Vision of the Seas is a Vision Class ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet. She is 20 years old and while there are kinks in her operation due to her age, I nevertheless feel blessed to have been a part of her crew.
Having regained my land-legs after being away for 8 months, the notes I put to paper now are just a few from my adventures abroad and on board this beautiful vessel. The crew became more like a family to me and I feel compelled to share a little bit about how amazing they all are and how they contributed to my well-being and happiness over the last few months whilst I was away from home.
Firstly, it felt very different returning to cruise ships for the second time. My first foray into that world was such a culture shock that it was difficult to process – hence why there is no snapshot into my first ship, Enchantment of the Seas. No, this time around I knew what to expect (I guess) and I was fully prepared for the lifestyle – even if I have ultimately decided that #shiplife is not for me. I crave instead the freedom of being able to get in my car and go to the grocery store, cook my own meals (even if it means having to do the dishes), and generally feeling like a normal human being. Ship life is so beyond the realms of normal that it’s hard to describe to anyone who has never experienced it before. But I will endeavour to try…
I joined Vision of the Seas in November of 2017, acclimatizing myself to the 4 and 5-day cruises right before the busy Christmas rush. Christmas on board a cruise ship is a different beast altogether with the added events and activities. I was lucky enough to have an amazing team and while spending Christmas on board sans family was rough, the New Years festivities were quite enjoyable. I had never gotten dressed up for New Year’s before and so it was a welcome change and my team was outstanding.
My team – I’ll probably mention them a few more times throughout this post because of how special they all are. The main reason I gush so profusely about them is because, compared to my last ship where I had two different teams, spending a few months with a few people before they were replaced with an entirely new group, Vision was one steady group. While I feel blessed to have met so many people on board the Enchantment of the Seas (you know who you are, and I love you so much!), the lack of consistency meant I didn’t form any close bonds with any one group of people as I did on Vision. I signed on within weeks of a team that I would then spend the next 7 months with. We were a small team and we truly got to know one another, making for some wild and crazy adventures sprinkled with plenty of cherished memories.
A shout out to Talita, my fearless Activities Manager and office buddy (try and throw something at me now!); Steve, my energizer bunny of a Cruise Director, crazy and courageous (seriously man, do you even sleep?); Jacob, my buddy with whom I shared many laughs (Hacobo <3); Joey, with whom I got to spend yet another contract and will be in love with forever; Iris and Wesley, my favourite married couple who bicker like they’re 90-years-old; Stephanie and Chris, for their smiles and companionship on a daily basis; and everyone else who came and went (Christa, Leo, DJ Bam, the amazing VI casts I worked alongside) and too many others to mention. They were and are my second family.
Alas, I digress. My time on Vision took me from Caribbean blue waters with destinations like Galveston, Texas, Progreso (Yucatan), Costa Maya, and Cozumel, Mexico and then across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea in ports and cities such as San Juan, Puerto Rico; Alicante, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, and Barcelona, Spain; Nice and Cannes, France; Livorno, Florence, Civitavecchia, Rome, Salerno, Positano, the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento, Positano, Venice, and Ravenna, Italy; Kotor, Montenegro; Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini, Greece; and Valletta, Malta. I transitioned from days in Mexico, drinking smoothies, eating tacos and guacamole, whilst sitting in cafes with Wi-Fi for hours on end, to then spending hours upon hours walking the streets of places that had been in existence for thousands of years. I saw beautiful works of art and architecture while embracing and eating my way through Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, and Montenegrin cultures. Tapas, chocolate and churros, sangria and tinto de verano, pizza and pasta, Aperol spritz, and espresso. I could go on and on about the food alone, but I will restrain myself or I’ll just make myself hungry.
As cliché as it sounds, as a first-time European tourist, you do need to go to the typical tourist haunts. The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, il Ponte Vecchio and il Duomo in Florence, Pompeii near Naples, Piazza San Marco and the Rialto Bridge in Venice, Oia and Fira in Santorini. These are the places that you imagine because of every post card or Google Search you’ve come across. If you’re spending multiple days in these places, then by day 2 or 3 that is when you can venture off the beaten path to explore hidden gems of each city (all well-documented on various websites around the internet). But for one-off visits (which is all I could manage with my 6 weeks in Europe and daily time-constraints) then these are the places to visit.
I’ve seen several blog posts in recent weeks regarding the tourist traps to avoid in Europe (e.g. I did not go to Pisa, opting to go to Florence for the whole day instead, since Pisa today is considered a tourist trap for various reasons) and while I agree with many points, one stands out amongst the masses: avoid taxis. Why? They are very expensive. Find out where Uber is available (not in Spain, unfortunately, but yes in France) if you need to travel great distances – however the train systems are popular, convenient, and cheap along the Med. I went from Civitavecchia to Rome for €5 each way – there is no comparative public transit system in Canada. If you don’t need to travel far – walk! Walk everywhere! You’ll be exhausted at the end of the day, but you’ll have such a great sense of accomplishment that it won’t even matter. You’ll also get to see the lasagna-like layers of these ancient-turned-contemporary cities, catering to the traveling multitudes. Things you miss in movies, like the H&M and Victoria’s Secret boutiques built into the 300-year-old buildings, the eclectic graffiti defacing buildings, and the glimpses of modernity that sprinkle the cities. I personally also really enjoyed getting lost, especially in Venice, Italy, a city to which I will return and explore more in-depth later in my life. Find a destination, plot it out on a map (not necessarily Google-Maps) and find your way there. You never know what you’ll find or where you’ll end up and that is the beauty of travel.
The places you get to visit as a crew member on ships is undoubtedly the best part of the job. The hardest part of being locked into a contract however, is trying to maintain friendships and relationships that are thousands of miles away. The struggle with time difference is also very real. You do your best for the most part but it’s never easy. There are rewards and there are regrets. It’s hard to be present. It’s hard to see things from a different perspective when you can’t be beside someone to share in their pain and triumphs. You win some and you lose some. This is just a truth of distance. My rewards outweigh my regrets but it’s still a bitter pill to swallow when you return home and things don’t slide back into where you left them months ago. I am grateful for those that do but the period of transition is always tricky to navigate. That, however, is a discussion for another blog post.
To wrap up, the last 8 months have been a whirlwind of events, activities, friends, loves, and adventures. My parents came to visit, my boyfriend came to cruise, I stepped foot in Europe for the first time, I finally went to Italy after deciding to minor in Italian Studies back in my freshman year of university, and I discovered more and more about myself and what I want out of life. Traveling enriches the soul and I am blessed to have had this opportunity. Who knows what the next chapter of my life holds – but you can bet that the friends and memories I made will last me a lifetime.
Wandering Strawberry 