Hot Rocks

January 29, 2012

            Hello again, everyone!
            It’s hard to believe that it’s already the end of January, right? I know I am mystified…although when I truly think about it I don’t think this month went by terribly quickly. Sitting here I initially say “Wow, it’s already almost February?” but yes, upon further reflection, maybe it’s here just on time. Anyways…
            Let me back up and start from where I left off, which is the logical thing to do.
            We opened our second production show the other night, the one called “Piano Man” and it was very well received. That show always is though, it’s packed full of all the favorites from Billy Joel, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Harold Arlen and a few others and it’s very beautiful. This show flows really well, whereas “City of Dreams” is a bit more disjointed but it’s much more interesting visually. Anyways, it went over very well and the cast is excited to be done with install on day 7 of the cruise (Feb. 4th), which is when we open “City of Dreams”.
            Aside from that the cruise went pretty well. Yesterday was the last day for a lot of people, as I’ve talked about, and today I was certainly missing them all quite fiercely. Hopefully we’ll all meet up again someday in this universe!
            So, let me talk about yesterday for a little bit! We worked on “City of Dreams” for about 6 hours, which was nice and productive and then I got off the ship for a little while, but I didn’t truly have enough time to go to the aquarium. So instead I wandered around, per usual, and enjoyed the beautiful weather that we had. Then I went back to the ship for the one show we had last night and after that I took myself out to a lovely dinner at an Italian place I’ve seen a few times since we’ve been to Sydney. It may seem odd, a girl going out to dinner alone on a Saturday night in Sydney, Australia…but…sometimes it’s actually quite nice. I got a table with a window facing the street, a nice glass of wine, and guess what? I took Eat Pray Love with me to read—how fitting, right? So, I ate a delicious meal that was a bit overpriced I will admit, but, so amazingly good. And on my table there was a white Orchid (which some will know to be my favorite flower), so everything just felt right. After that I went back to the ship and hung out in the disco with my friend Terry the DJ, his wife and a few other folks.
            On a completely different and random note, I would like to point out that Australian girls, from what I’ve seen, all dress almost exactly alike and they’re not always great decisions. Right now the trends are skirts that are really short in front and really long in back, tank tops that have cuts so big under the armpits that there’s barely any fabric holding front and back together and then wearing a brightly-colored bra underneath, and also shorts that are very high-cut on the legs, torn, and then go up to your belly-button. Those shorts also often have the pockets sticking out of the bottom…now, I don’t understand these trends, sometimes the skirts that are weird lengths are kind of cute, but, the other styles just seem wrong. To each his own, I suppose! They also don’t like to wear shoes! There was a guy walking around the city streets carrying a 6-pack of beer and no shoes, all the friends with him had them on but, not this guy. Maybe that’s why I rarely see a “No shirt, no shoes, no service” sign! There was another girl who was carrying her flip flops around with her but was walking barefoot…I ask you, what’s the point?!
Moving on to today, did more work around the ship, had rehearsal in the theatre, then the show, and then the technicians and I went to the sushi restaurant on board. On the way there me, being the idiot that I am, smushed my finger in one of the galley doors (you go through the galley to avoid going through guest areas if you don’t want to deal with guests…which is ideal especially on embarkation day when guests don’t yet know what they’re doing). I am not quite sure how it happened, but, I think the door ended up being heavier than I expected and it swung shut taking my index and middle fingers with it. OUCH! My middle finger is fine (on my right hand) but my index finger is a bit swollen. It got REALLY swollen right afterwards, when I was telling Kerwin that I didn’t need any ice…and then I saw how much it was swelling, and I re-thought that decision. Ice certainly helped, good call on Kerwin’s part!
The other interesting thing that happened to me today is that when we put away all the stuff from our “Piano Man” set we put some away wrong and therefore blocked the Fire Screen Door that was next to it, oops! Then, they tested those doors today from the Bridge and that one showed up as not closing properly. So then this evening when I was in the theatre (pretty much by myself) after rehearsal the Staff Captain (who is one step below the Captain) and the Chief Officer Safety (another guy who is a big deal) came down to see why that door wouldn’t close. Well, since I was the only one backstage they asked me and I explained that it was our fault and that we’d be removing those platforms tonight to set the show and therefore the obstruction would be removed. So Staff Captain told me “Okay, well I’m putting you in charge, please call me or the Bridge and let them know when the door is clear, ok?” and I said “Oh certainly, sir, we will be doing it around 11:30 tonight.” “What time?” “11:30.” “Okay, in that case, please call the Bridge!” and I laughed and told him alright and he smiled, patted me on the shoulder, and then walked out. The Chief Officer Safety smiled at me as well, and followed Staffie out the door. Fun times!
So, anywho, I guess that’s all for now! I’ll be in touch again soon!
Love love love
B

