Shinanigans

1 more month! Crazy! I am 2 3rds done my contract! It’s only 1 more month until I will be heading home. The last few days have been pretty busy! This week I am on teens again but this time I am with Kazoo! It is awesome! We have an amazing group! They LOVE to dance! So far every night we have had a crazy dance party and during the day they do all of the scheduled activities which makes the day go by so quickly! Usually the teens just sit around most of the time, but these guys are awesome. Because I am on teens I also get to go to all the shows with them. This has been awesome! Last time I was on teens I didn't know any of the performers so it wasn’t very exciting but now I know them all and they all wink and smile at me or mouth that they love me. At one point in the show Monday one of the guys was in the crowd dancing on the stairs and he came right in front of me and shook his but right in my face haha. The teens all loved this of course too! The only downside to working on teens is that we work until 1am but this week it hasn’t been bad since we have spent the whole night dancing.

LATER ON

Teens actually turned out to be the best week! Kazoo and i were a crazy d team and our kids were so great! I have done a whole other week since then and this week has been pretty awesome too. I was on 10 - 12s but i seriously worked door about 75% of the time and just hung out. it was really nice. unfortunatly i don;t have time to explain it all right now... but basically im having an awesome time.

highlight of the week ... climbing a mountain in skagway and going swimming at the lake on top of it. UNREAL

thanks for reading :)

Mary Lou

Here is the picture i promised! Im at the Menenhal glacier just outside of Juneau



So i finally have some time off that i can afford to use to update this blog! So much has happened that i don;t really know where to start but basically i have just been really enjoying myself these last couple weeks. I think i am hitting my stride as far as ship life goes.

One of the things i have really been enjoying is Crew Discounts. Basically i can do almost any excursion we sell for free if there is space. In the next couple weeks i have plans to go horse back riding in the mountains and Kayaking to the Yukon from Skagway... all free. Plus most stores and restaurants in our port cities have crew discounts. 2 days ago i got 1/2 a pound of Alaskan king crab at a restaurant in Ketchikan for 10$... that's unreal.

'One of the things about ship life that isn't so awesome is that people's contracts all start and end at different times. This morning I lost one of my closest friends on the ship to go back to the Philippines. His name is Jonas and he plays guitar in a trio at one of the fancier restaurants on the ship. I am seriously going to miss that guy! Then this week we are losing 3 YCs Eithan, kitten, and Cartwheel are all going home or transferring to another ship. Its really sad actually, every week now for the rest of my contract people i am pretty good friends with will be leaving!

This week we had Mary Lou Rettan on board the ship. If you don;t know who that is she was an olympic gymnast for America and won tons of medals. She has 4 children (all girls) and 2 of them were in my age group this past week. They were such awesome kids and they LOVED me. It was seriously great. They would ask if i was in the center before they signed in and stay right beside me all day. Passengers are given these cards to fill out called style cards about crew members they think did a great job and my goal past about Wednesday has been to get one from Mary Lou Rettan because they sign the bottom. That would just be soooo sweet! She was awesome too a really nice lady!

This week i am going to be on teens with Kazoo who is my go to girl on this ship. It is going to be amazing. I could not be more excited for an age group. I have been looking forward to it for weeks. We are seriously going to ROCK teens!

anyways I need to get back to the ship. But i will seriously try to keep up with this blog thing better from now on!

thanks for reading!
i miss you all!

Harley (High 5)

Past 2 Weeks

Hey everyone!

sorry it has been so long since my last post! I have been having a blast here! I would say the highlight of my last 2 weeks was this past Saturday in Victoria. We met up with some of Kazoo's friends who live there, went down to the beach and had a bonfire and hung out. It was seriously just so much fun, and felt like something i would actually be doing in my real life outside of the ship. It was kind of refreshing.

i really need to go now and get to work... but here are some photos :)

