}
"Sometimes we are lucky enough to know our lives have been changed, to discard the old and embrace the new and run headlong down an immutable course. It happened to me... on that summer's day when my eyes were opened to the sea".

Jacques Yves-Cousteau
Showing posts with label Work&Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Work&Travel. Show all posts

Brewery on a Cruise Ship

Welcome to Brauhaus

The Germans are known in the world for making the best cars, great influence in world economy, football and one more thing. If you guessed that could be Beer, then you guessed right my friends!
The biggest producer and most famous country when Beer comes in talk, the Germans sure are the "Masters" of their profession.
With over 5000 brands and approximately 1300 breweries, no doubt that Beer is the top 1 alcoholic drink in Germany. Sure you wonder, what has that in common with Cruise Ships?

Well my friends then you never sailed on a Cruise Ship that has its own brewery on board.
The German company Aida (under Carnival group. corp.) is the first ever company in Cruise line history to have a floating brewery on board.
The concept started in 2010 when the first "Brauhaus" was build in Aida Blue, and soon built in 3 more ships. Today Aida claims 4 ships in total that have a Brauhaus.
The idea for the concept was suggested by guests, stated by the president Michael Thamm.
And so to maintain the high guest satisfaction Aida decided to build the first Brauhaus.

So the question is, what do you need to brew your own beer on the sea? First and the most important thing is, You need a Brew Master.
This is the person responsible for all the processes of brewing, and also for the quality and quantity of the beer. No doubt that the Brew Master in one of the most respected crew member on board, and a lot of the guests like to say that hes is the second most important person on board, right after the Captain.
No Brew Master = no beer on board = disaster!


Second thing you need to brew the beer is the Equipment. For each of the brewing processes (Mashing, Loitering, Boiling, Whirlpool, Wort cooling and Fermentation) there is a special machine to get the job done. They are operated by the Brew Master only, and deeply cleaned after every process. The machines are connected to each other, so that the process of brewing is easy to operate and requires less time for the final product.
The process is not running on sea days cause of danger with rough sea.

The final thing you need for brewing is Ingredients.
The Reinheitsgebot or the "Bavarian purity law" is a regulation concerning the production of beer in Germany. It says that you only need the 3 basic ingredients to produce beer: water, barley and hops. Soon after discovering yeast, it became the fourth ingredient for completing the process.
The amazing thing that the water required for the brewing is coming directly from the sea. After desalting, the water is pumped directly into the Brauhaus and is ready for use.


Now that you have all these things, its time to try some homemade beer made out of sea water.
In the Brauhaus there are always 3 kinds of homemade beer: one dark, one unfiltered lager and one action beer which is produced related to the time of the year.
Total storage quantity for the beer on board is 13 000 liters. Wow, right? :)
In the case that you are a beer lover, you definitely have to visit the Brauhaus and taste the Beer.
Prost!



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As always, have a nice day.


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Breakfast in Tallinn














Me and my friends spending some free time in Tallinn/Estonia
















One of the best things in working on a Cruise ship, you can visit so many restaurants :)
After working a late night shift we decided to sleep less that night and wake up early to visit Tallinn.
A small town in Estonia, at first sight it looked like it had nothing much to offer, but you know how its said "all good things come in small packages" 
With no breakfast we started our Tallinn visit around 9 am in the morning.
From the harbour to the center of the town it took us around 20 min by foot, as you can imagine we where pretty hungry when we arrived :).
Giving only a little attention to the beautiful content that the town had to offer, we set our highest priority's to find a nice restaurant for a little snack.
Marching the center which was literally filled with restaurants, we found our self's in a hard task.
Which restaurant to choose? The choice was really hard cause all of the restaurants had almost the same menu and prizes... except one! I don't remember the name but I can sure remember the menu. :)
Offering all kinds of meat like Wild Boar, Lamb, Dear and the one that lured us in the restaurant Wild Bear meat.
So instead a quick breakfast we enjoyed a rich and high calorie meat breakfast.
After ordering (BTW all non alcoholic drinks where included) and waiting around 20 min, the food was on the table. As soon as the last plate hit the table, silence was turned on.
Enjoying our high calorie breakfast and "non alcoholic" drinks everybody seemed to be satisfied, except one.
My friend who ordered the Bear goulash (40€) was really disappointed. To put it short, the Bear goulash tasted the same like the Wild Boar goulash (22€). What a surprise, or?
Later on i came across a funny fact. Bears are endangered in Estonia. :)
Well at least now we know... and 7 out of 8 satisfied costumers is not bad really.

