Merry Christmas!

Well hello there friends and family.

Just wanted to wish you all a super incredible Christmas and a very safe holiday season. I hear that Ottawa got hit with quite a bit of snow the past few days so please stay safe everyone.

I'm missing everything about the holidays at home right now - the baked goods, the tree, the decorations, the cuddles with my puppies and my family. I don't even know what I'm going to do tomorrow night when I'm not going to playing Rummoli with my family. We're having an ugly christmas sweater party tomorrow night when we exchange our white elephant gifts and we're going exchange our entertainment teams secret santas! That should be fun and I will probably cry at some point but that's what the holidays do I suppose.

First Christmas away from home is going to be a challenge but I suppose I just have to remember I'm not the only one who is away from home this year.

Anyway, just wanted to send my well wishes from Baltimore and the seas because we'll be at sea on Christmas Day. It'll be a wet Christmas instead of a white one.

Love to everyone at home <3 xo

Questions & Christmas Cards

So I've been pretty quiet on here for a while because honestly everything is getting really repetitive. Not a whole lot of new things happening. Same thing pretty much day after day, just new guests.

However, if you guys can think of any questions that you want me to answer about ship life, feel free  send me a message on Facebook or whatever you'd like and I'll try and answer them for you and make a post with all the answers!

And we all know Christmas is quickly approaching and Christmas cards would not be turned away ;) So if you'd like to send me a Christmas card that address again is:


Jodi Samler 454120
Entertainment
Carnival PRIDE
C/O Intercruises Shoreside & Port Services
10435 Resiterstown Road - BLDG 3
Owings Mills,
MD 21117

Looking forward to hearing from you guys!

Love <3

#shiplifeproblems

Ship life is amazing - do not get me wrong on this entry. But I've compiled a list of #shiplifeproblems that I think other crew members and cruisers a like will find a little funny.

when you want to take a nap and the room steward is cleaning your room (also a #firstworldproblem)

when they don't have chocolate milk in the mess

no real bbq sauce on board

getting dripped on every 10 ft as you walk down the i-95

getting in the elevator and stopping at every floor from deck a to 10

when the water tight door to crew bar is closed and you have to go the long way

port manning - nuff said

when people you have grown to like/love sign off

hearing 85% of the guests say 'where the food at?' 

hurricanes

when you're in remote area where the satellite doesn't give you the channels USA and TBS

having a roommate who turns on all the lights (not anymore but before)

the internet/no phone usage

not understanding half the things that people say to you because english is not their first language

hearing someone from my group of guests saying 'eh' immediately after i tell them i'm from canada

crew immigration

debarkation

sunburns (okay so this one is my fault but the sun is so strong in the damn islands :P)

wearing the same clothes over and over again/having a closet way too small for your clothes

I will probably add to this list every once in a while so stay tuned.

Sandy, you crazy b*tch!

i haven't updated in what feels like forever because it probably has been forever. i'm slowly weening myself off the internet so i don't spend so much money on it all the time. as most of you could see from my Facebook status' and pictures from the past week and a half, we survived hurricane sandy - did you ever have any doubt? captain gallotto is one of the best, if not THE best and he would never put us in any danger. 

basically last week we ended up loading guests on on the sunday at 11:30am, we had to kick them off at 2:30pm because the coast guard had closed the port and there was to be no one going in and out of the bay. we had to go float out in the bay/ocean for the next few days. the most we got was the really high winds and the rain but all was good. it didn't even get rocky at all. while we were in that, there was plenty for the staff to do: as in stuff to keep us occupied so we didn't go totally crazy. we played just dance, we played ping pong, had movie days, watched the band play, had parties like the halloween party which was amazing! hope you checked out the pictures on my Facebook - there were some pretty fun costumes! i think by the end of it we were all pretty much partied out. we stayed anchored in one spot for most of the time but then eventually traveled back to baltimore to pick up the passengers for our 2 day cruise to nowhere - or as most of us called it, the 2 day cruise of hell. most people were there to party, because well why wouldn't you. it's 2 days of drinking and gambling and shows on a boat. you can't go anywhere so theres nothing else to do but eat, drink and gamble basically. 

something that was also great about last week: NO ROOMMATE! place to myself for pretty much an entire week! it was heaven. however, on friday when we docked in baltimore to pick up the guests for our cruise to nowhere, i had a roommate move in. her name is dragon and she's a housekeeping operator. i don't know much about her besides those 2 facts. i was talking to my mum about this the other day - i get some people with not so normal names in my cabin: dragon, sunshine and ant. its a very interesting cabin. maybe i'm the weird one? who knows. the new social host sam came on yesterday and she seems really great so far. guess what that means? I'M NOT THE NEWBIE ANYMORE! i mean theres still lots that i haven't actually done and i always get tips and tricks from everybody but I'm not considered the newbie which is always good. she's not new to ships just to the social host aspect. she used to be the port shopping expert on another ship with carnival. 

today i called my first bingo in about 2 and a half weeks so it was still a little nerve wrecking - i hadn't done it since before gumbie left. BUT even kirk, the cruise director, the top dog, the big kahuna, said i did a good job. phew! a load off my mind good gosh! 

oh and by the way TODAY i finally got my birthday cards for those of you sent one, except for the one from you mum, don't know what happened there. I got one from Auntie Sandra, Poppa and the amazing Laura so thank you very much to you guys. it was very much appreciated and definitely made me tear up. another birthday card that i got today was actually from a past guest named Reagan. she came on with her family about a month and a half ago. she's only 10. but she gave her grandparents a birthday card to give to me with a sweet message and a picture of the 2 of us! the sweetest thing EVER!

another thing that makes me tear up on a weekly basis actually is our welcome aboard show. our cruise director finds the couple that was the most recently married (usually ends up being the day before or even the day of the cruise) and the longest married couple. when he finds the longest married couple i can't help but think of my nanna and poppa whom i miss very much. last night there was actually a lady in the audience who was almost identical to my nanna and i wanted to go and give her a great big hug - but i thought she might have found that a little strange so i resisted. 

anyway, this entry is getting ridiculously long but i hope you enjoyed it none the less even though it was all over the place. sitting in grand turk doing a quick update and then off to the ocean in grand turk for the last time!

