for your VINformation: lost@sea » Cruising

Overheard on the Deck

vinnie costa — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 08:20:54 +0000

Breakfast on the Lido:

Pax 1: (to Husband, referring to friend) “I’m going to take this one to Sit and Be Fit again. I loved it!”

Pax 2: “You can go without me, I hurt my knee doing it yesterday.”

Pax 3: (the Husband) “It’s Sit and Be Fit, how could you hurt your knee?”

Pax 2: “Never you mind, I’m getting another danish. Anyone need anything?”

Overheard on the Deck

vinnie costa — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 08:20:30 +0000

Pax 1: “Alice, turn to your right.”

Alice starts to turn left…

Pax 1: “Your other right Alice.”

Alice continues turning left.

Pax 1: “Towards you good arm Alice.”

Alice turns right.

Overheard on the Deck

vinnie costa — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 09:20:26 +0000

In the Culinary Arts Center:

Pax 1: (to wife) “The black singer, she’s something, just beautiful. I’d love her forever.”

Pax 2: (to husband, matter of fact) “Like that’ll happen!”\

Pax 1: “It could happen…”

Pax 2: “Not even in your dreams…”

Overheard on the Deck

vinnie costa — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:20:34 +0000

In the elevator heading to the Lido Buffet:

Pax 1: (to Rubinesque Employee) “You like the eatin’, don’t cha?”

Pax 2: “Well, that’s obvious, ain’t it?”

Pax 1: “Sure is.”

Overheard on the Deck

vinnie costa — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:20:16 +0000

On the free shuttle, returning to the Boat:

PAX 1: “I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere that sold so much food. There was food everywhere.”

PAX 2: “I know. I know.”

PAX 1: “No wonder the people here are so fat.”

Overheard on the Deck

vinnie costa — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 09:20:19 +0000

On the free business-sponsored shuttle:

PAX 1: “Please, you know the boat is getting a kick-back from that store, if anyone bought anything they’re idiots!”

Overheard on the Deck

vinnie costa — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 09:20:07 +0000

On the Lido buffet line:

PAX 1: “Una mas, por favor?”

PAX 2: “Um, I believe he’s Indonesian, not Spanish.”

PAX 1: “There’s a difference?”

Overheard on the Deck

vinnie costa — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:20:50 +0000

On the elevator-

PAX 1: “I live in a 55 or better apartment complex, and let me tell you, it doesn’t get any better…”

Previously, on for your VINformation…

vinnie costa — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:20:45 +0000

I don’t like using declarative statements.

I find they come back to bite me in ass – that being said, I’m not going to make any declarative statements on this blog – well, except that one. Nothing in my life is set in stone, it’s a journey, which, I’m sure, will continue to have many, many twists and turns.

While admittedly, I’m a person who has trouble making up his mind – I either tend to mull things over and over and do nothing or make snap, unthought-out decisions which sometimes have bad ramifications – but when said mind is made-up, I follow through, good or bad.

A few months back I made a decision; I wanted an adventure – a life-changing, wipe the slate clean kind of adventure. I was going to sell all my worldly possessions, give up my apartment, put the cats into foster-care and embark on a trip ’round the world.

Now, I wasn’t considering doing it overnight, something that big takes a lot of planning.

This was my timeline:

1/10-9/10 – prep the sale – I’d made a lot of money using eBay in the past, and I was going to go that route for all the small, shippable things; collectibles, kitchen items and home decor. Half.com for all my books and DVDs. Craig’s List when I got to the big stuff, like furniture and such.

9/10-9/11 – Sell everything I own… I figured a full year would be the perfect amount of time to rid myself of all my extra baggage.

12/21/11 – leave for South America – I wanted to hit the places I didn’t hit while filming 5 Takes: Latin America. (Available on iTunes – $1.99 per ep or $12.99 for the eight episode season – worth it at twice the price.)

Of course, the Plan had many contingencies; it pretty much hinged on the main goal of paying off all my debt. And that being said, I’d decided not to bring anything else into my life except, food, clothing and basic necessities of life – no more books, no more toys, no more kitchen gadgets - no more anything unnecessary. I was going to curb my spending as and use only cash to pay for anything I may have needed to buy.

(Not buying anything is hard, but really, “If I’m going to be selling everything I own,” I thought, “it doesn’t seem wise to keep bringing things in.” Of course, all rules have exceptions and I justified buying an iPad, in return for getting rid of all my books. It made sense to me…) ”For every article of clothing I buy,” I said aloud to no one in particular, “I’ll get rid of a similar article of clothing.”For example, I bought an awesome brown ultrasuede fedora so, when I got home, a ball-cap went right into the donate pile.

So, in order to take my trip around the world, all I needed to do was sell all my possessions. The fact is, I don’t have anything of value – except my winning personality – This was going to be hard.

I started selling things well ahead of schedule ’cause I didn’t want to spend any money on the shipping materials – as I don’t work in an office, I’m not lucky enough to borrow items like padded envelopes, bubble wrap and packing tape.

I was going to sell everything of value first via online auctions and then in a few months open an eBay store to sell the rest. Because, I believed this to be a year long process, I pulled everything from the cabinets and drawers and began ridding myself of the things I can live without - and in the process simplified my life- does anyone really need sixteen wooden spoons? I would’ve considered myself successful if nothing else came from this adventure other than living a simpler life… I needed a change, a clean slate, an adventure.

Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine I’d get paid to travel around the world – again – but then I booked a job singing and being funny on Holland America Cruise Lines MS Rotterdam. My contract lasts just under a year and I’ll be traveling, on someone else’s dime, mind you, from Alaska to South America and everywhere in between.

The job on the ship allows me to complete the first leg of my world tour – without having to sell everything – and also makes it very easy to pay off all of my debt – two goals in one! I wanted to hit North and South America and I’m going to hit North and South America.

I’m about to begin a very exciting chapter of my life and I can’t wait to find out where else it’s going to take me.

Food, Glorious Food…

vinnie costa — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 04:20:08 +0000

One of the more popular comments/questions I’ve gotten since I booked the Boat Job is, right after, “What are you going to be doing?” is “Aren’t you afraid your going to get fat?”

I look those “Negative Nancys” right in the eye and say, “NO!”

It’s taken me over a year to lose all the weight I’ve lost and if you think I’m just going to pack it back on because I’ll have access to midnight buffets, you’ve got another thing coming.

I have a plan.

As I’m going to be “trapped” on the boat for nine months, without my fat clothes – or access to an Old Navy, Gap or K-Mart – if I let myself go, very simply put, I’ll have no other choice but to go nekkid; and since no one wants to see that I’ll be forced to maintain my current weight; for the record, that’s 178 lbs, a sized 32/33 waist, medium shirt – you know regular sized, like a normal person. Since I won’t be home to go into the “fat clothes bin” if I gain – or for that matter, lose - 10 lbs, I’ll be screwed.

Besides, the last thing the Casting Director told me after out hour-long info-gathering phone call was, “Now don’t go losing a bunch of weight, you are the perfect character guy, what I saw at the audition is what I want on the ship.”

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