Where one thing ends another begins

I have completed everything on my long list of hire paperwork and am currently on Active Hold. Everyone tells me that it is best to just live your life as I was and not worry or sit around and wait for a sail-out date, this however seems almost IMPOSSIBLE while I am very excited to get on the ship and start the adventure of a lifetime, at the same times I don't want what I currently have to end. It is late and I will expand more on this tomorrow. Hope everyone is doing good and having a great week. This weekend I turn the big 19 so close to not being a teen anymore!!!

...ITS ARRIVED

With these two item and once I have my TWIC card I can go anywhere in the world!!

Well today everything became real, I received my MMC in the mail and will be picking up my TWIC on Wednesday, I will send a copy of my MMC to my recruiter. I should know by the end of next week if I am on the rotation list or may possibly even know a sail out date if my position on the ship is open.

UPDATE

Hello blog readers,


   Sorry it has been such a long time since I have updated it has been a very busy week as I was working extended schedules at work since we are on spring break schedule. Not much has happened as far as progress....... okay i say not much but truthfully a lot has happened.... On 3/9/2012 my MMC application was submitted on my behalf by NCL. This process usually is a 8-10 week process from the time it is submitted to USCG, goes through review of my Medical,Criminal,Personal and everything from the time that I was born to current day. As of 12:38 p.m. on March 16th,2012 my MMC credentials are currently in USPS First Class somewhere in the U.S. on its way to my house. I will be traveling down to Corpus Christi on Wednesday the 21st in order to pick up my TWIC card and my MMC should be in my mailbox any day now. As soon as this arrives I will take a copy of it and fax it to my recruiter who will in return give me either my sail date or put me on the wait list. At this point in time everything is becoming more and more real and the fact that soon I will be making Hawaii my home for 5 months at a time and in between contracts will be touring the world. I know at this point in time my blog seems very repetitive so please bare with me as the closer to sail out and once on board the blog should be full of great stories. I will also be sharing my stories of my travels during my breaks so once this all get rolling it should be great. At this point in time I am looking for questions from my readers,, it can be about anything... Wanting more info about one of my entries, wanting to know more on how I got to this point, questions about the cruise industry from a cruisers view, what I am expecting, what I know about my job at this point. If I don't know the answers I will try and find them for you.

Not A Criminal

As of 3/3 my TWIC card was approved and has been sent to the production plant to be made and hen will be sent back to Corpus Christi where I will go back and pick it up. You will probably see that I have not been posting daily or nearly as frequent as I was at first but that is for a few reasons, I have been trying to spend extra time with friends and family since I will be away for months at a time, this is a stage in the hiring process where there are long wait periods before I move onto the next steps however on the same note we are also at a point where besides the wait period there is not much left to do. Once my TWIC arrives, Medical Clears, and my MMC arrives then one of tow things will happen, I will receive a sail out date if there is any open spots for my position or I will be placed on active hold and the long wait will begin until I sail out. This has been one of the best experiences in my life and something I have dreamed of for years. It has really made me "grow up" and take responsibility in all my daily work.

TWIC

Hello Readers,

This post won't be too long as I have to get up in 7 hours and make a 3.5 hour drive home and be at work by 2 so tomorrow will make for a long day and cranky Tyler but I would trade anything for what I have going in my life. Yesterday around midday I drove to San Antonio and spent the night with my mother, we then woke up and drove down to Corpus Christi today to complete my application and registration for my TWIC card. This is a card required in order to have un escorted assess to secure areas. Now let me remind you the trip from San Antonio to Corpus took around 2 + hours, my TWIC appointment... a whopping 10mins.... so this trip seemed pointless, but let me make it even clearer,,, I must travel down there again to pick up and activate my card which will take another 10 min appointment.... but the journeys make it 100% worth it. Well not much else happened this past week or so or since my last post. Well guess it is time for me to get off this computer,pintrest, and Facebook and hit the sack before my long drive tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great day!!!!

Status Update

I am just checking in and letting everyone know where I sit on my journey to boarding the ship.