Sunglasses

January 23, 2012

Greetings to you all! It’s been some time since I last updated, sorry about that! We’ve been pretty busy with getting the new cast ready for the productions shows. With that, let me start where I left off.

So we finished the island cruise with no problems and then on the 15^th the cast all left the ship and we got a whole new set of dancers and singers. When they left I acquired the bottom bunk, a proper comforter, a memory foam pillow and a memory foam mattress pad…among a bunch of other random things…and let’s just say, I’ve been sleeping like a queen since then! When they all left the corridor in the morning I will admit that I did sit on my bed and cry a little because it was a sudden changeover of people and it’s a lot to take in at once! But, lucky for me, it was a pretty busy embarkation day, so, I didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on that.

That night the technicians and stage staff decided to go out and have “family dinner” in one of the specialty restaurants since we rarely have enough time to do that, but on the first night of the cruise we only have one show instead of the usual two, so, we went to the Brazilian Steakhouse on board called “Samba Grill”. The way that one works is that you pay a flat cover charge of $25 each and that pays for all the food and then if you get anything to drink besides water it’s extra on top of that. Let me tell you, at Samba you definitely get your money’s worth! Basically, you walk in and sit and there’s a little salad/appetizer buffet with all kinds of greens, cheeses, chilled shrimp, olives, soup that kind of stuff, and you eat all that until your heart’s content. Then, you have a little light on the table that you push a button and it changes color, so when you get there it’s red and you eat your salads and then you hit the button to green when you’re ready for them to bring on  the meat! Now, there are 9 courses of meat that you get, one at a time, and then they also bring out plates of vegetables and bowls of fries and fried plantains. So, a guy brings out the first meat course on this big old stick and it’s hot and sizzling off the oven and he explains what it is and gives everyone a piece. Then you start eating and they slowly bring out each meat dish in the same fashion. If you want them to stop so you can catch up and finish what’s on your plate before they bring more, you turn the light on your table to red and they wait until it’s green again! Now, since I was eating with 5 boys, they didn’t want to stop, of course, so the meat just kept coming and coming! Lamb, Steak, Chicken wrapped in bacon, Filet Mignon, Pork…9 courses!! AND then, if you really liked something you could ask for seconds of anything you wanted! All of us ate 2 Filet Mignon cuts, you better believe! Oh my goodness was it good or WAS IT GOOD?! So. Good.

After that the stage staff went back to the theatre about 20 pounds heavier and we set up to start installing Tango Buenos Aires the next day…that took us some time…we were moving a little slow!

Let me explain now what an Install is—basically what happens is that each cast spends 6 weeks in the RCI studios in Hollywood, Florida before they come on the ship learning the dancing and songs for the production shows they’ll be doing on the ship. Then they all fly here and we do what’s called an install. In this “install”, the cast learns what the stage looks like, where the set pieces go for each show, and basic things like that. In the studio they’ve had stand-in props and set pieces, but, now they learn how to play with the real things. We also help them through their costume changes and help them with what they need, and there are also several costumers who come on board to adjust any costumes that need altering. The costumes that are on the ship stay on the ship regardless of the cast, and they all have extra fabric hidden within each piece so that it can be adjusted many many times (by these costumers that RCI sends) because that’s much cheaper than sending brand new costumes with each cast every 6 months.

So, we opened the first show—our Argentine Tango show called Tango Buenos Aires—two nights ago and it was a HUGE hit! Most of the cast members have actually been on the Radiance before, so, the install went quickly and the install of the next two shows will hopefully go quickly, too. We started “Piano Man” yesterday and did our first full run though (without costumes) today and it was pretty good! We will open that show on the last sea day night of the cruise, then we’ll do the final show, “City of Dreams”, and then life won’t be as crazy!

