Too busy to blog....having too much fun!

The repo was really cool - it was awesome to have the run of the ship in our street clothes, with no curfews.  About half a dozen of us spent one night singing karaoke in a lounge for about 4 hours...long enough to get bored of the normal stuff and start doing Christmas songs.  There was a big party out on deck one night, and the whole pool deck was absolutely packed with crew.  It was a really neat sight to see.  The party was hosted by my department (entertainment), and so I ended up helping out by playing bartender for about 20 minutes.  The definition of bartender being: grabbing beers and sodas out of trash can ice buckets as fast as humanly possible and handing them to a never-ending line of crew.  It was actually really fun.  We also had a "Majesty Idol" competition among the crew members, with a panel of three judges and everything, (my boss Andy representing Simon Cowell if you know the show).  

After the repo, Holly arrived safe and sound in Baltimore and joined me on the ship!  Since she got here its been a pretty busy week of maximizing our time together, mostly spending as much time on the beach as we could.  We checked out Horseshoe Bay, one of the most popular beaches, and were blown away by how gorgeous it is.  Tons of photos will follow....eventually. :-)  There really isn't much opportunity to use the internet in Bermuda.  Holly has been having a great time and has enjoyed getting to know the cast and my other friends, sitting in on some of the cast rehearsals and coming to both shows every night they'd perform.  

Today we are in Baltimore again, downtown seeing the sights a bit, and then it will be off to Bermuda again! I am so glad that Holly gets to stay an extra week.  This week will be the last week for this cast (new cast signs on and begins the handover today), as well as the last week for my roommate and several other friends of mine.  I can't believe this contract is almost over already!  I sign off just two short weeks from today.  Wow.  

Here comes the Repo!

This cruise was only a 6 day cruise, which meant only one full day in Bermuda, with 2 overnights instead of three. So during those short couple of days I spent a lot of time just at some different beaches.  About half a dozen of my friends and I have snorkel gear and have been going on our own snorkeling excursions......I snorkeled and swam enough to make my arms sore.  I know, I have such a tough life.  :-)  And my nightlife this week consisted of making beach campfires and roasting marshmallows with a few of my friends.  

Tomorrow something very new and exciting is in the works for us: no more guests!!  Yep, the crew of the Majesty will have the whole ship to ourselves for a full 2 days as we reposition (REPO) up to Baltimore, Maryland.  A plethora of events are planned, including a "Majesty Idol" competition, open casino nights, and a deck pool party.  So tomorrow morning, when we arrive in Charleston for the last time, after all the guests disembark, we will be sailing right away for Baltimore.  Unfortunately this means no crew are allowed off the ship in Charleston, so I will be waving goodbye to one of my favorite ports from the back deck, as I use its cell phone signal for as long as I possibly can.  

Other news....this week I lose two friends.  Two nights ago we played Brett Cave's show for the last time, he signs off tomorrow to go to Crystal.  I have played his show every week, sometimes 3 days a week, ever since I arrived, and it will be quite a change not to be doing that anymore.  He has been a fun member of our entertainment team and group of friends, and will be missed.  In the last show we added a lot of surprises to make it special, mostly inside jokes that would be too hard to explain, but one that isn't: we held up a big sign that said "We love you, Brett!" at the very end.  I'm also losing my good friend Teal, with whom I've enjoyed afternoons at Caviar and Bananas, exploring Bermuda, going on jogs, and good conversations.  Goodbye and best of luck to both my friends!!

And finally.....Holly is coming to the ship in 3 days!!!!!  I can't express how excited I am to have her here with me!!  Pray that all goes smoothly getting her on board for 2 glorious weeks.  Hooray!!!

Hamilton and beach bonfires

We're on our way back to Charleston, after our second week in Bermuda, all recovering from another several days of being out and about as much as possible.  On Tuesday a group of us went to Hamilton, taking the local bus for about four dollars each way, all the way along the narrow and curvy roads and across a few bridges connecting bits of island to each other.  Once there we wandered around the town on foot.  We ate at a "proper English pub" (Brett's words) called the Hog Penny, which was really good.  I had fish and chips, since it seemed appropriate.  We visited Fort Hamilton, and explored all along the outer walls and the underground tunnels and passageways.  Those dark tunnels were very stereotypically creepy, and probably my favorite moment of the day was when I made a loud noise from a dark corner and sent my friend John (our pianist) running for the exit with a high-pitched scream, taking a few of my other friends with him in a panic.  On the very top of the fort was a big grassy area that we relaxed in for a while, which afforded a great bird's-eye view of Hamilton.  On our way back down through the city we stopped at the main Cathedral to look inside, since it really dominates the townscape. It was beautiful inside, with a big organ as usual.  John asked one of the groundskeepers if he could play the organ, and they were nice enough to unlock it for him.  He has been a full time church organist before, and impressed everyone with a little mini-concert, which was so cool!

