Volcano Helicopter Tour – Hilo, Hawaii

While I’ve shared countless tips and advice to those keen on working on the ship, I haven’t had the time or the commitment to share more information on the amazing places and tours I did!

I know this is a super duper long overdue post lol.

How it all happened was that a dear friend and colleague got me to book the tour as I hardly did anything in Hawaii. She clearly stressed that I should get the “doors off” tour, so I did!

I booked the Doors-off Lava & Rainforest Adventure from Paradise Helicopters – link here – I’m in no way paid for this, just that I truly enjoyed the experience and if you’re looking for a reputable company, Paradise Helicopters are amazing. All helicopter tours run from Hilo Airport and the website should be able to provide you with more details. We had a little safety talk before the ride and everyone was professional and super pleasant.

Unfortunately though (or fortunately idk seeing that now the volcano situation in Hilo is pretty intense), there wasn’t much volcano activity on the day of my tour. It rained a little bit and there were hardly any lava but we did get a little peep when we flew above the crater. What can I say? Mother Nature knows best. But I did enjoy my first helicopter ride – without doors for that matter.

***Update***

I returned to Hawaii again on my last contract with the Grand and I believed that the volcano affected “some” parts of Hilo but the town and central area is fine. I’m not too sure about the current condition of the volcano now but do check with the service providers if you’re interested to do a tour.

 

#Shiplife: The Pros & Cons of Working Onboard.

Hello folks!

This is a long overdue post – I was pretty surprised that I did not have an article on this topic before. I think I did mention it a little bit here and there in my other articles but nothing as specific as how this one is going to get. Hopefully I’ll be able to collect my thoughts and put them together so that those of you who are curious about life on-board or who’s embarking on their first contract on the ship will find my blog and this article useful.

Looking back, I did pretty much enough research about life on ships before I went but nothing really prepared me for what I was about to experience. I again, would like to stress that it will not be the same for everyone, we have our homebodies, we have our party people and of course we have people like me – somewhere in between. Also, the experiences are based on my own – I’ve had a different working experience compared to others, life in Malaysia in different compared to people from different nations and of course, people’s perception goes a little different too. But there’s definitely a similarity somewhere that you will be able to relate with in all these.

Okay! Here goes, let’s start with the cons first.

Personal Space

This is like, almost non-existent. Truth is, somebody is definitely going to be in your face majority of the time. One, because you’re most likely to have a roommate and two, because the ship is such a “small community” that everyone sorts of knows everyone. Let me explain a little. I’ve never had a roommate which I didn’t like and because I’m such an easygoing person, I think nobody really had a problem with me. But as a person, I love having my own “me time” which is really hard on the ship. The only time which I could really be alone is usually during breaks but those breaks are short. So I usually compensate the “me time” on port days. As for the “small community” remark,  yes we do have an estimated number of 1500 crew members on-board a ship but you see the same people all the time. Somehow people just kinda see what you’re doing and with who and trust me they have eyes everywhere, lol.

 

Missing out on important events

One of the obvious bummers of working on-board. You miss out on birthdays, on weddings, heck I even missed seeing my dad before he passed. People might argue that those who work abroad are also facing the same issues but you don’t understand here. If you work abroad you get to plan when to go home. You can easily choose to get out and hop on a plane. Your best friend can probably announce to you that she’s getting married in 3 months and you’ll be booking your flight the next minute. For most of us, we sign a 6 – 9 month contract which can only be shortened if you get it approved by head office. I know someone who’s friend is getting married and she has to pay for her own flights back after getting her contract shortened. You get on the ship and it gets hard to leave especially if you’re stuck at sea. I’m not saying that it’s impossible – I’m saying that you can’t be there without having to go through a lot.

 

Feeling alienated from reality

You’ve been to places many can only dream of going. You’ve met people and seen things that one can only get through experience. It’s hard for people to understand what you go through on a daily basis. Life as a seafarer? Many envision you as this free-spirited wanderer traveling to exotic places and living the damn high life and rolling in money. What about the hard work and drama in between? What about the long sea days, crew and passenger drills, annoying people around you and not being home for long periods of time? When you do get home, everyone is occupied with their normal routines (9-5 jobs, weekends off etc.) and you pretty much feel a little disconnected. What most people’s reality are aren’t yours and what’s yours aren’t theirs.

