April 14th

April 14th, Miami, 6:58am
I woke to the sound of my egg alarm clock this morning at 4:45am and thought, finally I get to go home!
I had a quick shower and headed downstairs to check out and grab the shuttle to the airport. I was at the airport by 5:30am and I went in search of the check in for American airlines. It is a little confusing in the Miami international airport because there are a lot for counters for American.
As I was in line I saw Melanie and Dru so I said hi and told them I would save a seat on the plane for them.
I checked in, made my way through security with a little bit of trouble but hey what else is new. I found my gate, grabbed a chocolate croissant and a Gatorade (breakfast of champions) and here I sit waiting for them to call my flight.
12:31pm, somewhere over Texas
We landed on time in Dallas and we had an hour stop there. I didn’t have to change planes fortunately so I talked to Dru and Melanie and we all decided to get off and try and find something to eat since there is NO food on the plane!! There was an Irish pub right there so we sat down and ordered some breakfast. Dru wandered off to try and find a decent magazine for the next leg of our Journey. I chatted with Melanie about the masters; she was excited because she is from South Africa as is Trevor Immelman. We had to keep an eye on the time as we only had about 25 minutes but we were close to the gate so we thought we would here the boarding calls. All of a sudden we here “this is the final boarding call for flight 1379 to Vancouver” so we grabbed our bags and made a run for it! It was nice to sit and chat with Dru and Melanie for a few minutes; I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them on the ship.
This flight is a lot less full than the first leg which was jammed packed! I have a whole row to myself, so I kicked my shoes off and now I am going to grab some zzzzz’s because the movie they are showing, Nation treasure the sequel, is the same one they showed on the first leg.
I am almost home, 3 and a half hours and I will be in the Vancouver International airport, and I hope somebody is there to pick me up!
12:32pm, Vancouver
Well my adventure is coming to end and what a great time I have had. The places I have seen and the people I have met have been the experience of a lifetime. If I do end up doing three of four contracts I am sure I will have more great adventures ahead but none will be like my first contract.
Some of my best memories include my first day in Venice, walking around at 8am in the heart of Venice, having a cappuccino at that little sidewalk café and then exploring the city. That first day was full of great memories, as it is when I first met Gerrit, Lilly, Ralph, Denise, and Kameliya. I remember the feeling of relief when I found out I had my own room, and the fear I had when I stood at the desk for the first time.
Some of the places I have seen still amaze me when I go back and look at the pictures. The Vatican and sis teen chapel are some of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I would love to go back to Rome and spend a week there; go back to the coliseum and to Bracciano Lake and have another ice cream. The old town in Dubrovnik had so much history surrounding it, and so much technology for the time. The leaning tower of Pisa still amazes me as well, how does it stay up. The blue mosque in Istanbul, the ruins of herculean, and the acropolis in Athens were also amazing in their own way.
I almost ended my adventure early when I slammed my finger in my bathroom door in the middle of the night on my third day onboard. I still remember looking at my hand when I pulled it out of my bathroom door and realizing I had done something bad, and the ensuing trip to the open air hospital in Kusadasi where I got the cast put on. The conversation I had with Constanza about going home because of sticks out in my mind because on land I would have accepted my fate and gone home, but something inside me said NO, I AM STAYING, and although it took some fighting I was able to stay.
Some of the food that I have had brings back good memories as well. The cappuccino and Panini’s in all the Italian ports that we had for breakfast every morning after dispatch were amazing. The pizza in Naples every two weeks was a big highlight as well, as was all of the different ice cream I had all over the world. The green apple tea in Istanbul and those sesame peanuts from Santorini were two more things I could fit into my regular diet.
Some other highlights include the camel ride on Fire Mountain in Lanzorate, the time I spent in Dubrovnik, every tender ride into Villefranche, the walk I took around Monte Carlo through the tunnel which is part of the F1 circuit and the private tour we had in Istanbul including the angry protest we found ourselves in the middle of.
If there were a couple of places I could go back to, they would include Villefranche, Mykonos, Santorini, and Venice. Heck I could spend a week in Venice and still not see it all.
