March 22nd-24th
Sea Day/Hong Kong/Sea Day
As usual, nothing much to say about the sea days, but I have finally gotten my schedule worked out and started my gym routine back up again, so that’s nice to get going. But the 23rd was Hong Kong and my first day to actually get out and explore downtown, and let me say, that city is amazing. It’s kind of hard to explain, but the development, architecture, and layout is just amazing. First, I had to take a ferry from the dock across to river to the downtown area, something costing about $2 hong kong, or about 30 cents US. Unlike Sanya, it was really easy to find a place to exchange money, so that wasn’t a problem. Then, I started out by spending 3 hours on my computer in a mall picking up one of the twenty wi-fi signals I was detecting. It was really nice to be able to go on and do all the surfing I haven’t been able to do without paying for it, but by the time my battery was drained, I had completely forgotten about making these posts, oops! At that point, I bought an apple cinnamon pretzel at the café I’d been sitting at and headed out to find whatever I was to find. I started by just checking out the mall I was in, which was really really nice. I checked out a couple of the shops and after figuring out the clothing in downtown Hong Kong wasn’t really any cheaper than the rest of the world, I left for the city. Now the layout of the city is crisscrossed with pedestrian foot bridges, a maze of walkways that without, it’d be virtually impossible to cross certain streets and return back to my ferry. So after walking into the city a good distance via these bridges, I decided to risk it and get down to street level, at which point I quickly discovered how much more difficult is was to get around walking at street level. I walked for 50 minutes or so before I thought I should make my way back to the ferry with enough time to spare for getting lost or completely confused, luckily, neither of which happened. I did successfully find my way back up to the bridges though, and then navigated the maze back to the central bridge that returned me to my ferry, and for another 30 cents returned to my dock. I still had some time though when I got back near the ship, so I figured I’d walk around a little more and see what was on my side of the river, not to mention I really wanted some food. So after walking for a bit, I saw a sign for a music store which I followed down below street level, where I came across a huge food court and crummy CD shop. Well, the food court looked great, so after figuring out their ordering process, and got real ramen noodles!! For $20, or $3 US I got a HUGE bowl of ramen, and the noodles were fantastic. It was called Tokyo ramen, which meant they put a slice of beef on the top, but this ramen is soooo much better than the dorm classic. So I quickly ate and ran back to the ship to get ready for boat drill, and that was about it for the day. I really can’t wait to go back to Hong Kong though, especially now that I’m familiar with it. And like I said, the next day was a sea day, uneventful as usual, just a couple big band sets to play. Tomorrow is Taiwan! Have a great day!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Sanya, China
March 21st
Sanya China
Another day, another new port I’ve never knew existed. Sanya was a nice Chinese port that I was able to just go exploring around in for a while. The city is pretty busy and seems to be developing at a quick pace, but you still see so much influence from the city’s cultural background. I left the ship and walked into the city with nothing really in mind aside from just seeing as much as I could. After some time walking around on my own, I ended up running into my roommate and some other guys from the ship, who I then hung out with for a while longer. We spent a good portion of our time looking for a place to exchange our American dollars, but had absolutely no luck. It was odd how quickly everyone said “no” when we walked into banks with US currency. It was fun though, and I found it amusing hanging out with my Russian friend (also the musical director on the ship) when he’d walk into these places saying, “do you change the money” in a stereotypical Russian accent. We eventually gave up on that quest for another, to find a restaurant that would accept our money. The Russian, Misha, actually came across a place that had a Russian writing on the sign, so after a quick translation, we figured we could successfully dine there. So we did, and it really wasn’t anything special. They had a BBQ going where the waiters would come out every 5 minutes with a different BBQ item, be it beef or shrimp or pork, none of which was really all that great. We stayed about an hour, and it was nice for the atmosphere up on this 4th story balcony overlooking the city, and eventually headed out after a struggle with paying for the food with our US cash…big pain. So we left, my group headed back to the ship on a crew shuttle, and I decided to press on looking for other things to see. I made it through some interesting areas, some obviously less affluent, some maybe a little sketchy, and then ended up at the beach before making the trek back to the ship. And then that was about it for the day, so now I get ready for a sea day back to Hong Kong and the start of another cruise. Seeya!
Sanya China
Another day, another new port I’ve never knew existed. Sanya was a nice Chinese port that I was able to just go exploring around in for a while. The city is pretty busy and seems to be developing at a quick pace, but you still see so much influence from the city’s cultural background. I left the ship and walked into the city with nothing really in mind aside from just seeing as much as I could. After some time walking around on my own, I ended up running into my roommate and some other guys from the ship, who I then hung out with for a while longer. We spent a good portion of our time looking for a place to exchange our American dollars, but had absolutely no luck. It was odd how quickly everyone said “no” when we walked into banks with US currency. It was fun though, and I found it amusing hanging out with my Russian friend (also the musical director on the ship) when he’d walk into these places saying, “do you change the money” in a stereotypical Russian accent. We eventually gave up on that quest for another, to find a restaurant that would accept our money. The Russian, Misha, actually came across a place that had a Russian writing on the sign, so after a quick translation, we figured we could successfully dine there. So we did, and it really wasn’t anything special. They had a BBQ going where the waiters would come out every 5 minutes with a different BBQ item, be it beef or shrimp or pork, none of which was really all that great. We stayed about an hour, and it was nice for the atmosphere up on this 4th story balcony overlooking the city, and eventually headed out after a struggle with paying for the food with our US cash…big pain. So we left, my group headed back to the ship on a crew shuttle, and I decided to press on looking for other things to see. I made it through some interesting areas, some obviously less affluent, some maybe a little sketchy, and then ended up at the beach before making the trek back to the ship. And then that was about it for the day, so now I get ready for a sea day back to Hong Kong and the start of another cruise. Seeya!
