Deck Tales: Secrets From The Sea. Behind the Scenes Stories from Cruise Ships and Crew Members from Maritime and Sea Life

Andy was such a wonderful guest from start to finish, and was referred to me by previous guest on the show Mark Tiffin. He was on ships for around 8 years, and most of that time he worked as an entertainment host, but he transitioned into a cruise director for a brief spell, before eventually becoming a fly on guest performer. He is a talented vocalist and pianist, and consistently shoved two thou...

Sean reached out to me and offered himself up as a guest on the show, and as he pitched himself as having potentially one of the best jobs onboard ever, it's fair to say he piqued my interest. He worked for around 3 years on cruise ships within the broadcasting department, and as he didn't really have to do all that much work he was free to go on a fair amount of excursions which he shared with me...

EP 33: Loki was someone I personally reached out to and pestered to be on the show for some time. When I finally convinced him to be a guest after a couple months of persistence, I caught up with him while he was in the Caribbean awaiting his next cruise ship to arrive. He is a man of many talents, primarily going from ship to ship as a fly on guest entertainer, goes by either Loki or Manuel Marti...

Snejina worked with me on my very first contract back in 2006, and she herself did about 8 years in the industry, completing her first year as a cabin steward, and the rest she worked within the various shops onboard. I had so much fun reminiscing with Snejina, and she had some really unique, interesting insights and stories from her time spent at sea over the years. She told me how she coped her...

Today I spoke with a former colleague who wished to remain anonymous, and so said just to refer to him as Tommy. All I can say is that we worked together on a Carnival Booze cruise back in 2010, and he did 10 months working as a guest services officer which was his one and only contract. Tommy told me about the training he received prior to going onboard, crazy types of guests he encountered durin...

EP 30: In my attempts to connect with the broader podcasting network of creatives out there, I signed up to a conference call on meetup.com with a bunch of people all with their own shows. Among them, was none other than Mr Ant McGinley, a gentlemen who was good enough to come on the show, and share his own ship journey from over the years. He did just under 3 years with P&O, and a couple stin...

This is not a typical episode of DeckTales with a guest sharing their stories, as I thought I would take the time to let you know a bit about myself, where I essentially got the inspiration for the show, what makes it different from other ship related podcasts, and what I hope to achieve moving forwards with it. If you have enjoyed the show so far then please do drop up a 5 star rating on Apple, S...

EP 29: Fergus and I worked together well over a decade ago for a brief period of time. He came aboard a ship I was working on as a videographer, and we became fast friends as Fergus is definitely good people. Instantly likeable, effortlessly cool, in many ways he reminds me of myself which is probably why we got on so well. Fergus reminded me of the time we and a few others formed a virile boyband...

EP 28: I connected with Daniel over social media, and we chatted about his journey working on ships over the past 17 years. He's held quite a few various positions within the entertainment department, some of which he enjoyed more than others. There's been quite a lot of adventures during his time at sea, and it was interesting to hear how he's had to deal with a plethora of medical injuries, upst...

EP 27: I worked with Tommy on my first ever cruise ship contract back in 2006, and I never told him this, but back then I used to think he was the coolest guy on board. He had those husky Brian Adams type vocals that melted knee caps everywhere he went, and to be fair to him he's still got it this day, as at one point during our recording he treated me to a little performance of a song he 'wrote'...

EP 26: Mark is one of those people I met back in the day only a couple of times, but I found him buried among my Facebook friends with mutual acquaintances throughout the cruise ship industry, and it was only after a short amount of time speaking with him, that all the memories I had of his comedy came flooding back to me. Mark is one of the most pleasant, affable, well mannered people I've had th...

Ep 25: I connected with Steff through social media, whilst she was stranded ashore in her home country of the Dominican Republic, sandwiched between her first ever and second cruise ship contracts. She is the first person from the galley I've had the pleasure of speaking to on DeckTales, and she filled me in on all things such as how she managed to get herself onboard, how her first experience wen...

