Tales from the seas

Oh the joys of Facebook!

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:00:15 GMT

it is funny how we live in a time where things don't become official until it is posted on facebook! If you have recently noticed I have changed my facebook relationship status to in a relationship (which I am : ) )and so many people have commented on this change. Not that it is a bad thing, but it is very strange to have people's reaction on this. However it is the first time for me to actually put said status on such a public forum, so maybe it is only me to have a strange reaction to it. It has now become semi-fact upon the ship here that things are not official until it is on facebook....... which I could see it in a way being true...... you only really post such things on facebook when you are really sure about it.
So my news..... I am in a relationship...... in which ever way you wish to take this. It can be strange as it is a "ship" relationship, but we will see how it goes. Im optimistic right now, but time will tell.
Tomorrow we are going white water rafting in Costa Rica on a shore excursion. Occasionally we get offered to do a crew excursion where it is only crew members getting to do a shore excursion that is for guests, so I m excited to go on an excursion with lots of friends, where as normally if we want to go on an excursion you have to go with guests if there are places and then there can only normally be 2 members on it. Most of the entertainment department are going, so it should be a good day! One of the people going has a waterproof camera so I will get the pictures and post some on here, or I suppose you can just get them off facebook lol
just a quick shout out to everyone at home, stay safe with all the fires going on. My thoughts are with you all and I know Em and Dan have been out fighting them as well...... Be safe dammit!
Well, work is needed to be done, so I will write about the fun, or not so much fun that I am to have tomorrow.
Miss everyone,
Love Me
XXXXXXX

Getting back to the blog

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:58:13 GMT

Well long time no talking.... oh well. Time flies when you are having fun none the less. Ill start by wishing everyone a happy New Year. I was hoping that 2009 would be the best ever..... but so far for me it has been nothing but problems.... more on that later on.

So where did I leave last time..... I did in fact finish up my contract on the Carnival Victory and signed off in New York! I ended up staying in New York for almost 2 weeks. I had a great time, saw 6 Broadway shows and spent day after day exploring Manhattan. It was great, however..... by the time the I was due to go home I was very ready to leave. I found there were too many people. I didnt freak out like I was expecting to, but still too many! Plus, like me, most of them were tourists and as I dont care much for people in general normally, this really didnt sit any better with me in the end. Besides the huge amount of people, when I would go home of a night, I felt as if I was covered in dirt....... it is so dirty....... mainly pollution due to the large amount of Taxis and high rise buildings. It didnt help that I was there in summer. All in all though..... I had a ball! I would like to go back there in winter next time.

I then returned home to my newly engaged best friend..... congrats once again to Em and Dan. They are so cute..... so cute in fact that I was to slap them both, but I know they are extremely happy and I am glad that everything has worked out for them. I helped Em organise her engagement party which was alot of fun, even with all the random family members and the annoying children that wrecked the balloon pattern/design we spent so long on! I currently cant wait to get home and be a part of her amazing wedding. It will be fantastic! My date to the engagement party..... my 14 year old brother! He was bored, but was a great help making sure everything was looked after. I think he just enjoyed staying in Melbourne and missing out on school, but who wouldnt at that age.

I loved the break I had at home. It ended up being really long, 4 months worth due to my boss not sending me to my next ship when he was supposed to, but I had fun seeing Em and Dan, Vanessa, Braddles, Jay, Steven and everyone else for that matter. I did get sick of sitting around and doing nothing though. I worked for a bit back at Crown, but then I thought I would be flying out to Europe not long after, but that got delayed. So I ended up on my parents couch for a month. Needless to say all the weight I had lost while I was at home, I put back on sitting around doing nothing, oh well.

So I am now currently on the Carnival Freedom which does 3 different itineries out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I never realised how busy the port of Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades) was until being here. Crazy amount of sea traffic. The Carnival Freedom is the 2nd newest ship Carnival has, but by September this year it will be the 3rd newest. It came into service just over 2 years ago now, so it is in very good condition. The shows that we do on board I hadnt done and are great..... even more so because we do a full Beatles tribute show and I love love love the beatles. I joined this ship in November and I will be on board until July. I asked to stay longer than normal because the dates worked out alot better for Em's wedding. I will be then home for 3 months, so it is all good!

Yesterday we hosted (by we I mean the 4 techs and the entertainment department) one of the crew parties we have. We decided to have an 80's laser party because we randomly found 4 stand alone laser fixture, like cheap dj/disco lights, and decided that that was a good enough reason to have a party.
Well we had a set play list of only 80's song that I put together and it rocked!!!! We had smoke machines and glow sticks..... i danced for at least 2 hours straight. So awesome.... shall have to find some pictures. Well thats the condensed version of events...... Ill go make some more now to write about.
Love always,
Me
XXXXXX

What did I do with my last 6 weeks...... hmmmm

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:57:48 GMT

Quick low down on the happenings of last 6 weeks and what I have done/learnt......

* I am no longer in the Caribbean and our home port is no longer Miami (thank goodness)

* We had 3 days (not in a row though) without guests on board the ship!!!! It was awesome

* I go to visit the south for memorial day in Charleston, South Carolina

* We finally arrived our new home port of Manhattan, New York after 2 weeks of relocating with included 3 cruises out of different ports of the East coast

* I have been to Times Square, the Empire state building, World Trade centre site, Broadway, 5th Avenue, United nations, central park and other landmarks in New York.

* I got to see the Sex and the City movie in New York!!!!! (but I waited..... love you Em)

* We changed our cruises to be 4 and 5 days long, which means we are doing shows all that more often then doing a 7 day cruise.

* Found out that even though it is summer, Canada is still bloody cold and today the fog is so bad that you cant see something 2 meters ahead of you.

* I had my bottom 3 vertebrae get compressed together when one of my fellow techs lifted something we were both lifting and didnt wait for me to say I was ready, even after he asked..... I walked funny for awhile.

* We have a ghost on board the ship in the theatre that is breaking the most random things ever, including a supporting bar welded in on a set piece that clean snapped off during a show and a drive shaft snapping off in one of my motors (which was not doing a show thank god).....

* Found out that the Titanic sunk near where we are and that one of the ports we visit, Halifax, Canada, has 150 passengers buried there.... Um yeah.... I am on a cruise ship....... and it is hella foggy, better not be any iceburgs hanging out near us.

* Italians work really slow when you need something from them........

* I got to spend Canada day in Canada and we went to our male production singers house which is on a lake and had a bbq. So awesome, made you feel as if you were not on a ship! and we spend Independence day at sea doing nothing lol.

* You can get REALLY good fake designer handbags in the Bahamas.

* The Bahamas arent all they are cracked up to be.

* my next ship, the Carnival Freedom, one of Carnivals newest ships, has had a course change and I wont be going back to Italy next as thought.... but I will still sign on there this year.... yeah europe.

* that sometimes good things happen to bad people, but you know that what goes around comes around.

* That true friends will always be there for you no matter where in the world you are. I truly know who my real friends are.

* That packing 6 months worth of junk in 2 suitcases is a challenge.

* That that taxes to fly out of JFK are really high, so Carnival makes our flights out of La Guardia, but you end up connecting through 2 other American cities before leaving the country.

* That I love to work, that I love my job and my current lifestyle and that those who love me understand what I am doing.

* That I really do go crazy if I am not working........

I think that is enough! lol

So I am leaving the Carnival Victory on the 21st and then staying in New York till the 1st of August. I then fly home from La Guardia, New York to Chicago, to San Francisco, to Sydney. I arrive in Syd on the 3rd of August. It will be weird however to be home during winter.....

A couple of quick shout outs......

CONGRATS to Em and Dan...... They are Engaged!!!!! and there new house has been finished and they moved in.... all exciting for them!!!!

