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