Tonight we have big band sets for the first time since I’ve been here – and since our first one isn’t until 9:45pm tonight, we had what feels like a day off. I’ve still got a couple of hours left to relax and get ready for the sets. Last night I was up late playing good old scrabble with some of my new friends, so I slept in today. The social situation is a little better on this ship because there is a great non-smoking common room area, as an alternative to the smoking bar. on the galaxy, that non-smoking hangout area was only big enough for maybe 15 people at a time, with nowhere to sit or relax. Here the room is big, with lots of couches, tables and chairs, and even a couple of T.V.’s where I’ve seen crewmembers showcasing their Guitar Hero skills. ☺
Today I got off the ship around 12:30 and walked around Roseau, Dominica for the first time, with Jason, the sound tech. I found the port a bit intimidating – it isn’t the safest area to walk around. Jason was comfortable, though – he says Dominica really reminds him of South Africa. . It was quite different for me, though. The rest of the island is very beautiful and tropical, but I wouldn’t know where to go on my own. I think I prefer places like Aruba and St. Maarten which are easy to get around, safe, and more tourist-friendly. Although if I had the money, the nature tours on Dominica look really fantastic. Hiking, waterfalls, marine reserves, wildlife parks, even a boiling lake. Most of the island is still rainforest.
When I had had enough of walking around in the sun, I came back to the ship and went to the gym for the first time. The guest gym here is even nicer than the Galaxy’s. I hope I’ll be more consistent about going this contract!
Mont Blanc
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
St. Maarten - Reunion!!
Well, embarkation day has come and gone, and it looks like I still have this “spacious” cabin to myself. Today is the first full day of my second cruise, technically the second day, and we have a new cruise director. Since the cruise director manages all of the entertainment on the ship, getting a new one always means having a few changes to the routine. So far nothing drastic has happened, and I think he will make a good cruise director. His name is Gary, and he is originally from London, England. Tonight is the first production show of the cruise – but interestingly enough it isn’t the Broadway show this time. We are doing the shows in reverse order this cruise to save the a/v team a lot of work – so they left up all the sets from the final show of last cruise, and we are doing it first. Which is a noble idea, to be sure, however the name of the show is “Encore,” and it seems a bit anachronistic (not to mention presumptuous) to do it first. ☺
Today’s biggest news is that we were in port with the Galaxy! As soon as I found out we would be docked alongside my former ship here in St. Maarten, I emailed all of my friends there. I could barely contain my excitement as we pulled in next to her – my friend Shaun from the acapella group can testify that I was literally jumping up and down. ☺ Walking onto the ship was so strange – and yet it felt like I had never left.
The first person I visited was Lisa, my old roommate and the altosax player. We were talking in the hallway for only a few seconds when my friend Hayden heard my voice and flung his door open. Hugs all around - it was so fun to be reunited with good friends!! I spent about a half hour talking with Lisa as she gave me all the latest news of what has been going on at the Galaxy. Then me, Hayden and Shaun (they both know each other from a previous contract) went on a walk around town. I had lunch with Hayden (and also had the best mango smoothie ever!) and we got to really talk and catch up over a couple of hours. It was great to resurrect all of our old inside jokes. ☺
Later I gave Lisa and some of my other friends (all from the cast) a tour of the ship and the theatre. It was really fun to play tour guide. Lisa is interested because she will most likely join the Summit after the drydock, and the dancers were interested because our theatre is nicer than the Galaxy’s. ☺ I saw almost all of my old friends at some point during the day. Although I don’t know when or if I will ever see any of them again, I am so thankful for the blessing it was to see them today, if only for one short day.
Today’s biggest news is that we were in port with the Galaxy! As soon as I found out we would be docked alongside my former ship here in St. Maarten, I emailed all of my friends there. I could barely contain my excitement as we pulled in next to her – my friend Shaun from the acapella group can testify that I was literally jumping up and down. ☺ Walking onto the ship was so strange – and yet it felt like I had never left.