HAPPY 14th Birthday to my Bro!!!!!! I am absolutely sure he will be taller than me when I get home. Oh and I hope he got his card.

A BIG HEY to the Crown crowd.... Ness has been filling me in, but I have missed everyone there.... although it sounds as if the old crowd are all moving on......

COLIN MAN!!!!! I warned you about south American Keyboards, I still dont remember where the @ symbol is.... it is like over a shift key, but you have to hold 3 different keys to get to it lol. Have fun down there.... closest someone has been to me in ages. Let me know when you are getting back when you know for sure.

CINNA..... hope you are coming down to Melbourne like you planned..... I miss you

STEVEN....... Up, up and away!!!!

Love everyone, even though it may not seem like it when I dont post in 6 weeks.......
See you all soon,
Love always,
ME
XXXXXXX

Its a been an interesting week

Wed, 21 May 2008 23:40:51 GMT

Well it has been an interesting time this week so far. Sunday marked the start of our last cruise from Miami to the Caribbean, and I am very excited about it. It is nice to be in the Caribbean, but I need something new. Over the next 2 weeksish we will be moving up the east coast to do a couple of cruises out of ports on the east coast to the Bahamas and then we arrive in New York, finally!!! During the 2 weeks that we move we have a total of 3 days (not together) without guests on board!!!!!! And I am very excited about that as it will be a very different experience on board. Sunday also marked the Carnival Splendor's cast coming on board for a week of rehearsals, as they are doing one of the shows we have on board here. The Carnival Splendor is Carnival's new ship that is still currently at the dock yard in Italy. It comes into service in June/July this year sailing from England for this years Europe season. It is great to watch these dancers who are fresh and who are experienced. I love the cast we have on board here on the Victory, but it is nice to have a fresh bunch of people. The Splendor cast is only sailing for a week, so they leave this Sunday on our last Miami, then spending another 2 weeks in the studio and then fly over to the ship in the dock....... lucky them!
2 times a cruise we have a "formal" night and on these nights we have our large production shows. For us at the moment they are on Monday and Friday nights. (this will change soon as our new cruises from New York will only be 4 and 5 day cruises instead of 7 day) So on Monday we did our 2 performances of "Livin' in America" such a delightful show all about America lol I have a copy of it on my computer so when I get home anyone who wants to see it, we will have a little showing lol and of the other show as well.
Because of the nature of our shows in being broadway/Vegas style, the shows must not be disrupted by any announcements for around the ship. On a technical side, it really sucks if an announcement was to disrupt the show as it cuts off our system, pauses it, announcement is made and then everything starts again from the same point. The sound board generates the timecode that the lighting and the orchestra uses to maintain continuity in every show. In our second performance that night an announcement was made. If this happens..... either someone fucked up in choosing the zones to page (which is unlikely) OR something big is going down. This time the announcement was for the Captain, the Staff Captain (Second in Command) and the Cruise director to report to the navigational bridge. The crappy thing, we were in the middle of a show so we couldn't go outside to see anything! Luckily for us, we have a technician who does not work in the main lounge and therefore was not working. He went straight outside to see what was going on. There were flashing beacons inn the water ahead of us. As we got closer the flashing beacons set off a flare. Due to Maritime law, if there is any vessel stranded and in need of assistance, you have to help. So we slowed down completely and put down one of our side doors which are stairs when we are doing tender boat operations. Turned out that it was a make shift raft with a little motor and 10 Cubans on it. Something had happened to their motor and could not get out of the way of our ship, therefore signaled for help. So we took them on board and set up 10 beds down in our marshaling area (big open space where all the luggage and stores comes on and off the ship). So now we currently have 10 cuban refugees on board. We now also have to get rid of them somewhere. The next port that we went to was a Mexican port and the Port authorities came on board and had lunch with the captain to discuss this situation. The mexicans denied them entry, so we still have them. Tomorrow we will be in the Cayman islands and then in Jamaica. It is likely that no one will take them, as that means their government has to deport them at there own cost. As we are a Panamanian registered ship that sails from America, America will have to take them if no one else will and then deport them back to Cuba. Should be interesting. We may stop in Key West, Florida on the way back to Miami to drop them off, but we will see if anyone wants them first!
Well thats about it for this one. Will let you know what happens with the refugees and relocation.
Miss and love you all
Love me.

Yay I drove a car..... I miss driving!!!!

Thu, 08 May 2008 17:14:07 GMT

Many of the islands I visit, I spend only going to places near the ship, or places that other crew members have suggested. Well Last week one of my friends and I hired a car in St. Maarten and drove around the entire island. It was fantastic, one because I got to drive and I have been missing that so much, and because I didnt have to pay heaps on taxi fare to get places, and I got to see the whole island.
St. Maarten is the island with the airport right next to the beach for those who have ever seen that footage online (Glenn, if your reading this, I was totally thinking of you while I was there..... I was there for the Air France's flight that comes in, which is a 747 and is the largest plane they get on a regular basis) It was awesome to have the freedom of a car too, felt as if I was a "normal" person for half a day, yet the back on board time grew near and I had to go back home. Yes I have started referring to the ship as home, because It is for 6 months of the year. Plus when I think about Australia and where I "live" I dont really have a home anymore. Half of my stuff is in Melbourne and the other half is at my parents in NSW, So I dont really live anywhere anymore. Oh tear.
The Carnival Victory is leaving Miami in 2 and a half weeks! WOOT!!!!!!! Im excited. I have enjoyed being out of Miami, mainly because it is one of the world largest cruise ship ports and therefore has alot of things for crew members, like a crew shuttle from the ships to downtown, and alot of different country specific stores (Not Australian lol) but like Peru, Indian, South American.... etc awesome food and produce, and it is all open on a sunday, so I like it. But then there is the flip side.... there is always alot of people due to the amount of cruise ships and it is Florida, so It is always hot and steamy.
Plus I can't wait to leave Miami because I came on this ship to go to New York, so the fact that I will be there soon makes me happy. I have also decided to go and see the Sex In The City movie in New York.... yes I am a girl!
Question: Is anyone going to see the new Indiana Jones film? I have to admit I am excited about it, but anyone that I have spoken to about it either had no idea it was even being made or are like Meh... It's Indiana Jones People!!!!!
I have restarted my health kick, not that I swayed too far from it anyway as I have lost weight already since coming on this ship, but lately myself, the lighting tech and the Sax player from the showband have all been walking around the jogging track we have on board after dinner each night for a least an hour. It has been good, and doing it at that time of day is nice. The sun is setting, it's not as hot and it helps digest my dinner. I already feel good about doing it, so hopefully if I keep it up everyday I will see results eventually. My plans is to keep doing this daily and once I have got into that routine, I will also add going to the gym 3 to 4 days a week depending on work schedule. I just want to tone my flab. I know I will never be a stick and I dont want to be, but I want to loose the spare tire I have around my middle! Its also nice that I have a couple of friends who are walking with me, it pushes us all together (Yes Em you are right I know.... and we will walk together when Im home!) plus while we are walking we make plans to do things together, so we have a little posse going on! lol
Im currently in the Cayman Islands which are nice, but every expensive. I get off here sometimes becuase there is good free high speed internet, so a bunch of us just sit and be nerds for a day, download updates and keep in touch with people. It's alot nicer then the satellight speeds we get on board.
Couple more things before I go.... ROCK ON CATS!!!!! Still have not lost a game, but awesome job from the hawks too! Cant wait to get home and go to a game.... miss footy so much!
And a big happy mothers day!!!! Hope my mum reads this, but Ill try to call her like normal.
Missing everyone heaps, but Ill leave you with some photos WOOT!!! Haven't posted pics so far this contract.
Love Always, Me XXXXXXXXX

This is a pic of one of Carnival's Ships in Dry dock, where they take the ship off the water and actually turn it off! This is a pic of the Carnival Valor, almost the same ship as the one I am one.

