Holy Ship!

Special Edition: The MV Explorer

This Special Edition post is to introduce you to the MV Explorer: our home, our school, and our everything else for the next two months. As stated before, with no disrespect to the prestigious institution of New York University, shipboard life on the MV Explorer with the faculty and staff comprised of various institutions surpasses any expectations I  may have had for my home institution or this one!

This 25,000 ton vessel was built in 2002 and is one of the fastest passenger ships of its kind in the world. (which is quite ironic seeing as it is taking longer than a week to get to Spain. However, supposedly, they are monitoring our time at sea simply to make time for classes. Meaning we could have made it to Spain in a matter of 3 or 4 days) But no worries! The ship is fully equipped with everything to make sure our academic and social lives are supported.

You walk up the steps, swipe your ID and enter the 600 foot ship, with beautiful mauve carpet throughout, except in the rooms and dining areas which are a royal blue.  On the walls located along the staircases is golden engraved text, in both English and Greek, of poems. They are back lit and make beautiful statements of travel. The entire ship is of a Greek Theme. Each floor is named after a Greek god or goddess.

There are Eight decks.

2nd Deck Neptune

Mostly a staff area and operations with inside double cabins. The counseling office and Health Clinic are also on this floor and the morgue is most likely here as well. (Creepy!)  It is upsetting to think that the ship has had to use the morgue at least once a year. Death during travel is quite frequent and unfortunate.

3rd Deck Dionysus

Student outside cabins, economy cabins, staff cabins, and this floor also has a video editing room, which I have yet to see. I love editing, I learned the summer before my freshmen year in college and have stuck with it since. This year they are having the 1st annual film festival aboard ship. I don’t think I have time to devote myself to such a project but it sounds cool.

4th Deck Venus

Faculty and staff Cabins, student Junior Suites, student inside cabins. My cabin is on this floor.

The Cabins

Most cabins come with two beds (Mine has three. I’m on the bunk bed, but how cool…it folds into the wall) Each room has 2 closets,: one large one with hangers, a top shelf and a pull out shoe rack beneath. The smaller one with 4 shelves, a safe and some pull out baskets below. There is a built in desk with a drawer and a large mirror. There are is a night stand  and a built in nook with three drawers each. In the nook is the television which plays movies at night and shows the boats positioning. The nook also has a built in frig, similar to a hotel and a shelving unit where we keep our food. The stand is simply in between our beds and has a table lamp upon it. There is one small glass table. Two chairs: one for the desk and the other for the table. There is a phone which we can use to call other cabins and areas of the ship for free and outside calls for a hefty price. The walls are all magnetic so we use magnets to post notices, pictures, decorations and our map of the voyage. There are curtains and a ventilation system, seeing as we can’t open our window. And lastly, my favorite, our own private bathroom. It is nice and clean. It comes with a removable shower head and a holder for all our shower supplies. It also has a clothes line to dry any clothes we may wash on our own, seeing as we only get the luxury of laundry every few weeks and I did not bring enough clothes!) The bathroom has cabinets and shelves to hold our other toiletries and the best part about our room is we don’t have to clean it.

Staff

The staff is amazing. They are constantly cheerful, kind and always punctual in cleaning our rooms. There are many times in which we get a knock at the door and who do we find but Edwin ready to clean our room. They even do the neat folding of the toilet paper that they do at hotels and fold and situate our belongings into neat piles. Our rooms aren’t the only thing they clean. The staff is constantly cleaning the boat; scrubbing the decks down early in the morning, wiping the railings down and washing the walls at all hours of the day. It is so bizarre. Its bizarre that we don’t have to clear our plates or dispose our trays after a meal. They serve us our drinks, our dessert and not without giving a warm smile. The staff and faculty are so genuinely friendly, with a “good morning”, or “hello” each time we pass, they definitely reassure us that we aren’t in Kansas anymore (or Albany or whatever).