Okay, so that’s enough talk of the install, let’s move on to what else has happened, shall we?

Funny story: so a couple nights ago we had our magician/illusionist show that happens every cruise, his name is John Taylor, and Kerwin and I are always backstage for his show because he taught us how to do the random things he needs us to help him with during the show. So, the other night, during the second show, for whatever reason, a kid from the audience threw his shoe onstage at John! He made a comment about it, laughed, and then threw it offstage. Long story short, we held onto it and then at the end of the show we gave it to the Cruise Director to take onstage and told him to make the kid feel like a jerk! So, Bobby (the CD) goes out, has the kid come up, asks him why he threw it, he claims his friend did it! So Bobby says, “Okay…well, audience, should we give it back?” and unanimously the audience shouts “NO!” so Bobby says, ok! And throws it backstage. The kid, looking quite dumbfounded, looks at him and Bobby said something about the crowd having spoken and that he could leave the stage now.

So, we’re backstage laughing our butts off about this, and Jason (my boss, as you’ll recall) says “He’s not getting his shoe back without a fight, dumb kid.” And I reply “Can I tie his shoelaces in a million knots?” “Sure!” So, while Bobby finishes his post-show speech, I tie this kid’s shoelaces in about 35 tight knots because, let’s be honest, he deserved it. Okay, so the show ends, Bobby goes and stands in the audience, curtain comes in, and we start re-setting the stage. Well, this kid and a bunch of his friends go up to Bobby and they’re like “We need his shoe back!” et cetera and Bobby just keeps saying no and that he’ll have to pick it up at Guest Services tomorrow and whatnot, and then this kid’s mother comes down. Oh. Boy.

            Having no idea that we are all backstage listening, this mother starts yelling at Bobby about how her son has been waiting for his shoe for a long time now and that he needs it back and Bobby is still telling her no! And she starts saying “It’s not his fault his friend threw it how can you punish him” and things of that nature. Now, here’s where I mention that Bobby had decided to report this incident to the powers that be because it’s a violation of the Guest Conduct policy and when that happens the guest gets a red mark on their card and I’m not sure what happens after that but, it’s not great. So Bobby says “Well, ma’am, if it was his friend I need to know who and I will get his stateroom number and report him instead and your son can go.” So the mom asks her son which kid it was and the kid won’t rat out his friend so Bobby says ok, well I’ll have to take your stateroom number then and the mom just gets SO mad and tells him he has no rights and all that. Finally, Bobby gives back the shoe and they leave and later one of the other stage staff, who was following the family out of the theatre so he could close the doors, comes backstage and says “The kid had his shoe really close to his face but I couldn’t see what he was doing...how weird is that?” and I just started laughing and I said, “Did it look like he was undoing knots, possibly?” “Yeah! Maybe!” “Yeah….I tied his shoelaces together…oops!” and then we had a glorious laugh at that.

Moving on from that story, yesterday was the official 3 month marker until I’m home! I’m hoping these 3 go by quickly with the rest of Install and then we change up the itineraries a bit so we aren’t doing New Zealand a whole bunch anymore—we go back to Hobart, Tasmania; we have another circumnavigation of Australia, and a few other things. We also go back to those tropical islands one more time—around my birthday, actually. On the first leg of the circumnavigation we have a large group of country western music fanatics and we have lots of extra work to do for them on that cruise. It’s okay though because we’ll be getting paid extra for it, and that will also make things go by more quickly.

Jason leaves us on the 29^th—so, at the end of this cruise, and we’re getting a new PM, so that will be interesting. The guy who is coming has been here and I’ve heard some good and bad things about him, but, to be fair, there are good and bad things about everyone, so, we’ll wait and see. Jason and his wife Lauren will be back on April 5^th, just in time to sail back to the USA—how much does that suck? They fly from Oregon to Sydney…which will take probably about 30+ hours, and then they get on the ship and sail back to Alaska. Fail!

