Contract 2 - Aurora

January - July 2017
A 178-day adventure by The Ships Photographer
  • 101footprints
  • 35countries
  • 178days
  • 268photos
  • 0videos
  • 99.3kkilometers
  • 44.0ksea miles
  • 16.7kkilometers
  • Day 1

    Pearson Airport

    January 28, 2017 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ -1 °C

    At the airport waiting for my flight. Getting through security again was very quick with no lines. Got some snacks for the flight and taking advantage of the free wifi while I wait. On the way to the airport I got my last Tim Hortons hot chocolate with my parents for the next 6 months.Read more

  • Day 4

    Dubai, UAE

    January 31, 2017 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    Was hoping to make a post from Dubai but jet lag got the better of me. The flight there was not fun. The flight was horrible. The only thing nice about it was the couple beside me who were really nice. They were fascinated about my job and the places I've been. The wife and I spend an hour and a half going through the photos from my last contract. She loved it, and it killed time. Other then that though, the plane was late leaving, then they had to de-ice it twice because they didn't do it right the first time. Then the weather wasn't nice so it was rough, the food was terrible, there was a toddler behind me who kept smacking my seat, it took forever to get off the plane and I only got about an hour and a half sleep. Then it got even better when the customs line took forever! I made another new friend however in the customs line because that took forever. The airport here was kind of confusing and she spoke the language she we worked together to find our luggage and then taxis'.

    Since coming back to the ship everyone has been very excited to see me again. Most people didn't know I was coming back so they are very surprised.

    I wasn't able to see much of Dubai but we are now headed to Mumbai where I will hopefully be able to get off the ship and do some exploring.
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  • Day 7

    Mumbai, India

    February 3, 2017 in India ⋅ 🌫 28 °C

    Mumbai was amazing. A bar steward Rachad used to be on this ship but is now on a different one. He had his cousin meet us to show us Mumbai. It was awesome. He took us to a bunch of different places to take pictures such as the queen's necklace and he bought us tons of food (little of which we actually knew what it was). He took us to a market to look around and take pictures then brought us back to the ship. Once we were back he gave the three girls really pretty bracelets saying it's so we will remember him. Mine was gold with hearts on it. It was a great day.Read more

  • Day 16

    Singapore, Singapore

    February 12, 2017 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Singapore was an over night. I was not able to get off the first day however. The new passengers were joining the ship and I was one of the people who had to be there to take their photo. Most of the new passengers however are very nice and a lot of fun. With the world cruise you pick up passengers from all over the world instead of just having all British passengers which makes it a lot of fun. Right now there are a lot of Australians onboard and they love having fun with their photos.
    The photography team went out during the day but came back later in the evening to get ready to go out at night. This time I was able to go with them. We got a taxi to Marina Bay Sands. We took one of the towers up to the very top to a bar. The view was amazing but the prices were not. Two of the photographers bought drinks anyway and spent £24 each on their drinks. After that it suddenly started pouring rain so we just decided to leave. We just went back to the ship and went to sleep so we could get up in the morning to try going out again.
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  • Day 17

    Singapore, Singapore

    February 13, 2017 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    The second day in Singapore was better then the first. This time we took the train to Little India first. Which was a lot of fun. We looked around a lot of shops and it was just like being back in India. We then took the train to Raffles Place. We were wishing we had gone there the night before. It was really nice there and we did a bit more shopping and exploring. We then got the train back to the ship to start work.Read more

  • Day 19

    Semarang, Indonesia

    February 15, 2017 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    With the Valentine's party last night everyone was very tired this morning and it took a long time before we left the ship. Once we did we had a 40 minute shuttle bus ride. Which is the longest we've ever had. The shuttle bus took you through a very poor area where most people were asleep under whatever they could find and there were only shacks for buildings. People were walking down the middle of the road selling water and fresh fruit. Like you see at home with window washing sometimes.
    The bus dropped us off in a slightly nicer area at the visitor centre. We stayed there for a bit updating our phones and checking emails before walking down to a shopping centre. We walked through the entire things but I just bought some ice cream and a drink. We then went back to the shuttle and are now using the free wifi in the cruise terminal. There were not very many photo opportunities today.
    One of the big differences between the world cruise and regular cruises is that you go to many ports that cruise ships rarely go to. Today was an example of that. Other cruise lines occasionally go here but P&O never has before. Everyone was so excited to see us. People were taking pictures of us as we were coming and going from the cruise terminal. Kids were jumping up and down waving as the shuttle bus drove by. People are on shore are always taking pictures of the ship as it comes and goes from ports. On regular cruises the ports you go to are full of other cruise ships.
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  • Day 21

