Disclaimer: I'm not sure how much we can post about what, so easily googled terms and names will be changed to protect the confidentiality of the Company and identities of those involved.
Sitting in a small port city in Germany, its easy to get lost in the surreality of our present situation. Only days ago we were living in a basement in Utah, trying to not to drive our family (part of one, anyway) crazy. If we thought we were cramped into a basement bedroom Utah, imagine room below the water line of the ship roughly one third the size of the smallest dorm room you've ever seen. Small as it is, I have to say, its a remarkably efficient use of the space. As I type, I can take five minutes, walk down approximately 7.8 miles of corridor, up (or down) approximately 38 thousand stairs, and spit over the side rail into the North Sea (not recommended). Its not easy to adjust to an eight hour time difference, as my space age self setting alarm clock will attest to – it doesn't have European time zones programmed, so I have to interpret AM as meaning PM – nor is it easy to adjust a schedule from waking up at the crack of noon to waking up before dawn.
After receiving our flight info, we discovered we were scheduled for different flights. Even though we were scheduled to leave SLC within minutes of each other, and arrive in Amsterdam within minutes of each other, we were on separate planes. Bucket's made it on time, mine was delayed a total of six hours between weather and planes. Shoutout to Dave at Bennigan's in Dallas – thanks for the free burger and beer dude. I left you a book.
The hotel was shmancy, though I was disappointed that I didn't have time to get into the city to explore. The weather sucked anyway, but it would have been nice. Not that I didn't expect it, this being Amsterdam and all, but the floor we stayed on smelled...whacky. A bunch of the other new hires form the UK were super pumped to go to...wait for it...KFC! I didn't get it, but whatever.
The next day we had some training, then got on a bus to drive the four hours to the ship. I learned at one of our gas station stops, bathroom grafiti doesn't change much wherever you go. I couldn't read it, but I'm guessing it said “Hans Gruberg was here” and then underneath someone crossed out “was here” and wrote “is gay.” This happened just before I noticed the naked ladies gracing the condom machines. Apparently, America is pretty repressed...
We were all exhausted, but way too excited to sleep, and the first glimpse of our new home didn't disappoint. The weather sucked, but the fog and drizzle made the steam funnels with that Mouse's silhouette outlined in red and purple look really cool. All I could think was “its BIG.” Then I saw my room...
I will say this: I didn't even know you could use Marble as a building material on a boat. But dude, you can. And you can make it look good. Well, maybe not you, but whoever designed this 128000 ton floating magic kingdom.
Initially, we weren't assigned the same cabin, but today I moved into Bucket's room. She hasn't had a roommate since we got here, which is nice for her, but not as nice for us (the room I was in with Gleek was bigger, though not by much). Funny how a few days sleeping in different spaces makes you start to like being around each other again. Still in bunk beds for now, but plans are in the works for an illustrated “Kama Sutra on the High Seas,” so check back for publication dates.
Oh yeah! I almost forgot! I totally saw the Mouse the other day! And the Duck! And I took a picture with the Captain: this is kind of a big deal. Seriously, this guy is the Cruise's first employee. His ID number is 0000001.
Internet here is unreliable at best, and having some trouble with my camera. Besides that, the Company is being pretty strict about what is actually posted, at least until things are “Show Ready.” Someday we'll post some pictures and video, but for now...Tot ziens! Auf viedersein!
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