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Week 5!
Wow, I cannot believe it has been 5 weeks already! NUTS! Everything here has been going extremely well. I am really getting to know the crew and we just have a lot of fun together. One of my best friends here Kazoo (my roomie from the first night) was supposed to leave here on Sunday but she was enjoying herself so much she asked for an extension and is staying until September 4th now! This week in Skagway we met up with Tyler our local friend again and he took us to this crab shack restaurant so we could sit inside out of the rain to chat. He knows the owner who decided to bring us out an entire crab plus this amazing iced tea and samples of a bunch of other stuff he serves. This guy is awesome he is from Louisiana and just hilarious. We are supposed to tell people about his restaurant for him in return for all the free food and since it was sooooo awesome, that will not be a problem. He also got a picture of us all for the hall of fame and had us sign the guest book and write our names and ship at the top of the page so he can ask the little kids if the know us haha.
Canada Day was celebrated in full last night among the Canadians on board. We all met up at the brew bar and sang the national anthem in French and English. Tonight is the official party because they are combining Canada day and July 4th celebrations. They are serving poutine as the food!!! I’m pretty thrilled about that.
Tomorrow is Victoria so I will be calling home and available on cell phone between 6 – 12 BC time. (or 9pm – 3am Ontario time)
I miss you all!

If You Can Dodge a Wrench...

Friday and Saturday were GOOD days. Because i worked early morning on Friday i have the evening off after 6pm which was amazing! i got some time to hang out in my room and be by myself for a while, plus i had a nap and stuff. A couple days ago while at the crew bar one of the musicians (Andrew) and I got talking about dodge ball. Eventually this turned into a challenge. The Youth Councilors vs. Musicians and Dancers. We planned to play at 11pm on the sports court and the following 2 or three days were full of smack talk and pretty awesome. Everyone actually showed up and we played 9 games! it was INTENSE like you wouldn't even believe considering i was the youngest person playing by far. I was actually very very far from the most competitive of players as well... which just goes to say how competitive it all was. The Yc's KILLED! we won the 1st 3 games easy and it went back and forth after that. Everyone had so much fun that we are going to do it again next week!

Yesterday we were in Victoria so i got off the boat went down town and got some Tim Horton's. It was pretty amazing. It was also the last day with our last batch of kids which was a very good thing. Those kids were just kinda ridiculous. I'm excited to start over with new kids.

I guess that's all for now! Pray for me to have good kids this week. Im on 2 - 5's AGAIN and im already running out of patience for all the crying and lack of understanding so I'm gunna need some luck! Thanks

High Five

Terrible Twos

Okay, so they really aren’t that terrible but 2 – 5’s are definitely a very challenging age group. This week has been exhausting. I have spent most of my days holding crying babies while they scream in my ear and snot all over my uniform/face/neck/arms. They rest of the time however has been pretty awesome. The majority of their program is colouring, dancing, bubbles, stories and silly songs. Actually we pretty much just choose a theme, get the kids to make part of a costume (or colour it in) face paint them, take them on a parade around the ship while singing songs, take them back to the center and play a dance game of some sort, sing some silly songs read a story and then start a new theme. They really love it, and it’s not too bad for us either.
The ports this week have been pretty fantastic as well! In Juneau we took a gondola up the mountain and hiked up as high as we could. There was snow and we got some pretty awesome views! Then in Skagway we met up with the local we met last week (Tyler) and he took us all to the sweet lookout and we walked his dog. We also hiked up a mountain there to a waterfall and a lake that I want to go swimming in later in the summer when it’s a bit warmer. The waterfall was just crazy it was pretty high and seemed to come from nowhere, gorgeous. Today we are in Ketchikan and I had an awesome time. We went to the lumberjack show again because we wanted to see the whole thing, and it was seriously hilarious. It’s exactly my type of humour actually, cheesy, play on words, clever I actually didn't even stop laughing.
I guess that’s it for now. I’m in Victoria (and therefore available by cell phone) Saturday from 9pm – 3am Ontario time. TEXT ME! I want to hear how all of you are doing!
In fact tomorrow my plan is to get to a Tim Horton’s haha. I want an ice cap more than I could ever explain.
Miss you all!

