Sometimes, you get fortunate during your contract. Depending on the ship's management, sometimes the HR coordinator is innovative enough to create some awesome crew activities that will certainly boost the happiness of the crew members. While I was working on the ship in Australia, I met my two best friends and colleagues from the bar department. Three of us signed up for the soccer ship tournament and plastic piece of the ship, a famously known and greatly appreciated award for the tournament winners. I used to play soccer at the semi-professional level before joining the cruise ship, so it was soo much fun and joy to play my favorite game with my great friends. 

Sixteen teams signed up for the tournament, a few teams from Balkan, Croatia, Italy, and Bulgaria; a few teams signed up from dining room teams from India, Peru, and Colombia; some teams were from Russia, Hungary, Czech, Poland, Latvia, it was like a mini world cup among the crew members.

The tournament was played once a week whenever the ship docked in Noumea, New Caledonia. When the team groups were officially drawn, I was the captain of my team. The rules were three against three players on the small field at the open deck, two halftimes 15 minutes each. The HD department created four groups with four teams. It was soo much fun, because we played competitively on the field, and later on in the crew bar we celebrated with our opponents, regardless of the final score result. In the group stage, my team won each of the three games with a total goal difference of 15-0. It seemed an easy way for us to reach the final. In the quarterfinal, two best friends and I won the game against Peru, and in the semifinal, we were set to cross the path with the team "Italy." The problem was that team was made up of Captain, a Staff captain, and a safety officer. 

The night before we arrived in Noumea, Captain was joking with us, saying that he would fired us if we did not let them win and qualify for the final. The best part of the tournament was that every time we were in Noumea, all the teams gathered in the crew bar, and we had a fabulous time together, laughing, recalling the moments of the game, and trying to argue about who was better during the games. In my team, my best friend was a previous professional goalkeeper who was also very skilled with his feet, and the two of us easily played against any opponent. In the semifinal, we won against Italy 7-0, and I remember that Staff Captain told me," Come to my office, and I will terminate your contracts, why you humiliated us on the field?" The Italians love football, and they hate to lose the game. 

We played the final against our friends from Croatia's dining room team. Up to the final, it was a relaxed atmosphere, everyone was just playing for fun and enjoying themselves, but the final was different. My friends and I come from a country where football has a Holly status. It's a way of living. And our opponent for the final, the very good team from Croatia, shared the same mindset. For us, it's important to win. Does not even matter if you are playing on the cruise ship or perhaps you are a professional player in the English Premier League, we are just very competitive, and we want to win. My best friend was celebrating his birthday the night before the final game in Noumea. We went to the crew bar, and we had a couple of beers and wines together, and I asked my friends not to drink too much because the day after, we were going to play the final. I mean, it's not about anything else but our competitive spirit; we wanted to win.But also, I knew if we drank too much, we wouldn't have a chance in the final game. My two teammates were also roommates, so I left for my cabin after the crew bar to rest and sleep before the final game. The problem was that my teammates went to their cabin and opened up a bottle of Patron tequila, and they finished the entire bottle after already having 7 or 8 beers in the crew bar before that. The final game was scheduled to be at 11 am in Noumea. I agreed with them to meet up on the open deck at 1030, so we could have warm up and stretch before the final game. Excited and determined to win the final, I went upstairs to deck 11, at the Sports deck. When I arrived at the small field, "The Croatian dining room team was already warming up, but I could not find my teammates. It was 10:40 already. I took a nearby phone and called their cabin, the phone was ringing, but nobody answered. At 1050, I ran downstairs to their cabin to check what was happening.

When I came downstairs, I knocked at their cabin door very loud, banging with my hand, but nobody opened it. Finally, after I woke up the entire crew corridor from banging and screaming, one of my teammates opened the door. I was shocked. They were both totally wasted; the tequila bottle was empty on the floor of them. was vomiting in the toilet, and the other one was trying to shower with cold water. I got so upset that I was shouting at them and trying to help them find their clothes as the final game was scheduled to kick on precisely at 11 am. Somehow, I dragged my two teammates up to the football field, and we managed to play the game. Well, it was not a fair game because after 5 minutes was 4-0 for the " Croatian Dinning room Team" My teammates were more focused on not vomiting on the soccer field than on scoring the goal. The game finished, of course, we lost, but I was happy. Of course, an initial feeling made me upset with my friends; I asked them why they needed to finish an entire bottle of Patron if we agreed to rest and be fresh for that final game. But moments later, we forgot the final score, and on the same night, we went together with the " Croatian team" to the crew bar to celebrate our friendship and beautiful times on the cruise ship.

Moments like this define not only one single contract itself, but it also creates lifetime long-lasting memories. We will always keep those memories and great friendships from the cruise ship in our hearts forever.

Read more crew articles at our category Crew Insights