A lovely time in the UK

I have been so lucky over the past several weeks to be in this wonderful country.  The sun has been shining and the countryside is so green and pleasant.  I have amazing hosts, who have taken it upon themselves to make sure I see all of the most essential sights.  Some highlights have been Swanage, Bournemouth, Brownsea Island (with its adorable tufty-earred red squirrels), Hampton Court Palace, Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight, the Cotswolds, and Glastonbury (where King Arthur is purportedly buried).

Last Wednesday I had the most wonderful surprise from my English soon-to-be-family: a very English bachelorette party, or "hen-do" or "hen party." Lynne, Nick's Mum, and his sister Jen had secretly arranged the most English thing they could think of - a very fancy afternoon tea at the Rhinefield House - and invited a few close friends.  I felt so loved and welcomed!! It was a very special day.

It is hard to believe that 5 weeks have passed since Nick and I signed off the Queen Elizabeth.  I have had a great time here.  Now we are only 3 months away from the wedding.  The visa situation is going well - we are at the last step before the wedding: Nick's interview at the American Embassy in London.  It is scheduled for the end of the July, and after that day we will know for absolute certain that Nick's Fiance visa has been approved.  It can't come quickly enough! For now I head home, in search of new employment, and pray he will be able to join me very soon. We haven't been apart for more than a few hours since January, so hopefully it will be very, very soon.

And now?? California, here I come!!  This time its for good!

France and the Masseys

We spent an amazing week in France! Our flight took only about an hour and a half from London to Geneva, Switzerland.  From there we had booked a transfer to La Fayet station, where we were met by Andrea Robertson, Nick's aunt.  She used to be Andrea Massey, my future name!!  I love that. She drove us up the hills a little way on a winding road to the small town of Saint Gervais Les Bains.  She and her husband Jon live in a gorgeous chalet that they bought in derelict condition and gave a complete makeover to.  While the house itself is amazing, it is far surpassed by the views of the mountains on every side.  They have a beautiful garden which Andrea keeps up and uses to supply Sunday flowers to the local church in Saint Gervais. Jon gave us a tour around the house, showing us everything they have done in it, including gazebo, swimming pool, wine cellar, cinema room, central vacuuming system, separate self-contained apartment and garage, and glass walled conservatory where we got to eat our meals with 180 degree views of the valley.  Andrea spoiled us all week with home-cooked meals with fresh ingredients from the market in Saint Gervais.  The market itself is on the main street in town, which we could walk to from their home.

Spending time with them and their daughter and granddaughter was wonderful, and we saw some amazing sights while we were there.  Highest on the list was our trip up into the French Alps that we were staying at the base of.  We drove over to the ski resort town of Chamonix, and took a cable car or "telepherique" up to a point in the mountains around Mont Blanc called the "Aguille du Midi".  At the very top you are at an incredible elevation of over 12,000 feet, and yet Mont Blanc itself is still much higher than you! We also took another cable car that carries you suspended over the snow and glaciers, and tiny figures of hikers put the enormity of the scene into perspective.  I can honestly say I have never seen mountains like this before in my life, and the views absolutely took my breath away.

Though we didn't climb Mont Blanc (this time!!), we did go on one major hike up near one of the glaciers that works its way down from the peak.  As it was still early in the season, we found ourselves encountering ever-increasing patches of snow that we had to navigate through without the proper shoes, and bits of the path hadn't been fixed and maintained yet after the harsh winter.  Despite some sticky moments, somehow we made it to our goal, but instead of retracing our steps, we walked along the more predictable and safe route of an old train track that is no longer in use.  The views during the whole hike were just unbelievable.  I love the wildness of the place and the freshness of the air.  

Other things we got to do were to visit the towns of Evian, (yes, where the water is from!), Megeve, Yvoire, Chamonix, and Geneva itself (swiss chocolate....mmmm).  What a great time!

I could say much more about France, but I don't want this to get too long, so I will move on! Yesterday I got the chance to meet a whole lot more of the Massey clan, at a Sunday barbecue they planned to get a chance to meet me before I leave.  I met two other young ladies who have become Mrs. Massey's, one from Indian descent and one Czech.  They each are married to Nick's cousins, and have a couple of kids each as well.  I will be a Mrs. Massey soon! I loved meeting the whole family, they are all so relaxed and friendly.  I will be lucky to be a part of the family. 

Unemployment!!

I am now officially unemployed!! I signed off the Queen Elizabeth on June 9th, and have been relaxing with Nick's family in Southampton all week.  Nick and I went down to a place called Calshot Spit to wave goodbye to the QE as she sailed away without us.  It was a surreal and wonderful feeling to see it leaving without us on it! I've never seen it do that before.

We have had one week in England, adjusting to life on land, sleeping at normal times, with sunlight and no ship white noise in the background.  We have been splitting our time between family time, sightseeing, relaxing, and doing visa paperwork.  As of today we have sent Nick's required documents along to the US Embassy, notifying them of his readiness for the final interview.  Between now and then we have some final papers to organize, and he will attend an official medical exam.  Hopefully he will have an interview date by the end of August!