At this point in time I have completed the following:

Job fair and Interview

New Hire Paper Work 

Medical Exam 

I have remaining:

TWIC Application (Overnight Road Trip :) )

MMC Application (NCLA takes care of this for you)

Receive Clearance from Medical Exam, Receive TWIC and MMC cards
Receive Sail Out Date and/or be placed the active hold list.

This is the Pride of America , the ship I will be employed on. 

This journey has deficiently been a life lesson on how quick things in life can change, it made me realize that we have to be thankful and enjoy what we have when its around because as in this situation life can change in only a matter of a few days. I am really looking forward to getting to the ship and completing my training and get to working. While told it is hard to transfer departments once on board, I am hoping that I can prove my dedication and get transferred to shore excursion, front desk, or cruise staff position soon. I am thankful to have such a supportive group of family and friends who have really helped and encouraged me on this long and difficult but eventually wonderful journey in life. This job will open up the chance for my to see the world and travel and that is amazing. 

....BLACKOUT....

This title of this blog is actually a rather embarrassing story but I will share. Well for those of you who read my last blog I had my medical exam this morning at 10:30am. Like a very unsmart person who you would have thought would know nothing about the medical field, decided to go to my medical exam without eating knowing that they would be drawing blood. Well everything went great until we got to the blood work portion. I was fine for the first two and a half tubes but the last one really got me!!!! Needless to say I ended up blacking out and was out of it for a few seconds, one of the most embarrassing and first time experiences in my life that I don't want to experience again. The rest of the exam was a breeze except for the length of it, from the time I arrived to the time that I walked out of the office was right over two hours. This was definitely probably the worst parts. !! Now the wait begins to get my blood work and all of my other test results back. I will be going down to Corpus Christi this next week in order to apply for my TWIC card which those of you applying or currently employed know what it is, for those of you who don't , this is the card you need to get into secure area, 6-8 Weeks after that I have to travel back down and pick it up :/ lots of traveling for two 15min appointments. Well that is all for this post, time to go get a movie and go to bed I slept very little last night and my fainting session did not help at all. Hope everyone is doing well. Another blog to come tomorrow.

Call is done... the fear of needles sets in

              I was able to talk to my Recruiter Administrator today and we were able to get my medical exam set up for the 22nd, the only problem with this is that it consist of BLOOD WORK :(, for all of you who do not know me I am not a fan of NEEDLES at all, however I am fine watching others give blood, get shots, ect, and am fine with taking peoples glucose,giving shots ECT. i just DO NOT like needles going into me, so this should be an interesting experience. Once this is complete I will be making a short over night trip to South Texas to apply for my TWIC(Travel Worker Identification). And will then have to travel back down there a few week later just to pick it up :(, I will be on the road a lot over the next few months but am really looking forward to all of the traveling. Well I still need to go eat dinner before I head into work so I will wrap this blog up, I will try to post after my late night workout tonight.

Make sure y'all follow me and keep watching for my Video Blog Link To Come!!!

Next Steps..

I am sorry for the random blogs and not posting everyday,, It is actually kind of crazy attempting to balance, friends, family, job, pre-employment process,and then still have time to yourself to work-out, relax,sleep ect. I am current completing a workout routine to help build strength and reduce stomach fat, and trying to complete as much of this as I can before my medical exam and especially before I get to the Hawaii. I received my Welcome call yesterday however since I was at work I was unable to answer, I did return the call so I am now just waiting on my return call as we begin our crazy game of phone tag. Once this step is done, the next steps will involve a few overnight road trips and tons of paperwork and wait time. I took this picture on my way into town today and did some editing and i figured I'd share it.

PLATEAU..

Well I haven't got to write in a few days because there hasn't been much going on. I have been spending most of my time working and hanging out with friends and family. It just recently hit me the other day that  in just a few months time I will be going 5+ months without seeing my friends and family here on the mainland. I am currently in the second stage of the hiring process, I have completed all of my new hire paperwork and have faxed it in, I am now waiting on my Welcome Call where I will be assisted in setting up a medical check with a doctor and discuss how the last portion of the hiring process. Once I have all of my paperwork, documents, and identification I will be going on a sort of "wait list" this is where, as workers check-off the ship and contracts end, the wait list moves into the spots and it a sort of rotation method. I am not 100% sure how everything after this stage works. The only thing I do know is after a set amount on board, I will get off the ship and then go through a basic coast guard training such as first aid,CPR,basic firefighting(in a complete firefighting suit), and a few other basic things. Due to this physical demand I am also currently been spending a lot of my nights at the gym working out. Well I have to get off of here and go to work. I will post again later tonight. Have A Great day and make sure to follow my blog :!!!

