What am I doing? :)

Hey guys!

For those of you that are reading this: welcome! welcome back! or au revoir! just kidding, don't go ;)

I just thought I'd post a little update to keep this blog alive in between my next ship, the Carnival Valor! For those of you that don't know the Carnival itinerary's, the Valor is based out of San Juan, Puerto Rico! This means, I get to miss out on the first few months of winter completely. No going back and forth from Baltimore to the Bahamas, which will definitely be nice. This ship travels to Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. I've never been to ANY of these places so it'll be quite different and I can't wait for the adventure. Even though I'm going to an entirely new ship, my roommate Sam (from my last ship) will be joining me on the next one as well. She'll be stuck with me for another 5 months ;) (she joins the ship a month after I do).

Well what am I doing right now? A whole lot of nothing. Not 100% true, but it certainly feels like it some days. I ended up actually painting both bathrooms in my house which took up all of 3 days of my 3 months back here. I've also been rehearsing for the musical, Nunsense II: The Second Coming. It's been a lot of fun, and I definitely missed being up on that stage singing and dancing with my fellow MUDDs! Can't wait for opening night. For those of you in the area, would love to see you in the audience! Check out http://www.mississippimudds.ca/perform.html for more information on tickets!

I'm also planning a few trips before I'm done my 'vacation'. I'll be making a road trip to Kingston with some friends next week. Then off to Toronto at the end of the week to see some best friends/former co-workers. Then a few weeks after that will be opening night, and the following week my British Bestie will be joining me in Ottawa for a week before we make the across the pond for London town! I'll be visiting London and Liverpool and I can't wait! I've never been overseas before! I've been IN the sea, just not over it :P That trip cannot come soon enough!

Two weeks after I get back from England, I'll be having to get my bags packed and ready to go for another 6 months of adventures starting June 1st! June 1st-December 2nd. I'll be home for Christmas next year which will be a HUGE plus. And what's probably super weird and crazy, is that I'm planning on not going back to the ship until AFTER the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics! Is that sad? I'm just a little patriotic and need to cheer on my Team Canada!

Well, there's a little light reading for you, hope you enjoyed it. I'll probably update this with some of my  stories and adventures from England before I get back on the ship!

Hope everyone had a fabulous Easter with their loved ones!

Until then, arrivederci! <3

Some pictures with my fam from this Easter weekend! Mitch (cousin) Jenn (sister) and me

 Me, Sean (cousin) Jenn (sister)

Arrivederci!

well my contract is almost is up. 6 months have absolutely flown by and i've realized how absolutely sucky i am at goodbyes. 

a few weeks ago I had to say goodbye to gumbie, my ACD that i've had pretty much since I've got here and who became one of my best friends on here. Also had to say goodbye to Mary Margaret, the Club 02 director - her and I signed on the same day september 9th and we became super close.  yesterday was one of the worst ones yet because i couldn't prepare for it because it happened so fast. Levi was informed at 6 o'clock that another ship needed an ACD so he had to pack his things and leave today. I can't imagine what his girlfriend on here is going through. Something like that totally sucks and it was just totally sprung on. So there was a little bit of tears last night and this morning saying bye to him. 

I can honestly say this has been one of the craziest experiences of my life meeting people from all over the world - crew and guests. Some I got along with really well, some not so much but that's life. I can't even begin to describe what life on a ship is like. It's almost like its not real life. Like i'm going to get back to Carleton Place and this will have never happened. But then I start up again in June and go another 6 months in a dream. I really just  cannot wait to be able to be in Carleton Place, walking around in familiar places, being able to walk up the street to Tim Hortons, or go to the grocery store and run into 20 people that I know, or go to the Moose or Shenanigans (or whatever the heck its called right now). Most of all, I can't wait to get off the plane and seriously attack my family - just like they do in the movies. Then get home and attack my dogs, followed by some serious cuddles with my cats. And while I normally sleep in my bedroom with the door closed, i will probably just sleep with it open because I can and cause i know my cats will want to come chill with me. Weird? Maybe but I don't care. 

I've made some life long friendships on here that I don't foresee ending anytime soon. especially with my roommate Sam and my bestie from Liverpool, Laura. I can't wait to room with Sam on my next ship, the Valor, in June and I'll be visiting Laura in England in May! 

This will probably be one of my last entries on this blog until I start my next ship in June so take it all in. I can't thank the people I work/worked with enough for helping me on this journey and helping me grow as a host and as a person. Not that I was shy before but I feel like anything that was shy in me before is totally gone! As soon as I get home it's into rehearsals for Nunsense with the community theatre I'm with the Mississippi Mudds which my aunt is directing so that should be fun. I'll probably be listening to the soundtrack on my flight home. 

I know I made a post a while back now for you to ask me questions and Ill answer them, and I'll answer them probably when I'm sitting on the airport waiting to go home. This was blog was all over the place, as usual, but I hope you enjoyed reading all the entries over the past 6 months and you'll have to stay tuned for my next entries which will be out of Puerto Rico! 

love you, thanks for reading this, and like I've learned from the Italians: Arrivederci! Damn spaghettios ;) 

Top 10 Questions I'm Asked!

So these are the Top 10 Questions that I'm asked on a daily basis from all of the guests!