Now for the fun stuff we've been doing.  We got to see the London cast of the show Wicked while we were up in London renewing Nick's passport so it is valid for 8 months after his potential travel date to the US.  The theatre where Wicked is located sits around the corner from the passport office, so as we walked past it we popped in to check if they had any "day seats", tickets that are only released on the day of each show and can only be bought at the theatre's box office.  They had two front row seats off to the side, and we were thrilled to take them! So much cheaper than buying tickets any other way.  I love the show anyway, and this cast was very talented, but what a treat to be in the front row!! I also enjoyed hearing songs I know so well sung with British accents.  It made me giggle.  Things rhyme differently than in the American version.  Other things we've done are: visiting Kew Gardens, going to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral, window-shopping in the famous Harrod's department store, going to see the Mary Rose (Henry the VIII's ship that sank in 1545!!), and visiting a wartime-style working farmhouse and one of the oldest churches in England.  And a special mention to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio tour!! It was incredible, I can't say enough good things about it.  What a treat to walk through the actual sets on which the cast and crew spent 10 years filming.  I also have new appreciation for the talent, skill, and work that went into every single prop and set piece in the film.  To be able to examine each object up close was so interesting.  I will enjoy watching the films again, with new eyes!

Tomorrow we begin the next part of our holiday - a visit to Nick's Aunt and Uncle in the Rhone-Alpes region of southeastern France.  They have a chalet that they have renovated right at the base of Mount Blanc.  Talk about "wow"!! I can't wait to see it.  We will be staying with them for about a week, hopefully doing a little bit of hiking around the mountains.  I'm excited to add a new stamp to my passport, since the nearest major airport is actually Geneva, Switzerland!  Bring on a new country!

Norway and Last Voyage!

We are in our final week on board Queen Elizabeth! Each thing we do is a "last." Last boat drill, last dixieland set, last welcome aboard show, last cabin inspection.....its a great feeling! We have also been lucky enough to be cruising in Norway, which is so beautiful.  We have managed a few nice hikes in the mountains and hills near the ports, and have done our best not to buy anything (just a coffee can run you $6 or $7 bucks).  We are now in the Arctic Circle, enjoying the midnight sun.  It is a very strange experience, our bodies don't ever really feel like its time for bed.  The last few nights the sun hasn't set at all.  I love the feeling, but it would take some getting used to if I lived here! And of course there is the winter to consider, where the sun doesn't appear for months.  Summer is definitely a better option if you ask me! We were also really lucky to get to meet up with some friends of ours who live in Trondheim, Norway.  They picked us up at the port and took us home for some Norwegian hospitality and an amazing home-cooked meal.  Nick and I smuggled extra carrot cake back on board with us in the afternoon.  It was a really wonderful day.  Just being in someone's home is a treat when you live on a ship, and it was a treat to get to catch up with our friends as well.  Today we are in the beautiful library in Tromso, slowly working our way back south from Honningsvaag and the North Cape.  We have only 2 ports left after today!! My next post might even be from Nick's home in Southampton.  

Party Cruise!

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.

In the Baltic Sea

Today I am the furthest I will be from home, in St. Petersburg, Russia.  This is the farthest point of the voyage and of the contract, with an 11 hour time difference.  This afternoon when we sail, it will fell a bit like I am on my way home.  Nick and I both love being in the Baltic Sea, these ports are somehow more calming and enjoyable for us than the craziness of the mediterranean and caribbean.  We are especially looking forward to our final voyages in Norway.  We have had our first Norwegian port this voyage, in Kristiansand.  One thing we have learned is that everything in Norway is very expensive!! This explains our jubilation to discover that Foursquare (the smartphone check-in application) offered free coffee at a certain cafe on your first check in.  We each enjoyed a fantastic coffee beverage of choice at the Mean Bean Cafe (would have been about $6.50 each), before cheekily heading around the corner to another place with the same offer.  I tried a chili moccha with soymilk, which was fantastic.  I've discovered I love the chili/chocolate combination.  So anyway we were exceedingly proud of ourselves for using our resources to save money and still enjoy ourselves ashore.  (You could also call it "mooching", I suppose.)

Our second port of call this voyage was Warnemunde, Germany.  We got off the ship to find the place absolutely heaving with people.  It was a long holiday weekend for Germans, and thousands had come up to Warnemunde for the boat festival centered around our ship, and to stay in this charming resort town and soak up a little sun on the large beach there.  I have never seen so many people there, it was actually quite difficult to get into town, you just had to join the throng and shuffle along until it finally brought you there.  It was fun wandering around the carnival-style street vendors and soak in the holiday atmosphere.  

Next we went to Tallinn, Estonia, one of my favorite places in the world.  It has a medieval old town that is really amazing.  We wandered the streets for a while before settling into Olde Hansa, a restaurant/shop with a medieval theme.  Well, more than a theme! Everything is made in the medieval way, all the staff dress appropriately, and finding the toilets inside is an adventure since the candlelight doesn't do too much to illuminate.  The toilets themselves are an adventure as they are made in keeping with the theme, but still function in a modern way.  Hard to explain - you'd have to experience it. :-) The food is all medieval receipees, and well done.  Ahh, and the honey mead.....so yummy.  I also had a mushroom soup with fresh bread that I really enjoyed.  We loved being in this beautiful city one last time.  There are beautiful views around every corner.  We even happened upon a musician playing some sort of traditional string instrument, with incredible mastery and passion.  We threw some coins in his case and stood transfixed for quite a while.  What a fantastic day!