I’m currently sitting in a café in Tauranga, New Zealand eating peanuts, drinking Cider and writing this. I have to be careful about when and where I eat peanuts now because my roommate is allergic to them (her name is Melissa, by the way, and she’s from Northern England). So, I’m ashore and eating them but when I get back to the room I will wash my hands really well before touching anything in the room, just in case…she said she’s not THAT severely allergic, but, I don’t want to risk it!

We get to Sydney again on the 28^th and we have an overnight stay which, always prove to be fun. I may try to go to the Aquarium if we have time, since I planned to do that last time but I ended up being on duty and the time before that I had to push wheelchairs around instead. Hopefully it works out this time! If not, I’ll have more options, but, I’m trying to Carpe Diem with these things because you never do know what will come up! I just want to see a Clown Fish (Nemo!) and some Sharks! We have a musician whose name is Bruce and you better believe I always greet him with my best-worst Australian accent saying “Hello, Bruce!” (Again, another “Finding Nemo” reference).

I suppose I’ll end my fabulously long blog post now that you’re all pretty much caught up on my life! Look forward to something else soon!

All my love,
B

I heart branch

January 12, 2012

These islands that we’ve visited down here have got to have the bluest ocean I’ve ever heard of or seen. I thought Moorea and Bora Bora had amazing water but they don’t even compare to the islands of New Caledonia and Vanuatu. In the past few days we’ve visited several islands that have little to no population and then one with a small city and then lots of jungle and beach.
Let me start with the 8^th, since my last post was the 7^th. On the 8^th we visited Vila, Vanuatu which was the second city on this cruise (the first being Noumea, New Caledonia). We got off the ship after our boat drill (and after I moved everything off my floor to get new carpet in my cabin since a pipe burst under the floor and flooded my hallway) and Brian and I hopped in a cab to meet up with a big group of people who were eating lunch and then going to visit the Cascades Waterfall somewhere on the island. We found them after a short walk and ordered some food—I had an absolutely delicious Hawaiian Burger and the best sweet tea I’ve ever had. When we’d paid, we all piled in to a van and a driver took us to the waterfalls, where we paid an entrance fee and commenced our ascent up to the falls. They were SO beautiful! I will post pictures on Facebook when I can, but we had an awesome time taking goofy photos and swimming under and around the falls. After some time we worked our way back down, ordered some beers at a café they had set up, and then piled back into the van to be brought back to the ship.
On the 9^th we went to Champagne Bay, Vanuatu, which begins the ports that don’t have much to them. Here we waited around while Jason and Nick ordered a huge lobster which the natives had caught that morning (presumably) and they killed and cooked it right in front of you. I bought some pineapple slices and a coconut to drink out of and sat on a tree while Jason and Nick devoured their lunch. They gave me a bit of the leg meat and it wasn’t half bad! I think I could probably try to get used to that…I’m sure you’re all shocked to be reading this right now. Brittany? Eating a Lobster? NEVER! But hey, I always say I’ll pretty much try anything once!
After they were done with their lunch we all piled into the back of a pickup truck (no lie) and a driver took us to a place called “The Blue Lagoon” which is allegedly where they filmed an old movie by the same name with Brooke Shields? I don’t know, I’ve never heard of it, but, apparently it was a big movie. Anyways, we got there and I’d more accurately describe this place as a “Swimmin’ Hole” or a Lake because that’s really what it looked like more than what I’d picture as a lagoon, but, hey, what can ya do…you’ll see what I mean when I post the photos! Anyways, there were a ton of guests there, but, we hopped in and swam around the chilly water for a little while, then guess what happened? That’s right, we piled back into the pickup truck and back to the beach and then back to the ship!
That brings us to the 10^th! The 10^th we were in Luganville, Vanuatu…but I didn’t get off the ship so I don’t have much to report. My schedule was busy enough that I didn’t think I had enough time, so I got a haircut and rested instead! Although, Jason and Lauren said they found the most amazing French restaurant, so, I think the next time we’re here I will try to check it out. This place was apparently a place where the US stored a bunch of stuff during WW2 and then after the war was over there was a disagreement over how to get rid of the stuff so what was the solution? They (the US..so…I guess we) dumped everything into the ocean…literally. A bunch of the crew members went on an underwater dive where you could see sunken ships and also piles and piles of debris from this dump. There were tires, forklifts, helmets, Jeeps, all kinds of random things, at least from what I could see from the photos. Pretty interesting stuff!
On the 11^th we went to an island called Mystery Island where nobody actually lives! The people that were there were there simply to aid us and give us food and sell us goods. The sand wasn’t really sand, it was more like finely crushed rocks and shells, which kind of hurt my feet, but the water was also so pretty. We found a relatively shady area to set up camp and then put our stuff down to go swimming. I took the new underwater camera that I bought and tested it out and boy is it awesome! I don’t have snorkeling gear so I just walked around holding the camera under the water filming some videos of the small patches of coral that were around. I got some good shots of some pretty fish and sea cucumbers (which are SO AWKWARD to step on!! They are super rubbery and kind of bouncy and it’s just really weird to step on one). I also heard some guests talking about a blue Starfish so I went over and took some pictures of that, too.
Today, the 12^th, I only got off the ship for about an hour because I was pretty tired of the sun and the beach, believe it or not. But the hour was well worth it—The Isle of Pines was by far the most beautiful of all these islands. The sand was so fine and white and powdery, the water was the bluest it’s been, and the locals speak French! I bought some chicken and ate it while I walked around for a bit. So amazing, let me tell you! Although, I was glad that I didn’t go swimming because apparently this island has the world’s most poisonous water snake…I didn’t see one but some other people did and someone else (a girl from Australia) told me that they’re the most poisonous. Either way…poisonous or not…I never want to meet a wild snake. No sir.
This post is a long one, so, for propriety’s sake, I’ll cut myself off and leave the rest for another post!
Xoxoxox
B