Danang
March 20th
Danang
You know, I’m not even sure if that’s the name of the port or not…it sucks not having a schedule here in the room that tells me. But regardless, I didn’t get to see much of the city this time. For the most part, my day was on hold till we could do our 1:00 boat drill and all crew meeting, my first of both since getting on the ship. After that, I did manage to make it off the ship for a little while, but was limited with my time due to a rehearsal at 4:30. There didn’t seem to be much going on in the city, so instead of spending my couple hours off the ship walking forever to get to an empty city, I decided to just climb the big hill that the ship was docked next to. I went by myself, but really had a great time. The foliage in so much different in Vietnam, it’s really interesting observing the differences. After spending some time climbing as high as I could (till the trees got too dense), I found a large boulder to sit on and just look out over the bay and it’s surrounding mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous. I spent about as much time up there as I though I could spare before having to worry about getting back to the ship on time for my rehearsal, and then made my way back down. I had a couple close calls with slipping on something not stable enough to hold my weight, but made it back to the ship with out a scratch…and hopefully without any developing rashes from poisonous Vietnamese plants, but I guess we’ll see about that tomorrow. Then we had the rehearsal and show for an act called Gaucho, some traditional Argentinean Dancer who really had a great show. Then that was about it for the night. Thanks for reading!
Danang
You know, I’m not even sure if that’s the name of the port or not…it sucks not having a schedule here in the room that tells me. But regardless, I didn’t get to see much of the city this time. For the most part, my day was on hold till we could do our 1:00 boat drill and all crew meeting, my first of both since getting on the ship. After that, I did manage to make it off the ship for a little while, but was limited with my time due to a rehearsal at 4:30. There didn’t seem to be much going on in the city, so instead of spending my couple hours off the ship walking forever to get to an empty city, I decided to just climb the big hill that the ship was docked next to. I went by myself, but really had a great time. The foliage in so much different in Vietnam, it’s really interesting observing the differences. After spending some time climbing as high as I could (till the trees got too dense), I found a large boulder to sit on and just look out over the bay and it’s surrounding mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous. I spent about as much time up there as I though I could spare before having to worry about getting back to the ship on time for my rehearsal, and then made my way back down. I had a couple close calls with slipping on something not stable enough to hold my weight, but made it back to the ship with out a scratch…and hopefully without any developing rashes from poisonous Vietnamese plants, but I guess we’ll see about that tomorrow. Then we had the rehearsal and show for an act called Gaucho, some traditional Argentinean Dancer who really had a great show. Then that was about it for the night. Thanks for reading!
Haiphong, vietnam
March 19th
Haiphong, Vietnam
Turns out the place is called Haiphong on the schedule, so I’ll go by that – though I really think it’s called Halong. But anyways, today’s plan was to follow around my friend Jay, the trombone player, on what he calls his “Uncle Jay Tours”. After explaining that he’s been to the port multiple times and having developed a now traditional itinerary, I thought it’d be fun to hang out with him. He called at 11 this morning letting me know the his tour was leaving, a tour consisting of Jay, myself, and his friend Neil, a musician from a different band on the ship. We took the tender ride from the ship into port and I got to see how beautiful the area really was. Despite the haze, the beauty of the land was just unbelievable. Again, these are things I’ve only seen in movies, and to see Vietnam in person in the area we were in was just great. So we got off the tender and made our way towards the first stop of Jay’s tour…a place to buy beer. Jay is an extremely heavy drinker, pretty much my opposite, which isn’t going to work out well for me. But hey, when the beer is only a dollar and safer to drink than the water, maybe it’s not so bad. From this tiny little shop. We continued on to what’s called the Dream Hotel, some place Jay frequents. The first part of the stop consisted of getting lunch at the fairly nice looking restaurant, which was a great choice with some really good food, not to mention extremely cheap. With our meals followed two more rounds of drinks, again something I was assured was the best choice anyway. After our meal began the real aim of the day, go upstairs in this hotel to the spa, where for $12 you can hang out all day in the sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi’s, showers, and get an hour long massage! So that’s just what we did, hung out in the spa area till we each went on for our massage. It was kind of nice though to just kick back and relax, considering how stressful this job can be…yeah, that’s the word, stressful. But hey, if it’s there, why not take advantage of it? Following that, we headed outside for the market where Jay and Neil wanted to do some shopping, which was interesting. Some of the things they were selling were absolute crap, but at the same time, there were a few nice things here and there that seemed worth haggling over, Something Jay did with every street vendor. And after a little while of that, we started to head back. We did, however, make a quick stop for food at a great local place, another one of those great places you only come across in real poor areas. At this tiny restaurant, if you can even call it that, everything we ordered was a dollar. From getting more beers to the fried rice and the spring rolls Jay ordered, everything we picked out was a dollar each, and really good. It’s somewhat difficult getting past the lack of cleanliness of these areas, but it’s part of the culture, it’s authentic, and that’s what I’m looking for.
