Introduction to the Ship: the rest of it - 12 October

I gave an overview of the ship yesterday with photos of my cabin. Today I’m going to show you the rest of the ship although it is very difficult to capture the true feeling of the ship. When I first arrived I was amazed at how small it was. I don’t know where I got the idea that the ship was going to be bigger but there you go.

Let’s start with the library since that is the most important function on the ship (and that is a totally unbiased opinion!). The first photo is our student employee, Becky, who graciously posed for the picture and has a wonderful sense of humor. The second photo shows the book shelves. The information desk is the bar of the casino (the previous life of this ship). We store the books that are on reserve in the cabinets where the alcohol used to be stored. To get behind the information desk it is necessary to duck under a partition to get behind it. I have a horrible time with my ducking skills and have bashed my head several times. Eileen is almost as tall as me and also has difficulty with the ducking part. Maybe we need to work on our flexibility but I think being shorter would have been a big help.

The computer lab is also part of the casino and is located opposite to the library on the 6th deck. It also has some book shelves for the library where the lending library for the books that people donate for general reading (bestsellers, etc). This is one of the busiest places on the ship even though a majority of the students brought laptops because it has the printers in this area and also the best wireless reception.

The Union is also in this area. This is a photo taken before Global Studies which is the class that all participants on the ship must attend including faculty, staff, and life long learners (our adult passengers). This is where we have a lot of other events too such as the pre-port meetings for logistics and culture. It holds approximately 300 students and since we have over 700 students not all of them can fit in their (obviously) so they have satellite locations in classrooms where they can watch the classes and pre-ports on television monitors.

This is the store on the ship. There are two areas although I’m only showing one photo. This is the photo of the clothing shop where they sell all the S@S paraphernalia that you could hope for – sweatshirts, tees-shirts, shorts, sweats, baseball hats, etc. They do a brisk business in there. On the other side of the hall is the store where necessary items are sold such as toiletries (a limited selection) paper, pens, water bottles, duffle bags, and a few computer supplies. Next to this store is a small room where the textbooks are sold for the first week of the voyage. After that, it becomes storage.

As we continue down the hall of the 6th deck we go past several classrooms that are pretty basic, not to mention crowded when the students are in class. At the aft of the ship is the smaller of the two dining rooms for the participants. It is called the Garden Lounge and has an outside area where people can take their meals if they don’t mind the wind, heat and humidity. There are several more classrooms tucked into the Garden Lounge.

Down one level is the purser’s desk where we pay bills, get room keys and our passports. This area is an atrium and directly below the computer lab and library. The wireless access is excellent in this area so there are frequently people sitting in the seats working on their laptops. Deck 5 also has the largest dining hall.

Up we go to the seventh deck where the pool and snack bar is located. I’ve only been in the pool once when we were sailing between ports in Japan. It’s very crowded when we are at sea. It’s a weird combination between sunbathing space and study space. The majority of the sunbathers are reading class assignments while they are out there. This area also has the snack bar and grill. This is where everybody goes to get their hamburger and pizza fix. I have to admit that I’ve needed a couple of those fixes myself. The dining hall food is starting to wear me down. I’ve been dreaming of Christian’s Pizza for the last several weeks now. (For those of you who don’t live in the Charlottesville area, Christian’s pizza has gourmet pizza that is outrageously good). When I get back to Charlottesville, I’ve already made my friend, Tina, promise to go to Christian’s with me so that I may gorge myself on their bounty.

The seventh deck also has the spa although I’ve never gone in there. It offers hair cuts, manicures, pedicures, facials and massages. I don’t think I’m going to be using their services while I’m on the ship. The hair is just going to get really long and the fingernails and toenails are totally self-service. They’ll just have to do without my money. Which is a nice segue to explaining how the finances are worked on this ship.

When we are buying something on the ship, we use our ID card as a credit card. So, when we are buying our shirts, sodas, pizzas, or using the medical services, it all gets charged to our account. They bill us three times during the voyage. The first time is after we do the second half of the pre-sale trips (that’s an outrageous bill to get), the second is being billed right now, and the third one is at the end of the voyage. They may sneak another one in there at some point but those are the times that I know about. At the beginning of the voyage we bring our credit cards to the purser’s desk and sign forms giving them permission to bill our accounts to these cards. It is way too easy to lose track of what we are charging to our accounts.

This is a summary of the most interesting parts of the ship. For those of you who know my e-mail address and have questions, please feel free to contact me and ask and I'll include them in future posts. Ciao.