White Hot Party

Last night the ship had a massive white hot party at one of the bars. Naturally the teens were not allowed in so we have a white hot party of our own in the teen center. They were very excited about this so we all decorated everything white with sheets and they wore white and we even made a dance floor by hanging sheets from the ceiling in a circle with all of our sweet lighting and speakers in the center. The center looked awesome! We cranked the tunes and some of us started to dance but before long stuff started getting a bit questionable so I had to keep slowing stuff down and breaking up couples who were dancing a bit sketchily. Twenty minutes after the party started, it ended and they were all kind of mad at me for basically ruining their party BUT it’s my job and I have to make sure they follow the rules! Eventually they all left (early) and did their own thing. It was not my favourite night, but I did the right thing so a guess that’s just how it had to go. It is Philipino independence day sometime this week so last night all the Philipino crew members through a big performance night with dancers and bands and singers and everything. I only got to see the last 20 minutes or so but it was pretty awesome! So of the performers were legit! One guy sang the song forgiven by journey (whose lead singer is Philipino) and he actually NAILED it. Everyone gave him a huge standing ovation and I was seriously in awe the whole time. This guy can sing! I just wasn’t expecting it at all either; I mean he works in the engine room! They also had a really talented group of hip hop dancers that were crazy good!
A few days later...
The rest of the week has been pretty awesome!!! I really got to know my group of teens the last few days and it was actually really sad saying goodbye to them all. I think ill really miss them BUT today is the start of yet another cruise and a new batch of kids. This week I am working with 2-5 age group so its going to be pretty interesting...
Ill update soon

TEENS!

Well, I made it through my first night as teen’s councilor. It was pretty sweet. We played move your but if... and BANG with them as a get to know you game and most of them really enjoyed it. They were seriously so funny with both games and it made me laugh a lot. They all seem pretty cool and there are a TON of them. I am really looking forward to this week now! I get to go to all of the shows, out for dinner with them all, bowling and watch a bunch of movies too! Plus the teen center has 2 foose ball tables, air hockey and wii. We also get a late night snack every night that is always something awesome like pizza - which we had last night. Teens is a pretty sweet gig really, the only downside is that you don’t really get to see the other staff much but since its only a week I really like it.
Next day
Teen center has been pretty awesome today! I got to chill out by myself and with jesse (Jedi) in the center while the teens played gorilla hunt. This game is awesome, basically one teen puts on the suit and takes off, then I let the rest go and if they find him they get in the costume until someone finds them, they can use the entire ship so they run around and have a really good time while the leader waits in the center in case other teens show up. While the game was going on we were just starting to approach a group of islands. I’m not really sure whether they are part of Canada or Alaska but they are gorgeous so I lounged in this big lounge bed thing beside the window and got some sun. It was very relaxing. After that we went to the rock climbing wall and they all rock climbed which they enjoyed. It is outside on the very top of the boat so I got to be outside for a full hour in the sun. It is a gorgeous day today, but pretty windy.
Two Days Later
Yesterday was my first day to actually get off the boat in Alaska. It was pretty awesome we just walked around Juneau and up these massive hills. There were some pretty sweet views of the mountains and ocean. We got some seriously amazing ginger cookies at this little cafe in the back of a sketchy building. It looked brutal from the outside but once you went in it was super cute and the cookies were beyond awesome.
During work yesterday I had so much fun! In the morning I got to take my kids to the basketball court and played bump and some pick up for an hour! It was awesome and I almost won bump (came 2nd). Plus at night I took them to the show which was called sea legs and is about the evolution of a Vegas show girl. This was pretty fun but they got sick of it eventually. Then we all went back to the center and they got to plug in their iPods and play whatever music they wanted. After an hour or so of rap/hip-hop/anything top 40 one of the cooler guys went and turned on a country song, and it stayed country for the next 2 hours!!!!! It was amazing! I love country and I never get to hear it here!
Today is the closest day to a day off that we get while on the cruise. We are in Skagway and port from 6 am to 6:45 pm so I slept in and then met up with Abra (Andrea) and we toured around town and then lied on the group on a soccer field and had a nap in the sun. The weather today is amazing! It’s so hot and sunny and I’m wearing shorts and a tank top! I think I even got a bit of a tan today.
Alaska has a really cool feel. I mean, if you just walk down the main streets it tends to be VERY touristy where we are since there are usually 3 or 4 other cruise ships in town with all of us but if we take off a bit and find a more residential area there are some really cool places. Right now I am sitting in a little crape cafe attached to a little court yard and they are playing the BEST music. It’s all old but good you know, the stuff everyone just knows and loves.
Here are some of the photos I have taken so far... (Mom please make sure pops sees the pictures with the fur hats!!!)








miss you all! thanks for reading!

