Making a show of it!

Hi,

The Ocean Village crew pulled out all the stops on the crossing from Barbados to Heraklion.

There was a broad spectrum of entertainment on offer with great involvement from our crew, ranging from Asian Masterclass cooking classes in the Marquee to a seafood lunch sampler buffet in the Village Square, an intriguing demonstration of fruit and vegetable carving (can you see what it is yet?!) and a homage to the noble art of towel folding in the Village Square.

There was also ice carving, a navigational talk from the bridge officers, a Chocoholics’ Buffet with chocolate fountain in the Village Square, and the crowning glory, our very own Ocean Village crew talent show!

Make sure you check back soon for the blog on the Ocean Village Fete and the Ocean Village Crew Talent Show!

Michael Lobban,

Hotel Director - Ocean Village

A transatlantic crossing to remember

After another successful season in Caribbean, Ocean Village commenced its transatlantic repositioning cruise on 21/04/2009 from Barbados. the first three days saw us calling at St.Lucia, Dominica and St.Maarten where we said a wonderful farewell to the beautiful Caribbean with a sail away party on top deck.

The team prepare for the British Sail Away :: Captain Ian Hutley opens the Village Fete

The theme was ‘British Sail Away’, where most of the passengers and crew enthusiastically participated in cheering and enjoying the event. As well as the local people and ports, we said our mutual goodbyes to the passengers of a Royal Caribbean Cruise liner which was docked alongside us.

After Captain Ian Hutley completed the safety checks, we were ready to set off on the six day voyage across the Atlantic to the scenic Island of Madeira. By the time we arrived in Madeira Ocean Village had covered a distance of 2632 nautical miles!

The first three sea-days brought the good weather averaging about 24C with a fresh breeze from the North East. During the day passengers were involved with the many activities provided by the Entertainment crew such as Salsa, Juggling and Trapeze work shops. We even managed to catch some live action from the English premier league football in the Oval Bar, which was not expected while crossing the Atlantic! And the fun didn't stop there. The Evenings were packed with some great tribute shows including George Michael and Elton John, hilarious antics of comedienne Mia Carla, and a chat with Will Martin ‘the youngest UK top ten classical singer’ in our ‘Up Close and Personal’ talk show. The host Paul Maffey got the nitty gritty from Will, asking all those burning questions that were on everyone’s mind and later Will Martin performed to a full house in the Marquee show lounge.

On 28th April, the fourth day at sea, Ocean Village celebrated its sixth birthday. To make this day even more memorable, the ships company held a ‘Village Fete’ with a mix of fun and games for the passengers. The event was inaugurated by the Captain cutting the ribbon to signify the start of a fun-filled day between crew and passengers with every department of the ship's company putting on a different challenge for the passengers to test their skills. In total we hosted 18 stalls for them to score as many points as possible towards the ultimate first prize of a VIP seat with the Captain to one of our 'Big Birthday Bash'. The games ranged from the Bar team’s ‘Show your Flair’ challenge to ‘Hoops in the Pool’ by Events, ‘Snake in a Bottle’ from Accommodation, and many more from other departments. We didn't realise how much passengers wanted to get their own back on the ship officers until we saw how busy the 'Throw a wet sponge at an Officer’ stall was! Officers of the ship were summoned to the stocks like villians taking their puishment, yet the true villians were soon to be known when buckets of ice water found their way over the unsuspecting heads of those in the stocks. I would say this game was a definite highlight of the crossing for many!

Captain Hutley soaks the Hotel Director!

The Hotel Director seeks his revenge...

And even more revenge...!

The whole day saw a real Carnival type atmosphere was an incredible testament to the spirit and liveliness that is Ocean Village, and for which we have become so renowned for. Ocean Village’s birthday was concluded with the 'Big Birthday Bash' party in the Marquee show lounge with all the performers putting on a show of such variety that it had the Marquee filled to the max all night. Even 1 Bar Team member made an appearance onstage to dazzle the passengers with his hidden vocal talents.

So another successful voyage blessed with good weather so far. We have yet another 1000 miles or so to sail before we reach our final port of call in Palma, Majorca and many spectacular places and entertainment still to experience on this trip. One thing we can be sure of if anything is that we will have many more good times to report!

Thanks for reading our post. What kind of events would you like to see on board?

Ghandi Raj & Kalpesh Nikam

Ocean Village Olympics

Hi, Caroline here. I work on Ocean Village Two as the Personnel and Development Manager supporting the Officers and Crew onboard.

Over the last few weeks we’ve been busy enjoying the last leg of our Caribbean itinerary before setting sail to the Mediterranean for the summer. For some of the team, it's the first time that they have been to the Caribbean so we thought it would be a great excuse to celebrate a great maiden season!

To end on a high, the accommodation team organised an Ocean Village-style Olympics competition. They organised themselves into four groups, each with their own team Captain, and the games commenced! The teams set about competing in a series of events in either the crew gym or ashore in St Vincent on 12th March, with challenges ranging from a tug of war, to relay races on the treadmills, to time trials on the stationary spinning bikes. And never to let a social event pass without a party, two of the accommodation team donned their DJ caps and put on a real show in a local nightclub at the port.

Our Olympic athletes in St Vincent

And, it didn’t end there... A few days later, the entire hotel team (who report to the Hotel Director) had a beach party in Isla Margarita, making the most of the stunning surroundings.

Thanks to Vincy Gomes and Marivic Quilicol who stepped up and devised a whole series of team games and challenges. As you can see, we all had a blast!

Caroline.