A New Blog Starting Up Soon

In a couple of weeks I am going to be switching to another blog. Yes I will still be waiting on tables but I am also going to work for a travel agency starting in a few weeks specializing in cruise ships , land packages , airline flights and just about anything else you can think of.

This blog will be coming to an end as I do not intend to talk anymore about the restaurant industry. Not that it hasn't been good to me but really other than rude guests there wasn't much else that I felt I could have covered.

This new blog I will be talking about travel destinations. In other words places you and I would like to visit or know more about. The blog is up and ready to go so I am hoping when the time comes you can all join me and together we can talk of travel. Having traveled a bit myself this should be loads of fun.

As well , when I get started there will be a link to a free monthly newsletter informing you of what is new in the travel industry and some real good deals going on out there.

Lastly there will also be a link to a web page where you can browse different vacation packages without leaving the comfort of your home.

The blog is at this link http://cruisingeverywhere.blogspot.com The profile picture is of me and my oldest son on the ship while whale watching in Iceland.

I will be back in a couple of weeks once the training is over and I have written the exam that Ontario travel agents have to write.

Till then , be well..

Jasper 1991

Continuing my job history and following that horrific year of 1990 I jumped on a bus from Toronto to Calgary just after New Year's Day to go to a job interview in Field BC with this Emerald Lake Lodge. I remember how freakin' cold it was! In Saskatoon we arrived early in the morning and had a shower at the bus station during our hour's stop and upon departing I engaged myself in a conversation with the bus driver saying it was freezing. He replied back with , "yeah but it is getting warmer today, it is going up to -32C."

Finally after about 48 hours on a bus I get to Field BC which only has a store and restaurant on the Trans Canada and the Lodge is too far to walk so I give them a call to say I have arrived can they pick me up. Yes they can but it will be a while , perhaps an hour before they can get to me. Okay I will wait. I have my 3 items of luggage with me and I am just waiting.

So I get to the Lodge finally and apply to this job as Assistant Something or other , a position I was well equiped to do. The interview goes fine then the guy says well I have some other interviews to do and will let me know. WTF! Okay bozo , thanks a lot! I have just gotten off a bus from Toronto and now you tell me that you have other interviews to do. So I ask ,"what else do you need to know to make a decision as to hiring myself?"

Well that didn't get far so my next problem was Field BC. No accomodations and the last bus of the day has departed. Listen I will make you a deal cause I have a problem now I tell him. Let me sleep the night in your accomodations and I will be gone in the morning. Alright he says so I make my way in the deep freakin' snow exhausted and a bit pissed off you can say. That is the last I see of that guy.

The next day I am off to Banff on the bus and the Job Centre looking for jobs. I call my stepmother to see if there were any calls for me regarding the resumes I sent out. Yes there was someone who called from Mountain Park Lodges in Jasper by the name of Ray Lovell who is trying to track you down as he has a job for you. She gives me the number , I call him and he says yea come on up. You see the previous summer I worked at the Lobstick Lodge during the breakfast and he knew me. Off I go hitchhiking up the Icefields Parkway with the temperature about -25C. I must have looked funny with my bags and only my shoes and dressed up for an interview.

I get to Jasper , talk to Ray , start the next day , find a room in a house all very quickly. If 1990 was a bad year the opposite was true for 1991. It was fantastic as I saved lots of money and basically working in Jasper is stress free. The total population is 3,000 but there were 25,000 tourists that passed through each day during the summer. Mountains and lakes and animals were all over the place. In the Fall when the traffic died down the elk were all over the place. You had to avoid them more than they you. Mountain bike riding and the going out every night to the dance club after work was all I did.

My daily schedule was work breakfast at the Lobstick and work the evening at another place called the Pallisade Restaurant owned by a Greek. Restaurants owned by Greeks always seem to make money and this guy knew what he was doing for sure. I had to work for him starting at 4 but he wouldn't pay me till 4:30 the guy. So each day I would work for a 1/2 hour vacuuming and setting up the Dining Room for the service. Surprisingly there are a lot of Greeks who live in Jasper , for what reason on how they got there escapes me.

The three restaurants I worked at while I was there were the Lobstick Lodge for breakfast and the Palisade at night. During the summer I eventually got sick of the breakfast and left the Lobstick to work the evenings only and enjoy the days outside. I did try Mama Mia restaurant for a while at lunch but didn't like it too much.

In November the Palisades closed till March. It is an option some private restaurant owners take as it isn't worth staying open for the meagre crowds you get during the winter.