This is a nice pic I took on one of the open decks on board my ship.

Me in show girl feathers on stage on a set.... Im so pretty! lol

This is actually 2 back drops that I look after, one is behind the other. The gold one in front is a brand new piece of scenery I installed for our Queen finale in one of our production shows. There are 6 LCD screens in the middle that shows clips from a Queen concert at Wembly. The entire drop cost $88 000USD. Crazy. Oh and those huge drops of material are a pain in the arse to clean lol

Just a nice pic of the front (Bow) of the ship in port

This shot was taken from one of the highest points in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, looking down at the dock. My ship is furthest right, then behind us is the Disney Magic and Behind them is Royal Caribbean ship, Mariner of the Seas. Beautiful view of the island from up there.

Just me at the same place.

Pic of the airport and beach in St Maarten. The Airport is to the right and the Sea is there on the left. Amazingly close. It was awesome.

Things that suck from living on a ship

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:37:48 GMT

From the title you can probably tell im in a bad mood... well not really a bad mood but I am SICK.
Number 1 sucky thing about living on a ship..... lack of communication with the outside world and not having friends and family with you.... as you all know.
Number 2 sucky thing about living on a ship..... If one person gets the flu, the entire ship will get it.... needless to say this is how I am right now...... I have a dreadful cough and mucus to boot.... and yes I had to put mucus in there.
Number 3 sucky thing about living on a ship..... Not being able to stay hydrated due to living in such an state air conditioned environment.... I think this helps sucky thing number 2
Number 4 sucky thing about living on a ship..... not being able to watch your sports team on tv.... even more so when they are winning.... any beats if the cats have a great season this year and get through the finals, they will lose because I will be back in the country for the final series and the grand final.... and they seem to play really well when Im not around, and Im not kidding lol.
I have 6 more weeks, or 6 more cruises, or 3 more times in each port (as we do 2 alternating runs) until we start repositioning to New York. Yippee! Plus it is getting mighty warm down in the Caribbean, Im really for some nice spring weather up north. Im not sure if I wrote this in my last post or not, but I will be home in august.... IM excited.
Not sure if people read other peoples comments to my posts, but Colin made a very interesting point on my last post which really hit home for me.... I was suprised how well I am doing at work, because I thought I was just doing my job like anyone else would, but it turns out that Im good.... and Im not kidding lol. Colin remarked that it is only when you really start doing well at work is when the rest of your life is falling apart.... let me phase that better.... Ive always seen life as a triangle (Yes I know always with the friggin triangles) 3 main facets of life make our happiness.... these are work, family and relationships. If your lucky 2 will be great at any given time, generally it's only 1 though. And while this 1 or 2 will be great, it gets cancelled out by your feeling of how poorly the other(s) is(are). So right now Im loving my job and Im good at it, but I hardly speak to my family and my relationships with my friends are terrible. mind you a line from the Devil wears Prada makes me feel as if Im not alone "Let me know when your entire social is left in ruins, then it must be time for a promotion". But why is it like this? Are we unable to think enough to cover all bases, or does that type of thinking only wear us out so we cannot act upon it. More pondering shall occur on my behalf and Ill let you know!
The ports that we visit on the Eastern Caribbean run are awesome! San Juan, Puerto Rico is lovely and there is alot of history there from when it was a looking post for pirate ships. Beautiful cobbled stone road and Victorian styled homes.... I didnt think I would find such things in this area.
St Thomas is great, its entire habour floor is littered with pirate ships, as they would bomb them as they were sailing in. Funny thing is that the government (as it is a US island) does not allow any wreckage to be brought up are any "treasure" to be removed from the sunken ships, it all just stays down there.
St Maarten is very beachy and is divided in half between the dutch and the french, so it is a nice contrast.
Over to the Western Run....
Cozumel I had been to before on my first ship, and it is still the same. Again very beachy. Good for scuba diving.
Grand Cayman is nice, again been there before, but they have an irish pub with free internet.... needless to say I go there when I can.... good pub meals.
Ocho Rios, Jamaica...... dirty and scary, lots of crazy people no joke. Plus everyone is offering you any kind of drugs you want.... sounds funny but after awhile it pisses you off.
I still havent taken many photos... but Im getting there.
A crew member had to be disembarked last Eastern cruise for a medical emergency...... the poor guy had Malaria. The nurses told me that it was a dorment strain of Malaria which is why it was never picked up... mind you I then found out he was a cook.... and kinda freaked a little, but Im alright now..... IM good at freaking myself out and then calming down again.
Tv here is completely covered in the election crap.... which Im sick of. I wish the election was soon, but alas no.... it bloody well isnt.
Well Im going to head off... really craving good fish and chips right now..... or a footy pie!!! God I cant wait to get home and go to the football.... I dont care how much it will cost to go.... IM GOING TO THE FOOTBALL..... yes I made my point! lol
Let me know whats happening.... PLEASE I love to hear all about it.
Miss you all
Love ME XXXXX

Yay I am finally able to communicate again!

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:24:52 GMT

So after 6 weeks Im now back to "normal" routine on board the Carnival Victory. I say "normal" because I actually don't know what that is on this ship as it has been go go go since I arrived. I have developed so much more muscle and lost weight from it though! yippeeeeeee.
So a quick low down on why I was no writing...... We ripped our entire theatre apart.... an 8 yearly update to refresh the ship (if I knew that I had to do this I would of reconsidered coming to this one lol not really it has been awesome). Entire new lighting rig.... not many Cyberlights now thank god! and a Grand MA, fun times. Then we replaced all the scenery, then the costumes, then threw a braqnd knew cast into a brand new show, plus updating the 3 others. Needless to say, I have been busy for 6 weeks!! We would work about 13 hours before doing our normal guest entertainment shows.... its been extremely tiring, yet I have learnt so much. I have met almost every office person in the entertainment department now too. The best bit about it all was that my direct boss, the coordinator of automation and rigging, came out to help with the installation of the new scenery, which was the largest part that effected my direct job. But he only stayed a week and told me that I could handle the rest, which included electronic repairs on automation specific parts and drives and the programming of the entire new show and all changes to the old shows. I was AMAZED that he left it to me, but I was really excited to do so. I knew how to do the programming and everything, but the fact that he allowed me to do it unsupervised was fantastic and it all went off without a hitch! Then with all the other office people on board, they were singing my praises. I thought I was just doing what a regular tech onn board does, but it seems that I have gone above and beyond most others. I was shocked as anyone who really knows me knows that I am lazy... but aparently not to these guys!.
Do you know what is quite depressing.... this is about all I have to talk about. After all this time here, I have nothing to report lol I am very white though.... as I have not seen real sunlight for a while and everytime I venture out on an open deck to get fresh air I seem to cower away in the shadows. Well thats going to change..... I am getting off this ship next week and I cant wait. There is so much new stuff for me to explore..... plus then I should have some stories!!!
So just a couple of shout outs........
To Em..... you know I want to talk to you. and I THANK YOU so much for helping my mum out. I love you for it and she loves you too.
To Mum and the Family I miss you heaps. I will be calling you and the other people I need to call ASAP now that this period is over
To Ness...... I have read everything you sent.... now gathering my thoughts and will reply soon..... now that I can lol
To Hollie.... What is your current email address? Still the last one you had? and yes I am on a ship lol
To everyone else I miss you..... please write me messages, it means the world to me.

Now to go and have something happen to write about......!!!!!