We eventually left and made it back to the ship where we had two big band set’s to play. A lot of the band was upset cause it was only supposed to be one set, so I guess any work day that approaches two hours of playing (closer to 90 minutes) is a day I should consider long. Again, not a bad deal for a musician getting paid to see the world!
That’s it though for the 19th, tomorrow will be busy with boat drill, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to get off if ever, so we’ll see. Thanks for reading!
Haiphong, Vietnam
Turns out the place is called Haiphong on the schedule, so I’ll go by that – though I really think it’s called Halong. But anyways, today’s plan was to follow around my friend Jay, the trombone player, on what he calls his “Uncle Jay Tours”. After explaining that he’s been to the port multiple times and having developed a now traditional itinerary, I thought it’d be fun to hang out with him. He called at 11 this morning letting me know the his tour was leaving, a tour consisting of Jay, myself, and his friend Neil, a musician from a different band on the ship. We took the tender ride from the ship into port and I got to see how beautiful the area really was. Despite the haze, the beauty of the land was just unbelievable. Again, these are things I’ve only seen in movies, and to see Vietnam in person in the area we were in was just great. So we got off the tender and made our way towards the first stop of Jay’s tour…a place to buy beer. Jay is an extremely heavy drinker, pretty much my opposite, which isn’t going to work out well for me. But hey, when the beer is only a dollar and safer to drink than the water, maybe it’s not so bad. From this tiny little shop. We continued on to what’s called the Dream Hotel, some place Jay frequents. The first part of the stop consisted of getting lunch at the fairly nice looking restaurant, which was a great choice with some really good food, not to mention extremely cheap. With our meals followed two more rounds of drinks, again something I was assured was the best choice anyway. After our meal began the real aim of the day, go upstairs in this hotel to the spa, where for $12 you can hang out all day in the sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi’s, showers, and get an hour long massage! So that’s just what we did, hung out in the spa area till we each went on for our massage. It was kind of nice though to just kick back and relax, considering how stressful this job can be…yeah, that’s the word, stressful. But hey, if it’s there, why not take advantage of it? Following that, we headed outside for the market where Jay and Neil wanted to do some shopping, which was interesting. Some of the things they were selling were absolute crap, but at the same time, there were a few nice things here and there that seemed worth haggling over, Something Jay did with every street vendor. And after a little while of that, we started to head back. We did, however, make a quick stop for food at a great local place, another one of those great places you only come across in real poor areas. At this tiny restaurant, if you can even call it that, everything we ordered was a dollar. From getting more beers to the fried rice and the spring rolls Jay ordered, everything we picked out was a dollar each, and really good. It’s somewhat difficult getting past the lack of cleanliness of these areas, but it’s part of the culture, it’s authentic, and that’s what I’m looking for.
We eventually left and made it back to the ship where we had two big band set’s to play. A lot of the band was upset cause it was only supposed to be one set, so I guess any work day that approaches two hours of playing (closer to 90 minutes) is a day I should consider long. Again, not a bad deal for a musician getting paid to see the world!
That’s it though for the 19th, tomorrow will be busy with boat drill, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to get off if ever, so we’ll see. Thanks for reading!
Sea Day
March 18th
Sea Day
Sea Days! Remember those…I sure do. Well, like most sea days, there’s never that much that happens, and on this ship there’s no exception. I had an early morning training, stuff everyone has to do when they got on a ship, and then the rest of the day to myself up until the big band sets that night. Most of the day was spent sleeping, I figure I need some energy, not to mention the transition back to a windowless room makes me terribly lethargic. The big band sets that night weren’t bad, but are completely different than the Nav. Where as we would play the big band sets in the Nav in the Ice Rink, seeing as this ship doesn’t have a rink, we play somewhere more towards the center of the ship where more people can hear us just by walking on any of the 7 floors that are exposed to this central location. We played the sets standing up, which was a little different, but no problem. The band doesn’t sound bad though, so that’s good. There are some weak areas, but nothing that I feel is really detrimental to the band. I do miss my old group, but I’ll still have a good time where I’m at. So we played two 45 minute sets, and that was it for the night. I went up to the bar for St. Patrick’s day, who knows why we did it a day late, met a few new friends and headed back to the room. I’m not so much a fan of that bar on the back deck, I really prefer the lounge type of area we had on the Nav, it was much more comfortable. Well, at least that’ll keep me from going back there for drinks. And I guess that’s about all I got for ya. Tomorrow will be my first port day, which I’m excited for, I think we’ll be in Halong Vietnam…I could be totally wrong, but I’ll figure it out when I get there. Thanks!
