Time for some PICTURES!

The brilliantly colored hallway of my airport hotel in Oslo, Norway. Where I was only supposed to spend one evening. But ended up spending two (with a brief visit to Molde, Norway inbetween).



Apparently my office computer freezes every time I try to rotate a picture, so you will have to forgive me for the sideways vertical shots. But this is the shoe polisher!



The sign that made me chuckle.



The ironing station - supercute!



This is my hotel room in Amsterdam. With the lovely bed I got to share with my lovely obese Filipino bedmate - who, by the way, sounded like a warthog gargling a slurpee through a mouthful of marbles.



And this is how I felt about that entire situation.



My first glimpse of my new home.



My second glimpse of my new home.



My first sailaway from Amsterdam.



Another sailaway glimpse.

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Aft, Forward, Starboard, Port! AHOY!

Well, let me just start by saying I have been a little more than busy lately. Not as busy as I am during Ohio Bike Week, but probably twice as busy as I was with IN THE MOOD.

Let me also start by saying that change is really really good. I am VERY happy with this change in my life. Even though I miss family, friends, and Brian (who deserves his own category of miss-age).

Erin Heare, the girl that I am replacing, will leave early on the 29th, so after that date I will have the computer to myself and will be sure to do a much more extensive post (with lots of pictures) than I am doing right now.

Currently my daily schedule has been something like this:
9:00-12:00 TRAINING (Safety, Human Resources, Policy, Management, etc.)
12:00-13:00 LUNCH
13:00-16:00 TRAINING (On the job, administrative, planning, etc.)
16:00-18:00 BREAK
18:00-24:00 PRODUCTIONS/EVENTS

As you can see... busy busy busy. Sometimes training doesn't start until 10:00 which is incredible. And sometimes the administrative stuff is a little lighter.

Do note the use of military time. Welcome to one change in my life.

My cabin is small. My shower is impossible. To shave I have a special manuever involving both the toilet and the sink. But I get turndown service every day which is nice. I am only in a temporary cabin right now, too. When Erin moves out I will take her cabin which has more space and a much larger bed.

I have already started picking up tagalog (the primary language of the Phillipines). Most of the AV staff (more commonly known as stage crew) is Filipino. I have to stop treating them like UmpaLoompas (sp?) because they are small, cute, and smiley. They are people, too.

Mostly right now I am trying to find any kind of rhythm (yeah, right) and get a bit caught up on sleep. I have certainly been burning the candles at both ends trying to be sociable at night and diligently attending trainings in the morning. I don't want to be friend-less once Erin leaves, and I certainly don't want to get any counseling or warnings for missing training.

The ship is VERY strict with policies and regulations. If you slip up once... on anything... enough for your manager to feel that discipline is necessary, you get a verbal counseling. After a verbal counseling, there are first, second, and third warnings. A third warning results in a masters hearing with the captain, and likely termination. First and second warnings mean that you cannot get promoted, or receive a bonus or a raise for one full year (all warnings expire in a year).

For an example:
You could get a verbal counseling for being out of uniform in a guest area. If an officer sees you in a guest elevator, it would escalte to your first written warning. If you forget to punch out your time card, then you could be issued your second written warning. Then if you are violating safety procedure by wearing flip flops onboard, you could be issued your third warning and terminated. Violations can be in ANY AREA of policy.

I find it nerve wracking that not only could I be disciplined this way, but I have to discipline my cast and team this way if any chronic or serious issues arise. It will certainly have to bring out a different side of me.

I did find out about family/friends on board. I can sign anyone on for a day in almost any port (meaning you could come on and visit while we are at port, but would have to leave before the all aboard call to sail). Once I have completed 6 months of employment (which I will by the end of this contract) there are two options. A guest can come on a cruise and stay in my cabin with me - probably only an option for Brian - at a rate of $10 a day. You get full guest benefits (like free food and non-alcoholic beverages). Anyone else can stay in their own guest stateroom for $40/day. Pretty incredible. So let's hope for everyone's sake that I manage to not mess things up in the next 6 months.

The ship is still in Norway. It is STUNNING here. I have only been able to get off one time - in Flam. It was a cute little town. Outside of that my training schedule has been too demanding to allow for more than meal breaks during the day (we are usually at port from 8am-4pm).

As I get more of a flow for my job, I have no fear that I will be getting off of the ship with more regularity. Though, you have to be careful, because ports of call is where you will spend all of your money. Well, ports and the bars on the ship. Though at the crew bar a beer is only 90 cents. Not too shabby.

And yes. I do lots of stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. I would guess next to 40 flights a day. It's rough stuff if you want to dine in the guest buffet (deck 10) and you are on the crew deck (deck 1).