Love always,
Me

After 3 back to back charter cruises

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:44:28 GMT

We have just finished having charter cruises on board, oh and what alot of work we had to do for that! They were all music cruises, so they were basically music festivals on board, including us building a stage on one of the open decks of the ship. We had the Barenaked ladies, John Mayer, Shawn Mullins and about 30 different small bands and singers. It was great fun and an amazing experience, but ALOT of work. I am sore all over my body from working an average of 14 hours a day (no joke) one night I could only get 45 minutes of sleep before having to go again. Ultimately though it was a good work experience for me and I am glad I got to doit.
The thing that sucks is... well there are two actually.... is that now we go into a month of show update. This happens on a ship approximately every 6 to 7 years, and I am lucky enough to be here for this ships one lol. This week we are derigging all of the lights in the main lounge and replacing them with new units, new scollers and a new board... the lovely Grand MA. Shall be fun.
Next week we are loading all of the new scenery onboard via crane (craning it on on sunday then installing it over the week). I am not looking forward sunday as it will be an all day event.It is very exciting to be involved in this process though, as I get to work with all of the office entertainment personell, and go through the creative process with them. It also means that I will be one of the first person to run the new show in my position. I like that.
The other thing that sucks.... I havent been off the darn ship!!!! It is almost a month already and I havent been off.... Stupid work... getting in way of my life lol. It really sucks because there are so many phone calls I want to make, but I havent been able to. Also if anyone has been trying to call my American cell phone, I havent been able to put credit on it, or for that matter turn it on and use it!!! Hopefully this will all change in the next few weeks, but we will see what happens.
I hope everyone is well and that the end of the summer rocks!!!
Miss you all, tell me how your going.
Love always,
Me

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:54:45 GMT

ah now that no one is peeing in cups I can continue.....

This ship is much bigger. Its wider, taller and hold alot more people. It had 2 guest dining rooms and has 2 different crew bars. Also the crew live on all different decks compared to my last ship where we all lived on the bottom 3 decks. So now I live about 20 seconds away from the theatre as I live on deck 3 right behind it. I live 3 decks above all of the general crew facillities like the mess, admin and the paymaster.

Today I had my PCS test, which covers all of the safety proceedures on board. You need to know things like what certain signals mean, how to operate a life raft etc. I have spent the first week on board in training that covers everything and it is something you have to do each time you sign onto a ship. If you dont pass you have to resit all of the training sessions and redo the test. If you fail a second time, you have to go home. Needless to say I passed, but the better thing for me is that alot of it is the same ship to ship, so it wasnt too bad this time around for me.

The next 2 weeks are going to be crazy, we have 3 charter cruises back to back with artists like John Mayer, the Barenaked Ladies etc etc, So I will spend all of tomorrow loading in equipment. They have there own techs coming, but they have also hired us. Ontop of that, the CEO of the company will be sailing with a bunch of execs, all of the entertainment coordinators will be on board, and all the cruise directors from the entire fleet are having there conference here at the same time. It should be interesting. It will be alot of work, but I am looking forward to it.

I will try my hardest to write here at least once a week. I have to find the best time in my schedule to do so. I check the internet a couple of times a week, but I dont always have enough to time to write alot. But even if I havent got alot to say Ill try to write something.

There is one thing I have noticed since coming back on board that I love, besides my job that is because I love my job, that is the different amount of culture I get to experience each day being surrounded by at least 60 nationalities. Thats why I love to travel so much, and where would I get this amount of exposure to different cultures all the time. The experiences of them all is fantastic and I love it!

Can someone please comment back on the cricket scores. We get no cricket coverage here. I left half way through the 3 test, where India was giving us a really good battle. I have no idea who won it. Thanks

Ill finish by saying a big Happy Australia Day!!! Even though everyone at home will have celebrated already.... we still have hours to go here, so keep the party going!!!!

I miss everyone so much and I want to hear from you as much as you want to hear from me!

Love Always
Michelle
XXXXXXXXX

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:55:50 GMT

Hi..... yeah 7 weeks of no posting, but I was in OZ for that and I was catching up with people. Seeing that my blog is tales from the seas, I can get away with it lol.

I am going to try.... thats right TRY..... to update this at least weekly, even if it is nothing. I just have to find a time suitable and put it in my weekly agenda between work.

So to get you quickly up to date. I arrived home on the 14th of December with my next sign on date being the end of Feb. I was not sure whether I would take it or not, but that was when it was. I went back to work at my old job as a casual, which was fun. After only working 3 weeks, I got an email from my Carnival Boss saying that he stuffed up the email in which I was told to sign on in Feb. He had left the 1 of the fron of the 2, which means that I was supposed to sign on at the end of Dec. He asked how soon would I be able to fly out. I asked for the 26th, he asked if it could be a week earlier. Regreatbly I said yes.... I missed some very important things coming early, but it will work out ok. So I am now savely aboard the Carnival Victory, which sails weekly from Miami on Sundays. We currently sail to Eastern and Western Carribean alternating weeks, but in 3 months time we will be relocating to New York, which I am very excited about!!!!

I am going to have ot cut this short, as the room I am in is going to be used of the weekly random drug screening tests.... grrrrr. Hopefully I can get back after it is finished.

Miss you all heaps and I will continue this soon
Love always,
Michelle
XXXXXXX

Well Im off the ship....

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 03:56:22 GMT

After bad weather delayed the ships arrival into Victoria, Canada, we finally arrived. Mind you due to the extended time at sea, we were able to finish all the work that we were there for and now I am in Whistler, Canada in the Snow. So I have gone to the hot climate of Mexico and now in the snow..... it is fun, but cold... then in a weeks time I will be home!!!! Yay. Can't wait to get home. Dont have too much to say rather than that, cant wait to see people and hit the beach! lol
Miss you all
Love always..... me

My contract is coming to a close

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:18:27 GMT

I am currently on the last passenger cruise this week before the ship sails to Victoria, Canada for dry dock. It is very exciting!!!! Although I really want to come home to see everyone, I think it will be quite a change to go back to the land lol. Even more strange because I am now used to living in a shoe box of a room with another person and no window. I remember when I was vessel transfered and had to stay in Miami for 3 nights that I started to freak out over how much space I had in the hotel room..... so coming back to a house is going to be nutty!!!!
I got my flight details home as well, so it really is all about to end. For those who would like to know my flight details are....
United Airlines arriving Melbourne 11:15am 14/12..... 18 hours of flying fun for me.
The ship is already being prepared for dry dock and it will be interesting to see it all happen.
For those who dont know, I will be returning to work at my old job with Bytecraft for the lovely christmas season. It will be REALLY strange to go back there, but I am really looking forward to it all the same. They were my family for 3 years, and I cant wait to go back with all the experience and knowledge that I have gained since I left.
There is not really too much to say this time, I am just going off in all the ports to say good bye to the places I have been visiting so often now and preparing myself for the trip home.
Cant wait to see everyone!!!
Oh and MUM..... I need to talk to you........ stop being so busy lol
See everyone soon
Love always
Me.

My computer died.

