Michelle's Cruise Life Blog

Adventure: October 30th, 2009

mhophan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:09:07 +0000

First off let me say that cruise life is perhaps one the most emotionally challenging things I have ever experienced! I have experienced the highest highs and the some low lows. The most difficult thing is the goodbyes. You build a life for 2-5 months and then you leave. I hate it! I remember my last week on Rhapsody, first I just denied the end was coming until I couldn’t put it off any longer (the last day). I had to! Those of you who know me, know how emotional I can be, and how quickly I form attachments to people. So my strategy worked well until I left Adventure Ocean for the last time, covered in slime, a good way to go out, LOL (For some unknown reason my fellow youth staff’s plan back fired, these kids couldn’t be manipulated as easy, so I got slimed the second week in a row, ridiculous!) I remember after th farewell party that night going back and finally letting all those held in emotions out, I was so sad, but at least that sadness meant I had an amazing time, so I would not have traded that feeling. I did feel a little guilty that I wasn’t that excited to go home, but that feeling changed the moment I saw my family and my town, now I was overcome with happiness, what a draining day!
Upon returning home, it felt like the last 15 weeks were a dream. I had returned and nothing has changed, it was just the same as I left it, a little consoling knowing home will always be home, but also a little strange, knowing I had changed. The two months at home were amazing and of course life went back to normal in no time. Not bad except when I left that caused me to be even more emotional then when I left the first time!
So it was finally time to fly to Barbados to meet my new ship the Adventure of the Seas! The flights were great, just the transportation to the hotel and the ship were troubling. After arriving in Miami and not finding the transportation company, it was a little anerving, but at least my cell phone worked. In Barbados it was a whole different story! No reception, barely any money, and no clue how I was supposed to get to the ship, all alone in a foreign country, I was just a little stressed, LOL. Luckily I had a guardian angel that day! An older lady taxi driver saw that I looked lost, and offered to take me to my ship, at a lot cheaper then the other taxis were offering! Luckily I made it to the ship with an hour to spare! Thank God!
Now I’m finally on the ship! It is a lot bigger then Rhapsody, and a lot different! This time my youth staff is composed primarily of Mexicans and South Americans, totally different then the Canadians, and Brits I was used to, LOL, but I expect a lot more energy, LOL. I was hard the first day because I constantly found myself comparing it to the old ship, I need to remember every ship is different, and it won’t be the same the 1st week as it was on the Rhapsody 3 months after being there. It was even harder because for my first port zone we only had kids that spoke French and Spanish! I speak neither, I think I might need to change my nick name from Motor Mouth, LOL. Oh well, at least I can use hand signals, I’m good at that!
Later that night we had a Halloween party planned, which was great since everyone says this ship has no parties! I met a ton of nice people and had lots of fun dancing with my new youth staff team! So now things are going great I love my team and the Islands are gorgeous, yesterday I was tanning on a beach in St. Maarten, got to have PJ night in a screening room and even got to be in a parade! Life on a big ship is soooo much different!

August 27th, 2009

mhophan — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:15:03 +0000

I am almost finished!!! I can’t believe it, although I have 8 more days of awesomeness, LOL. It will be a week of lasts. Last YEP, Pirate nights, PJ nights, Skagway’s, Victoria’s, Crew parties, amazing Coconut cake, late night cereal binges, LOL. At least most of these things will start over again when I go to the Adventure of the Seas in October, but it will be the end for me with the amazing crew onboard the Rhapsody of the Seas! I love those people! They are amazing and some of the most fun people I’ve ever met! They made this into one of the best times of my life! Hopefully some of us will turn our friendship into a lifelong thing! When I applied for this job back in September, I never could’ve imagined that this would be the result! It has exceed all expectations for the better, sometimes I just have to ask myself, “Is this really my life?” I can’t believe it! Why do I get the opportunity to experience all this? I am so grateful for this opportunity and definitely don’t want to waste this experience!
The last week was also amazing, although I’m not completely finished for the week (I still might get slimed tonight, if Ray’s manipulation of the children works, LOL, which hopefully it doesn’t). Last night we had a wine and cheese night, which was awesome! It’s been awhile since we’ve had an awesome party, so it was about time we had everyone out, and dancing, LOL.
What else happened this week? It is so hard to remember since everyday is filled with so much! Last night I worked teens, and it was absolutely awesome! We had a dance party, which was dusk theme (basically black lights all over). So, one of the teens got a bunch of food for us, which is amazing since we normally don’t get to eat guest food. We got like 5 plates of different types of pizza, fries, brownies, pound cake, apples, pears, plus tons of plates from the chocolate buffet (chocolate covered strawberries, éclairs, mini cakes, plus more) it was amazing! One of the many perks of my job, LOL, I don’t know how I am not coming back 20 pounds heavier, LOL.
Short post, but that’s okay! I’m coming home soon! I’ll see everyone soon and I love you all! Maybe I’ll have time for one more post before I return, we’ll see!

