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