VACATION!

Most of you would probably say that my life is a vacation. Yes, I get to see tropical islands on the daily, and I live at sea for the most of the year, but I do work my butt off believe it or not. And I too enjoy a good vacation once in a while. Even if it is a 'stay-cation' and I'm working during it …

Most people who go on vacation from working on a cruise ship, will be home for 6-8 weeks, enjoying their friends and family, and living off the money they saved whilst working on the ship. I, on the other hand, take quite long vacations because 1) I like spending time with my family at home 2) there are usually a few major family oriented events that happen while I'm home that I make sure I schedule my vacation around.

This vacation for me consists of me being part of a musical that my Aunt is directing, and my Mum is stage managing with our local theatre group called the Mississippi Mudds. Normally, I'm one of the people on stage doing some singing, or acting or tap dancing, but this I'm backstage doing the make-up and some of the set changes. Totally different realm of what I'm used to so it's a fun new challenge for me. Doing the set changes really does make me appreciate the ASM's backstage.

I'm also working at my beloved Hallmark. I've been working there since I was 16 and the manager is a great lady who always tells me to let her know when I'm home and she puts me on the schedule to help out. This is great because not only does it keep me from lying in bed 24/7 while I'm home on vacation, but I also get to make some money while I'm here because, well, I'm not the best with saving money. (re: my Michael Kors watch collection -_-)

I'm lucky enough to be able to go to a few concerts while I'm home too! Some friends and myself managed to score GREAT seats to Ed Sheeran in June so I'm pretty pumped for that. If anyone knows me at all, knows how much I LOVE gingers (weird, I know) and I've always enjoyed his music. I saw him at the MMVA's at Perez Hilton's after-party a few years ago and of course, my love only grew deeper from there. I also get to go see Kenny Chesney thanks to my friend Jamie - she got tickets for my sister and I and her to go see as a birthday celebration for my sister. The concert is ON her birthday, so that worked out quite well.

Another reason I'm staying home for so long - my Poppa, he's turning 90! NINETY!! What?! I love him so much and I'm so glad I get to be here to help him celebrate that. Such an incredible milestone that not many can say they've met. But this ninety-year-old, I get to call him my Poppa.

And also, last but not least the reason I'm staying home for SO long, until September in fact, one of my best friends Laura is getting married and I'm lucky enough to be one of her bridesmaids. With only another 4 ish months to get everything done, things are getting down to the wire. There's a bridal shower to plan, there are centrepieces to be made, there is a dance to perhaps choreograph. I'm excited for it all! Most of the wedding party was able to do a joint bachelorette/bachelor party in Las Vegas back in February where we went to a few shows and got wasted .. what else do you do in Vegas? Good times! And I know only better times are up ahead and I can't wait for the big day to get here!

Well, come September 7th, I'll be on my way to Seattle to join the Carnival Legend where I will get to embark on a journey from Seattle to Alaska and then Vancouver. And then from Vancouver I get to do something that not many people have been able to do - I get to do the crossing from North America over to Australia!! From there we'll be making stops in Hawaii, Tahiti, Bora Bora, New Caledonia and then finishing off in Sydney, Australia where that will be our homeport until April. I'll only be on there until March so I'll get to spend the entire Australian summer down under. I hope you are all ready for some more burnt Jodi pictures because you KNOW they're going to happen!

Chat soon!!

Oh p.s. I'm blonde now :)

What Day Is It?

'..and in what month? This clock never seemed so alive.'

But actually though, where has the time gone?! This contract is FLYING by for me. I've been here almost 3 months and will be leaving in 74 days - sorry Mum I know I told you like 60 the other day - I can't count. I also have no idea what day it is half the time. I can tell you the number but honestly not a CLUE what the actual day is whether it be Monday or Thursday. Port or Sea day ..that's all you get.

I haven't posted a new blog on here since 20 days in and now I'm close to done which is crazy to think! Obviously went through all the holidays on here already, getting ready to go for one of my best friends bachelorette so getting a 3 day work break, and beginning to line up my next ship!