Paradise

January 7, 2012

Yesterday and today were amazing! Yesterday we were in Noumea, New Caledonia which is an island which was colonized by France and therefore they speak French and use the South Pacific Franc as currency just like in Tahiti/Bora Bora/et cetera. We arrived in the morning and I got off around 11am by myself to have a look around. We were docked about a 5 minute shuttle bus ride from the city center, but don’t see the word city and think I mean a place like New York or even Cleveland. This city had its buildings and shops like you’d expect but no high rises except for the hotels along the beach (which I saw later), so I walked around and looked in the shops but everything is really expensive down here, since it’s expensive to import everything, and you couldn’t change money in the banks without a passport. I really needed to eat, though, so I sucked it up and took a little bit of money out of an ATM and proceeded to buy a delicious sandwich, fries and a Sprite, and settled myself down in a shady area of a nearby park to have a little picnic.


After that I worked my way back towards the tourist information center (which is where the shuttle bus dropped us off) and I ran into some of the dancers from the cast who were buying tickets to get on a bus that stops at a bunch of the local beaches, so I decided to tag along with them! We got on and rode the bus to the beach the furthest away from where we were picked up, saw a wedding happening at a fancy hotel on the way, and found a grassy area (this beach had grass and sand), set our stuff down and got in the water! Now, this water was kind of a dark murky color, like the beach you’d see in Florida, not like what you’d expect on a tropical island, but I’m blaming that on the “city”. So we swam around for a while, laid on the sand, read some of my book (I’m reading “Eat, Pray, Love”) and then we packed up and headed across the street to a local Crêperie (a place that sells crêpes) and I treated everyone to some DELICIOUS treats. Then we got back on the bus, then got on the shuttle, and came back to the ship where I had a lovely shower, a glorious nap, and then we had two shows last night.

On a side note, there was a grocery store right near the shuttle bus stop and it is a French supermarket chain called Le Casino. So, I saw this and I was SO excited and I said to myself “I wonder if they sell Cabernet d’Anjou! I should check!” Now, those of you who don’t know (which will be everyone but Erica) Cabernet d’Anjou is a wine that is made in the region of France where I studied abroad. If you know me you know that I’m not a huge fan of wine, but this wine is SO GOOD and it’s hard to find in the states (Erica had some luck with a wine store in Rochester, lucky girl). So, I wandered in, walked to the back and LO AND BEHOLD THERE WAS MY WINE! And it was 870f for one bottle which is roughly $10 which is AWESOME. So, I snatched up a bottle, walked away from the rack and then suddenly this woman accosted me saying (in French) that the store was closed and I couldn’t buy the wine. This perplexed me because the store was most definitely not closed…but THEN this woman pointed at a sign as she took the bottle from my hands, a sign that read “The selling of alcohol is prohibited on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays after 12:00pm.”………………Yesterday was a Friday, GO FIGURE! Just my luck, right guys?! I was like….you’ve got to be kidding me…and I stood there like an idiot staring at this sign for quite some time before I sighed and walked away, quite defeated. I looked at the itinerary though and the next time we’re there in March we are there on a Tuesday so you better believe I will be going in there and buying a bottle or two!