CANADA!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was pretty amazing, I worked most of the day but I got the chance to call home to Mom and Steve and Dad and Donna, PLUS Aunt Lorrie and Brad were at Dad’s house so I got to talk to them too! It was really awesome talking to people from home and knowing that I can use my cell here on Saturday evenings, even if it is short. I only had 30 minutes and had to go back to work. Later on, while I was staring out our MASSIVE floor to ceiling windows dreaming of getting off the boat and talking to some more friends while I walked the coastline, one of the YC’s that had time off in the evening came back and told me to go and that she would cover my shift, this was seriously a dream come true and I was so happy to get off and walk around IN Canada. I even got to call Alex Mundy and talked to her for a while which was awesome, plus I was in Canada, it just felt like I was so close to home somehow.
One of my fellow YC’s lives in Victoria so I will even have a place to go hang out while we are here usually (but he worked last night).
Last night was also sweet because since lots of the parents get off the boat and leave their kids for us to watch over dinner time we feed the kids chicken finger, mac and cheese, quesadillas, fruit and veggies with a bunch of juices and stuff. Since there are leftovers we get to eat too, and it’s some of the best tasting food we get all week, especially with all the veggies (TONS of red peppers!!!!). We also get all of our tips on the last day so we managed to make a bit of extra cash this week. Some families tip up to 120$ which is amazing. The tips are all split though, between 13 people, so I still only made 25 bucks or something but it’s still some extra cash!
Today we are in Seattle. I had to get up this morning at 5:30am to get to immigration and get my i95 so I can now go into the states off the ship as much as I want for the duration of my contract! It was ridiculously early (I only got 3 hours sleep) but at least I can get off the boat now. I used this new power with Eithan (ketchup) to get off the boat today and walk around the downtown of Seattle (which is EXTREMELY hilly) but pretty cool with a really cool market and the 1st ever Starbucks. We skipped out on Starbucks this week though and went to Tooly’s Coffee instead. I got an espresso banana chip espresso which was pretty tasty and we used the wireless for a bit. I also had to buy shoes while I was in town (apparently I needed a pair of ALL white and a pair of ALL black shoes for work) so I stopped in at payless and took advantage of their BOGO sale! In fact my tips from last week covered the bill and I got PERFECT shoes. They are slip on!
I’m starting to get to know everyone really well now and I just love our YC team. Everyone seriously rocks. My roommates are like better than I hoped for and we thought we were getting another roommate today which we were all a bit worried about because we knew it would change the dynamic, but they decided to put her somewhere else! I’m sure this girl is awesome to but we just weren’t looking forward to testing that out so I’m glad that at least for now we are sticking with the 3 of us.
We got our new schedule for this week and I am working with the teens for sure this week now. CRAZY. I’m excited though, should be awesome. It is VERY different though. Usually I would work 1 late night and 1 port play but instead I work every night to 1:30am and have no port plays plus I get to sleep in every day. Also with the little kids, it is very structured with a specific theme going all the time and we are always running games all day, which they love BUT the teens aren’t really into that so they just have this sweet room to hangout in and I am basically there to chill with them and encourage them to do stuff which they almost always turn down. Apparently it gets pretty boring sometimes but I am really looking forward to hanging out with them. Its ages 13 – 17 so some of them are pretty close to my age really (Alex you would be in teens haha).
I guess that’s it for now thanks for reading!!

