Fog day

It may not be as much fun as a snow day, but fog days in Galveston still make life interesting. Today the fog delayed our return into port for 6 or 7 hours, seriously throwing a wrench in the works for everyone on board. Except us lazy musicians, of course, it doesn't matter to us one way or another. We weren't allowed off the ship until around 2pm, and our back on board time is now 7pm instead of 3:45. Boat drill has been moved to tomorrow, and I'm not sure what other changes will have to be made. Anyone with a flight out from Galveston today probably missed it, which made a large number of guests pretty upset, of course. The ship released the internet so it was free for everyone this morning if they needed to change their travel arrangements. I would hate to have been working at guest relations today. Yikes. They estimated embarkation would being around 5pm, which is unheard of...hopefully we will sail by 8 or 9pm but there are no guarantees, especially if the fog closes back in.

It was nice to sleep in today though, and to have most of one more day to spend with my friend Tati before she left this afternoon. A few of us sat in the staff mess eating and playing cards for about 4 hours straight....it was a pretty good day. Tati's flight has been moved to tomorrow because of this craziness, and she'll spend the night in Houston. Its nice to be still off the ship today at this time, Galveston is just starting to come to life on a Sunday afternoon. Usually we've long sailed by this time.

I still have no word on my next contract, I keep praying for a contract on the Rhapsody!

"Celebrity" Showtime

A few new photos are up:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104730&id=56903845&l=069f2ff78c

Every week, our guest entertainers are advertised in our daily newsletters as "Headliners", but occasionally there is the act that the ship classifies as "Celebrity" status. So far I think we have only had two, being the Texas Tenors and Ronn Lucas, a ventriloquist that has done a lot of work on TV and in Vegas. Usually, this "Celebrity" status doesn't really seem real to me, since they are always much like every other act I work with every week. Another singer, another ventriloquist, another juggler.....they are the people that I work with, so I don't get that excitement feeling you would associate with seeing a celebrity. But last night we had the Texas Tenors again, after a month's absence, and thanks to the audience I did for once feel a little bit of that excitement. Working with them is the same as working with anyone else, a longish boring rehearsal with charts that are lackluster, wasting time figuring out missing vocal cues, sorting out wrong notes in written in the music, scratching out wrong roadmaps. But at Showtime.... its a different story.

This time the guests were really anticipating the show. People camped out waiting for the theater doors to open so they could get great seats. The front rows were packed full of very excited, screaming middle-aged women. The atmosphere as the show began was tense and buzzing with excitement, and the applause was deafening when the Tenors took the stage. Women standing and screaming, standing ovations 4 or 5 times during the show. At one point the Tenors do a bit where they bring a guest up on stage and sing to her as kindof a funny bit, an audience participation joke. But last night the woman they brought up was so overcome by being on stage with them that she began to weep. She was crying the entire time. I'm not kidding. "I love you guys so much....(sob)...I voted for you on the show (sob)....I love you!!!...I can't believe you're here..(sob)" And she wasn't the only woman weeping for them. For heaven's sake, its not like they're the Beatles.

The audience was already on their feet applauding 3 bars into their version of "God bless the U.S.A.", at which point in the show the Scottish trumpet player on my right and the Argentine sax player in front of me always roll their eyes and contemplate suicide. As for me, while I admit I'm not much impressed with the show (they have a lot of kinks to work out and the charts are honestly pretty terrible arrangements), I find the audience's excitement contagious, and enjoy being a part of that buzz. I also enjoy the fact that the three of them are all genuinely nice people, untainted as of yet by life in showbiz since they are relatively new to it. They still feel what they sing. I'm looking forward to getting to know them a little better when they take the band out for drinks next week as promised.

Payday

For everyone that is payed directly by Royal Caribbean, payday is every 2 weeks. This contract it always falls on the day we are in Costa Maya. Each department is given a window of when to collect their paycheck, and the payroll employees are at it all day, individually handing each person their paycheck and settling their bills for that period. The cruise division, of which I am a part, has to turn up between 7:45 and 8:45am, which means we are all dragging ourselves their half asleep. Today for some reason everything was going really slowly, and I had to wait in line for half an hour to pick up up money. The first thing you receive while you are waiting in line is the dreaded Bar Bill. This is the amount of money you owe back to the ship for anything you may have purchased on board with your card. We always compare them with each other to laugh at whoever did the most damage. If yours is under 100 dollars, you are doing better than most people on the ship, and everyone will give you a hard time. "$40?!! No way!!! How did you do that?? I hate you!!!" Then when you get to the front of the line they give you your envelope, and you have to count the cash inside to verify its the right amount and matches your statement. Everyone is always payed in cash, which means distribution is always under video surveillance and their is a security guard or two hanging around as well. Once you've counted your money you sign to verify you received it, then you settle your bar bill, paying off your bill from your cash paycheck. It can be painful to see your money going right back to the ship. But I did pretty well this time, under 40 bucks. After that you're free to go - but don't forget to leave a few dollars tip for the staff mess attendants, in the box they have right there for your convenience!

My original boss returned last week to the ship after his vacation, and I've started working a little bit more as a result. I really don't mind though - I am learning a lot about what is behind the musical director job. Often times Birks will just have me with him when he does things, so he has someone to bounce things off of as he works out the scheduling around the ship. We sat down a couple of times to plan out the entire week, looking ahead for things like which days to give which entertainers and musicians off, how to even out the schedules for everyone so that they are happy, while covering the necessary lounges at the right times to keep the guests happy. There are a lot of things to keep in mind, and you almost have to hold it all in your head at once in order to make sure there are no conflicts, double checking with cruise staff events, venue bookings, guest group events, and so on. It is tedious work. For example, today we almost scheduled a group for a sound check in the theater, then at the last minute I remembered that the Superbowl is going to be broadcast there, so obviously no sound check. And no matter how hard you plan ahead, there are always going to be something you didn't think of, of something that happens on the day of, that you have to do damage control and sort it out. Like Bingo went late so the band couldn't set up, so guests were complaining...it could be anything. The M.D.'s ship cell phone or "dect phone" is constantly ringing, giving him a new problem to sort out. My friend Dave Riddell was all too happy to pass that cursed phone back to Birks when he returned.

The only other news is that I received an email from the musician scheduler for RCCL asking me about doing another contract. There are only a couple of ships that I would consider doing, that have itineraries that interest me. He will be checking his grids and letting me know in a day or so whether or not I can be scheduled on those ships. My fingers are crossed for one in particular. I'll let you know what happens soon!