One night after all the shows were over a big group of us walked over to the beach to hang out.  We somehow managed to make a little fire on the beach using mostly old palm fronds and a lighter, though it took us the better part of the night to succeed.  At one point my friend Matt (singer) and I walked down to the other side of the beach where a group of Filipinos from the ship were cooking fish and squid.  Going fishing in Bermuda and cooking it up is a favorite pastime of a lot of the Filipinos on the ship.  Matt is half Filipino, and can understand (if not really speak) Tagalog, so he translated for me, and they invited us to eat with them.  I liked their style of eating - everyone puts a plastic glove on one hand and just eats with that hand, no utensils needed.  Afterward, you just slip the glove off, and you don't need a napkin either.  I even liked the squid.  The night ended up being a wonderfully unexpected cultural experience.  

Yesterday, on our last morning here (we have to be back on board by 10:30am since we sail around 11:30) I went out with Beth and Mark from the cast to get breakfast ashore.  I had asked around about options for a really good breakfast diner that would have the necessary pancakes, and several locals recommended Angeline's to me.  It is a tiny, divey, hole-in-the-wall diner owned and run by a woman and her son, which you would easily walk right past if you didn't know it was there.  So the three of us got up bright and early to check it out, and we weren't disappointed.  The food was really home-cooked right in front of you, and the prices were decent.  We will definitely be frequenting it more often.  After eating, I stayed out on deck to watch us sailaway and leave Bermuda behind.  But I really like knowing I'll be back next week.  

The changes in our musical schedule this week ended up being pretty reasonable and worked out well.   Our dixieland set got a great response when we did it out under the stars on the top deck, a bit later at night.  Thankfully it wasn't windy up there, so it wasn't as difficult as it potentially could have been.  Last night's variety show was also much better for us, since instead of all three guest entertainers squished into "one hour" which always went an extra half an hour, we had only two of them, making for the perfect length of show.  Brett's section was also first, which allowed us to escape after the first half an hour, instead of spending half the show sitting behind the curtain waiting our turn.  After everything, I think Candi's choices as cruise director have been pretty practical.  Next week will be her second and last week in charge, but there will be some more changes since the cruise is only six days instead of seven.  Only two overnights in Bermuda instead of three, but I think I'll manage. :-)  

Second Bermuda week

The Majesty docks right in a little town called St. George, which is a little ways away from the capital of Hamilton.  Despite not being in the main town, there is plenty to do right here in St. George.  There are a few local bars and restaurants that are right next to the ship, that stay open late enough for any crew member to have a chance to go there.  In particular, a tavern called the White Horse is a popular hangout since it is literally just next to the ship.  So far I've only been once, its not really my kind of place.  

There are at least two nice beaches that are just about a 15 minute walk from the ship, and both are really beautiful.  Today I went to "Tobacco Bay" beach with all my friends, and we swam a bit and even did some amateur cliff diving.  Maybe it would be more accurately described as rock jumping, since we only jumped from about 8 or 10 feet up.  But the water is absolutely gorgeous, and there are some really neat rock formations that I plan to take about a million pictures of, on a sunnier day (today it was overcast and even a bit rainy).  

Starting from the ship, heading out along the coastline, is what is referred to by crew as "the loop", a 2.5 or 3 mile loop road that follows the coast out around a peninsula, around a few of the popular beaches, and back into town and the ship.  Walking or jogging it on a daily basis is a popular activity among my friends, and it is such lovely scenery that it makes for a really pleasant experience.  I jogged it once last week with friends, and then gave my shins time to recover from the hills they weren't used to.  Today I jogged it again at my own pace (slow), and was able to make it quite a bit further around before walking.  A few of my friends have the goal to run it every day we're in port here, so we'll see if I'm that motivated. 

