Rainforest and Waterfall Hike

This tour was really more than I expected it to be. I knew I was in for a hefty hike. Which made me happy. I love hiking. Waaaaaaay better than snorkeling. If I don’t have to get in the ocean I am happy. Lol. I love swimming, but when I have to get in the water that mean I have to bring all this extra equipment and I have to bring extra clothes and a towel. Too much shit involved. Plus I am not very good at the underwater shooting yet.

So back to my tour.

We went to East Maui, a place called Twin Falls. It was really cool to see another side of the island. The place was beautiful. All kinds of trails, steep climbs, and creeks to cross. It was challenging and I absolutely loved it. ☺ There were a couple of guy passengers that doubted that I could handle the camera, and the hike physically. I always laugh at that. In the end they were impressed. Lol.

We hiked to 4 different waterfalls.

We had fresh apple bananas and Maui pineapple. ☺ Great stuff.

I have to talk about this tree!!! The Ceiba tree!! I was so amazed by this tree. It has all these huge thorns on it. That was the highlight of my day. It was the last thing I saw on the tour. Me and trees … I just get amazed by them. I was in the other area where all these read trees were. I was again happy. Lol I forget what they are called. I wish I remember what the name was ☹

Trees are awesome. Lol

Waimea Canyon and Wailua River

I had to do Waimea Canyon again. I had no choice in the matter really. Boo! It was a clearer day than last time so that was a plus. Saw Spouting horn again.

Wailua river…I didn’t take any still while on this boat ride. I was too busy shooting everything. It was pretty cool. It was nice not to be on some small rocking boat. It was nice and calm. The boat ride was to the fern grotto. My pictures of this suck!

I was like oh wow the fern grotto ya know. But when I saw it… it really amazed me to be honest. It’s really cool looking. Its one of those thing I think you need to see in person. I just could not get a picture that really depicted what I was really seeing.

They sang this wedding song for everyone, told the story how only royalty was able to even go to this spot. It was really cool. Than I left the area, and on my way out I saw this really cool banister. Lol. Its always the simple things for me. Lol I can’t help it. I was like wow that banister is made out of a tree…yeah I know most are but it actually looked like a tree. Ya know what I mean, most of you probably wont know what I mean. I am weird in that way. ☺

Oh yeah … I almost forgot to mention how we went to this resort for lunch. Lunch was lame….but the resort was pretty cool. The highlight was the beach it was on and this massive painting in the lobby. I really liked the painting on the wall.

Next Kaua’i I am going snorkeling again. My Senior wanted to put me on for snorkeling in Maui again I begged him not to put me on it. I do not like the Maui snorkel cruise whatsoever. I don’t really care for it. I get too seasick to actually care about my camera work. When that happens it’s time to draw the line. Put me where I’ll be useful. I like snorkeling in Kaua’I better. I did both so now I know which one I like. I’ll get a little more practice with the underwater hosing/underwater camera work. ☺

Waikiki Suring

For our Honolulu Port I didn’t have a tour. I was assigned to shoot Island night so I had a free day. I mena if I had a tour I wouldn’t have been able to do it anyway because of the drug test they had that morning. Marek was pretty pissed that he missed out on a tour because of a drug test.

All I knew was that I was going surfing!!

So I did, I went surfing and I had a blast. I can not wait to go again!! I did pretty good too. Way better than I did while in Australia. I did get a small lesson. Totally worth it. I like to get some tips than just jump into it and have no idea how to tackle that task. Lol

Four of us got a lesson and surfed together. It is very addictive I must say. I loved it!! I am going next Honolulu, and I have to do the stupid whale watching tour in Lahaina again (utter waste of my time- you don’t see whales on these stupid boats…they get closer to the ship…way better footage that way!!) , so if possible I will be surfing there too. It’s the last Hawaii cruise So I am getting as much out of this cruise as I can. My senior tried to give me a day off in Kaua’I and I was like please can I have a tour. Lol I love kaua’i. He was gonna give me the day off since I have to do the safety drill that day.

So Waikiki Beach… well its over rated, over crowed, and overpriced. Lol it was pretty cool to walk around in though. There was way too many people trying to surf. The fact that its manmade just bothers me. I kinda wanna be at a natural-real beach. I don’t know. The whole idea of this beach being the most famous in the world…and manmade….just bothers me.

