Rain, rain....

Its shaping up to be a rainy week here in paradise.  When we pulled out of Charleston just after my last post, the weather really took a turn for the worst - we sailed right into a thunderstorm. There was a ton of lightening, which you could see from any window on the ship, and sheets of rain all night.  Needless to say the ship was rocking quite a bit, and the following sea day was pretty interesting as well.  The cast really thought about canceling the show, but the seas calmed down enough for us to go ahead with it after all.   By the way, the show is called "Standing Room Only" and is just your basic collage of famous broadway show excerpts.   I don't think I'm ever going to get tired of it before I leave, although I might feel differently after I'm in my second month of playing through it twice a week.  

I've started giving trombone lessons to Brett Cave, the guest entertainer.  He wants to put a multi-instrumental aspect into his show, and trombone is the only instrument he doesn't know.  So having my second trombone around is really coming in handy - its living in his room at the moment.  I haven't taught a trombone lesson since I was in high school, and its been fun for me - especially since he learns quickly, being an accomplished musician already.  

Today we are in Nassau, Bahamas, and the rainy theme continues. On rainy days you can count on a lot of crew just spending the day on their laptops in Starbucks, which is where I am right now.  Almost the whole entertainment department is here, drinking hot coffee and staying out of the rain, fighting for bandwidth.  Earlier this afternoon half a dozen of us went out to lunch at Señor Frog's, a famous mexican food restaurant on the water.  They have some good food, but it got a bit pricey so I think that will be my one time splurging for a meal there.  Cursed social eating!!  It was a lot of fun though - they make you balloon animal hats and have karaoke and games going on all the time.  My friend Mark (dancer, Scottish) won one of the games and got a free drink out of it.  

Tonight we have our swing set again with singers - Sarah who sings in the cast and Mark who is dance captain (mentioned above) but also sings.  They will be trading off doing some traditional big band songs.  Mark covers the rat pack (Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.) and Sarah covers everything else.  Its very casual and relaxed - probably our easiest night of the cruise.   We only play one set, for about an hour, and we don't rehearse it anymore.  Just show up and play, then done for the night.  I think its the closest thing we'll have to a night off.  Although, we did just get a ventriloquist on, who I've worked with before, who uses the band basically just for his play-on and play-off music.  So during the show I'll be sitting behind the curtain reading a book.  Technically that will be a lighter night for me, with a lot less playing than the swing set, but because of the setup it will be a much longer time commitment - I'll be working in 20 second spurts all evening, from 7:15pm to 11:00pm.  Such is the life....:-)

Week 3 begins...

Today I'm in Charleston, hanging out with one of the cruise staff, a new friend of mine named Teal.  She and I have really connected and been hanging out and talking a bit.  She took me to her favorite hangout - a place called Caviar and Bananas.  Yep, there's free wifi, you guessed it.  Its a neat place, with everything from coffee to groceries, a bistro and a salad bar, and yes, caviar and bananas.  

Last night was a fun night.  It was our original drummer Jeremy's last night on the ship, so we all went out to the restaurant for a nice dinner between shows.   The new drummer is Tim, a British guy who was here before, and is dating one of the dancers in the cast.  We also got a guitarist today, Alejandro.  I'm excited to play with a guitarist in the band!  He used to be here as well, a few months ago.  We also get a couple of new acts, losing the comedians we've had on board for week and weeks.  

After the shows I was getting ready for bed when the big announcement was made - we were"go" for movie night!  Apparently its a tradition to sneak  up into the kids center (we aren't allowed in guest areas after 2am) where there is a big screen T.V. and all watch a movie.  Last night was Twilight, which just came out on video recently and all the girls on staff were dying to see.  So we watched it up there all together in out p.j.'s sitting on beanbags and the floor (Bring Your Own Pillow), and had a blast.  But as a result I didn't get to bed until after 3am...and I'm pretty tired.  Ready for a new cruise to begin today!!!  Ha ha.

Flying by

I can't believe a week has gone by already!  We are two days into my second cruise.  Playing the broadway show was definitely easier the second time.  Brett Cave still gave me a hard time during his show.  We are officially friends now - he had the band over to his cabin for free room service the other night. :-)  (We don't get room service, ever.  So it was a treat for us!!) But I'm pretty sure not a show of his will go by without him saying something to me during the show.  Because he plays at the welcome aboard show, his show, and the farewell show, we are performing with him three nights a week, and he's on for another month.  Its a good thing I like him, right? 