As I say, today we are in St. Petersburg.  Having done in the past all the tours I had wanted to do, Nick and I both used this port as a bargaining chip for IPM swaps.  We stayed on board for most of it, covering people's IPM, in return for them covering us later on in our final voyages.  I won't have another IPM until I sign off (after the upcoming one this Southampton), which will be worth it.  Today I couldn't find anyone who wanted to swap, so I've just wandered around the port to the seafarer's center for a couple hours of internet and to stretch my legs.  I'm headed back to the ship soon for rehearsal.  Tonight we'll be playing for the wonderful tenor from New Zealand - Ben Makisi.  He was on board back when we were in his neck of the woods, and I didn't expect to be seeing him again.  Its a nice surprise, he has a fantastic voice.  Soon we'll be waving goodbye to St. Petersburg.  

Oh, and did I say?? We have officially 1 month left today!! Nearly finished!!

Turning Around Again

Here we are back in our turnaround port of Southampton, on another very crispy cold morning.  The sun is shining, though, and it should start to warm up soon.  It is hard to believe it is May already!! Now that it is officially the first of May, I can say that we sign off next month! The countdown is on....and we are daydreaming about our vacation in England together.

The end of last voyage got a bit interesting, with one brand new port and a change of itinerary.  First, Valencia.  What an amazing city! I went on a bus tour because Nick was stuck on board, and was really pleasantly surprised by the city.  It has amazing and interesting architecture everywhere, and also a shiny, modern, Gaudi-inspired "City of Arts and Sciences" which includes museums, public event spaces an opera house and gardens.  Wow.  The center of the city is all very stunning architecture as well, a bit older, and there is also a gorgeous seafront promenade.  I learned that both Formula One and the Americas Cup races are held here from time to time.  Apparently for such events locals will rent out their balconies for 2,000 euros a day! We had free time at the Central Market, and I decided to buy some of the famous Valencia-grown oranges.  I only had three euros, so I asked for 3 euros worth of them.  It turned out I had to to stop the vendor after only 2 euros worth, as I already had a huge bag of 10 giant oranges!! And they were incredible....I made lots of fresh orange juice all week (I've inherited a tiny plastic juice extractor).  I also tried the local horchata drink, made of tiger nut milk, water and sugar.  It can be found at Mexican restaurants in the States, I myself have had it before, but that version is rice-based instead and can include milk.  Valencia is the place it originated, and uses tiger nuts exclusively (vegan!).  I tried a small glass with the usual accompaniment of "fartones", sort of like sweet, soft breadsticks.  Yummy!  Anyway I was overall very impressed with Valencia, and would love to come back, have a chance to explore more and share it with Nick next time.

So now about our change of itinerary.  We were scheduled to be in Gibraltar, but due to high winds we weren't able to dock.  We got right up to the dock before we had to turn around.  It was disappointing to miss Gibraltar as I really love the port.  The guests were very disappointed, but as usual when things go wrong, the crew was ecstatic to find out we would be able to get to Cadiz early and have an overnight there! Spain is a country where people stay out late eating an drinking, especially on the weekends, with entire families and kids out past midnight into the wee hours.  It was the perfect place to be for us, because we don't finish work until 11:30pm and most other ports this would mean everything would already be closed.  But not in Cadiz! It was a festive-feeling Saturday night, full of locals enjoying tapas and drinks in the local bars and cafés, with their kids kicking around soccer balls in the plazas.  We found a great little place that had a huge menu, and tried out a few local dishes.  They even gave us hot fresh bread! Hard to believe it was nearly 1am at that point! What a nice night.  Sitting at a restaurant at night is one of those humanizing, keenly-longed-for pleasures of the cruise ship employee.  It is wonderful not to worry about getting back in time for work or all-aboard.

Today we begin our Baltic voyage, across to St. Petersburg, Russia, and back.  We will hit all the capital cities along the way: Stockholm, Copenhagen, Tallinn, Helsinki, and a few smaller ones.  Looking forward to it!

Iberian Adventures

That isn't a fancy blog-post title I made up myself, its the name of this particular voyage.  We visit Lisbon, Gibraltar, and a handful of ports in Spain.  We had a lovely day in Lisbon, and since we were docked in a closer berth we were able to have a nice stroll right into town instead of a long shuttle bus ride.  It was gorgeous weather, and we sat outside for a while to soak it in.  Lisbon is a really charming city, though it is also a bit dirty and filled with sketchy people at times.  But I love how the buildings are each covered in their own distinctive tiling on the outside, and the roofs are all red tile.  It was a really nice day.  We sailed away early in the afternoon, much to the dismay of 3 of the dancers who didn't make it back to the ship in time.  We left them standing on the pier, and we could see them there as we sailed away.  They had to fly to Malaga, Spain, to rejoin the ship the next day.  Being in that situation is quite literally one of my worst nightmares.  Lucky for them, they haven't lost their jobs, though missing the ship is usually gets you fired.  They have been given the severest warnings possible and won't be allowed of the ship for quite some time.  I think the fact that losing all three of them at once would have been devastating to our theatre shows was the only thing that saved them their jobs.