The photog picture is funny. They all have these massive cameras…well me and Dan (he’s cruise staff) had tiny cameras. Lol. Its funny, but I always have mine on me. It was a fun day. Me and jo inda went on our own cause no one else really enjoys walking extensively like we do, or sushi that we were on a quest for. Lol. We also are anti-walmart…and the staff some how ALWAYS likes buying stuff there. If I can help it I don’t. I’d rather buy it from a local business of some sort.

So we had sushi, and it was soooo good! Than we went to this second hand music/book store that I stumbled upon a couple cruises ago that I knew jo would like. I always find some great stuff there. Its funny cause I found it in this dodgey alleyway. And to find it again I was unsure if I would but I found it successfully without walking twenty extra miles in a circle. Lol I bought a couple of CD’s there. Fulfilling my craving for new music.

Than to end my night I always get to ths one bar meet up with a group of friends and had one of my favorite glasses of beer. ☺

It was a really good day.

Ensenada

I know i Promised a post about Ensenada. I never did. so i am finally posting about it.

Ensenada is in mexico. its a very ... interesting port i guess you can say. lol I didnt post about it cause i guess i dont really count it as a port. cause i dont go on tour at this port.

So what do you do in Ensenada?

Eat
drink
Shop.


wait, i think i should re-arrange the order

Drink drink drink

eat than Shop.

or mostly just drinking for the most part for most people.


My first cruise, since i couldnt get off, Ensenada was my first port. I kept Wondering why beforehand everyone kept asking me...Are you gonna drink, with a really eager look in their eye. I was lost. lol turns out thats the main thing people do.

We get there at like 1pm, and all aboard is at 7:15pm for crew. I dont really care to drink during the day, but let me tell you the people i hung with wouldnt have that. I actually hate drinking during the day especially when i know I have to go to work. but ya know in Honolulu I did take a liking to that Brewery there in Aloha tower, when i had to shoot island night at 10pm. the first time i did it I actually had such a fun time shooting that event. Its been great ever since. yea i continued the pattern. lol

Ensenada is okay. Its not the greatest place. but the ship by like nautical law has to stop at a foreign port. idk. Dont ask me to explain why and all the details. I just know we have to stop there.

One more Ensenada. Sad. I've had a lot of good times in this port. random times as well. lol

I posted some pics, not very good. I have more i want to add though, I forgot to load certain photos to my mac. :-(

The Summit of Mauna Kea

This Hilo port I went to the Summit of Mauna Kea. Mauna Kea is the highest Mountain in the world. Now I know most of you are thinking, no Mt. Everest is the highest. Elevation Wise- yes, Mt. Everest is the tallest Mountain in the world.

Mauna Kea measuring from sea level to its peak is if I’m not mistaken 13,796 feet in elevation. The mountain though actually starts from the Pacific Ocean floor. From that measure it’s like 33,000 feet high-I have my numbers wrong its higher than that but I don’t know the exact height. It’s so massive its sinking by its own weight. Its pretty cool when you think about it.

They have a lot of telescopes at the summit. It has one of the clearest views on Earth.

I feel pretty privileged to have been at this spot.

The journey up to the summit was fun. The views were amazing. The tour guide was really a fun guy too. All in all I had a great time.

It was really cool, cause I saw Mauna loa from Mauna kea. You can see all of the hardened lava flows that happened from the last eruption. I have a pic of that on here.

I hope you like the pics. They don’t do the place justice for sure though. ☺

Oh yeah Mauna Kea means White mountain in Hawaiian.

I also added some pics of Hilo...crazy waves and storms!!













Jen anyone who asks me to extend is the devil. lol

Drug testing

Last night I found that my Manager was leaving today! I had no idea. I thought he was leaving on turnaround day.

well to the drug testing part..We were up for most the night drinking with him. he was a cool no bs boss! great dude.

this morning my roommate gets a phone call about drug testing. I guess they were talking about this random drug testing that happens on the ships. and Chris was saying how it hasn't happened yet. its funny he called us and was like "remember what we were talking about last night? well its happening. not you jo, but Amber has to go up." lol

its supposed to be random, but it was me and the senior videographer and both manager(yes including the one that was Disembarking today!) random my ass. I am seeing a pattern of videographer constantly being bothered by bs stuff.

they test 4 people for every 15 crew members.