This week we have a lot of changes on board.  First, our trumpet player John was replaced by the original trumpet player Alexi, who had left after my first week on board.  It is really nice to have him back - he is a great lead trumpet player and a lot of fun to perform with.  The second big change is that we have a new cruise director for a couple of weeks.  Denny, our previous one, is on vacation, and his assistant Candi is filling in.  She is very opinionated and has already made quite a few changes that affect us.  For example, our welcome aboard show is entirely different.  Instead of centering around the guest entertainers, it features the musicians that perform in the lounges, giving them a chance to be introduced to the guests and encourage them to come out to hear them in the lounges.   So whereas up until now the welcome aboard show would be the cast "bumper" followed by a showband feature, followed by 20 minutes of each of the three guest entertainer acts (including Brett);  Now, after the bumper we no longer do the band feature, instead we do just 3 songs back to back, each featuring a different lounge act.  After that we are basically done for the rest of the show, which I must admit is nice.  Brett doesn't mind not being involved in the welcome aboard show - one bonus for him is a few days of peace and quiet since the guests don't know him yet, so don't all pay him lots of attention anytime he's in public.  I'm not so lucky - after the welcome aboard show everyone recognizes me since I'm the only girl in the band and its such a small theater, AND because the show is recorded and played on one of the ship television channels for the next three days straight.  And so I get to experience something I never thought I would - people telling me,  "I saw you on T.V!!"  I get to be famous here in my little cruise ship world.  :-)

Transition to Bermuda!

Apologies for not posting sooner!  It has been a pretty exciting but busy transition into the Bermuda run.  Before I start talking about Bermuda, let me fill you in on a few highlights of last week, our final week in the Bahamas.  Because winds were too high for the pilots to operate our tender boats, we unfortunately had to skip Great Stirrup Cay, NCL's island.  Instead we were left with an extra day at sea, which went by very slowly, especially since our one and only set of the night wasn't until 10:45pm.  We played later sets this week in order to cover more of the main lounges, since we were down a lounge act as I mentioned in my last post.  But, the late night set was very well received and really fun to do.  We performed in a different venue as well, and a change of scenery is always nice, especially when the sound is much better in that new location.  (I wish we always played there!)  Unfortunately this week we are back to our old haunts.

The biggest highlight of the week was the following day in Nassau.  I finally got over to visit the famous Atlantis resort, and wow....I was impressed.  It really is a gorgeous place.  Not only did I walk around and take pictures, visit the in-lobby aquarium, and lounge at the beaches and pools (where they were filming some kind of movie or maybe bowling competition??), but I sprung for a dolphin swim though the shore excursions team.  It was expensive, but so worth it!!  I went with my friend Erin, an Australian girl who works on the youth staff. We had an absolute blast!  We swam with the dolphins in deep water, touched, hugged and kissed them, saw them do tricks, got a high five, and to top it all off got a "foot push".   This is where you lay on a boogie board, a dolphin swims up behind you, puts his nose on your foot and pushes you at full speed through the water, just like riding a wave!  It was an incredible experience.  

In our last Freeport the next day I finally got off the ship, for the first and last time on Grand Bahama Island.  Usually our schedule doesn't allow us enough time to go anywhere since it is a half hour cab ride into town, but because of our rearranged schedule I was finally able to get off and have a look around.  10 of us went to the main little town and to the beach.  A highlight of the day was watching locals prepare "conch salad" by removing the mussels from the big conch shells.  I also tried "conch fritters" out of the same stuff, which were definitely an interesting treat, although there was enough greasy fried breading on them to make anything taste good.  

In our last Port Canaveral I went out with friends for a lunch of chinese food, followed by an afternoon of Wal-Mart shopping to prepare for the coming weeks in Bermuda.  I was keenly aware of the fact that I won't be seeing another Wal-Mart until we reposition to Baltimore at the end of the month, and made the most of my last opportunity. 

So! On to Bermuda!!  After leaving Charleston at 4pm on Saturday, we don't get into Bermuda until Monday at 2pm.  That's almost 48 hours of travel at sea.  When we were finally arriving, a lot of my friends and I (along with basically every single guest...) went up onto the top deck to watch our first arrival into Bermuda.   In order to dock, the Majesty must pass through a very narrow channel to enter into the harbor, known as "the cut".  There are only a few feet of space on either side, and it is a really interesting moment in the arrival.  

Bermuda is absolutely gorgeous.  The weather is warm and perfect, the beaches are breathtaking, and the town is right next to the ship.  I love it!  I'll write more about it in a couple of days!!!  (I've already typed so much about last week....)