Rocky Waters

Apparently Tropical Storm Sandy has quickly approached the bahamas and therefore we cannot go to 2 of our scheduled ports :( Right now we're in Grand Turk where its cloudy and ridiculously windy but at least the rain stopped.

Tomorrow we were supposed to be in Half Moon Cay but turns out that its not going to be safe for us to do the tenders to get to the island so they decided to cancel that one. We also can't dock in Freeport on Friday because it'll be too dangerous there as well so now we'll be going to Port Canaveral instead. I'm not THAT upset about missing Half Moon Cay because I was going to end up missing out on it anyway being HOD that day but now EVERYONE is missing it. A little selfish maybe, but I wanted to celebrate my birthday with a bang and if I couldn't do that on the island nobody could ;)

Tomorrow is my birthday though! 22!! Should be pretty cool I guess. Going to miss out on the birthday celebrations back home but I'm sure I'll have an incredible time with my ship family and friends. I'll also finally get to open the gifts that my family sent me that have been sitting in my room teasing me all week! Gah! There's also a halloween party tonight. Why it's a week early, not too sure but who cares. A party is a party! I'm not going to tell you what my costume is just yet, I'll wait to post pictures!

Not much of an update but I figured I owed you one cause my last one was such a debbie downer about my roommate. Who is actually moving out on the 28th because the lady that she's replacing is leaving! I'll have my room to myself for a few days until the new host gets here on Halloween next Wednesday!

and a picture of the atlantis just cause i love it there so much! I thought I would never ever get there now I'm there every week! dreams come true people - just sayin'

Wanted: New Roommate

my roommate is the most inconsiderate little bitch. waiting until 12:30am to take a shower when she's been in the room since 7:30pm, then going on to use the hair dryer right after. also, when she's IN the shower, she will turn on her music as loud as she can from OUTSIDE the washroom, so she can hear it IN the washroom while i'm still sitting out here. She doesn't ask if I mind or anything like that, she just does it. When she wakes up, she thinks turning on all the lights is a good thing. well its not. then leaving to go to work without turning off said lights. sorry, not cool either. being on the phone till 1am, also not very cool, especially when i can't even eavesdrop cause she's speaking thai. this morning, she wakes up extra early, thought it was to go to work. no. turns out she was just making lots of noise in her closets - all i could hear were zippers going, hangers moving, i thought maybe she was packing so i breathed a sigh of relief thinking she was packing to move out. nope! turns out, she was UNPACKING the rest of her damn things, which means woo hoo. she's staying. -_- i'm going to go crazy. if i hear 'are you done for today?' or 'what time you working today?' in her stupid thai accent one more time i might just have to kick her in the face (alright so that was a little violent and probably not going to happen but seriously) 2 can play at this game. I know with all the complaints I have about her I should tell her you know, be a little more considerate, but she is seriously like talking to a brick wall. I can't have a full out conversation with her - how she's a secretary for an american company is beyond me. if she's my roommate for the next 4 months, i don't know what i'm going to do. and i'm not even going to be the bigger person and ask to move out because 1) i was here first 2)who knows who the hell i would end up with next and 3)i don't want to pack. Oh great, she's back. Aaaand 'what time you working today?' first words out of her mouth to me when she realizes i'm awake. And excited to tell me she finally got her formal uniform. -_- I don't care. Oh, of course now she's being nice and considerate asking if I need to use the washroom for anything before she takes a shower and making me feel bad for writing this whole thing. but gosh, i had to get it out.

Hello, Is It Me You're Looking For?

I'm still here! I promise. Okay so I haven't updated in a long time.. and I actually started making notes of what I've been doing since October 5th so this is a long time coming. Well as of right now it is 11 days till my birthday so get your cards all sent. I'm just kidding ;) But really. Cards are lovely. 

So on October 3rd myself, Mary Margaret, Megan, Craig, and Art all went to Magic Kingdom for the day. I posted pictures from that adventure a while ago so hopefully you got a chance to check them out and see that I had an absolutely amazing time! We went on quite a few rides for the amount of time we spent there - it was nice going in early October cause there was NO one there. The longest we had to wait in line was for Splash Mountain which was all of maybe 15 minutes. We went on Space Mountain, Stitches Great Escape, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, the Dumbo ride, It's a Small World, that Test Drive track whatever its called, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion. Nothings changed since I was there when I was 10 - and I still loved every minute of it!

The next day a huge group of went to a resort called Breezes in Nassau. Well now that was a good time. You pay $60 bucks for all you can eat, all you can drink - and by drink, its all alcohol - so you could say a few of us left a little wobbly. We did this challenge called the rainbow where you have to drink a drink from every colour of the rainbow - ROYGBIV anyone? Yeah we did all of them. And then some more. Some people started a second rainbow. I don't think I did … I may have though I can't remember. It's all a little blurry - thank God for the pictures. Or maybe not… depends how you look at it I suppose. 

This week I ended up back on HOD which is why I ended up being super busy and not on here that much. Saffie left last sunday :( but we got a new host, a guy named Levi from South Africa who's super chill and pretty funny when I can understand him between the mumbles and the kiwi accent.  I only had like a week off and back on crazy host on duty stuff. I also survived calling my first bingo game which is pretty major for me I would say. I also survived my first show doing Sonny and Cher. I was Sonny -_- Apparently I will be getting a DVD and a photo so Mum you can expect those in the mail as soon as I get them.

Well, we shall see what this week brings and hopefully it'll be a good amount of sleep! Sending lots of love! 

Don't forget… my address for birthday cards is: 

Jodi Samler 454120 

Entertainment

Carnival PRIDE 

C/O Intercruises Shoreside & Port Services

10435 Resiterstown Road - BLDG 3

Owings Mills, 

MD 21117

;)

Good Morning Baltimoreee!

