AM 5:00 PM Docked 28-Dec Bridgetown, Barbados 8:00 AM 4:00 PM Docked 29-Dec St. John's, Antigua 10:00 AM 5:00 PM Docked 30-Dec Cruising 31-Dec Cruising 01-Jan Cruising 02-Jan Cape Liberty Cruise Port, New Jersey 8:00 AM Today was crazy, I had to get up at 530a to get through immigration (one time deal thankfully) after that wrapped up about 8a I met the vendor who came on board to repair some busted gear we have, just hangin out really. I learned quite a bit about the conference rooms, we've got some cool capabilities in there! Met mom about 115p and we went to Joey's for lunch. It was nice, I talked her ear off about the past voyage and then we went back. I taped footage for a Muster Drill which was more fun than I thought.

A Muster Drill is a law-enforced drill that requires guests put on their life jacket and go out to a point where they will be rescued in case of damage to the ship.

So I'm basically just putting a camera in the faces of a bunch of new passengers who are standing out in the cold wearing life jackets. It was fun, I got the people into it and they had a lot of fun with it all.

Went back and checked out my bag of goodies from mom, got some cool christmas things and a singing snowman who yells a dog who pees on him! haha Thanks Dad!

Headin out shortly to shoot a morning show of the Cruise Director, he's a little wacky so we'll see what we shoot this time.

Rock On Crew,

-Ben

I know, I'm such a boy...

So I just wanted to share, that I have the craziest urge to spit off of the ship, or throw something just to see the splash! But I'm kind of afraid of getting in trouble for it. I'm considered a 2-stripe officer (staff) and I don't know how we look at that on board, we have lots of crazy-ass rules I figure out everyday. Rock On Till Later, -Ben

Day 9 - St. Johns, Antigua

One of the ice skaters on the ship used to attend UD and practice on their ice, ya know the field house outside the football stadium? Guess what else?! SHE CLAIMS(ED) STRAIGHT EDGE! (so it turns out Jeremy isn't the only one! haha) We had a big party in Studio B, the Ice Rink Venue. They pulled a floor over the ice and we rocked out for a while! I got there bout 1130 and it was still movin at 3 when I went to bed. Free drinks and finger food for all, met a ton of great people. It's still a daily stuggle remembering names and faces everyday. It's also rough to recognize people in uniform vs plain clothes! I've lived in mine the last week and I'm one of 4 people who wear the shirt so I stand out to them. The hangover wasn't even a problem, I don't really get drunk on board, the rocking makes me feel like I am, but I'm actually good. I was walkin around with my man P------ today and I'm drinkin with a whole new class of people bro! These people have ben hurting all day, missing things, unreachable...he finally empathized with me and explained that because I'm just outta college explaing that their older and don't have my tolerance (I'm actually working to decrease it! haha) Pullin that Delaware pride card again..it's weird people keep askin me questions about it, and I feel like a historian! I'm tryin to get my hands on the two Punkin Chunkin Docs from Discovery Channel and play them on our Crew Only Channels ( I have that power :-) haha) I've ben talkin about it and I've got some people excited about it! One guy wants to put a cannon on the ship and count how many times he can get it to skip across the water! So I made it off the ship today with P----- and V----, we did a little walk around through the tourist trap, the ship always pulls up to the same place, so the town of course put a bunch of stores right outside the dock, beauty products, jewelry, wine and liquor stores, everyone offering Duty Free. We got Ice Cream cones, Cost:$5. Not bad, wandered the streets before we came back on ship. I ran a movie and got my freshly hemmed black dress pants from the tailor and took a nap! Quest- A game show that creates intelligent people into hilarious idiots! The Cruise Director (CD) splits people into 15 teams, each team has to collect and present an item and their team number (given to them on a sheet of paper.) The items started small with things like hard keys, and women wearing lipstick mustaches. Then the crazy part started when items like men piggy backing women and women bring 4 pairs of mens pants to him! It was a lot of fun to watch! Rock On Crew, -Ben