Sea Day
Sea Days! Remember those…I sure do. Well, like most sea days, there’s never that much that happens, and on this ship there’s no exception. I had an early morning training, stuff everyone has to do when they got on a ship, and then the rest of the day to myself up until the big band sets that night. Most of the day was spent sleeping, I figure I need some energy, not to mention the transition back to a windowless room makes me terribly lethargic. The big band sets that night weren’t bad, but are completely different than the Nav. Where as we would play the big band sets in the Nav in the Ice Rink, seeing as this ship doesn’t have a rink, we play somewhere more towards the center of the ship where more people can hear us just by walking on any of the 7 floors that are exposed to this central location. We played the sets standing up, which was a little different, but no problem. The band doesn’t sound bad though, so that’s good. There are some weak areas, but nothing that I feel is really detrimental to the band. I do miss my old group, but I’ll still have a good time where I’m at. So we played two 45 minute sets, and that was it for the night. I went up to the bar for St. Patrick’s day, who knows why we did it a day late, met a few new friends and headed back to the room. I’m not so much a fan of that bar on the back deck, I really prefer the lounge type of area we had on the Nav, it was much more comfortable. Well, at least that’ll keep me from going back there for drinks. And I guess that’s about all I got for ya. Tomorrow will be my first port day, which I’m excited for, I think we’ll be in Halong Vietnam…I could be totally wrong, but I’ll figure it out when I get there. Thanks!
Flight to Hong Kong
March 15th-17th
Flight to Hong Kong
So here we go again, another cruise adventure, another blog to document my travels, and this cruise already seems like it’s going to have some great stories!
It all starts with the flight from Chicago to Hong Kong. Well, it’s a flight, 16 hours worth of sitting in one place trying to sleep. I actually did enjoy the flight, it was just really long. The cool thing, however, was that we flew to China by going over the North Pole. It was neat being able to look out the window at endless stretches of white. It’s hard to tell what the actual landscape is 40,000 feet in the air, so be it glaciers, frozen lakes, or lots of snow, I’m not sure, but it was something you don’t see every day.
We made it to Hong Kong without any problems. I got my stuff together, left the plane, followed the signs till I got through customs/immigration, and picked up my luggage. From there, I was supposed to call a phone number I’d been given in regards to getting picked up at the airport. After finding a courtesy phone, I called up what was supposed to be the hotel number only to get a message saying the number was no longer in use (the message was in both Chinese and English…so no, my Chinese isn’t that good). I called again and asked the guard by the phone if the number looked correct, which it did, it just simply didn’t work. So he sent me over to the hotel booths where I could find representatives from the hotel I was looking for, the Marco Polo of Hong Kong. I found the booth, gave them my name, only to not be found on the guest list. After explaining I was here to work on the ship and I’d been trying to call their number, they sent me over to the Burger King in the terminal where they said I was supposed to meet with my ride to the hotel. Luckily, they were right, and I did indeed find my ride waiting for me with a couple others who had just flown in. We then drove off in his Toyota minivan kind of car, on the left side of the road, and I enjoyed looking at the scenery from the passenger side. This area, Hong Kong and whatever surrounding cities we drove through, were absolutely gorgeous. Seeing the buildings juxtaposed against a mountain backdrop was just beautiful and was undoubtedly Chinese. Maybe I’ve seen too many Chinese movies, but there was no mistaking the look and aura of this place. We made it to the Hotel with no problems, less the few pedestrians the driver almost flattened. We arrived not at the Marco Polo, but at L’Hotel, a change I had no idea about, but was pleasantly surprised. The high-end looking lobby was certainly on par with the elegant elevators, handsome hallway, and stylish suites. But seriously, this room was great! I was on the 36th floor with a great view and a room that was so hip and modern it took me a few minutes to figure out how to work the fixtures, not to mention finding the toilet (not that the room was huge or anything, but the bathroom certainly had some tricks up it’s sleeve…not to mention one of it’s four walls being made entirely of perfectly clear glass). But along with the steel clawed bathtub, flat screen TV, and motion sensing lights, came my surprise that the company would actually put all of it’s employees at a hotel like this, wow!
So, from there I took a nap before calling home, both because I was tired and because the time change meant I should wait a couple hours before waking up my family. The bed was rock hard. Like really, I’ve never been on such a stiff bed in my life. The pillows were some of the softest, but that bed was barely a step up from the floor, I guess it’s an Asian thing. Later that night I headed downstairs to check out the restaurant and free meal the ship was paying for. This restaurant was certainly at the same level of the rest of the hotel, and the food was great! I started with some sashimi which was really good and included octopus – slightly strange. I’m really looking forward to sushi in japan, but Hong Kong is still going to be a lot better than the Midwest. The chicken dinner was great too, I don’t know quite what it was, but real Chinese food was nice to experience. So I finished up there, went outside for a walk along the waterfront (there was a really nice park), and then back to the room for bed.
I woke up the next morning, took my shower, grabbed breakfast at the same great restaurant, packed my things and left with the shuttle that took 20+ sign-ons to the ship that morning at 9AM. We got to the ship no problem and I started the sign-on process with the couple dozen others there to do the same. Well, the ship’s nice, I really like it. It’s a lot smaller, and the lay out is completely different from the Navigator, but it’s not bad finding my way around. So I went through the process, and then got to go on the scavenger hunt for my room. The rooms here are about 50% bigger than the Nav’s, so that’s nice. They’re still really small and make even the smallest dorms look huge, but this change is certainly welcomed. My roommate is a really cool guy from Argentina. He seems like a great guy though, I think the rooming thing is going to work out fine. After finding the room, I had some time to wander the ship before my pre-departure training. It’s a nice ship, completely different than the Nav, but interesting in its own way. I did my training though, had fun faking my way through the passenger boat drill, and then had a quick run through with the band for the welcome aboard show. It seems I’ll be working even less on this ship! Supposedly, the horn players don’t play any production shows, which was a good majority of the work on the Nav, meaning more days off!! Yeah, ship life in Asia is hard, I don’t know how I do it. That night we played our two welcome aboard shows, each consisting of a single 4 minute tunes, and that was it. Best of all, NO WELCOME ABOARD PARADE!! The Parades will now be a thing of the past seeing as this ship doesn’t have the promenade for such a stupid activity. But that’s about it, the rest of the night I spent trying to meet some different people. The people on the ship do seem really friendly and open to new crew, maybe cause it’s such a smaller community. But I think it’s going to be really fun here, so far everything’s off to a great start.
