Transatlantic Voyage Begins

Today is our final Barcelona Embarkation, where we pick up everyone who'll be along for the ride across the Atlantic Ocean to Galveston Texas, our future home port. We've had some problems with people getting sick (GI) on the ship, so have have to go into a more strict health code. So today everyone had to help sanitize the ship. I was assigned deck seven, port side, and my job was to hit all the doorknobs and handrails with my rag and chlorine bleach, 1000 parts per million (watch your eyes!) Luckily it only took about 20 minutes to do. Everyone has a job like that so that the whole ship can be sanitized in that short window between disembarking and embarking guests.

We were finally granted shore leave at about 12pm, and I managed to make a quick Metro trip out to the Sagrada Familia, and actually go inside this time (no lines in late November!). It was neat to see, even though it is still heavily under construction. After a couple of photos, back on the Metro to my favorite café for the last time, where I'm writing this post. I am pretty excited for the crossing, and can't wait to see these two islands I've never been too in the next couple of days. Well, I've got to run back to the ship since we have an earlier call time before the transatlantic, but I have some good news re:my last post - due to excessive complaining by people like me, the ship is going to pull together a Thanksgiving dinner for us in the mess hall in a couple of days. It'll be December, but better late than never, right? :-)

Thanksgiving

I just had my third Thanksgiving in a row on a ship instead of at home. Usually ships pull together a nice Thanksgiving dinner in the buffet area or in the crew mess halls, but unfortunately the Voyager dropped the ball this time. Their Thanksgiving dinner selection included someone's idea of "American food" instead. So instead of Turkey with stuffing and cranberries, we had hot dogs and barbecue ribs. But I guess they tried.... Thanksgiving isn't widely understood by the rest of the world since it is a pretty distinctly American holiday. On the other hand, the cruise staff did walk around all night with Turkey hats on their heads, so we can't say they didn't make an effort. I'm told there was even a themed crossword puzzle. One thing I will say, the next time I am lucky enough to be home for Thanksgiving, I will be doubly thankful for it.

Tonight the new cast will open the Broadway production show for the first time since they came on board, so it is a big night for them. After tonight they will be able to relax a bit, especially once the production company bosses leave the ship in a couple of days. But its been hard work up til now. We had to do an extra run of the show yesterday with them, plus another dress run this morning. WE even had to dress up as if it were the show - who wants to put on a tux or formal dress before 10 am?? Not any of the musicians, thats for sure. But its only this week we'll have to do these extra rehearsals.

I've seen the schedule for the 14 day crossing staring this Sunday, and it looks very full and exciting. I was especially happy to see a familiar name among the guest entertainer acts - Mark Donoghue, whom I count as a friend. I know I posted about him before, back in the day....if you dug through the archives I know he's mentioned a few times. Anyway it will be so nice to have someone I consider a kind of old friend on board for the crossing. I thought about Facebook-ing him (we're friends on facebook) to tell him he'll be coming on my ship, but I'm thinking that it might be more fun not to tell him. I think I'll find out what room he's in and what day he boards, and then just knock on his door and surprise him. :-) That prospect has put me in a pretty good mood, I'm really looking forward to seeing him. Hooray for it being a small world! You never know when you're going to run into someone again.

Last time around the Med!

Today we are in Naples, on our last loop around the Mediterranean before beginning our transatlantic crossing. So everything is "last": today was last Naples, last pizza, tomorrow will be last Civi, last chance to go to Rome, etc. I am very excited for the crossing - we'll go to two islands I've never visited before just prior to our sea days. More about those once I've been there!

I've started working a couple of side jobs on board, to help pass the time, and to make a little bit of extra spending cash. One is helping with the art auction, something I did on my last contract, and the other is helping in one of the offices on board, doing some mindless envelope stuffing and labelling. I really don't mind the work at all, its actually really nice to have something to take up time on my sea days, and to be keeping busy. Hopefully the jobs will keep coming. I'm also thinking about taking over as Assistant Musical Director when my boss goes on vacation and his current assistant takes over for 6 weeks (after the crossing). Its good to be busy sometimes!

Last night we had a major snafu in the production show with the cast. At the end of the first big number all of our stage equipment shorted out, so we lost the click track and our stand lights. The dancers had struck their final pose and were waiting for the playoff music to kick in, but it never did, so finally they had to awkwardly break pose and run offstage. Since our click wasn't working there was no way we could play and line up with the dancers, so finally someone put an old track recording on (the one the cast practices with) and we just sat there not playing, until they fixed the problem 10 minutes later. How embarrassing! To hear a trombone solo being played while I just sit there twiddling my thumbs...horrible. But the funny thing is, talking to some of my friends who came to the show, they didn't even notice we weren't the ones playing! I don't know how to feel about that....I like to think we make a big difference. :-) But I guess its better if nobody notices something is wrong. Anyway, after 10 minutes of panicked tech guys running around the orchestra pit they finally fixed the problem and we were back in. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before on a ship, and I must admit it was kindof fun....you start to crave excitement in any form when you play the same show 3 times through every week. :-)

Now what?

Photos are up!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098243&id=56903845&l=73441f4ec7

My best friend on the ship, Daniel, went home a couple of days ago, along with the cast. Its been a bit sad for me....its always hard to lose a great friend and then try to redefine your ship life without them. So thats what I'm trying to do now. Time to work on those other friendships and make some new ones. Life goes on, but he will be missed so much!! It is strange not having him around.

