Here I am – day two of the Semester at Sea voyage. It’s fabulous! The mv Explorer is a gorgeous ship! Everything is new and clean and well designed. I am so happy to be here. I think this all really hit me when I walked in my room for the first time and saw how wonderful it was. I was expecting something small and dark and cluttered feeling and it is the complete opposite. There is a big window, beautiful furnishings, clean carpet and a well-designed layout. See the pictures below.


My room


My room from the other angle


My bathroom

The ship is huge. There are seven decks and it is the fastest oceanliner in the world. Semester at Sea bought the ship from a Greek cruise company called Royal Olympic Cruises when they went bankrupt and their ship was arrested a couple years ago. They contracted a German company to build this ship and the sister ship the Voyager about 5 years ago and bankrolled everything into the ships figuring that since they were so fast it would be an excellent draw for new customers. Well, shortly after the ships were built the World Trade Centers were attacked and international travel really decreased. Originally there were casinos and other aspects that screamed “cruise ship” so Semester at Sea has been converting it to a college campus during the past two years. They acquired the ship 12 days before the initial voyage and worked very hard doing some initial conversions. This is the fourth voyage and they are still making small changes. Since the end of the Spring semester the ship was dry docked in The Bahamas undergoing repairs. The Bahamas has the largest repair shipyard in the world and do many large ships. It’s hard to imagine this ship being dry-docked on land. There is still a crew of people with an Italian company working on the ship from The Bahamas to Halifax making more changes. However, it looks so great you would never know anything needed to be done.


The mv Explorer docked in The Bahamas - notice the person walking on the left for size comparison.


A view of the moon from the ship - taken shortly after we set sail at 10pm

Many of you asked about seasickness and I haven’t felt anything yet. We have enjoyed very calm seas that look like a lake. There is a gentle sway to the ship and I find myself walking down the hallways in a zigzag. I am walking straight but since the ship is moving side to side my path moves sideways too. However, I find myself unconsciously correcting this more and more as I get used to the ship. I hope when I get to land I don’t continue to correct myself and have it look like a zigzag! There are a few people that have felt some mild seasickness, but there is a bin of seasickness drugs for everyone to take and no one seems to be affected too much. I will be curious to see what happens as the weather changes over time.


The view from the back of the ship - the weather has been great!

I am enjoying meeting so many new people here. Everyone is friendly and interested in meeting everyone else and a community is already starting to develop. It’s neat. The crew, staff, and faculty are from all over the world – Greece, Sweden, The Philippines, Belgium, and many more. So far we have just had orientation meetings and learned about the ship, how things work, who does what, etc. We had a lifeboat drill today and will have several more throughout the trip. It’s a very organized process. Everyone is assigned a lifeboat as labeled in your room and on your lifejacket. When the alarm sounds you have to put on your lifejacket and long pants and a jacket and report outside to your muster station, the place in front of your lifeboat.

Tonight we are cleaning and organizing the Student Life office and hopefully I will get to bed early. I got nearly eight hours of sleep last night, but I feel tired. I hope you all are doing well!