Once again, I woke up bright and early at 4:00 AM. I was so
excited. Today was the day. The day I’d get on the ship. And I was very pleased
to see that my illness had almost completely gone away. There was no more fever
and only a slightly runny nose. I quickly packed last minute things and headed to
the hotel lobby to meet everyone. We waited about five minutes when finally the
Disney Cruise Line bus arrived and we got on. As early as it was, we were all
so pumped and ready to get on that ship. The trip took about an hour. As we got
closer, I looked across the horizon and saw the ship at its port. I had
imagined the ship to be big. I had imagined it to look beautiful. What I saw
exceeded all of my expectations. It was MASSIVE. It was GORGEOUS. I couldn't believe my eyes.
The bus pulled up and I was all but jumping up and down in
my seat. A border patrol officer came onto the bus and looked over our
passports to make sure we were all accounted for. Then we got off the bus and
lined ourselves along with our luggage against a wall. A drug dog ran by and
sniffed our bags. (He didn't find my extra pixie dust.) Now it was time to get
on the ship. We made our way through the gangway, set our luggage in one room,
and headed to the DCL Crew Training Room. The first thing that we got was our “Earning
My Ears” tags to put on our name tags.
This is for guests to see so that they
know we’re in training, as well as a celebratory tradition for the company.
Once our training is complete, the tags are removed and we actually receive our
Mickey ears.
As different papers were being passed around for us to sign,
one of them asked if we had experienced any fevers, nausea, or diarrhea within
the past three days. So I checked off that had a fever the day before and that
the night before (this is too much information) I had diarrhea. Boy, was this a
mistake. I had no idea that in the cruise ship industry (for crew members and
for guests), any episode of diarrhea that is reported requires you to be seen
by the ship doctor. Gastrointestinal problems are taken VERY seriously because
it can spread so rapidly. So before I could even begin any training, I was
whisked away to see the head nurse. She kept asking very specific questions
about what time my last… ehem… episode was. I told her it has been around 10 PM
the night before. She responded with, “Okay. So we’ll have to put you in
isolation until 10 PM tonight.”
…
ISOLATION?!
I was taken to a hospital room where I was to remain for the
next 14 hours. I started to freak out. I was already nervous about my first day on board. What will the job be like? Will I be able to keep up with everything
they want me to do? And now, I was to miss the entire day! The ship tour and meeting with my leaders were especially vital. It was a nightmare. But I had no choice. I
literally sat (laid) in that room for fourteen hours. At least I was able to watch
television. Whenever I wanted food, I had to call room service to bring it to
me from the crew mess. They literally had to knock on the door, leave the tray
outside of my door, and leave as to not have any contact with me. Did I have
the plague?
Here’s a photo of my beautiful isolation room:
FINALLY, at 10PM on the dot, a nurse came to get me and take
me to my room. To my surprise, I didn't have a roommate. This was actually a
pretty nice room. A full sized bed, decent sized shower and bathroom, and a lot
of storage space. I was quickly told, however, that this was only a temporary
room. Due to the ship being over capacity, they had me in this room until my
room became available. Oh well! At least I get to live the good life for a
week. Here are some photos of my temporary cabin:
Although I had been in the isolation room for 14 hours, I
really hadn't slept because I was so worked up and nervous about missing my
first day. Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted and immediately went to bed
praying that the next day would be a little different.
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