180 Degree Change... Life's Changes ( one and only long blog)

At 10:37 pm on Monday February 6th, my life took a 180 degree for the best I hope and think.:) For those of you who don't know me I am going to take this blog and introduce myself and explain more about my opening sentence. This will be one of the longest blogs/vlogs I will write so don't worry about always having to read a novel. On March 31, 1993 I was born in the city of Fort Worth, Texas and was raised in a small community in the DFW area called Everman, Texas growing up there really taught me a lot and I was given opportunities of a lifetime. I was raised by my grandparents and had the opportunity to travel all over the U.S.A. I have flown, cruised, and drove all over the world (kinda). At the beginning everyone around me , including myself thought that I would aspire in the medical field, while yes I have an absolute love for the field, my "teenage job" really got me interested in the other fields that are out there, food service, management, and hospitality. At the end of 6th grade year I moved in with my Father in this really small(okay really not that small but to us teenagers it was the size of a Walmart) town called Granbury, Texas, the only problem with this town is that it is mainly a retirement town. It was here that I really met some of the best friends and people I have ever known. I have a best friend and almost sister. Anna Alvarez , we have became distant after graduation but there is not a thing in the world that I wouldn't do for her. Anna if your reading this know I love ya lil sis. To anyone else who is reading this it may sound like we would date or be dating but I am clearing this up now WE ARE NOT dating and literally are LIKE FAMILY. While in high school I was a part of a very highly respected group among our athletic program, the Granbury High School Sports Medicine program. Now I say respected but that is a HUGE catch 22 comment. While we were often called water boys, water girls,managers, while we were yelled at , cussed at , treated like trash we all loved what we did and put all of that aside and did what we did best , injury prevention,recognition, treatment and rehabilitation. Yes water duty, cleaning and many other "bad and underdog" jobs came with the title it was worth the 4 years of my life I put into that program. I built some of the strongest camaraderie with the others in the group than I have anywhere else. I have some very close friends that have stuck with me through the program and even after we left some are still in. Emily and Sarah both were GHS Sports Medicine team members with me and we are now like family as well, we have formed a bond that I don't even know anything that could tear it apart. I was set to go to a small junior college in west Texas but after many situations and long hours of contemplation, I did not go. While many feel this was the worst decision I have ever made, I feel that it didn't happen because it wasn't meant to be. I spent that fall semester searching for schools, programs and many other education paths I could take. With applying to many and accepted to a few, the final decision laid in my hands, while I wanted to go into the medical field for some reason I could not make myself make the commitment. I took a  cruise the summer after graduation as my graduation present and it was then that I decided maybe I would take a 180 degree turn and look at the travel and hospitality field. I spent all summer researching and applying for cruise ship jobs with many cruise lines. This long and challenging process came to a dead end with no luck. I spent a few months just working and saving money. In the end of December of 2011, I was browsing around looking at cruise jobs again I saw that NCL America had a job fair in Atlanta, Georgia I decided to go out on a limb and make a one night trip to Atlanta with a small glimpse of hope. The informational session was short sweet and to the point , it was packed and so therefore they only had about 2-5 mins with each candidate, I was the third one interviewed and have never been more nervous, I walked in she glimpsed over my paperwork and said okay you'll get a response on Monday rather your hired or not, that plane ride home was a long stressful one, I thought about everything i said in the interview how quick it was, and how there was no way over that many people I would get the job. I landed back in Texas Thursday after the job fair those four days felt like a YEAR. Around 9:30 pm I wondered if I would ever even get any response, one hour later my life , day and year changed. My email sound went off on my phone while i didn't think twice about it, thinking it was probably just another one of my daily annoying sales emails. I then opened it and saw it was in my inbox that I ONLY use for official business, jobs, applications ,ect. I then opened it to find a conditional job offer i have never shaken and cried I was so happy until that night. I knew this started a long hiring process but so far NCL America has really outdone their selfs to make me feel welcome and help me along the process. I received my new-hire paperwork and completed it today and am about to go fax it in. This process will take a little while and it could be up to four months before I leave but I am ready to start and make the best of this. I will kinda explain the hiring process in a separate blog later on tonight. Please subscribe and look for video blogs and more to come, I have not figured out if I want to do the blogs on here or a separate video blog side , I know for sure I also have a youtube site so I will be sharing links, my other sites ect. soon. I will stop blabbing now and let you all get back to your lives, I know this one was long and I apologize, but from now on they will all be cruise line employment oriented. If you have any questions, comments,concerns or have topics you want me to blog about please email them to cruisecrew100@gmail.com.