The people I have met have been amazing as well, I have made some real friends including, Renee, Erin, Ed, Lauren, Sarah, Adele, Stuart, Sorin, Denise, Maurious, Kameliya, Maru, Ralph, Gerrit, Lilly, Brad, Hugo, Berry, Sheldon, Callum, Tim, Pete, Jason, Matt, Linda, Lubo, John, Jarred, Andrew, Nick, Chris, Jen, Dave, Graham, Becci, Hannah, Steph, Joe, Ian, Leanne, Freddy, Jerry, Slim, Tara, Paul, Jess, Radko, Linda, Drew, Aneta, Mackenzie, Max, Tal, Dan, Tony, Mandee, Regina, Paulo, Carl, Anika, Laura, Katie, Ron, Ruth, Nader, Isabel, Karla, Vlad, Lindsey, and I am sure there are more that I can’t think of right now.
Part two of my journey started in December when the ship came across the Atlantic Ocean. 5 Days at sea does not sound like a long trip, but let me tell you when you do not see land for that long people go a little bit cuckoo. Our first stop on this side of the pond was Labadee, Haiti, which quickly became one of my favorite ports, mainly because I ride around on Jet Ski’s all day and get paid for it.
I have seen 9 Caribbean islands in all and they are all very beautiful in their own ways. Christmas and New Year’s Eve on Nassau was a great way to spend the holidays. I had some great times on Tortola, where I got to swim with the dolphins, and go offroading with Renee. I got introduced to sailing in St Thomas which might be the highlight of the Caribbean season. On the Dominican Republic I have had a lot of great rounds of golf with Ed, and Ramon. Paintballing in San Juan will have always have so many memories for so many different reasons.
The lowlight of my contract might have been the Atlantis cruise for a couple of reasons; I did not have a lot of patients that week or a lot of energy, and the guests were just too much that week. Also the fact that we were in brand new ports and had no clue about the tours but were expected to know everything was a little hard to take.
The only other low point might have been the three days that I thought I was being transferred to the Century. At that point life was great here on the Millennium and I did not want to leave but it was made pretty clear that I had too. I had a chat with Paul, the onboard marketing manager at the time, and he gave me some great advice in regards to requests and transfers, so the next day I sent an email to Hugo with that advice and it worked and I got to stay. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had been transferred though.
There have been some great times on the ship as well, including the card games every Friday night, the Halloween party early in my contract, New Years Eve up on the pool deck, Michele’s going away party, all the dinners I had in the Olympic with Renee, the good times in the shore ex office and the staff mess, and the staff bar, and all the golf clinics I did in the Cosmos.
Then there was the night in Key West, some of you will hear the whole story behind that and some of you will not, that is all I am going to say about that.
People ask me what is my favorite port and I would think it has to be Labadee! It just has such a great feeling about it. I have done about 50 wave runner tours in all and each one of them was different. I have parasailed high above the ocean, zipped down the longest zip line in the world over the ocean, and had too many hot dogs to count. I have also traded about 20 pairs of flip flops, sunglasses, watches, and even a radio to the guys that come out on Kayaks in Paradise bay for local trinkets and jewelry.
As far as time off goes, I only had one entire day off the whole contract but I did have a few nights off in the Caribbean. If you are thinking of doing this be ready to work 7 days a week. I did not miss a day of work throughout my contract and was only late one time.
Here are a couple of stats from my contract; 177 days onboard, 23 cruises, 48500 guests, 17 countries on 3 continents, 25 rounds of golf, 3 shore excursion managers, 5 haircuts, 1 legendary night in Key west, 4 games of paintball, countless friends made, 5 new watches, 52 wave runner tours, too many souvenirs to count, and friendships that I will remember forever!
I have lots of great souvenirs, great postcards, pictures, videos, and memories that I will share with all of you soon.
I would like to thank everyone for their support throughout all of this; the emails you sent made a big difference to me and helped me get through this. It also helped knowing that people were reading my blog and were interested in what I was doing; it gave me the energy to sit down at my computer every day and write about my travels.
My next contract is scheduled for the Solstice in October, our new flagship, and I can’t wait to do this all again!

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