Today was also a great day, a long day and an information overload day just as yesterday was! It started bright and early at 8am after a great nights sleep in the training room again. Today's lessons were very health and safety heavy... Highlights (!) included 5 safety videos back-to-back which were actually uncomfortably cheesy and dull of course covering things like slips and trips, back injuries and handling chemicals. I know it's vitally important to know this information but it doesn't stop it being pretty non-thrilling!
We also had a talk about alcohol and drugs as well as our crew member policies and handbook. We had lunch which was okay, found out that Kate & Wills had a BOY (yay for the future king!!! Despite being in the Bahamas I am proud to be British!) and also had my electronics checked off as safe from the engineers. We got to see inside the engine control room which I found really interesting, they even do engine room tours for crew sometimes! Sounds like nerdy fun to me!
So basically the most hilarious thing that happened today (even though it feels like weeks ago now haha) was the crew safety drill today. We got thoroughly briefed what to do when the announcement was made and I felt confident that I knew what I was doing and how to get there. So... Alarm goes off, we scatter from the training room in all directions to go to our cabins and get our life jackets before heading to our muster station (aka emergency assembly point/life raft) and I confidently head off down the I-95 which is what they call the main long corridor for crew on deck 1 which goes from one end of the ship to the other.
So, picture the fact that the training room is at the front end of the ship (aka forward) and my cabin is at the back of the ship (aka the aft). I get about 60% of the way down the I-95 and get stopped by a safety officer because the hypothetical "fire" is near my cabin. Bugger. So he tells me I have to go to Deck 4 and along and then down to my cabin. At this point I ran into Rob's roommate Neil who is also looking lost so together we head off to get to our cabins which are a few doors away from each other. Well, after running up 4 decks of stairs, along the outside deck area on 4 and then back down to Deck 1 we are once again refused entry, so we decided to just proceed to our stations. Easy for him, it was just back up to Deck 4 and through a set of doors in the aft end. However, my muster station was on deck 4, forward and starboard - aka right hand side! See I'm getting all the lingo now mum! ;-) but basically as far away as possible. So I leg it down deck 4 outside past everyone else already assembled at their stations in life jackets which was a bit mortifying, ran into an old friend from 2010 (Chris) but didn't have chance to chat obviously (!) and FINALLY made it to my station at point U-3. Well, I felt like I'd turned up to a fancy dress party in plain clothes because I was the only one without a life jacket. Along with the "earning my ears" tab prominently on my name tag and no crew ID card yet... It was all a bit of a fail!!
I didn't get into any trouble or anything but hopefully next time the "fire" won't be two decks below my cabin!
The other two big things I did today was 1) get Internet access! It's 10 cents a minute and you prepay in $20 blocks so I went up to crew deck 14 to get some actual sunlight and air whilst FB chatting and I messaging family and friends which was awesome! I feel I have so much information I don't know where to start when talking to people!
The last thing was I got my costume, crew ID card and then had my first OTJ training shift today from 6.30-10pm! I learnt the basics on the till and it felt like putting an old pair of shoes on... Once again, I am a MERCHIE!! :-D
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