Today we are in Barcelona, waiting for the weather to clear up a bit.  At the moment its a bit drizzly and cold, quite unusual for this normally sunny port.  We have sheltered in the little coffee shop where I used to come every embarkation day when I worked on the Voyager of the Seas.  It has been three years since then, incredibly, and this place itself has been totally remodeled into an almost unrecognizable state.  Sadly, the old man who used to work here, who used to tease me in Spanish about wanting to stow away in my luggage on the ship, and who over the months I really considered a friend, no longer works here.  It is a bit nostalgic and sad to be here without him, but I must admit the renovations are amazing.  Its very classy in here now.  And the espresso is still great.

The visa process is still going slowly, and I am constantly checking my Visa Journey website to see how quickly people are being processed.  At the moment they are giving the second crucial notice of action (NOA 2, what I'm waiting for) to people who applied in October.  I will watch those approvals slowly creep toward January, when we applied.  At least I know things are still progressing for other people and soon it will be our turn! Please pray that ours is processed quickly as there seem to be some applications that take longer and some shorter, even when applied for at the same time and for beneficiary's from the same country.  There seems to be no real rhyme or reason to it, but at least I can know when other January couples are starting to get approved.  Then it will be on to the next step!!

Canary Islands

We have spent the past three days in the warm and mostly sunny Canary Islands.  They belong to Spain and are located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco.  We visited La Palma, Tenerife, and Lanzarote.  Nick tells me that the Canaries are a destination for British retirees, which explains some of his general lack of excitement about a place he connects with "where you go to die" in his mind.  Regardless, we have had three really nice days here on the different islands, all very volcanic in vegetation or lack thereof. One great thing is all of the spanish-style food that can be found here, and the very cheap prices for said food.  I tried a venezuelan sandwich called an "arepa" - which is a large, round, semi-flat biscuit of ground maize that is lightly fried and filled with different sandwich-type ingredients.  I really enjoyed it! Another local specialty is the "Barraquito", a coffee drink with several layers, (foam, espresso, condensed milk, liquer) cinnamon on top and a piece of lemon rind for zest.  And who could forget the churro! Here we found six for only one euro fifty, with a cup (yes, cup) of melted chocolate to dip them in for 30 cents extra.  What a deal! It has been nice to taste the local treats without feeling guilty about the cost.

Yesterday we had an amazing sailaway experience from the island of Tenerife.  Dozens of dolphins chased the ship and were playing for about 10 minutes in the wakes just under the bow.  From deck 4 forward we could look down and see them jumping, flipping and racing us and each other.  It was a really magical experience! We felt so lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

Our sea days from Southampton through the Bay of Biscay to the Canaries was quite a bumpy one, and as a result all of the big singer/dancer production shows were moved onto the port days and all in a row instead of spread out as usual.  It has been really strange to do all our biggest shows in a row without a break, and a bit disappointing since the attendance was way down as a result.  The big shows are spread out to increase anticipation and buildup, and put on formal-night sea days when people have nowhere else to go.  When they are all on port days many guests are too tired to make it out to showtime.  To top it all off we have had early 7pm shows instead of late ones, and guests are even less likely to make it back on the ship and be ready in time for such an early show.  It has really just been a big mistake in planning to arrange things this way, and I'm sure the ratings we get this week will reflect that.  But maybe it is better than the alternative of dancers falling over on stage on a rocky night!! 

Transatlantic Crossing

After spending a glorious day in New York, strolling through Central Park and eating blueberry pancakes in Times Square with our good friend Jane, we started our long transatlantic crossing. The crossing was spread out over 7 days, so we weren't going for any sort of speed record, that's for certain.   The weather was cold, windy, overcast and rainy most of the way, but never got terribly rough, thank goodness.  Our last day at sea was even calm and sunny! Quite lucky really for the time of year.  One nice surprise was having David Shannon on again as a guest entertainer - he is one of the best, and a friend of mine.  I got to see him play the lead role in Les Mis in London last June, got the backstage tour and everything and went out for drinks after.  It was great to see him again! The rumor is that he and his wife (who now live in New York) are thinking about moving to Los Angeles soon, which would be great.

Today we made landfall in Southampton! Thank goodness! It is great to be on dry land, and Southampton really feels like a second home now.  Not only is it our home port, but I have future family here too! I can't wait to spend some more time here after my contract finishes in June.  Today we had our long-awaited veggie English Breakfast at our favorite pub - the Standing Order.  Later on we will meet up with Nick's mom for lunch and a catch-up.  Our Queen's Room band left today for their vacation, so we'll be seeing them again at the end of May when they return.  They will be missed!

