Halloween is awesome, always

10/31/2011

Last night we had our big Halloween party---SO FUN!

Basically the Black Shirts host the Halloween party every year because we are the only ones who would really do it right—with the sound and lights and decorations and everything—and boy did we do it right! We had it all the way on the forward end of the ship on deck 5 and there were guests on deck 7 midship complaining about the bass and the loud music—haha, oops! Did that stop us? No siree! There will probably be terrible comments about it in the guest comment cards, but, those guests have gotten off the ship now, so, that’s just too bad! And obviously the Halloween party only happens once a year, so, we can’t even be told not to have any more loud parties like that. #winning!

Anyways, the party went from 11pm to around 3:30am and then we had to take all of our equipment back to the theatre which sucked a LOT, but, it was totally worth it. My costume was awesome and many people were pretty great with their costume choices, too, and there was a lot of free beer, wine and soda and everyone had a blast. The only thing that sucked about the night was when this one guy, Raf, tried to copy a dance dip he had seen one of the Tango dancers, Gabriel, do with me…and then Raf slipped on the floor (it was really wet) and fell down on top of me and we both tumbled to the ground. We landed on his pinky which became pretty bruised and swollen but thankfully not broken. I was pretty much ok, a little sore the next day but not a big deal.

Last night was Raf’s last night on the ship and he and some of the other guys from the department went to deck  6 forward (which is the Crew Sun Deck so it’s mostly outside) to have a cigar and I joined them for a short while just for the company (no worries, I haven’t taken up smoking!) And let me tell you, the stars out here are amazing. I mean, stars pretty much look like stars anywhere but there were BILLIONS and you could see them all so crystal clear. Absolutely breathtaking!

Tonight we have an overnight in Perth because of the Quantas airline being on strike. In case you’re unaware—one of the major airlines of Australia is on strike and tons of passengers and crew members were supposed to come in and leave on that airline so the company made the decision to stay over night in Perth so that people could hopefully make it to the ship by 5pm tomorrow (November 1) and then we would leave and continue to our next port. It means that we skip the port we were supposed to do tomorrow—aka Albany— and then the one for the 2^nd which is Esperance, but nobody is really upset about that at all. So in case you’re wondering, here is our itinerary (as it stands right now) for this 18 day cruise (the longest cruise I have in my contract) and then the rest of November:

Oct 31-Perth, Australia

Nov 1-Perth, Australia

Nov 2-Sea Day

Nov 3-Sea Day

Nov 4-Sea Day (I think?)

Nov 5-Adelaide, Australia

Nov 6- Sea Day

Nov 7- Melbourne, Australia

Nov 8- Sea Day

Nov 9-Hobart, Tasmania

Nov 10- Sea Day

Nov 11- Sea Day

Nov 12- Sea Day, but we float by a few “sounds” in New Zealand—Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound

Nov 13- Dunedin, New Zealand

Nov 14- Akaroa, New Zealand

Nov 15- Wellington, New Zealand

Nov 16- Sea Day

Nov 17- Sea Day

Nov 18- Sydney, Australia (Turnaround Day aka the start of the next cruise which is just a one day “party cruise”)

Nov 19- Sea Day

Nov 20- Sydney, Australia (Turnaround Day)

Nov 21- Sea Day

Nov 22- Sea Day

Nov 23- Sea Day, but we float by a few “sounds” in New Zealand—Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound

Nov 24- Dunedin, New Zealand

Nov 25- Akaroa, New Zealand

Nov 26- Wellington, New Zealand

Nov 27- Napier, New Zealand

Nov 28- Tauranga, New Zealand

Nov 29- Auckland, New Zealand

Nov 30- Bay of Islands, New Zealand

I hope that helps you all know a little bit about where I will be (kind of) for the next month!

Hugs and kisses all

B

"I imagine this is what Mars would look like..."

10/28/2011

What a great few days it’s been! Bali was surprisingly awesome, so let me tell you all about that:

I got up at 6:30am and got ready and then met up with a small group of people from the division and we waited to be let on to a tender boat that takes us from the ship to the pier because the ship itself is too big to get into the pier. The group was me, the musical director Dave, my boss Jason, his wife Lauren, one of the dancers named Cori and then one of the other stage staff, Adrian and Jason had reserved a car to drive us around for the day.

We finally got off the ship around 8:15 and got over to the pier and told our driver that we wanted to see as much as possible before having to be back at the pier by 5:30pm. We decided to see the biggest Hindu temple in the world, ride Elephants, do a little shopping, and figure out what else we could see on the way.