Faculty

As I said, they are all so friendly, but my teachers and some known faculty come with some great personalities. The assistant Dean rides a motorcycle, some use terminology such as “my peeps,” Our Global Studies professor has some entertaining power points and is full of such exciting energy. My Global Music teacher is always so goofy and willing to make voices and just be an entertaining force in the room. He definitely wants us to get involved and enjoy ourselves in this interesting course. Lastly my favorite, my European Union teacher, Bill Wilkerson has such a monotone voice yet one of the most humorous and interesting personalities. He has spurts of loud exclamations and some erroneous examples that just make you giggle and think about things you never thought you would.  I have yet to get to really know these people, but can already tell that I will enjoy them. I definitely enjoy their children. At first I thought having families aboard with young children would be an interference or annoying but in fact it is a breath of fun! The kids are adorable, lively and say the darn-est things! 

Fun Fact: The number one singly sold product in the US is the Banana.

Bridge

The captain is quite a character. He is from Croatia (one of our port calls) and is so relaxed. It’s  quite a juxtaposition: a person with such power having such a lackadaisical personality. But no worries, we trust him. He is really funny. On our Bridge tour he made many references to Titanic and was just a fun presence in the room. What a view from there too! Looking out a window that gives you an expansive view of the deep blue ocean on a sunny clear day was just so beautiful and relaxing. We were grateful for that. It is there that we had our first sight of dolphins. It was also there that we sat in the Captain’s chair and looked out on the open sea with his large binoculars. The ship is supposedly on cruise control….ha ha ha get it? CRUISE control.

5th Deck Selene

Bedroom Suites with balconies and faulty bedrooms. On this floor is the Purser’s Desk and across from there is the Student Affairs Desk/Dean’s Office. In the middle is Tymitz Sqaure (the center of the ship). It is here that a lot of daily activity takes place whether amongst faculty, students or across the two groups. A lot of questions are asked here and a lot of answers returned. Paper work and sign up sheets and updates are flying around in this central area and this is also where the free trip box is that Kevin checks multiple times in one day.  The Main Dining Hall is on this floor. It is quite fancy with large lighting fixtures, big bright windows and multi levels. We eat here mostly because it has less traffic and larger tables to accommodate the expansive A.B.A. group.

6th Deck Apollon

This deck is probably the most compact.  This floor consist of a computer lab to do all our printing and accessing to academic folders, a library to enhance our learning and to do research on upcoming ports and support our travels, Classrooms of a good size, a school store where I have bought a shirt and sweatshirt from, they have everything though from white-out to conditioner, there is a piano lounge with a bar and it is here that Kevin, Becca and I laid down some tunes, the smaller dining hall is here: I usually eat breakfast here and outside this dining hall is an outside deck where you can eat while overlooking the ocean, on the other end of this deck is the Union. Here the entire body takes Global studies, gathers for debriefings, dances and anything else of a large matter. The union is equipped with video and sound equipment which makes for a very established area. The smoker’s deck is also here, but they can get rid of that if they wanted to, I wouldn’t miss it. The 6th deck is also where we have the luxury of boarding lifeboats if anything should happen to this glorious vessel.

7th Deck Helios

Ahh the 7th deck. Pub Nights are held here. We go swimming here and we lounge on the deck chairs soaking up the sun. Here we can order soda and burgers which can’t be found any where else on board. Here is where we have our cookouts. We had one for the fourth of July and we have another one coming up tomorrow for our Sea Olympics. The basketball court is along the sides of this deck, along with the work-out machinery. Inside is the gym and spa. Here I run daily. I’m getting my haircut at the spa tomorrow. Bo got one and he looks great and even more like Kevin Bacon than before.  The spa offers multiple massages and a sauna, but I think A.B.A. are going to a Turkish bath while in Istanbul, even though Rachel already had a massage here and said it was great. The Faculty lounge is on this deck and this is where they grade papers, relax and party in seclusion from the student body.

8th Deck

The 8th deck  is where you get a greater look at the world around you. It is relaxing to go up there on a warm night, sit down and chat or reminisce of your time aboard. Kevin and I do this some nights.

I hope this special post has given some insight of my home for the summer. I’m glad I can call it that.

Sea Olympics are tomorrow. Stay Tuned.

Explore. Dream. Discover.

~Michael-Anthony

P.S. It’s a ship not a boat.