The Cruise Diaries: a Memoir of Ship Videographer

In 2019, I return to sea for my final six-month contract as a cruise ship videographer, entering the private world of shiplife-late-night cabin parties, fleeting romances, international ports, and rules that seem to exist only within the ship's walls.I wrote these pages as a kind of time capsule when I was twenty-four, two months after I left the ship. They also capture a version of shiplife that was already disappearing: unreliable Wi-Fi, pagers, hard drives passed between cabins, and long stretches disconnected from home.I have resisted the temptation to replace that young woman with the person I am now. Her voice is uncertain, curious, sexual, and at times childlike. I have edited for clarity and added perspective where needed while preserving her essential voice-including the contradictions of balancing innocence and survival.Blunt and sometimes messy, The Cruise Ship Diaries is a coming-of-age memoir about desire, friendship, freedom, and discovering what independence actually costs.