I never in a million years thought I would work so hard on a 3 and 4 day itinerary, but I'm glad I was wrong because I'm never bored. Constantly doing debarks and embarks, and rotating karaoke around every 3 and 4 days instead of every 8-10 days is refreshing. And all in all, the crowd out of Long Beach is a lot of fun for the most part! They're usually ready to get on and party which can be kind of a pain when we have to get through the safety briefing first and all they want to do is drink, but once we get through that, it's smooth sailing from there.

Now, back to the holidays. This was only the second time ever that I've been away from home for the holidays, but I must say I did improve from the last time. I wasn't so much of an emotional wreck this time. I mean obviously I still missed my whole family and friends and all the celebrations at home, but this holiday on board was really great. Our entertainment department on here is really close so when we did our white elephant gift exchange on Christmas eve/Christmas morning it was a lot of fun. It was my rotation for karaoke that cruise so we sang a LOT of Christmas music but that was PERFECTLY fine with me because for anyone who knows me, knows that I loooooove Christmas music and I actually listen to it all year. Yup, I'm one of those people. Anyway, not being HOD for Christmas was great, but that meant that I would be HOD for New Years which made for a veryyyyy long day on New Years Eve. For the past few ships I've been on, when you're HOD that means you work all day while the rest of your team is off in port, but you have your evening off and then the rest of the team works at night. Well not for New Years Eve. It was all hands on deck so I was one tired puppy by the end of the night. I think I ended up in bed by 4am or 5am and started work at 9am to welcome people to Ensenada. I was one lucky duck though when most people didn't show up to ANY of my activities until about 4:30pm when we had a trivia. Anyway, long story short (which ended up being super long anyway) I survived. It's a new year and I'm ready for the next challenge.

My next challenge may be coming up sooner than I expected and I can't wait to find out and confirm anything but I'll wait until I get any sort of confirmation before I share anything! Let's just say I'm beyond excited and will be heart broken beyond belief if it doesn't happen but if it doesn't, just means it wasn't meant to be. Fingers, toes and eyes crossed please and thank you .

I'll probably end up writing another entry after my big 3 day work break where I'm going to be absolutely exhausted by the end of it because I'll be spending my break in Vegas and we all know no one ever sleeps in Vegas.

Ciao for now!

Just My Imagination …

…running' away with me.

It's a good song - don't lie you know you love it. 

Well I've been on board the Carnival Imagination now for 20 days and so far so good. I honestly came into this contract expecting the worst. Even my first day after hearing about some of the rules I just kind of put my head down and said 'this contract is going to SUCK!' You probably saw a complaining status on Facebook about it as I do. 

I'm happy to report that I'm actually having an incredible time on here. Not going to lie, it doesn't live up to my last contract on the Carnival Spirit but I don't think anything ever will. The crew here are all seriously one big family. It's like that on many ships but because this is a smaller class of ship, in fact the smallest that Carnival has, everybody knows everybody, and if you don't you will. People are in crew bar every night. I think my family will be happy to know that I've been beating some crew members in pool most nights in the crew bar, so thank you auntie Sandra and uncle Peter for having pool tables my whole life so I can kick some international butt. My foosball skills could use some work but I've won a few games thanks to some Indians or Serbians (depends who is playing that night). 

I came onto the ship expecting to get almost an entirely new team come November 30th. Three of the 5 hosts that were here were meant to leave on that day - now 2 of 3 have already left and we've gotten 3 new hosts (one has only here for a week and the other 2 are staying until after I leave). They're all first contract hosts but getting on really well. In fact i'm still learning the ropes around here, figuring out where everything is and what not. This ship is set up very much like a Conquest class ship, but just in smaller form - so basically the way the ship was laid out when i was on my contract on the Valor - just a mini version. 

Since I've been here, I've been able to experience a Carnival Live cruise which was so much fun. It wasn't much a cruise as it was a DAY but it was still a great time. Jewel was featured on that cruise. She got on the ship about 6 o'clock the day we were in Catalina. All of her stuff was loaded on, she did a 75-min set, which honestly she spent most of it talking, then she left that same night and we didn't set sail to go down to Ensenada until 1 am that night. She was the most adorable down to earth person EVERRRR. I don't want to be a name dropper or anything but I've met and worked with quite a few people and she is top notch. Love her. Talented. Sweet. Funny. She's my new girl crush I think. 