Life on board continues as normal, or as normal as living on a ship can be.  Our schedules will go back to normal now that the world voyage is finished, and we will start seeing more familiar faces with the guest entertainers instead of a new one every day.  Nick and I, along with Vlad our guitarist and a viola player called Ksenia are doing really well with a workout routine.  We finished a two-month program of Insanity, and are now doing a different 60 day program called Les Mills Combat - which is sort of like kickboxing, but incorporates other martial arts as well.  It is a lot more fun than Insanity!! Even though it feels easier, it uses different muscles, so 6 days in, I am feeling pretty sore! It is such a blessing to have a team to work out with - it keeps us motivated, and keeps us showing up for the workout every morning, or finding some time during the day to work it into our schedules.  I think having this routine is really improving life on board for all four of us.  It definitely gets us moving on the sea days!

So today we head down to warmer waters - the Canary Islands! I'm definitely ready for some sunshine after the last week at sea.  Bring on the heat!

Panama Canal Transit

Two days ago we completed our first West-to-East transit of the Panama Canal.  Nick and I were up early to see our approach, as the skyscrapers of Panama City appeared through the haze.  The city became clearer as we got closer and joined the line of traffic to go through the canal.  We passed under the Bridge of the Americas - part of a road that not only crosses the Canal, but is part of the Pan-American Highway, reaching all the way up to Alaska.   This highway would continue all the way down to the tip of South America if it weren't for a 100 mile stretch of rainforest in south Panama known as the Darién Gap, the only break in the highway, but by all means impassable for all but the most adventurous (there are plenty of notable expeditions to make the journey, all setting some sort of record it seems).  Nick and I were out on our little perch at the very front of the ship while we passed under the bridge.  Construction workers yelled and waved at us as we passed under it.  We stayed outside as we passed through the Miraflores Locks, until around 10am when the sun had completely baked off the cloud layer and was beginning to get to us.  It was a really beautiful day for our crossing, without any rain despite it being the season for it.  While we were in the Miraflores Locks, one of our passengers who had fallen ill (but was now stable, just needed to get back home) was evacuated off the ship right on the side of the canal to a waiting ambulance.  The photographers were able to get out and walk on the canal as well, as they took pictures of the ship.  They were brought there via small boats from the ship before we even entered the canal.  It made me want to be a photographer, so I could walk across the bridges on top of the walls of the locks!  After the sun became too much for me I watched the rest of the transit off and on throughout the day via the "front-of-the-ship" channel.  Much cooler that way!

Today we are in Curaçao, in the Dutch Caribbean.  It is my first time here, and I really enjoyed walking around the town.  The buildings are constructed just like the ones you would see lining the canals in Amsterdam, except that they are painted much more brightly, Caribbean-style!  One neat thing we experienced was crossing into town via a huge floating pontoon bridge, which floats across the water and folds back against the pier to let big shipping vessels through.  When it is folded away, you can make the crossing into town on a free ferry service.  We took the ferry one way since the bridge was gone, and then took the bridge back.  What a clever system!  Not quite on a panama-canal scale, but still impressive. 

Cruising the Coastline

On March 12th we made it back to Los Angeles to finish our South Pacific circle voyage.  I can't believe how quickly those 5 weeks went by, though the large number of sea days made it seem long at times.  It was great to be back in Los Angeles and catch up with my parents, as well as some friends who came to visit the ship.  Because of being at "red level" for so long with a lot of guests with GI or Norovirus, the chip had a total clean and sanitize routine before they let new guests embark.  Luckily I was still able to meet up with family later on in the afternoon and show my friends around the ship.  Thanks goes to my parents for bringing me all sorts of goodies and supplies that I needed! And for taking all of our excess stuff home with them.  I have cleaned my cabin out, down to the absolute minimum to get by for the rest of the contract. Nick did the same, and also moved some things from England to LA via my parents.  After we offloaded it that day, Nick told me he felt like he has really moved to LA! Now all that's missing is us.  We'll follow our stuff in a few months.

So for the last week we have been sailing down the coast of California, Mexico, and Central America.  We've been quite lucky on several days to see a lot of great ocean wildlife.  Dolphins played right next to the ship, we spotted some whales, and even some sea turtles, occasionally with seagulls hitching rides on their backs.  We have made a point of going outside every day on those long sea days, to get some fresh air and sunshine, and beat the lethargy that creeps in and tempts you to stay in bed all day and hibernate.  We have had some really stunning afternoons out of decks 4 and 5 forward.

So far we have stopped in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua.  I enjoyed wandering about Puerto Vallarta on my own and checking out Pipi's - a restaurant my parents had enjoyed when they were here on vacation a while back.  It's a very nice town, with a whole lot there to see and do.  And the guacamole is fantastic! Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to get off the ship in Nicaragua.  We were tendering, and the weather was so bad that the operation was very delayed.  They  decided not to allow any crew off the ship, which was a bummer.  Instead Nick and I had a mini-picnic out on deck 4 and took our pictures from there.

Today we are in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, for the second time on this "Exotic Discoveries" voyage.  While Nick is stuck on board with IPM, I am on shopping duty - grabbing a few cheap bags of coffee from the local supermarket to last us for the rest of the contract.  In the souvenir stands near the ship, bags of coffee are sold for $10 apiece.  At "Pali", the local supermercado, I got three of them for $7.  It definitely pays to get off the beaten track!