More information and pictures to come. Your patience is greatly appreciated (that's the saying of my life as all of my coworkers accept the fact that I have NO IDEA what's going on some of the time).

Ciao!

Psst... I'm on a ship...

I MADE IT! FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!

I am sitting at what will officially be my office starting July 29th (that's the day Erin, the current PM signs off the ship). She is awesome by the way. I wish we could work together because I'm fairly sure we would get along amazingly.

I am officially on the Constellation at port in Amsterdam. The ship will be leaving port in about 20 minutes :D which is why I have a moment of privacy to write because everyone else is involved in the passenger mustering drill.

ANYWAY... a few quick highlights so far
- last night I not only shared a room but shared a BED with a stranger. UNCOOL.
- during the flight yesterday in the sea between Denmark and Amsterdam I saw a windfarm in the middle of the ocean. It was 7x13, so 91 turbines total. AWESOME!
- I had to wake up at 5 am this morning (after finally falling asleep around 130am last night). Our shuttle was at 6:15am. ouch.
- Pretty sure I'm running entirely on adrenaline at the moment.
- The theater is very aesthetically beautiful but technically it is not that impressive.
- I think the people here are going to be excellent to work with.
- The cabin I am in is temporary and I will move into Erin's cabin starting on the 29th.
- My scheduled leave date is March 10th (I'm slipping this in the middle hoping no one will notice that it got extended).
- I am not allowed to wear my hair down.
- I'm getting a stress pimple.
- I will have to call shows I have never seen before.

I will be sure to write more later. I have pictures to upload - nothing amazing, but pictures to break up my boring words would help my massive fan base.

I love you all! I'm off to ... checks schedule ... Stavanger, Norway!

You have GOT to be KIDDING me

Safely in Amsterdam. Woohoo.
Safely got shuttled to my hotel. Woohoo.

Found out I am sharing not just a room but a BED with a complete stranger. Older larger Phillipino lady... unwoohoo.

Found out the shuttle to the boat is at 6:15 am and we will wait until 10am to board. Please just kill me.

But the upside is that they provide the first twenty euro for our breakfast... which is served at 7am. Wait... what...? I will have left 45 minutes earlier?!?

Amsterdam: Here I come (I hope)

Leaving the beautiful Radisson Blu at the Oslo Airport for the second time in two days. Let's hope I don't come back in 6 hours this time. In theory I should be in Amsterdam by 2pm... crossing my fingers that lots of people speak English there. Need to call to get picked up by the hotel shuttle and then need to call the port agent for transportation tomorrow to THE BOAT!

Woohoo!

A small reward...

All of this being trapped in airports and on airplanes all day every day did let me accomplish one thing... Done with The Poisonwood Bible. On to Bossy Pants. Thank goodness.

Close... but not quite.

So I successfully made it across the street back to the Oslo airport this morning and leisurely checked into my flight to Alesund, Norway. Got on the plane, no problem! Flight going ahead of schedule - SAWEEET (since I had a tight turnaround time from the plane landing to catching the boat). Heading into final descent -- starting to get those butterflies of anticipation. WOOO. Plane pulls back up into the sky.... Whaaa??? Plane keeps going for a long time. This seems like the opposite of a descent? Pilot makes LOOOOONG annoucement in Norwegian. Everyone around me chatters in Norwegian. Flight attendant picks up radio. Through a thick accent I catch something along the lines of, "Due to thick fog we are unable to land in Alesund. We are rerouting and will get back to you with more information." 30 minutes later we land at the worlds tiniest airport -- could easily be mistaken for a parking lot. All hopes shattered for catching the cruise today...

We landed in Molde, a small city I'd never heard of. We waited for 45 minutes to see if the Alesund airport would open back up, but it didn't. They hired some buses to take the planeful of people to Alesund (a 2 hour bus ride not including traffic from some festival that I couldn't make out). A really nice woman translated the annoucements for me. I explained my dilemma to her and she suggested going inside to see if I could catch a flight back to Oslo (which would allow for much more flight flexibility than Alesund). I thanked her and did just that.

A swell idea indeed, in less than 25 minutes I was back on another plane headed back to Oslo. Of course, by this point I had had no access to a phone to tell anyone with Celebrity what was happening. The poor port agent waiting for me at Alesund was probably really pissed when I didn't show up with the bus. But there's only so much I can be responsible for keeping all 8 billion people involved with my travel plans (that are always a mess) in the loop.

So I'm back at the hotel I was at last night. In their business center which is becoming my second home. I just got my new itinerary via mail. I fly to amsterdam tomorrow at noon. Have to arrange a pickup from the hotel shuttle, and have to arrange transportation to the port with the port agent the next day.

Long story short, it will have taken me 5 days of travelling to join this damn boat!