The first person I visited was Lisa, my old roommate and the altosax player. We were talking in the hallway for only a few seconds when my friend Hayden heard my voice and flung his door open. Hugs all around - it was so fun to be reunited with good friends!! I spent about a half hour talking with Lisa as she gave me all the latest news of what has been going on at the Galaxy. Then me, Hayden and Shaun (they both know each other from a previous contract) went on a walk around town. I had lunch with Hayden (and also had the best mango smoothie ever!) and we got to really talk and catch up over a couple of hours. It was great to resurrect all of our old inside jokes. ☺
Later I gave Lisa and some of my other friends (all from the cast) a tour of the ship and the theatre. It was really fun to play tour guide. Lisa is interested because she will most likely join the Summit after the drydock, and the dancers were interested because our theatre is nicer than the Galaxy’s. ☺ I saw almost all of my old friends at some point during the day. Although I don’t know when or if I will ever see any of them again, I am so thankful for the blessing it was to see them today, if only for one short day.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Wrapping up Cruise #1
Well, today is the last day of my first cruise on board. We will be pulling back into San Juan tomorrow. Which reminds me – since I have full service there and free weekends, I’ll post my phone number here in case anyone can afford to call me (I have Sprint). Its 909-648-3247. We are in port from 7am to 11pm, which is 3am to 7pm Pacific time – every Saturday until the end of March. Feel free to call anytime, and I will answer if I’m not in rehearsal or a performance. Or already talking to someone else. ☺
This has been a pretty busy cruise, and went by really fast. There has been a lot of confusion with rehearsal times conflicting with training times, and training being cancelled last minute…it should calm down considerably next cruise. I’ll give you a run-down of the week to give you an idea of our basic schedule.
Day 1 – Welcome Aboard Show (short)
Day 2 – Production Show #1 “Thoroughly Broadway”
Day 3 – Guest Entertainer (Jaqui Scott – I’ve played her show before)
Day 4 – Production Show #2 “Night of Stars”
Day 5 – “Party Gras” – horns played 1 set with Partyband-Nightclub
Day 6 – Production Show #3 “Encore”
Day 7 – Farewell Show (short)
So basically, every other night we have a full length production show with the cast, and then on the first and last nights we have the welcome aboard and farewell shows, which only leaves two other nights. We had a guest entertainer’s show to play for one of them, but apparently we won’t be having any more guest entertainers for a while. Most likely that night will be replaced with Big Band sets. As for the Party Gras – I think we don’t do that every cruise. I wouldn’t mind not doing it – basically just the horns get on stage with the Party Band (”Wave”, from England) for one 45 minute set. Some of the tunes we had music for, and others we didn’t – so we’d either decide on what to play during the rehearsal, or just make it up. One of the tunes was “Play that Funky Music”, and during the chorus we were all supposed to sing. I was standing next to the lead singer, and he suddenly put the microphone right in front of my face…As a result everyone in the nightclub got to hear me singing “Play that funky music, white boy” loudly and badly out of tune. It was really funny. Also, the dress code for this event was all white. I didn’t have anything, so Andy (musical director – tenor sax), Amy (production manager) and I went digging in the old costume racks from discontinued shows for something to wear. I’ll post a picture of my in this fun little outfit for you all later. ☺
This has been a pretty busy cruise, and went by really fast. There has been a lot of confusion with rehearsal times conflicting with training times, and training being cancelled last minute…it should calm down considerably next cruise. I’ll give you a run-down of the week to give you an idea of our basic schedule.
Day 1 – Welcome Aboard Show (short)
Day 2 – Production Show #1 “Thoroughly Broadway”
Day 3 – Guest Entertainer (Jaqui Scott – I’ve played her show before)
Day 4 – Production Show #2 “Night of Stars”
Day 5 – “Party Gras” – horns played 1 set with Partyband-Nightclub
Day 6 – Production Show #3 “Encore”
Day 7 – Farewell Show (short)
So basically, every other night we have a full length production show with the cast, and then on the first and last nights we have the welcome aboard and farewell shows, which only leaves two other nights. We had a guest entertainer’s show to play for one of them, but apparently we won’t be having any more guest entertainers for a while. Most likely that night will be replaced with Big Band sets. As for the Party Gras – I think we don’t do that every cruise. I wouldn’t mind not doing it – basically just the horns get on stage with the Party Band (”Wave”, from England) for one 45 minute set. Some of the tunes we had music for, and others we didn’t – so we’d either decide on what to play during the rehearsal, or just make it up. One of the tunes was “Play that Funky Music”, and during the chorus we were all supposed to sing. I was standing next to the lead singer, and he suddenly put the microphone right in front of my face…As a result everyone in the nightclub got to hear me singing “Play that funky music, white boy” loudly and badly out of tune. It was really funny. Also, the dress code for this event was all white. I didn’t have anything, so Andy (musical director – tenor sax), Amy (production manager) and I went digging in the old costume racks from discontinued shows for something to wear. I’ll post a picture of my in this fun little outfit for you all later. ☺
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The Summit! (AKA Internet, finally!!)
