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.

Ocean Village on Twitter

Hi there.

If you are interested in keeping up to date with Ocean Village, why not check out our Twitter page?

Click here to see Ocean Village on Twitter >

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- It's an easy and quick way of finding out the lates 'news' your contacts want you to know.

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So don't miss out...!

Click here to see Ocean Village on Twitter > or look for Ocean_Village and follow us!

Ocean Village Take Two!

Hi, I'm Wilson and this is my blog about a recent rare double sighting we had in the Caribbean recently...

Although the Ocean Village ships are always in largely the same part of the world (either Med or Caribbean depending on the season), their paths don’t tend to cross. In other words, whilst I am on Ocean Village in Central Caribbean, my equivalent aboard Ocean Village Two, Aby, will be in the Southern Caribbean. So it was unusual for both of us to be on the same pier of the same island at the same time recently, and it did allow for an outbreak of healthy rivalry between the two crews!

Ocean Village and Ocean Village Two side by side in Grenada

The two ships sailed into Grenada on Monday 12th January, giving both sets of passengers a rare sight and a double dose of Ocean Village in one hit. I’m sure this was pretty cool for them as many will have been on their first cruise and probably wondering what the other ship looked like. So although they couldn’t go onboard the other ship, they got to see them together on the dockside and could get a peek at the other from the top decks (and hopefully thought they might like to try the other one next time!?)

An officer reunion!

L to R Michel Benner, Food & Beverage Director, Tracey Clegg Entertainment & Retail Director, and Sharma Daljit Hotel Director from Ocean Village Two, alongside Michael Lobban, Hotel Director, Mark Hudson Entertainment & Retail Director, and John Brodie Food & Beverage Director from Ocean Village.

Meanwhile, once our work was done some of the crew faced each other in a ‘friendly’ 20/20 cricket match on dry land. With a lot of pride at stake, competition was fierce in a tense but highly enjoyable game for the players and supporters from both ships. And the result...
Ocean Village Two’s ‘Accom Knights XI’ beat a mixed OV team (OV2 won, appropriately enough, by just two wickets)!

Ocean Village Two's Knights XI in grey and Ocean Village's mixed team in red coutesy of the photo studio

And then all that was left to do was a ‘honking’ competition in a big Sailaway ceremony as both ships prepared to head out to their next port of call. And I am delighted to say that this time it was Ocean Village's turn to take the winner’s title with a deafening salute as we were leaving the pier! Not that we're at all competitive of course...

The next and final time the ships will meet will be in Grenada again on the 9 March. Are you going to be there to join us and cheer on your ship’s team?

A Merry Onboard Christmas!

Christmas away from family and friends can be tough, and we often miss out on parties and get-togethers back home, but luckily we’re all a pretty sociable bunch onboard too! It’s one of those times that we’re all in the same boat (no pun intended) so we all pull together and help keep each other’s spirits up.

Now we’re fully underway into the Caribbean season, we decided it was time to organise our Christmas party for the Accommodation team, and as we now have an overnight stop in St Vincent, we thought we’d celebrate on dry land for a change. The staff all clubbed together to raise money for a ‘do’ (partly helped along with a welcome donation from the Accom management team), and the Accom Committee decided to hold it at the terminal building at the port.

And after we'd tucked into a festive buffet and drinks, we shared Secret Santa presents, played a few silly party games and sang Christmas carols, we finished it all off in a real party-mood with some music and dancing.

Our carol concert!

All in all, 102 accommodation and laundry staff came, as well as some extra special invites for those members of the crew who work ‘behind the scenes’ e.g. plumbers and carpenters. It was such a fun night and we all had a brilliant time. It really was a great way to end the year, and made sure we were well and truly in the festive mood!

Festive fun with the Accomodation Team

Hope you had a great Christmas and hope to see you on board in 2009!

Mari

A playground at sea!

Today is sea day and all the youth team are ready for a busy fun filled day ahead...

Sea day is the 2nd day of the cruise after leaving the home port the night before, so there’s always lots of fresh-faced kiddiewinks, along with those just getting stuck into week 2 of their holiday. We opened base camp at 9am and waited for all the new children to arrive, and before we knew it we had a full house ready for the fun to begin.

The morning began with crafts with children making Captain’s hats and stripes, joining in colouring competitions and much more to keep us busy up to lunch. Then once they’d had time to refill their little tummies and recharge the batteries, we all marched down to deck 7 singing all the way to meet an extra special guest we had on board - Basil Brush! Sadly he was only with
us for the day as a trial to see is the children took to him or not, but he went down a storm so hopefully he'll be back with us really soon.

After the show the little ones were full of energy so we walked around the outside decks of deck 7 (still singing the songs!) in time for our ‘Captains Coketail’ party in Connexions bar. And as if Basil Brush wasn’t enough, the special guest was Paddington Bear for photos and cuddles, some old favourite party games and even a bit of a boogie!