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 04:37:08 GMT

Yes my computer died, well not too badly.... it is not opening the operating system, but as my install discs are in Australia and I currently live on a ship, it is causing to be a hassle to get fixed.... oh well.... I am thinking that I will just wait it out until I get back home, and have ot pay for internet time at internet cafes instead.
I am ready to get off this ship. I love the job and this life syle of being on the ship, but I miss everyone and working every day is starting to wear me down. Plus this ship is going into dry dock in 3 cruises, that is where the ship is taken off the water and gets fixed. These ships go into dry dock about every 2 to 3 years, so we are getting everything ready to go for that. I am excited because it is the beginning of the end! The entire stage floor is being replaced, so we get to tear it up. I think that is a good way to end the contract. Mind you the dry dock is in.... Canada, and of course it is heading into winter.... so this shall be fun.... I wont be there long anyways before I am on a plane and back home where it is summer!
2 weeks ago I recieved a package from Em full of home!!!! She sent Cadbury's chocolate, tim tams, vegemite, a TV week, a CD full of music with some good Aussie tunes and a copy of the AFL grand final. Oh it was great to get. I then watched the grand final, even knowing the score didnt matter... it was awesome. I even cried! YEAH GEELONG!!!! It was funny though... the Americans that I work with still make fun of my accent, but when I watched the grand final and listened to the commentators I said, man we do sound funny! I have come to realise that we dont really pronounce r's when they are in the middle of words. Ok you might have realised this before, but I hadn't. It is npt a bad thing, that just seems to make up alot of our accent.
Currently the techs are counting down the amount of shows we have left before we leave for dry dock. It is nice now considering we are into single digits.
Ah well.... I just did my last week of port manning, so I dont have to stay on the ship in any port now... except to do work! but I am excited about that... a week isnt long and they seem to go by fast, but last saturday seemed really long ago.
One last thing before I go.... big news.....
Em and Dan just brought there first house! There loan got approved and the building of the house starts in December. I am so so so so excited for them, so much so that I went around telling people on the ship and they just looked at me strange like.... why are you telling me this? Because it is exciting.
I cant wait to see where it will be when I get home.
I still dont have a definate date, as I am waiting on my boss to give me my flight details.... but it looks like I will leave LA on the 12th so I should arrive on the 14th... maybe the 13th if it is an early flight... we shall see.
Miss you all and I will write again later in the week.
Love always,
Me!

Well..... what an interesting week I had

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:59:18 GMT

I was planning to write here this time last week, but my plans were quickly dissolved. Now before I go on with my story..... MUM I have been trying to call for a week solid to tell you story, as I didnt want to write it in an email to you, but now you will hear it like everyone else.

WARNING..... this story will be detailed, so if you want to skip it I understand. It is not disgusting, just personal.... but I am happy to share it.

For a couple of weeks now, I have had a lump in my private parts. The lump did not hurt, nor had it broken the skin, but it was there. I thought it might have been an infected ingrown hair to start with, so I let it be for a week to see what happened. Nothing came to the surface of the lump at all, but it did get larger, to about half the size of a table tennis ball. Of course I went to see the ships doctor who told me that I had an infected gland and it was a common thing that happens. I was referred to a gyno on shore in Mexico at a private hospital that the ship uses all the time (really nice hospital). What I thought was going to be a consultation, ended up with the gyno telling me that the gland had absused (I dont know how to spell that word) under the skin and that they needed to fix it now before anything becomes of it. Fair enough. The bad part is that for this simple problem, it has a crappy procedure to fix the problem. They have to cut open the gland, remove has much of the infection as possible, then stitch it back down in a way that it is still open in a pouch nature for the rest to drain out and then fill up while healing. So I get prepped for surgery, IV goes in and I am wheeled into the operating room. Now recently I have been watch the TV series called Nip/Tuck, a show that Em loves and tried to get me to watch (it was on at weird times and with work I could never see it). If you have not seen it, it is a drama series about plastic surgery.... sounds lame, but has the best story lines I have watched in a TV show in a long time... Needless to say, as I was going in, all I could think of was the show. lol The surgeons put me under and I woke up back in my room some time later. It was a little while later that I was told that I will need to stay in the hospital for a week for medication reasons and observation. At this point I flipped out, mainly because no one knew my job for the production shows on board, and it would of created a large problem for my fellow techs on board. In the end I had just face it and move on. My largest issue came when I needed to go to the toilet. I called for the nurse, to find that my buzzer was not working, but one came by anyway. I asked if I could go and they were fine. I did my business, but when finishing, the gauze that was at the surgery site fell out and caused major, major bleeding. Knowing that my stupid call button was not working, I walked to my room door, leaving a trail of blood behind me and yelled for the doctor. 2 doctors came in when I was close to fainting (not due to blood loss, but me looking at the mess of blood I just left I think) and they repacked the surgery site. So that sucked! I had no issues after that one thank goodness. I then remained in the hospital for 5 days and flew back to LA to re-catch the ship. Best hospital food ever, most uncomfortable plane flight in my life! With my stitches it is uncomfortable to sit, even more so for long periods of time, and I have to be really careful about how I walk and sit down so I dont rip the stitches. So that is my adventure story for the minute! I just want to go a year without going to a freaking hospital..... is that too much to ask?????

Now back to something happier.....

If you stopped reading before, now it the time to start again.

Last sunday (the 7th) we were going to go to Disneyland like I said in the last post, but that didnt work out. The techs have some friends through other techs who live near Long Beach (where the ship docks). A really nice gay couple (Jeff and Roy), and Roy doesnt work on sundays when we dock and is happy to pick us up with his car and take us places... it is very nice. Natacha, who organised the trip to Disneyland as my birthday present, worked with Roy to make it happen, because he can get slightly cheaper tickets, they just have to be ordered..... so unfortunately on the sunday we wanted to go, the tickets we to arrive on Monday the next day, so we will be going this coming sunday. So I decided that I wanted to go to Hollywood! yay.... had to do something touristy. Really nice place, crawling with tourists. The best bit about it all was that we had a car and we went driving up the Hollywood hills, to beverly hills and all the major strips that are famous in that area. It was fun to go there I must admit.... so here are some photos!

This is Chang's theatre. It is where all of the hand/footprints of actors are out the front.

This is just a shot of the ground and some of the different prints.

Yeah the Hollywood sign!

I shall post some more next time with pics from Disneyland!!!! I am so excited.
Miss you all and hope that everyone is getting ready for the election..... now I just have postal vote it up!
Love always,
Michelle
xxxxxxxx

My birthday has come and gone for another year

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:03:02 GMT

Hi all! Thanks for everyone who wished me a happy birthday. It ment alot to know that people were thinking of me even though I am not at home.

The reason for my overdue post is that now that cast change is coming to a close, they have spent all rehersals having tech runs, so basically doing the full show.... alot! It is currently 2am, and I woke up after only 4 hours sleep, as I didnt have to work the show tonight I thought I would get a whole nights sleep. Instead Im awake..... at least I get to post on my journal! It did kind of suck working alot on my birthday, but Tash the other female tech threw me an Australian themed birthday party that night in the crew lounge. It was funny.... she hung fosters cans from the roof, had green and yellow streamers and Australian quotes on the walls (Like Kevin our senior tech saying, Isn't Sydney the captial of Australia?) If I had one wish for my birthday though, it would of been to have my friends and family with me, but I know evryone was there in spirit.

September is now over, which marks the end of the football seasons at home. Why is it that my two teams in the two different codes of football go on to win the grand finals when I am on the other side of the world??? Yeah go the Geelong Cats and the Melbourne Storm. I wanted so badly to be home that weekend!!!!! I did call mum after I had finished work to catch the last quater of the AFL grand final. I would of loved to have seen Geelong that night. I would of been down there.... party of the year no doubt. Gibbo did send me a message on facebook to tell me that G-town went off and that he has photos..... cant wait to see that!

We are now in preperation for Halloween, which as we know is a big deal in the US. We will be having a haunted house in one of the lounges on board for the guests. I got togo shopping with the cruise director for supplies. It was nuts!!!!!!! The amount of amazing things you can get here for halloween is amazing. It is kind of like christmas with people going all out with christmas lights. I am really looking forward to it plus we are having a crew Halloween party with costumes. I will of course post photos after that has happened!

This week I have one of my supervisors/bosses from the office in Miami cruising this week for a routine kind of inspection. I am pleased to report that he is happy with me and has already told me that I have a brain, so that was nice only just after meeting me. I suppose it is a good time for him to come out with so many tech runs, he really gets to see what is going on and how everything is running, although I was stressed out about it when I found out 2 and a half days before that he was coming out! He is a nice guy, so there has been no problems at all! I was rather relieved!