Well I survived my first week as a host on duty! phew! so much to do its unbelievable. so much responsibility put on my shoulders but I'm glad to say i managed with only a few bumps! 

I hosted pretty much everything on my own which is crazy to me! And one lady even told me that I was doing a great job at what I do so that was a nice confidence booster!

I'm going out to breakfast with miss Mary Margaret tomorrow in Baltimore before we do some shopping. I've got mad cabin fever right now because when you're host on duty you're also port manning which means you can't get off the ship in case of an emergency. Fortunately an emergency involving me or anything of the sort happened this week. Unfortunately, a woman did drown when we were in Grand Turk. From what I've heard around the ship she had a heart attack while she was in the water. Very sad - we all feel for her family. 

Tomorrow I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to sleep in tomorrow. Even if its only till 9:30am because I know the rest of the week I don't have to be up before 10 ever! Ahhh bliss <3 

Anyway, speaking of bed. I'm out :) Love you all! (That is if I can sleep with my Thai roommate speaking a ridiculous amount of broken english to her Chilean boyfriend -_-) (ps. no I didn't sleep until 2:30am because they were trying to talk to each other/watch ice age/learn each others language)

this was a pretty lame post - sorry! haha didn't do much exploring this week because of the whole host on duty thing

xo 

HOD

Gah! I've been quiet lately! I'm sorry! Quick update on everything!

Last week we were in Nassau. I finally got to go to the Atlantis and spend a good chunk of time there! And by chunk of time I mean like 6 hours - it was SUCH a great day! Pretty sure the other girls that I went with (Kristen, Megan and Mary Margaret) got sick of me pointing out everywhere that Mary-Kate and Ashley filmed while they were there! 'Oh I saw this in Holiday in the Sun!' 'They shot a scene right there!' 'Mary-Kate and Ashley were standing right here!' Yeah, I'm ridiculous. I'm not going to post the photos on here but if you're reading this, you've probably seen the link on my Facebook to all the pictures from Atlantis. We pretty much stayed on the lazy river all day. Rapids, water slides, waves - so much fun! We also got to visit one of the aquariums - and MK&A definitely filmed in there too; just saying' ;) 

I now actually have to DO something for boat drill - like help guests. Who wants to do that? Just kidding! But really -_- Before I was at crew muster station 1 which means I just had to go up to my spot and wait for my lifeboat. Now I have to guide guests to the right spot and then put them in the lifeboats. Yay me. 

Something exciting that I've been waiting to happen since I got here finally happened yesterday! I was in the middle of one of my trivias when Kirk, our Cruise Director, came over the loud speaker to let us know that there was a pod of dolphins following the ship. Lucky for me, we were on the right side of the ship to see them and they were right outside the windows by our trivia! It was a pretty cool thing to see not going to lie! 

One of my biggest pet peeves on board - the laundry rooms. There are 920 crew members on board. Guess how many laundry machines there are? 12. Of each. 12 washers. 12 dryers. Just TRY doing your laundry without having to guard your stuff - good luck with that. -_- 

Now this week is going to be pretty crazy for me! You won't have any stories of me getting off the ship this week because I'm Host on Duty! Which basically means, if someone needs to find something out, they call me and I give them the answer. Kind of scary considering this is only my 3rd week. But with Kiki leaving today, there are now only 3 hosts. Thank God everyone is so helpful and answering all of my questions. As host on duty, I had to do debarkation this morning - made a few mistakes but they're pretty understanding and forgiving considering again, this is the first time I've done debark on this ship. 

I ended up with a new roommate today too - Sunshine moved out to move in with another one of the guest services ladies, and one of the hotel ladies moved in with me. Her name is Ant - I think :S She's asian and I didn't quite understand what she said - I do a lot of smiling and nodding when she talks to me. I think charades will be the way to go most of the time with her. OH - and they took my good TV! I had a flat screen, like 24 inch tv in here and now I'm back to a dinky little like 12 inch screen from like 2004. Womp womb. I guess I'm not in here that much anyway but still - it was a nice little luxury for a bit!

I also hosted a few more things by myself in the Taj Mahal (which is our main lounge) with the big screen and I'm just glad that I'm able to set all of that up pretty much by myself. Its very exciting ;) 

Hopefully you've checked out my latest pictures on Facebook, I know a few people who have already ;) 

Missing everyone back home. Just think - 4 and a half more months! (so much for a quick update that ended up pretty long!)

DJ Jodi Wan in the Hizouse!

I was the lucky recipient of the random drug test this week! Woooo! Don't worry Mum, I passed ;) I also passed my PCS test after quizzing Chris for like 2 hours - apparently it helped me too! It was my first week and was already in trouble (as you saw in the last one) so we had a meeting in the Hotel Directors office - slap on the wrist, don't do it again kinda schpiel. 

I found out this week that one of the girls that i've become super close with Kiki, is leaving a lot earlier than expected! She was supposed to be on here till like January - turns out she now leaves me on Sunday. Honestly devastated. She has to go home due to some stuff that's going on there and obviously family comes first but she's like my security blanket on here. Kirk (our Cruise Director) assured me they will take care of me and that Kiki will be back but no one knows when :( Sarah, one of the other e-staff is leaving in 2 weeks, Gumbie (ACD) leaves on the 28th, Uncle Brucie leaves on the 28th too so it will be me and Kirk … and then the new ones. Gah! 

One thing that I found out that I get to do on board on final sea days some weeks is perform with the Karaoke host, Solomon, as Sonny and Cher. Guess who's Sonny? -_- They perform during the 'Legends' show on board which basically is guests who audition to be people like Garth Brooks, Elvis, Aretha Franklin, Britney Spears, that kind of thing. And in the middle of it, I get to be Sonny. Don't know when I'm starting that but might be soon since the others are leaving! 