EP 24: Mark and I connected over social media, and after a bit of back and forth he agreed to be a guest on the show. As he was the first person I've interviewed from the bridge, it was great to get an insight into what life as an officer is all about, and we discussed many things from his early days at Warsash Maritime academy, his long stint working on cargo ships, and how he eventually transiti...

Ep23: Shane Jacobik Shane used to work for Carnival primarily as a dancer in the show team, and we were colleagues for a spell around 15 years ago, on a ship known as the Paradise. It was great to hear about his experiences from within the show team, as he went from ship to ship and witnessed various changes throughout his department over the years.   Shane shared a couple of salacious storie...

EP 22: Ben has had an interesting mix of work when it comes to careers at sea, and at one point he was working behind the scenes back on land, producing some of the gameshows and quizzes I would later deliver onboard. I once met Ben many moons ago, when I came to re-audition for the company I started my ship journey with, so I reached out to him over Facebook to get him on the show. It was in many...

EP 21: Jini worked as a show team member and band singer onboard ships for about a decade, and we worked together on one of my last contracts which was one of her first. She now works in advertising, but does still dabble in the arts from time to time with her ship soul mate Sergio It was so much fun to catch up with Jini after all these years, and because she was so kind to laugh at my...

Ep 20: Nate used to work on my last ship many years ago as a receptionist, and only recently made a rather unconventional switch to the housekeeping department, where he now works as a cabin steward. He filled me in on how this turn of events transpired, and dished the dirt on some of his employers' antics over the years. In this episode you’ll hear first-hand how it is to be working in one of the...

Ep 19: Emily used to work on a number of different vessels within the cruise industry over a six year period. At first working on the front desk, and progressed her way up to guest relations manager. She now works in Vancouver on the ferries responsible for similar albeit not as stressful duties, and the pair of us connected over Facebook page 'The Crew Bar', where she and a few others work to kee...

EP 18: JD worked on a ship with me during my first contract back in 2006, but his decade long career is a 50/50 split, between working in photography/videography and shore excursions. In this episode you will learn how to lower your expectations when venturing out on a land booked trip, how to sleep through an onboard fire, and what happens after you hit an iceberg. You may also learn a thing or t...

Ep 17: Liam and I have been acquainted over the years with thanks to our many days spent working together as TV and film extras. We did reminisce briefly about some of the productions we have both worked on together, but the main focus of today's episode, was to get a bit more of an insight into the Royal Navy. Liam spent four years as an officer cadet, and recounted various tales from his time du...

EP 16: Today's guest was referred to the show by his former colleague Bboy Smurf, (who I interviewed in episode 13). Mase Boogie spent a few years working on Carnival cruise ships, where he worked as a hip hop dancer putting on daily high energy shows for the punters. The things he got up to in his spare time are revealed within this episode, with one of his favourite extra curricular activities b...

EP 15: Brad got in touch with me a few weeks back, as he and his co-hosts have a very similar podcast to DeckTales called 'My Ship Story'. He suggested we do a crossover episode, and of course I loved the idea, so here it is! Brad usually leads the hosting responsibilities over on 'My Ship Story', and it was him that initially reached out, so I figured he was the best person to have on DeckTales....

EP 14: Nelly and I worked together for Carnival back in the day, so we had a few mutual friends and stories between us. She worked as a kids and teens club host for about 4 years, and her experiences were in many ways wildly different from my own. In this episode you'll get to hear Nelly talk about witnessing a jumper from the ship, getting a rude wake up call from the coast guard, what it's like...

Ep13: BBOY Smurf- Introducing BBOY Smurf I worked with Smurf for about 3 and a half months back in 2010 right at the end of my cruise ship career, and found out during this chat, that Smurf also ended his shortly after, albeit for extremely different reasons. He's a good sport for coming on the podcast, and for being so brutally honest about everything he got up to during his time with Carnival. S...

EP 12: A musical comedian of over 20 years and a Britain's Got Talent semi finalist, Kev is one of those comedy acts that catches you off guard and leaves you speechless in the best kind of way. His show was something I always remembered when we met onboard the Thomson Destiny back in 2006, not just because of how unique it truly was, but also because his ability on the piano is like watching a ma...