Another Contract Begins

It's that time again as vacation winds down and it's time to hop on a plane to join another ship.  This time I'm flying to join a ship in Athens, Greece.  I've worked on this ship back in 2012 and it's also the sister ship of the one I just finished my last contract on.  My wife is already there, so I am ready to get onboard. Vacation has been nice and it's the longest I've stayed in the US for one period of time in the last five years.  But vacation can't last forever and it's time to get back to work.

This itinerary is another world cruise type of itinerary.  I join the ship in Athens on Monday and that is the start of the crossing to Asia.  We immediately go through the Suez Canal, then through the Gulf of Aden and the pirate waters, stopping in the Middle East, then over for 3 days in Mumbai.  The next cruise will have stops in India, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka.  The next will get us to Southeast Asia via Andaman Islands, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, and then ending in Singapore.  We will spend 3 and a half months in Asia before heading back to Europe again, where my contract will end on the 4th of July in Southampton, England.  It's a really, really long contract but that is my wife's sign off date with her cast, so I asked to stay until then as well.  And as the corny saying goes, "home is where the heart is," so for 8 months we will just make our home all over the world on a ship.  A huge plus is that because she is a featured singer, she gets a huge guest cabin and porthole.  The porthole really helps with the sanity because natural daylight is at a premium for crew members.  Most crew live either below the water line, on the inside, or just where there are no portholes, so they live without natural light in their cabins for months at a time.  It makes it near impossible to tell what time you wake up, because 7am looks the same as 10am which looks the same as 4pm.

It's always nice to check out the itinerary before starting a contract, that way we can plan along the way. During our contract, the ship will visit 43 different countries on 3 continents (Europe, Africa, Asia).  Even though this is my 8th contract and my 3rd contract on a world cruise format, there will still be 28 new cities in 7 different countries.  It will also bring my total up to 161 different cities in 63 countries.  Yes, I'm a nerd and I keep track of these things.  But I figure not many people get to see this much of the world, so why not pay attention and take it all in.

The work will be nice, too, and it


will keep me busy.  The ship has 4 production shows (one is a cappella so no orchestra), a long party set at the pool with about 25 songs all segued together, all the different guest entertainers, shows with the cruise directors, sometimes Welcome Aboard and Farewell Shows, a jazz brunch every cruise, shows with the featured singers (which includes my wife's solo show which I enjoy playing), and various sets around the ship (welcome back from tours, jazz sets, ballroom sets, etc.).  Since I've already worked on this ship, I am familiar with the material and there are a lot of people that I know there so it will be nice to return.

I will do my best throughout this next contract to keep up with posting.  Hopefully it will become a mix of advice and insight into working on a ship as well as updates with the cool places we are visiting.  Maybe a little bit of travel advice along the way.  My wife and I are also writing an entertainment/travel/lifestyle column for a newspaper called Cebu Daily News in the Philippines so I will try and post links if you feel like reading a little more in depth about that side of things.