Day 9 - St. Johns, Antigua

So theres a venue on ship called Studio B (one of my favorite places of course) and it has all kinds of lights and strobes and mirror balls and things on the ceiling above the ice rink, they can also pull out a floor over the ice. So last night we had a party there, it was BAD...ASS! It kinda felt like a Middle School dance for a while cuz everyone dresses up a touch and with the lights and fog rockin, nobody was really dancin just holding their (FREE! :-D) drink in their hand and mingling. As the night continued dancing phased in and out. Got back to the room about 3am and up by 730 for training. Instructor shows up 25 min late w/o a clue! omg...wonderful time to learn first aid! We're in St. Johns, Antigua this morning, I watched us pull into port this morning. It's ben so cool meeting all these people everyday, and just like I said before about being in Beijing, you never know what accent is going to come out of somebody's mouth, I got real excited about this guy K---- who I thought was Irish, but is actually Australian! haha, him and a girl teased me about it last night and they told me I'll get better at it. K---- and I were in the pool flipping the life raft for training the other day teaching the other new hires how to right a capsized raft. Alot of them struggled, (the smaller girls,and some others who don't do so well in the water-I know odd for the our line of work I think) K---- did well (big like me) but mine was the smoothest, well after I got up on it, but to flip the raft, you grab both sides of the rope ladder attatched beneath and pull back flipping the raft. I just leaned backward and it came over! haha Last nights Mystery Murder Dinner Theatre in Dizzy's (Bar on Deck 14) to Portomino's (extra fancy Italian Ristorante on Deck 13) was a lot of fun and then the Love and Marriage Game in the Palace Theatre was cool too. Got some surprises in the schedule for the rest of the day, we'll see how those go later. Rock On Crew! -Ben!

Day 8- Barbados

Hey Crew, Welcome to the new blog page, this is the first official blog. I'm still really enjoying life on board and my new job is great. I'm still attending training every morning from about 9-noon and then in the afternoon theres an assortment of things for me to do, this afternoon I've got a screening room to open up at 3, we play movies there, today is Drillbit Taylor, I may sit in on that one actually! This morning for class we had Fire Fighting, we watched some videos, saw what has happened on previous ships and learned from their mistakes and negligence. After the videos we checked out 4 different types of fire extinguishers and then fired them off on the back deck, of course that was a blast (sorry bad pun, 2nd today!) Then we sprayed the fire hose, that was cool too, made a water wall and then a straight stream. Up on the 4th deck we dressed a couple of the students in fire fighter gear....more/less against there will. It was funny! Esther a 5' Nothing Candadian, and Sarah a 5' ??" English girl! We threw them into gear and watched them walk around, they looked like fire fighting penguins! haha Tonight we have a couple productions to do, one is a marriage game and then Tim Walkoe, a comedian is in the Palace Theatre this evening. Hope you guys are havin a rockin time, please send questions, here or e-mail. Rock On, Ben

Day One and Two (E-mailed)

Hey Guys! So I boarded the ship around 230p on Sunday. Things went very well as we went through security and I was shown to my room. I was quickly taken around the Deck One, running around following Phillip (A Canadian) the Head Broadcast Technician. I got a quick tour through the broadcast center, a view of Studio B and we quickly went to training as Phillip showed me all the racks, it has been quite overwhelming looking at all the gear surrounding me, but I have no doubts in being able to do this job. Navigating however...thats a different story! Holy crap is this place confusing! Everywhere looks the same and all the doors look like emergency exits that would lead me out onto the street (of a building), so I hesitated to use them at first, but today I finally started walking through them and getting to where I need to go. My position as a Broadcast Technician includes a 2-stripe rank as Staff/Officer placing me above the crew. Crew are people who take care of housekeeping, the engine room, and a crap load of other things I'll figure out at some point! I knew that I was getting myself into a whole crap load of new yesterday and that fully describes it! Learning to walk around has been another conquest in itself. This boat, scuse me SHIP, is huge but as it pushes its way through the cold front on its way south hits EVERY wave in the ocean! Luckily, it turns out I have a good stomach for this and haven't felt too badly yet! Today in training I was following the other new hires down the hall and its funny to watch all the people shift from one side to the other as the boat rocks! I compare it to walking on a bus in motion! Except its everywhere, I'd also throw the description drunk in there too, cuz the floor hits your foot sooner, sometimes your light, sometimes your heavy! haha One of my favorite things to do on the ship is take the opportunity to talk to people. I said this in Beijing and it applies here as well. Everyone in America has contributing factors of people from other countries, so when I see a person, I can get an idea of where they may be from and expect an American accent. Here, I still expect an American accent (NYC, Boston, Redneck....) and I get a mumble of who knows what!! haha, or I get a bright return in a British, or Canadian accent. I don't know the numbers, but I don't think that the Americans are dominant aboard. So that's been another fun challenge. My room... It's only temorary until the next voyage when Phillip leaves for Vacation, but talk about small! The far wall has a bunk bed, I sleep on the bottom and store a chair and my luggage on the top bunk. Theres a small table next to the bed with a small metal frame cushioned chair. The room is maybe 4 inches longer than the twin bunk bed and in front of the chair (also alongside the bed) is a shelving unit which has outlets and a 13" TV/VCR. A small refrigerator is apart of the cabinet which has 4 drawers to it's left. above is a couple small shelves for very little storage. further left is two 6' wardrobes, maybe a foot wide each? So I have some clothes in there. Further left is the "Full" bathroom consisting of a stand up shower, toilet, sink, double cabinet mirror and a god awful smell(not my fault!)!! Hope all is well with you, I'm just hangin in the Broadcast room right now. Informative enough?! Haha, - Ben