whereisDannyBlack

Fun on board the P&O Australia ships. Even on the smaller ships they have been able to utilize as much space as they can. Flying fox, rock climb, walk the plank, waterslides and so much more. before i go on, i would love to know in the comments what you guys might have done on ships that you have been on that was fun! I know that when I worked for Carnival they were starting to install a bunch of cool ropes courses, and Royal Caribbean has so many extra activities. I have never been on a Royal but the ads i have seen makes it seem unreal. But with P&O i wanted to check out some cool things to do and made a video about it. Thanks for reading and watching. I would love to hear your thoughts on fun things onboard ships. CHEERS!

This past weekend I got to go on another themed cruise. This was called the BIG LAUGH COMEDY FESTIVAL. It was a 4 day cruise on the P&O Pacific Explorer from Sydney to Moreton Island (outside of Brisbane) and back. I have been on "comedy" cruises before. Typically its your normal 1 or 2 comedy shows and a couple little workshops, but this one was different. This really was like a festival. On the 2 sea days it was wall to wall comedians, 14 total, converting some of the rooms into comedy clubs. There were big acts on the big stages, but then they also had more intimate rooms that were equally hilarious. These shows would go continually throughout the day so you have to pick your own schedule to try and see them all. Myself and another P&O employee did a live facebook broadcast on the ship: It was great to see it all come together and be an event that guests will never forget. I also got to perform and play music every night and it was a great time, and I gained a lot of fans. Ironically, I am not a comedian, but sometimes i get portrayed that way because I have a lot of banter with the guests as I am playing, and usually after a couple of drinks I can be quite funny. Thanks for reading my blog, I try to make a new post every week but would love to get some input from you guys (the readers) on any interesting ship topics you would like to read about? Cheers!

So the reason this title is "not Elvis" is because the real theme is "Tribute to the King" This was a themed cruise I went on recently. Apparently the Presley Estate doesn't give out the rights to Elvis easily. Which I thought was funny because no matter how you wordplay it people are going to say Elvis. Check out the video and then come back to read more. https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=7nbcLL6xmY8 I got on this cruise in a weird way... I thought I was on to play, and then found out there wasn't enough room for me, basically hearing that I am confirmed and then on a waiting list about 5 times... and then basically it worked out, although I wasn't there to play music, I was there to make a video of my experience for promotion on P&O Australia. This might sound like I'm complaining but really it was a great chance for me to check out other acts on board and it was really cool to see people diving in to being "Elvis" Backstage getting pictures of the performers one of the impersonators was talking to me with a thick southern American Accent and then a flip of the switch had a super thick Australian accent. That blew my mind how well they get into character. The cruisers were also doing their part, dressing up, and screaming like teenagers at a real Elvis concert like the KING himself was singing in front of them. It was a really good experience. I am excited that P&O will be doing more themed cruises and cant wait to share more stories of these. Next cruise in 2 weeks is a full on comedy cruise! So stay tuned and keep cruising!

I opened up my facebook and instagram to anyone with questions about ship life. I got some great questions, and some silly questions, and of course questions that had nothing to do with ship life. So I made this video to answer those questions including... "do they have a morgue?" The biggest question of all is when people watch this video and they want to work on ships, I am a big fan of anyone wanting to work on ships because this has changed my life in so many amazing ways. So if you are interested or have a family member that might be interested don't hesitate to ask and I would be happy to point you in the right direction. Also if you have any questions yourselves please ask and I will do my best to answer them. enjoy

So there have been a lot of magical sail aways ports... Venice, Antigua, Auckland, Messina, Athens, Singapore, and probably even more that I haven't done yet. Today I wanted to talk about Sydney Australia. I have sailed away at this port over 30 times and it is always something amazing... Going under the Sydney Harbour bridge and passing the opera house. I posted a couple of cool video of the experience... Before you take a look at those, I would just love to know which are your favorite ports to sail away from? This one is edited this one is an actual 360 video that you can move your cursor or phone around and see it like it is.