You can also refer to me as my DJ name now - DJ Jodi Wan Kenobi (thanks Patrick) - or DJ Jodi Wan for short. As part of being a social host you have to know how to work the DJ stuff so you can cover breaks or even DJ should the Pro DJ (Clyde and Charles) or Apprentice DJ (Chris) get sick. So Chris and Charles have been showing me the ropes. Got any requests? ;) 

Gonna go do some bean bag  toss in a bit - it actually gets super intense! 

No pictures to add to this one! Sowwy! 

First Week - Trouble.

Well Grand Turk day was a roaring success. From the beautiful weather to the beautiful gingers, it was a good day :) I was supposed to have training on Grand Turk day but to my surprise I showed up and they told me I didn't have to be there! Back to bed I go - until I hear Jay knocking on Uncle Brucey's door so I went out to yell at him for making me wake up for orientation when I didn't have to. My mood quickly changed when he told me to get dressed to go to the beach. I also got to host my very first trivia on my own today - sports trivia to be exact. 

I didn't really do that much today - trivia, bingo, show watch and tan. Very last thing I had to do tonight was deck party. That was interesting. There were so many things to celebrate at this deck party - It was Jay's (ACD) last, DJ Sir Charles' last, Brucey's 50th birthday, the last for Gumbie as a host before he becomes ACD, my first deck party, Mary Margaret's (Club 02 Director) and Chris (new dj) first deck party. So guess what? We all go thrown in the pool! My key is now sitting at the bottom of the pool under the vent. Not only was I soaked but I was also locked out of my room. It was all in good fun - even though we all got in trouble from security after. And now we have to have a meeting with the hotel director about the whole thing -_- 

Next up - Half Moon Cay!!! A private island in the western caribbean! I only have to do tenders in the morning than I'm off until 5 when we're all going to the steakhouse for birthday celebrations, final nights, all that fun stuff. UPDATE: didn't get to get off in Half Moon Cay this week :( The weather was kind of crappy at the beginning of the day so they decided to add in a few activities and I was on of the ones who had to host. But next up for me tonight is 60 Seconds or Less, Gender Showdown and something else called Carnival Quest that I've never heard of but is apparently a riot! 

WELL - we did Carnival Quest. They were right - that was hilarious!!! Basically its an adult scavenger hunt - Gumbie calls up what he wants and they bring it up with their number. Things got interesting VERY fast. To mens underwear, women's bras, men IN women's bras, guys skipping around holding hands, its one of those things you have to experience wow. Today Chris and I are going to go chill in Freeport/study for our PCS test that we have tomorrow (that I've already done grrr). 

Heres some pictures from Grand Turk :) 

 The Canadian Bar!

JAY!!!  He left today in Freeport :( I'll definitely miss this guy!

Home for 5 months - the Carnival Pride!

Here We Go Again...

I'm the new one again. But everyone is SO welcoming! I ended up meeting my ACD and one of the other hosts at the gangway when I got on to the ship so they helped me with my ridiculous amount of bags. Jay (the ACD) also pointed me in the right direction for the MSA, my cabin, laundry, crew lounge (which is right down the hall by the way) and everything else that I needed. 

Still ended up getting lost the first day a few times but I guess thats normal considering that this is a much bigger ship than the Fantasy class ship that the Paradise was in. I met the other hosts and a few of the dancers and they're all really great. i really clicked with Kiki who is also canadian, and still pretty new - she's 6 weeks into her contract here on the Pride. I'll be moving in with her when one of the other girls, Sarah (or Saffy, cause she's south African) leaves in 4 weeks. Right now my room mate is Sunshine who works in Guest Services and she's ridiculously sweet. She pretty much offered me sweets as soon as i walked in - I thought i was trick or treating or something. Another plus of where I'm living, the production singer Katie (?) lives next door and is constantly singing so I get a show before the show!

Yesterday they threw me right into everything I did deck party right away, did some trivia (well just watched) and did bingo as well. I guess that's what you get when you go to college - they expect you to know it all when you get into the real world. 

I haven't quite got the hang of the whole eating schedule on this ship yet so every time I get down to the mess, there's no food - so I guess you could say I'm hungry. Oh and earlier, I definitely dropped my laptop off my bunk. Clearly still working, but it looks like its got a floppy dog ear on the top right. That would happen to me. If i was on the bottom bunk that wouldn't have been a problem - sheesh!

I've got training tomorrow bright and early and theres a crew party tonight. Guess who's going to be tired and not able to get off in Grand Turk? Lame sauce. But I guess I'll be there once or twice more while I'm on here.. ;)

Haven't taken any pictures yet but i'm sure there will be some soon. 

Oh ps. pretty sure I know the reason why Mat sent me to the Pride: my ACD Jay, is a ginger. -_- And leaving me soon. He finishes on our Freeport day on Friday. 

*NOTE: I've been writing this since I arrived on the 9th so if it's all kind of jumbled together - deal with it ;) 

Pride and Glory!

Well just Pride. Graduation Day Pride! And by pride I mean, that's what ship I'm going to! If you check out the itinerary for the ship you can see that it goes to: Port Canaveral, Freeport, Nassau, Half Moon Cay and Grand Turk! So basically the next 6 months in the Bahamas. Boohoo eh? ;) By the time winter comes around though I'll get winter one day a week because my home port is Baltimore, Maryland. Guess I'll be buying a new pair of uggs for those days! 

The girls also got all really great ships - not the ones they were hoping for for some of them but they are pleased none the less. The other ships the girls are going are the Legend, Elation, Fasicnation, Imagination and Conquest. Some of them will still get to see each other every once in a while in Cozumel which is great but I won't see any of them which is kind of sad but I know we'll all keep in touch. 

Tomorrow is debark and myself, Alana, Lize and Marina are taking a bus to Miami, spending the night there and then I fly to Baltimore on Sunday at some time - I forget what time. Packing isn't fun at the moment, nor is laundry but such is life. Us girls are going to have a girls night in Miami cause we're going to be in Miami Bitch ;) 

(continued from yesterday)

Right now, I'm on a bus on the way to Miami. It was sad to say goodbye to 2 of the girls Pearl and Jenn but we met the new college kids outside while we were getting on the bus. Three of them were from the same interview that Jenn, Alana and I were in! Small world! 

