That's the technical term for a 3-day voyage with only 2 ports of call. A completely different atmosphere pervades the ship as both the age demographics and attitudes of passengers shifts from our normal. These people come on board with no plan to pace themselves, physically or financially. They come to every event and buy lots of drinks in all the venues. More drinks mean they are louder and have more fun in our shows. A great time is had by all! Except perhaps by our poor stage techs and Nick, who had to do all the big set builds for our biggest shows every single night (often finishing after 2am) and are now suffering from sleep deprivation. Regardless, we really enjoyed ourselves, especially since the two ports we stopped in are two we really like.
First, in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, we explored a bit and found a beautiful cliff path covered in wildflowers where we sat and had an impromptu snack-nic (I feel like one pastry and a bottle of water each doesn't justify the word picnic). All aboard was at 5pm, so we rushed back on, only to have the captain announce the ship was going to stay overnight in anchorage since our next port was so close by and we didn't need to leave yet. But still no-one was allowed off the ship....we just got to look longingly at the shore all night until 10am when we hauled anchor and set sail for Belgium.
Now Belgium is something we have been looking forward to for our entire contract, knowing we only have this one call into port there. We wandered the streets for a while and soaked up the waterfront promenade atmosphere for a while, as Blankenberge offers some of the best people+dog watching in the world. People really love their dogs here: they are allowed in most restaurants, many wear little doggie clothes and are pushed around in strollers. In our wanderings we happened to find a place that offered indoor blacklight glow-in-the-dark Mini Golf! We'd be fools not to!!! So, we got a group of 6 of us from the ship together and went for it. It was great fun! I'm wondering if there is anything like this in LA anywhere. We finished just in time for 2pm and the main event and reason for our excitement about visiting Belgium: WAFFLES. We went to our favorite tea room, called Au Pingouino, where everything has a penguin theme and the waffles are to die for. Even the staff there seemed a bit bewildered by our enthusiasm for their waffles and seemed to think it strange we ordered seconds. :-) We left very very happy, mission accomplished.
Today we are back in Southampton, starting our (here it comes, the awesome, big word) PENULTIMATE voyage! This is a 7 day Norway tour, with 2 sea days and 4 ports. It marks our 3 week countdown as well! We LOVE Norway, and will really enjoy being in that country for our last few weeks on board. Here we go!
As a final sidenote, last night I got to watch a little bit of the Eurovision song contest, in which 26 finalist countries each present one artist and their song in an attempt to win. I had heard about it (Abba won it once and became famous from there) but I had no idea what it was actually like to watch. At times excellent and amazing, and at times brilliantly painful and awkward. The best thing about it is that England has stopped taking itself or its chances in the contest very seriously, and when you watch the British coverage, it is commentated by a famous comedian who basically makes fun of everyone the entire time with snarky remarks. It was hilarious. I can't wait to watch it in full next year. And I happen to have a friend who is a Lithuanian pop idol finalist who may have a chance of competing in it next year, which would make my life complete.
First, in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, we explored a bit and found a beautiful cliff path covered in wildflowers where we sat and had an impromptu snack-nic (I feel like one pastry and a bottle of water each doesn't justify the word picnic). All aboard was at 5pm, so we rushed back on, only to have the captain announce the ship was going to stay overnight in anchorage since our next port was so close by and we didn't need to leave yet. But still no-one was allowed off the ship....we just got to look longingly at the shore all night until 10am when we hauled anchor and set sail for Belgium.
Now Belgium is something we have been looking forward to for our entire contract, knowing we only have this one call into port there. We wandered the streets for a while and soaked up the waterfront promenade atmosphere for a while, as Blankenberge offers some of the best people+dog watching in the world. People really love their dogs here: they are allowed in most restaurants, many wear little doggie clothes and are pushed around in strollers. In our wanderings we happened to find a place that offered indoor blacklight glow-in-the-dark Mini Golf! We'd be fools not to!!! So, we got a group of 6 of us from the ship together and went for it. It was great fun! I'm wondering if there is anything like this in LA anywhere. We finished just in time for 2pm and the main event and reason for our excitement about visiting Belgium: WAFFLES. We went to our favorite tea room, called Au Pingouino, where everything has a penguin theme and the waffles are to die for. Even the staff there seemed a bit bewildered by our enthusiasm for their waffles and seemed to think it strange we ordered seconds. :-) We left very very happy, mission accomplished.
Today we are back in Southampton, starting our (here it comes, the awesome, big word) PENULTIMATE voyage! This is a 7 day Norway tour, with 2 sea days and 4 ports. It marks our 3 week countdown as well! We LOVE Norway, and will really enjoy being in that country for our last few weeks on board. Here we go!
As a final sidenote, last night I got to watch a little bit of the Eurovision song contest, in which 26 finalist countries each present one artist and their song in an attempt to win. I had heard about it (Abba won it once and became famous from there) but I had no idea what it was actually like to watch. At times excellent and amazing, and at times brilliantly painful and awkward. The best thing about it is that England has stopped taking itself or its chances in the contest very seriously, and when you watch the British coverage, it is commentated by a famous comedian who basically makes fun of everyone the entire time with snarky remarks. It was hilarious. I can't wait to watch it in full next year. And I happen to have a friend who is a Lithuanian pop idol finalist who may have a chance of competing in it next year, which would make my life complete.
1 comment:
Loving the photo of the cliffs of Guernsey. A lovely spot for a pic-
(that too is a short picnic).
Post a Comment