August 22nd, (Day 92)

mhophan — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:09:32 +0000

Right now it is 1:22 on a Saturday. A Saturday which really doesn’t mean anything since for the last 14 weeks my Saturdays have consisted of 10 hour work days, followed by a Sunday which wasn’t much less. So on a ship the day of the week doesn’t matter, nor do we remember, all we know is which cruise day it is, which in this case it is day 2, our first at sea day. As usual it is extremely rocky, I think perhaps the worst we’ve had. I can’t even do my ab exercises in my room on deck 0, I haven’t even thought about trying to get a work out in at the gym on deck 10! Those of you who know me, know it must be pretty bad if I am choosing to neglect exercise, LOL.
I can’t believe I only have 13 days, it has gone so fast! We are finally back to low counts with kids, so I have a pretty awesome schedule, like today for example I don’t start work till 2:45 (I got 10 hours of sleep in a row! That might be the first time since May that I’ve got more than 7 hours, Amazing!) On Tracy Arm day, cruise day 5, who knows what day of the week (JK, I think it is a Tuesday) I don’t have to work till 6:45pm! What is that?! I might actually have like 16 hours off! I don’t know how much I like that, LOL, I might get bored. Oh well, I guess I’ll just hit the gym and maybe perfect my awesome ping-pong skills, JK. Even with all this extra time off I’m still working about 40 hours a week, and I do have an eleven hour day, so I will be working a little.
So now I only have 2 weeks left! I have an awesome schedule, plus I have got a whole bunch of extra energy! I don’t know where from, perhaps the fact that I know I will finally get a day off in 13 days! I am soooo excited, and every shift is just amazing, actually every instant is amazing. I just find myself smiling and laughing all the time! Working, eating, walking down the I-95 (the crew hallway on deck 1), I’m just overcome with happiness, it’s a little ridiculous, but that’s ok, these people know me and understand, LOL, besides a lot of them are kind of like me, surprisingly, LOL. Like at lunch the other day, it was only the most amazing lunch ever! It was already a great lunch day because it was sandwich and ice cream day, which in our crew mess is amazing, since most the time the food is not up to par, LOL. But last day 5 they brought out all this awesome food, even one of the most delicious chocolate cakes I’ve ever had (ok, I might be exaggerating just a bit, but it was really good). Not only was there awesome food, they even put on some awesome dance music, LOL. Don’t ask me why they play dance music for lunch in the mess, (it was almost better than the dance music we get at our parties, JK) we almost wanted to break out into a dance party right there, but most of us controlled ourselves, LOL. (Now my family will know why I’m listening to Lady Gaga, Flo Rida, and Sean Kingston during lunch, LOL. I don’t know if I will be able to not have a lunch dance party, JK). But seriously everyone was in an awesome mood, and all those little extra things just made being with all my friends and co-workers even more amazing! I’m going to miss every single moment.
Last week was probably one of my best weeks on the ship! As with college the closer I get to leaving the more I realize that I need to just enjoy and embrace every single moment, it is amazing how much more fun you have when you do that! So last week as if the lunch dance parties weren’t enough, I also got to go on a Salmon bake where I had the most amazing Salmon ever! Meg and I got to go on the excursion for free, where we got unlimited Salmon with this awesome sauce, which was some type of sugary, maple thing, I don’t really know, all I know is it was amazing! Plus we had pasta, rice, corn bread, chili, blueberry cake, apple cider, hot chocolate, and roasting marshmallows over a fire! It was awesome, it was at like a campground area, with a folk singer, and there was even a little waterfall we could hike to! The trip was made even better because we almost weren’t able to make it off the boat because of a late arrival due to bad weather, but all ended up ok!
Because we had such bad weather it caused a lot of problems last week! We didn’t make it into Skagway, so we had an emergency sea day, which was actually ok with Meg and I, because we were going to have to work Skagway port zone anyways, so instead of working 10 hours I only had to work 8! But it was a difficult 8 hours because we were using activities that were created for port days (low numbers of kids) and had to use them for sea days (high numbers), so we had to use our creativity and flexibility (a common theme in this job).
So the next day which was supposed to be tracy arm day, we actually got to go to Ketchikan, which was also awesome! It was really nice having a new itinerary it changed up the monotony of the last 13 weeks! I was able to get off the ship for breakfast with my friends Sam, Ray, and Roberta. We went to a little diner, which is something you take for granted until you’re on a cruise ship, LOL. Then we went to a hilarious lumber jack show, where we met up with more of the crew from the ship! I only had like 3 hours off since I had to work at 1:30, but it was still great!
The most beautiful part of last week was going to the Buchart Gardens in Victoria! They were absolutely breathtaking! I got to go with 18 other crew members, and we had a great time seeing a sunken, Japanese, Rose, plus multiple other types of gardens, I will definitely go again. Plus I had quite possibly the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted, which obviously makes it fantastic or as I like to say fantasmagorical, LOL (anyone remember Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, LOL, Coleman, Meg, and Colleen will appreciate it).
Everything is going great, but I will definitely be ready to go home and see everyone! I can’t wait! I can’t wait to wake up to the sun shining in, to sit in grass, to pet a cat, to cook a meal, to drive a car, take a bath, go to church, there are so many little things that I take for granted, so it will be interesting to see what it is like when I get home. But I will miss all the awesome deserts I have onboard, which reminds me tonight we get the most amazing Coconut cake ever, plus this awesome strawberry cheese cake, my roommate and I have to eat both, because they are both the most amazing thing ever and they are sugar free, LOL. Then we’re going out for formal night, watch some of our musician friends play, get some more free goodies from the coffee shop (for our roommates date night tomorrow, LOL) and then I’m off to a Margarita party! This all starts at 10:15pm since I work till then, it should be an awesome day!

