The Great Barrier Reef

February 25, 2012

                It’s almost the end of February! Just thought I’d point that out.

                So there isn’t a whole lot to talk about, I’ve been getting ready to take over for Kerwin as Head Stage Staff at the end of this contract which is pretty exciting.  The Circumnavigation Part 1 is going fairly well, we’ve had decent entertainment and the crowds have been enjoying themselves I think. We have a group of Country Western fanatics on board and so we’ve had a decent amount of extra work to do, because they have little bands that play all over the ship, which sucks on the one hand but it’s also not so bad since we get paid extra.

                The main thing I should talk about is going to see the Great Barrier Reef the other day!! Are you ready? Be excited.

                So we got off in Port Douglas, which is towards the Northeastern corner of Australia (obviously) around 11:00am with the mission to find a company to take us out to the Great Barrier Reef because the ship’s tour was full. We got onto the pier and started walking and quickly found out that many of the local tours were also full or only had one or two spots left (there were four of us). One company told us that some staff members (from the ship) had reserved seven spots on one tour and asked if we were part of the seven and we were SO tempted to say yes, but, of course we couldn’t lie like that. So, as we began to feel more and more disheartened, and as guests piled up in a line behind us started to feel the same way, the woman was kind enough to call another company (that we hadn’t even seen advertised anywhere) and asked if they had room to take around 12 people out to the reef on their yacht. They said that they’d do a tour for us and to be at their pier at 12:45. YES!!

                So, the four of us got a quick (but delicious) lunch and then walked over to pick up the boat! Now, it wasn’t a yacht like you might think when you hear “yacht”—it wasn’t this huge slick white boat with all the trimmings—but it was an almost traditional sailboat that was built in the 1920s and used to be used as a minesweeper for the Australian military. Pretty neat! So we all piled in, greeted by a cooler of ice cold water and complimentary cookies/brownies, and settled in for the hour ride out to the reef. On the way there the Skipper, aka the Captain, and his wife and the other woman working for them briefed us on the area, the snorkeling, and got us all geared up to jump in!

                When we got out to our snorkeling area we had the option to climb down the ladder into the ocean or to jump in, well, you better believe we all jumped in! Once in the water, we swam with our guide to where the coral was between a half meter away from the surface down to a few meters away, depending. It was so breathtaking, even though the water wasn’t as clear as it probably could have been. You could still make out the colors of the fish and the coral—sadly this area’s coral didn’t have some of the more vibrant colors that you hear about, but, I think the environment has a lot to do with that. At one point, I came up to the surface to dump out some seawater that had leaked in to my snorkel and then I put my face back in and as I was taking photos a Reef Shark came out of nowhere and swam beneath me a couple meters. After the initial shock of “OMG THAT’S A SHARK”         I was so excited and managed to get a decent picture and a less decent video of him (or her, I guess). The guide said that it was pretty rare to see a shark because in these waters they tend to stay away since they’re shy and they have kind of figured out that a lot of people swim around.  So that was pretty neat, and then we were swimming back towards the boat in water that was a bit deeper and our guide was surprised that nobody had seen a turtle since they were apparently usually pretty active in this area. As she was saying that, I stuck my face in the water and saw this big round shape swimming a few meters beneath me and after a moment I realized “OMG THAT’S A TURTLE!” and I didn’t get a photo but I got a video which I will take a still of and then make that into a photo. It was pretty hard to see him but it was still really really awesome.

                Overall, I am definitely very happy with my experience and we’re so lucky that the woman called this little company because I think that honestly, it was better than anything we could have gotten anywhere else.

                I think I’m going to leave you all with that. I’m sorry to make you jealous! But, I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I’d see the things I’ve seen in the last months, so, maybe you will someday, too!

Love to you all

Xoxox

B

Restaurant Tasman

February 18, 2012

                Today I am back in Sydney for one of three times I have left here in this lovely city! We just finished the 7 day cruise to Melbourne and Hobart, which I already talked about a bit when discussing Melbourne in the last post.  Let me talk about Hobart now!

                I went out alone on the first day in Hobart, after the day before with the boys in Melbourne I decided I needed some ME time. I went to a Target, bought some things I couldn’t buy the day before in Melbourne, and then stopped by the Pandora store. I had decided to buy one of the corded leather bracelets since I knew mine was full back home, so I did that. I know it seems like a silly purchase, but, I will use it when I’m home! After that I wandered around just looking in shops and trying things on for the fun of it—I really do love going out alone sometimes!

                Well, I had to be back on the ship at 8:15 or so, so around 6 I decided to find a place to eat dinner. I found a restaurant called the Restaurant Tasman so I decided to stop there, I had brought Eat, Pray, Love with me to read and keep me company. So, I got a table for one, ordered a glass of wine and my dinner and hunkered down to read and enjoy. What an amazing time I ended up having! My server was this very nice guy who kept calling me “madame” and the place was relatively empty so it was quiet, but it wasn’t so empty that I felt awkward, and THE FOOD! Oh. My. The food was TO DIE FOR. I ordered a Free Range Chicken (caught locally)on a bed of sweet corn compote with some baby vegetables, asparagus and a small side of chips (that’s fries to you).  I swear to you, it was the most delicious chicken I have ever tasted, and the asparagus was perfectly crisp and sitting in this lemon/pepper sauce and the fries even seemed to taste magical! I kind of wanted to die right then and there so that my last memory would have been of eating that delicious food. I didn’t take any photos because I didn’t want to be “that tourist” but, trust me when I say, It. Was. Fantastic.  Then I had Vanilla Crème Brûlée for dessert….I can’t even tell you how awesome it was!