Well I am going to try to get back to sleep, but work should be going back to a steady schedule again next week! Fingers crossed.

Oh one last thing.... for my birthday the techs are taking me to Disney Land!!!!! It will be a quick trip, but I can't wait!! If it isnt this Sunday, it will be next Sunday. I am very excited about that!!!

Miss you all and I am thinking of everyone!
Love always
Me!

I know I said that I wouldnt look at any of the final series scores.... but really... I lied.

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 23:13:01 GMT

OH MY GOODNESS, THE CATS ARE IN THE GRAND FINAL!!!!!!
I ran around like an idiot last night being very very excited.... I cannot wait until Em can tape all of the finals games and send them to me. So SO SO SO excited.
Oh sorry mum, but the cats needed to be in the grand final.... not Collingwood. Love you.

Anyways.... moving on.... lol
So it is my birthday next week.... it has come up so darn fast.... only feels like I left Australia yesterday, but we all know that that is not the case.
This week has been a little crazy... lots of work. Our new dance cast signed on this week, so we have been rehersing whenever the theatre is not being used. Can't wait until next week when we will be doing full tech runs all day long and then the shows in the evening.... oh bliss lol
I have to admit that even though I am basically living in the theatre at the moment, I am loving it and it has made me think that I really want to be a manager of a theatre. I love that it is my responsibility to ensure things are working and maintained etc without constant supervision (well all of our bosses work in Miami). I get to use my brain and skills to the fullest and I really am getting alot out of it.... I really love this type of work. Just simple things like repairing a tear in a scrim drop, or finding out why a certain Pyro line is not being recognised by the firing trigger, actually pulling apart our lighting fixtures and fixing them.... not giving them to someone else to fix... you know, stuff like like. Oh or being asked advise on stuff, or being asked technical questions by your senior tech, because he doesnt understand it... its awesome. Or when I got to rewrite the programming of the automation.... I didnt need another person to do it, I did it.
I think you get my point :)

I dont think that I will get to do too much on my actual birthday due to the cast change happening, but I am sure that I will do something.

The was a hurricane forming not too far away from us during the week, but at the moment it does not look like there will be a for next weeks cruise.

I shall post some photos when back on land and have an internet connection that can handle it! Darn Satellight internet.
Miss you all so much.... Quick come to America on sunday and come cruise for my birthday... everyone right now!!!!! lol
Well must dash, production meeting in a couple of minutes..... yippeeeeeeeee

Oh and I have taken to playing a little silly game with some other aussie on board (none of which are form Melbourne!)..... "Do you know what I miss about Australia..........." MMy first answer is usually meat pies followed by the football..... lol Its quite fun no matter how stupid it sounds!

Love always,
Me XXXXXXX

P.S. THE CATS ROCK MY WORLD RIGHT NOW LOL

Last weeks different route

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:58:09 GMT

Due to a hurricane on the west coast of Mexico last week we could not take the normal route that we would do as it was due to hit land over a port that we dock at, so we got to go somewhere new! yay. The worst thing about it was that we do a 7 day cruise and we had to take a route that is for 4 to 5 day cruises. We actually stopped moving at certain points and did alot of circles around the place to take up time.
So last weeks route was: Long beach, California - Catalina island, California - Day at sea - San Diego, California - Day at sea - Enseneda, Mexico - Day at sea.
Catalina is just off the coast near Long Beach, it is in fact a 14 minute helicopter ride from where the ship docks in Long Beach and there are boats that go back and forth there everyday, so it was kinda funny to take a huge cruise ship there and take all night to get there. One of the funniest things about the island was that everyone drove golf carts. That was how everyone got around there, thats how small it was!! Not much to do there at all either unless you hired a golf cart and went around the island, but I didnt do that. Here is just some random pics from there.

This one is just a nice shot of the island itself.

Ok I thought that these two shops right next to each other was extremely funny..... but that might just be me.......!

Ok yes random Australian/Steve Irwin toys on the island..... I love how there is a Koala, a Wombat and a Crocodile all in the same play set...... because they are the bestest of friends in the wild......

So after Catalina our next port was San Diego. The only thing I knew about it was that they had a big zoo. We were going to go there, but we figured it would take a whole day and we wanted to see other things too.
Right where we dock there is a large Naval base (So large in fact that it knocked out the ships satellight connections and this is why I havent been able to write until now). They also had a decommissioned aircraft carrier, the US Midway, there now as a museum. So my fellow techs and I decided we would go there. I really wanted to for 3 reasons. 1. I live on a ship and I wanted to see how military crew live on ship (Alot more cramped is the answer) 2. My dad was in the Australian Navy and the Australian Navy has never owned an aircraft carrier (why would it really.....) so that struck my interest. 3. Everyone who knows me knows of my Aero past, thoughts of joining the airforce and what not, so I wanted to see the planes....
The best bit about it all..... because we work on another ship.... we got free entry!!! Woot! I must say it was an awesome experience to go on board..... really interesting (Did you know that the US Navy owns an aircraft carrier called the US Enterprize... does anyone else find that funny!!!!.... yes Im a nerd) So here are some pics from that.

Walking down the side of it.

The inside hanger.

Kevin my Senior Tech on the flight deck

Tash and I in the Brig.... Kevin liked us in there! lol

Tash and I on the all important red phones calling the shots!!!
All in all it was an awesome experience. San Diego is beautiful! Not what I expected but so clean, easy to get around and nice people. We then spent the rest of the afternoon visiting a 3 story porn store and a shopping center, before going to an English pub for dinner.... we then sailed at 8pm.

Now Enseneda's largest claim to fame is that it has the largest Mexican flag (which was impressive I must say!). It was how I expected the rest of Mexico to be..... dirty. I was told by other crew members not to borther getting off, but as I had never been there before and I may never go there again, I wanted to get off.

Big flag!!!!
So it was fun to go to new places, but because we werent really moving and the sea days were mixed up to what we are used to, the cruise seemed to drag on and on.

Oh and room mate news... she is still in my room, but each day is a day closer to her getting moved, as the new cast is coming soon!!! BUT I pulled the best prank ever!!!!
I had finished watching a movie with the other techs in another cabin at about 5pm, so I decided to go to my room to check email before dinner. I live right across the hall from the fire station and I am friends with a couple of them. They had just finished a drill and was turning down and putting everything away. I got a big 'Hello Michelle!" and I said Hi guys and went in my room to find her asleep.... its 5PM!!!! I go back out to the guys and say 'Man my room mate is asleep' So they called me into the fire station and decided to put me into one of their uniforms. One of the guys said 'Go get your camera so I can take a picture of you" So I said yeah, just got to go and get it out of my room.... then the lightbulb above my head went on........
I run into the cabin yelling 'SARAH GET UP THERE IS A FIRE!!!!! QUICK GET OUT OF BED LETS GO LETS GO!!!!!' She wakes up going fuck, fuck, what the fuck.... shit. She takes one look at me in the uniform.... freaks out, almost hits her head on the roof (She is on the top bunk) then I loose it and start laughing..... FUNNIEST PAYBACK EVER!!! I know it still isnt even, but damn that was good! I go back out with camera and tell the fire patrol who loved it.... here's me in the uniform

So so so funny!!!

Now it is 2 weeks till my 23rd..... should be good.
For those who want the address to send gifts, cards, money lol to. (Anything would be loved!!!) it is...
M/S Carnival Pride
Michelle Berger/406519/Entertainment Technician
231 Windsor Way
Long Beach, CA, 90802
USA

Missing everyone heaps!!!!!!
Love always
Me!