I went up the crew bar, and they snatch our leminex's from us. than we just wait around while the personel try and get organized. about a half hour goes by before they even call a group up.

you come in...they collect your laminex, you wait. they call you up in a group you wait. they let you in the smoking room area...you wait. than they call you up one at a time. you fill out this paper work, do your thing- they smile at you once done, little more paper work, than you leave.

I got lucky cause i was a chick. they needed more chicks to make the count even or whatever.

my senior couldnt go on tour because of it. that sucks!! No one can go ashore until all drug testing was done. LAMENESS.

i had a great day none the less. more about that later.

High School BS

ya know that mood I was talking about that hits me usually the first sea day? well it hit me yesterday after my day out in Ensenada. ****yeah i never posted pictures from Ensenada...maybe I don't consider it a real port day...idk I think I will though****

I fell into my really crappy mood. I hate when this happens. But I guess you could say one of my "friends" is leaving the ship today. I put the quotations up only because I said this last night "I dont think we're friends, I think she just tolerated me." I did this while figuring out what to say in her leaver's card. I followed that statement with "I think most people just tolerate me." yes, you can see the type of mood I was in. label it the self hating mood i guess. I mean a guy left too, and we were actually friends. I will miss him for sure. :-( he was a good guy. :-)

Gordan and I were having a conversation the other night and we both don't really care for the ship-life scene. We came to the analogy that it is pretty much high school. I'm Pretty sure I had the same conversation with Alan as well. Yeah you have the clicks and stuff. but I seriously hate the lack allegiance to people. I mean no one is loyal to not a god damn soul on board......even if you're fucking them!! I mean that explains the whole comment of people tolerating me.

I know I pissed off a number of people off yesterday. I am getting to the point of being polite. I mean seriously..why should I be, when no one else will care either way. I guess I'd rather be classed a huge bitch than Naive 1st contract. I mean this one girl was really annoying me and I made sure she knew it. than this one guy later on i noticed would not for the life of him leave one of my friends alone, he was trying to get laid. I called him a slimeball right to his face. I never spoken to him on a personal level ever since i've been on board. we work great together. but if i dont have the camera in my hand, and he doesnt have a mic in his, I could care less if he existed or not to be quite honest. My first words to him on a personal level were " why are you such a slime ball? you know you dont have to be like that." he just looks at me and says " Amber, once you do a couple more contract you'll realize that there are worse guys on ships" be that as it may, doesnt mean you have to join that league.

another thing to is the whole people breaking up with people, hooking up with people, and cheating the whole 9 yards. There is this dude I guess is cheating. some people know about it, and there are some really upset that he is being class A slime ball. well someone's response to this was " well it happens on the time, he's not the first, he's not the only one doing this.

okay, right. Fair enough.

No-Fuck that! Just because it happens all the time, doesnt make it right. Jesus christ.

Are you guys like getting what I mean. reality is seriously skewed to the max on ships!!!

I heard this the first week I was on Board: " its like people come on board to be the person they really wanna be." meaning they are a totally different person on land. they are "better" people i guess you could say. they do all this grimy shit on board thinking/hoping/knowing no one will find out about what type of shit they are doing.

morals just fucking leapt out the dam window!!

I am just sick of the shallow, repulsiveness of people on ships.


Another thing that totally bothers me is when i know when people are bothered, or pissed, but they refuse to say so. I was discussing differences between my old and new senior and chick over heard, and i guess i didnt have such nice things to say about my past one. she didnt like it. tough shit. cause once I found out I really was being taken advantage of ***and this was the reason why a lot Junior videographers for Princess quit mind you*** I tend not to be okay with that. Yeah great guy, professionally- not so much in my positive category. sorry. Once I found out he wasnt doing a lot of the things he should have...I saw him differently of course.

sorry. I feel bad that i found all this out. it sucks. To bad I wasn't working with Marek longer. I respect him a ton!!

okay i am done venting for now. I hope this cruise is good. I hope The two new photogs are good people. I pray for that to be honest. lol

the great people are so few and far between. I really appreciate these people for sure!! and when they leave it f-ing sucks!!

wish me luck!!

2 hawai'is
reposition cruise
2 Alaska's


:-)



Jen: Our Roadtrip is gonna be the shit!!

mind change-movie career stuff

So, yes I did the "Amber" thing. I changed my mind on extending.