First stop was the Elephant riding place—it was $52 to ride an elephant for 15mns so we decided that that was too expensive so we opted to do the $15 admission which was basically go in and take photos with an elephant. So we go in to the area and Cori, who is this super nice and super cute little dancer girl, goes up to one of the employees, puts on her best flirt face, and asks him if she can just sit on an elephant and take a photo. He said yes! So we all got to sit on an elephant and ride around a little bit in the arena area and it was just as worth it and much less expensive!

Next we drove for another hour+ up through the mountains and little towns and we made it to the temple. We stopped at a small shopping area to get sarongs to wear around our legs since you cannot go to the temple with your legs showing. The temple was absolutely breathtaking and SO OLD! It’s from the 8^th century, so it’s not the oldest but it is the biggest. I didn’t know that Hinduism is the #1 religion in Indonesia, so it was cool to see and learn about those practices. I actually got to pray with our tour guide and it was really relaxing and peaceful.

After spending a good amount of time at the temple we made our way out and we got lunch and then did some more shopping and saw rice terraces where they will be harvesting some rice in a few weeks—it was cool to see how it was laid out and everything.

The only thing that sucked about Bali was how much everyone harassed us for money and tips and everything. They let us pay with American money because the dollar is so much stronger than their currency but then everyone wanted a little bit here and there so that got really frustrating. It was the worst when we had this little girl following us around the temple and asking us for dollars and trying to get us to buy postcards. We kept telling her no, but, she followed us around until we left the temple. It’s sad but annoying!

Then today we were in a little town called Port Headland, Australia where I think about 14,000 people live. I didn’t take any photos but let me tell you that we all kind of decided that that’s what Mars would look like because everything was a dusty red color—from the dirt on the ground to the buildings. We took a shuttle from the pier to the “town” which was basically a little street and then from there you could take another shuttle to the shopping center which was a small Wal*Mart type place, a clothing store, an electronic store and a few little restaurants. So Nick, the Light Tech, and I loaded up on some supplies from the Wal*Mart type store (which is actually called Woolworths), I bought a small USB drive so that I can give people photos and such and not lug around my laptop, had a bite to eat, and that was pretty much our day in port! A cruise ship hasn’t come to this port in 14 years (because there’s nothing to do) but we went because we needed fuel, and the townspeople were VERY welcoming and excited to see us go, and Adrian said that when he was out on one of the decks having a cigarette as we sailed away that the whole town had turned out to see us pull away! Adrian said it was like the scene in Titanic and that he wished he had a handkerchief to wave goodbye at them—he’s so hilarious.

Now I am sitting backstage in the theatre writing this blog post while this evening’s entertainment is going on. The last few entertainers have been……interesting to say the least. Here are some names, in case by some miracle you’ve heard of any of these people: Hal Frazier, Danny Elliot, Carl Doy (he was allegedly on Oprah), Darren Williams and the Australian Illusionist John Taylor. I am forgetting some, but, those are the ones who have performed most recently—the one performing right now is named Patrick but I don’t know his last name, he’s Australian though. He is performing country music but much of it is American…and he’s doing this weird mash up/medley of all of these different versions of the song “If I Were a Rich Man” and it’s freaking me out a little but….that’s ship life: acts that are all really similar in style and content and not super amazingly good but just good enough to keep the guests happy!

Yesterday I told Jason that I would probably be willing to fill in for Kerwin, the Head Stage Staff, when he goes on vacation in March which would mean my contract would be extended to May when he came back from Vacation. That would mean a little more money in each paycheck and I would get to do a few of the Alaskan cruises and also see San Diego and/or San Francisco because the ship stops in one or both of those places before heading up to Alaska after Hawaii.

Sorry if any of this has been a repeat from a prior post, I can’t remember what I tell whom and what I post! I have each post saved in MS Word, but, I don’t feel like going through and re-reading them all. My apologies!

In other news, I have yet to see a Kangaroo or a Crocodile…or any strange creature for that matter…though back in Brisbane I did see some sort of Dolphin or other small sea mammal with a dorsal fin popping in and out of the bay so that was cool. And in Darwin there were some funny looking birds that we came across.

Lastly, a few phrases I am trying to hold on to and keep using from the Australian vernacular:

Cheers—used anytime you’re saying goodbye to someone. “Have a good day, cheers!”

Whinge—to complain. “The Aussies love to whinge about the schedules on board the ship.”

How ya going?—the Aussie version of ‘what’s up’ or ‘how are you’. “Hey mate, how ya going?”

