Following in the Captains footsteps

While discussing with my son Nondas about what he would like to do for his work experience, he came up with the idea of sailing on the Celebrity Eclipse with his father ( Captain Leonardos)  who is the captain on the Eclipse now and working with the cadets and safety officers.  I wish when i was his age that i would have had the opportunity to experience such an amazing week working, i spent 1 week at a hairdressers as there was nothing else available.

Nondas has wanted to follow in his fathers footsteps for many years now although i am sure he doesn’t realise just what the job entails. Maybe he thinks this is great, you are the captain of the ship, sailing around the world while flying business class to join the ship, not the fact that the captain is in charge of every department and it is a very highly stressful job.

This is my son with his father back in 2007 thinking he is driving a tender boat all by himself and helping out in the office.

Nondas sailed on the Celebrity Eclipse a few years ago to visit his father and he really enjoyed his time. The guests enjoyed talking to him and asking him lots of questions, especially how does it feel being the captains son.

He never really looks at his dad as the captain, to him he is just dad.

Not bad at the age of 12 being able to cruise around the world for free and staying in the captains cabin, i am sure there are many guests out there that would enjoy this.

I remember taking my son to visit his dad when he was around 6 months old in the Caribbean. After 2 flights, a baby to carry, 2 suitcases, 2 huge rucksacks, a pushchair, another bag filled with nappy’s and milk formula we finally arrived in Miami exhausted, well I was anyway.  We sailed on the ship for 3 months.

I had spent the whole time teaching Nondas to say baba which is dad in greek. When we left the ship in Southampton his father took us to the coach to say good bye which was always hard to do. As his father walked away to go back on board my son said baba. After 3 months of teaching him he waited until his father walked away, unbelievable. All the guests on the bus were laughing but his father had missed this amazing moment. It  can be very difficult being away from your family for long periods of time. He did get to see the birth of his son and to see his first steps so he hasn’t missed everything.

While sailing on the Celebrity Summit when Nondas was only 12 months old, the Captain at the time Captain Bouzakis who unfortunately is no longer with us  was so excited to see Nondas on the bridge that he threw him up in the air and his head hit the ceiling and part of the ceiling came crashing down, luckily the ceiling panels were soft and Nondas was not hurt but it certainly gave the captain a shock and he felt terrible.

This is a photo i found of Nondas playing in the fun factory aboard the Celebrity Summit.

So many memories, happy and sad  and now Nondas will hopefully carry on these memories in years to come and full fill his dream of working alongside his father while sailing the seas.