So a lot of people wonder what happens behind the scenes on ships... the next few blog posts will be dedicated to giving you some insight to behind the scenes.... First of all if you haven't seen any of my videos on youtube... check them out So there are 5 things that musicians on ships typically do during the day... SLEEP NAP SNOOZE HIBERNATE REST Sensing a theme? Most musician find themselves staying out late at night, doing their job and then socializing and then resting the whole day to have the energy to do it again the next night. Being a singer, I usually hide away during the day to rest my voice. Not that we typically go hard and drink the night away but being social on the ships is more fun than the alternative, but there have been times during my contracts where I got so hooked on a TV series that I would finish my set at night and then hurry to my room to binge watch until the sun came out. There have been other times in my contracts where I would stay out all night learning new songs to perform the following night. There also have been times when I wanted to be productive and get up at a reasonable time, go to the gym, be healthy and get stuff done. When I started making videos on youtube I would find myself going around the ship more and being creative. Which is a much better thing than sleeping 12 hours a day. Stay tuned for a new blog post every week !!! Ill see you next time and if you have any questions or suggestions for blog posts please let me know in the comments ?

Since I started this blog back in 2011 working for Carnival Cruise Lines… I wanted to reflect a little about my time on ships. Although its only fair to say that over 8 years ago when I started ( Jan 2010 ) on the Carnival Freedom, I have actually only been on ships a total of 30 months ( 2 1/2 years) out of 8. The other 5 1/2 years I have been traveling and visiting all of the people I met on ships and playing gigs to cover that cost. This was my new life… driving, staying with friends/family, not really having a home. The opportunity for working with P&O Australia came in 2014 and I jumped at the opportunity to spend time down under.... little did I know it would be another life changing journey. P&O wanted to do an artist feature of me on their facebook and I made a video for them to highlight it. Check it out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzfsDd2LDn0&t You never know where life will take you... you wouldn't even believe what my life was like before ships... (and ill get to that another time) So get out there... cruise to exotic places and invite the musician to your town to play ?

Working on P&O Australia recently I have been promoted to a new position. I have been classified as a "fly on" entertainer now, which means I come on for 1 or 2 cruises at a time to entertain the guests, and then I go home until my next short contract. It is a great position and gives me the ability to have more guest privileges. So I wanted to check out all of the restaurants on board and try the food out. I made a video about it too. FOOD ON SHIPS <- click to watch The take away I get from this is that people are OVERLY critical when it comes to cruise ship food. To me, anything that you get on a ship in the middle of the ocean is going to be great. Maybe I appreciate it more because I used to eat in the crew and staff mess down below and that food would get very, well lets say not the best. So running around to these restaurants and even the ones that you do not have to pay extra money for, they are doing great things and making very tasty dishes. So next time you are on a cruise ship instead of being on the side that complains about every little thing, just enjoy it and look at it from the perspective of how much goes on behind the scenes in making the food for 3000 + people every day.

It would be way to dangerous in mid ocean to take 4000 people off of a ship to another ship... Plus they were planning to dock in Mexico but realized they had too many people without passports.. To transfer to a different ship would require people getting on the ship and getting new key cards and figuring out which room where their luggage is.. thats an absurd idea... I think the only thing Carnival did wrong was giving a free cruise for the 5 days, and not free for anything more!

Most of the crew that had their contract ending will most likely get an early vacation and go home, some might jump on to other ships in the area, and some will just get paid vacation where the ship is getting fixed... The crew that goes to the sunshine wont get there until late March early April... I worked on the brand new Carnival Magic, and I didnt get on the ship until 10 days before it set sail.

This is not a blog about the port of St Thomas, the beautiful US Virgin Island, but more of some amazing advice from an individual living there. I was with a friend at a restaurant in St Thomas, the waiter came to us and you could tell he was from the States and not the Caribbean, so I just had to ask. "Where are you from?" He replied, "Philedelphia." Then he went on telling us how he used to be a school teacher but since all of the budget cuts in the school system he has not worked as a teacher for 3 years but waited tables in Philly to make ends meet. He then said something that will stick with me forever. "If I am going to wait tables, I might as well do it somewhere beautiful and in a place I will love to be all year long." He just blew my mind with that advice and I told myself that this world is far too beautiful to not enjoy it or love where I live. So I encourage everyone reading this… if you are not happy where you are, make a change! Life is not life unless you are happy!

$25 is so cheap... i bet its more like $100 now a days!!! crazy though!

yes i know... i was so tired and just ready for a vacation... luckily i was working on a ship in the caribbean! lol :)