sk8erguy1978

Congratulations on 12 years. It’s a wonderful feeling. I started planning this cruise while going thru treatments to have something wonderful to focus on.
 

I'm still going to be the Assistant Casino Host, but with a lot more responsibility. This will help me step up to a Casino Host of my own ship very soon!

Nothing. You cannot safeguard against a momentary lack of judgment. On my last cruise, standing in the elevator an elderly gentleman (grandpa) used the stroller to stop the door from closing. Another gentleman inside the elevator spoke up - "it's not worth it, that was stupid" and a bit more. The man half acknowledged the error, mainly of making light of the situation (it was awkward all around) saying "yeah my daughter would kill me if anything happened to her..." The confronting gentleman repeated himself and spoke of this story. At the time it was awkward how much the confronting man was sort of drilling him. However, thinking back, sometimes you need to drill things into people's heads. It was a momentary lack of judgment that could have been a disaster if the safety mechanism failed. I bet he never does anything like that again - or any of us in the elevator for that matter - also makes me wonder, maybe we all need to speak up more when seeing stuff like this. Maybe someone (if a witness was present, no idea) speaking up could have saved her life.

Nothing. You cannot safeguard against a momentary lack of judgment. On my last cruise, standing in the elevator an elderly gentleman (grandpa) used the stroller to stop the door from closing. Another gentleman inside the elevator spoke up - "it's not worth it, that was stupid" and a bit more. The man half acknowledged the error, mainly of making light of the situation (it was awkward all around) saying "yeah my daughter would kill me if anything happened to her..." The confronting gentleman repeated himself and spoke of this story. At the time it was awkward how much the confronting man was sort of drilling him. However, thinking back, sometimes you need to drill things into people's heads. It was a momentary lack of judgment that could have been a disaster if the safety mechanism failed. I bet he never does anything like that again - or any of us in the elevator for that matter - also makes me wonder, maybe we all need to speak up more when seeing stuff like this. Maybe someone (if a witness was present, no idea) speaking up could have saved her life.

That doesn't generate ratings.  Sensationalizing and hyping EVERYTHING generates revenue for the media.   
The media has stopped simply reporting the news long ago  Now they contribute to news events and decide which ones to leverage to maximize revenue.

Glad to hear/read that the work hasn't discouraged you from being a guest in the future.

It's funny, because right now, I look forward to the day I am a guest onboard - and not a crew member.

We have a jobs posting board in our crew areas of all the new positions onboard. We essentially get to see new jobs before anyone else.
Of course, it comes down to ourselves to seek out career opportunities.

@ChrisK2793 & @wstephensi.  Let me first start with LESSON LEARNED:
When on a cruise ship, if you, a loved one, a friend, or a passenger are involved in an incident DO NOT try to handle it yourself!  Security is everywhere, often much closer than you might think, so your ONLY involvement should be to seek them out for help. Please please learn from me and DO NOT DO what I did!  My Elevator story has a lot of facets which make it a rather long story so I will keep it as brief as possible by leaving out many details.  Hope it is understandable...
Our 121028 Freedom cruise was a partial charter by the https://www.highseasrally.com group.  In talking to members of the group we learned there were over 2000 of them.  So they easily out numbered us.  Suffice to say (and you can read my related posts in the link below) that this cruise was unlike ANY of our over 30 cruises - very unlike!  On the second night (Formal) five of us boarded an elevator going down to dinner (my wife, my sister, and two friends).  The elevator was nearly full and at our first stop there was a man and a woman in a wheelchair.  They were together and he was carrying both of their glasses of red wine.  We did our best to squeeze them in and at our next stop going down it became apparent the man was already having a very good time for himself.  At that stop we found more people on their way down to dinner.  With barely any room left in our elevator, the man invited more people on.  We squeezed in two more, but my sister got stepped on.  This was a really bad situation for her as she had recently had foot surgery and still had temporary pins in her foot.  So we politely, but quickly try to explain this to man and asked him to not move any further back. This is where he became belligerent as he either did believe us or just did not care about us.  It seemed to us like we were not going to stop his fun.  Two more stops and he and his wife got off for dinner (thank goodness).  The five of us were in a back corner of the elevator.  As the door was closing a passenger next to me (who I did not know) broke the camels back by shouting to the man something like "good riddance and take your wine with you".  So just before the door closed the man threw both red wines into the corner of the elevator where we were standing.  We all got the wine on us, but my sister took the brunt of it.  We were all really pissed by this point and no one more than I.  My sister did not deserve that.  She wears very nice clothes to formal night dinners.  The next elevator stop was ours just one floor down from the couple's so I made the decision to run up one flight to confront him.  THIS is where I should have found security!  Anyway we both got into it, both ended up in sick bay, and both ended up getting dis-embarked two days later in Jamaica.  When security talked to my wife and I, they make it very clear that I would NOT be banned for life, so that made me think that the other man may have been.  FYI: All decisions of this type are completely up to the ship's captain.  Thank You Captain for having some mercy on me.  ?
Four of my group got off in Jamaica and two of us stayed on the ship.  So my sister asked "Art you just thrown off a cruise ship, what are you going to do now?"  I said "Let's go to Disney World" and we did...
 See here for a small discussion on partial charter cruises...
 

My contract is set to finish in March. I'm not sure what my plans are yet after. Chances are I'll be assigned a different ship by September.

Not Chris....but....All of the ships will have some kind of No limit poker game. All of the electronic machines are gone now (thank goodness).  The problem with the poker games is the rake is 10% of all called pots (max $15 per hand).  They will either play a $1/3 or $2/5 game. The rake sucks up any chance of winning anything. We used to play but almost never do anymore.  They also have some satellite tournaments for the Royal Poker Tour.

Early 2000's a friend was trying to get me to sign up with him for jobs. I never did, he never did, wish I did. Back then I had nothing to lose and could have used the opportunities presented. Oh well ?

Thank you for sharing your experiences.  It's fun to live vicariously through your videos.

I wish I had known about this whole thing 25 years ago.  ? 

NEW VIDEO!
Today I talk about how many hours a day I work onboard!
 

I would have showed up at the port ... You said two days! :). 

Just sailed Anthem to Bermuda on 9/21 (the shortened Bermuda sailing) and had a Grand Suite. We only dined in CK on 9/24 as a "date night." Reason being, we had friends on-board and made various plans to dine with them. While we enjoy CK, the company of a few friends was more important. :).

Can't wait to see your Vlogs of Oasis Of The Seas and her new upgrades. 

I would have showed up at the port ... You said two days! :). 

Hey guys!
So I have some exciting news!
I found out last night that I'm going to be transferred to Oasis Of The Seas in 3 weeks time. This is a big step up for me, and a lot more responsibility is going to be put on me - but I'm excited for this challenge.
I'll be flying out to Spain to join the ship, and then crossing back to America for the beginning of the Caribbean season.
Let me know if any of you will be on Oasis! I look forward to meeting you!

I would have showed up at the port ... You said two days! :). 

I would have showed up at the port ... You said two days! :). 

I fell into this category, and I think you breakdown is pretty spot on.  ...almost @monorailmedic worthy!
Back in the day, annual fees were a lame thing the credit card companies used, but today there is value in one of the top tier cards if you can maximize it.

Somebody get that Captain a raise (and a shot of tequila) -- WOW

All I was thinking was ... the other day, I misjudged how close I was to the ATM and hit it with my sideview mirror. ? 

All I was thinking was ... the other day, I misjudged how close I was to the ATM and hit it with my sideview mirror. ?