Finally in Operation!!

Well, we are officially an operating cruise ship. We are on our second cruise with paying guests to the Eastern Caribbean. Our ports of call this week include St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and Nassau.
New York was amazing for the 4th of July. I don't know if anyone watched NBC on the 4th but they filmed and hosted the fireworks spectacular from our ship. It was a lot of work getting NBC loaded on and all set up, but it was worth all the hard work when the fireworks started going off. I literally had the best seat in Manhattan to watch. Just to give you an idea of how good of a seat I had, the guys that were controlling the launching of the fireworks were sitting at a table behind me.
After all the celebrations in New York, the crew had our own little celebration on board. There is a law called the Jones Act that prevents international ships from carrying passengers from American port to American port, so on our journey from New York to Miami we were passenger free. These three days were like a much needed vacation for most of the crew. For me, we didn't have any shows so I didn't have to work at all. We were free to go anywhere on the ship and were free to explore the pool deck, spa, and most importantly... the water slides!! That's right, I had three non stop days of fun in the sun on the worlds only water park at sea... and I got paid for it. The second day of the trip, the ship threw a huge party for all of the crew on the pool deck outside and we all had an amazing time taking advantage of an occasion that would never happen again.
Last week in St. Maarten a few of us went snorkeling for a friends birthday. We saw some sunken sail boats, colored fish, coral, and some weird sea urchins that stick to you like suction cups.
Now that we are in normal operation this cruise ship life isn't so bad. Work is going well, getting into our routine and getting used to having 12 shows a week. It is crazy being in these tropical ports every week and getting to explore something new nearly every day. The to do list now includes swimming with sea turtles and parasailing. Next week we are doing our Western Caribbean route for the first time and our ports include Costa Maya Mexico, Roatan Honduras, and Cozumel Mexico, and all I plan on doing is eating lots of real Mexican food.