A Night Out

Tonight was so much fun! I thought I worked from 8 until 10:30 but I found out around 7:45 that I actually had the night off! So did Jedi and Chihuahua so we all dressed up and got to walk around the passenger areas, go into some little shops and then went to the show! Tonight was a group called Shark Bait. They are a comedic juggling duo who basically made me laugh for 45 minutes straight while shocking me with crazy impressive skills it was actually amazing!
I wasn’t really expecting that we would be able to do much on the boat in passenger areas but it turns out that if I dress up and wear my name tag I am allowed to go pretty much anywhere. I also thought I would be eating in the staff mess the entire time I was here but it turns out that there are times every single day that I get to eat at the garden cafe which is the buffet for guests. The food is so much better at the garden that we try to eat there as much as possible, however sometimes it is too full of passengers and then crew are not allowed and they can just kick us out. Still I think it’s a pretty good deal. I really love that I am getting to experience most of the stuff passengers experience; I will just take a few weeks longer to get it all in. We also get a 50% discount at the fancy restraints you have to pay extra for which is awesome, I really want to try out the Mexican restaurant and Cagney’s (the steak house).
Two Days Later
Well, yesterday was busy, it was a sea day and we went through Glacier Bay, which has some of the most gorgeous views! I really am happy that the kid center has such massive windows. We saw a ton of whales and dolphins but I still haven’t seen any whales jump out of the water, just the mist from their blow holes.
I also tried out the crew gym, which was pretty impressive really... it’s actually almost as good as the Nipissing gym haha. I’ll have to check out the passenger gym next, might be my only chance to use a gym that awesome for free.
Today we had our first stop in Ketchikan. It’s gorgeous there as well, and the place is FULL of bald eagles. I got to eat breakfast at the garden on the balcony and we saw around 10 bald eagles in the 20 minutes we were there.
Anyways that’s what I’m up to right now.
I’ll be in Victoria tomorrow form 6 – 12 pm pacific time, (that’s 9pm – 3am Eastern time) so feel free to text me, and I’ll try to respond!
Thanks for reading :)

ALASKA

We are here! I mean, I’m still on the ship, but I can see Alaska haha, next week I can get off and explore!
I worked this morning from 11-2 and spent most of the time staring out the window, as we approached the first port we went along the coast and saw a bunch of huge mountains and some really sweet stuff, it was amazing some of the kids wanted to watch too and loved all the little communities we passed
(Amanda Voorberg, I was thinking of you because you would have loved this sooooooooo much, seriously, YOU of all people need to come here)
So I have a 6 hour break right now, a couple of the YCs are off the boat and the rest of us are just chilling, sleeping and filling out some forms we have due. Tonight though, we have a huge staff party in one of the passenger bars called Spiniker’s. It is Mardi Gras themed and all of the YCs are assigned to decorate the whole place and all the crew go there tonight. Should be pretty sweet and I’m really excited to decorate. I’m going to try and get my camera out today and take some photos for you all.

NEXT DAY
GREAT NEWS! I got my luggage last night! I had to ask a security guard to let me into my room because my key card demagnetized somehow and while he was letting me in he read my name tag from my door and told me my luggage was in personnel. I could not have been happier!
The party last night was sweet! All the YCs showed up and since I had gotten my luggage I got to dress up with all of them and we danced the night away. Jesse (or Jedi) was my personal body guard for the night (since a lot of the crew are from 3rd world countries so they love me because I’m from Canada and have blonde hair). It was seriously sooo fun! We have crew parties once a month so ill get to go to a few more!
This morning I woke up to the phone. My supervisor called me to tell me that someone was waiting for me outside of the boat. I rushed to get ready and find them at an exit but by the time I got there they had left already. They did however leave a note! It was Dorothy Foley, Laura Porter and Cathy (Lydia Bridget and Dorothy’s Aunt) I showed off my note to some other YCs and felt pretty special that they tried to come see me! THANKS GUYS! I’m sorry I couldn’t go see you but I’m stuck on the ship!
Today we are in Skagway and I worked port play so I organized a cupboard in the kids centre and read over some of the games and programs that they have pre-planned here. An hour before I left some kids showed up so we did sand art and then played a really fun game in the jungle gym (this thing is seriously out of a kid’s dream, it looks like the most fun ever. I was hopeful that I would make decent money due to tips and group sitting/port play but these four kids were the only ones we had all week and apparently it is rare to get kids for that stuff, plus we have not had any tips at all... even though the kids never want to leave and just LOVE kids club, which is sweet. This week they are all soooo well behaved and just basically love life the whole time they are there.

hope all is well at home! i miss you all!

IM ON A BOAT!!....for real now!

