Cruise Ship Diaries Part 2

I’d been told my first ship was going to be the Grand Princess and they had a spot for me as soon as I had for US seaman’s visa sorted out. Security at the US embassy in London was spectacularly tight and you were literally not allowed to take anything else in with you bar your documents so my parents came up for the trip. We’d left early on the train from Dover so there plenty of time for any delays before my appointment at 11am, I just didn’t realise how many delays we would encounter!

Just outside London our train stopped for about 30 minutes and we were given the old ‘apologies for technical difficulties’ excuse, I later found out that someone had jumped onto the track which had caused the delay! Finally getting into the station we found the underground was closed off and we couldn’t get to the embassy the way we’d planned, okay lets get a bus as I was going to now be pushing it for making the appointment. However no buses as the streets around the station were being closed, so we had to keep walking and finally hailed down a taxi. I'd later find out there was a false alarm in the area for a suspicious device that had been found nearby!

Finally on the way to the embassy and I'd only be ten minutes or so late, yet fate would intervene once again. My mum had all my documents, passport and fee for the visa in her bag for safekeeping on the journey up but we had finally made it and stepped out of the cab and started walking to the embassy. ‘Got my documents there?’ I asked and as Mum reached for her bag she realised it wasn’t there and was still in the taxi! I sprinted down the road faster than Forest Gump as the taxi was still at a red light up ahead. Of course running down the street at the American embassy on the day of a suspect package being found in London was in retrospect not the best idea and a security guy came up to me almost instantly, and of course after explaining the situation the first thing he asked for was any ID which was all in the taxi that was now driving away and I might have been able to get too if I hadn’t been stopped. Luckily my parents came over and verified my story which seemed to be enough to placate security.

I missed my appointment, lost the money for the visa and also now had no passport and was supposed to be joining the Grand Princess in a matter of weeks, it was a quiet journey home to say the least. I then had to call Princess in Southampton, ‘so did everything go okay with your visa today?’ they asked ‘well not exactly’ I replied. There may have been a bit of miscommunication then as I briefly thought I had lost the job that I hadn’t even started when they told me I would no longer be joining the Grand Princess, it just by the time by documents (and new passport) were arranged I would be going to another ship.

My second trip to the embassy was thankfully uneventful and I was told I would now be joining the Sea Princess in San Francisco in 2 weeks times, I researched all the ports of call I would be visiting over the six months of my contract and got extremely excited. By now if you work in the cruise industry you know how common it is for assignments to change days before, but back then you can imagine my surprise when mere days before leaving I received another email telling me I was now heading to the Coral Princess in Alaska!

As someone who had rarely travelled (and then only in Europe) Alaska seemed like some magical far away land that I couldn’t even comprehend at the time. Was it cold all the time? and ‘it has polar bears right?’ a friend asked. Our Alaska cruises were only one week and we would sail from Whittier, Alaska to Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway before ending the cruise in Vancouver, Canada. After the Alaska season ended the ship would head to the Caribbean where it would complete a 12 day roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to ports such as Aruba, Cartagena (Colombia), Ocho Rios (Jamaica) Limon (Costa Rica) and the highlight of the cruise for many of the guests a transit through the Panama Canal.

I received my flight details and was surprised to find at the time you could not fly directly from England to Alaska, so it was off to Germany and then onto Anchorage, Alaska. I listened to the obligatory ‘Leaving on a jet plane’ (me first and the gimme gimmes version though!) and settled down to read a new book called ‘A Song of Fire & Ice’.

Soon learned when your company pays for your travel they don’t fly you the quickest way to get to your destination they fly you the cheapest which means sometimes taking 3 or 4 flights to get to the ship with long many hour lay overs with no accommodation provided between flights, this means if you cannot sleep on a plane you can be awake from a full day to sometimes approaching three days. I don’t remember much about flying into Anchorage except it was cold, wet and I was glad my luggage had made it, there was a guy holding a sign saying Princess Cruises and me and a few other stragglers got on a minibus and made our way to the hotel.

I had no idea of the time but the guy at the desk told me breakfast was at 6 and the bus to take us to the ship would be at 7, everyone pretty much kept to themselves and looked just as tired as me during breakfast so I figured they’d be my crew mates. On the bus another English guy called Martin started talking to me about football as I was wearing my Everton jacket, he then produced an Everton match day programme from his pocket with him in it! Little did I know the first person I met was the incoming Cruise Director and supported the same football team as me!

I remember the bus driver talking non-stop on the way to the ship telling us the history of the town and all about the bridge we were about to travel under that trains also went through and motor traffic would have to wait while the train passed. In hindsight you could tell the first contractors as we were the ones listening to the bus drivers Alaskan stories with rapt attention and the other crew were still sleeping. The scenery was stunning was massive lakes and snow capped mountains with the freshest air you’ve ever breathed, it was crazy to think that a day ago I was still in Dover, England.

Then up ahead I finally saw my new home for the next 6 months ‘the beautiful white lady (TM every captain ever talking about the ships) the Coral Princess.

In part 3, the early days onboard, getting lost on a hike and suddenly being the only videographer onboard!