Last night was really fun - from crew bar, to disco, back to crew bar. I even got to say bye to my ginger friend Sam from Charleston :P 

Onto a new adventure. In the next 24 hours I'll have been on 1 ship in Tampa, a bus across Florida to Miami, and then a plane to Baltimore and then another ship. So many modes of transportation in so little time. Oh, and we definitely just pulled over on the side of the highway to look at alligators - too funny!D

Its not letting me upload pictures at the moment so you'll have to bare with me and check them out on facebook!

Red Skin

Let me tell you its been pretty tough trying to conserve the internet that I have left for the week. Thanks to my wonderful Mum sending me some moola to buy an internet card, I now have another 130 mins left to use up before Friday :)

Well its been quite a week and its only Wednesday. On embarkation day after we did ship tour with the new guests, along with our sail-away party/labour day party (yes I'm Canadian, there's a 'u' in labour), both Lize and I got locked out of our room. My key wasn't working, and Lize forgot hers in the room. So here we are sitting in the hallway trying to get a hold of housekeeping to come let us in. After being sprawled out on the floor and getting the most ridiculous looks from the rest of the crew, 15 mins later she finally arrived to let us in and we could finally get ready for our night. 

Formal night was pretty fun! It was our last formal night as a group but we barely got to see each other so we're going to get all dressed up again on our last day here on Friday and take pictures I hope! That night at crew bar was interesting for sure. Late night pizza runs, face plants off bar stools (not by me :P) good times all around.

I finally got to get off the ship in Grand Cayman! This is our 3rd time being here since I've been on the ship and we finally got to get off. Only 3 of the college girls got off and one of the guys from the gift shop, Dejan, came with us too. We went to a place called Sea Grape Beach which is part of the public beaches on Seven Mile Beach. It was refreshing to just sit on a beach. I wasn't worried about free wifi - all I wanted to do was enjoy the ocean and get my tan on. And well, get my tan on I did. I got a little more than a tan - I'm kind of a tomato right now. I don't have a picture on my computer at the moment but my roommate took a picture earlier and it will probably be on Facebook tomorrow so I will steal it and post it then. I forgot to pack my aloe which is pretty much the most important thing I could probably need when it comes to sun and my skin but thank God Alana had some for me so I've been bathing in that for the night. 

OH and there is one hell of a good looking ginger on board - thanking the heavens a little bit - and we ran into him and his friends on the shuttle on the way home from the beach. Apparently one of his friends had a little fun and painted his toe nails and was desperate for some nail polish remover. The college girls had run into them last night at the disco and he was looking for me all night to get it. The kid finally got some when we got back to the ship so he no longer has a pretty pedicure. Probably one of the most random things to happen on board so far but it was fun. 

We also got to watch a little video in the theatre tonight about the new Hasbro Game Show that's going to be part of the all the new Carnival 2.0 ships and it looks like sooooo much fun! My fingers are crossed to be a part of one of the ships that has it already. I guess I'll find out tomorrow at graduation!

I just got back from crew bar where we had a jungle themed party and i wore some pipecleaners around my head with a feather so I was dubbed 'Red Skin' womp womp lol

Here are some pictures from the Grand Cayman adventure!

At Sea Grape Beach 

we got super pruny 

Trivial Pursuit

*NOTE: Pretend I posted this yesterday - I wrote it yesterday but the internet wasn't working well enough to post it so I'm at a wifi-spot right now in Tampa and posting it now ;)

These past few days have been fun filled to say the least. I'm down to a whopping 6 minutes on my internet so I will definitely be taking advantage of all the free wifi when I get into port in Tampa tomorrow. 

This cruise is only a 4 day cruise so in translation 'a booze cruise'. Most people here are part of bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, birthdays, or just teachers trying to get in their last weekend of freedom before returning to school.

I've been able to host quite a few trivias which is a whole lot of fun, when you have more than 4 people. Yesterday while we were in Cozumel, of course most people were out having a great time, except a group of like 6 people who stayed on cause they're trivia die hards. I did some Food and Beverage trivia along with some Stupid Law trivia. Did you know its illegal to make funny faces at your dog in Arkansas? WHAT?! Anyway, So far today I've done 4 trivias. My partner in crime, Jenn, is sick so I've had to host them all. Great practice for me, kind of on the sucker side for Jenn. I hosted 'Ultimate Mind Game', '90's Music' (which I rocked at, just saying), 'Motown Trivia' which was incredible and I just finished some 'Sports Trivia'. Of course a trivia isn't a trivia without a few hecklers - but its all in good fun. If I can't pronounce a name, I blame it on my Canadian-ness ;) 

A few days ago at Karaoke, I was serenaded. I died a little bit. A very incredibly good looking southern boy named Terry sang 'Come a Little Closer' by Dierks Bentley to me. I may have melted a little bit. That same night, Lize and Me watched a man propose to his girlfriend in the main lobby on the beautiful staircase. He was crying, she was crying, we were crying, it was a mess but so beautiful.

Tonight, I'm off for some more karaoke, maybe a little serenade is in my future. And right after karaoke I'll be off to The Punchliner Comedy Club to help out a bit with that so it should end up being a pretty good night! Unfortunately we also have quite an early morning tomorrow for debarkation but hopefully that'll go by fast so I can get into Tampa asap. Then we start our last and final cruise on the Carnival Paradise. Mat, our trainer, knows all of pur ships and of course has been teasing us about them for a few days but we don't find out until the day before we leave, so hopefully  Thursday or Friday I'll have an answer. Not sure if I'll be able to let you all know cause of my not a whole lot of internet situation but we'll see. 

Well that was a novel and a half. Hope you enjoyed :D 

Nap Time Anyone?