Thanks so much for reading again and I’m so glad that you’ve decided to come back for a second helping of my tours of these worldly adventures. I’m really excited to be where I am and doing what I’m doing and hope that you’ll get some enjoyment in reading these posts. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to actually make the posts due to not having internet in the room, but I’ll figure out a way. Thanks and have a great one!
Flight to Hong Kong
So here we go again, another cruise adventure, another blog to document my travels, and this cruise already seems like it’s going to have some great stories!
It all starts with the flight from Chicago to Hong Kong. Well, it’s a flight, 16 hours worth of sitting in one place trying to sleep. I actually did enjoy the flight, it was just really long. The cool thing, however, was that we flew to China by going over the North Pole. It was neat being able to look out the window at endless stretches of white. It’s hard to tell what the actual landscape is 40,000 feet in the air, so be it glaciers, frozen lakes, or lots of snow, I’m not sure, but it was something you don’t see every day.
We made it to Hong Kong without any problems. I got my stuff together, left the plane, followed the signs till I got through customs/immigration, and picked up my luggage. From there, I was supposed to call a phone number I’d been given in regards to getting picked up at the airport. After finding a courtesy phone, I called up what was supposed to be the hotel number only to get a message saying the number was no longer in use (the message was in both Chinese and English…so no, my Chinese isn’t that good). I called again and asked the guard by the phone if the number looked correct, which it did, it just simply didn’t work. So he sent me over to the hotel booths where I could find representatives from the hotel I was looking for, the Marco Polo of Hong Kong. I found the booth, gave them my name, only to not be found on the guest list. After explaining I was here to work on the ship and I’d been trying to call their number, they sent me over to the Burger King in the terminal where they said I was supposed to meet with my ride to the hotel. Luckily, they were right, and I did indeed find my ride waiting for me with a couple others who had just flown in. We then drove off in his Toyota minivan kind of car, on the left side of the road, and I enjoyed looking at the scenery from the passenger side. This area, Hong Kong and whatever surrounding cities we drove through, were absolutely gorgeous. Seeing the buildings juxtaposed against a mountain backdrop was just beautiful and was undoubtedly Chinese. Maybe I’ve seen too many Chinese movies, but there was no mistaking the look and aura of this place. We made it to the Hotel with no problems, less the few pedestrians the driver almost flattened. We arrived not at the Marco Polo, but at L’Hotel, a change I had no idea about, but was pleasantly surprised. The high-end looking lobby was certainly on par with the elegant elevators, handsome hallway, and stylish suites. But seriously, this room was great! I was on the 36th floor with a great view and a room that was so hip and modern it took me a few minutes to figure out how to work the fixtures, not to mention finding the toilet (not that the room was huge or anything, but the bathroom certainly had some tricks up it’s sleeve…not to mention one of it’s four walls being made entirely of perfectly clear glass). But along with the steel clawed bathtub, flat screen TV, and motion sensing lights, came my surprise that the company would actually put all of it’s employees at a hotel like this, wow!
So, from there I took a nap before calling home, both because I was tired and because the time change meant I should wait a couple hours before waking up my family. The bed was rock hard. Like really, I’ve never been on such a stiff bed in my life. The pillows were some of the softest, but that bed was barely a step up from the floor, I guess it’s an Asian thing. Later that night I headed downstairs to check out the restaurant and free meal the ship was paying for. This restaurant was certainly at the same level of the rest of the hotel, and the food was great! I started with some sashimi which was really good and included octopus – slightly strange. I’m really looking forward to sushi in japan, but Hong Kong is still going to be a lot better than the Midwest. The chicken dinner was great too, I don’t know quite what it was, but real Chinese food was nice to experience. So I finished up there, went outside for a walk along the waterfront (there was a really nice park), and then back to the room for bed.
I woke up the next morning, took my shower, grabbed breakfast at the same great restaurant, packed my things and left with the shuttle that took 20+ sign-ons to the ship that morning at 9AM. We got to the ship no problem and I started the sign-on process with the couple dozen others there to do the same. Well, the ship’s nice, I really like it. It’s a lot smaller, and the lay out is completely different from the Navigator, but it’s not bad finding my way around. So I went through the process, and then got to go on the scavenger hunt for my room. The rooms here are about 50% bigger than the Nav’s, so that’s nice. They’re still really small and make even the smallest dorms look huge, but this change is certainly welcomed. My roommate is a really cool guy from Argentina. He seems like a great guy though, I think the rooming thing is going to work out fine. After finding the room, I had some time to wander the ship before my pre-departure training. It’s a nice ship, completely different than the Nav, but interesting in its own way. I did my training though, had fun faking my way through the passenger boat drill, and then had a quick run through with the band for the welcome aboard show. It seems I’ll be working even less on this ship! Supposedly, the horn players don’t play any production shows, which was a good majority of the work on the Nav, meaning more days off!! Yeah, ship life in Asia is hard, I don’t know how I do it. That night we played our two welcome aboard shows, each consisting of a single 4 minute tunes, and that was it. Best of all, NO WELCOME ABOARD PARADE!! The Parades will now be a thing of the past seeing as this ship doesn’t have the promenade for such a stupid activity. But that’s about it, the rest of the night I spent trying to meet some different people. The people on the ship do seem really friendly and open to new crew, maybe cause it’s such a smaller community. But I think it’s going to be really fun here, so far everything’s off to a great start.