August 22nd, 2009 (Day 92)

mhophan — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:24:12 +0000

Right now it is 1:22 on a Saturday. A Saturday which really doesn’t mean anything since for the last 14 weeks my Saturdays have consisted of 10 hour work days, followed by a Sunday which wasn’t much less. So on a ship the day of the week doesn’t matter, nor do we remember, all we know is which cruise day it is, which in this case it is day 2, our first at sea day. As usual it is extremely rocky, I think perhaps the worst we’ve had. I can’t even do my ab exercises in my room on deck 0, I haven’t even thought about trying to get a work out in in the gym on deck 10! Those of you who know me, know it must be pretty bad if I am choosing to neglect exercise, LOL.
I can’t believe I only have 13 days, it has gone so fast! We are finally back to low counts with kids, so I have a pretty awesome schedule, like to day for example I don’t start work till 2:45 (I got 10 hours of sleep in a row! That might be the first time since May that I’ve got more than 7 hours of sleep in a row, Amazing!) On Tracy Arm day, cruise day 5, who knows what day of the week (JK, I think it is a Tuesday) I don’t have to work till 6:45pm! What is that?! I might actually have like 16 hours off! I don’t know how much I like that, LOL, I might get bored. Oh well, I guess I’ll just hit the gym and maybe perfect my awesome ping-pong skills, JK. Even with all this extra time off I’m still working about 40 hours a week, and I do have an eleven hour day, so I will be working a little.
So now I only have 2 weeks left! I have an awesome schedule, plus I have got a whole bunch of extra energy! I don’t know where from, perhaps the fact that I know I will finally get a day off in 13 days! I am soooo excited, and every shift is just amazing, actually every instant is amazing. I just find myself smiling and laughing all the time! Working, eating, walking down the I-95 (the crew hallway on deck 1), I’m just overcome with happiness, it’s a little ridiculous, but that’s ok, these people know me and understand, LOL, besides a lot of them are kind of like me, surprisingly, LOL. Like at lunch the other day, it was only the most amazing lunch ever! It was already a great lunch day because it was sandwich and ice cream day, which in our crew mess is amazing, since most the time the food is not up to par, LOL. But last day 5 they brought out all this awesome food, even one of the most delicious chocolate cakes I’ve ever had (ok, I might be exaggerating just a bit, but it was really good). Not only was there awesome food, they even put on some awesome dance music, LOL. Don’t ask me why they play dance music for lunch in the mess, (it was almost better than the dance music we get at our parties, JK) we almost wanted to break out into a dance party right there, but most of us controlled ourselves, LOL. (Now my family will know why I’m listening to Lady Gaga, Flo Rida, and Sean Kingston during lunch, LOL. I don’t know if I will be able to not have a lunch dance party, JK). But seriously everyone was in an awesome mood, and all those little extra things just made being with all my friends and co-workers even more amazing! I’m going to miss every single moment.