The same cruise, there were some guests on board that told me I was hilarious at bingo and that they think I'm as funny if not funnier than Jewel. WHAT?! She said that's a pretty high pedestal because they loved Jewel at her show. Such a huge compliment. And obviously these two were Canadians ;) There are actually quite a few Canadians then end up coming to cruise on here. Those 2 were from Montreal, there's been a few from Toronto, there are some on board from Edmonton at the moment, there's some from Vancouver. It's pretty crazy that they'd come down here for a 3 or 4 day cruise but maybe they're staying a little longer, who knows. 

I really haven't had THAT many problems with people. I used to say how much I enjoyed Australian guests much more than American ones, and honestly still do, but I haven't had any major issues so far with anyone. Everyone has been pretty pleasant. There's always one or 2 during our debarks because everyone's tired, it's early and they just want to get to their final destination. I get it. But I'm happy to say that I'm very much enjoying these guests.

Unfortunately the past 2 weeks I've been stuck on karaoke. It hasn't been ALLLLL that bad. But theres one group thats been coming in every single night this cruise that sing the exact same songs. They just come in, write down all the songs they've sung before and want to get up and sing. And they're awful at that. Buuuuut I can't exactly say no. And hey, they're having fun. I suppose as long as they're having fun, I should just put up with it. The only issue I have with people in karaoke is when they want to sing a song and they look over at me saying 'oh the beat's off!' … No, no it's not. You are off. If you don't know the song, don't sing it. I spend half the time on the mic trying to be a backing vocal to get people back on track. 

Alright well there's a novel and a half. I'm sad that one of the people that enjoys my blog the most won't be able to see this one as she passed away but don't worry, I'm still writing them for you Pattie. RIP - Miss you. I'll miss your 'like' and your comment on it like I know you would. Sending it up to you. 

wish you were hereeeee <3 xoxo 

Keep Calm, It's almost my Birthday :)

One month and a bit left until I board my next ship, the Carnival Imagination out of Long Beach, California. But more importantly, ONE MONTH UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY! October 25th! Woop whoop! You could say I like birthdays. It means another whole year I've been able to live. Another whole year that I've been able to experience new and exciting things. Another whole year where I've been able to be my own person and enjoy, and smile, and to dream another dream. Another year to fail, and then succeed. It's a year that I've seen, and lived and will never see or live again, except through the wonder of photos. 

I may not take the most beautiful photos, but I take photos to remember. Some people say that instead of always taking a camera to something instantly why not just look at it, or watch it, why do I have to do it through a camera lens or a camera phone? But I enjoy being able to look back fondly on my years passed, my birthdays that have passed and see what people and things that have come and gone in my life. I also greatly enjoy being able to see the photos that show off the people and the things that I still have in my life! 

I can't wait to be able to celebrate my special day with family and friends here at home for the first time in 2 years and take some new photos and make some new memories. I realize 2 years doesn't seem that long, but when you go 21 years celebrating your birthday with your family every single year, 2 years away from your family is a long time. Although I was able to celebrate with my new 'family' and my friends it was different and difficult. I'm so very lucky that I've been able to make friends and family with people around the world, it's something that I most definitely do not take for granted. 

If anyone would like to help me celebrate my birthday, feel free to send me a message, send me a card, send me a little something that reminds you of me, or me of you! Last year, I had made a post approximately a month before my birthday asking to send cards to help me feel a little more at home on board the Carnival Valor for my 23rd birthday. I received quite a few cards, and loved every single one of them - I decorated my cabin with them. I can't wait to celebrate again this year, but thankfully I'm at home and hopefully I can find some nice surprise snail mails in my mailbox this year. 

127 Santiago Street

Carleton Place, ON

K7C 1E3

Canada

I'll try and write another blog soon - but first, let me take a selfie. ;) 

Wait, What?

I seem to take longer and longer to write in this thing! I hope you haven't missed me too much! 

48 days left - not that I'm counting ;) And definitely not that I would like to leave Australia. I could stay here forever. I loooooove it here. I love the atmosphere. I love the people. I love what I get to see and do here. 

