My Year at Sea!

I recently did something that I’d been wanting to do for years - I took a sabbatical from my Corporate world job to travel the world! My method of doing this? Well, that was always going to be an easy one, wasn’t it?

I boarded my first cruise ship in the March, and disembarked from my final ship of the year just before Christmas. My adventures took me from the dancing fountains at the base of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, to the ‘World’s Best Pizzeria’ in Naples, Italy (yes, the home of pizza), to the beaches of California, through both the Suez and Panama Canals, New York City and so many more places - it really was the best experience of my entire life! In addition to seeing so many different parts of the world, I absolutely loved experiencing so many different cruise lines, some of which I was onboard for the very first time! Through my YouTube videos, I hope you’ll get a true flavour of what my journey was like, and I hope you’ll enjoy coming along with me!

Since I got back, my YouTube channel has been working through my content from these trips, and this is what brings us to now! As my channel has grown, I’ve received an increase in requests for a ‘running order’ of my trip, in order for people to watch YouTube videos in order - this is especially useful if you’re a recent subscriber, and you’re not sure of when I was on each ship!

Hopefully this page will solve exactly that question - the running order below shows you in which order you should watch my content if you’d like to watch ‘in order’ of when I was on each ship. If you do take this approach, I appreciate you’ll be spending a lot of time on my channel, so I’d genuinely like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I’ll never be able to articulate how grateful I am to every single person who watches even a second of my videos - I never dreamed I’d one day be making videos of my time spending the best part of a year living mostly on cruise ships!

Here’s the ‘order’ of ships detailed below, and you can use the video links below to work your way through!

Ship 1: MSC World Europa (MSC Cruises)

Ship 2: Costa Diadema (Costa Cruises)

Ship 3: Symphony of the Seas (Royal Caribbean)

Ship 4: Costa Toscana (Costa Cruises)

Ship 5: Costa Smeralda (Costa Cruises)

Ship 6: Costa Toscana (Costa Cruises)

Ship 7: Rhapsody of the Seas (Royal Caribbean)

Ship 8: Carnival Panorama (Carnival Cruise Line)

Ship 9: Queen Elizabeth (Cunard Line)

Ship 10: Scarlet Lady (Virgin Voyages)

Ship 11: Carnival Horizon (Carnival Cruise Line)

Ship 12: MSC Meraviglia (MSC Cruises)

Ship 13: Norwegian Escape (Norwegian Cruise Line)

Ship 14: Valiant Lady (Virgin Voyages)

Ship 15: Rotterdam (Holland America Line)

Ship 16: Paradise (Margaritaville at Sea)

Ship 17: Queen Mary 2 (Cunard Line)

Ok, let’s get started with the video that launch my Sabbatical to the world, then it’s time to launch into the ship videos - please enjoy, and leave me a comment on the videos to let me know you’re following along and making your way through the channel!

Ship 1: MSC World Europa

Video 1. MSC World Europa - Episode 1: Travelling to Dubai

Video 2. MSC World Europa - Episode 2: Embarkation Day

Video 3. MSC World Europa - Episode 3: Dubai, UAE

Video 4. MSC World Europa - Episode 4: Abu Dhabi

Video 5. MSC World Europa - Episode 5: Sir Bani Yas Island

Video 6. MSC World Europa - Episode 6: Muscat, Oman

Video 7. MSC World Europa - Episode 7: a Day at Sea!

Video 8. MSC World Europa: Pirates on a cruise ship - what happens?

Video 9. MSC World Europa - Episode 8: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Video 10. MSC World Europa - Episode 9: approaching the Suez Canal!

Video 11. MSC World Europa - Episode 10: the Suez Canal!

Video 12. MSC World Europa - Episode 11: Naples, Italy (and the best pizza in the world!)

Video 13. MSC World Europa - Episode 12: Genoa, Italy

Video 14. MSC World Europa - Episode 13: Barcelona, Spain

Video 15. MSC World Europa - Episode 14: Marseille, France

Video 16. MSC World Europa - Top 10 things to do onboard!

Ship 2: Costa Diadema

Video 17. Costa Diadema - Episode 1 - Embarkation in Barcelona, Spain!

Video 18. Costa Diadema - Episode 2: Savona, Italy

Video 19. Costa Diadema - Episode 3: Valencia, Spain

Video 20. Costa Diadema - Episode 4: at Sea all day!

Video 21. Costa Diadema - Episode 5: Tenerife and Lanzarote

Video 22. Costa Diadema - Episode 6: Funchal, Madeira

Video 23. Costa Diadema - Episode 7: Cadiz, Spain

Video 24. Costa Diadema - Episode 8: Malaga, Spain

Video 25. Costa Diadema - Episode 9: Disembarkation in Barcelona, Spain

Ship 3: Symphony of the Seas

Video 26. Symphony of the Seas - Episode 1: Boarding one of the biggest cruise ships in the world!