Hope all is well wherever you are, dear reader!

Much love

Cheers!

B

People come and go so quickly here!

October 24, 2011

Fondest greetings to you all! As I write this we are somewhere between Darwin, Australia and Benoa, Bali, Indonesia and let me just tell you IT IS HOT HERE! The air temperature is around 85 degrees and then it’s about 95% humidity—ugh, ugh, ugh! You get sweaty just walking four feet outside, let me tell you!

Let’s think what has happened that might be of interest to you since my last post….

We were in Darwin, Australia yesterday and there wasn’t a whole lot to see since it was a Sunday, but I got a cool Darwin magnet and a beach towel (finally!) and a deck of playing cards with the Australian flag on the back…otherwise we just wandered around and saw some sights. It was nice to be off the ship, as usual!

We are going to be in Bali on the 25^th and I think it’s going to be awesome! Stuff there is supposedly really cheap, but you have to be SUPER careful about what you buy and who you talk to.  Allegedly a lot of people will be trying to sell us drugs when we get away from the pier—can’t wait! We just have to watch our backs and make sure that we don’t do anything stupid. Some people might try to ride elephants so I am considering doing that, too, we’ll see if it actually happens. We also don’t have anything to do in the theatre that night so the Black Shirts are all planning on going out to dinner which will be super fun.

I found out that Australians are #2 after Americans when it comes to obesity. I was talking to my friend Raf and I was commenting on how Americans get such a bad rep for being obese but that Australians don’t seem to be a whole lot better and then he was like oh, yeah, they’re #2. That makes much sense! I also note, however, that Aussies are very friendly people, which bodes well for my contract.

I think I forgot to tell most of you about how I was in charge of the Crew Talent Show a few weeks ago! I was the Production Manager because Jason didn’t feel like doing it and since the Crew Talent Show isn’t a big deal he was like “Hey, Brit, you’re in charge!” So I had some fun (and some stress!) doing that—I helped the woman from the Cruise Staff organize it and I controlled the curtains and such—and there were two performances, one for the crew and one for the guests, it was pretty cool. Then Jason hurt his back and had to be on bed rest for a night so I was the Production Manager for the Farewell Show of the last cruise! I guess Jason told one of the guys on the Cruise Staff that he thinks if I can really learn the ropes of the company that if I wanted to I could definitely become a SPM. Very nice to hear! Because of it, I got a “VIC” card which is “Very Important Crew Member” and I can choose from a big list of things I can get with this card like—Room Service Privileges for a week, free coffee once a day from the Starbucks stand on board for a week, free dinners in the Guest buffet for a week, $10 towards something from the Souvenir shop, just to name a few! I haven’t yet decided what I want to use it for but I might use it for the dinner I have with the Black Shirts after Bali because we can get a $25 certificate to a number of the restaurants on board including the one the boys want to go to.

Also, totally un-RCCL-related news—my brother is engaged!!! I found out through Facebook and an email, which was so weird, but, that’s life on ships! I am so excited for him, for my future sister in law, and for my family!

I have been spending a lot of my time at the crew bar meeting folks which has been pretty awesome—I love making friends! It’s so hard though because, as they say in The Wizard of Oz, “people come and go so quickly here”! I know I’ve talked about this before but it really is annoying how you can become really acquainted with someone one day and then the next POOF, they’re gone! I have a little crush on this British guy named Thomas (ironically enough) , but unfortunately his contract is up on November 18 and then he goes home and his next ship is the Independence which is out of England and sails around Europe. Sigh!

Anyways, I think that’s all for now, I hope you’re all doing well. Email me sometimes, I love getting emails!

Love x a million

B

P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

October 20, 2011

Sorry it’s been awhile since my last post, y’all!

I’ve been on the ship almost a month now and I feel like I’m really into the swing of things! We are in Port Douglas, Australia right now and I decided not to get off the ship today. I was able to get off yesterday for a few hours in Airlie Beach, but it was a tendering port which means the ship anchors out in the water and smaller boats carry people back and forth to the piers. We’ve had a couple ports like that already, but, this was the worst because the tender ride was 20 minutes and the seas were really rocky and it was raining. Guests were so unhappy and the people in charge of the tendering operations were all in very sour moods, understandably so. Anyways, I had a good time in Airlie Beach with the dance captain, Kim, and it was just really nice to get off the ship after 12 days!