I discovered that in Port Canaveral you can pay $7 for a daypass on a bus service pretty much designed for crew.  It stops at all the ships, WalMart, the mall, an internet café, and Bank of America, and Ross.  Basically everywhere a crew member would need to go.  Its not a bad deal really - you can ride it all day.  The mall has a movie theatre, so I have already scouted out where and when I will be seeing Star Trek when it comes out!!  Woohoo!  I'm such a nerd, I know.  Brett Cave tells me that being a Trekkie is actually really hip and cool in England (He's from London).  Maybe I should move there.  I'd be cool in England.  

The other night after the welcome aboard show, I went up to the passenger gym, since its normally empty after 10pm and we're allowed there until 2am.  A couple of college guys wandered in, likely lost their way from the disco, which is right next door.  Apparently they were sitting in the seats right near the stage, and recognized me from the show.  They were pretty nice and asked when I was playing next, which was the broadway show.  They did end up coming, and sat over in the same area, which I found out after glancing over that way at one point and seeing a couple of guys waving frantically at me.  I couldn't help but laugh.  So apparently I have some fans. :-) I'm not complaining. Good looking fans are the best kind, in case you're wondering. 

Tonight is a relatively easy night, with just one set of Dixieland (my favorite!!).  We did have a rehearsal though, which we wouldn't normally, on account of the New Guy on trumpet.  His name is John, and he lives in the states, although he's originally from Germany, and speaks with more of a British accent than anything else.  He's in his mid-twenties, I'd guess.  This being his first ship, a lot of things are catching him by surprise, but I think he'll be alright in the long run.  He just needs a couple of weeks to figure things out.  Since we have weeklong cruises we are repeating all the same music, so I'm sure he'll catch on to everything pretty soon.  

Spring Break

Ok, so I've heard the stories about college kids going wild for spring break, but I've never experienced it firsthand until now.   Since we sail out of Charleston, we get a ton of college students on for their spring breaks.  Last week was apparently the craziest - I've been hearing some ridiculous stories about it - there were over 1500 college kids on, out of 1800 guests.  I should have figured it out when I was waiting to get on the ship for the first time, and almost everyone coming off the ship had a shirt with greek letters on it.  Yikes. This week there are only about 1,000 and next week will be even less, but it is still nuts.  Basically they all just drink all day and night until they pass out, they are always on deck partying, crammed in the hot tubs, making TONS of noise, packing out the disco, making out in public, trying to hook up with each other constantly, etc.  

Last night the showband played a pop set for the St. Patrick's Day deck party.  It was packed, everyone was dancing and having a great time and enjoying the band, which made it pretty fun for us to play up there.  But college students + spring break + St. Patrick's Day = general mayhem.  One particularly inebriated kid liked the band and singers so much (they sang on wireless handheld mics, dancing through the crowd) that he bought all of us two rounds of drinks.  There were 15 or 20 of us, so he has to have spent a lot of money....I bet he regrets it today.  :-)

Tonight we was our only guest entertainer show of the cruise.  His name is Brett Cave, and he sings and plays piano.  He's been on the ship for weeks, and knows everyone in the band pretty well except me.  Tonight at the first show he would not stop picking on me!  For example, he has the guests sing, repeating after him, and then he came over to me and said, "Andrea! Let's hear you do it, darlin', all by yourself!" So I did....ha ha.  He kept directing comments at me the whole show and giving me a hard time.  It was pretty funny....but he is definitely getting a punch in the arm next time I see him.  This is what comes of being the new girl...and the only girl.....with goofy guest entertainers.   It will be interesting to see how the next few weeks of doing his show will go.  Maybe he'll pick on the NEW new guy next week, ha ha.  And speaking of spring break - near the end of the second show a very drunk girl came up on stage asking Brett if she could turn pages for him.  Yeah, about that...he doesn't use any music.  He was a good sport and let her sit on the bench next to him for the last song.  She kept randomly waving her arms in the air and shouting "Woo!!!  Spring Break 2009!! Woohoo!!!"  Wow.  I was embarrassed for her.  

   But don't worry everyone!  In a week this craziness will be over, and we'll be back to our usual groups of calm, older people.  