                In other news, I’ve noticed myself incorporating Australian things into my vernacular without even thinking about it. I say the following on a semi-regular basis: “cheers”, “how ya going?” and “spot on”. What is that about!? I guess that’s to be expected since I am around Australians so much, but, it’s still interesting.

                Other than that things are pretty much the same! I will be coming home in roughly two months! In 16 days I will be Head Stage Staff which will be pretty awesome, too. More work, but, it’s going to be great experience.

                I think that’s all for now, I’ll try to post from somewhere along the circumnav!

All my love

B

Melbourne Overnight!

February 14, 2012

Valentine’s Day…….........ok, that’s enough about that, moving on!

                I just got back in from my day out in Melbourne with Brian and his new roommate, Chip-what a day! We got off the ship around 2pm after Brian and I had to work from about 12:30 to 1:30. After wandering around for a while, we found a bank to exchange some currency and then found our way to the nearest tram station to get into the city itself. Once we got in, we stopped at a Krispy Kreme donut shop because, well, we just couldn’t resist!  Delicious! Once we were done there, we kept walking and eventually found the Target I had found the last time we were here which was way back in early November. After purchasing a few supplies, we continue to walk around for a little while searching for fast, free WiFi but you would not believe how difficult that is to find around here! When we find found some WiFi—though it was slow and a bit patchy—we were able to plan out where we wanted to go to dinner, kind of how we’d get there on the tram system, and then where the nearest movie cinema was because we had decided that we wanted to catch the new Sherlock Holmes.

                So, our plan to get to dinner worked out nicely, we ended up on a street called Lygon street which is packed full of restaurants and shops—mostly Italian places—and we decided on a Woodfire pizza place. Instead of going with my usual choices, I spotted a pizza on the menu that piqued my interests: tomato sauce, cheese, zucchini, pumpkin, potato and feta. Sounds different, right? I don’t know why but I read that and was so intrigued that I went with it…it wasn’t awful…I’m not sure I’d order it again, but, it was worth the one time shot. After that we went across the street to a candy shop (not a good idea on Valentine’s Day, by the way) where I found some candies that are called Chili Bites which are dark chocolate with chili bits. I haven’t tried one yet, but, you better believe that I will report back as soon as I do!

                After dinner, we got back on the tram and after some extensive reading of maps, I finally asked a railway worker how to get to the cinema that we had our eye on. He instructed us on the route we needed to take and it was happily on the route to get to the ship! Convenient! Thusly, we boarded the tram and got off a number of stops later at the casino/cinema/mall complex. We got into the cinema, got up to buy our tickets and found out the bad news: Sherlock Holmes was #1. For “Gold Pass” cinema ticket holders only and #2. Already sold out anyways. BUMMER! So we browsed the available movies and picked “This Means War” with Reese Witherspoon, Chelsea Handler and some attractive men from some other films I’ve seen.  It. Was. AMAZING. It was a really nice cross between an action flick and a girl movie without being too harshly written one way or the other—there were so many funny one-liners that had all three of us in stitches and so you know that it’s a crowd pleaser. There was a really funny moment where Reese Witherspoon walks in to the scene and she’s wearing these AWESOME red shoes and myself and the girl next to me both said, at the exact same time, “OMG I LOVE HER SHOES”. It was priceless.  

                Oh! Before I move on from the movie thing, when we bought our tickets tonight, they assigned us seats in the theatre! How interesting is that! And then, the movie time said 9:40, but what that really meant was that they open the doors at 9:40 but the movie didn’t start until 10:00, AND, wait for it…….THERE WERE NO PREVIEWS! What is that about?! I know some of you out there are probably going “Oh! That’s fabulous! They should start that here!” But NO! I like the previews! I want to know what to look forward to seeing a year from now! The lights in the theatre went dark…and the movie starting playing…and I just didn’t know what to do with myself! I had barely made a dent in the too-salty popcorn! Absolute rubbish, I tell you.

                Anyways, the movie ended, we got back on the tram, subsequently back to the ship, and now here we are. Well, I should say here I am.  After tonight we leave Melbourne around noon tomorrow and then we head out to Hobart. Last night was the crew Valentine’s Day party and we finished working around 1:30am and I really didn’t feel like going because…well…it’s Valentine’s day…so I came back to my cabin, put on my pajamas and turned on a movie. About 10 minutes later I got a call from Brian who was DEMANDING that I go to the party with him and that if I didn’t he was going to stand outside my door and bang on it until I relented. So, in the interest of my poor neighbors  (most of whom ended up being out anyway) I threw on some clothes and went out. We had an ok time I suppose, but I was still excited to get back to my bed.

Speaking of getting back to my bed, that’s what I’m gonna do!

Love you all, I’ll write again soon

B

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

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