Monday, 18 March 2013

Hi there....................

Guess I could not stay away from this blog for long. I have been keeping myself away from this thing for so many years now,coz I never knew how many ppl would love to read my experience and happenings in the course of my hospitality industry from land to sea and back to land spanning from 1995 till now as I write for you all to read and njoy.

After passing out from Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology & Applied Nutrition, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India under the National Council for Hotel Management, Pusa, New Delhi..in 1995, I joined Hotel Cidade de Goa Beach Resort, spanning around the Vainguinim Beach, Dona Paula, Goa. I was working in the Food and Beverage Production @ Butchery and Barbeque as a Commis 1 trainee and soon got confirmed as one.

Within six months of confirmation, I got my promotion as Demi Chef de Partie. I soon reached 1998 and got my first assignment on cruiselines with Premier Cruises and my assigned port of joining was the port city of Southampton, United Kingdom onboard the S.S. Rembrandt (formerly named Rotterdam V of Holland America Line.)


 I was so very relieved and excited to be a part of the cruising industry. I had to go to Mumbai (then called Bombay) to the United States Consulate to get my C1/ D visa for seamen, my ticket to cruise round the world.
To say about the ship that I was going to join......  The fifth S.S. Rotterdam also named " The Grand Dame",was launched the Queen Juliana in a gala ceremony on 13th September, 1958 and completed the following summer. She was the last of the Greatest Dutch Ships built by artisans from The Netherlands.With a career spanning over forty years, She was  the most successful passenger ships of her time till she finally retired in September 2000 following Premier Cruises' financial meltdown. She ran her part as S.S.Rotterdam with Holland America Line who was bought by Carnival Cruise Lines and went on till 1997 before she was declared old ship and sold off to Premier cruises who later ran it as S.S. Rembrandt till September 2000 when they went bankrupt.With this ship I sailed from Southampton from 28th October, 1998 to New York and from there to South America, where our home port was San Paulo, Brazil. The voyage from U.K. to New York was memorable.......... my first cruise with a GREAT Hurricane round about when we reached the edge of Bermuda. This ship had tilted almost 50 degrees and caused all crockery and stuff around the ship to break and scatter badly around the ship.  The crew reached Bermuda and was forced to stop overnight to pacify each other and thank the Lord as He had decided to keep us alive. What a great way to start sailing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What next?????????????? keep guessing guys.....................later

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