My Ship Story

The Gabrielle Nierenberg Story: Ship Lips

From a very young age, Gabrielle wants to be a dancer. After becoming a professional dancer she gets a contract on the AIDAmar in 2019. Gabrielle packs a lot of adventure into one year before the pandemic shut things down. She tell about the culture shock on her first ship, meets a nice boy, dancing on a moving ship, German party game, Denmark is the Las Vegas of Europe, and escape from Ukraine.

The Lars Hoglund Story: Cargo to Cruises

From a long line of seafarers in Sweden, Lars first starts working on cargo ships. By chance he gets an engineer position with Commodore Cruise Lines working on the re-fit of the Caribe I in 1983.  He goes on to have a long career working for many different cruise lines such as: Windstar, Royal Caribbean, and the Renaissance R-ships.  He tells stories about having an incredible whale encounter, the disastrous christening of the R4, gives us a pig roast confirmation, two crew jump overboard, a ship fire, a woman scorned, and stripes make a difference. 

The Sharon Waugh Story: The Sharonicles

Former cruise ship employee, writer, actor, blogger, and social media star, Sharon worked for Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Lines. She tells about a collision between two ships in Cozumel, the trials and tribulations of a Grope Coordinator, an incident with a fire screen door, Fountains, and her transition from ships into a social media creator. https://www.instagram.com/rodrigoflamingo/  https://www.instagram.com/thesharonicles/

The Linda Carol Woodward Story: A Peep Through the Porthole

From a young age Linda dreamed about going to sea. Finally in 1996 she joined the Nieuw Amsterdam with Holland America as a fitness instructor working for Steiner. She was on many different lines on 40 ships in many positions over her 15 year career. She tells stories about being fired from Steiner, getting back onboard as Social Host with Carnival, an epic birthday celebration and aftermath, a rogue wave, the reasons for leaving ships, karaoke blackmail, and deciding to write a book.       

For more stories check out her new book: https://www.amazon.com/Through-Porthole-Linda-Carol-Woodward-ebook/dp/B0BMC3QZZ7

The Bas van der Linden Story: Who’s The Boss?

Bas goes from working in Hotels to working for Royal Caribbean on the Brilliance of the Seas in 2012 as Cruise Staff. He tells about being on an arrested ship, ship pranks played on the Cruise Director, cleans guest staterooms during a norovirus outbreak, meets a passenger, and leaves ships after the pandemic hit. 

The Brian David Bruns Story: Cruise Confidential

In 2002 Brian falls in love with a woman and follows her to the Carnival Conquest.  He tells about the trials and tribulations of being the only U.S. waiter to finish a full contract with Carnival. On his second contract, has a chance encounter that lands him a position as an Art Auctioneer, and ends up happily with a different Romanian woman. After ships Brian becomes a best-selling author with a series of books about his life on ships.   https://www.amazon.com/Cruise-Confidential-4-book-series/dp/B074CFCNF5

The Kerem Suna Story: Smell of the Seas

In 1995 Kerem leaves hotels in Istanbul to join the Nordic Empress as Assistant Food & Beverage Manager with Royal Caribbean. He tells about getting forgotten on the Legend of the Seas, going to the Monarch to improve USPH inspections, a fire in the galley, life in the Windjammer buffet, the comment card mobile app idea, the melting pot of ships, and the evolution of work life onboard.         

The James Horan Story: Confidential Mr. Bollocks

In 1989 James borrows 2000 pounds and sets out for Paris to get a job working on a cruise ship. He goes to work as a busboy for Premier Cruise Lines and joins the Oceanic in Port Canaveral. He quickly gets promoted to waiter and tells stories of his adventures in the dining room, Mick The Fish and the stoned Canadian pianist, yellow warnings, and that one degree of separation. He wrote a book under the name James Spencer titled "Cruiseline Confidential" 

https://www.lulu.com/shop/james-spencer/cruise-line-confidential-part-1

The Nicolae Florea Story: Work - Love - Wine

Nico has a dream to get out of Romania and see the world. He gets a job in the bar department working for Renaissance and joins the R5 in Saint-Nazaire for her maiden voyage. He quickly gets a girlfriend and gets promoted, has a problematic roommate, wants to be a crew member again, and now in the U.S. running a winery.

https://www.maisondamis.com

The Rob Mauldin Story: 100 Blowjobs

Rob leaves Texas in 1991 to work for Royal Caribbean on the Nordic Empress as an Assistant Purser. He admits to pushing a dancer in a wheelchair and cast into the pool at the Marriott, tells some stories when Eric and Rob were cabin-mates, resigns from RCCL to work for Flagship Games, Diane makes a cameo, he then goes to Disney Cruise Line shore side and shipboard Hotel Mgr, tells about the Disney start up issues, and meets his wife on the Majesty.