Tour of the MV Explorer

I realized that I never told you all about the ship (MV Explorer) so I will let you know all of the awesome stuff that we have.  Ideally I would love to have photos with this, but our Internet doesn’t allow for sending photos.  So here is how it goes:

Decks 2 thru 4 – Just lots and lots of cabins.  Deck 2 is partially crew area and partially student cabins while decks 3 and 4 are completely student cabins.  I live on deck 4 with a big window in room 4137 which is great because we are toward the back of the boat so there is very little rocking and we are right by the stairs so dinner is literally 12 steps away.  The rooms also decrease in size as you go on lower decks and the noise gets louder so I have a perfect location.

Deck 5 – This deck has the main dining room which is the largest dining room and usually has less of a line to get food since there are 4 food lines instead of 2 on the upper deck dining room.  The main dining room is considered the quiet study area when it is not meal time while the lounges on the 6th deck are for group study.  My personal favorite study space is on this deck – Classroom 9.  It is right next to the dining room but is sectioned off so it is really quiet and there are never very many people there.  This deck also has the main front desk area which is where you go for all your questions and to turn anything in.  There are also more cabins – mostly suites for the lifelong learners, some students, and some faculty.

Deck 6 – This deck has pretty much everything.  The student union is at one end which is where they hold the large Global Studies class and special events or lectures.  Next to the union is the library and computer lab.  I was surprised that there wasn’t really space to study in the library – it is literally just the bookshelves.  But the computer lab is nice with lots of computers and table space if you bring your laptop there.  The other end is the Garden Lounge which is another place to get meals and also has snack time at night.  The Garden Lounge extends to the back deck with tables and chairs when it is nice outside.  In the middle and scattered around the rest of the deck are the campus store, piano lounge, and the majority of the classrooms.  The piano lounge is just like a bar and chairs along the hallway with classrooms on the other side.  The bar is only open from 5-8pm and sells candy bars, chips, pop, etc.  A lot of the classrooms are made with those removable walls which are taken down at night time to open up for more sitting space.

Deck 7 – This deck consists of the faculty lounge, wellness center/spa, and pool.  The faculty lounge is beautiful with floor to ceiling windows and a fully stocked bar (we only get beer or wine offered to us).  The wellness center is kind of sad because it is very small and hot with 5 ellipticals, 2 treadmills, and 2 stationary bikes for all 800+ people on the ship.  There is a sign up sheet that goes out at 7pm the previous day that you have to sign up for a 30 min. time slot if you want to use the machines.  The spa is really nice and offers a lot of the usual salon services and lots of different massages and stuff.  They keep passing out coupons for services so maybe I will use one someday.  The pool is really small but on a large deck with the pool bar/grill.  This is the “party deck” at night because the bar/grill is open from 8pm-midnight and it is the only place for students to get any alcohol (even though they limit you to 3 drinks of beer/wine a night).  It also serves the burgers, hotdogs, fries, candy, etc. until midnight.  I don’t think that the pool has even been filled yet since there hasn’t really been a nice enough day for people to go swimming, but I’m sure that it will be once we get to the Mediterranean!