Thanks so much for reading again and I’m so glad that you’ve decided to come back for a second helping of my tours of these worldly adventures. I’m really excited to be where I am and doing what I’m doing and hope that you’ll get some enjoyment in reading these posts. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to actually make the posts due to not having internet in the room, but I’ll figure out a way. Thanks and have a great one!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Everything Else
So I just looked at my blog and realized I left out the entire last week I was on the ship, not to mention I had about 3 weeks of posts saved as word docs that never made it onto the site...oops. Well, it's all updated now, except for the final week, which I'll let you in about now.
Basically, nothing happened, or at least nothing that has stuck with me for the 2 months since it happened. After Caymen would have came a Sea day, Lauderdale, and another sea day, all of which were usually uneventful. It was just nice though to start my final cruise, which includes my final passenger drill, welcome aboard show, and most importantly, last parade! That aside, most of my time was spent in preparation for going home, yay!
Cozumel would have been the next day, of which I do remember. Brandon and I, after working it out with Pia (shore-ex), got on a ferry to cross to the mainland - Playa del Carmen. After leaving early, we got to the other side with hours at our disposal to explore and just enjoy my last port day before leaving the ship. We walked North through the city for aways, until eventually turning towards the beach where we'd spend an hour enjoying a perfect Mexican day. We left to walk back towards the pier via the seamless white sand beach which was just gorgeous. We eventually turned off the beach into a vacation resort where we probably weren't allowed to be walking around in, but after hanging in the lobby for a while using their pool table, I'm sure we convinced most everyone we had paid thousands to stay at the resort. Following that, we began the search for lunch, of which we were determined to find the most authentic restaurant possible. After a coffee break at a cafe, we continued on till we found just what we'd hoped for. Inside this local restaurant you could see old wooden chairs at cheap looking tables, a small dining area, and the counter top at which the old Mexican woman did all her cooking. It was strange seeing the counter right there in the dining area completely exposed, but thats the local "look" we were searching for. The lady came over and I asked for a menu, to which I believe she said (and it was in spanish) that there's only the "meal of the day", something that she then proceeded to display to us by uncovering the giant steel pots on her stove to reveal rices, sausage patties, chicken, and whatever else should be included when a local makes the meals she's likely been making 50+ years. We were served some strange juice, which I still can't figure out what it was (looked like lemonade), but was really good, and the meal was absolutely great, not to mention really cheap. So we left to make our way back to the ferry by walking back through the city. We made it back no problem, but it turned out we bought twice as many tickets as we needed for the way back. When we had gotten to Carmen, we had bought tickets for the trip back so we knew we'd have them when we needed them. But, by asking for two tickets, the booth operator thought we wanted round trip, meaning $20 as opposed to $10. The tickets didn't really say anything to that extent, so we both thought everything was fine, till we got to the ferry and found out we both had extra tickets we couldn't use. But hey, I'd rather err on the side of caution than not be able to get back to the island where the ship was. We made it back to cozumel and walked back to the ship, making a couple stops here and there before leaving the island for what would be my last time.
The next day was a sea day, and one that was spent packing. I got my stuff together all day and even had to stay up all night making sure that I had everything before I left. I took breaks of course to hang with friends and say farewells, but I didn't even try to lay down and go to sleep that night. The next morning I went through the sign off process which wasn't bad because I was leaving during the Christmas Blackout period, meaning very few people sign on or off the ship. From there, I was piked up by my Grandparents who live in Florida (Jan 14th), who took me back to there house for a few days before flying home on the 17th.
And here ends the blog of my first ship contract! It's odd though, because even though I'm writing this in march, just before I leave for my next ship, finishing this blog is offering a strange sense of closing to the entire adventure. It's as if these last sentences truly conclude the 6 months I spent away from home and prepare me to enter into this next adventure on the other side of the world. Thank you to all who have read these blogs, be it a couple posts here and there or those trying to keep up with it on a daily basis (or at least when my posting schedule allowed for it). I really hope you'll continue to read as I go to China March 15th for a completely new set of experiences and hope you keep in touch as I spend 2 months traveling on the Rhapsody of the Seas!
Sincerely,
-Mike
Basically, nothing happened, or at least nothing that has stuck with me for the 2 months since it happened. After Caymen would have came a Sea day, Lauderdale, and another sea day, all of which were usually uneventful. It was just nice though to start my final cruise, which includes my final passenger drill, welcome aboard show, and most importantly, last parade! That aside, most of my time was spent in preparation for going home, yay!