Last week was probably one of my best weeks on the ship! As with college the closer I get to leaving the more I realize that I need to just enjoy and embrace every single moment, it is amazing how much more fun you have when you do that! So last week as if the lunch dance parties weren’t enough, I also got to go on a Salmon bake where I had the most amazing Salmon ever! Meg and I got to go on the excursion for free, where we got unlimited Salmon with this awesome sauce, which was some type of sugary, maple thing, I don’t really know, all I know is it was amazing! Plus we had pasta, rice, corn bread, chili, blueberry cake, apple cider, hot chocolate, and roasting marshmallows over a fire! It was awesome, it was at like a campground area, with a folk singer, and there was even a little waterfall we could hike to! The trip was made even better because we almost weren’t able to make it off the boat because of a late arrival due to bad weather, but all ended up ok!
Because we had such bad weather it caused a lot of problems last week! We didn’t make it into Skagway, so we had an emergency sea day, which was actually ok with Meg and I, because we were going to have to work Skagway port zone anyways, so instead of working 10 hours I only had to work 8! But it was a difficult 8 hours because we were using activities that were created for port days (low numbers of kids) and had to use them for sea days (high numbers), so we had to use our creativity and flexibility (a common theme in this job).
So the next day which was supposed to be tracy arm day, we actually got to go to Ketchikan, which was also awesome! It was really nice having a new itinerary it changed up the monotony of the last 13 weeks! I was able to get off the ship for breakfast with my friends Sam, Ray, and Roberta. We went to a little diner, which is something you take for granted until you’re on a cruise ship, LOL. Then we went to a hilarious lumber jack show, where we met up with more of the crew from the ship! I only had like 3 hours off since I had to work at 1:30, but it was still great!
The most beautiful part of last week was going to the Buchart Gardens in Victoria! They were absolutely breathtaking! I got to go with 18 other crew members, and we had a great time seeing a sunken, Japanese, Rose, plus multiple other types of gardens, I will definitely go again. Plus I had quite possibly the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted, which obviously makes it fantastic or as I like to say fantasmagorical, LOL (anyone remember Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, LOL, Coleman, Meg, and Colleen will appreciate it).
Everything is going great, but I will definitely be ready to go home and see everyone! I can’t wait! I can’t wait to wake up to the sun shining in, to sit in grass, to pet a cat, to cook a meal, to drive a car, take a bath, go to church, there are so many little things that I take for granted, so it will be interesting to see what it is like when I get home. But I will miss all the awesome deserts I have onboard, which reminds me tonight we get the most amazing Coconut cake ever, plus this awesome strawberry cheese cake, my roommate and I have to eat both, because they are both the most amazing thing ever and they are sugar free, LOL. Then we’re going out for formal night, watch some of our musician friends play, get some more free goodies from the coffee shop (for our roommates date night tomorrow, LOL) and then I’m off to a Margarita party! This all starts at 10:15pm since I work till then, it should be an awesome day!