Every time someone gets a break on the ship the first thought that goes through most of the peoples minds is 'Do I have enough time to get in a decent nap?' Most of the time the answer is: 'Well let's try'.

At my end of the ship, there is no such thing as napping, sleeping in, quiet, just doesn't happen. With the laundry room not far from us, having one of the main staircases to get to the crew bar, the constant welding that is happening, and when its time for a port, the immense shaking and rumbling on the boat, you just don't sleep. Fact. You try and you try. When you're close, you get a phone call: 'Can you go do this?' or you get a knock on the door: 'wanna go eat?'

However, last night I found out when you do sleep, you seem to dream about karaoke because that's what you do here pretty much 25/7.

I'd like to take a moment to try and take back all the times I didn't want nap time in kindergarten even though I had that super cool towel/pillow thing that my Mum made me.

I'd also like to try and figure out how I'm going to survive the next 8 days on $6. Guess that means no crew bar for Jodi. Womp womp. With $6 that also means my internet is limited with only about 70 mins left to last me till the 8th... which realistically probably won't work, SO that means probably limited blogs until I get to tampa on Monday when I get to some free wi-fi.

Here's to another day of Bingo and Karaoke.

Wastin Away Again in Margaritaville

Yesterday, plain and simple, was just a lot of fun!

Myself, Jenn and Pearl had the entire day off in Cozumel- we didn't start 'work' until 9pm. And by work, I mean watch karaoke. We got off the ship at about 10:30am and didn't get back on board until about 4:30pm.


In between all that time, we got rained on, tanned, got our free wifi on, rained on some more, free margaritas, free beer and some delicious food. We found out that if we go to Margaritaville, not only do we get 20% off our meals, we also get unlimited beer with said meals. We also wound up with some free margaritas. Now, this would be so much better if I drank either margaritas or beer, but I'm feeling like with the word 'FREE' involved, I may start having to like these drinks :) If my tastebuds don't want to agree with it, I'll stick with my $1.50 amaretto sours in the crew bar.

Last night, we also got to practice our trivia hosting skills to each other. I hosted a 'Geography' trivia for the 6 of us. I pretty much only chose it because 3 of the answers had to do with Canada. I'm a little bit of a proud Canadian eh? Next week we get to put those skills to the test and finally get to host our own trivias! Ahhhh!

Two days ago, we had to skip out on Grand Cayman because of the rocky waters. In the cayman islands we use tender boats to get from the ship to the island because there's no actual port there and that day the port authority decided it'd be too rough for the tenders to come pick up passengers. Boy,  were they right. Rocky waters was an understatement. That was the first night where I felt REALLY sick from the motion of the ocean. I ended up going straight to bed, skipping out on crew bar and the open mic that they had up there.

Anyway, here are some photos from yesterdays adventure if you haven't already creeped them on Facebook :)

Hurricane Schmurricane

Hurricane Isaac's got nothing on us ;) For those of you worried even just a little bit, we're going the complete opposite direction of the storm at the moment. The storm is moving north east and we're moving south west or something to that extent. We were also almost 300 miles away from it earlier today so I'm sure at this point we're even farther!

I'm also getting close to being a bingo expert on board. Pull tabs, bingo cards, win a cruise - golden. I've done it 3 times now. Last night sold pull tabs and WAC, today sold bingo, and also did the accounting for it.

I also got to help host a digital scavenger hunt, charades AND motown trivia. Guests got SO into the motown trivia and it was a LOT of fun! Next up, the comedy club! We've got 2 comedians on board at the moment so we'll get to see both of them perform, as well as see both the family and dirty versions.

It's also formal night tonight again, so guess who gets to all prettied up? :D

I also cannot believe that it hasn't even been a full week since I've been on the ship. It's been a full week since I've left but did this week ever go by slow! Anybody else have a slow week or was it just us on board? Holy crap! And people said this experience would fly by.. pft!

OH, good news though! I passed the PCS safety test, thanks to a very good looking italian officer named Guido believe it or not. (I didn't think those were names, I really just thought they were juiced up italian gorillas a la Jersey Shore). Which meansssss *drumroll* CREW BAR!!! Finally!!!! We all sound like such alcoholics but honestly, being the only ones not allowed to drink on board you start feeling like a 21 year old minor.

So cheers to no hurricane, cheers to getting pretty and cheers to PCS! Let's cheers the italians too just cause we can :P

Eh?

C Eh N Eh D Eh

I've come to notice how much I actually say 'eh' around here. My inner Canadian stereotype has been in full force. Saying 'eh' constantly. Missing my poutine and Timmies. There are quite a few Canadians on board around the ship. Guest services, entertainment (obviously), camp carnival, we're everywhere. Not sure they're saying 'eh' quite as much as myself!

I'm feeling like I may come home with some sort of weird cross-over accent. A mixture of South African and English (which are really quite similar) along with a little bit of a southern accent. So, if you Skype with me anytime soon, don't worry, I'm still Canadian, for now ;)

I'm glad to hear that it's still quite hot at home though, even though it may be humid as hell. Trust me, it's super humid here as well. I'm sitting at a free wi-fi spot at the port in Tampa at the moment. Guests won't be boarding the vessel for another 15 mins maybe and I don't have to be back on board until 2 for a ship tour. We got off as soon as debarkation was over. Mat warned us that there may be a few people who get a bit pissy by the end of the trip, getting confused as to how to get off and just generally in a bad mood. Who wouldn't be? Its the end of your vacation. Only came across 1 :) Win for me!

Today should be exciting with a whole new fleet of passengers, new people to mingle with. Perhaps some more gingers on board. No aussie gingers as of yet, but it's only my second week :P

Just to include a picture for fun, heres 4 of us when we were in Cozumel on Thursday :)

VIFP

'Very Important Fun Person/People'

That's not me - however, I do get to help guests celebrate being a VIFP. If you are a gold, platinum, or diamond member of Carnival Cruise Lines there are all kinds of perks that go along with it! Yesterday, we had the VIFP party, where there was a great turnout of guests who had been sailing with Carnival for years. This was a 50th cruise with Carnival for one lady! Obviously Carnival is doing something right to get her to come back all these times!