But while there I talked to a few waiters who would be going to work in the Cayman Islands. They would work there in the winter and in Jasper in the summer. I thought that would be really cool so I hooked myself up to a job in the Cayman beginning December 1st. I waited before booking my flight which they were going to remimburse and also some letter saying I was going there for employment. It was coming near the end of November and I was wondering what was going on so I gave them a call only to be told the recession ( remember that one? ) had cancelled a lot of bookings and they would not require my services. So there went the Cayman.

So I spent some time drinking in the bars around town. I had no work and no one was hiring so I thought maybe checking out the cruise ships again wouldn't be a bad idea. Knowing what I had experienced on the SS Norway back in 86 I didn't want to work on a big ship but a smaller one instead. I selectively chose a few to work on.

About 10 days later I get this call. " Hey Steven , do you remember me? It's Stephen Peter calling from Switzerland and I interviewed you for our first ship with Renaissance Cruises." I remembered him instantly and we talked a while with me asking all the questions about staff meals and accomodations etc.. You see when I was in Switzerland back in 89 I did go to one job interview for a new cruise line and this was it. The guy remembered me well , thank heavens!

Renaissance 7 was being built in Marina di Carrara Italy and I was going to be a waiter on the ship. The first cruise was going to be in February but before that we were going to be in Monte Carlo for 10 days loading. Would I like that! Yes sure but how do I get there I asked. They were flying me to Pisa via London. In a few days there would be a contract to sign and the tickets arriving via DHL. I actually come to think of it remember using a hotel fax machine to receive and send back the contract.

So there you go. About a year after arriving in Jasper now I was heading to Italy to be on Regina Renaissance where it was was being built , loaded in Monte Carlo , then off to the Red Sea for 10 day cruises.

Next week I will cover quickly what transpired over the next 4 years.

St.Petersburg Russia 1992

During my first contract with Renaissance Cruises I worked on two ships that enable me to see over 20 countries during a 6 month contract. During the Scandinavian portion of the contract we visited places like Stockholm , Copenhagen , Helsinki , and Taillin but there was one stop that was really exciting for me and that was St. Petersburg.

In the morning we docked in this city and it was real neat to be in a country where just a few years earlier the fall of Communism occurred. I remember talking hockey with the immigration guy at the bottom of the gangplank and taking a walk about the city during the afternoon. Also since we were there during the summer how long a day it was before night fall.

The guests would have an early dinner and be out by 9 then we would set up quickly and head to the Chyka bar. Unfortunately there was a midnight curfew for the crew because of some prior incident that happened with a crew member on another cruise ship who never made it back to the ship and went missing. Perhaps Russia isn't the safest place for foreigners to be wandering the streets at night.

In any case I remember when 11:50 came and we had to make a beeline for the ship. It was so light out it looked as bright as 7:30 in the evening back home.

There was a lot of action with plenty of people everywhere but everything looked so old. The architecture was beautiful but the roads were all full of potholes and the cars were all pretty used looking.

But just being there and thinking about all the country's history and what it was now embarking on was really interesting. It is a place I will not forget.

Myrtle Beach - South Carolina 1994

When I was a kid I had the chance to go with my parents on trips to Myrtle Beach , a favourite spot for all Canadians who hanker for a beach , lots of restaurants , and a nightlife to boot.

I always thought about the day I would be able to visit this great beach on my own without having to follow other people around and just be able to do my own thing. Well the opportunity happened after my second contract on the ship when one of the waiters I worked with had a condo in Myrtle Beach. We were leaving the ship at the same time so I got his address and phone number before I left and promised he would see me shortly banging on his door. It seemed like at least he was throwing out an invitation to come down and visit so I took his word.

I arrived and called him but it must have been bad timing cause he and his wife were having a bit of difficulty and having visitors was not a good time. Here it was in June and as you might expect the hotels and inns were booked pretty much everywhere. He drove me around to a few places and then luckily I landed a hotel room two blocks up from the beach and fully equipped.

With a VIP pass to a dance club he gave me and a goodbye , I commenced on a glorious 6 week vacation in Myrtle Beach.

My daily schedule went something like this for 6 weeks.

Wake up.
Grab the morning newspaper.
Have a coffee.
Go for a walk along the beach.
Have breakfast with a big thermos of coffee and eggs and bacon for $2.99
Get ready to go to the beach.
From about 11 to 4 swim and jump in the water and soak in the rays.
Head back to the hotel , change and head out for happy hour.
Hit a restaurant which there were plenty of.
Then hit the nightclub.

For 6 weeks that was all I did. Two things stand out for me that I remember was the World Cup of Soccer was going on in the States at the time and one time when I headed to Happy Hour OJ was making a run for it in his Bronco.

I haven't been back since but maybe one day when the kids are a bit older I will take everyone down there to check it out so that they too when they are on their own will know a good spot to go in the sunny south to have some fun.