August 6th: Crazy July

mhophan — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:42:28 +0000

It has been forever since I wrote, but the last 6 weeks just flew by! I have been having so much fun, barely anytime to relax and recap what’s been going on. Over the last month and a half I’ve been doing what I always do, working 50-60 hours a week attending 3 to 4 parties a week, and of course mastering the power nap, LOL. I’m at the point where if I have a 30 minute break, that is more than enough time for a nap. I usually sleep about 4-6 hours a night, which is hilarious the other night I told my roommate how excited I was that we actually are getting 6 1/2 straight hours of sleep, we shouldn’t be tired, LOL. After about 6 straight hours I toss and turn and can’t sleep anyways, since my body isn’t used to more, but I do have to take about 3 naps a day, LOL. Even though they are only like 30 minutes, what’s going to happen when I get home!
Besides being a master napper, I’ve also had lots of experience with creating costumes! We had tons of themed parties the month of July, and of course living on a ship we don’t have many things to choose from! So we have to be very creative, and use whatever materials we have, which luckily I work in the youth program so we have an unlimited supply face paints (which I’m proud to say I’ve become quite the pro at face painting, LOL, JK), glitter, and construction paper. Sometimes we even have the kids help us make our costumes, but I don’t always tell the kids what they’re for. It is sooo much fun, what will I do when I get home and I don’t have a costume party every week! In July alone we had to dress up for Canada Day, 4th of July, Phil’s b-day which was a Super hero theme, Crew Party which was a futurama theme, Meg’s bday which was Disney theme, Antonio and Evyn’s bday which was a gay pride theme where the youth staff came as skittles, LOL, plus dance music night, caribbean music night, and 70′s music night where us Youth Staff always try to come up with a theme which ranged from bling bling, to pink! I love cruise life!
Cruise life is not all just partying though! I do work a lot! normally about 50-60 hours a week, and I don’t have any days off. So sometimes it gets kind of exhausting especially knowing how tired you are and that you’ll have to work again in a couple hours. Like tonight I will work with the teens from 7:45pm till about 3am, and then have to work debark at 6:45am, but normally my schedule isn’t that ridiculous. There are some days where I only work 4 hours and then others where I work 12, it just depends on the age group at what your doing.
But even though I work a lot, a lot of the time it is sooo fun! I love working with all the ages even the 3-5 year olds, they can be sooo cute! Here are some of the things I like most about every age group:
0-36 months: I love how cute they are and how curious they are, I love that the parents aren’t allowed to leave them, so they get to sit there and talk with me, LOL. I love how they remind me of Jaxon and Jillian, who I miss greatly!
3-5 years: I love how cuddly they are, how easily amused they are, and how you can change the name of duck, duck, goose, and it’s like a whole new game, LOL.
6-8 years: This is definitely one of my favorite ages to work with, they are still cuddly like the young ones, but they have more coordination so they can play ball games! They are so much fun, and compared to the 1st and 2nd graders that I’m used to working wiht back home, these kids are easy, LOL.
9-11 years: This is my favorite because they still look up to you and listen, but they can still have a decent conversation and play a great game of gaga ball, LOL.
12-14: This age is basically the same as the 9-11 yet they have more freedom and think they act older, lol, plus they are starting to flirt a lot and it is absolutely hillarious to watch!
15-17: They are awesome and they remind me of hanging out with my sisters and there friends back home! This age is so much fun because they are fun to talk to and the activities they do are actually ones I would want to participate in myself! Plus I learn awesome dance moves from my teens, JK, and they think I’m an awesome DJ, LOL! The only down side is that my teens love the alcohol, so I’m constantly having to check for that
Every week is amazing and there is sooo much change, but we always do have those kids who are absolutely awful, so us Youth Staff are pretty good at impersonating the children, LOL, especially the whiny ones.
I have had so much fun over the last 2 1/2 months I can’t believe I only have 29 days left! I can’t even imagine what it will be like at home after having experienced all this. Part of me longs for home. I’ve been having lots of dreams lately about being back home, after waking I realize 29 days is still a long time and I just want to see everyone again, I want to experience summer like I used, I want to go to church, actually be around some people who share the same beliefs, I want to have a day off, LOL. Then part of me realizes how much I love the people on the cruise ship and how much I will miss living with Meg. After all when Meg and don’t see each other for even like 8 hours we have countless things to talk about, and there have been countless nights where we’re like little school girls at a sleep over, trying to sleep but we have to much to talk about and laugh about, so we lay in our bunks laughing the whole night instead even though I’ll see her for most the next day. Also I’ll miss eating meals with all my friends, always having 20 people to eat every meal with is not too common at my house, LOL. I’ll miss the conversation and being able to eat for an hour but move to 3 different tables and converse with 15 different people! Or even walking down the I-95 (the hallway in the crew area) and seeing people from 100 different countries! Or the thought that at anytime day or night you’ll find someone to hang out with, LOL. I could keep going but this blog is already extremely long, LOL. I will definitely try my best to enjoy every last minute of the next 29 days, and I’m preparing for an extremely emotional last week, LOL. I think my college roommates will be able to relate to that if it is anything like my last week of college, LOL. The person sitting next to me on the plane better have tissue, LOL, it should be extremely bittersweet leaving the ship behind, but then coming back to my family, friends, and community will be amazing! Oh, well, we’ll see

