The beginning of my ship life story

Hi,

I think the best way to start is to tell you a bit about myself. My name is Diana, I was born in Colombia, and my native language is Spanish.      

I studied gastronomy, and at the beginning, my professors told me and my colleagues about all the work opportunities as a professional.

They said you could work on board cruise ships, but one professor said it was the worst job ever you could do. Of course, that was just his personal opinion. He shared his experience working as a cook on board cruise ships, and based on that testimony, I left that idea aside.

After I graduated, I decided to start my own business in events. It didn’t go so well, but…life is about trying and learning and trying again. In 2018, my sister reminded me about the interest I had at the beginning of college, and I decided to start my research.

I watched a bunch of videos online, found out about the most popular cruise companies and the application process, asked some people about their own experience, and then applied to only one company for a restaurant position. You might be asking yourself, "Why a restaurant position if I studied gastronomy?" You'll get the answer later...

I was 23 years old when I joined the first cruise ship. To be honest, it felt pretty surreal. I just went with the flow and before I knew it, I was far from home, surrounded by people from all sorts of different cultures and by myself....