So after such a rich breakfast we took a tour around the center of the town, burn some of the calories.
And just before we decided to go back by foot we crossed on the best thing ever.
Bicycle Taxi!!!












Riding through the town like Bosses!!! For me the best taxi ride in my life.
The wind in you hair, the race to the ship and the laughs on the way back= priceless!














So after all it was a really nice morning, with lots of cool memories.
Love Tallinn <3

Cruise ship Life

Happy or Sad :)(: that is the question.
Should a person be happy or sad when a dear friend and co-worker is leaving the ship?

After going through all phases of learning the ship life, I finaly get comfortable and met some really nice people. While time passed by these people grew close to me and I started calling them friends.
With new friends it was always a joy to spend my time with, and the time sure goes by faster.
Socializing with them I improved in all ways. My language skills got better, my awareness for new cultures grew and the most important thing, I learned from them how to relax on the ship.
But as the time goes by and the dates for disembarking come closer, I find my self in a difficult situation.
Saying goodbye to a close friend and co-worker.
I know it is selfish to be sad when your friend is leaving because that friend is happy for going home, but seeing somebody dear to you leave, is always really hard.
Other way around, seeing that friend so happy about going home after such a long time cheers you up, cause you see that persons joy and you share that joy, even just for that last day.

So even after all this time on board for me, it is always hard to say goodbye to a friend.
But isn't friendship sharing joy with each other? Yes it is.
So i finally realized!
"In hard times its always better to share joy then sadness"













This is a farewell party for our dear friend Vesela (girl in the middle the most happy one :) 











Until we meet again my friends.

Cruise Ship Jobs

New job offers updated:

Aida Cruise Line (English/German)
https://www.aida.de/aida-cruises/karriere/jobs.24549.html?_qf__tx_aidadvinci_jobsearch=&tx_aidadvinci_jobsearch%5Blanguage%5D=43&tx_aidadvinci_jobsearch%5Barea%5D=0&tx_aidadvinci_jobsearch%5Bkeyword%5D=Suchbegriff&tx_aidadvinci_jobsearch%5Bsend%5D=Jobs+anzeigen

Viking Cruise Line (English)
http://www.vikingcruises.com/about-us/careers.html

Crystal Cruise Line (English)
http://www.crystalcruises.com/AboutUs.aspx

MSC Cruise Line (Englsih)
http://www.msccruisesusa.com/us_en/About-MSC-Cruises/Careers/Careers-on-board.aspx

Note that these job offers are for online application only.
For more in formations on how to apply, read the "Get Started" page on the blog.
Find more information on the official websites of the Cruise Lines.

Have a safe cruise.

Stockholm, Sweden


26 July 2014
HardRock Cafe, Stockholm
North see tour with Aida Mar 2014

Cruise lines job offer

A few slots are available now, send your CV.
Learn what the requirements are and how you can apply for a job on a cruise line ship.
Don't be shy and change your life just by visiting these links below.

Carnival cruise line (English)
http://www.cclcareers.com/fun-careers/hiring-now.aspx

Aida cruise line (German/English)
http://www.aida.de/aida-cruises/karriere.24536.html

Disney cruise line (English)
http://dcl.disneycareers.com/en/explore-positions/hotel-operations/

Norwegian cruise line (English)
http://www.ncl.com/about/careers/shipboard-employment/positions-available

Cruise ship, Crew area











After learning about your cabin where your going to sleep and shower during your contract, its time to introduce you with the places where you can eat, relax and enjoy your free time onboard.

I will mention only the most important ones, the other places are not the same on all ships..


Crew Mess

A place where you can eat, relax and have fun in your free time, for sure one of your favorite places on the ship.
A large room filled with a lot of hungry people. Sometimes it can be very noisy and crowdy.
This room you will visit daily even more then your cabin, but like in the cabin there are also rules you will have to follow in the crew mess.
Here are few of them:
-the crew mess mostly has opening times for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late dinner so be sure to memorize  them so you don't skip your meal.
-all cruise lines are very strict about their property in the crew mess (knifes, forks, spoons...) so don't play around and always return everything after use.
-never try to borrow something cause you will hardly prove that you did only borrow it.
-wash your hands before and after
-Respect the COOKS and all other guys working in the crew mess cause just like you they work really hard for their money!!!




Crew Bar  


Where even to begin with this one?? :)
The crew bar is the only place on the ship beside your cabin where you can go a little crazy.
Party with your colleagues, friends and maybe even the captain, its a place of joy for all crew.
Mostly located on the lower decks on the ship its fairly near your cabin, so even if you drink a bit more you should be able to arrive safely to your so needed sleep.
From my personal experience the crew bar is something you shouldn't practice every day, but once or twice in a week should be just fine to forget about your troubles and passengers :).