Today I did some Christmas shopping - well, Christmas decoration shopping. I've been making a bit of a collection....I now have an 18 inch tree, silver ball ornaments, red pinecone ornaments, an angel for the top, a couple of magnetic snowmen ornaments for my wall, a wreath for my cabin door, a little glass christmas tree that lights up, and two strings of Christmas lights, plus an extension cord. I have been busy!! I am anxious to put everything up, but I will try to restrain myself until the fist of December...I think that's fair. It is going to look fantastic in my cabin!! I can't wait to decorate....my roommate might kill me (she's not the Christmas type) but it must be done. :-)

I had a fantastic lunch this afternoon - I met up with my friend Yukari who works on the Celebrity Century. We did two contracts together, and our ships were luckily in port together today, so we had a date. We went to a fantastic seaside restaurant a friend of hers had recommended. The best part of the meal was the dessert recommended by our really friendly waiter. It was a plate of whole fruits that had each been sliced in half, scooped partially out and refilled with gelato of the same fruit, then put back together. So inside each whole fruit was frozen goodness of the same flavor. There was a mandarin orange, a big date, a fig, a pear, a prickly pear cactus fruit, and a hazelnut. It was one of the most incredible things I've ever had to eat...each of the ice cream flavors were so unique and natural, not filled with artificial flavorings or anything fake. Just pure fruit and each so distinct and interesting. Wow....I might go back next week just for that. And the company was fantastic as well - Yukari is one of the most calm and positive people I know, and I love hanging out with her. I hope we meet up again somewhere in the world!

Rome in 45 minutes (Espresso Rome?)

Making the trip into Rome from where the Voyager docks in Civitavecchia is a bit of an ordeal....as a result of that, busy schedules, and the fact that I've visited the big city many times on past contracts, I hadn't made the trip yet this season. But, yesterday being Daniel's last chance to go to Rome, we decided to make it happen against all odds. We couldn't leave the ship until after the weekly crew boat drill, so we got off the ship around 11am, had to wait half an hour for the shuttle from the pier into Civi, then walk 10 minutes to the train station to catch the train to Rome, which is an hour and 15 minute ride. After that, 10 minute walk to the Metro station, two stops into central Rome, another 10 minute walk to where we ate lunch. One of the dancers had a spaghetti place he highly recommended, near the Trevi fountain. It was amazing....they had over 50 different kinds of spaghetti. Mine was incredible. After that we began our sightseeing. Since Daniel hadn't seen anything other than the Vatican, we wanted to fit in as much as possible. So began our 45 minute special, power-walking through Rome and taking pictures without pausing to stand still. We saw the Trevi fountain, (I threw another coin in...guess I'll have to go back) the Pantheon, and the Colloseum in less that 45 minutes. From the Colloseum we jumped straight on the Metro back to the train station, and caught the 4:09 train back to Civi, made the walk back to town, took the shuttle back to the ship, and made it on board about half an hour before our deadline. Woohoo!! Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted. But happy! Daniel got to see the Colloseum, that's the most important thing. You can't go to Rome and not see it. So an incredible, rushed day, but totally worth it.

In other news, we have a new bass player as of yesterday, who goes by Big Ed. He has done about 40 ships in his time, and is a really solid player. It has been a big improvement in our sound. Tonight we have a guest entertainer act - a motown group called Soul Satisfaction. I'm off to rehearsal now, looking forward to doing a guest act since we haven't done one in several weeks. Off I go!!

Halloween

Yesterday we finally docked in Marseille - one of my favorite ports. We've been unable to dock there since I arrived because of high winds, so for 3 weeks we had sea days instead. But this week the seas have been extraordinarily calm, and we were finally able to make it to Marseille. We only had a few free hours after crew boat drill (which I swear gets longer and longer every week), but Dan, Mike and I managed to make it out for lunch. I had some incredible eggplant parmesan....it really defies description so I'll just say it was really good. Mmm....still dreaming about it. And, of course, when in France.....I had creme brulee for dessert. Not for the first time this week....I must admit I had another one just the day before when Dan and I made a trip to Cannes for the day. I love eating out in France, there is such great food! Its isn't helping me save money, though. Everyone says it'll be much easier to save money in the Caribbean in a month or so, and I believe them. I plan on spending a lot of days on the beach and spending no money. But for now I can enjoy the food, right??

So Thriller was a big success. I did get a little nervous and mess up a bit in the heat of battle...but hopefully nobody noticed. It was a lot of fun, and that's what's important. Dan and I spent 2 hours getting ready, with our costumes and face paint and fake blood to look like the undead - the end result was pretty horrific, much to our satisfaction. We were both pretty unrecognizable. Some good photos will follow eventually, I promise. Probably one of the best moments was when all 2 dozen of us met just before the performance and took pictures, admiring each other's scary appearances. Everyone went all out and looked really fantastic. Afterwards we hung out a bit at the Halloween party, I stayed out until I couldn't stand wearing all that make-up and looking horrific any longer. I've showered and scrubbed several times, but I think I still have some blotches of paint here and there. I guess they are my souvenirs. The crew have a Halloween party later on this week (belated, of course), and I'm just going to wear a witch's hat and black nails and call it even. I feel I've already done way more than my share for Halloween this year.