Anyways, moving on to today! Today we were in a town called Lifou which is on an island called Loyalty Island which is also part of New Caledonia (aka, another French speaking place). Myself and 5 other friends of mine got off on the first little boat to take us ashore at 8am and we began asking around about this cave that we’d heard of where you could jump into a pond or something. Luckily for the people with me, my French skills came in handy when people were trying to convince us to take tours we weren’t interested in and I was just asking them, in French, how we could get to this cave. A local gave us some directions and so we headed out, after purchasing a few locally made sandwiches in a little tent that some women had set up.
So we began our hike and after a few confusing turns we arrived at a sign that said “Cave! Swimming! This way!” and an arrow…and then it said “500f/person” and I went….oh no…we have to pay? This is crazy. So I walked up to the gentleman standing by this sign and politely asked him (need I say we had this conversation in French?) why we had to pay to see this cave. After being startled that someone like me spoke his language, he replied that there was a guide down there to take us through and that that’s how they make a living. I explained to him that we didn’t have any Francs on us (which was mostly true, I had 1000f but nobody else had any and according to his sign 1000f was only going to get 2 of us in) and he asked if we work on the ship. I told him yes! We sure do! And we use American money…not Francs…and he didn’t seem to offer a solution, so, I said to him “Okay, sir, I have 1000f and that’s it, but I am not going in there without my entire party.” He repeated back to me “1000f?” “Oui.” “Okay, that’s fine.” And I was like oh….okay….you’ll take 1000f for all 6 of us to go? And he said yes. So I pulled out the money, handed it over, and then we proceeded on past him. I was happy we came to that solution because I think the next thing was going to be us making a run for it and that wasn’t going to be pleasant! 

So, we started down this little path through the jungle, using ropes and rocks that were set up, and down down down we went until we found the guide who had a flashlight to lead us through the dark tunnel to this underwater cave. Eventually we stopped and we said to ourselves “Is this it?” and then Kerwin busted out his camera, took a photo, and then we saw the pond and we were once again very excited. As we all contemplated this pond, Kerwin charged ahead and tore off his shirt, plunging right into the water. Now, mind you all, this is a small pond in a cave where there’s only a tiny spot for sunlight coming from above and then the guide’s flashlight and other than that it was total darkness. So, Kerwin’s confident dive into this pond was definitely, literally, a leap of faith. He came back up alive and laughing and said “Come on in! The water is great!” And so as we all took off our clothes he climbed out and walked over to me to give me a hug, and I felt the water on his body and it was not warm…and I said “The water is great, hmm?” and he goes “Yeah!” so we all jumped in. THE WATER WAS SO COLD! I came up like OH MY GOSH and shivering…..but….it was totally worth it, and we all jumped in several times and took lots of photos.

When we’d had enough of the cave diving we hiked back out (and what a hike it was) and wandered around that area of the island for a while and took some fun photos (see Facebook). Then we climbed back down the side of the island and found some secluded sandy areas and ditched our stuff and went for a swim in the ocean, which was significantly warmer than the cave was, thank God! We also climbed around on the rocks, ate our sandwiches….and some of us…namely me…got more sunburnt. I WAS WEARING 50 SPF…so…I don’t know what’s up with that. I am going to be in pain for the next few days, that’s for sure. But then I’ll have a fierce tan! I will probably die of Skin cancer when I’m older but…hey, it’s 2012 so the world is ending this year anyways, right?  
Also, we saw a ton of hermit crabs and then these other crabs were scuttling around on some of the rocks and they were kind of green and yellow and spotted…I must look them up and see what kind of crabs they were.