I’m on the pearl! Still completely without luggage but I get a uniform in a couple hours so I will at least be able to put some clean clothes on!
I’m in my room right now, it kind of reminds me of a classic rez room, like from the movies, in fact its kind of like Alex Mundy’s rez room, expect that it’s smaller, and sleeps 4 people instead of 2... but its set up the same way (for those of you who don’t know what Alex’s room looks like... it is tiny, you walk in and have desks on the left and then a bunk bed straight ahead a space between and then a bunk on the other side) we also have a bathroom on the left when you walk in and the whole thing including bathroom is probably 12x8 feet. Ill include a picture once I get my luggage.
Lucky for me, right now I am with only one other roommate (Kate) who I also shared a hotel room with last night. She is a youth councilor with me as well (YC) from port hope and was a physed major. Pretty sweet really, we have a lot in common and stuff so that’s good, plus she has done a few other cruises so she knows what’s going on and how to get around the ship and stuff... which is extremely handy. I’m meeting tons of people, but mostly I have spent my time with some of the dancers (yes Paige DANCERS) and a couple other YC’s. Today is pretty lame, not much going on really, like we just have to wait around until 3 and haven’t done anything since around 11... then we have meetings and training for a while and I work tonight at 6:45. I’m pretty excited to meet my first batch of kids.
Keep my luggage in your prayers still please!!!!!
Later on...
So the luggage situation isn’t looking very good... I am out to sea and it isn’t where it was supposed to be left if it got here on time, I guess that probably means I’m not getting it right away. At the airport I was told I would get my luggage at port in Juneau if I didn’t get it now, but as I talk to more and more people I am finding out that they always say that and some people have gone entire contracts without their luggage... I don’t know if I would survive... well I would but it would definitely suck. Today I didn't even have shoes to wear for my first shift so I had to wear my Birkenstocks since they are all I have.
Speaking of my first shift, it was kind of amazing, seriously... I loved it so much. When I got there I had to get my “silly name” like a camp name... here they assign them based on the first letter of your name. This brought me back to one of my few memories from kindergarten. We had to sit in a circle and vote on a nickname for each student in the same way... “truckin’ tyler” and “Kangaroo Katie” are two I remember then it was my turn. The two best options were “holy Harley” and “happy Harley”. The later won and that was my kindergarten nickname. Today we came up with Habatchi, High Five and Hammer Time. I think Hammer Time is probably the best but the kids would have no idea, so I was leaning toward high five and that’s what I got! (Grace, Paige and Kristen: “I feel like a 6 month deserves a high five!”) No naming ceremony or anything like they have at camp but it is still pretty cool, and the kids just love the names. Some of the other ones are Kazoo, Ketchup, Jedi, Tin Tin, Animal, Cart Wheel, Agent A... etc pretty fun, and we get to have name tags with them on instead of our real names like the rest of the crew.
I was with the 6 – 12 yr olds tonight and will be with 6-9 the rest of the week, It is such a good age group, I really love it the kids just have so much fun and try anything! Tonight we just played a couple name games and get to know you games like “Move Your Butt IF...” (which is like have you ever or the wind blows on anyone who) a dodge ball type game and the toilet paper game when you have to take toilet paper squares and then tell everyone something about yourself for each square you took (personally not my favourite but the kids seemed to enjoy it).
We worked until 11:30 tonight and then finally got to eat dinner (missed it because I was at training) but the selection was horrible... like just gross stuff... I settled on some white rice, French fries and a green apple haha... quite the combo.
Tomorrow is my first sea day. It should be a busy one, we have tons of kids, which I was not expecting on an Alaskan cruise should be interesting, since I have training and work so I pretty much don’t stop, I am very excited for my training to be done.
Anyways, I’m having a blast overall and still can’t really believe I am here! I miss you all!
May 31st
Today was not my favourite day, I am exhausted from travel and time changes and everything mixed in with our crazy training and work schedule this week. Plus I found out that my luggage definitely did not make it aboard so I don’t really know when I am going to get it AND I can’t leave this ship this week to buy stuff because I am Canadian which means I don’t need a visa for work and I don’t have the right paperwork yet (we all get it this Sunday) to go into the states. We stop in Victoria on Saturday night but I work late that night so I probably won’t get off the boat until we get to Seattle on Sunday.
Later on...
Today was a crazy amount of work, but after we all finished we gathered and had some fun and laughed and got to know my team a little better. It basically made the day 100% better and im feeling alot better about everything now. I still really want my luggage though.

