I'm glad February is a short month...

February 8, 2012

            Three words for you: Install Is Over! That’s right, a few days ago we finally opened our show “City of Dreams” and minus a few technical glitches—due to the power having been shut off for a test of the system—everything went just fine.
            Aside from that, everything has been pretty much the same. We are currently on the first of three sea days before Sydney and therefore we are done with New Zealand for a little while. We will be back to do a couple of the ports in the middle of March but we won’t do a full New Zealand cruise again. Next up we’ve got the 7 day cruise to Melbourne and Hobart and then we do a circumnavigation again and after that some random cruises. I will list here what my itineraries will be for the rest of my time on board!
Feb 9- Sea Day
Feb 10- Sea Day
Feb 11- Sydney, Australia
Feb 12- Sydney (Turnaround Day)
Feb 13- Sea Day
Feb 14- Melbourne, Australia
Feb 15- Melbourne
Feb 16- Hobart, Tasmania
Feb 17- Hobart
Feb 18- Cruising
Feb 19- Sydney, Australia (Turnaround Day)
Feb 20- Sea Day
Feb 21- Brisbane, Australia
Feb 22- Sea Day
Feb 23- Airlie Beach, Australia
Feb 24- Port Douglas, Australia
Feb 25- Sea Day
Feb 26- Sea Day
Feb 27- Darwin, Australia
Feb 28- Sea Day
Feb 29- Sea Day
Mar 1- Bali, Indonesia
Mar 2- Sea Day
Mar 3- Port Headland, Australia
Mar 4- Sea Day
Mar 5- Geraldton, Australia
Mar 6- Perth, Australia (this is also when I might become Head Stage Staff)
Mar 7- Albany, Australia
Mar 8- Esperance, Australia
Mar 9- Sea Day
Mar 10- Sea Day
Mar 11- Adelaide, Australia
Mar 12- Sea Day
Mar 13- Melbourne, Australia
Mar 14- Sea Day
Mar 15- Hobart, Tasmania
Mar 16- Sea Day
Mar 17- Sea Day
Mar 18- New Zealand Sounds (aka Sea Day with scenery)
Mar 19- Dunedin, New Zealand
Mar 20- Akaroa, New Zealand
Mar 21- Wellington, New Zealand
Mar 22- Sea Day
Mar 23- Sea Day
Mar 24- Sydney (Turnaround Day)
Mar 25- Sea Day
Mar 26- Sea Day
Mar 27- Noumea, New Caledonia (where I will finally buy my awesome French wine)
Mar 28- My birthday!! Lifou, Loyalty Island, New Caledonia
Mar 29- Vila, Vanuatu
Mar 30- Champagne Bay, Vanuatu
Mar 31- Luganville, Vanuatu
Apr 1- Mystery Island, Vanuatu
Apr 2- Isle of Pines, New Caledonia
Apr 3- Sea Day
Apr 4- Sea Day
Apr 5- Sydney (Turnaround Day)
Apr 6- Sea Day
Apr 7- Sea Day
Apr 8- Auckland, New Zealand
Apr 9- Auckland, New Zealand
Apr 10- Sea Day/International Date Line
Apr 11- Sea Day
Apr 12- Sea Day
Apr 13- Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia
Apr 14- Moorea, French Polynesia
Apr 15- Bora Bora, French Polynesia
Apr 16—Apr 20- Sea Days
Apr 21- Hilo, Hawaii, USA
APRIL 22-HONOLULU, HAWAII, USA. AKA: THE DAY I COME HOME!!!

So, it’s not that far away…right? I hope it all zooms by because I am SO ready to come home! I am on duty for when we’re in Airlie Beach and Port Douglas and those are the places where you can take tours and go see the Great Barrier Reef.  So, I switched one of my duty dates with Jared so that he is on duty for me on one of those days and then I will take his duty take in Bali. For those of you who don’t recall—being on duty means that you can’t leave the ship. Since I already saw Bali I told him if he wanted to go I would cover for him if he’d cover me on a day I could go see the Great Barrier Reef. He agreed, so here we are! I am going to talk to the Explorations desk on board and see if they have any good tours planned, if not, I am going to look around online and see what I can find. I bought that underwater camera after all, I have to use it! 

Aside from that, the only other big thing I have planned is to once again attempt to go to the Sydney Aquarium on this upcoming Sydney day because it will be our last full day in Sydney. Turnaround Days don’t count because we have work to do often from 1-3:30 on those days and then we leave port around 5 so there isn’t much time except in the mornings. So, since I will theoretically have until around 7:30pm on the 11^th to do whatever I want, the Aquarium is on the agenda. Barring unforeseen scheduling conflicts, it will work out nicely. I am going to see if one of the guest entertainers who has been on board for several weeks now—Greg—wants to go, too. Greg’s pretty cool, he’s a juggler/comedian from San Francisco, he’ll be Emcee-ing the Ohio State Fair this summer, so I’m going to try to go down and see him there, too. 

So, I guess I’m just counting down the days until I am home to you all again. This summer is going to be awesome…which is what I said about last summer…but…here’s hoping it pans out the way I expect it to this time. I will probably have an exciting job (still hashing out the details but when I know for sure, you’ll know), my brother’s wedding, trips to see friends I haven’t seen in forever, True Blood Season 5 and subsequently time with my sister and her boo watching it (yes, it’s so important that I am mentioning it in the blog), and any other surprises that might come my way. 

Well, unless I think of anything, that’s all for now!
Love,

B