Tonight we’ve got our illusionist’s show and then tomorrow is another production show with our cast and we’ve got an all crew boat drill and then an all crew meeting so we won’t have a ton of time off the ship, so, we’ll see what shenanigans we can get into. Rest assured, however, that no matter what it is I will be wearing a t-shirt the whole time!
Love and good wishes from the South Pacific
Xoxoxox
B

Auld Lang Syne

January 4, 2012

Happy 2012, y’all!
First of all let me start off with New Year’s Eve! What a crazy night that was! We started off by throwing about a million (or maybe a few less than a million) balloons and then BILLIONS of pieces of confetti, let me tell you! The cast members and the techs all spread out around the top deck of the Centrum and at midnight we started dropping everything and it was chaos but it was so beautiful…until the balloons hit the ground and people began stepping on them and popping them…that was kind of annoying.
Anyways, after that was done we went and hung out in Jason’s cabin for a while then we had to move a bunch of stuff back into the theatre but then we went back to Jason’s and kept celebrating. After that we went to the Crew Bar for a little while before finally crashing into bed around 4am. Holidays on ships are pretty insane!
When it was the 31^st back home I called a bunch of friends at Midnight to wish them a Happy New Year! If I didn’t call you please don’t get sad! I only had so many minutes left on my phone card! I promise I love all of you! It was awesome talking to the ones I got to talk to, I miss you all SO MUCH!
Since then we’ve just been doing the usual thing, we’re currently on the last cruise with the cast that’s here now, then they’ll all leave on the 15^th and the new cast will be here. Once that happens we’ll be in “Install Mode” which means working 17 hour days which therefore means you all probably won’t hear much from me. I am also going to be on duty from the 14^th through the 18^th which is also going to be insane because we’ll be getting the new cast and also a bunch of guest entertainers (those are the people who perform on the nights we don’t have production shows).
Right now we are on our way to the islands of New Caledonia and Vanuatu—they’re in the South Pacific, basically. Everyone is looking forward to getting some beach time in! It’s been pretty chilly in New Zealand and so it will be good to get some sand, sun and water!
Here are a couple fun stories from today:
First, I was working at the Rockwall this afternoon and a woman came up to sign up a couple of her children. So, I gave the forms, explained it all out, and then as she was writing things she turned to her one son and said something to him in French! And I was like ooh! So, I asked her (in French) if they were French and she said yes! And we talked for a short while, found out that she’s from Northern France (she didn’t specify where) but they live in Sydney and her one son was born in France but they moved to Australia when he was 2 months old. I spoke French with him while I harnessed him up, too, and he seemed really excited that I could speak to him in French and the girl who was working the desk with me was like “I didn’t realize you spoke French so well!” and I laughed and said “I’m just lucky this much has stuck almost 2 years out of college!” Another co-worker of mine said “Why do you get so excited when you meet French people?” and I replied “Because I like speaking French! Don’t be jealous just because you don’t speak another language!” Good times, man, good times.
Second story: we sailed by another ship from our fleet today! The Rhapsody of the Seas has been doing the Australia run for a while now and today they were on their way back to Sydney and we’re on our way out so the captain of their ship and then our captain arranged for us to sail by one another. We weren’t super close but close enough that we could kind of see the people out on the decks and we all shouted and waved at each other and the captains blew the whistles. I took some photos and some videos so I’ll post those as soon as I can. The Rhapsody is in a class below ours so it’s quite a bit smaller, but, it’s a decent size all the same!
Lauren (my roommate) has family cruising this cruise so she’s going to be gone a lot so I’ll have my cabin all to myself. Today I cleaned out a whole bunch of stuff that doesn’t belong to either one of us which freed up some nice space. I’m just hoping that I don’t get a phone call that I have to move cabins when the new cast gets here—I’m really looking forward to commandeering the bottom bunk, I think my hip will be much happier not having to haul myself up to the top bunk all the time.
Finally, I received a lovely care package from one Miss Erica B. when we were in Sydney! It contained some delicious treats, a few adorable magnets (did you know that the walls in my cabin are magnetic?! Magnets are so much win) a beautiful scarf and some cute earrings! You are full of win, bestie!
I guess that’s it for now, hope you all had a wonderful start to the new year!
xoxo
B