First few days on the QE

Last night we played a show called "Sing!", featuring as you might guess, the 4 singers on board. No dancers are involved in the show, it is strictly a vocal showcase. The neat thing about it is that Cunard has taken advantage of all the musicians on board and combined them into one group for this one show only. So the Royal Court Theatre Orchestra, plus the horns and keys from the Queen's Room band, plus the string quartet and harpist combine to form a 19-piece orchestra. It is really a brilliant idea - its a shame more ships don't take advantage of their musicians this way. The show itself is rather simple, but it is so nice to play in a big band, and especially to have an actual trombone section! Or, at least 2 of us, if that counts as a section. The other trombonist from the Queen's Room band is Jeremy, a guy from San Francisco, who plays well. The Queen's Room band is basically the same make-up as our group, but play dance music every night in the Queen's Room, which is a big ballroom with a beautiful high ceiling. There are several formal balls every voyage, and on this cruiseline the people really come to dance. There are even four gentleman dance hosts every voyage who get a free cruise in exchange for asking ladies to dance all night. Not a bad job, if you know your ballroom styles.

I checked out the guest gym finally, and boy is it high-tech and well equipped. All of the treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes have 17" touch screens, an iPod jack, USB plugin, headphone jack, tray for personal belongings, cup holder, and the treadmills even have little adjustable vents that cool your face with air as you run, should you so desire. Wow. Besides those, the gym really has anything you can imagine to help a workout, like those balancing balls, bosu balls, mats, punching bag and gloves, weights, rowing machines, and who knows what else. It is very nice to be on a brand new ship, I must say.

My first port of call was Cadiz, Spain. I went out with Adrian (trumpet) and Christy to walk around town. We sat at a café in the main square for a coffee, right next to the big central cathedral. I tried a vegetable paella, which was fantastic. After that we walked to the other side of town and out to a fortress and back, visited a local market, and logged over 8 kilometers according to Christy's GPS. It was a great day to be off the ship and in the sun of Southern Spain!

Safe and Sound (or Sano y Salvo, as they say in Spanish)

Hello Everyone! I have safely arrived on the Queen Elizabeth!! My flight took me direct to London Heathrow airport, where I caught a bus to my hotel. No sooner had I set my things down than I headed out to meet up with my friend Sophie, a singer from my last contract. I took the Underground, or Tube, on the Picadilly Line out to Picadilly Circus, where I met Sophie. It was so wonderful to see her again! We talked and talked as she took me on a walking tour around London. I saw Big Ben, St. Paul's Cathedral, and a few other things. We had a proper afternoon tea (how very English) at the Globe theatre, right on the Thames river. Afternoon tea is a British tradition that involves sitting down in a nice venue and always includes sandwiches, scones and sweets. Ours cost about 20 pounds apiece, but then we were at Shakespeare's own theatre….After that Sophie took me up to a rooftop garden cafe overlooking the Thames, where we had a drink and watched the sun go down. We were met by her boyfriend Matt, it was great to meet him face to face after hearing so much about him over the past year. The three of us then crossed the Thames again over to a little underground wine bar called Gordon's, with a really neat candlelight atmosphere. Finally around 10:45pm they put me on a train back to Heathrow, where I was too late to catch a bus and so had to hire my own taxi for the short distance back to my hotel. I was careful not to wake my roommate as I collapsed into bed, quite sleep deprived and jet lagged.

We were picked up early at 6:20am to be bused to the ship - me and nearly 100 other sign ons. I couldn't believe it - that is white a big crew turnover. We were on the ship by 10am, and I moved into my cabin by noon. My roommate is the bass player in my band, a girl called Christy. She seems really nice so far, though she was nearer the front of the line of sign-on's, and so got here first to claim the coveted bottom bunk. :-) 7 of the 8 in our band signed on with me, though a few are returning.

So far I've played the welcome aboard show (shortened to WABS around here), which is mostly Earth Wind and Fire stuff in a medley with the cast performing, last night was a singer called Jeff Hooper with a great voice, albeit low-key show, and tonight's production show of La Danza, featuring the dancers. I have so much to tell you all about this amazing ship, but it'll have to wait until next time because my bed is calling me. :-)