1. Where are you from?

2. How long have you worked for Carnival?

3. Are you loving it?

4. Do you miss your family?

5. Where do you live on the ship?

6. What kind of perks do you get?

7. Do you have a roommate?

8. What other ships have you worked on? 

9. How long is your contract?

10. What do you do in your off time?

Just thought I would share these. Kind of random but I've been quiet lately on here so I thought I would make a second post today :) 

Happy New Year!

well first of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! i hope everyone celebrated the way they wanted to and are enjoying themselves so far this year! all 24 hours of it. 

let me just say, holidays on the ship: bittersweet to say the least. Christmas was tough but thank god for my ship family making it special none the less. we did a secret santa within the entertainment department with the hosts and the djs and then we also did a white elephant gift exchange on christmas eve. i ended up with something called a 'music bullet' which is basically a mini speaker for my iPod which is kind of cool. i haven't used it yet but i'm sure i'll get to it. on christmas day we had a holiday show for everybody - it was kind of like your typical school christmas recital. the camp carnival kids, circle c and club 02 teens came up and performed for their parents which was really sweet. after that, myself and diane led different crew members down the aisle to represent the different nations that are represented on board. we ended up with a very delicious, but unconventional christmas dinner that included rice and garlic chicken which was very bizarre  but delicious none the less. 

new years eve was another crazy event here on board. i finally got to wear my sequin dress which was a total hit. everybody loved it - not that i was wearing it for everybody else but we all know its nice to get complimented on a dress :) the entertainment team had to blow up almost 600 balloons that were going to be dropped in the atrium. i didn't see the party that went on in the atrium because i was up on lido deck where the band was playing. at midnight we were to set off some streamer cannons - mine and same didn't work. womb womp. but at least other peoples did so there were streamers don't worry! we were up on lido for about an hour ish before we headed down to the crew party where the crew without guest privileges were partying. i had to kick out a few guests that showed up so that was fun playing security. next party to hit up: the nightclub which was absolutely packed. so many guests and a WHOLE lot of crew. the party there was SO much fun, until Brian gave me a bloody nose :( he wrapped his arms around my legs and i thought he was going to pick me up so i bent over to tell him no and he shot back up and smashed my face with his head. so first bloody nose that was fun. ben took care of me though with some napkins and making sure i didn't drown myself with my blood lol. so it was an eventful way to bring in 2013 in the middle of the atlantic ocean. good times. so glad i didn't have to work until 12 today! 

happy new year everybody! about 6 more weeks! 

ps there are SOOOOO many canadians on board this week! it feels a lot more like home hearing other people besides myself say 'eh' is that sad or what?

Merry Christmas!

Well hello there friends and family.

Just wanted to wish you all a super incredible Christmas and a very safe holiday season. I hear that Ottawa got hit with quite a bit of snow the past few days so please stay safe everyone.

I'm missing everything about the holidays at home right now - the baked goods, the tree, the decorations, the cuddles with my puppies and my family. I don't even know what I'm going to do tomorrow night when I'm not going to playing Rummoli with my family. We're having an ugly christmas sweater party tomorrow night when we exchange our white elephant gifts and we're going exchange our entertainment teams secret santas! That should be fun and I will probably cry at some point but that's what the holidays do I suppose.

First Christmas away from home is going to be a challenge but I suppose I just have to remember I'm not the only one who is away from home this year.

Anyway, just wanted to send my well wishes from Baltimore and the seas because we'll be at sea on Christmas Day. It'll be a wet Christmas instead of a white one.

Love to everyone at home <3 xo

Questions & Christmas Cards

So I've been pretty quiet on here for a while because honestly everything is getting really repetitive. Not a whole lot of new things happening. Same thing pretty much day after day, just new guests.

However, if you guys can think of any questions that you want me to answer about ship life, feel free  send me a message on Facebook or whatever you'd like and I'll try and answer them for you and make a post with all the answers!

And we all know Christmas is quickly approaching and Christmas cards would not be turned away ;) So if you'd like to send me a Christmas card that address again is:


Jodi Samler 454120
Entertainment
Carnival PRIDE
C/O Intercruises Shoreside & Port Services
10435 Resiterstown Road - BLDG 3
Owings Mills,
MD 21117

Looking forward to hearing from you guys!

Love <3

#shiplifeproblems

Ship life is amazing - do not get me wrong on this entry. But I've compiled a list of #shiplifeproblems that I think other crew members and cruisers a like will find a little funny.

when you want to take a nap and the room steward is cleaning your room (also a #firstworldproblem)

when they don't have chocolate milk in the mess

no real bbq sauce on board

getting dripped on every 10 ft as you walk down the i-95

getting in the elevator and stopping at every floor from deck a to 10

when the water tight door to crew bar is closed and you have to go the long way

port manning - nuff said

when people you have grown to like/love sign off

hearing 85% of the guests say 'where the food at?' 

hurricanes

when you're in remote area where the satellite doesn't give you the channels USA and TBS

having a roommate who turns on all the lights (not anymore but before)

the internet/no phone usage

not understanding half the things that people say to you because english is not their first language

hearing someone from my group of guests saying 'eh' immediately after i tell them i'm from canada

crew immigration

debarkation

sunburns (okay so this one is my fault but the sun is so strong in the damn islands :P)

wearing the same clothes over and over again/having a closet way too small for your clothes

I will probably add to this list every once in a while so stay tuned.