June 18th,

mhophan — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:50:52 +0000

This is an extremely random blog day! Well this week ended up pretty awesome after all! Even though it started out chaotic with soooo many aquanaughts (3-5 year olds), they ended up to be pretty amazing! I normally averaged about 12 and by the end of this week I love them all and even though I swear most of them have ADHD, LOL, JK, I still managed to keep them on track, and they actually listen really well! But they all leave tomorrow, and now I’ll have to learn a new group of kids names, oh the life of a cruise youth staff, LOL.
Another thing I learned this week is that my old coworker Ammar (Abbie will appreciate this) was not lying to me after all, LOL. We played lots of ping pong this week, I know totally awesome! Months ago I learned this new grip that Ammar told me all the pro Chinese ping pong players used, I thought it was kind strange but whatever! So this week I found out basically the whole world uses that grip besides us Americans, I know, it’s crazy, LOL. I also learned how to perfect my pool playing from a friend from India. He gave me lots of great tips, now be prepared when I get home, I’ll hit the pool circuit. Life has been so interesting lately that I have to spend my time talking about ping pong and pool.
But really my life is still amazing! I’ve had lots of late nights, hey I ended up playing ping pong till 4am, LOL, but I don’t worry I’m not a complete nerd, we didn’t start till like 2am. We also had a wine and cheese party, which resulted in another late night, but I did skip the Martini night, since for some reason they rescheduled it and didn’t let anyone know, LOL. But tonight I will have to go out again since two of our youth staff are leaving so we will have to have a going away party! There is always some reason to party on the cruise ship, it is crazy! My roommate and I say we’re doing good if we stay in 3 nights out of the weeks, maybe next week I’ll be able to meet that goal, LOL. But obviously it doesn’t really matter if I go out since I can’t get into any trouble playing ping pong every night till 4am, LOL.
I did work out a lot this, which is extremely important since the amount of dessert I eat is ridiculous! Don’t worry people, I won’t come back 20 pounds heavier. Every day I have some type of amazing treat, at least 1 sometime 3, LOL. Besides the people, the desserts might have to be my favorite part, JK. Definitely if anyone comes to visit me, they’ll have to come on board and get some food!
Anything else I didn’t cover? I don’t think so, but then again I am sleep deprived. But don’t worry people, last night I went to bed at 11:30pm even thought people called us at 12, 12:30, and 1:30am to go out, I turned them down (with the help of my roommate, because you know how hard it is for me to turn down a social opportunity, LOL). I’ll write later when I have more interesting info!
P.S. So we all had to have nicknames that the kids call us at adventure ocean, and after this blog mine holds pretty true, LOL. I’m Motor Mouth Michelle, LOL.