hope everyone is doing well! i miss you all like crazy

CRAZY Travel Day

Well, the adventure has begun
I made it. Honestly I never really thought this day would happen... like I seriously expected something was going to go wrong and stop me from taking this job. I wasn’t even sure if this job was legit, like it could have been a scam for all I knew and I didn't get my flight information until Thursday night... CRAZY. Especially since I thought I was leaving Friday then.
Not only am I surprised to be flying at all, I am surprised I caught this flight. I only had a 1 hour lay-over in Detroit before catching my last flight, and since my plane left 20 minutes late and then spent 30 minutes after landing, sitting on the runway I had 10 minutes to run all over the Detroit airport (which is MASSIVE) by the way, and try to find my gate. In fact I didn't even know what gate I was going to, because I was on stand-by for my connection flight. Once I finally got off the first plane I asked at a random gate where the plane going to Seattle left from and she told me A26, I was in C45... not good.
After running through the airport by myself and looking like a fool with my HUGE backpack... weighing 25pds (since I had filled my water bottle mom) for around 10 minutes I got to A25... then it skipped to A27 so I went to the gate and asked where the flight to Seattle was. The man there directed me to a monitor where I ran and read that I needed to be at A76... not 26, 76 and that my flight was already boarding. Im guessing that I ran about a kilometre to that gate, seriously, I’m not even exaggerating! By the time I got there I was pretty sure I had missed my plane, but to my surprise I made it and was the last person to board. They didn't even ask for my passport, and told me I had made it by 3 minutes and to hurry up!
Turns out I’m pretty lucky though, I even got an exit row seat with tons of leg room, and since this flight is 4 hours I think I will need it.
Unfortunately, I had not planned on barely making my connecting flight and didn't bring any food. I think I might have to bite the bullet (no pun intended) and buy some food on the airplane... which will likely be ridiculously expensive, BUT it’s already 7 o’clock now and I haven’t eaten since 1... plus my flight won’t get in until almost 11 smiths falls time... and I don’t even know when I will have a chance to eat once I get there!... looks like dinner will be M&M peanuts and Pringles tonight haha, good thing I got some exercise!

Later on...
So I have landed and made it to the hotel... unfortunately my luggage did not, please pray for its arrival BEFORE the ship leaves tomorrow!... I only have 1 outfit worth of clothes!

Saturday??

So, had a small change of plans today and after planning on leaving tomorrow all week I found out that my flight leaves at 3:15 on Saturday. I guess I have some time to spare after all...

Also, I decided that I will be bringing my cell phone on the cruise and using it every Saturday afternoon/evening after this one when I will be in Voctoria BC. I have tons of long distance minutes, so if you want to talk to me, thats how to do it.

Anyways, just thought I should let everyone I told to start reading friday that I will be updating the good stuff starting saturday now.

Thanks everyone!

Got my Job Assignment!

Hey Everyone!

So i finally found out where I am going! I'm a little bit disappointed honestly but I am sure this will still be amazingly fun! I'm on "The Pearl" and I go to ALASKA! crazy eh?!? There were only 2 ships out of 11 that go to Alaska and I got one of them... figures. Oh well I'm sure it will still be great!

Just thought I should let you all know.

Harley

Just Getting Started

Hi Everyone! So I am not a writer really, but I do want to keep in touch with all of you and let you know all the crazy stuff that goes on while I'm working on the cruise ship, so (thanks to my wonderful friend kailee's idea) I'm going to try and do this blog thing.

Basically this is what i have planned... I am flying out to florida and jumping on a norweigen cruise ship around the world at the end of May. I will be working with a bunch of crazy bratty rich kids all day 7 days a week (except when we are at port and I get to run around crazy foreign countries and lounging on caribean/meditaranean beaches!!!). I'm on the cruise until late august when i am headed back home.

I hope to update this blog fairly frequently and will hopefully be writing even when I haven't put up a new post and then posting every few days (I have to pay by the minute for internet). So I hope you all enjoy! Please leave comments so i know someone is reading this thing!!!!!!

Harley