Have a Great Day

Up In The Air

Wow,

Here is sit miles over the place we call “earth” in this amazing thing called the “sky” its like its own little world up here, it is amazing that man kind has came this far in such a short amount of time. Any who enough of my history lecture of the day. I never thought this day would come. I am currently on my flight to Charlotte, North Carolina where I have an hour layover. I will then get on another flight and head off to Atlanta, Georgia where I am going to my dream job’s companies job fair. My goal of this trip is to obtain a position with Norwegian Cruise lines on board the ship Pride of America based out of Hawaii. I want to take this time to thank everyone who has helped make this possible both over my entire life and those that actually made this trip possibility. I know that should I obtain this job that life will take a drastic right turn but I want my family and friends to know that I GREATLY appreciate all that they have done, do, and will do for me. They stand beside me through everything thick and thin. Well that is all for this blog. Ill have some videos and stuff posted later today.

Please subscribe in order to see more of my journey on the attempt to obtain a job with Pride of America  

The Start of something New?

Let me start by explaining a little about my self. I am 18 about to turn 19 years old. I grew up in two different towns, first in Everman, Texas then moved to Granbury, Texas when I started the 7th grade. I have been on multiple cruises since the age of around 5, I was to young to remember in great detail. In face I am so into cruising I remember there was one year during my childhood where I actually celebrated Easter on the ship. I recently went on my graduation cruise in June of 2011. It was then that everything hit me and I decided that I would LOVE the opportunity to work on board and provide a great experience for the guest, while also getting to travel the world myself. I spent pretty much all of summer 2011 preparing resumes, watching hours upon hours of real videos from crew already on board ships, contacting recruiters throughout the world, finding people who currently and previously work on cruise ships that could provide me information about their experience, I was downed however when I found out that most cruise lines have a minimum hiring age of 21. However I was given a glimpse of hope when I fount a company called NCL America, they operate a vessel in the islands of Hawaii and it is an american crew, they hire anyone older than 18. When I fount this out I began doing a ton of more hours of hunting on the web, I watched more videos, fount more people, and spent countless hours touching up my resume and making sure I had everything just right. I sent a resume in at then end of July 2011 and heard absolutely nothing, I was devastated, then in January of 2012 I decided I was going to re-apply and re-submit my application, while emailing my resume I found out that I emailed my first one to the wrong address :) whoops :(. Then I fount out that NCL America was hosting a job fair in Atlanta,Georgia on February 2nd 2012, I began the long crazy week of figuring out ways to get there, luckily through the help of very supportive friends and family. I now have a flight to Atlanta, Georgia on February 1st 2012 to go for the job fair and hopefully begin my new life and career with NCL America, while I must stay on the U.S. Flagged ship until at least my 21st birthday, my overall goals are to make my way to a World Wide Ship and tour the world via the great oceans. This about wraps up all of my blog for this time. It will be a crazy few days the next 4-5 days so I won't be able to blog much. You can defiantly look for a video on February 1st about my trip to San Antonio to catch my flight out. Feel free to email me at tyler.d.brown1@gmail.com if you have any questions or things you wish for me to talk about during my up coming blog.