As far as what's been going on onboard the ship - a couple of notable things!  First, my wonderful grandparents are on board this segment, and they have been settling in, relaxing, and enjoying coming to the shows in the theater.  Nick and I have been once to tea with my grandma, which she loves, and we will definitely go again! It is so nice to have them on board.  They are really looking forward to the panama canal in a couple of days.  Second, we got to open a new show yesterday for a guest entertainer we've worked with many times.  Allan Stewart had put together a one man show all about the life of Al Jolson, where he speaks and sings the whole show as if he is the man himself.  We had a very long rehearsal putting it together and figuring out the music for the first time, cutting bits here and adding them there, until it was perfected.  After all the work it was a bit of a shock when the show itself was relatively short, clocking in at about 40 minutes.  But it was a really great show and we enjoyed playing it.  On the other side of things, something nearly went very wrong in the theatre two nights ago, when an acrobat was on silks, dangling 10 feet above the stage, when the fastening slipped and the whole thing cam crashing down during a show.  Yikes! The performer was absolutely fine, and continued his show right away.  But all of us and the audience had a heart attack watching it happen.  We are so lucky he wasn't injured.  That was more than enough excitement for my entire contract.  Thankfully something like that almost never ever happens.   The other shows have all been running very smoothly, in fact it is a very busy voyage for us, there isn't a night off in sight yet.  But it is good to be busy!

Hawaii part 2

(Because I accidentally hit "send" instead of "save) on my last post.

Where did I leave off? Right I think I had just bought an old suitcase. Anyway I went for a local diner for lunch called Ken's Pancake House (I'm sure no-one is wondering why I picked it) and had that wonderful thing it is difficult to find anywhere but Hawaii - yes, that would be macadamia nut pancakes. And not only that, they had a coconut syrup on the table! Along with guava and passionfruit local syrups. Wow. Yes, I tried all of them. No clear winner, all were amazing. On the way back it started to rain, and a kind Hawaiian lady felt sorry for me dragging my suitcase. She made me buckle up to drive the 4 blocks to the pier. A wise woman. I was very grateful for the lift.

Our second day in Hawaii, Nick was able to get off the ship with me, in Kahalui, Maui. Unfortunately we had a crew boat drill in the morning and couldn't get off until about noon, so we didn't have time for much. We walked into town rather than waiting for the shuttle bus, and had delicious veggie burgers at a Ruby's diner. We wandered around the shops for a while, and Nick spotted some white shoes that will work for the wedding! So the day turned out very productive after all. Once back on board I went out on deck 4 forward to watch the sailaway, and was rewarded by sighting dozens of whales! It was really fantastic, we kept passing by them, some very close to the ship, saw a few jumping and crashing back down, and one who slapped his tail on the water a dozen times for us. What a spectacular sailaway. And a great close to our short time in Hawaii! So there you are, the rest of my Hawaii post. :-)
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Hawaii

I had a fantastic couple of days in Hawaii! We stopped in Hilo on the big island first, and I was lucky enough to get on a guest tour to the active volcano Mount Kilauea (I'm sure I spelled that wrong). The huge crater is visible from a combination museum and observation point, and smoke and steam rises from it in a constant plume. What an incredible sight. A few more volcanic sights were in store for us as we went on a short hike through the rainforest to the Thurston lava tube - basically a massive tunnel caused by the hardening of an outer layer of molten lava as it flowed across the landscape. It was really huge - much bigger and longer than I expected. Then we got to have a view of Kilauea Iki, a smaller, inactive crater that you can actually hike across (I was jealous! I would love to do that hike someday!). There was one last delicious stop on our tour - the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory. Fantastic! I bought a few goodies and took advantage of the free samples. The tour finished in the early afternoon, so I stayed out and walked to a Goodwill store, where I picked up an old suitcase to pack full of stuff to send home.
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Just a quick one - its amazing how one person's face with glowing with enjoyment during a show can totally make my night. One person smiling beatifically makes it all worth it.
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Tahiti and Bora Bora

We had a night off in Tahiti - so 4 of us (Me, Nick, Rebecca the harpist and Jeff the tenor sax player and Rebecca's other half) set out to conquer a hike to Fautaua Falls, something I attempted on my first visit here two years ago and failed to do due to time constraints. So this time I knew we would have time! What I didn't know was that the weather was conspiring against us. About an hour and a half into the hike, just as we began the steep ascent, it began to rain. Not just rain, but a torrential downpour, as only a tropical island can dish out. It's green there for a reason, folks! We pushed onwards in the rain hoping it would pass, for about 20 minutes, but when the muddy trail began to become a river, we knew we needed to turn back for our own safety. The rain continued steadily for the next 2 hours as we made our way back to the bus stop near the trailhead, pelting us with huge unrelenting drops that left us completely soaked, and making the hills around us reverberate with thunder. Jeff attempted to pluck some large leaves to use as makeshift umbrellas, but succeeded in uprooting the entire tree to our amusement and Rebecca's utter horror. In spite of everything, it was still wonderful to be outside in the tropical forest, and even hiking in the rain was fun and thrilling. But it was a very bedraggled and mosquito-bitten group of us who sprinted the last few yards gratefully to the well-timed bus. The driver greeted us with a towel to wipe our feet on, though we still each left substantial puddles around us by the end of the ride.

