Well this cruise has definitely been an exciting one and we are only 3 days in to the trip. Tuesday morning around 3:45 am our general emergency alarm was sounded. The speaker in my cabin is not working, so I was thankful that I still heard the announcement through my door. I woke up in the middle of the 7 short and 1 long blasts. The captain immediately came over the intercom and told passengers to report to their life boat station and for all crew members to report to their emergency stations. This message didn’t make sense the first time around because I was seriously sleep sedated. Thankfully, the captain repeated himself several times and after the second go round I started understanding the directions. I grabbed my life vest and traffic director vest, dressed in warm clothes and headed to my station. All the passengers looked rough crawling out of bed…I have never seen so many women walking around in night robes. I told guests to dress warmly since we were headed into glacier bay and the Alaskan night winds were merciless. While guests were scrambling to their life boat stations the captain informed us that someone had reported a passenger jumping overboard and the quickest way to account for everyone on board was to muster everyone at their life boats. The process took a bit of time but within 35 minutes everyone had been accounted for on board. During the 35 minutes sweep of the boat my brain was racing about the poor soul who jumped over board…why would they do it, what would their family think, how would the rest of the week look? I was relieved to know that it was only a scare. Apparently a passenger had been talking to another passenger who was joking about jumping overboard. When the man turned around to walk away he took another look back where they had been talking and the passenger had vanished. He ran to the front office and told them what happened and then the muster was underway.
It was a good reminder to everyone on board to always be ready for an emergency situation. I had just recently gone to bed because I was up late watching a movie, so my sleep was not disturbed. However, many of the older guests on board found it difficult to go back to bed. I felt our captain and emergency team handled the entire situation in an impeccable manner.
Emergency number 2! The following night a group of us decided to do a crew spinning class. For those who don’t know, spinning class is an intense cycling workout. One of our dancers went to get on her bike and the seat had not been secured. She fell backwards off the bike and landed on the seat bar…then fell to the floor. Now the classiest way to explain this is to say that the bike literally impaled her in the most uncomfortable of places. All of us were shocked and at first she was laughing trying to play off the pain, but eventually realized that it was a fairly serious injury. She went to the ship infirmary and is currently resting in bed. The nurse said the recovery could take a week, but they are waiting for all the swelling to go down to see how badly she cut herself. We have to re-block all of our shows for the next week. I am hoping that she is back on her feet soon and that nothing serious is damaged…I would hate to lose her on board…she is such an asset to our cast and just a wonderful girl all around.
Today we are in Haines, AK. I believe it to be on of my favorite ports because it is nestled at the bottom of a huge mountain range. The feeling here is very organic and the town is fairly hippie. I am sitting at cute shop called the Mountain Market. It is a natural food store with a coffee bar inside. They also have their own roaster called Ripinsky Roasters. The coffee area is one of the nicest I have seen as far as environment go. There black coffee is excellent…I am sipping on a cup of Mornin’ Mango…it is a full city roast that is completely organic with chocolatey notes up front and a molasses finish…I will give it a rating of delicious!!!!! They have a La Marzocco espresso machine so I can only imagine their milk based drinks are up to quality seeing as it is top of line in the barista world. I may have to get a latte before I leave!
Speaking of latte’s I got o make my own on board the ship this week. I have become good friends with one of the beverage assistants, Melinda. Two mornings this week she let me come behind the counter and play on the espresso machine. I may look into working behind the bar on sea days. I was talking to our Cruise Director about doing “coffee with the singers” and making it an activity in the daily program. It would be a great way to interact with some of the guests and then I would get to practice my latte art and make coffee….double bonus, plus I have a feeling it would boost our ratings=)
Before I sign off I will tell you what I get to do tonight! My friend Rashida on the shore excursion team invited me to a private tour and BBQ with one of the tour companies in Haines. We are taking 4x4 mules up the mountain and we’re having a big BBQ once we reach the top! I am so excited!!! I think we are going to be eating buffalo…Yahoo!!!! The tour companies always want to make sure they are in good standing with the shore excursions office since they sell their tours. I am just pumped that I get to hang out with Rashida, Todd, Damian, Hana, and some others off the boat. Originally I was going to take Ashley with me, but due to the accident she will be in rehearsals to re-block the show…boo! I will post some pictures=)
Im going to finish my coffee now and try to catch up on some phone calls! Love you guys!
No comments:
Post a Comment