    Bali, Indonesia

    February 17, 2017 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    At each port one photographer has to stay on board the ship in case of an emergency. This is called in port manning (IPM). Today I am IPM. So my day will include a lot of sleeping, movies and probably some laundry.

    This is a good port to be IPM however because we are unable to dock the ship here. This means people have to take the tender boats to shore. For this port it's a 40 minute tender which is a lot longer then usual. In tender ports crew are not allowed off the ship until most of the passengers have gotten off. Then they will make an announcement that crew shore leave has started. Sometimes crew shore leave will not start until later in the afternoon and sometimes it won't happen at all. Then no crew can get off. Photographers if they get up really early can get the first tender across with security if they want because we technically are working but it's usually very early. Today it was 6:30am.
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  • Day 24

    Penang, Malaysia

    February 20, 2017 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Went on my first crew tour. We went to an orangutang rehabilitation centre. They were so cute and I also got henna done on my hand.
    The rehabilitation centre is an island you have to take a boat to. On the way there someone mentioned how it's like Jurassic park and then the entire boat started humming the theme song.
    The tour was a lot of fun but we spent most of it on the bus with only 40 minutes to actually go around the centre.
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  • Day 25

    Fremantle, Australia

    February 21, 2017 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Had a nice relaxing day out in port today with the ship's audio technician. There weren't too many places to go so we wandered around for a while grabbing some lunch and free wifi, followed by some ice cream. Then we just found a nice park and spent a few hours just relaxing there getting a nice sun burn. After I got really bored with that and annoyed him enough we continued our walk. We walked along the water and ended up finding an art boardwalk along some small beaches. It had sculptures that in most cases didn't make any sense to us all over the place. The board walk almost took us back to the ship were we headed to start work.Read more

  • Day 29

    Adelaide, Australia

    February 25, 2017 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Today has been a bit of a roller coaster. This morning was amazing. I went on a passenger tour called Adelaide and Cleland Wildlife Park. The Adelaide part was kind of boring. Just driving around with the tour guide pointing out different things. I was already excited for the park and before we got there 2 kangaroos hopped across the road and then I got very excited.

    When you first arrive at the park you can purchase a surprisingly large bag of food to feed the animals. Seeing how large it was made me even more excited. Knowing that meant that there was probably a lot of animals to feed. Which there was.

    The park was awesome. All the animals are just free to roam around. With just occasional gates you can walk through to keep certain species apart. You could just go up to the kangaroos to feed and pet them. The only animal you couldn't walk up to was the Dingos. You looked down on them from a bridge. To me they just looked like regular dogs. There was the opportunity to hold a koala but the line was VERY long and not moving. With only 2 hours at the park I decided not to do it and see the other animals instead. When I walk past it 25 minutes later and saw the group who was in front of me in almost the same spot I knew I had made the right choice.

    Once we were back to the ship I grabbed my laptop and went into the cruise ship terminal to use the super slow free wifi until Abbie got back from exploring. Abbie and I both have the night off tonight, combined with a late sail so we decided to go out for dinner in port and then come back to the ship to watch the movie that was playing. Tonight the theatre is showing Sully. We took the hour long shuttle into town to spend 45 minutes walking from restaurant to restaurant either being told they are completely booked or we decided we don't want to eat there. We were very frustrated and hungry when we found Passatempo. We weren't thrilled when we saw the menu because it was a little more then we wanted to spend but we gave in a sat down. We are now still sitting in the restaurant with AMAZINGLY fast wifi (now frustrated I wasted time in the cruise terminal) feeling way too full after eating some very amazing food. We are now okay with how much we're paying.

    Next we grabbing some Gelato from here and then headed back to the ship for a carnival themed party in the crew bar because it's a Goan festival today.
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