Some tips about the behaviour regarding the crew bar:
-don't ever get fully drunk, know your limit
-respect the non smoker days
-don't use drugs
-try to make a connection with the bar chef (its always usefull :)


Laundry 


A place that after a while on the ship you will for sure hate!! :)
Try to imagine that after a 12h working day you have to wash your clothes for tomorrow, it will make you mad.
But the laundry is indeed after the crew mess the most important place for you.
It is crucial for you to always have clean and ironed clothing.
The guys and girls working in the laundry will make it for you (only the working cloths) so be sure you threat them with a lot of love and respect.
For you personal clothes there are smaller laundry's with washing and drying machines, your responsibility is to buy the chemicals and use them properly.


I hope i helped a little bit :)

Cruise ship, Crew Accommodation

First i wanna start with the accommodation on the ship for the crew.
When i talk about the ship life its something you will never know until you actually try it out by your self.
Forget everything about the land life if you are going to work on a ship.

You will have to get used to not sleeping alone, cause 90% of the cabins on the ship are double cabins or on some ships even more people share one room.
For some people this could be a negative side but for me its positive cause you learn to share your space, and at the end, you cherish your space even more (even if you only have a little of it).

Double crew cabin                                           Quad crew cabin




These pictures shows us how your accommodation is most likely going to look like.
They kinda look a little bit claustrophobic but believe me, you will spend the least time in your cabin :).
Most of the cabins are equipped with some basic things you will need for a decent staying onboard.
Let me name some of them (Double cabin): - 2 beds with clean sheets for sleeping
                                                                  - 2 closets at least for your personal clothing
                                                                  - 1 TV (if you are lucky)
                                                                  - Bathroom (shower, mirror, toilet, towels)
                                                                  - 2 Life jackets
                                                                  - 2 safe box (for expensive stuff)

Mybe i forgot something to mention but these are the basic things you will find in your cabin wile entering.

Few things that are highly forbidden in cabins:
-Smoke (if you get caught your next destination will be home!)
-Cook ( highly forbidden same as smoking)
-Party's (drinking and loud noises not allowed)
-Drugs (do i have to explain this?)
Sex is allowed only if you don't disturb anybody and keep the cabin clean after it.

If you follow the rules your supervisors give you, your accommodation will for sure be quite and pleasant.
One or two advices from me: -don't do things in the cabin you wouldn't like others to do 
                                             -keep the cabin clean always!! Don't be lazy!!
                                             -respect your roommates (black, yellow or white)

From the day on you put your step on the ship keep in mind that you are now part of a system followed by strickt rules and that everybody is replaceble.
We live in a cruel world my friends :(

Hope i could be of some service to you regarding of showing the accommodation on the cruise ship.
                                             

Tallinn, Estonia


7 July 2014
Me in Tallinn, Estonia
Behind me: Aida Mar (the bigger one) my working place.
                  

Cruise ship jobs



Ah oi to all bloggers and sailors out there :).

Let me introduce my self first. My name is Jakov Fisel and I'm coming from Croatia, Zagreb.
At the age of 27 (now almost 28, how the years pass by uff :) i decided to write a little bit about working and the better side of cruise ships-jobs of course: traveling.

For me the sailing is now a full part of my life and trough the year I'm minimum 8 months on the sea.
One thing i can tell you right away, its not an easy life. Every time i go sailing i leave my lovely wife and little daughter at home and don't see them for at least 6 months.
So to work on a cruise ship and to travel you have to leave somethings behind and set your priority's.
My priority's are to earn money for my family since here at my home i cant secure that, and of course to put work and pleasure next to each other.

Now working for a German company Aida, sailing under a Italian flag, i can say it has become my second home.
My current position is Restaurant Steward (or if you want you can call it waiter) working under the hotel department.
My company Aida now has a total of 10 ships (2015 the biggest one is coming) and sailing all over the world from North America, Red sea, Asia and almost whole Europe. So i can pretty much say i have traveled a lot with these ships and I'm still happy to visit new places.
My last contract i was sailing the western Mediterranean see visiting very nice places such as Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Rom & Marslie and later on in the summer sailing to a colder area the North sea also visiting very nice places like Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallin & St. Petersburg.

With this blog i will try to help and encourage new sailors who are willing to work but don't have the right information about life and work on a cruise ship, and also try to show you the good and downsides of this work.


Setting my priority's to explain all you need to know how to apply for a job, how to handle stress and pressure and how to make a living on a ship this blog is like a walk trough for all newcomers eager to learn more about working on a cruise ship.



      A picture is worth 1000 words they say :)