 

Contract instabilities

I’m not speaking out for every crew member here but some of us have experienced a certain level of insecurity when it comes to getting the next contract. By practice, you will most likely be offered another contract once you finish the current one providing you weren’t causing trouble and all. However, sometimes the next contract that was offered comes with a huge vacation (let’s say 3.5 months and more?) and we are stuck with no money and nothing that we can do about it except pray and request for a shorter vacation. It would be fine if you’ve done your financial planning properly and have foreseen the long vacation period but it does cause a lot of anxiety if you’re not quite sure when you’re leaving again.

 

Packing, unpacking, wasting!

I’ve never quite realized or thought too much about this aspect until I went shopping for supplies recently. We spent so much every contract to embark because we tend to buy new stuff for our new contract. Imagine new bottles of toiletries, new uniform etc. only to leave them behind at the end of our contract because “they’re not worth bringing home”. Let’s say maybe half used bottles of shampoo, laundry detergent, sachets of instant coffee – you know, stuff that aren’t super expensive and important but it all adds up in the end. Of course you give them away to someone but little stuff adds up in the end as well.

 

So we’ve gone through most of the cons when it comes to working on board (I know you people are asking – what about the nasty food? I never had any trouble with food lol just laziness to get to the mess). Let’s move on to the pros – the fun parts.

 

Widening your horizons

And I don’t mean only geographically. You meet different people all the time and your mindset changes over time. You learn to be more accepting, you learn to be more tolerant, you learn to view things from different perspectives. Another bonus are the amazing friends you meet along the way.

 

Financial opportunities

I’m pretty sure everybody’s financial commitments are different, especially when it comes to those who are supporting their families back home but for me, working on-board has opened doors to opportunities I would find hard to achieve if I’m working on land. I lived in the city and had to pay rent, transportation, food, gym, utilities and that left me with pretty much a meager amount of savings. Working on the ship saved me a lot of money and with the exchange rate – helped pay my vacation trips as well as my mom’s. I wouldn’t say that it made me a millionaire (in fact, far from that) but I’m more comfortable financially now that I’ve ever been.

 

Vacation time

I’m not going to contradict with my point on vacation times but it does differ a lot compared to having a 9-5 job. We usually come back to a 2 month break which made traveling and spending time with family and friends a lot easier compared to say, having 14 days of annual leave (I had only 10 when I worked with Tiffany & Co.). On another note, most friends work 9-5 jobs with only the weekends off so sometimes it’s tough too. Blessing or curse?

 

You learn more about yourself

You learn what you’re made of, what you’re capable of doing and the things you’re able to go through with. You strengthen your morals and your principles and question what’s important in life. When it comes to living and working on a ship, you’re constantly faced with a lot of temptation – spending, drinking, partying, sexual – it all boils down to what you believe is right. I think it’s a blessing in disguise, even though at that very moment you feel like jumping off the ship but like what people say, whatever that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And you get plenty of those moments on-board, trust me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Year of #Shiplife.

So what’s changed?

A lot.

Mostly perspective. And plenty of soul. I’ve seen some of the most beautiful places I’ve never dreamed of and the best people you can ever meet.

And the worst. The absolute *f*kin* worst. (Excuse my language). You have the ones that lift you and support you through your good and bad times and the ones that cheat, used and abused you.

I don’t let my experience stop me from going on with my life. Yes, I find myself wary of new relationships, second guessing people and their kindness. But I don’t and I won’t let these experiences change the person I am. I’m not really spiritual nor religious but the Light will always shine through the Darkness. And of course, I believe in Karma.

I know I’m digressing from the topic but right now I’m in a pretty broken and angry place. I’m not mental, hell no. But I am broken. But the broken pieces made me and that’s how I shall embrace it.

