Canada History

While at home in Australia my cousin Brian decided to go to Canada to work at a Ski Resort, so after some thought I decided that for a few reasons it was wort me going over as well to work there; So I got the info from my cousin and before long I was on a plane traveling to Canada.

February 2nd 2006 - I arrive in Vancouver, BC. (After surviving a Plane Crash - blog still to come)
The benefit of working on cruise ships is that you meet so many people from around the world, that when it comes time to travel you always have places to stay and people you know. This was a great opportunity to use that benefit. For the first few days while i was in Canada I had to organise some things like a Canadian Social Insurance Number and a Canadian Bank Account so I stayed with my mate Craig.(he used to be a Golf Pro on the M/S Holiday with me)

Craig took me around to some of the local sites of Vancouver were we did some tubing and I played Ice-Hockey for the first time, but before i knew it it was time to say goodbye and take a Greyhound up to Manning Park Resort.

I know what your thinking 'Manning Park? I have never heard of Manning Park.' That is quite possible as it is quite a small resort that is probably more family oriented. It is located in the heart of the Rockies about half way between Vancouver and Penticton.

I worked at the Front Desk/Reception,

on the day that I arrived I skied the mountain and got familiar with it and from the next day on I decided that i was going to learn to snowboard, And snowboard I did, now i can snowboard quite well and can't wait for this winter so i can do it some more.

I ended up staying in Manning Park for the winter, spring and summer, in the summer it was really pretty and there were lots of Hiking trails and heaps of other activities. (Watch the video i made) Then it was time for a bit of a vacation and where do i go for most of my vacations? Yep! Australia! I did have good reasons for going to Australia though one of my good friends Aaron was to be married to his now wife Sharon (In fact Aaron and Sharon just welcomed baby Jessica into the world. CONGRATULATIONS) I also got to travel around OZ to and spend some time in my favorite place; Surfers Paradise.

When I came back to Canada I lived in Richmond right down near Steveston which is a really nice old fishing Village, it feels like my home town of Geelong.

I had a great Canadian Christmas, it wasn't a white Christmas that I had hoped for but it did snow before hand and Fred & Janice Hawkins made me feel very welcomed in their home and fed me a delicious, traditional Canadian Christmas Dinner (A Big thank you to them for a Christmas that i will never forget)

As much as I loved Richmond I needed to move closer to the city and start doing some activities. I looked on craigslist for places to live and came across this one in a good area of town and close to the city. I loved it and before I moved in they had already invited me to play on there Dodgeball team. Dodgeball is by far the funnest sport I have every played.

Once the dodgeball season finished we joined an Ultimate Frisbee league which I thought would be a lot of fun as well. It turns out that it is not as much fun and not only that i found out we really suck at it. We didn't win one game until the very last day we played, we had a good win on the first match but on the second match we got annihilated. but that is fine that the season is over because it means that Dodgeball with Urban Rec is just a couple of weeks away from starting up again. YEY!!

And that pretty much get's you up to date!

Ship History

In October 2001 I went for what was one of the best decisions in my life; to work on a Cruise Ships, I started in the gift shop with Starboard Cruise Services and was very lucky to set up a brand new ship, the Carnival Pride and take it over from Finland to the USA where it would start its regular itinerary. 8 Months later I was on my way home with a ship load of stories and adventures, had a couple of months off and then I was on a flight to Italy to join yet another new ship Carnival Conquest.

Mid way through my contract I got transferred to what I originally thought was hell on ships the M/S Holiday which was at the time the oldest crappiest ship, turns out I was wrong; while the ship did have some old character traits and some horrible smells that nobody could quite explain I had my best time on there. In fact I ended up doing back-to-back contracts on there then coming back on there for another contract after my Vacation, but I’ll get to that inn a minute.

1 ½ Days before I was supposed to go home I got called into the cruise directors office regarding working as a Social Host which I had already had an interview for as It was a position that I felt I would be great at and would suite my personality. She explained to me that one of the hosts had to go home for a family emergency and that a position had become available for me and while it was not the Social Host position as I wanted it was a Karaoke Host/Deck DJ position which is in the same dept and I was going to be helping out the Hosts with other activities. Also she assured me that my next contract would be that of a Social Host. With a huge smile and a quick phone call to my mum from the ships satellite phone telling her “Don’t pick me up from the airport tomorrow…….I won’t be there, I’ll explain everything tomorrow when I can call you from port.” I said good bye to Starboard Cruise services and hello to Carnival Cruise Lines.

KARAOKE………Seems like the best job in the world……Yeah – Not so Much!

Well I guess the job it’s self is pretty easy. (See description)

1. Put disc in player.
   
2. Select track number.
   
3. Call Persons name that is going to sing.
   
4. Wait.
   
5. Press play.
   
6. Wait till song ends or person gives up.
   
7. Thank them and tell them they did a good job. (No matter how CRAP they were)
   

But……For somebody that can’t sing and does not particularly like to listen to drunken people who think that they are the best singer in the world but in reality they SUCK!!! Yet people will cheer and clap for them and sure enough they will think they did such a good job that they will be up again another 2-4 times. (AAAAGGGGHHHHH Make it stop!!) Don’t get me wrong karaoke is fun if you are involved or if you know the people that are up there but as a job it is not so glamorous.

..................VACATION TIME....................

The strange thing about taking a vacation when you work on cruise ships is that; unlike other jobs when it comes to vacation time you go away somewhere. Not the case on a cruse ship, normally the crew will go home for their vacation.

..................VACATION TIME....................

After my vacation I was on my way to join the M/S Fantasy but I had decided the I would leave Australia 1 week earlier and take a cruise on the M/S Holiday so I could spend New Years Eve partying with my friends. Well the day that I arrived was great, I was so happy to see so many familiar faces; I knew that I was going to have a great New Years but as it would turn out the Cruise Director came up to me and informed me that the Social Host had just been fired and that she would love me to Stay on the Holiday and do my contract on there. So I did.

..................VACATION TIME....................

This time I was off to the M/S Sensation still as a Social Host and still having a great time, it seemed that this contract just flew by. As much fun that i was having i decided that it was time to try an make a little more money and dip my pen into another ink well.

I applied for a job as an Art Auctioneer on board Cruise Ships with parkwestgallery I passed the interview and got into the training but I felt like i was doing a PHD in art history in a few short weeks, I did learn a lot as you would expect but what a stressful time. unfortunately though i kinda got moved around a lot as an auctioneer (3 ships, 2 cruises on each) that good part is i got to see a lot of cool places (Scandinavia, Russia and more around that area) and got to experience Holland America Cruise Lines. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstance's i needed to go home making my time as an Art auctioneer quite small. No regrets though, looking back it was a lot of work and while i have no problem doing the work I want to enjoy my time on a cruise ship not look back and say wow i just worked a lot and didn't really have a life.

So it was back home once again.