Ok, so here are three posts I've been collecting all rolled into one!
Traveling Mercies:
I have never been so blessed in my traveling before! When traveling on a cheap ticket organized by a mega-company, one doesn’t usually expect to come out on top. The first leg of my journey (Ontario to Dallas) was uneventful, albeit disappointing due to the lack of any complimentary food. I arrived in Dallas expecting to have plenty of time to get lunch before catching my next flight, but unfortunately I hadn’t factored in the time change, so no lunch. My heart sank when I heard that there would be no complimentary snacks or food on this flight either, and I was also anxious because I had not been issued a boarding pass or seat assignment. Most passengers had boarded before the stewardess would assign me a seat, and she just wrote it down for me, didn’t even give me a boarding pass. As I boarded the plane and started looking for seat 5E, I was shocked to find it in first class!! I have NEVER flown in anything but economy class before….it was a marvelous flight. And the FREE food was wonderful. The best I have ever had on a plane, and the only reason I got to eat was because of this happy first-class accident.
The heat and humidity of San Juan hit me as soon as I walked outside of the terminal, and after about half an hour of waiting, I was informed that the hotel at which I had a reservation was completely full, so there was no place for me. After a while I was taken to a different hotel, which turned out to be much nicer. I was assigned to a suite! I think it must have been the only room open. You should have seen this suite – it was beautiful. It had a full living room, a kitchen, and a master bedroom with a king sized bed that I had all to myself. There were two HUGE flatscreen LCD T.V.’s, and a big balcony that looked out on the ocean – right out the window. Oh and free internet! I didn’t want to leave. And the price of the room? One person, one night = $600. Yikes!! ☺ So what did I learn? That God is really great at turning bad situations (no seat assignment, being kicked out of my original hotel) into blessings (first class and 600 dollar a night suite on the beach!).
My first day:
I checked out of my hotel at 9am, but I didn’t actually get on the ship until 2pm. There is a really large crew turnover – over one hundred and twenty crew signing on with me. As a result it took a while to organize everyone. When I finally was on, I was met by the Musical Director (also my band leader): Andrew from England, who plays tenor sax. From what I can tell he is a good band leader – so far he has treated me really well. For the moment I have my own cabin (small!), and he says he’ll keep it that way if he can. I’m enjoying it for the moment. I’m still learning all the names and nationalities of the band, so I’ll get back to you one that. I’ve met a lot of people already. Karl is the alto sax player, he’s about my age and very cool. The trumpet player is a little older – Stan from the Ukraine. He’s a great player. I met a girl named Michelle who sings in a different band on board, who was VERY excited to have another female musician on board. I met Shaun, a singer in an acapella male quartet, who is also a Christian! I met Chris, an Australian assistant art auctioneer. I met Jason, a new sound technician from South Africa. And so many more….I hope I can remember all the names swimming around in my head right now.
We had rehearsal for the welcome aboard show at 5:30, then one show at 8. Funny story: my band leader called me before the show, and asked if I could play piano. I said yes, a little, and he asked if I “would fancy playing piano tonight.” Apparently the pianist that was supposed to be signing on hadn’t shown up. I said I would do whatever would help him out the most. So I played piano for the rehearsal, and did ok, actually. ☺ Thankfully, the guy finally showed up, so he played the show. That meant that I got to sight-read at the show since I hadn’t rehearsed it on trombone - which was a bit rocky, but I survived. After the show there was boat drill at 10pm, after which we finally set sail for St. Maarten. I happily went to bed right after calling my family. Oh, and my phone works!! Hooray!!
My second day (St. Maarten)
Today I had training in the morning, which I followed by an afternoon nap that I really needed. Tonight was the broadway show, called “Thoroughly Broadway”, which is quite different than the broadway show on the Galaxy. It is longer, has almost entirely different show tunes, longer chunks of each show (several tunes from each musical) and has more tricky time signature/key changes and page turns. I am quite exhausted after a rehearsal and two shows. It should be better next time once my chops have started to return, but I thought it actually went really really well. Stan (trumpet) told me I did a good job, and that he heard things he had never heard before (in a good way). ☺ Some of the big shows represented are Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Producers, Wicked, Mama Mia, Hairspray, Chicago, and The Lion King. Fun stuff! But now it is definitely time to sleep. Goodnight!