PAUSE

Okay so I obviously started writing a blog at 48 days left and here I am now with 14 days left! 2 WEEKS! What happened!? I have no idea where the time went, what I've done, who I've met and now I'm seriously regretting not writing in this thing more often. I feel as though I'm going to have to go through all of my pictures to see what I've done over the past whatever days … basically since Easter really since I haven't put in an entry since Easter! Ridiculous! 

Anyway, I'm on my second last cruise here on the Spirit. This cruise being the longest itinerary that we've done since I've been here and of COURSE I'm host on duty. And it's the only time we're visiting Fiji. But thanks to our incredible ACD Giggles she let me get off in one of our Fiji ports in Suva. In Suva today myself, Cari (my roommate), Kris (entertainment staff with me) and Guy (production singer) took a 4 hour taxi ride around the island - we ended up at a beautiful resort with beach access and a pool so I got to go into the Fiji waters which was wonderful - cold but amazing!We didn't stay there very long because we knew we all still wanted to go to the rainforest so we could go to the waterfalls. Unfortunately for everybody else in our group, I still had to be back on board at 3pm so I could DJ up on Lido deck (which I'm actually doing as we speak - My Kinda Party by Jason Aldean is playing and the Aussies have no idea what it is) so everything was a little rushed and I feel awful for that but I'm glad we got to do it altogether anyway. What we saw of the waterfalls was beautiful, so peaceful and there was a rope swing to swing out onto and fall into a little lagoon. There will be pictures don't worry. 

Some of you may have also seen on the news or on my Facebook for those of you on my Facebook anyway, that we had one of our crew members, one of our family members, go missing this cruise. There were all kinds of pages made for him to report to Guest Services or his work station and all that stuff and no answer. We did a ship wide search for him and unfortunately still no luck. We ended up turning around once we realized he was not on board so we could go back and search the waters for him. We had to change our itinerary due to this only visiting one port of Fiji rather than 2, Denarau and Suva. After quite a long time of searching in the waters and going in circles in the area where we thought he may be, we were released from the search and rescue mission by whichever of the coast guards was in charge of the area we were in. Unfortunately we had to keep going on with our itinerary as planned and we now have a crew member missing at sea which is extremely sad. I have no idea what I would have done if it was one of my blood family members, or someone from my own department. With over 900 crew members on board its hard to know everyone and to be 100% honest, I never came in contact with this crew member but its still like missing a family member and him and his family are in our thoughts. 

The past month and a bit we've been going through a cast change in our entertainment department. All of the dancers and singers that are here at the moment are in the process of teaching a whole new cast of 12 dancers and 4 singers 5 production shows which is a lot of handwork. The cast that's here at the moment are all leaving on July 15th which honestly is going to be hard for me to say good bye to because they've been here since I got here and they're leaving only one cruise ahead of me so none of them will be around for last hurrahs for me next cruise. Guess all of the last hurrahs will happen this week for them. 

Speaking of last hurrah's, one of our hosts Drew who just arrived at the end of April is actually heading off to work in the office in Miami - he got here LONG after me and leaving a cruise before me - how does that work? Guess that's ship life. Last night we all went to the Nouveau Restaurant which is our onboard steakhouse which I'm sure I've raved about before … but if I haven't here I go again - while I'm drooling on the DJ mixer haha. I pretty much get the same thing every time which is normal for me if you've ever been out to dinner with me before - If i like something, I stick with it. So here we go, this is what I order every time I go to the steakhouse (which is the same on every ship if you're wondering): 

Starters: 2 orders of beef carpaccio (or if I'm feeling crazy a beef carpaccio and a baked onion soup)

Entre: filet mignon medium with three peppercorn sauce on the side

sides: wasabe yukon mash potato and Mac&Cheese

Dessert: tiramisu <3

You are so full after a meal at the steakhouse you don't want to eat for days after and it's SO satisfying. I feel like I've eaten there every cruise for the past like 4 cruises… I don't think I have but I'm probably still just full from the last time I ate there. What sucks is that my next ship, the Carnival Imagination, doesn't have a steakhouse! Gah :( No idea what I'm going to do… starve obviously. 

There have been quite a few parties since then, all kinds of crazy nights which I'm sure my Mum and the rest of my family don't want to read on here so I'll keep those to myself - for now. 

