Bon Voyage!

22/09/2019

Today marks exactly one month since I started my adventure around the world on board Royal Caribbean’s ‘Ovation of the Seas’ as a featured vocalist.

During this time, I have had my eyes opened in a variety of different ways. Not just at 8am when I have to learn to fight a fire or slide someone down some stairs on an Evac chair (Being the person on the chair was fun though! Thanks Desi for my ride!)

I have decided to use my new, re-energised and freshly travelled mind to accumulate some thoughts and feelings about my adventure so far…

So here we go:

3 Things I discovered in my first month working on board a cruise ship:

(In order of severity)

1. Jesus. Canine. Christ!

 I MISS DOGS! This was something that seriously took me by surprise. I have always been an animal lover, but it never, ever struck me as something that I would miss while travelling around the world. I would have never thought of myself as one of those strange people actively searching for dogs to pet, but here I am: Sam the lanky dog searcher. This has confirmed that there will 100% be a dog in my life one day. One I can call my own. One that I can pull away from those strange people working on cruise ships, who ask to pet MY dog..

Meet Dibbles*…

I met Dibbles* in Skagway, Alaska with 2 of my colleagues/fast becoming best friends from the ship, Caroline and Jack. He was so friendly and loved every second of the attention we gave him. Luckily, my friend Jack was on hand to capture the moment. It’s one of my favourite photo’s I have so far of my adventure. Just the way Dibbles* is looking at me, makes me happy. We loved him, and he loved us.

*Confession. None of us can actually remember what the dogs name was. I was and still am convinced it was Dibbles. Caroline thought it was Nibbles and jack was too busy taking another photo on his disposable camera at the time of the name discussion. We then jokingly came to the conclusion that he was called Derek, to avoid any further confusion.

P.S  I’m sure he was called Dibbles. Sorry Caroline.

2. Saying hello to strangers is NOT strange.

I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to walk down the street and simply say hello to people. Just a simple smile and eye contact, could then lead to a hello. It is amazing how this effortless greeting can quickly develop into an incredible conversation with someone who you never EVER would have spoken to before.

Disclaimer: You don’t have to walk down the street like Mr Bean greeting everyone in a strangely positive and extremely suspicious way. I do*, but that’s purely because he is one of my idols.

*I don’t actually. Well, not intentionally…

Looking back to life before this adventure, I actually went out of my way to avoid eye contact, and speaking to anyone I was not familiar with. Whenever I was walking anywhere I would put my headphones on, even if I had no intention of listening to music, purely to avoid anyone speaking to me, or getting stuck into an awkward conversation.

 What a shame…

Actually, that one time that a man in Clapham Junction, clearly high on some sort of illegal substance tried to talk to me while I had my headphones on. So I used my Mr Bean battered brain and started saying “Hello, yeah I’m about 1 minute away” pretending to be on the phone to someone, they did save me that time. But that was rare.

But genuinely, the atmosphere at some of the places I have visited so far has been so different to anything I experienced back home in the UK. I took a moment to try to work out why:  People ACTUALLY talk to each other. It makes an environment so much healthier, happier and productive when people talk, joke, laugh and enjoy that particular moment together. Try it, I guarantee you’ll feel a bit better because of it.  

3.Social Media is not a priority.

I love social media. At one point in my life I was absolutely obsessed with how many ‘likes’ or ‘retweets’ a post got.  Again, now having had a decent amount of time away from my phone and social media (thanks to non reliable ship wifi), I have a fresh view on it.

I love seeing what everyone is up to, however at one point I got to a stage where I was constantly comparing my life to everyone else’s that I was following online. This is where it gets unhealthy.  Religiously watching someone’s portrayal of their life online is like watching the best bits of Gemma Collins on ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!’  It’s all edited and the boring bits are cut out. Who would want to see Gemma sleeping? No one. Who wants to see her crying hysterically and begging to get out of a helicopter before it has even left the ground? Everyone.

 It’s ironic that when we are somewhere incredible, or having such an amazing time, we take time away from that experience, to post something online to express how much fun we are having.  I honestly believe if you are genuinely having a great time, you won’t have time to post about it until afterwards. Imagine how much stuff you have actually been missing, whilst editing or posting a story/post onto social media?

Of course, I’ll be sharing pictures/videos and everything else about my adventure. However, I now have a mindset that won’t allow me or an obsession with sharing my life instantly on social media, take away from any memories or moments that I know I will treasure one day. It’s like the morning after a *very* intoxicated night out, when you scroll through your camera roll and discover what legendary footage your drunken self managed to capture. The suspense and hilarity is always one of the best things about messy nights. It’s like that, but with fewer hangovers, less blurry photos/videos and more lifetime memories. Win win.

This post was written and published somewhere in the ocean between Seattle and Hawaii

Sam Wearing

Mr Bean Enthusiast

 25, The Ocean

The World

The Universe

PS: Don’t try and drink water upside down, whilst lying on a pool table. It will end like this:

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