Hey ya

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 01:05:30 GMT

Just a quick one to say hi, I know it has been a week so I thought I should put something on. I will have a fair bit of time tomorrow to write, so I will post a large one tomorrow!
Miss you all
Michelle

What a crappy week I had.... both work wise and personal life wise

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 21:36:38 GMT

So I know that I said that I was going to try to update this more often (As one person has pointed out already that is has been over a week since I wrote) but I have had a slight problem in doing so...... lets begin right at the beginning ok.......

Since being on the Carnival Pride (as I started on the Carnival Legend and then moved ships) I have had 3 room mates. The 1st was the girl whose position I now have, so that was only for 3 weeks, then I had a dancer who was here to fill in for an injured dancer and now I have another new dancer who is doing a swing contract (that is someone who fills in while others are on vacation). This dancer has now been here for a month. Everything was great at the start, she is really friendly, easy to get along with and fun to hang out with outside of work. Then she started messing around with different guys, which is fine, I don't mind what she does. But combine this with the fact that she has only had 4 days out of 4 weeks where she has not been drinking alcohol and it becomes a problem. Now dancers have flexible timetables outside of performances and rehersals. (They help with bingos and other guest activities that they share around) SSo she also has alot of time off. So when she is not drinking or fooling around, she is in our cabin sleeping. Again I dont mind this, but it is getting out of hand. Due to the fact that I could not get any personal time at all, I asked the dance captain whether or not she could be moved. The dance captain had already noticed my discomfort and growing anger and had figured as much. We do have the new dance cast signing on in a week and a bit (which will be alot of work with rehersals!) and they all normally live in one area of cabins so they are together. So she was going to be moved anyway! Now I am just waiting for that to happen.
I then decided to let it all be for the week or so that she will still be here as to not make things uncomfortable while we are still living together, but this was not to happen. Not last night but the night before that all changed. After finishing work, all of the techs and some dancers generally hang out together to unwind after the shows. My room mate came with me, but then left soon after as her current man showed up. Noticing this I was considerate enough to stay clear of our cabin for sometime as to not to disturb anything. So 2 and a half hours pass and a couple of the people I was with decided we wanted pizza at 2:30am (as you do!). At that hour the only place you can get pizza is in the guest area, so there is a certain dress code to adhere to. So being that 2 and a half hours had passed I figured it would be safe ot quickly go into the cabin and get changed. Oh I was wrong! I walk in (our doors are electronically locked like in hotels, so you can hear someone gaining access to your room as it clicks) and they are on the top bunk (thank god not on mine!) naked and being busy. The first thing that is said is "Dont you know how to knock?" I has shocked but said back straight away "Sorry but this is my room. I have left you alone for 2 and a half hours, if you want more privacy you have another room you can use" Then they started laughing. I said "I am just getting changed so I can go upstairs. Is there a time that you would like me to come back", the response "No its ok we are going to sleep now". By this point I am fuming. I get my shoes on and go to leave when my room mate says "sorry" in a weird tone and just said back "It's ok the damage has been done" and slammed the door. I went back to my friends and told them how angry I was and then went for pizza. One of the other techs currently does not have a room mate and offered me the spare bed if I wanted to. I jkumped at the chance in the hope that I didnt go nuts when I went back to my cabin. So after pizza I went to my cabin got my pjs, blanket and pillow and slept in another room.
The next morning when I came in my room mate was like "ooohhhh Michelle where have you been all night?" and I just said that I slept in the spare bed next door and then slammed the bathroom door. She got all defensive and said that she kicked him out after they were done in a tone that said I was being stupid. Then I got an apology and her following me around all day being overally nice. (Which Ill admit was funny, because she kinda made fun of my reaction to it all and the sucked up to me all day) I also later last night got an apology from the guy too.
So I went to bed early last night as we had a huge day, she comes in and asks if the guy could come over to hang out but not stay, I said "Whatever" and she assured me he wouldnt stay, so I left the door on the lock, so it doesnt close all the way, and the table light on. Needless to say at 8am this morning the light and the door was still the same as he had not left. Pisses me off. SO today is when we are in Long Beach, Calfornia and I went out early with the other female tech to go and see the simpsons movie (yes I hadnt seen it yet..... but it was awesome), had lunch and just come back to the ship...... she is still in bed.
Now you know that I am not a rude person, if someone is asleep I am not going to make alot of noise so I dont wake them, so I have not been able to use the phone or the onboard internet (as I have to have the door open to use the internet to signal) so I could write before now! Ah now all of that is off my chest.... I hope she is moved soon or I will hurt someone.....

Now besides that my work week was alos quite busy. I has the tech on duty so I had to stay on board all week and be on call all week. We have alot or work orders going on at the moment, so I had alot of work to do! Then our second seating of the 1st production show that we do had to cancelled half way through because one of the backstage hands slammed a set piece into an e-stop so badly that we needed an electrician. My automation controls tell me where the e-stop that has been hit is located, but with the force that the stop had been hit (from the side) the wires inside were also broken and could not give me the location of the e-stop. The midnight comedian had to go out to do his show with the band pit all the way down and in front of a white movie screen, as that was how the show got stopped and we could not move a single thing until we could reset the e-stop. Because we cancelled the show and it was only half way through, we had to do a make up show yesterday with the 2nd half of the show for the people who missed it. It made yesterday a very long 14 hour day...... so tired!

This week we are sailing on a different route as to avoid a hurricane. Yes we now have one on our side of Mexico. So it should be nice going somewhere different. We are going ot San diego and I said "Can we go to the zoo, because that is the only thing that I know is in San Diego" and there is a good chance that we will! I am very glad that I am not the tech on duty this week or I would of been really upset!

I would like to say a big happy fathers day to my wonderful dad! I have tried calling a few times now, but they must be on the internet and I cant get through. Just want him to know that I am thinking of him and wishing him a fantastic day!

Well I will be off now, as boat drill is soon to start and hopefully my room mate will be ok this week and I can be online a bit more then this week.

Miss you all!!!! Oh and dont forget.... my birthday in 24 days, not that I am counting...! It would be cool if people could send cards........ my address is already in another post but if you want it again, just let me know!

Love always
Michelle

Some photos for you!

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:36:57 GMT

So here are some long over due photos.....

Oh and I did my programming today.... so much fun.... kinda. I hope it just worked ok... will find out in testing tomorrow.

Here is my ship, the Carnival Pride, along with one of the America's cup racing Yachts fromthe New Zealand team in Cabo San Lucus.

And here is me on board the Yacht!

And Me with the other female Tech Tash back on the pier after winning the race!
Oh that was a fun day.... I will find more photos to put up! But now I must go to work!

Miss you all
Love me!

Yes I suck the big one, but I am alive

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 21:43:08 GMT

Ok so I know it has been 5 weeks since I have posted here and that there is no excuse as to why I havent written except that I have been really busy and my sense of time passing is really strange..... it just seems to fly by. (Oh and when I say that I dont mean that I am not thinking about everyone, because I really truly am and I miss everyone!)

So why I have been so busy.... I have had riggers on board testing equipment, a drop suddenly falling down to the stage (well the emergency brake kicked in before it hit the stage thank god, and no one got hurt), My show file getting corrupted and having to stop a production show in the middle of the show (which makes me feel awesome! NOT) and programming lighting for the dancers showcase. It has all kept me rather busy and I get to do general matience as well. With all that being said though I am still absolutly love what I am doing here. The job is awesome.

I dont also get to be on the internet as much as I could on the last ship as there is not as many places to connect where there is a decent signal.
So you know that I have also been trying to call people, but with no luck of getting through.

The ship right now is rocking rather alot, and if I wasnt used to it now, I would probably be sea sick right now, but I am glad I have gotten used to it all!

the ship is having an outbreak of GI and Noro virus, which is just like really bad gastro, but if you get it you have to be confined to your cabin, so I hope I dont get it!!

