Diamond Princess prep & 3 flights to New Zealand

The thought of working with Chad again was not a very appealing one however I knew I’d have a great manager and assistant manager in Kirsty & Scott who I’d worked with before & Sam & Cat who I’d worked with on the Coral & Sun. The Diamond was a grand class ship but built originally in Japan and over the course of the 6 month contract I’d be doing 3 different itineraries starting in Australia, crossing over to Asia and then finishing off in Alaska again.

When you say to the average person that you have no interest in going to Alaska or the Caribbean they look at you like you are crazy but after a few contracts at sea you realise that probably 60% of all cruise lines do 7 day Alaska & Caribbean cruises every year and if you are cruising to travel then seeing the same 3 ports of call on a 7 day cruise for 6 months isn’t really seeing that much of the world. As a videographer Alaska would be okay as it has stunning scenery and wildlife but a recent state law change meant only American cruise ship workers could work ashore in Alaska, Princess had a problem as half the ships would be in Alaska every year but they had very few American videographers because being an American owned company they had to pay tax on what were pretty low wages in the first place.

Being English was actually a bonus as I set up an offshore bank account as originally we were payed in US dollars onboard so it made sense to bank that money in dollars and only transfer over money when I needed it, also because I was working outside of the country for more than 6 months of the year I was declared a non-resident citizen and didn’t have to pay tax or national insurance.

But I digress! Once again my first contact friend Amanda had only just left the Diamond and told me what a great ship it was (this was becoming a habit of hers!) and having 3 different itineraries was very appealing so I gladly accepted the contract. This was probably the first time that I was dealing with the office in LA directly and I remember the manning office in Southampton being a little put out that I’d essentially bypassed them but also they had no say in rotations and my direct boss at the time was an Aussie ex-videographer called Ben Parker. I had been given a mid contract promotion to acting senior videographer on the Star and when I received my new contract for the Diamond it finally had me confirmed as a senior videographer. which had only taken 3 years and 4 ships to get to!

I would be replacing Marek an extremely tall eastern European guy who seemed super chilled out from our few exchanged emails over the last few years and I’d already had emails from Chad moaning about stuff onboard and visa issues he would have for Asia! I replied telling him that I didn’t want to hear about anything work related till I was onboard. It turned out that American seaman medicals were a bit stricter than their UK equivalent in regards to your weight. I had to lose a few stone (28 lbs) before my first contract and Chad probably weighed more than me when we were on the Star, once you passed a UK medical it was usually good for 2-3 years, Chad had to do one every contract and he apparently only narrowly passed for his 2nd contract on the Diamond.

This would also be the first time I’d be having an actual full handover as an incoming senior in my excitement at flying back to Sydney I had completely forgotten that I’d be joining the ship a few days earlier missing Sydney completely & the last time the Diamond would be in Sydney was the day I joined the ship. Though I was still flying to Sydney once I got there I would then be boarding another flight to Christchurch, New Zealand was the last port of call on the cruise before the one where I took over.

Of course the great thing about Princess is that they always pay for your flights to wherever you might be joining your ship even like in my case when its the other side of the world. This time I would be flying the furthest I’d ever gone London to Singapore, Singapore to Sydney, Sydney to Lyttleton. Where is Lyttleton you might ask?, well its the nearest airport for Christchurch, New Zealand and I’d have a total flight time of 24 hours and 4 minutes! Flying for a whole day is bad enough but once you add in lay overs and changing plane place I’d be approaching 40 hours since I last had a shower or proper sleep. Add in the fact I was actually travelling forward in time by a day and the jet lag was going to be an absolute bitch!

After what seemed like an eternity I’d finally got to Sydney and board my 3rd flight and was on my way to New Zealand, now normally I’d have given into the fatigue and be fast asleep but the flight as you come in over the mountains of the South Island the scenery was some of the most stunning I had ever seen and I grabbed my camera and began to take a million photos out of the window of the majestic tapestry below us. I can still remember that feeling of awe all these years later and that shot of adrenaline the sweeping vistas below gave me and I couldn’t believe that many people around me on the plane had their window shutters down or were just plain asleep when all this grandeur was below because to this day that was one of the most vivid flights I’d ever had.

One of the bonuses to being a senior crew member who needs a handover period is that there are very few of you joining mid cruise, so on a normal turnaround there can be upwards of 100 new crew joining which makes the whole process take a lot longer. When you have most of your luggage (in my case I was still missing my main clothes suitcase for the 1st time!) you usually look around the terminal for someone holding a sign with your name on it (just like the movies) but usually the sign just says ‘Princess’ on it. There was myself and another english guy who was a bridge officer who was also missing his luggage & thankfully I could tell he’d been in this situation many more times than me and he went to sort it out. The next morning I woke up to find my luggage had arrived and after the last night having a whole room to myself it was time to start my 5th contract, 5th ship and first time as a confirmed senior videographer on the Diamond Princess.