The First Few Days

I arrived to the Majesty just fine, and got on the ship around 9am.  I ran into my boss and friend Andy right away - it is so cool to see him again!!  I share a cabin with the Youth Program Manager, Stacey, 25.  She’s been a great roommate so far and has really helped me settle in.  The cabin is TINY, as per usual, but there is more than enough storage space for all my things.  I have the top bunk, but don’t really mind...its not as close to the ceiling as on Celebrity ships, and having walls on three sides of my bed makes it feel cozy and less exposed.  

My first day on board started off with about 4 hours of safety training, followed by a quick sound check for the welcome aboard show, which was pretty straightforward.  We basically did little bits of what we’ll be doing all cruise, like a number with the production cast, a band feature, and a guest entertainer.  We also got to sit back and watch the other entertainers do a little bit of their thing.  We have a couple of guys who call themselves the Blackstreet Boys, and I have to say that they are pretty darn hilarious.  They’re from LA and do a lot of improv with each other, some dancing, and just general silliness.  I could not stop laughing....wow. I’m definitely going to go see their show tomorrow night.  They were really the highlight, and the show should have had its finale with them, but then our cruise director Denny got up and played the accordion.  I WISH I was kidding.  

The next day was a sea day, and pretty busy as well.  I unpacked and settled in, did a few more hours of training, sight-read a big band set in the afternoon (yikes), had a sound check, and spent a couple hours checking out the music for the show that night - the Broadway show with the cast, called Standing Room Only.  My music was out of order and it took me awhile to sort it all out while listening to the CD. Its not an easy show to sight read, but I did pretty well on it.  My part is so fun - I was almost euphoric after the first show....it was such a rush.  I barely have any time to empty my spit valve, the thing just doesn’t stop! Two shows, 7:30 and 9:45.  After the shows I had to spend some time mapping out my main and alternate escape routes from both my cabin and my workplace (theatre) to my emergency position, which meant I walked all over the ship in the middle of the night for a while.  

This morning I passed my basic safety exam, and I have my first crew boat drill.  And we are in the Bahamas!!!  After the drill I’ll get a chance to go off the ship and experience Nassau for the first time.  I’m pretty excited!

Oh and meet the band: 

Andy - all woodwinds, English, bandmaster, 29. 

“Alex” (Olexander?) - bass, Ukrainian, 20 something?

“Alexi” (?) trumpet, Russian, 40ish.  (He leaves next Turnaround day, so don’t get used to him)

Alan - piano, American (Chicago), mid-twenties. 

Jeremy - drums, Canadian, maybe late twenties. 

Weird!  All our names start with “A” at the moment, expect for Jeremy.  And yes, I am the only girl at the moment.  I kinda like it that way. :-)  There is SO much more to talk about, but let’s keep the posts un-intimidating for now.  

Here we go!

Hey Everyone! It begins...

I'm currently at my hotel in Charleston, about ready to meet in the lobby with all the other crew members staying here (about a dozen) and head to the ship! I can't wait to get there! I'm pretty excited already...hard to believe that today is my first day of work.

I had uneventful flights (hallelujah) and a great stay here in Charleston. NCL gives everyone $35 a day for food in the restaurant....and I spent all but 13 cents of that last night on an amazing dinner. I decided to wear myself out so I could sleep last night, so I went to the gym and swam in the pool. I also practiced a little trombone and watched 007 Casino Royale on T.V. Good movie!

And now I'm all fresh and showered and ready to go....despite it being about 4am in my brain. But after all my other contracts, a 3 hour time change really isn't bad at all. Alright, I've got to go get my luggage and bring it downstairs, so I'll check in with you all as soon as I can!! Be warned it might take a week or so to get internet set up and find time to be online. Alright, here we go!

During Business Hours Only, Please

Hello family and friends!

I'm heading out again on a three month contract, aboard the Norwegian Majesty next week! Unlike previous contracts, though, I will on occasion be in the good old U.S. of A. So my phone will be working! I'd love to talk to you all, so I wanted to let you know what dates and times I'm available. So here they are!! Note: I translated all times from eastern into Pacific time since that's where pretty much all of you are. 

MARCH:
Thursday the 19th and 26th. 5am - 7pm
Saturday the 21st and 28th. 5am - 1pm

APRIL:
Thursday the 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th. 5am - 7pm
Saturday the 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th. 5am - 1pm

MAY:
Friday the 22nd. 5am - 1pm
Saturday the 2nd, 9th, 16th. 5am - 1pm.
Sunday the 24th and 31st. 5am - 1pm.

JUNE:
Sunday the 7th 5am - 1pm.

Then I'm back for good on the 14th of June! Hope to be talking to you!