I am currently living with another new dancer, which is ok, she is nice. Random thing is though that she lived in Australia for a year.... but where did she live? Tassie of all places. It was weird.

Also if you have heard about a really large hurricane in the Carribean, dont worry, I am no where near it! I am currently cruising the Pacific ocean on the Western side on America, so I wont be caught up in it all!

In December the ship is going inot dry dock, which is where the ship actually gets taken off the water and turned off. (When we are in the ports the ship is always running.... its cheaper that way) It will be interesting to see! We are docking all the way up in Canada, as it is the only dock available at the time. Yay I get to go to Canada, in December...... winter. OH MY GOD it is going to be freezing. Oh the air conditioning on board gets turned off for a couple of days for repairs too!!!!! The techs here are hoping that we can get most of our work done (which is replacing the entire stage) in the 1st week so we can go snowboarding in the second week. We shall see how it goes. Then I should be coming home right around Christmas time! Yay! I will know actual dates soon once my boss gets back from vacation!

I hope this has set peoples minds at ease and I hope to email back all of the people who have emailed me during this week. Again I am so sorry for the lack of my posts, but you are all being thought of and are close to my heart.
Also I want to say thank you to everyones concerns..... It's nice to know....but I am safe!
Missing you all like crazy
Love Always
Michelle

Time is flying by quite quickly!

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 06:43:53 GMT

So after last weeks events (read the last post), our ship was met by the FBI and the CIA when we docked back in America. So that was fun. They made it much harder to get off the ship for the crew. Normally once the ship has clearance from customs and the coast guard, we can exit and enter the ship as much as we want (mind you there is a bit more to it than just walking off the ship!) but because of what happened the made windows of time that we were aloud to leave.... this is rather annoying because you suddendley end up with 100 crew members trying to go through security to get off at the same time.... oh well we managed. Then we had to have a police dog go through our bags and answer questions. Luckly for me I had nothing to do with the situation, unlike the poor bar staff who all had to be interviewed..... they still havent found his body.
Now onto nicer news! yay My week was good. I have my job down pretty well now. I know all of our major shows, so I am not nervous anymore when we do them. The most exciting thing this week was today in Cabo San Lucus we got given the opurtunity to go on an Americas cup racing yacht and race against another team. It was really good, also because it was the New Zealand racing team, and I made fun of the Aucklanders for being JAFAS. It was great fun and something I will probably never get the chance to do again. The only reason why we got to do it was because we were testing out the tour for shiop board tour operators. If it went well then Carnival will add it to the list of shore excursions that they offer to guests. So not only did we get to do that, but the company paid for us to do it! woot!
So I go to raise the sails by being a grinder and I can tell you now that it is alot of work! But we all had alot of fun thats for sure!
I will post photos when I am back on land and have a better internet connection.
Miss you all and I think you should come out here and cruise...... cheap rates!!!!
Love always
Michelle
XXXX

What a busy week!

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 22:11:58 GMT

Well there has been a bit going on for the last week!
As I said last time, I was on port manning last week, so I had to do anything that was called upon the techs while we were in ports. It wasnt too bad, but I had to run around a bit at times. This week started off with Canada day on the 1st of July. We have 2 Canadian techs (well one is from Africa originally, but now from Canada), so we had celebrations for that. Oh and the girl who I was replacing left that day, so it was a bit sad as she was a very lively force in the team. We then started to get ready for the 4th of July celebrations, and as 99% of the passengers are American, it was a big celebration and alot of work for us. It was quite fun, and no different to our Australia day celebrations...... spending it with loved ones and drinking. That was pretty much it.
In amongst that there was my brothers birthday on the 3rd and so far I havent been able to call home, but a card is on its way.
I have been excited this week, because I am on my own now in my job. It is all me!
My first production shows went well on Monday, and I am excited about tonights shows. These two nights are the biggest for us, and then we have comedians and variety shows for the other nights... oh except for saturday night which has the "legends" show. This is a show that has guests, who had auditioned during karoke sessions, singing in front of everyone with the band and the dancers and the tech team. It can be very painful at times...... like last week the man who was singing Elvis and not keeping in time at all. It was almost the funnist thing I had heard!
Last night I had an interesting experience that I dont hope to do again any time soon.... all the staff had to go on a body search. A guest was reported missing by his room mate who hadnt seen him since Tuesday, 2 days prior. His log recorded showed that he had no gotten off in any port since arriving. So we had to search for him. So far not found. Most probably went overboard. We have procedures for man overboard situations, but not after two days, because we are too slow to get back to where it may of happened. The coast guards along where we cruise have been notified, but I dont know how lucky he will be if that has happened. Aparently over the past 2 weeks 4 people have gone over board off our ships, not the one Im on. 2 survived, 2 didnt.
I hope he gets found in some capacity. Its not hard to go over the ship, but you cannot accidently fall.
On another note, here finally is my mailing address:
M/S Carnival Pride
Michelle Berger/406519/Entertainment Technician
231 Windsor Way
Long Beach, CA, 90802
USA

It is at least alot shorter than the last ship I was on.
Please feel free to send me anything..... it would be nice!
Well we have just left San Cabo Lucas and are headed back to California.
I cannot wait for Harry Potter.... its going to be a good month!
Miss you all and I will post some photos soon.... can only do it with a better internet connection than that on board!
Love always
Michelle
xxxxxxx

Oh I am happier again

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 02:18:43 GMT

Well I am much happier now that I have settled in. I decided to focus on learning the new shows in and out and in turn have settled into the groove of people here. The girl that I am replacing in leaving next week, so then I’m all on my own and I have to admit that I am looking forward to it.
I had my pyrotechnics exam yesterday. Spent the day studying to find out that the test is open book. Well at least I knew where to find the answers. You had to get 100% to pass and it was 6 pages long!!!!! Mind you of course I passed! Yay
This week I am on port manning which means that I cannot get off the ship at all and I am the tech on duty, so I have to carry a pager around….. booooooooo!!! Ah it will be fine. I already completely cleaned the bathroom because I was bored today….. but I also did laundry because everyone gets off in California unless you have to be on. I love not having to waiting for a washing machine and then a dryer. It was fantastic! I intend on being so bored that I will be at the gym a lot! Lol I have made friends with one of the social hosts on board and he is stuck with port manning as well for the hosts, so we are going to go on the water slide when we are in a port (as we are not allowed to use it normally as it is for guests) so I cant wait for that. I may get my hair cut as well. We get it cheap on board, but only on port days. I haven’t really got much to say except that I am happier!
Please keep leaving me messages. I am loving them alot. Miss you all!
Love always,
Michelle
xxxxxx

Now on board the Carnival Pride

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:57:51 GMT

Sorry all about the delay in my post. I had to transfer ships, which I knew about, but the ship that I have gone to had steering issues and was late. We are sailing now all fixed. Yay. The last couple of days I have been homesick. I left home and joined the Legend, I fitted in really well and then they move me, and I havent fitted in as well just yet. I think it is because when I joined the Legend, there were 4 of us that were brand new so we stuck together and became good friends (also easy because 2 of them were musicians so we saw each other all the time), but now coming here everyone has been working on ships for awhile and have already had to deal with making friends and then leaving them. At least I knew when I left Australia that all of my friends will still be talking to me and be there when I come home..... uurrrggggghhhhh. I will get over it.
So I am not liking this ship as much, but I am sure that with time I will be fine.
I havent really got too much to say because I have a cold and I am upset. People please leave me some messages so that I can cheer up. I miss everyone so much right now. I will post my mailing address in my next post, but now I have to go to work!
Again I miss everyone!!!!!
Love Always
Michelle