Yesterday we arrived in Grand Cayman. Guess where I was? Stuck in training all day :( Ahh well, you win some you lose some. I'll see it again at least twice more while I'm here so hopefully I'll be able to get off the ship then. On a happier note, I get to get off in Cozumel today! That means more pictures for you! :D Cozumel comes with a price though - I have to work all morning. And by work I mean, greet guests while they get off the ship, learn about all the backstage stuff, learn how to work bingo, learn show watch duties, and you know my favourite part, learn all the line dances!!! Cha cha slide here I come! (if you know me, you'll know I LOVE the cha cha slide!!)

Then tonight I get to enjoy some more shows! That's all we've been doing at night really is attending the shows. Last night was the Fun Force boys BBoy Wish and BBoy Curious who are incredible at what they do and super nice guys! After the shows tonight (Gender Showdown and Showcase of the Stars) we get to go to the deck party where, yup you guessed it, we get to do line-dancing! The best!

Oo, FINALLY got shorts and I've borrowed a pair of trainers from one of the other girls here so I finally look like all the rest of the girls! I'm not the black sheep anymore. Although I got a nasty blister from my new flats which is not fun at all and I look kind of gimpy walking around right now. Ahh well.

I've posted some pictures of my living quarters on Facebook. If you haven't seen them here they are. 4 pictures, that's all you need. Living quarters - 4 - get it? Yeah? Sweet. Lame? Yeah.  ;)

AND OUR DAY IN COZUMEL :) ... well 4 hours anyway

Where To Start ...

I honestly don't even know where to start! I'm on day 3 of this adventure and so far so good - there have been a few bumps though!

So yesterday the girls and I got all of our stuff together at the hotel and were ready to go for the shuttle to take us to the port which was literally a 5 minute drive from our hotel. We got on, all is good, filled out paperwork through the ying-yang and finally met our E-Staff trainer, Mat. A Canadian, from Ottawa to be exact! Yay home! He is really great and soo helpful!

Now up there I said the girls - you don't know who the girls are. Alana from Canada, Jen from Canada (who I actually had my interview with in Toronto!) Pearl from London, England, Lize Marie from South Africa (who is also my room mate) and Marina who is from North Hollywood, California. All of them are so much fun we get along like we've known each other forever already!

Yesterday, I learned that apparently the stairs are the fastest way to get everywhere. Let me just tell you that my ass better look GREAT by the end of these 6 months! :P All the stairs that we've been climbing all lead up to the crew bar, which unfortunately we're not allowed in for the first week - womp womp.  A lot of the other employees (male) are actually counting down the days till we're allowed in there - creepy much? '6 more days girls, 6 more days'. Its a strange little reminder.

Oh and sea-sickness. Hasn't happened yet really. Well no vomiting at least. Dizzy, a little bit, but I think I'll ease into my sea-legs soon!

As far as activities go we haven't done much yet - a lot of observation which is totally fine because we get to enjoy it just as much as the guests do! Last night, we got to watch Mat and Misty (other ACD) host a jeopardy type trivia show which was a lot of fun (and I pretty much got every question right :P) Then that was closely followed by Bingo - which people take VERY seriously on these ships! And then straight after that was the Welcome Aboard Show - singing, dancing, b-boys, comedians - just a lot of fun!

Today, we finally got to take a tour of the ship. Yesterday we felt a bit confined to the crew area - I don't think we really even went anywhere that guests were allowed. Today we got to explore a little bit more on the Lido Deck, Promenade, Empress - checked out where all the shops and theatres were and stuff. Its very large. I was just glad that I had been on the Celebration before. It was a different class of ship - this class is Fantasy - but they're somewhat similar so I can kind of find my way around right now. I actually just got back to my cabin from the Mixologist where guests get to concoct their own drink and then they sell it at a bar on Lido deck after which is pretty cool! Followed by the hairy chest competition - 100% entertaining! All the guests seem to enjoy themselves and people pretty much swarm the stage to check it out!

I mentioned bumps above. Well those bumps include: getting told that I didn't have my medical in the package that I gave them. And basically if you don't have your medical, you're not technically allowed be on the ship. Sweet right? Are the going to throw me overboard? No - thank God. Here comes Mum saving the day as always, gets my medical sent and I'm good to go (as soon as I forward it to the medical officers). Bump #2 - well the shorts we were given, well they don't fit. Welcome back low self-esteem -_- Hopefully they will be ordering me another pair asap. As well as the shoes that I was told I could purchase on board - nope not there either, which happens to be bump #3. So I get to be the black sheep of the group, wearing black pants (which is ridiculously hot on lido deck let me tell you) and black flats (which are new and are giving me ridiculous blisters).

Tonight is the Captain's dinner so we get to get all fancied up which is always fun for me so I think I'll quite enjoy that! Now, I think it's time for a nap before we have to get ready for formal night.

Haven't really taken many pictures yet - hasn't been much time. Tomorrow I might have a little bit of downtime after safety training and stuff while we're docked in Cozumel, so hopefully I'll get a picture or 2 in then!

Sorry this was ridiculously long but I hope you enjoyed anyway and kept up with it all. I'm sure it turned into rambling at some point but I can't be bothered to scroll up and read it over. ;)

Hope everyone is safe back home :)

Here's me and the girls with our luggage - Lize Marie (who used to be a photographer on the ships and switched to Entertainment) took the photo.

L-R: Alana, Marina, Pearl, Jen and Me

Being Touristy in Tampa

So It Begins ...

Well, here I am sitting at the Ottawa airport waiting to board my flight to Charlotte. Thank God for friendly (and cute) airport attendants so early in the morning - makes for a much easier travelling day :)

Yesterday was probably the most overwhelming day as far as good-byes go. So many people to say quick hi's and bye's to. Visits from about 3 mins to 3 hours - it was all very much appreciated and I'll miss you all.