As many of you know I didn’t get off the ship in Sydney, but, the view from the top deck of the ship was breathtaking! I stayed up until 4am with my friend Raf and we went up to the deck and watched as we sailed into the Harbor. My goodness there was never anything so beautiful! We sailed in and it was still dark so everything was lit up and sparkling and amazing—we nestled in right between the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge…it was almost as though I could reach out and touch the Opera House!

We still have a number of cases of the Noro Virus on board, which means we are still keeping our guards up so that we don’t have the number of cases like we did last cruise. Hopefully we won’t have to start cleaning the whole ship at every port again like we had to last cruise—UGH! That was never any fun and always made people very very angry.

Other than that I’ve just been hanging out with people on the ship, going to the crew bar, watching movies, et cetera, it’s been a blast. It’s really going to suck at the end of this cruise because a lot of people are going to leave on the 31^st and it’s going to be the first time people that I’m pretty close to leave the ship. Thankfully before that though we’ve got some fun crew activities coming up—free Tango lessons with the couple from the Tango show are tomorrow night, then on the 23^rd we’ve got Latin Dance night in the Crew Bar which will feature music from the band members from the orchestra and then on the 29^th the Black Shirts (aka me and the rest of the production team) are hosting the Costume Party for Halloween!

Now, I will leave you with some photos (finally!) I hope you enjoy!

Opera House at night

My ship in Moorea

Me in Bora Bora

View of the Opera House from the top deck of the ship

I miss you all very, very much!

B

Workin' It!

October 5, 2011

I’m pretty tired tonight so I’ll just make some bullet points:

--Bora Bora was pretty cool. I got off the ship, walked around, bought some post cards and a beautiful charm with a Tahitian Pearl on it, and then took a 2 hour bus tour of the Island. Totally worth every penny!

--We are now on our way to New Zealand! We’ve got some rough waters ahead of us though, apparently, so, we’re looking out for that.

--Tonight, we gain an hour! Yay! I like sleeping!

Sorry for the short post, y’all, just feeling extra tired!

Missing and loving you all

B

October 7, 2011

I finally used the gym today! We have a crew gym and then there’s a (much nicer) guest gym, but the crew gym is being “renovated” right now, and we’re allowed to use the guest gym anyways, but I’ve been refraining because of the virus that’s been going around the ship. I figured that the chances of people washing their hands before and after working out was pretty slim, and earlier this week there was a woman who threw up in the gym, so I was staying far, far away. But, we’re down to 1 guest case and I think about 5 crew cases of the virus, so, I felt safer giving the gym a go today. Did some elliptical, some biking and then weight training on my legs. I could use the weight training on my arms, but, it’s more important for my legs (y’all know why) and by the time I was done with legs I was pretty tired, so, that was that! Not too bad though, spent a good hour there. Definitely the start of a good trend in my habits! That plus eating 3 times a day (trying to make sure I have vegetables and fruit with every meal) might make me into am even more fabulous version of me by the time you all see me again! Huzzah!

Tonight we cross the International Date Line! Whoo!

There’s also apparently a big oil spill in the bay next to the bay where Auckland is, so there’s a possibility that if they can’t get it cleaned up/contained before we arrive, we may have to divert elsewhere. I will try to keep you all posted!

Otherwise, not too much has been going on! A girl from another department came into the production office the other night and asked who I was replacing and Jason replied and she was  like “ohhh ok! How’s it going for you, Brit?” and I said “Pretty good so far, still trying to get the groove of things, but, you know, working at it!” and then Jason goes “She’s working out pretty well!” and that made me smile. We did one of our production shows the other night and after the second show (which meant I had done the show all of 3 times—two shows and one rehearsal) Jason was like “Great job tonight, Brit”. YAY! That was great to hear because I had messed a few things up, but, I guess it was still good!

I don’t know if I’ve explained this yet, but, here’s how our shows kind of work. In our big theatre we have a different show every night of each cruise, so that the entertainment changes for the guests. We have the Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers, and they perform in the Production Shows, which on our ship are called “Piano Man”, “City of Dreams” and “Tango Buenos Aires”. The first two are similar in style, they have lavish costumes and drops to make various locations, and the content is various songs that are performed by the singers and danced to by the dancers. I think Tango is the same way, but, we haven’t done that one yet. After those shows, we have comedians, singers, musicians and other performers each night. Generally they cater to the older audiences, with performers that I’ve never heard of but these people seem to love. We’ve had Marty Allen, Karon Kate, Jason Chase, Johnny Thunder, Amber Jade and some others as well…if any of those names mean anything to you!

I think that’s all I’ve got for now, much love to you all up there in the Northern Hemisphere

B