After a hot shower, dry clothes, a cup of tea and a quick nap, Nick and I were ready to go back outside and make the most of our late sailaway at 9pm. The weather had cleared up by then, and we were able to sit under the stars in the big square near the dock and have an affordable bite to eat from the food trucks that always pull up there.

The next day in Bora Bora, Nick couldn't get ashore at all due to work. A brand new acrobatic act had come on in Tahiti, and most of the stage techs were required to help perpare their show, with extensive lighting and sound to be programmed and silks and hoops to be rigged from the ceiling. So I went ashore with Rebecca and Jeff, and while it was unfortunately another pretty rainy day, we still enjoyed wandering around town, browsing the tahitian black pearl shops, and even made it to the beach. It is unnerving to swim when one can catch glimpses of lightning and listen to heavy thunder, but we were assured by the locals that it was quite safe. I did some snorkelling and managed to see a huge octopus! What a thrill! I was a bit disappointed in the grey skies which masked what a stunning colour the waters of the lagoon usually are, but I still felt lucky to be there. I bought a bunch of tiny bananas to bring back to Nick, as well as a few other little souvenirs to make up for him being stuck on board. One last neat thing about the day was watching the local young men chase our tender boats in their canoes. They would paddle madly after us as we passed to ride in our wakes. It was really a fun thing to watch.

And now we are at sea once more! Four days in the South Pacific as we make our way back to Hawaii. I can't wait!
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New Zealand

As ever, a wonderful time was had by all in New Zealand. The time was too short, but we had four great ports to visit in our four days there. Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, and Wellington. In both Tauranga and Wellington we got to go on short hikes up small mounts near town, for some amazing views. Also in Tauranga, Nick and I slipped off the ship very early, as soon as the gangway was down, for a very cheeky breakfast in town before a 10:30am All-Crew meeting. It was so early that security hadn't yet realized they shouldn't grant crew shore leave until after said meeting, so we were among a lucky half-dozen who got off before they caught on. We didn't misbehave, and after a lovely coffee, walk, and breakfast we went back for the meeting before coming back out for the rest of the day.

In Wellington we had the chance to meet up with two girls that I became friends with two years ago while visiting my friend Hayden. Hayden himself was out of town, unfortunately, but Kate and Zoe gave us a great day of hiking and enjoying the cafe-hopping lifestyle of Wellington, in some hidden gem locations.

I'd also like to give a shout-out to some amazing Kiwi guest entertainers we have had on board over the last few days. Tim Beveridge was a great singer with some stunning charts written by Russell Garcia, a guy who used to write for Louis Armstrong and all the greats, and had retired to New Zealand. By far and away the most fun act we have had was the Ladykillers. Four incredible female vocalists who sang some really killer harmonies, were complete professionals, and were hilarious. All of the comedy was a result of them just being themselves, being relaxed and letting all their quirky personalities shine through on stage. The jokes just happened naturally and were completely different the second show. "We're the Ladykillers, because we are all ladies.....unless provoked..." "A ukelele is an instrument given to every Kiwi child on their 16th birthday...". "Suzie is the token blonde in the group, while I repesent the brown in this town". Just funny stuff. I'm sure its hilarious just hanging out with them, and I really enjoyed their show as a result. But not only that, they really were amazing singers, who have obviously put in a ton of detailed work into the preparation, with perfect cut-offs, harmonies, tempo changes, everything. They really knew what they were doing and were a joy to work with.

So now we bid farewell to lovely New Zealand and its lovely people, and being the long crossing back to LA, which will take us 21 days and only 4 ports. Yikes! Bring on the South Pacific! And please don't let it get too bumpy.
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South Pacific

Its been so long since I posted I can't remember what I last wrote about. Today we finally arrived in New Zealand, and I was hoping for some good internet time to catch up blogging, but didn't end up having enough time.

Nick and I had a lovely Valentine's Day, which we were lucky enough to celebrate in Pago Pago, American Samoa. We made a pilgrimage to Tisa's Barefoot Bar, a favorite haunt of cruise ship musicians for many years. It was my first time there, as last year I had taken a tour of the island. Nick had been before, and our musical director Dusty has been so many times that he is famous and known by name to all of the owner's family. It is a real beach bar, in front of the beach, with a gorgeous view of the lush green hills of the island. We ate some plantain "chips" and a dip made of locally grown herbs and coconut milk, had pina coladas, did some snorkeling, and just enjoyed floating around in the warm, clear waters. What a Valentine's Day! It was our first one together, which made it even more special.

