The cruise season is on!

Today I'm very happy to announce that I've successfully survived the long winter and that today was the first cruise ship call in my hometown. This year it was MV Discovery, a small cruise ship built in 1971, now operated by Cruise & Maritime Voyages. She carries about 600 passengers and half as much crew.

Welcome to Tallinn, Discovery!

A bunch of lucky people

Obviously 600 passengers won't make a huge change, but when many ships add up to make 5000-10000 people, it's quite easy to notice the city more crowded than usually, especially the Old Town. This year it will benefit me directly, and I'm quite excited about the first call of Royal Princess on the 17th of May. In addition to the fact that she carries some 4000 passengers, she will be by far the largest ship I've ever laid my eyes upon. But I've already written about what I'm looking forward to. 

The sad part is that the next ship will not call until next Tuesday, and then after that, the following Saturday. That gives plenty of time for me to get impatient.  Fortunately cruise ships will call almost daily afterwards. 

I'd also like to enlighten you on what I've been doing in the meanwhile - after all, it has been almost a month since my last post. Most of it concerns my little research. I've been gathering materials, sending out e-mails and it finally seems to be going somewhere. I have the first interview meeting tomorrow, and I'd be lying if I said I'm not excited. I had the poll translated to Finnish as well, so, here I go again:

Help me a great deal by answering my poll here. 

In addition to that, I think you have noticed by now that the look and feel of my blog has changed significantly. It has been this way for many weeks now. I've had the same layout since the very beginning and the time felt right for some changes. 

Generally, my head is generating awesome ideas for the upcoming season faster than I can write them down, and I'm getting more impatient about the future every minute. If everything goes as planned, I'll have a lot to share with you. And yeah, I'm looking forward to that. 

What the future brings

Just in case it needs to be clarified, my last post was a first of April joke. I am not moving to Australia and definitely not quitting what I do, and this blog will continue as it is for a long time to come. ☺

To top off a really good day I've had so far, today Port of Tallinn released their cruise ship schedule. I can't say I haven't been waiting for it, checking their website daily, and now it finally feels reasonable to start making some more serious plans for the upcoming season. 

Look at the planned cruise ship calls in Tallinn here

This year's schedule is quite interesting too, compared to 2013. There are very many absolute must-see ships for me, here's some of them.

Aidamar

For obvious reasons.

(to those who don't know, she's my favourite cruise ship.)

First call 19. May

Royal Princess

www.1000kreuzfahrten.de

Launched in 2013 (which I've been around for long enough to remember), she is the 10th largest cruise ship in the world. She will be by far the largest ship to ever have visited Tallinn, breaking the record held by Celebrity Eclipse.

First call 17. May

Mein Schiff 1&2

Mein Schiff 2 - commons.wikimedia.org

Mein Schiff 1 called three times last year and I feel like I completely missed out (although I didn't), and this year I might just fill up that gap. Admit it, they're beautiful.

First call 8. June (Mein Schiff 2) & 29. June (Mein Schiff 1, first and only)

Gann

home.kpn.nl

An arctic cruiser lookalike training ship in Tallinn? 

Interesting.

First & only call 6. July

Azores

oceanliner-pictures.com

When I wrote this post about her less than a year ago, I would have never even imagined that she would be coming this way, because her future was uncertain. I've followed her ever since, and she's the one I'm most excited about. It would be a crime to miss out on such an impressive piece of pure history.

First call 19. May, second and last call 3. July.

[April fools] New page

It's now been more than a year I've been into ships, and I've had some great times.

Visiting some beautiful ships, like Victoria, ...

...Silja Europa, ...

... Cinderella

Seeing my favourite ship up close

Enjoying vast amounts of ship goods

Learning all about the maintenance of big ships

Learning to operate small ships

Finding out about the possibilities to pursue a marine career

And with all that, I'm starting to feel like it's time to move on. I've had so much to do with the sea recently that it's starting to feel like too much. 

The whole ship thing is probably not for me after all - it all feels a bit too difficult, too.. masculine. And heck, even if I would continue in the same field, it's not like I'll ever get to do everything I want to anyway. 

Therefore I've decided to move towards a whole new direction from now on. I'll be packing my bags, wiping off the dust of Europe and moving to Australia in the next month or so. Although Australia is also a good place to continue a ship life, that will not be the case, because recently I've been much more interested in fashion, especially that of Australia. 

This blog will, therefore, become a fashion and beauty blog from now on. Exciting times ahead!