Paddington dishing out one of his famous cuddles!

But the fun didn’t stop there and it was time for cheesy grins in the Photo Studio before making our way back up to deck 14 where the kids played freely with the games, toys, PS2’s and in the ball pool until it was time to be collected, by which point they were all well and truly worn out!

Giving it some pedal power

Working on the ship can be tiring, and getting time to go to the gym and stay healthy can be a bit of a task. So I decided to take advantage of working in the Action Ashore department and get fit the fun way.

It started with a call in La Goulette (Tunisia), and as I haven’t exercised for a while I thought I’d have a go at wangling my way on to one of my biking tours. Any room for a small one (I’m only just 5ft)? I managed to get on, so all 37 of us grabbed our bikes and headed off into Tunisia with our bike guides Aaron, Russell and Randall. To see what it was really like doing the trip as a passenger instead of Destinations Manager (and so that I didn’t show myself up!) I was incognito in civvies for once.

Getting ready to set off

Our journey took us through the town of La Goulette, and I know you’d expect me to say this but I really do mean it, but there really isn’t much to do there unless you are on a tour. As we rode over to the Roman ruins at Carthage, Aaron told us that the streets we had just ridden through were in films such as Monty Python’s The Life of Brian and Jesus of Nazareth. Thankfully it was then time for a breather for those of us already feeling the strain. As I gulped down the water provided, I thought to myself that I think I have a higher opinion of my fitness than my body does!

After our stop at Carthage we started en route to the hill top village of Sidi Bou Said, and when Randall said ‘hilltop’, he meant it! It wasn’t really a steep hill but it was a long one top get to the top of, so we all shifted down a few gears before the slope took its toll. There was just time for another breather before the final push to the village, when we all suddenly realised that before us was a VERY steep hill. We all looked at each other (secretly thinking ‘he’s not going to make us cycle up that is he?’), when Aaron told us that we get off and wheel the bikes up that bit! Relief is probably the best word to describe what we were feeling at that point.

Our bike guides (L to R - Aaron, Russell and Randall)

Reaching the top, I dived in the nearest café to grab a drink and some shade as the it was absolutely boiling, and we all swapped stories of how we were finding the ride. On the way back to the ship we went via the WWII memorial for the British and US soldiers and past some stunningly ornate mosques and while Aaron (a vision in pink lycra) stopped traffic while we wobbled our way across the local roundabouts. Then there was just time for a group photo by the beach before heading back to the ship for our 12.30 deadline.

Me and my fellow bikers (I'm 4th from the left on the front row!)

All in all the cycle tour was a great morning out and a really different way to see somewhere you probably would think twice about exploring on your own. The locals were friendly with a ‘Bonjour’ as we cycled past – probably because they have a good laugh at a group of Brits cycling through their towns and villages in single file every Thursday! Needless to say, my legs were like jelly when we got back on board and I think I might have to eat a few more chips before I go again – either that or get a more padded saddle - but a great trip, good staff and keeping fit to boot….

Tomorrow... hiking Up Mount Vesuvius in Naples. I’m going to be shattered by the end of this cruise!

Bernie

We are family!

Over the years, I have got used to being so far from loved ones when working on cruise ships at sea, but it can be hard when it comes to important dates like birthdays, festivals and anniversaries - espcially when they are big family occasions where we all get together and celebrate. So with India’s Independence Day coming up knowing my whole family were thousands of miles away I wasn't exactly expecting the usual event.

I’d just got used to the idea that this year was going to be different and that I would just be celebrating it with a few close friends on board, when I overheard something being organised by the Indian officers and crew. Indian Independence Day here on Ocean Village Two! I can’t even begin to tell you how surprised I was! It wasn’t going to be like home, but it already made me feel a lot better.

And we weren’t disappointed - the whole evening was so much fun! What I thought would be a small gathering turned into a celebration with about 500 of the ship's crew below deck, starting with the Reception and Comms team dressed in traditional outfits they’d had sent from India. Upstairs in the crew mess, we had a gala dinner with some of my favourite traditional foods (prawn biryani, and a sweet dish with carrots called gajar ka halwa … mmm!), and a full bar run by the Laundry team. Then it was time for the highlight of the night… the entertainment! As well as the DJ skills of various people from the different departments, we also had a ‘Bollywood’ number and an Indian dance performed by British and Filipino crew members!

Some of the girls performing as the Indian dancers

It was such a good night and really kept our spirits up at a time when we could have otherwise been sad to be missing home. What made it even better was that it meant so much to know that so many people were willing to join in and make the night a real success - especially as all of the duties and expenses were shared through voluntary contributions even from those that would not normally celebrate the festival. It helped me to realise that although my family are so far away, I have a new family here on board that are also very special.

Radley