Video 27. Symphony of the Seas - Episode 2: Jamie’s Italian

Video 28. Symphony of the Seas - Episode 3: Wonderland

Video 29. Symphony of the Seas - Episode 4: Chops Grille

Video 30. Symphony of the Seas: Full ship tour!

Ship 4: Costa Toscana

Video 31. Costa Toscana - Episode 1: Boarding in Barcelona, Spain!

(Yes - there was only one episode from Costa Toscana, as I was boarding after my next ship with my best friend, so you’ll find me back onboard this HUGE ship in a few episodes time - stay tuned! Also, we’re 4 ships in now - check you’re subscribed to my YouTube channel!

Ship 5: Costa Smeralda

Video 32. Costa Smeralda - Episode 1: Boarding in Barcelona, Spain (wait until you see my cabin…!)

Video 33. Costa Smeralda - Episode 2: Ibiza, Spain

Video 34. Costa Smeralda - Episode 3: Palermo, Sicily

Video 35. Costa Smeralda - Episode 4: Savona, Italy

Video 36. Costa Smeralda - Episode 5: Marseille, France

Ship 6: Costa Toscana (round two!)

Video 37. Costa Toscana - Episode 1: Welcome to Costa’s flagship in Barcelona, Spain!

Video 38. Costa Toscana - Episode 2: Sardinia

Video 39. Costa Toscana - Episode 3: Civitavecchia (Rome)!

Video 40. Costa Toscana - Episode 4: Genoa, Italy

Ship 7: Rhapsody of the Seas

Video 41. Rhapsody of the Seas - Episode 1: Boarding in Haifa, Israel

Video 42. Rhapsody of the Seas - Episode 2: Limassol, Cyprus

Video 43. Rhapsody of the Seas - Episode 3: Rhodes, Greece

Video 44. Rhapsody of the Seas - Episode 4: Santorini, Greece

Video 45. Rhapsody of the Seas - Episode 5: Mykonos, Greece

Video 46. Rhapsody of the Seas - Episode 6: Disembarkation in Haifa, Israel

Ship 8: Carnival Panorama

Video 47. Carnival Panorama - Episode 1: Boarding in Long Beach, California!

Video 48. Carnival Panorama - Episode 2: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Video 49. Carnival Panorama - Episode 3: Mazatlan, Mexico

Video 50. Carnival Panorama - Episode 4: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Video 51. Carnival Panorama - Episode 5: Disembarkation in Long Beach, California

Ship 9: Queen Elizabeth

Video 52. Queen Elizabeth - Episode 1: Boarding in Long Beach, California!

Video 53. Queen Elizabeth - Episode 2: a Day ‘at Sea’

Video 54. Queen Elizabeth - Episode 3: Cabo San Lucas

Video 55. Queen Elizabeth - Episode 4: Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Video 56. Queen Elizabeth - Episode 5: The Panana Canal

Video 57. Queen Elizabeth - Episode 6: Aruba

Video 58. Queen Elizabeth - Episode 7: Disembarkation at Port Everglades, Florida!

Ship 10: Scarlet Lady

Video 59. Scarlet Lady - Episode 1: Boarding in Miami, Florida!

Video 60. Scarlet Lady - Episode 2: Key West, Florida

Video 61. Scarlet Lady - Episode 3: Bimini Beach Club, the Bahamas

Video 62. Scarlet Lady - Episode 4: Disembarkation in Miami!

Video 63. Scarlet Lady - What I LOVED (and hated) about cruising with Virgin Voyages

Video 64. Scarlet Lady - I wish I knew these things before cruising with Virgin Voyages!

Ship 11: Carnival Horizon

Video 65. Carnival Horizon - Episode 1: Ocho Rios, is Jamaica safe?

Note: for this one - remember we boarded the ship in the last Virgin vlog!

Video 66. Carnival Horizon - Episode 2: Grand Cayman

Video 67. Carnival Horizon - Episode 3: Cozumel, Mexico

Video 68. Carnival Horizon - Episode 4: Miami to NEW YORK CITY!

Don’t worry - we’re nowhere near done! We’ve still got lots of ships to cover from my Sabbatical period alone, and then we’re only just getting started from a content point of view! This page will be updated periodically, when the content goes live on YouTube (I release 2 videos each week - one on a Thursday and one on a Sunday). Be sure to check back for the next episodes - thanks so much for being on this adventure with me!

Why not SIGN UP to my newsletters to receive a ‘hello’ from me every now and again? I promise I won’t fill your inbox! All you need to do is click here and pop your e-mail address into the box! Thanks a lot!

If you’re enjoying my content, did you know that you can help me continue by offering a one-off pledge? The yellow button below allows you to use the ‘Buy me a coffee’ platform to send a one-off support pledge, for roughly the same as what you’d pay for a coffee at your local coffee shop! If you do consider this, thanks so much - I couldn’t do what I do without your support!