Flying by

I can't believe a week has gone by already!  We are two days into my second cruise.  Playing the broadway show was definitely easier the second time.  Brett Cave still gave me a hard time during his show.  We are officially friends now - he had the band over to his cabin for free room service the other night. :-)  (We don't get room service, ever.  So it was a treat for us!!) But I'm pretty sure not a show of his will go by without him saying something to me during the show.  Because he plays at the welcome aboard show, his show, and the farewell show, we are performing with him three nights a week, and he's on for another month.  Its a good thing I like him, right? 

I discovered that in Port Canaveral you can pay $7 for a daypass on a bus service pretty much designed for crew.  It stops at all the ships, WalMart, the mall, an internet café, and Bank of America, and Ross.  Basically everywhere a crew member would need to go.  Its not a bad deal really - you can ride it all day.  The mall has a movie theatre, so I have already scouted out where and when I will be seeing Star Trek when it comes out!!  Woohoo!  I'm such a nerd, I know.  Brett Cave tells me that being a Trekkie is actually really hip and cool in England (He's from London).  Maybe I should move there.  I'd be cool in England.  

The other night after the welcome aboard show, I went up to the passenger gym, since its normally empty after 10pm and we're allowed there until 2am.  A couple of college guys wandered in, likely lost their way from the disco, which is right next door.  Apparently they were sitting in the seats right near the stage, and recognized me from the show.  They were pretty nice and asked when I was playing next, which was the broadway show.  They did end up coming, and sat over in the same area, which I found out after glancing over that way at one point and seeing a couple of guys waving frantically at me.  I couldn't help but laugh.  So apparently I have some fans. :-) I'm not complaining. Good looking fans are the best kind, in case you're wondering. 

Tonight is a relatively easy night, with just one set of Dixieland (my favorite!!).  We did have a rehearsal though, which we wouldn't normally, on account of the New Guy on trumpet.  His name is John, and he lives in the states, although he's originally from Germany, and speaks with more of a British accent than anything else.  He's in his mid-twenties, I'd guess.  This being his first ship, a lot of things are catching him by surprise, but I think he'll be alright in the long run.  He just needs a couple of weeks to figure things out.  Since we have weeklong cruises we are repeating all the same music, so I'm sure he'll catch on to everything pretty soon.  

Spring Break

Ok, so I've heard the stories about college kids going wild for spring break, but I've never experienced it firsthand until now.   Since we sail out of Charleston, we get a ton of college students on for their spring breaks.  Last week was apparently the craziest - I've been hearing some ridiculous stories about it - there were over 1500 college kids on, out of 1800 guests.  I should have figured it out when I was waiting to get on the ship for the first time, and almost everyone coming off the ship had a shirt with greek letters on it.  Yikes. This week there are only about 1,000 and next week will be even less, but it is still nuts.  Basically they all just drink all day and night until they pass out, they are always on deck partying, crammed in the hot tubs, making TONS of noise, packing out the disco, making out in public, trying to hook up with each other constantly, etc.  

Last night the showband played a pop set for the St. Patrick's Day deck party.  It was packed, everyone was dancing and having a great time and enjoying the band, which made it pretty fun for us to play up there.  But college students + spring break + St. Patrick's Day = general mayhem.  One particularly inebriated kid liked the band and singers so much (they sang on wireless handheld mics, dancing through the crowd) that he bought all of us two rounds of drinks.  There were 15 or 20 of us, so he has to have spent a lot of money....I bet he regrets it today.  :-)

Tonight we was our only guest entertainer show of the cruise.  His name is Brett Cave, and he sings and plays piano.  He's been on the ship for weeks, and knows everyone in the band pretty well except me.  Tonight at the first show he would not stop picking on me!  For example, he has the guests sing, repeating after him, and then he came over to me and said, "Andrea! Let's hear you do it, darlin', all by yourself!" So I did....ha ha.  He kept directing comments at me the whole show and giving me a hard time.  It was pretty funny....but he is definitely getting a punch in the arm next time I see him.  This is what comes of being the new girl...and the only girl.....with goofy guest entertainers.   It will be interesting to see how the next few weeks of doing his show will go.  Maybe he'll pick on the NEW new guy next week, ha ha.  And speaking of spring break - near the end of the second show a very drunk girl came up on stage asking Brett if she could turn pages for him.  Yeah, about that...he doesn't use any music.  He was a good sport and let her sit on the bench next to him for the last song.  She kept randomly waving her arms in the air and shouting "Woo!!!  Spring Break 2009!! Woohoo!!!"  Wow.  I was embarrassed for her.  

   But don't worry everyone!  In a week this craziness will be over, and we'll be back to our usual groups of calm, older people.