I noticed yesterday why it was getting so much harder. Good-byes are never easy, but when you have to say bye to a bunch of people and they only have to say bye to you, its a little tougher.

Thank you for all the well wishes from everyone, including all the people I've only known for a short while - the wishes didn't go unnoticed.

Well I've got my Timmies in tow and I'm about ready to just chill and wait to board. See you in Tampa!

NOTE: For anyone who texts, BBMs, WhatsApp, social networks me (theres 1 or 2 of you i think ;) I will be checking my phone once a week while I'm in port, so feel free to send me an encouraging message - I may need it!

Down to the Wire

Well, 3 days people. Two if you don't count today considering today is almost over. Friday and Saturday. That's it.

On Sunday, I broke down for about an hour by myself. Things had just built up - I had realized it was 7 days till my departure, AND the Olympics were over. Yes, I get very worked up over the olympics ;) What made me stop crying you ask? Oh just Prince Harry. What a good guy ;)

Well yesterday was a whole other story. Three separate times during the day I had mini breakdowns. The first of when I was playing a board game - A BOARD GAME - and I remembered that I would be missing out on our traditional game on Christmas Eve.

The next, finding out my good friend Jordan McIntosh (@jordanmcintosh) has his first single being released next week on our local country station ('Walk Away' - request it!) I got so excited and couldn't wait to request the song, and then again realized, I wouldn't have the phone at my fingertips to call that station to request. I cried, which pooled over to my Mum and my sister had to leave the room.

And once again on my way out to have a good time, my wonderful sister decided to point out that I wouldn't be able to see my (not so) little cousin Sean one more time before I left because he comes home from his aunts a week after I leave. This kid is like my little brother so it definitely sucks not seeing him one more time before I take off.

So, I get that this sounds like a real 'pity me' post. It's not I swear. I'm so appreciative of the opportunity I've been given and I know I'm going to love every minute of it. I also know I'm not in this alone because there are many other people on the ship who do the same thing - sometimes now on their 3rd or 4th or 15th leg of being part of ship life. It's more of a post to remind people to appreciate the little things. Like, I got emotional over a board game! Who does that?! This girl that's who. Might have to teach some of my colleagues how to play some Rummoli so I can get my fix while I'm away.

Tomorrow - some good old fashioned Mum&Daughter&Daughter time. Pedicures all around. Should brighten my weekend a bit :)

New Friends!

You know what the best part of social media is? You can connect with people before you really connect with them! When I finally got my travel information, he was kind enough to send a long the names of the ladies that I was going to be in the cruise college with. So what was the first thing I did? Off to Facebook I go and get to creepin' ;)

Fortunately, one of the ladies, Pearl, had found me first and sent me a message and I was able to find another one, Alana. Numbers and friend requests were exchanged and hopefully we'll be meeting for dinner on the 19th while we're at the hotel. Three still remain a mystery, but I suppose in 9 days I'll have met them all!

OH and I thought I'd share this picture of my newest charm for my charm bracelet. My former boss at Hallmark got it for me and I added it to my bracelet this morning! Cute right? Thanks Alina!

Packing...

Told you I was going to try and get my pack-on tonight! (and so much for not posting again until I leave :P) All of my stuff I have to try and fit into these not very large bags. Good thing is, you won't miss these 2 prints when they get onto the conveyor belt! Shoes and bras are definitely going to be an issue for packing for me :S As of right now, the majority of what's packed are dresses and toiletries! Once I get my purse that I'm using as a carry-on tomorrow, I'm going to pack what I need to in there, which includes this file folder of information for my trip. This is what I still have to pack with not a lot of room:

TO PACK

tanks (black x4, grey, VS)

MG shirts

leggings

other dresses

plaid shirts

sweater

bobby pins & elastics 

straightener

hairspray

bathing suits (1 in carry on)

battery for alarm clock

folder of paper work

cords for electronics

underwear

socks

make-up

BRAS

wallet

pantyhose

pens

deck of cards

jewelry

nail polish

sunglasses

Welcome!

Well, here it is. The first entry.

If you don't know me, here's the situation.

I'm the proud new member of the Entertainment Staff on Carnival Cruise Lines! How exciting is that? I had my interview in March, was hired the following week, received my start date about a month ago, and today I finally got all of my travel information. So guess what? It's real! It's happening! In less than 11 days, I start on this crazy adventure.

Let's get one thing straight before you decide to follow me or not. I'm not a writer. By any means. If you're a stickler for grammar, or writing formats or anything of the sort, you're probably going to hate me. BUT, I will tell you that I'm one of the few who understand the difference between there, their and they're as well as your and you're ;) So don't worry, those are under control!

To be honest with you, I'm not sure how often this blog will be updated. I'm hoping at LEAST once a week. I would love to tell you the going on's of the different fleet of passengers each week.

For my first 3 weeks on the ship, I'll be doing what is known as the 'Cruise College' on their ship called the 'Paradise'. My home port is in Tampa, Florida and from there I travel to Cozumel, Mexico and the Grand Cayman Islands. Me, the girl who complains about the heat half the time, will be spending the majority of my next 6 months in the Caribbean. Sweet, right?

A downfall: no holidays with the family. No Thanksgiving. No Halloween. No Christmas. No New Years. No Birthday (yes my birthday is a holiday ;) We go all out for everything. So we got that all out of the way this past weekend. Every holiday for the next 6 months was celebrated, don't worry.

Hopefully I'm going to get my 'pack-on' tonight and get a lot of that out of the way.

Don't know if I'll blog again until I leave considering nothing new should really happen between now and then except for hopefully getting a bag or two packed.

If you want to see my 'witty' tweets from now until then follow @slinky8 on there. If you don't want to hear all the London 2012 updates, I suggest you wait until Sunday to follow me after the closing ceremonies ;)

Later days.

Jodi