The Adventure Begins!

I'm on a ship!

The road getting here was less than smooth, involving cancelled flights and a check-in at the wrong hotel but eventually I made it to the ship for my first day of work.

Passing beneath the Golden Gate Bridge during sail away.

It was a tough day since I was short on sleep and the seas were especially rough sailing out of San Francisco Bay. In addition to being nervous about dealing live games after such a long hiatus (you seriously do not want to know how long it's been since I dealt a hand of blackjack), I was feeling pretty nauseous and generally horrible because of seasickness. I finally couldn't take the suspense any longer and gagged myself with a toothbrush. Then I felt much better. Suffice to say, it was a real baptism by fire, but I made it through.

One snazzy looking dealer.

Most days I attend training sessions for various departments. One highlight was visiting the bridge and seeing how humongous the thing is. The complete 180 degree view of the water and horizon in front of the ship is awesome. Other meetings concern fire safety, first aid, lifeboat responsibilities and so on. A lot of information is being thrown at me and while not everything is sticking, I don't feel stressed about it. The other dealers here are super friendly and helpful so I know I can always turn to them for answers.

I'm glad this line's ships are small (our ship holds just 922 passengers) because they're quick to navigate. Compared to the city-like hugeness of the megaships on other lines, here it's like traveling from one end of a village to the other. Very manageable. I've memorized how to get to the crew mess (most of the time), and from my room to the casino and back again. I know where the laundry room is (a load is washing as I type this) and a couple of other pertinent areas. I'll elaborate on all the places I'm allowed to visit in later posts.

As a dealer I get several 20 minute breaks throughout my shift (usually every 40 minutes), so I sometimes go to the bistro and sit in the corner and read my Kindle. But mostly I sit in  the Starlite Club, which is my favorite place to read so far. It's a large open lounge with plush sofas and chairs. There's a dance floor and every night a singer or band performs. The comfort and atmosphere makes me feel as though I'm a guest, so I'm grateful for the privilege. I also sometimes return to my cabin and write a bit. My cabin is so near the casino that it's as though I live in a house with a casino on the upstairs floor.

My cabin is narrow but I'm surprised that I don't feel cramped in it. I'm very comfortable with the space. My bunk is cozy, especially when I draw the curtains. To get up there I stand on the desk and climb into my bunk, so I expect that at some point in my cruising career I'll fall off.

My roommate, Melanie, is extremely personable. She's from Brisbane, Australia and works as a slots hostess in the casino. She's very easy to get along with and being from a hot climate also knows what it's like to feel cold all the time so we have a good handle on the temperature control in our room. She's new to the ship as well so we've been attending all our training meetings together and stumbling around trying to locate places.

Our lovely cabin. I'm the top bunk.

We're the only casino staff on the port (left) side, so we're a little isolated from the others. Also, directly facing us is the medical cold storage, aka the morgue, although it's a plain white door so it could be a housekeeping supply closet for all I care. The walls are all metal, so for my next contract I'll be sure to bring magnets and photos to pin up in my bunk. Housekeeping cleans our room and bathroom every 2 days, and our uniforms are laundered and pressed for us.

We had a time change the other night so most of the casino crew went to the crew bar. It's an employees' only bar on Deck 4. It was fun to hang out and get a little buzzed. Oh, and there's a thing called the slop chest which is like a liquor store mini-mart for the employees. One and a half liter bottles of water are only 75 cents. Red Bull is $1.50, and hard liquor is ridiculously cheap, e.g. a bottle of Sapphire for $13 or Absolut for $8.50. I think if a person were an alcoholic this would be a dangerous place to be. Because the crew bar and the casino both close at 2am I don't often have the time to go to the bar. Exceptions to this are when the casino closes up early. But most times I prefer to read or write in my cabin.

I'm looking forward to getting a full 8 hours' sleep. With the casino closing at 2 am and our training meetings held most mornings at 9:30 am or so, Melanie and I have been dragging. We take cat naps when we can.

Our first port was Ketchikan, Alaska. I'm glad I've visited this port before with my brother David so I didn't feel the need to explore what little there is of the town. Instead, I took a shuttle with a few friends up to the Wal-mart and bought toiletries and snacks for the room. It turned out I did a pretty fair job at packing for the ship. The only thing I forgot to bring was my hair brush. Also, my two duffel bags combined weighed 50 lbs, so I could have packed another 50 and been fine. But as I said, I think I have most of what I need. If I decide or learn differently, I can buy in port again.

P.S. When pulling into Ketchikan I nearly had a heart attack when the ship dropped anchor in port. Damn, it was loud!