#Shiplife sounds pretty scary eh? It’s super fun, really. I love to be on the ship. Certain parts I don’t enjoy that much but I can tolerate but overall, I can see myself doing this for a little while – until I figure out what to do back home. Just an advice – trust but trust your gut the most. Love but love yourself first.

 

 

 

Goodbye to you.

It’s as if you died.

I don’t know how to mourn for you. Should I be sad? Should I be angry? 

I know we most probably will never meet again. But there’s just a tiny ray of hope that maybe, someday.

Someday I could finally understand your feelings.

First vs. Second Contract

The most obvious difference was definitely the itineraries and the number of days / hours we worked (like seriously you have no idea). On my first contract, the itinerary was amazing – the Baltic, lots of port days (which meant less working hours, waking up at whenever and staying up ’til whenever because why not?). On this recent contract though, let’s say that it is not made for the weak. One whole cruise to Hawaii on the ship I was on consisted of 15 days from LA – 4 sea days on the way with 4 Hawaiian ports and a painful 5 sea days back with one last port in Mexico. Like what?! That goes to say, I didn’t spend that much time sightseeing in Hawaii because I was so burned out. Great thing however was that we only work until 9pm because we had so many sea days.

There was also a difference in the number of people working with me. We had a bigger team on the Regal so the workload pretty much spread out. On the Star however, we were  juggling half of the pie per jeweler so definitely more to do. I don’t mind at all – it kept me super busy everyday and made the time pass super fast. Also, the commission that we received were only split two ways instead of five so that was a bonus.

As for  #shiplife, I think I became a little wiser. Still pretty new to what goes round the ship but I did pick up some shiplife hacks from my previous contract. For one, I finally got myself a cabin steward which is pretty much unofficial “mafia”  business. For a small fee you can get someone to clean your room and make your bed, change your sheets, bring you your uniforms and towels and take the trash out. You totally get to arrange what you want and what you do not want and how much you’re paying. Rico the guy that we hire was lovely – he made the long working hours so much more bearable by sparing us the need to throw our garbage and vacuuming the night before crew rounds. Thanks Rico 🙂

I’m also pretty good at snagging a washing machine for my laundry and pacing myself so that nobody comes by and takes my stuff out from the wash or the dryer (I hate that). So I’ll put my stuff into the dryer, turn it on 60 minutes and go check every 15 minutes to have it turned back to 60 minutes. If there’s somebody looking for a dryer, they’re most likely to take the stuff out from the dryers with shorter time left on it which made sure nobody takes my stuff out. Genius.

Still lots to share but my brain is like mush right now.

 

Home at last!

Finally home from my second contract! Right now I’m still recuperating from jet lag and ship fatigue (if that’s even a valid word) but I’ll bounce right back to blogging and creating more informative content about shiplife!

Meanwhile I’m really enjoying my time doing nothing and not having alarms after alarms and having to run off to the next “must do” on my list – utter bliss! I finally managed to get my grubby hands on my laptop after leaving it home for 5.5  months – just wanna say that there is nothing as amazing as the feeling of a keyboard compared to using a cell phone for internet. NOTHING COMPARES!!!

Anyway, I’m just busy deleting e-mails from 5 months back (just arrived home like 4 days ago so bear with me!) so do stay around for more stories and updates!

Cheers!

It’s been a bittersweet contract so far…

…painfully long days at sea..lots of hard work in between but the rewards that come with it are worth it.

2.5 more months to go til home, another 5 more Hawaiian cruises! To be honest I haven’t seen anything in Hawaii as of yet because I feel tired most of the time and would rather spend it relaxing with a coffee and a nice lunch.

Definitely have to work harder to get myself out and about!

Happy 2018!

Extremely worn out this time round. Sorry for the lack of updates, shiplife is definitely not a place for loads of “metime”, trust me. Whatever free time I had left after work was used for sleeping in, eating out, laundry and the bar. I brought my laptop with me during my first contract and used it only for a record of two times within 5.5 months, haha. This time I got wiser and left it at home. 

Anyway, another 6 Hawaiian cruises to go before I head home! Technically there’s still 3 months but well, time does fly on the ship! Looking forward to going home, time to skimp and start saving money! 

