shipmatejoe's VirtualTourist Home Page

Welcome to my home page.

I've only been on VT for a short time now, and most of my pages are in a state of flux. So please keep in mind that this is a work in PROGRESS....
As many of my friends already know, I'm in the middle of a trip throughout Europe. You can take a look through my Albums and follow along with me. And every now and again check out my travel pages. As I find the time, I've been updating as much as I can. Hopefully, next week I will add more pictures.

I love to travel.
This shows in the work I do and where I do it. I am a sound technician, and I work for Royal Caribbean Cruises.
Yes I work on a cruise ship.
I first started working on ships in 1993, and in late 1997 after having gone around the world, I left that line of work and moved up to Lake Tahoe. After two and a half years without much travelling, I had to get moveing again. But without a bankroll to suport it, I went back to sea and let someone else pay for my travel.
How long will I do this for? Who knows.

It sounds like a great job, and it is. However, it is WORK. Most contracts (time spent working on board) are six months long. That's six months, averaging 8 to 10 hours a 7 days a week. That's right, no days off. However, after those six months we get 6 weeks off. It works out basically, 2 days off for every week worked, give or take a few days. And it's those 6 weeks that brought be back. Durring those 6 weeks I can do what every I want. That is until the money runs out. But by then it's time to go back to work. I spent one vacation driving from Los Angeles to Alaska. Another vacation, I signed off the ship in Puerto Rico, and spent an extra week there before flying over to St. Thomas to take a live aboard sailing course. Not to mention, the ships go to some amazing places. I've been real lucky in the fact that the ships I've been assigned to are allways changing itineraries. Way back in by ealy days, I was on the Sun Viking when she went to the Far East. We started on the West Coast of the US and went down through the Panama Canal, throught the Caribbean, Arcross the Atlantic, around Mediterranean, I took the overnight tour to the Pyramids. We then went through the Suez Canal, aross the Indian Ocean, around India, then over to Thailand and then down to Singapore. That trip took us 90 days, we went through 15 time zones, losing an hour each time. Once in Singapore, we cruised down to Bali, and back with stops along the way in Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. And we cruise from Singapore to Hong Kong, with stops in Thailand, Vietnam, and China then had 5 night in Hong Kong before doing the same cruise back to Singapore. Last summer, the ship I'm on now, the Brilliance of the Seas, was in Northern Europe, sailing out of England up to the Norwegian Fjords and to St. Petersburg Russia. This summer, we are in the Mediterranean, which is what allowed me to take my current trip.

Like I said, we do work on board.
We work hard and we play hard.
Being a sound technician, I work in the theater doing sound for all the shows. We have a show everynight, and a rehearsal for that show at some point durring the day, or in the morning. But for the most part, unless something special is going on, I can get off the ship whenever we are in port, even if only for a few hours. (this chapter is still under construction)

Because most ships sail into a port in the morning, then right back out again in the afternoon, we only have a few hours to explore. But being crew, we have the chance to come back to the same port next cruise. In some ports we only care about getting a good meal. (No we don't get the same food as the guest.) In other ports we head straight for the shoping centers to pick the necessities. You wounld think of it, but Cozumel has a great store to buy your toiletries, and the like for low prices, because of the exchange rate, and it's walking distance to the ship. In other ports, it's seeing the sights. So what will you see in my travel pages? You'll see the ports through the eyes of a crew member. We're not quite tourist, and we're not quite locals.

My current adventure has taken me through Eastern Europe. Since I was aready in Europe and I would be signing off for vacation in Barcelona, I figured that this would be the perfect time to travel inland. After all, I'm already overhere. And Since I am going back to the same ship, I was able to put all my belongs into boxes and stash them in the corner of one of our storage lockers. This way, I was able to sign off with just a backpack. Not with the normal 4 pieces of lugage that I normally travel with. So I started thinking about it. Where in Europe should I go?
We have people from all over the world working on board. And in getting to know some of them from Eastern Europe, they all tell me how much they love their countries. So I decided to see some of these places. The US dollar goes alot futher in Eastern Europe than in Western. And it would be more of an adventure going off the beaten path. And off the Beaten Path I've been. And boy parts of it have truly been an adventure. So please check out my Albums, and in a few weeks check out my travel pages, and the travel logs that will accompany them. I'll be able to go more indepth there.

I would like to thank all those who have shown your support by joining and leaving coments or sending me e-mail.
However, you do not have to go through the trouble of signing up just to send my something. You can e-mail me from your normal e-mail. my address is shipmatejoe@virtualtourist.com.

Thanks again for your support