My next contract

I recently have been communicating with Princess about my next contract.

Originally I was supposed to join the Diamond Princess September 19th. Well....that isn't gonna happen now. One of the videographers got medically disembarked, and they called me up to find out if I could leave right away to join the ship. This was sometime 2 weeks ago.

I am gonna be honest the terms weren't in my favor. I will say that...but are they ever, really?? Since I am American, and because my job entails working on foreign soil; I may sometimes run into ***hey I need a visa!!*** Well this was the case with China and the Diamond Princess. Since they needed me to leave right away....I didn't have time to get my Chinese visa. So, I would have had to join the Diamond for only 2 months, than since there was no guarantee that I would have been able to get my visa while on the ship I would have been trans-shipped.....WHO KNOWS WHERE!!!! Everyone who does ships knows that being trans-shipped--- SUCKS!!! If I didn't leave when they wanted to I would have been bumped totally off that ship. Either way I probably wasn't gonna make it to Asia like I wanted to!!

So, what did I do? I told them the earliest I could leave would be Aug 3rd. I was optimistic that I would obtain my visa while on the ship. I was set to leave Aug 3rd.

All of this was discussed, and they needed an answer in a matter of a half hour on one phone call. My rash decision was: "Yes, sure I can leave on Aug 3rd."

I hung up the phone started to tell my friends that I was gonna be leaving Buffalo. I started to scramble to be quite honest.

Than I started to really think this over. DO I WANT TO LEAVE...at least right now???? I talked to a few important people, and even did a freaking pros and cons list!! I mean how stupid is that?!? If any one actually does that please let me know so I don't feel like an absolute fool. lol.

I emailed Princess two days later saying no I couldn't go.

my reasons...

***Well I wanted to go to Asia....no money and time to get my visa before joining the ship.
***There was no guarantee that I'd be able to get my visa while on the ship.
***I had to get uniform stuff in order(they dont pay for that stuff)
***I didn't wanna do Alaska again for two months.
***I was holding out for this film job(yes I took that risk)
***I wasn't ready to leave Buffalo Just yet.

All in all I guess I didn't really have a big giant reason why not to go. Plus I was gonna miss out on a few things that were happening this August.

Since I denied that contract there was a chance they weren't gonna offer me a new one. If they offered me a new one I could get a bad itinerary. Once I told them I couldn't my rep told me that my next ship was going to possibly be the Sapphire on Sept 19th. LAME ITINERARY!!! All places I've already been...at least 70% of the ports.

Than two days ago I got another email asking if I could go on the Caribbean Princess. I DO NOT WANT THAT SHIP!!!! lame itinerary. 7 day cruising. They make NO MONEY on that ship. Selling DVDs is like pulling teeth on that ship!!! Every Cruise fleet-wide they have the worst in sales!! It doesn't matter who the videographers are...what cool commercials they have going, what awesome flyer is up...they sell like 20 DVDs. No commission money for me.

so, right now I haven't said no to that ship....I haven't said yes.

I don't even know if I wanna do ships anymore. I am thinking I wanna save for a year than focus on my film career. Who knows?????

I am very torn on this ships/film thing.

OY!