Grandeur of the Seas

Grandeur of the Seas is the smallest of the Royal Caribbean ships that I've ever been on. Especially compared to the Oasis it's a cute ship with a guest capacity of almost 2500 and 760 crew members, so it didn't take me long to make good friends.

Marija on the left is youth staff, like me. We signed on the same day and  were inseparable since. Lynn on the right is part of the cruise staff and also signed on with us on the same day. My contract would've been so different without these two ladies. It's a priviledge to know them.

I had already been to the Bermudas but it was still nice to see the island again. It has amazing beaches and since we had two overnight stays there, we were able to enjoy the night life.

I'm fascinated by God's creation and by his creativity. I thought the sun having a ring is one of those things.

And then of course I'm baffled by the way God turns bad things into pretty good. I had told you in my last update that the Grandeur had caught on fire. Being on a ship this size, or actually any size for that matter, and having a fire break out is the worst thing that can happen to you. If not detected early enough, it can not only cause big panic but also, in the worst scenario, (obviously) cause the ship to sink. In our case the fire was detected at about 2:40 am on May 27, 2013. The captain got everyone to go to their muster station, just like we had practiced with the guests during our debarkation drill. The life boats were already let down and all of us were just listening for the anouncements the captain was making, ready to get into the boats if necessary. The back of the ship was burning, to be more exact, the mooring deck on deck 3. It took the mobile teams over two hours to extinguish the fire but we still had to wait another two hours, until almost 7:00 am, for the captain to dismiss us. The back of the ship - or what was still left of it - was still very hot and they wanted to make sure that the fire wouldn't reignite. Originally we had been sailing toward CocoCay, Bahamas, a private destination of Royal Caribbean, so it was a lucky coincidence that we weren't too far away from one of the 'dry dock ports' on the Bahamas called Freeport. Once all the guests had been flown back from Freeport to Baltimore, Grandeur of the Seas sailed to that dry dock where it is still today, being fixed so it can soon sail again. So in the process of the incident no one got hurt, no one lost any of their precious belongings. Tell me that's not a miracle.

I've heard it said...

... so many times before, you have to trust God for he knows the best way for your life and he might lead you where you least expect it. Trusting God is never easy especially when you don't see a thing in front of you. That's what I felt, what seemed, for the longest time. And then the way cleared up little by little where I least expected it. Back to ships! And there was no doubt in my mind that this was for me – again. Coming back to ships after over a year was one thing. Working on the world's biggest cruise liner another. I was anxious to see how it was gonna go on the Oasis of the Seas. It was great! I reconnected with a few friends from previous contracts, visited places that I grew to love and thought I'd never see again, and I simply just fell in love with my job again! After a short fill on the Oasis I was offered another ship for a full contract – which I declined. And I thought, why not do another few fills?! It's great to get a peak at a new ship, the team, the itinerary, and then go back home for a short vacation. Now I'm already at the end of my second fill. I've been on the Grandeur of the Seas for the past couple of weeks and I've been loving it. Also, due to some communication problems between my scheduler and the manager at the time of my arrival, I was assigned to work in the nursery with children under the age of three. This has been a blessing in disguise since though at first I had no wish to be part of the nursery staff, I simply love working with those little ones now.

So concerning trusting God for he knows best – it shows to be true again and again in my life. He's leading me a way I had not anticipated but which I love the more I walk it. I realize everyone's life is so unique and special in so many ways. I want to be in awe of the creator always. I'm thankful for the freedom he's given me to explore the world and to live my life to the fullest.

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I wrote the above only hours before a major fire on the Grandeur of the Seas. And I wasn't sure later if I still felt the same way about what I had written or if anything had changed because of what had happened... These are my last couple of days on this ship and I can't wait to get home to actually realize what happened. I will keep you posted with another update as well as pictures. So stay tuned ;-)