Cozumel would have been the next day, of which I do remember. Brandon and I, after working it out with Pia (shore-ex), got on a ferry to cross to the mainland - Playa del Carmen. After leaving early, we got to the other side with hours at our disposal to explore and just enjoy my last port day before leaving the ship. We walked North through the city for aways, until eventually turning towards the beach where we'd spend an hour enjoying a perfect Mexican day. We left to walk back towards the pier via the seamless white sand beach which was just gorgeous. We eventually turned off the beach into a vacation resort where we probably weren't allowed to be walking around in, but after hanging in the lobby for a while using their pool table, I'm sure we convinced most everyone we had paid thousands to stay at the resort. Following that, we began the search for lunch, of which we were determined to find the most authentic restaurant possible. After a coffee break at a cafe, we continued on till we found just what we'd hoped for. Inside this local restaurant you could see old wooden chairs at cheap looking tables, a small dining area, and the counter top at which the old Mexican woman did all her cooking. It was strange seeing the counter right there in the dining area completely exposed, but thats the local "look" we were searching for. The lady came over and I asked for a menu, to which I believe she said (and it was in spanish) that there's only the "meal of the day", something that she then proceeded to display to us by uncovering the giant steel pots on her stove to reveal rices, sausage patties, chicken, and whatever else should be included when a local makes the meals she's likely been making 50+ years. We were served some strange juice, which I still can't figure out what it was (looked like lemonade), but was really good, and the meal was absolutely great, not to mention really cheap. So we left to make our way back to the ferry by walking back through the city. We made it back no problem, but it turned out we bought twice as many tickets as we needed for the way back. When we had gotten to Carmen, we had bought tickets for the trip back so we knew we'd have them when we needed them. But, by asking for two tickets, the booth operator thought we wanted round trip, meaning $20 as opposed to $10. The tickets didn't really say anything to that extent, so we both thought everything was fine, till we got to the ferry and found out we both had extra tickets we couldn't use. But hey, I'd rather err on the side of caution than not be able to get back to the island where the ship was. We made it back to cozumel and walked back to the ship, making a couple stops here and there before leaving the island for what would be my last time.
The next day was a sea day, and one that was spent packing. I got my stuff together all day and even had to stay up all night making sure that I had everything before I left. I took breaks of course to hang with friends and say farewells, but I didn't even try to lay down and go to sleep that night. The next morning I went through the sign off process which wasn't bad because I was leaving during the Christmas Blackout period, meaning very few people sign on or off the ship. From there, I was piked up by my Grandparents who live in Florida (Jan 14th), who took me back to there house for a few days before flying home on the 17th.
And here ends the blog of my first ship contract! It's odd though, because even though I'm writing this in march, just before I leave for my next ship, finishing this blog is offering a strange sense of closing to the entire adventure. It's as if these last sentences truly conclude the 6 months I spent away from home and prepare me to enter into this next adventure on the other side of the world. Thank you to all who have read these blogs, be it a couple posts here and there or those trying to keep up with it on a daily basis (or at least when my posting schedule allowed for it). I really hope you'll continue to read as I go to China March 15th for a completely new set of experiences and hope you keep in touch as I spend 2 months traveling on the Rhapsody of the Seas!
Sincerely,
-Mike
Grand Cayman
January 8th
Grand Cayman
Great day today!! I had purchased a tour yesterday for the Grand Cayman Stingray City experience, something I had only heard great things about from my band members. So for $45, this got me off the boat early and onto a bus that transported me and my group to a pontoon boat which would then take us out to see the stingrays. After a 30 minute trip out the canal and into the ocean, we stopped at a sand bar that was just swarming with sting rays. There was a story that went along with the area, as there usually for cool trips like this, and it went like so: in the 60’s, many fishermen would come just past the area where we were at to fish along the Cayman wall. Grand Cayman sits upon a giant sea wall, that at its bottom, will reach as far as 25,000 feet (if I remember the figure correctly). The Cayman trench is the second deepest in the world, and the wall we were sitting just inside of dropped 8,000 feet, still extremely deep. Anyways, the fishermen would catch the fish on the other side of the wall, and then, due to the terrible mosquito problem on the island, would clean the fish over the sandbar. One day, as it was explained to me, a stingray was swimming along the sand bar when some fish guts sank down and hit him on the head. He checked them out, gobbled them up, and decided he liked it to come back. So the next day he came back, more fish guts, and a very happy stingray. So he went back to all his friends to tell them about the fish guts that just fall from the boats, and they all started to come to this sandbar and eat what the fishermen had no use for. After years of this, the rays got to the point where they’d associate the sound of a boat approaching and then stopping with food, and to this day, still go to the sandbar looking for food. It was at this point we were allowed to go into the water and start playing with the rays. Yeah, I’m sure you’re all thinking “isn’t that what killed Steve Irwin?” and yeah, it was a ray, but these guys aren’t known to be aggressive. We were all encouraged to get close to the rays and rub our hands along their under side as they passed by, just so long as we didn’t grab the tail and start swinging them around. And let me just say that these things were absolutely huge. I’ve never seen such big rays and so many in one place, it was unbelievable. And they would literally swim right up to you thinking you might have food, then brush your leg and swim away. The tour guides would actually jump in the water and pick these guys up out of the water for pictures with the guests. The rays really don’t hurt anyone, and while I was in the water, I didn’t feel threatened at all. The amazing part of it all was that every ray was completely wild, nothing was enclosed. The rays were free to come and go as they pleased, and there were dozens swimming along this sand bar. I’d always try to get close to the groups with food because that’s where the rays would swarm to. I was busy with a ray directly in front of me underwater who was coming at my face mask when someone suddenly pushed me from behind, I almost fell over. But as I turned around to tell the guy to back off, I saw a ray coming off my back after apparently charging me, it was the weirdest thing. So I played with these huge rays for about 35 minutes before being called back onto the ship where we took off for home. The rays were great though, 4 feet in diameter, really soft underneath, and super friendly animals. I really had a great time swimming with them and would recommend the tour to anybody, it was unbelievable.