Anyway - I'll see if I have enough stuff to write one more before I head back to Canada but here's one for now. When I get home from Oz, I'll try and put up a whole post JUST of pictures for those of you not on my Facebook or instagram :) 

See you soon everyone! 

xox

Oh and I got another tattoo :) It's the coordinates of my house in Canada. The two things that people keep saying to me about it: 'What is it so you if you're drunk they can gps you home?' and 2: 'What if you move?' my answers to those are 'haha you're so original' and 2: 'that's home. living there for almost 20 years, it's home and my parents plan on dying in that house sooooo it's home' So now I've gotten at tattoo on each contract and not yet to get one in Canada. Maybe that'll be my next spot? lol Sorry Mum.

Bingo with no B's?

It's been quite a while since I wrote anything in here so here's some updates. 

Last cruise and half of the cruise before that I got to dabble into some bingo hosting. AND I DIDN'T ROYALLY SCREW IT UP! Okay, well maybe one day but it wasn't that bad ;) Bingo is HUGE out here.. like HUGE. And like I said before they do it differently than North American Bingo, there's no letters, just numbers - 90 of them. We play 5 games in about 40 mins. It goes by super fast. It's all done on a tablet so it's pretty simple that way! I ended up having a lot of fun with it. The only way I screwed it up one day is when the tablet died in the middle of one of the games. Tablet died, projector shut off. It was good times. Not. Thankfully the dancers all helped keep me under control and we got it finished and everybody was super understanding. Gotta love Aussies ;) 

Before every bingo session, we also have a Melbourne Mug Race which I got to do as well. There are 6 horses that we auction off at the beginning of the cruise and then each sea day we have a race or 2 for them. People place bets on which horse they  think is going to win just like they would at a real horse race. We roll 3 die and whichever numbers they land on, those are what horses move. I honestly have SO much fun with it - I get really into it as do the guests. They name their horses, they dress them up, the bring them with them everywhere around the ship, it's kind of funny. 

Oh, last I wrote in here I was about to do another whole cruise of Karaoke. Yeah, that group was pretty good. Not as good as my first group but I was proud of them none the less. Again feeling like such a proud mum watching them all go onstage and such. They all seemed to have a great time. 

A few weeks ago (maybe it was just last week I don't even know with these cruises) I bought an underwater camera so I could take lots of pictures while I go snorkel in the islands. It's come in handy quite a bit. I used it in Lifou last cruise as well as Isle of Pines. It takes some pretty great pictures and I can't wait to have good enough internet to share them all with you. 

This past Saturday I got to do something that has been on my bucket list for quite some time. Honestly, since I saw the Mary-Kate and Ashley movie 'Our Lips Are Sealed'. (yes I'm a dork if you weren't already aware). I got to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge! It was incredible! It was a great experience. You spend the first 45 minutes getting into your gear, going over safety things, you do a bridge climb simulator so you can practice going up and down the ladders with your sliders on to keep you from falling off. After all that's done, you get radioed up so you can hear your climb leader and off we go! It was quite an overcast day and rained on and off all morning before the climb. We started the climb and it wasn't raining. Lo and behold, as soon as we reached the summit. DOWNPOUR. Kind of a bummer but it was still amazing - the sights you can see from up there! Gave me more ideas of what I want to do after Gavin (our climb leader) was pointing out everything from there! Hopefully I'll be able to post some of those pictures on there as well. After we did the climb, our group, which consisted of myself, Joel, Kris, Cari and Claudia (a girl from Camp Carnival) went to the Glenmore, which is this really cool rooftop patio pub where we could chill and have some after climb snack and drinks. After lunch, I brought Joel back to the ship so he could have a tour cause he hadn't been on a spirit class ship before and he was also able to catch up with one of his buddies from his past ship as well which was nice. 

I still have yet to get off the ship in the port of Mare yet because you have to pay $20 to go to the beach and I really don't feel like doing that so tomorrow while we're there, it's probably going to be a tan on open deck day as long as the weather holds out. It was pretty over cast today and tomorrow is supposed to shower in the afternoon. It was much better than the rough seas we had coming out of Sydney though. Man that was pretty brutal. Not as bad as hurricane sandy still but man the south pacific can get angry! 