Marek, by current Senior told me to think about it and get back to him. i thought about it for about three days. I talked to my roommate, other photogs, and crew, my mom and sister.

My first thought was well... 3 and half months means I'll have to get a job, or go on unemployment or something. i need a job basically, some kind of financial backing for those three months. so I was thinking well extending will help the finances.

Than I'm thinking about ship life....oy! I dont really care for it. I'm thinking about home, and just how being on land is awesome. I'm thinking about how I need some other experience other than videography on a cruise ship. I wont be doing this for the rest of my life. so I'm thinking... ok use the three months at home wisely. Dont extend and waste a month on the ship. its not worth it.

I am planning on applying to this Assistant Director's program LA or NY. i had planned on that since this October. I know i told craig about it. That was my plan from the start. 2012 would be when I start that program. 2011 is when i apply and go through this uber long process.

I think what I let happen is let ship life/this job change my course a bit. Yes, I want to travel. yes I want to live in other countries, but I need to be prepared before I start jumping all over the world. If I successfully get through this program I'll be in the director's guild. ( i mena if i dont get into the program I still have stuff to fall back on) which I can use it to my advantage and it'll get me a heads up on getting jobs almost anywhere. So I can use that to get a start in the UK, or in South Africa, or where ever, if i wanted. I wanna move to these places, I'm like well Amber you need a job and all that while there. right now I feel like I don't fair well among others in my profession just yet.

But for the time being I am going home May 29th finishing my short film FINALLY! and than doing another short with my friend jeff. He wrote this cool marriage one. not one you would think it is either.lol. but than I am helping on this documentary.

As long as I am doing something in film I am happy. I feel like it will help me in the long run. :-)

Yes, the Videography on board will help with my demo, but I want to learn and be more efficient in behind the scenes... producing/AD basically the admin stuff not the creative end. I do like being creative, but I do very much like the putting the film together. Making it happen, not just making the creative calls. Videography doesnt give me that. it gives me the creative outlet for sure..depending on what I shoot.

I tell you for sure My editing got way faster. my camera work is better. although i do have my lazy days. but who doesn't ya know.


My plan is still to work in film, this cruise ship era wont last forever, but it will help me to be where I want. :-)


hopefully.




Jen, I promise I will use a whole 60 minutes calling you next time.

**bitches and ho's**

:-p

My next contract

I finally found out my next ship. ☺

I am joining the Diamond Princess Sept 11th. This ship goes to Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. ☺

I am super excited to go back to Australia, and to finally see some of New Zealand. Asia is seriously going to blow my mind I know it. I can’t believe I got this ship.

If I get promoted to Senior, than this wont be the ship I’m on. It’s a grand class ship, which means it has a senior and junior. This is the ship that my senior now came from, and my last senior is going to. So, I get to work with Stephen again. We know how each of us works so it will be good. Jo put in a request to go to the diamond. It’s gonna be a great contract. ☺ Two of my casino friends are going to the diamond as well!! Not Alan, but Robert and Jo. It’ll be great to see familiar faces.

Joining on that date gives me a three and a half month break!! Crazy. So my options are to extend a few more weeks while we are in Alaska. I was talking to the fam and my mom would think it’s a good idea, since I would like to see more or just two weeks of Alaska. I have the option to extend because there isn’t anymore in rotation after me yet. This is a hard decision for me simply because yes, I wanna go home and chill out, but I don’t get paid vaca. Lol. So I have to find a job while home, or go on unemployment. I can go on unemployment…but I wont get much money, and I might get bored. Flip side…I may just wanna chill, but not for three and half months. Lol so I think extending a few weeks will help financially.

I’m gonna tell my senior tomorrow. I’ve been thinking about it hard core.

I mean there are so many things I’d like to get away from ya know.

Oy! Oh well I’m excited about my next contract. ☺

But …if I make senior which my senir tells me is a big possibility I will be trans-shipped and than who know where I’ll be going. Or what else could happen is they can call me when I am on my holiday and say hey we need you here on this day. Which I guess happens often. So who knows. I mean as long as I get to go home for a bit and spend time with friends and fam, and do regular land stuff, and get to go to my friends wedding in July I’ll be happy. ☺

Maui Snorkel Cruise

Since my last senior left, and this senior couldn’t off the ship until he does immigration (a very lame process if you read that post) I was stuck doing the snorkeling this cruise. ☹

I know what people are thinking…Why is she frowning, snorkeling is cool? Yeah I agree it is. I do enjoy it.