We have been slowly making our way down to New Zealand for over two weeks now, with most of those days spent at sea. We have really settled into a routine of being on board all day most days, getting up for breakfast, me practicing a bit, having a workout in the afternoon (Nick, Vlad our guitarist and I are in our 4th week of the Insanity program! So proud of us!), and then having a shower and heading to work. Work has been interesting as well. Being on a "world voyage", we never repeat any guest entertainers, so we get a huge variety. Unique ones have included a Paraguayan harpist named Fransisco Yglesia, who managed to dance a bit while playing and wore a big poncho, and Ben Makisi, a very large Samoan-Kiwi classical tenor. We also had an Australian lady who does a Shirley Bassey tribute show, who I remember playing for a couple years back on a different ship, and who is famous among musicians for giving all of them little stuffed Koala and Kangaroo key chains that say "I love Australia."

Since I joined in Florida, we have had a wonderful run with the incomparable Ray Rouse as cruise director. He is a huge personality who brings so much positive energy to the ship, laughs to the stage, and runs things so well. He left us today and will be greatly missed. Goodbye to a true professional in the business!
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Back on Board

My flight arrived into Miami at 6:30am, and I made it to my hotel (after being bypassed once by the hotel shuttle bus and having to wait another half hour for the next one) by about 8am.  I was one of a few crew members and we were told to wait while they tried to find us rooms.  After about half an hour, the lady at the front desk called me up, gave me a meal ticket, and said "Go eat breakfast", which I did, gratefully.  Unfortunately I wasn't told that was my only breakfast ticket, and using it meant I wasn't entitled to breakfast the next morning.  Not nice! I just paid for it, the company will hopefully reimburse me.  I did some shopping, napping, and then met up with an old high school buddy for dinner in my hotel, which was very strange, but nice.  The wonders of technology allow me to meet up with people in the most unlikely places!

The next morning, we arrived at the ship by bus at around 8:45am.   For some reason, Fort Lauderdale US Customs was really taking their sweet time processing the ship, and everyone was delayed boarding until past 3pm.  We got to sit around on the pier for over 6 hours, with no provisions at all, not a fun experience.  Luckily there was a bathroom a short walk away, and someone managed to find a few bags of chips to tide us over.  Then it was a whirlwind of a sign-on, experience, going straight from signing on the ship to our first training, to our first boat drill, to rehearsal, to the show.  Thankfully our wonderful cruise director Mr. Ray Rouse (who joined with us that day) only scheduled one Welcome Aboard Show, andI was able to relax and unwind around 9pm.

Since signing on, we have only had a couple of ports.  Nick and I went to the beach and snorkeled in Bonaire, and had a more relaxed day wandering around Aruba.  We had a bit of a rainy Panama Canal transit, which shaped up to be very hot later on in the day.  I'm really looking forward to transiting the other direction in a couple of months.  Today we are in Puntarenas, Costa Rica.  Nick and I had one goal today: buy some good ground coffee to use in our french press.  Costa Rica is known for great coffee, and this will save us money in the long run.  We will just make our own coffee instead of buying it by the cup when we go ashore.  We enjoyed walking by the seashore, and this is the third day in a row we have enjoyed a mini-picnic of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches brought with us ashore, to avoid stopping to eat anywhere ashore.  So far, so good on our saving-money routine!

Last night we got to back up Gerard Kenny, the singer-songwriter who composed a lot of stuff for Barry Manilow, most famously "I made it through the rain." and "New York, New York, so good they named it twice"  I am impressed by his credentials, a bit less so by his singing and piano playing.  In the first show he panicked and thought he had gone over time, so he stopped after his penultimate song and bowed, and then hissed at us to "play me off with something!!" He was confused about the time, we played something round and round not knowing what to do, finally Nick managed to convince him he could come out and perform his final number.  In fact, he had to give him a little push onto the stage.  Ahhh, showbiz.

One more time!

Tomorrow I fly out of LAX to join the Queen Elizabeth in Miami, Florida.   I've been placed on an overnight flight which gets me in to Miami at 6:45am, with nothing to do until I join the ship over 24 hours later.   Carnival UK (Cunard's owner) have arranged for a hotel for me nearby, so I'm hoping they will let me check in early!   I'm hoping to meet up with a couple of other joiners who may be in town.  I can't wait to get on board the ship and be reunited with Nick again, after a strangely long two weeks apart.

An update on the visa situation: I have filed my petition for a fiancé visa; it has been received and is under initial review by the USCIS.  Now the fun part comes: waiting!! To be honest, this will be the biggest hurdle.  I am obviously hoping to be approved, and to be informed of said approval between March and June.  Once that is done, its on to the next step of Nick filling out endless forms and preparing for an interview at the US Embassy in London.  I will post here as soon as I know anything.

Luckily, to help with all the waiting we will be doing, we have another contract on the Queen Elizabeth keeping us busy for the next five months.  I'm really looking forward to joining on Sunday and beginning what will be quite possibly my final contract.  I expect it to feel a bit different, knowing that after it finishes I will finally be settling down.  I'm hoping to do my absolute best and finish my career on ships strong!  Heading into the contract with a lot of positivity and purpose.   All our days of work on board will be going toward a very special goal: starting a life together.  Having something worth saving and working for certainly changes the tone and attitude of the contract.  Bring it on!!