Right out of a Movie :)

It's been quite a whirlwind these past few days! 

After finally getting settled in my hotel room and getting a quick shower and nap in got ready to go out with Joel. We went for some mediterranean food and gelato in Newtown. Then we drove into the city to see the harbour at night. He couldn't stop laughing at my face and my reaction to seeing the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge coming around the bend into the city. I basically just kept repeating 'I can't believe I'm here!'. We went and parked and walked over to the harbour. Everything down there is sand stone and it looks amazing. Seeing the Opera House at night is a whole other sight than seeing it during the day. It's absolutely incredible. Then we walked over to walk under the bridge and I could see Luna Park across the water which was also a highlight. For those of you who don't know, I'm obsessed with Mary-Kate and Ashley and I watched Our Lips Are Sealed (one of their movies) before coming over here and walking around that area I was pointing out everything out from the movie. Yeah, I'm a dork. 

After a quick drink at a pub called Hero of Waterloo I went back to the hotel and craaaashed. Such a long day - amazing day - but loooong. 

The next morning I had to be in the lobby by 6:30am with the rest of the crew that was signing on that day and we got to the ship at about 7:45am. We handed in our passports and went through our orientation. I met my roommate, who is a dancer on the ship, while I was at breakfast that morning. I didn't really do a big tour of the ship or anything cause I've already been on this class of ship so I pretty much know where everything is, it's just a matter of learning what lounge is what. 

I've quickly learned that activities are SO much different on here than they are on an american ship. There are so many things that entertainment staff don't do on this ship that they would do on a ship out of the states. We don't do Groove for St. Jude which is a deck party where we raise money for the St. Jude's Children's Hospital (which makes sense because Australians wouldn't know what it is). We don't have a sail-away from Sydney party like we do on other ships. The entertainment staff isn't involved in Bingo! What?! The dancers take care of it all which is CRAZY to me. I've found all kinds of new sports that I've never heard of it and have been shadowing one of the other hosts all day following him to all the stuff such as the Fair Dinkum Golf Open, Bean Bag Bocce, Golf Chipping and theres some other ones that I haven't done before which is Backyard Cricket? No idea what that is but I guess I'll find out eventually. Something that I haven't done by myself before is also Karaoke which we do on a rotation which means we have to arrange the Carnival Legends show as well which makes me a little nervous but I guess I'll have to jump right in and do it! 

I'm about to host my first activity by myself. I still get nervous since it's always new equipment and who knows how to work the stuff. But the hosts have been SO great giving me all of the information that I need. The team is great - unfortunately 2 of them are leaving in the next few cruises but that's ship life. Everyone has been incredibly welcoming which is nice. I thought I knew a few people on here but turns out I know a lot more than I thought. Some of them I don't know KNOW but they are faces that I've seen on previous ships so it's nice going to the other side of the world and running into people you know. How many people can say that? That they just ran into somebody in Australia - right out of the movie stuff. 

This cruise is also kind of all over the place. The Spirit doesn't normally do such short itineraries - this is a 5 day, normally its 10-12 day cruises - and already we've had to cancel one of the ports because of weather down in Tasmania. We were supposed to have a sea day, then visit Hobart and Port Arthur but because Port Arthur is a tender port (meaning guests have to use a smaller boat to get to the island because we don't dock directly at it) it wouldn't be safe for us to use the tenders. So, insteaaadddd we're over-nighting in Hobart! We're going to be doing 2 full days in Hobart. Getting there at 7am on Wednesday and leaving at 4pm on Thursday and then a sea day back up to Sydney! that should be an exciting few days. 

Well, tonight is formal night, so I best be getting ready for that because I'm not going to have time between my trivia and the captain's celebration. Time to get pretty! 

Hope all is well back at home and I'm missing you! 

Wish you were here xo