Traveling Mercies:
I have never been so blessed in my traveling before! When traveling on a cheap ticket organized by a mega-company, one doesn’t usually expect to come out on top. The first leg of my journey (Ontario to Dallas) was uneventful, albeit disappointing due to the lack of any complimentary food. I arrived in Dallas expecting to have plenty of time to get lunch before catching my next flight, but unfortunately I hadn’t factored in the time change, so no lunch. My heart sank when I heard that there would be no complimentary snacks or food on this flight either, and I was also anxious because I had not been issued a boarding pass or seat assignment. Most passengers had boarded before the stewardess would assign me a seat, and she just wrote it down for me, didn’t even give me a boarding pass. As I boarded the plane and started looking for seat 5E, I was shocked to find it in first class!! I have NEVER flown in anything but economy class before….it was a marvelous flight. And the FREE food was wonderful. The best I have ever had on a plane, and the only reason I got to eat was because of this happy first-class accident.
The heat and humidity of San Juan hit me as soon as I walked outside of the terminal, and after about half an hour of waiting, I was informed that the hotel at which I had a reservation was completely full, so there was no place for me. After a while I was taken to a different hotel, which turned out to be much nicer. I was assigned to a suite! I think it must have been the only room open. You should have seen this suite – it was beautiful. It had a full living room, a kitchen, and a master bedroom with a king sized bed that I had all to myself. There were two HUGE flatscreen LCD T.V.’s, and a big balcony that looked out on the ocean – right out the window. Oh and free internet! I didn’t want to leave. And the price of the room? One person, one night = $600. Yikes!! ☺ So what did I learn? That God is really great at turning bad situations (no seat assignment, being kicked out of my original hotel) into blessings (first class and 600 dollar a night suite on the beach!).
My first day:
I checked out of my hotel at 9am, but I didn’t actually get on the ship until 2pm. There is a really large crew turnover – over one hundred and twenty crew signing on with me. As a result it took a while to organize everyone. When I finally was on, I was met by the Musical Director (also my band leader): Andrew from England, who plays tenor sax. From what I can tell he is a good band leader – so far he has treated me really well. For the moment I have my own cabin (small!), and he says he’ll keep it that way if he can. I’m enjoying it for the moment. I’m still learning all the names and nationalities of the band, so I’ll get back to you one that. I’ve met a lot of people already. Karl is the alto sax player, he’s about my age and very cool. The trumpet player is a little older – Stan from the Ukraine. He’s a great player. I met a girl named Michelle who sings in a different band on board, who was VERY excited to have another female musician on board. I met Shaun, a singer in an acapella male quartet, who is also a Christian! I met Chris, an Australian assistant art auctioneer. I met Jason, a new sound technician from South Africa. And so many more….I hope I can remember all the names swimming around in my head right now.
We had rehearsal for the welcome aboard show at 5:30, then one show at 8. Funny story: my band leader called me before the show, and asked if I could play piano. I said yes, a little, and he asked if I “would fancy playing piano tonight.” Apparently the pianist that was supposed to be signing on hadn’t shown up. I said I would do whatever would help him out the most. So I played piano for the rehearsal, and did ok, actually. ☺ Thankfully, the guy finally showed up, so he played the show. That meant that I got to sight-read at the show since I hadn’t rehearsed it on trombone - which was a bit rocky, but I survived. After the show there was boat drill at 10pm, after which we finally set sail for St. Maarten. I happily went to bed right after calling my family. Oh, and my phone works!! Hooray!!
My second day (St. Maarten)
Today I had training in the morning, which I followed by an afternoon nap that I really needed. Tonight was the broadway show, called “Thoroughly Broadway”, which is quite different than the broadway show on the Galaxy. It is longer, has almost entirely different show tunes, longer chunks of each show (several tunes from each musical) and has more tricky time signature/key changes and page turns. I am quite exhausted after a rehearsal and two shows. It should be better next time once my chops have started to return, but I thought it actually went really really well. Stan (trumpet) told me I did a good job, and that he heard things he had never heard before (in a good way). ☺ Some of the big shows represented are Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Producers, Wicked, Mama Mia, Hairspray, Chicago, and The Lion King. Fun stuff! But now it is definitely time to sleep. Goodnight!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