June 15th, Day 25

mhophan — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:34:04 +0000

Beautiful Tracy Arm Fjord

It is absolutely crazy to think that I’ve been here 25 days! It is still just as fun as ever, and part of me is extremely shocked that I haven’t experienced homesickness. Although I must admit I do a little when I hear about Jaxon and Jillian, or the family get together which are usually a staple of my summer, but then I think of the awesome opportunity I’ve been given, and I can’t complain.
I absolutely love it! Having friends from all over the world, to name a few countries where I now have friends: Canada, Wales, England, Scotland, Australia, South Africa, Macedonia, Brazil, Romania, Philippines, India, and of course all over the U.S. I never imagined that I would be able to learn about so many different cultures! I just love all the people, being here really help me see how similar everyone really is! I have so many friends here who remind me of people back home, it is hilarious!
With all the cultures I’m able to learn so much! Last night I attended a Philippine New Year celebration, tons of fun, although I could not understand the music, LOL, and didn’t particularly care for it, but that’s ok. The only sad thing was the party ended at like 1:30am, which is early on the cruise ship for the entertainment staff, since most of us don’t get finished working till at least 10:30pm. So afterwards some of us went to a friend’s cabin that lives in a guest room. So he gets free room service! So at like 2:30am we had pizzas, chicken, salad, cookies, cheese, LOL, it was amazing, I never get that in Lyons!
So besides partying we’re starting to get really busy with work! We have almost 300 kids with little space; it reminds me of foothills, LOL. I’m working with 3-5 year olds this week so it is kind of interesting, since that is my least favorite age group, although I’m growing to love it! So I got to teach the first session of the whole cruise for these 3-5 year olds. I had like 17 of them to myself in a room that was shared with 30 6-8 year olds. The room is pretty small and my section only basically allowed enough room for us to sit in a circle, no running around, every activity basically had to be sitting down. It was so difficult! First off I had like 3 kids who didn’t speak any English, then I had a couple kids who had to have had ADHD, and of course I had a couple of those 3 year olds who cried the whole time! It was ridiculous, and afterwards I was so exhausted and almost losing my voice, since I had to battle with the sound of the 30, 6-8 year olds playing games right beside me! But it ended ok; all the staff applauded me on my efforts and thought I did a really good job of handling it, which made me happy, because I wasn’t so sure. Normally I won’t be working with that many kids by myself, but since we don’t want to work like 70 hours a week just yet, we aren’t putting 2 people to a group.
Lately I have also had some awesome excursions! I was able to go on a crew excursion, whale watching in Juneau! We had a boat, free donuts, and salmon, LOL, and tons of orca and humpback whales, it was awesome! Then the next day I went with a couple friends on an eight mile hike in Skagway, up the mountains to this beautiful lake called the devils punch bowl! It was absolutely gorgeous! The snow covered mountains as far as the eye could see, plus the miniature town of Skagway down below; it definitely gave perfect evidence of a brilliant creator! Now I plan on going on a train ride, helicopter and dog sled ride in Skagway, zip lining in Juneau, and in Victoria I’ll go to the gardens. I don’t know what else, but we do get some pretty awesome discounts, so I’ll look into more!
What else has happened? I don’t even know? There is so much every day; basically every day just gets better and better! Plus there are always new people I get to meet, and funny events and developments like every day. But I guess when you work around such crazy and awesome people and only sleep like 5 hours day, crazy things are bound to happen! When I get home I don’t know what I’ll do? The constant over stimulation will make my ADD even worse, JK. Even when I get home, I don’t know how long it will be for. Most people on the cruise find out about their next contract like a month or two before the current one expires, and then they have like a 6-8 week break and then start all over. So we’ll see if that happens, if so I’ll probably be sailing the Caribbean in November, or perhaps the Mediterranean!

