Deck Parties, Islands ... and Deck Parties and Islands

My first week is close to complete and I'm loving life on the Valor. There is a huge amount of people on this ship:

Crew: 1142
Guests: Approx. 3500

A lot of faces to know, a lot of names that I'm NEVER going to learn, but I'm going to do my best.

On my first few days of the adventure, I ended up meeting 2 girls that were going to be on the ship with me, both working in Camp Carnival. One is from Serbia, the other Melissa from CANADA! Woo! Found a Canadian and not even on the ship yet! (I also found a Canadian from Kingston at the restaurant I ate at on the Saturday before I boarded the ship).

Once we landed in San Juan and I was to get my luggage, I found that Jet Blue had ripped my luggage. -_- great start. Thank you SO much Jet Blue. Douche. Not only did they lose my luggage, but part of my bathing suit, so again thank you. Trying to drag my luggage everywhere was not working very well for me, 2 duffle bags, a purse and a great big suitcase with only 2 wheels makes for a very interesting trek to the shuttle. I was a hot mess by the time I actually got to the ship, sweaty, trying to carry everything, just plain gross.

I eventually signed on, dropped off my luggage, in a room that looked like 2 people already lived in it lol. (ps a guy who looks like Snoop Dogg (Lion) just walked by me .. weird) I had to go to the mandatory Vessel Familiarization training then I got to relax a little bit which wasn't really relaxing cause I unpacked everything. Then I took myself on a little tour of the ship - only got lost a few times. The ship itself is beautiful - although its very American. Nothing wrong with that - just the theme is Valor of course so there's American icons everywhere from Eagles, to Presidents, to Yankees. To give you an idea some of the lounges and such Ivanhoe Theatre, Eagles Lounge, Bronx (sports bar), Washington and Lincoln dining rooms, Paris Hot, Lindy Hop - that kind of stuff. After unpacking was boat drill, and then sail away party on Lido deck. Deck party is crazy on this ship, people get so involved and its nice to see. A good change from the Pride where sometimes it was like pulling teeth trying to get people to hang out with us.

I wasn't able to get off in St. Thomas because I had training most of the day, and then Kelsie gave me a more in depth tour of the ship. Something different about this ship too is that the Welcome Aboard show is on the Monday night instead of Sunday Night when we actually leave the port and everyone gets on. I'm lucky that my first week is pretty laid back and I just kind of shadow everybody.

Everybody being my team which consists of Harry, from Georgia, USA, Ben from London, UK, Kevin from Toronto (ANOTHER CANADIAN WOO!) and my ACD Steph, from Orlando. There's another one, but we've barely spoken so far. Everyone on my team is so great, super laid back and chill. And I've already ran into people I've known from other ships like our shopping experts (who actually left us yesterday in Barbados and a new one came on) as well as some comedians, like Happy Cole.

Tuesdays here are sea days which happen to be elegant night as well. The puerto ricans get quite dressed up, especially when there are a few girls on board celebrating their quincinera's. Not going to lie, they end up dressing up a bit like gypsies... but the dresses are pretty for the most part ...

Yesterday, Ben, Harry and I went to a place called the Boatyard which is awesome. It's 5 bucks from the ship to the boatyard, and 5 bux to get in which covers a drink, your shuttle back, access to inflatable toys for the water and a rope swing - oh and of course the beach. Laying out for the day caused quite the burn on me but I aloe-d myself up and I'm good to go! After Barbados was a HUGE deck party. On here it consists of mostly just dancing which is great because sometimes the games are a little outdated, entertaining but outdated, and everyone loves a good line dance ;)