21 Nov 13
Living Arrangements.
So I've written about my job and training and shenanigans but what you're probably wondering is what's life like as a crew member?
My room is very small, some of you may even have a walk in closet that's bigger than my cabin. (yes that's including my bathroom as well) I'm currently on the top bunk but my roommates contract ends in December so people say I should move to the bottom bunk but I'm happy with the top.
we have a small closet, think the full length lockers from high school and that's basically my closet. a small set of shelves and a little counter and that's about it.
if you have ever been camping with a trailer or anything your shower is probably bigger than my whole bathroom.
but that's ship life. I haven't fully unpacked, I don't know if I'm in denial or what but I just can't bring myself to empty everything out. Now that I know I'll be transferring in a few weeks to Drew's ship I'll start packing. Lol
We don't get free internet but we do get a discount. For guests wifi is .75 a minute. During the day for crew it's .36 a minute. At night after 11 it's .12 a minute for crew. So yes I did type this before hand and then logged on to post.
We have two mess halls. One for crew and one for staff. Supposedly on most ships crew who work in facilities, housekeeping, engineering, restaurants people who don't have a lot of guest interaction eat in the crew mess and then any management, officers with stripes, cruise staff, youth staff, guest relations...etc eat in the staff mess. (Segregation at its finest) But on this ship they're not that strict about it. Food is not bad, we always have a selection of fruit and salads; along with pasta meat and bread. Every now and then they'll bring leftover from the guest buffets. Such as left over sushi or dessert. That's always nice. I think they need theme nights. Like taco night or something.
I'm not a big salad eater but I have been eating more fruit than i would at home. It's nice to have the option.
Late at night they'll have pizza and other snackage at the crew mess. But that's like at midnight and I'm normally in bed or on my way to bed by then. My room is on the forward (front) of the ship where as the mess is in the aft (back). Also I'm on deck one and the mess is on deck 4 so my laziness over comes my hunger.
One thing I do miss is just a regular peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Sometimes I don't want pasta and chicken for lunch. I just want a pb&j. I think my taste is to simple for ship life.
I also miss access to water whenever I want it. Before you make the joke
"But Alexis you're surrounded by water. Heh heh heh" let me roll my eyes. I mean drinking , water. There's not that many water fountains and we're not allowed to fill our bottles up. It's a health thing. That's important on a ship. One person gets sick we all get sick.
My role on the ship allows me to have privileges that ALOT of crew do not. I can walk around any guest areas, I can go to the shows without special permission, I get to wear my own clothes instead of a uniform (costume for you disney people) majority of the time. I can use the guest gym which is great and WAYYYYYY nicer than the crew gym. Being part of the cruise directors staff team has it's benefits.
With this role I get to freely explore the ship, of course anything I do the guest come first but that's the industry I'm use too so that's no problem. The only thing I'm not allowed to do and I'm okay with that is use the pool and drink at guest bars. But quite frankly I'm okay with that. It would be weird to be hanging out at a pool with people I just played bingo with. there's always small exceptions here and there and that all depends on your management. For example last night the team hosted a silent party in a club and once it got started my director bought a round of drinks for the team. I enjoy moments like that, it boosts the moral of the team. Especially after a long day or an intense event.
There's a crew laundry place with about twelve washers and twelve dryers. You have to learn when to go down and do laundry, make sure you keep a timer on your self so you know when the laundry is done otherwise you gotta find the dryer your stuff is in. People will move your stuff. Not to steal it or anything but just to get their stuff clean. A few people we're chuckling at me as I was figuring out the system today. They eventually helped me,but I'm afraid of causing a flood out in the basement or a fire in the dryer. I just want to smell good and have clean clothes. So go ahead mock the new girl, at least I have clean clothes.
I really enjoy my job. I like working for royal caribbean so far. When I get to Drew's ship it will be that much better.
Have any questions? Leave them in the comments or Facebook me and I'd love to answer them.
Prayer Requests at this time:
Currently praising God for transferring me to Drew's ship and we don't have to wait another two months.
We'll keep staying healthy and safe. That God will put a hedge of protection around us wherever we go.
Thanks for reading, and keeping up.
Lexi
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