I'm in the Middle of the Ocean

I don't even know where to begin. Right now I am in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean sailing from Southampton, UK to New York City. It feels like so mush has happened since we left dry dock in France for the first time. The sea sickness was pretty bad at first but I am finally getting my sea legs.

The sea trials went well, I mean we didn't tip the ship over or anything so that has to be good. When we got back to France we had just about a week to get ready to leave and have guests on board. We had lifeboat drills for the crew everyday for that week to prepare for any emergencies. The drills are to simulate and abandon ship situation and we report to our muster stations during the drills, life jackets and all, and head out to the lifeboat dock. During these drills they simulate real emergencies like fires, injured passengers, and children separated from their parents. For these simulations involving people they recruited the youth counselors to play the roles of the passengers and children. During one of the drills I had the pleasure of seeing the youth counselor manager play the role of an 8 year old having a tantrum screaming and wanting her parents and candy. An experience I'm sure I will never ever see a supervisor do again.

Leaving France almost felt like leaving home, but since we have been gone I haven't missed it too much, and something else I didn't think I would ever say, but I am glad to be going back to the States. Our next stop was Rotterdam Netherlands and we picked up our first group of passengers. I was able to get off the ship and explore the city for a few hours, but wish I could have seen more. It was quite a large city with a lot of history. At first glance, the coolest part was the staggering of the old dutch buildings among the modern architecture and sky scrapers.

Our next stop was Southampton, UK. I got of the ship there for a grand total of an hour and a half, but I made it count. We went to this little pub and had steak pot pie, mashed potatoes, and the best coke I have tasted in the last 2 months. Oh and I can't forget the best part, English sticky toffee pudding mmmmmmmm, it was soooo goood, good enough to last me until the next time I am in England. Being on land for just over an hour wasn't worst thing in this town because our ship was actually at the most historic place in the town anyway. Southampton is where the Titanic left from on its way to New York.

We've now been at sea for four days and have three more to go before we arrive in New York. It is so surreal to think about where I am in the world at this very moment, an experience that in our generation so few have the opportunity to do. I can only imagine what the sunset is like out here in the middle of the Atlantic, but unfortunately I have shows every night. I have set my alarm for 5am the past two days to try to get up to see the sunrise, but so far I have been unsuccessful at getting myself up. We do change our clocks back and hour every night so it should get easier to get up.

Cirque and Sea is all I See

Bonjour from the ship. Things are really starting to look good on the ship. There have been a few hiccups over since last time, but we are still on schedule for going to Rotterdam, Southampton, and New York for the 4th in which I think we arrive on the 1st. I haven't heard who we are getting to perform on the ship for the 4th of July celebration yet, but I have heard some A list rumors.

We began doing safety drills yesterday where in case of an abandon ship situation so we will all know what to do. These drills are sort of like a huge fire drill, but for obvious reasons we can't just leave the building. We gather at different muster points where there are heads at each station who make sure everyone is accounted for. I believe later this week we will even practice taking out some of the life boats. In combination with the drills, we are are doing sea trials over the next few days. Sea trials are when we go out to sea for a few days and do some testing of the ship for the new build and push all the equipment and the engine to their limits. I have heard they do things like throw the ship into reverse, or make sharp turns, or basically making doughnuts in the middle of the ocean to see how far the ship will tip without actually tipping over. I have a feeling I am going to be getting sick a lot during the next few days.

You guys, it's getting really exciting here now that we are getting closer to actually having guests on board. I cannot believe it has already been a month, a month today actually, since I got here. Also, most of the crew switched cabins this week into our permanent cabin, and I am happy to no longer be on deck 2, sort of like the projects of the ship. Now cabin is on deck 6 all the way forward with the rest of the entertainment staff. Right below our area is the crew gym, the crew bar, and the crew lounge. Once the ship is completely finished I will get some pictures up of the different areas on board.

As far as my show is going, we are adding in costumes tomorrow and will be inviting audiences in on Sunday or Monday. It has been an intense rehearsal process, I'm actually in the middle of a 15 hour rehearsal at the moment, but we are almost there and the show is looking great.

Things have been progressing a lot here. More and more every day things are getting finished and it is looking like a place you will want to vacation. More crew members continue to arrive and I am meeting lots of new people from all over the world. New hires are required to complete a series of safety training courses and we began this week. The first one was in crowd management and I received an official certificate and everything that is valid for five years. We were taught the codes in case of certain emergencies such as code bravo (fire) or code Oscar (man overboard), and told how to calmly handle an emergency with 5,000 guests on board. There are other courses coming up where I will learn basic fire fighting skills, CPR, and we will be trained in the life boats.

Not much else has been going on other than lots of rehearsals. Our show is coming along very well, which is good because we are supposed to open in like 15 days or something. It's so exciting that we will be on our way in just a couple of weeks. I can't believe it has already been three weeks, it has gone by so fast, but at the same time feels like I have been here for years.

PS. I just watched the final episode of LOST a few minutes ago, so you all can rest knowing that I am no longer suffering.