Day Who Knows? June 3rd

mhophan — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:51:34 +0000

The last couple days have still been amazing, although I have no idea what day it is anymore, LOL! I can’t imagine how I could ever do anything else! Although it is great, I’m realizing that all the things I’ve heard about working on a cruise ship are true! It is a completely different culture. It is funny when you get asked if your going out tonight, everyone really means are you hanging out at the Skal Bar (The crew bar/lounge). Basically that is the only place to do anything on the ship away from guests. Even though you go to the same place every night, it is still fun, and there are always crazy new things that develop. It is crazy thought the diversity present there. I’m getting to know Euro Techno, all different types of Spanish music from all over the world, plus who knows what else. It is pretty hilarious!
Another thing I’m learning is to definitely take advantage of naps. Some days I get 3 hours of sleep wake up for 8 hours and then repeat the whole process for up to 48 hours! Luckily right now I’m not tat busy, a lot of my lack of sleep is due to the fact that if people are hanging out, I will be there. I can’t pass up an opportunity to socialize Just like last night all the Youth Staff got together in one of the rooms and played pictionary, LOL, although we ended up getting kicked out because we were too loud, and I guess the dancers and actors needed to get their sleep. Why would you want sleep at 1:00am, JK.
This week though has been a little more difficult at work though because this group of kids are extremely difficult. We have multiple kids with behavioral issues, plus some are just brats, LOL, but I still love them! Luckily, though those difficulot days in Sunday School have taught me how to be strict when needed. So I guess I’m greatful for all those people who didn’t volunteer, JK.
Another interesting thing about cruise life is the girl to guyt ratio. I come from a town where it seems like girls out number teh guys 20 to 1 (slight exageration) but onboard it is basically the opposite. Most my friends are guys and I love getting fashion advice from all my gay guy friends, LOL, JK. I haven’t asked for fashion advice yet! Oh well! It is amazing. I am almost done with week two! I will write again soon.

Day 5

mhophan — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:40:49 +0000

Hey Everyone! The last 5 days have been crazy, yet amazing! Things are going great! The best part of this whole experience right now is that my roommate Meg is great! We are basically like twins seperated at birth, LOL, except she is 5’0”. But we get along great and we have both helped each other make this transition easier since it is both of our first time on a cruise ship!
Probably one of the most shocking things to me when I first got on the ship was the size of our room! It is about the size of my bathroom back home, LOL. Hey, at least I don’t have to clean it, and our maid even said he would clean it extra well for us since we are youth staff The ship is pretty small for a cruise ship, which is nice since everything looks the same on the crew level. The adventure ocean room where I work is also a lot smaller, but that’s ok. Everyone says it is great to start out on a small ship, plus the rhapsody of the seas is supposed to be the friendliest ship on the seas!
My coworkers are also very interesting! there are over 700 staff and crew, only 29 Americans! It is crazy, but I love meeting and talking to so many people from all over the world. The people here are some of the most flamboyant, funny, eccentric people I have ever met, but they are great, perhaps I am more like them than I thought, LOL. The only depressing part is the guy situation, JK. Most of them are either sleazy, old, taken, or the majority gay! Oh well, I guess I’ll just keep looking, LOL.
It has been a wonderful experience so far these last 5 days, although I’m completely exhausted, since I’ve had only about 3-6 hours of sleep a night. There is just too much to do, but eventually I will be able to get sleep, once all the excitement dies down. Plus my job really just throws us in there! I’ve haven’t had any training really and my 3rd day I was running the teen activities all by myself! It was great though.j I love all the kids and can’t believe I get paid to do this. Sorry my grammar and spelling will be awful, I don’t have time to correct it, since internet costs money, LOL. I appreciate everyone’s prayers and I will hopefully write again soon!
Michelle

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mhophan — Sun, 17 May 2009 04:24:59 +0000

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