Ocean Village goes 'Back to School'

Ocean Village has been back to school with high school students from St Adelphi High School, St Vincent and primary students from 25 primary schools across Antigua, in connecting with the local community and its aspiring projects.

Tuesday 9th March saw 16 students from St Adelphi High School, St Vincent come onboard to experience “the cruise for people who don’t do cruises” as part of their tourism and social studies classes. All students are in their final year at high school about to sit their final exams before making tourism and hospitality career choices or deciding to continue studying with further education at Barbados or Trinidad universities.


St Adelphi High School, St Vincent

Monday 15th March Antigua, we boarded 26 students representing 25 primary schools across Antigua. The students were selected top graduates from the islands D.A.R.E programme. The D.A.R.E programme is the islands educational approach to teaching youngsters all about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. It involves workers from the Police force, fire department and ambulance services whom all take classes at the schools and involve all the students in interactive events and projects to guide them to make the correct choices in life. The 26 students had all passed with the highest marks, and as a reward got to experience the Ocean Village brand and ship they see every two weeks on their door step during the Caribbean season.

Ocean Village was delighted to invite them both onboard to let them experience first hand what life onboard is really like, and certainly answered one student’s question “Do all the crew live onboard?”.

The tours started in Village Square where students were amazed with what they saw. Next was down to the main galley where Executive Chef Stuart Pitcher took all students on a culinary master class around all galley sections. All you could here was “WOW” and stomachs rumble, especially when reaching the pastry section! In the larder section Jason Ludovico the ship’s fruit and ice carver demonstrated his unique talent and skill to the students as he carved in front of their own eyes various fruit sculptures with all wanting to take some home for mum and dad.

Next was a tour of the restaurants starting at James Martin’s Bistro. Believe it or not, James’ fame stretches even to the Caribbean with at least three students saying they had heard of him.

Students then put Chef’s skills to the test in The Plantations Restaurant as they enjoyed a hearty lunch. One student did comment to a restaurant crew member that they enjoyed it very much but you can’t beat our school cook’s, chicken and bread.

The children couldn’t come onboard and not visit the command and communications centre that is ‘The Bridge’. Students were amazed and desperate to push every button as third officer Michael Kearney explained how life-like it is to “Pirates of the Caribbean”. We certainly saw some aspiring deck officers with one student commenting he now wants to be a Captain when he grows up.

Finally we ended up in the ship’s ‘Marquee theatre’ with a question and answer session. Here the students got a chance to revise and ask those burning questions in preparations for their projects and essays when they got back to school the next day.

My favourite question was “Why does Ocean Village have to go? It’s the best ever”, which really sums up the way people feel about “the cruise for people who don’t do cruises”.


D.A.R.E winners representing 25 primary schools, Antigua

The students certainly had an enjoyable and educational day where they learned and experienced a lot with all determined not to leave and asking how they can book to come on their holidays. All students left with a souvenir photo of their group in the Village Square by our onboard photo team which, I am sure will appear on bedroom walls and mantle pieces all over St Vincent and Antigua. Thanks were given to all the ship’s company, as everywhere they went onboard the core values of cruise were demonstrated to the highest degree in making this a memorable and educational day for all the students to cherish for years to come.

Martin Bell,
Restaurant Operations Manager,
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.