A favourite part of repeated contracts on the cruise ships for me is getting to meet up with friends from previous ships. I’m into my final two weeks on the Ecstasy (my replacement, Brian, has arrived and I’ve begun his intro training) but I’ve got a few exciting reunions during these last days. Today in Cozumel was one: I got to meet up with my friend Erica, who I worked with this past winter on the Fantasy. Cozumel has been a staple port for me during these three years at sea. When I transfer in 2 weeks time, there will be [View Full Entry]

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Over my years working on ships, one holiday that I’d yet to experience was Halloween. My contracts have always worked out that I have either been at home or traveling on my own. Looking at photos from other crew members, it always looked so fun with everyone all dressed up. So when this contract was sorted out and I knew I’d be on a ship for Halloween, I started looking for my costume! I seemed way ahead of things, trying to find a costume in September, but I knew that the weeks leading up to Halloween would be chaos with me [View Full Entry]

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Today another day in Cozumel has rolled around. I wanted to go and see something I hadn’t yet seen there, so I asked Chris if he wanted to go to a beach. In all the many many times I’ve been to Cozumel, I’ve never just gone to a beach! As we walked off the ship, the sun was shining. We’ve had what’s seemed like endless days of grey, overcast skies and often rain. I commented on the lovely weather and we savoured the sun and knowing we’d have a day out in it. We got in a taxi and headed off [View Full Entry]

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For the most part, things are pretty much back to “normal”, or as normal as it gets on ships. Our first cruise out of dry dock has come to an end. Today we’re in Galveston, our home port, disembarking and embarking guests. This morning we had our Coast Guard inspection, which can often be a very long and hot and frustrating drill. But it wasn’t too bad, we were done in half an hour. And then, I was able to get off the ship! I only had a couple hours, so not much time to do anything too huge. But I [View Full Entry]

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It’s been about a week and a half since the epic adventure of transferring to the Carnival Ecstasy. And it’s been pretty chaotic ever since. When I arrived on the Ecstasy, it was in it’s final days of dry dock (renovations). We had one night in Freeport, then 3 days to sail to Galveston, the ship’s home port. That time was needed. Though the ship had been in dry dock for 4 weeks, it was still a mess. Walking around the ship, I couldn’t wrap my head around how it was ever going to be in a condition for guests to [View Full Entry]

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Today’s blog has a special guest appearance: Chris, a fellow Canadian, and my current work partner in crime. He’s been doing his new hire training on the Conquest for the last few weeks and is moving with me to the Ecstasy where he will be running the younger teen program (Circle “C”). This blog is epic, so sit back . . . Bright and early yesterday morning, I signed off the Carnival Conquest to transfer to the Carnival Ecstasy. Chris and I knew it was going to be a long day - we were signing off at 6:30am, being shuttled to [View Full Entry]

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Already my week on the Conquest has come to an end. There was a second formal night, which meant another night out at the disco. Lots of crew were out that night. I spent the night chatting with friends and dancing. I stayed until the disco closed and security cleared everyone out - then I was at a friend’s cabin after. My second last day we were in Cozumel. I was meant to go on a tour with Lonnel, but then she was on port manning and couldn’t get off the ship. I didn’t manage to locate another group of friends [View Full Entry]

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I'm having such a great time on this ship! I've been spending a lot of time in training or sitting at the computer reading months of old emails and computer postings getting updated on all things work related. And of course I've been in my club with Andy, the other director here, and our teens who are super nice and fun. I've gotten them hooked on Skip-Bo - card game which was a bit addiction on the Destiny last spring which then I spread to camp this summer. We're having fun. And though I'm not on my ship sleep schedule yet [View Full Entry]

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I'm back at it again. It really didn't seem like it was going to happen for much of my summer at home, but I have landed another ship contract that not only employs me until next summer but I'm really excited about doing. My first month or so is going to be pretty hectic as I'm hopping around to different ships, but it's goingto be a good one. Today I signed onto the Carnival Conquest. I'm only going to be here a week, to do my return contract corporate training and get caught up on work policy changes. But it's going [View Full Entry]

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My last full day in Vancouver was nice and relaxing. Laura and I first returned the rental car, then explored around downtown. Had a lovely crepe breakfast, then popped in and out of shops. And I made quite the purchase . . . a pair of John Fluevog shoes. John Fluevog is a Vancouver designer who makes some pretty incredible shoes. Laura had taken me to his main location in Gas Town earlier in the week to show me the shoes she loves. There I saw a pair that I was quite taken with - and on the sale rack too! [View Full Entry]

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