Its just …lame. Lol so much camera equipment is needed. And that isn’t what bothers me.

With this specific tour it involves this really long ride to this crater. I don’t do well on small boats whatsoever. I get really bad sea sickness. The sea was really rough as well on the day I went.

Plus I’m just not as skilled at underwater shooting like Stephen was when he was here. So I don’t like how I know people will compare our work. Stephen did it every two weeks. It’s his passion for sure. Me, I like the hiking, adventure, and historic tours. Snorkeling… it’s okay but it’s not at the top of my list.

This tour started off great. Nice day!! As you can see in the pics. There was a long ride to the crater where we stop to snorkel. Saw some whales on the way there. I took this opportunity to take pics of whales this time around, cause as much whale watching I’ve had to do while taking video I never took stills. I only took a few. Not so good, but what can ya do. Lol

The snorkel spot, was okay. I liked snorkeling in Kaua’I better though. Stephen said Maui snorkeling was way better. Needless to say I didn’t think it was.

I guess this affects my opinion…the sea was so rough people only went snorkeling for about a half hour. All time was spent on the boat. We were supposed to stop at another place to see turtles. Well we didn’t. ☹ boo. I bet had I saw them turtles I would be like holy shit this was the best tour ever. But… that’s not what happened. Lol

So we head back, and I swear I was seriously in body shut down mode. When I get sea sick, my body just shuts down, and wants to pass out. But I put my ipod on and just used my camera as a head prop and my sea sickness went away. ☺ so, than I enjoyed the rest of the boat ride back to the harbor.

We got back into Lahaina at 2pm, and I got my haircut. Which always makes me happy. ☺ But than I had to get the tender back to the ship and on the tender I saw this massive rainbow. There is always one over Maui, there are very few cruises where there isn’t somewhat of a rainbow over Maui. This one though was like really thick! It was huge. Amazing.

Kilauea Volcano Hiking

For this cruise I visited the Kilauea Volcano National Park once again.

Mind you I didn’t have this tour down for one of my choices, simply because I already visited this place last cruise. It was a bit different, don’t get me wrong I like how I get to do all this stuff, but the shore-ex manager likes to give me whatever tour she wants-repeats or not. Sooooo…..boo.

I visited the caldera again. I mean I do enjoy seeing it. We than went to the lava lake, hiked to the Lava tube I went to last cruise. Hiked down into the lava lake bed/crater and back out to hike on the outer rim of the crater.

This hike was intense. I am fairly fit, I like to think I can take some strenuous activity. This hike was about 5 miles long.

I experienced all weather besides snow on this hike.

It went from really cold, to rainy, to extremely windy, to extremely hot, humid, then to extremely, hot, humid, and sunny. Lol Yes, I did get some color. Lol

This tour was pretty cool. Small group of people. I do enjoy hiking, but this one was a bit tough. I had all the regular camera equipment. I was fine 3 miles in. by mile 4 I was like…. Okay we are really far from where started….I started to doubt my strength for sure. I was still doing my job. I got some pretty cool shots. By the last mile I was approaching my limit. I started to fidget with the camera more and more often.

Than there were these dam stairs….I HATE stairs, but we were pretty much done by this point.

I got back to the ship and was sooooo tired! I totally napped it off, and was totally fine. Woke up and exercised later that night. The only reason I worked out after was because I wanted to work out some of the soreness I started to get, and to up my fitness a bit, cause I don’t want to be caught at my limit on tour again!!

Some of the stuff I got to see was surreal to be honest. I was hiking on a lava lake. Seriously? Lol. All the different rocks were really cool to see. Also the hot steam that was coming up from these holes in the ground was crazy.

It sucks I couldn’t see any Lava. But as far as I was told, the lava is flowing, it’s actually in tubes and stuff which are taking it to private land. There isn’t any lava flow within the park. They said its not flowing into the ocean currently. I may not be able to see lava while I am here. We were trying to get me on a helicopter tour, but again the shore ex manager….lameness.

This tour was my hardest one. Very cool though.


My edit of the tour was pretty freaking awesome too. Better than I thought I would have done. ☺