Still haven’t had the luxury of time to look at accommodation for my trip to Spain, blergh! I know there’s no quality writing in this blog post but there’s not much you can do when you’re using a phone and not having time to think, haha. 

Happy New Year everyone! 

#Shiplife Series: 1.5 months into my second contract!

Officially went into dry dock yesterday & I’m currently working as a key runner with the contractors again, the same as what I did in the Regal. It’s been mayhem since last cruise as the boutiques were going on major refurbishment me thinks and every piece of merchandise and tools were packed away. Imagine the hours we spent doing that!

Overall I had less time outside than I did when I was in Regal, mostly due to the itinerary of the ship. I had 8 port days out of 11 in the Baltic which was amazing, we could sleep in on most of the ports and had ample time to go explore the vicinity. With the Star, we have 4 sea days on the way to Hawaii and 5 sea days back which was excruciating but we are definitely able to make more money for the boutiques. 

Currently docked in Victoria, Canada for around 10 days with 3 degree Celcius weather conditions, yippie. I love cold weather but it’s a pain to bundle up just to go out. Not complaining but probably need to get a scarf and gloves. 

Blessed…

…is the word that keeps coming to my mind for the past few months. Well for the past year really. People say that we attract the things we feel (you know, Law of Attraction & The Secret and all that stuff) and I truly believe it to be a real fact. I’m an optimist most of the time and by staying that way, the Universe has somehow given me back the same positive energy I’ve given to it. There are some days when I feel like shit but by constantly reminding myself of all the good things that has happened – I manage to pull myself through the bad moments and focus on creating happy ones. It does take some practice and some sheer willpower when you first start but it’s pretty automatic once you set your mind to it.

So, back to feeling this way. I guess I never really practiced it until one major moment in my life. Well, nothing super major but it was enough to impact the way I think. I have just returned from working in Singapore and was looking for a job back home. I’ve tried  applying to the hotels in my hometown but none were able to match the salary I was asking for and I didn’t really have anything else I want to do in Penang (the bulk of the workforce lies in manufacturing, banking and hospitality). What I did then was to also apply for jobs in the city and lo and behold, I managed to get myself a job with one prestigious beauty brand – I was completely over the moon when I received the call!

Since then, there has been many instances when I feel completely lucky and blessed – especially when I received news that I have been accepted to work on the cruise ship. It wasn’t a lifelong dream plus there really aren’t many seafarers in Malaysia but I’ve always wanted to travel the world and trying to apply for it is already hard enough. It’s really a lucky moment for me if I say so myself.

Fast track few months later, I was traveling to places I’ve never thought I’ll ever see. It might feel like nothing for some but for me coming from a little country on the Equator this felt like a once in a lifetime thing. The best thing is, there were so many once in the lifetime moments that I kept thinking to myself, “I’m so blessed”. So blessed to be here, so blessed to be able to experience this, so blessed to be alive.

My first time in the Caribbean and off the ship in Regal, beautiful Montego Bay, Jamaica.

I only had one chance to visit Cozumel, Mexico as it was the last cruise before the crossing but having Mexican food by the sea was an incredible experience. 

Sailing on a catamaran and drinking rum punch at St. Thomas after we snorkeled with sea turtles. First time trying rum punch, first time on a catamaran, first time snorkeling! Sadly, St. Thomas was hit by Hurricane Irma recently…

We had around 10 days of dry dock in Hamburg, which is also another city I love. So many things going on here and it was a blessing to have so much time to explore the city!

Also seen snow for the first time in Sweden! I was ecstatic!

Like,  look at me! Haha!

And who can forget beautiful St. Petersburg, Russia? This church is my favorite part of  the city, by the way.

Plus I also tried this very pretty and yummy breakfast at Grand Hotel Stockholm –  paid a pretty hefty price but well, moments matter.

Another 3 more weeks to go towards my next adventure! I know some of you are curious to know where I’m going next so I’m going to talk about it in my next entry. ‘Til then, safe travels!