Well, off to deck party now. And then to our Easter EGG-stravaganza!! Should be a great night all in all. I'll try and add some pictures to this post at a later date but for now enjoy this! 

OH and one last thing, just for my Poppa: No poppa, I have not yet played backyard cricket. I've seen it done and I'm scared of how hard they hit the tennis balls so I stay out of the sports court whenever they play. I just watch from the outside. Looks interesting though ;) 

Miss youuuuu 

Karaoke Bootcamp

KARAOKE AND BOOTCAMP .. but not in the same cruise!

Last cruise I got to host karaoke for the first time ever. For entire week. Well, more than a week - a 9 day cruise. Surprisingly it was a lot of fun! There were quite a few regulars who would come in and sing the same song night after night, and some randoms who would always surprise you. They would come over all hesitant about the song they wanted or if they really wanted to sing or not, I would talk them into it and then boom - we've got Idina Menzel over there. What!? 

As part of karaoke,  I also had to do some recruiting for the Carnival Legends show. Some of you may remember when I started with Carnival that I had to be part of the Legends show as Sonny singing 'I Got You Babe' with another host or ACD. Guess what - still get to do it. This show still has them in it, it's not the new legends show on this ship yet. However, in this show instead of having Madonna and Britney Spears, we've got some Aussie artists like Jimmy Barnes (still have no idea who this is) and Kylie Minogue. I was able to recruit all 10 of my Legends (James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Garth Brooks, Jimmy and Kylie) and all of them were actually very good singers! I was quite impressed with myself :P Unfortunately the day of rehearsal, my Jimmy Barnes and Ricky Martin didn't show up so we had to cut those 2 out of the show which was a shame but it is what it is I suppose. It was very strange - I felt like a proud Mum after each of them came off stage after doing their thing! I was so excited for them all! I hope they all had fun and get to watch their DVD's over and over again and remember how much fun it was for them and myself. Most people cringe about doing Legends and karaoke but I actually had such a great time doing it!

We also got to celebrate St. Patty's day on the ship this year! We did a lounge hop around the ship… and did shots at every stop obviously. Ended in the nightclub and didn't end up leaving there till close to 3 am! I danced to the wee hours of the morning pretty much every night last cruise and and its safe to say I won't be doing that again for a while. I was SO tired everyday! 

of course the italians get a little crazy

This past cruise was a 3 day cruise which NEVER happens on this ship. Not sure why we had it but am I ever glad I was switched to the Sprit doing long cruises rather than being on the Imagination ALWAYS doing 3 and 4 day cruises. This was just a booze cruise. The guests were crazy. It was ridiculous - a totally different crowd than we're used to. 

As much as it was a booze cruise, it was also a fitness cruise surprisingly enough. Carnival Cruise Lines Australia has hired Shannan Ponton to be a brand ambassador for the company. If you don't know who Shannan is, he is actually one of the personal trainers for the tv show The Biggest Loser Australia. We did a biggest bootcamp at sea which was a lot of fun! Over 500 people on open deck doing a half hour cardio bootcamp. If you know me at all, you'll know that working out is probably at the absolute bottom of my fun things to do list - but this was SO much fun! If I had Shannan as my trainer every time I worked out, maybe I actually would work out. Not to mention he's pretty darn easy on the eyes ;) We got some pictures with him and I'll try and a post a few with this post. We're also on a first name basis now/nickname basis. I'm Joads, he's Shan, you know, 2 peas in a pod ;) haha But seriously, him and his family are super nice and we loved having him on board. 

I took a break from squatting to snap this picture haha 

My ACD Brian DJ'ing the event.

Me and Shannan

The dancers and me :) 

We've also been settling in our new hosts Kris and Cari. Both of them are great and really excited about being here and I like having them here much better than I did having the other 2 hosts. I'm going to miss Srki when he leaves in a month but that just means my friend Drew is closer to coming and the whole team will be awesome! Not that it isn't now but it will continue to be. Speaking of which we took a new host team picture, hopefully will be able to add that picture into here as well! 

Well, back to another 9 day cruise and 9 days of karaoke and Legends. Let's hope I have just as amazing singers this coming cruise as I did last week! 

Miss you all! xo