What day do you find out?
Friday
How do they tell you?
The people who have been allocated ships will all be into a Conference room where your name and ship will be announced.
What happens after you find out?
After being told the name of your ship you then have to fill out various forms and get your flight details. You will then be fitted for your ship uniform. Once all of this is completed it is usually time to return to the YMCA for the evening. You may either leave for the ship sometime the next day, or you may have a few days in-between in which case you will carry on with your lessons.
How much notice do you get before you have to go?
It can be anywhere from going the next day to a week in advance.
My experience
Every Friday at the Academy the halls would be buzzing with excitement, as this was the day we found out if we had been placed on a ship.
8 weeks into my training, I was sat in class, on a Friday, with all the other girls thinking about where I might be going. Canada, Brazil, Florida…
The teacher left the room and one of the girls turned and said: “She has all of our ships written in a book that she has left on her desk”.
We all talked ourselves into sneaking a peek at our future homes. A quick photo of the page was taken and then sent around the room.
I was ready to burst with excitement. I can’t remember the name of the ship but I know it was one of the ‘Princess’ ones which are amazing ships, so I was very happy.
I typed the name of my ship into Google to see where my fabulous ship would be taking me. Maybe Asia, or Australia or America….
ENGLAND! I couldn’t believe it. I had done so much training and spent so much money, but to learn that I was to travel around England, I was devastated. I thought I would be going to Barcelona, not Blackpool!
The training day ended without me officially being told I was going on this ship, but I had already convinced myself that this was it. I arrived back at the YMCA and skipped dinner. I called my Mom and ranted down the phone about how I thought I would be going to Lisbon and New York, not Liverpool and Newcastle!
I completely lost sight of why I even applied.
I went into class the next day quite ‘out of sorts’. My teacher pulled me out of class and asked me if anyone had died!
I filled her in on why I was so upset, expecting an unsympathetic reply, but to my surprise, she was very understanding and told me about how she had had a similar experience when she trained. She got put on a ferry going back and forth from Dover and was devastated, but ended up loving it. This made me realise that I was overreacting and needed to pull my self together.
Although it hadn’t been what I imagined, I would still make the best of it.
Later that day I was called into the Conference room along with 14 other girls. They went around the room calling out names and then the name of the ship we were assigned too. I was slumped in my chair listening to all the other ships with their exotic itineraries being called out.
My name was called and as I mouthed the name of the Princess ship, expecting it to be echoed by the teacher, it wasn’t. They named a Royal Caribbean ship followed by “You will be joining in Sydney”. I literally had to stop myself jumping out my seat and laughing!
All that worrying for nothing!
I remembered a few weeks previously, a girl in my class was given this Royal Caribbean ship, and I just thought ‘That’s exactly what I want’. I was so envious of her, but what do you know? I got it!
I felt like the luckiest girl in the world, and still, remember that feeling like it was yesterday!
