Stories from the high seas!

This happened a few years ago now, when I was on a ship called the "Ocean Pearl" This ship cruised Asia and the Far East, and she really was a beautiful ship, and probably still is, though I believe she is a gambling ship based in Hong Kong.

 Anyway, we were on our way back to Hong Kong with about 700 passengers ( about 1/2 the full capacity) all of whom were Japanese. We had just completed a 7 day cruise, and were heading back to drop off the pax and pick up some new ones. Suddenly, a typhoon blew up and we were caught in the middle of it! It was quite frightening! Images from "The Poseidon Adventure" kept flashing to my mind! The poor little ship was tossed and turned like a toy boat, not a cruise liner. It was so rough, that you couldn't walk down the corridors on the floors, you kept walking up one wall, then the ship would sway to the other side and you would be walking up the other wall! 

It was impossible to sleep, as the mattresses kept sliding off the beds. Cupboard doors kept flying open and drawers would spill their contents all over the floor! Everywhere was trashed. All the fixtures in the gift shop fell over and smashed, destroying valuable crystal and porcelain. And as for the passengers, they were dotted around the ship, sick-bags clutched to their faces ready to receive the next load! All wrapped up in blankets trying to keep down Dramamine. We eventually got into Hong Kong harbor at 3pm, only 9 hours late!

We then disembarked those poor passengers, and took on another 700 and went back out into it..............

I used to have to dress up as a Pirate and we would wait outside the dining room for the passengers to leave, then I would jump out and give them a 'fright'  and after they had recovered, we would take a picture. Well one time, I jumped out on this little old lady, and she was so terrified she ran down the hallway screaming!! Whoops! We changed it after that and went round the dining room tables instead! 

Parties are part and parcel of working on a cruise ship, you work hard and party hard! Well we decided to have a Darkroom Party, as the darkroom was in the bowels of the ship, and thought it would be a good idea, as we were well away from any accommodation areas. We draped black bin liners around the walls, set up the cameras flashes on 'slave' so we could use them as strobe lights, and filled the chemical mixing drum with ice and beer! Plus of course the obligatory large stereo! So it all started very well, no bear in mind the darkroom was quite small, we had the 2 photographers, the Casino Manager, ships pianist, the cruise director and even a passenger!! Now having a pax in crew areas is a big no no! Any way we were going for it, lots of drinking, smoking and cavorting, when there was a knock on the door.. it was the night patrol man and Staff Captain. Apparently outside the darkroom was a vent shaft, and the sound of our party carried up into passengers cabins. Oh dear. We got into a LOT of trouble for that one, even having a shore leave ban for a week! Good fun though...

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