The group got back into the city, and after seeing I’d missed lunch on the ship, I decided to find a local café to eat at. I was successful and found a nice little place serving coffees and sandwiches. I sat down for a sandwich and pasta salad with some lemonade, all of which came out to $15 American. I don’t know what made the lunch so expensive, unless there was a $5 charge for the microwaving option, but even still, it was a lot of money for little more than a sandwich. But whatever, it was my last day in Grand Cayman and I’d had a great time. I headed back to the ship and that was about all that counted for that day. Thanks!
Grand Cayman
Great day today!! I had purchased a tour yesterday for the Grand Cayman Stingray City experience, something I had only heard great things about from my band members. So for $45, this got me off the boat early and onto a bus that transported me and my group to a pontoon boat which would then take us out to see the stingrays. After a 30 minute trip out the canal and into the ocean, we stopped at a sand bar that was just swarming with sting rays. There was a story that went along with the area, as there usually for cool trips like this, and it went like so: in the 60’s, many fishermen would come just past the area where we were at to fish along the Cayman wall. Grand Cayman sits upon a giant sea wall, that at its bottom, will reach as far as 25,000 feet (if I remember the figure correctly). The Cayman trench is the second deepest in the world, and the wall we were sitting just inside of dropped 8,000 feet, still extremely deep. Anyways, the fishermen would catch the fish on the other side of the wall, and then, due to the terrible mosquito problem on the island, would clean the fish over the sandbar. One day, as it was explained to me, a stingray was swimming along the sand bar when some fish guts sank down and hit him on the head. He checked them out, gobbled them up, and decided he liked it to come back. So the next day he came back, more fish guts, and a very happy stingray. So he went back to all his friends to tell them about the fish guts that just fall from the boats, and they all started to come to this sandbar and eat what the fishermen had no use for. After years of this, the rays got to the point where they’d associate the sound of a boat approaching and then stopping with food, and to this day, still go to the sandbar looking for food. It was at this point we were allowed to go into the water and start playing with the rays. Yeah, I’m sure you’re all thinking “isn’t that what killed Steve Irwin?” and yeah, it was a ray, but these guys aren’t known to be aggressive. We were all encouraged to get close to the rays and rub our hands along their under side as they passed by, just so long as we didn’t grab the tail and start swinging them around. And let me just say that these things were absolutely huge. I’ve never seen such big rays and so many in one place, it was unbelievable. And they would literally swim right up to you thinking you might have food, then brush your leg and swim away. The tour guides would actually jump in the water and pick these guys up out of the water for pictures with the guests. The rays really don’t hurt anyone, and while I was in the water, I didn’t feel threatened at all. The amazing part of it all was that every ray was completely wild, nothing was enclosed. The rays were free to come and go as they pleased, and there were dozens swimming along this sand bar. I’d always try to get close to the groups with food because that’s where the rays would swarm to. I was busy with a ray directly in front of me underwater who was coming at my face mask when someone suddenly pushed me from behind, I almost fell over. But as I turned around to tell the guy to back off, I saw a ray coming off my back after apparently charging me, it was the weirdest thing. So I played with these huge rays for about 35 minutes before being called back onto the ship where we took off for home. The rays were great though, 4 feet in diameter, really soft underneath, and super friendly animals. I really had a great time swimming with them and would recommend the tour to anybody, it was unbelievable.
The group got back into the city, and after seeing I’d missed lunch on the ship, I decided to find a local café to eat at. I was successful and found a nice little place serving coffees and sandwiches. I sat down for a sandwich and pasta salad with some lemonade, all of which came out to $15 American. I don’t know what made the lunch so expensive, unless there was a $5 charge for the microwaving option, but even still, it was a lot of money for little more than a sandwich. But whatever, it was my last day in Grand Cayman and I’d had a great time. I headed back to the ship and that was about all that counted for that day. Thanks!
Sea day/Jamaica
Jan 6th/7th
Sea Day/Jamaica
Just another sea day on the 6th with another shopping show in the morning and another couple shows that evening. We played Finis Henderson’s show again that night, something no one was really looking forward to, but that’s about it
Then for the 7th, my final visit to Jamaica, I went on a walk with Brandon. After getting off the ship following the boat drill that morning, we decided to walk up by that beach where I went the very first time we visited, but this time we walked past it till we got to a place called Dolphin Cove. This tourist attraction is almost like a small city, complete with it’s own series of shops, food, and attractions. Dolphin Cove is known primarily for one thing, letting people swim with the dolphins. They have a large enclosed area where they keep the dolphins, and with the right vacation package, you can go swimming. There are also sharks, stingrays, and water sports on the site that are all open to the guests with the right plan. Brandon and I somehow got everything messed up. It probably started when we walked in what later turned out to be the exit. We simply saw a path and took it, and in plain sight of the employees, but no one stopped us and we walked right into the establishment. As we walked around for a while just looking at stuff and checking out all the various activities that they offered, we decided to ask someone at the desk about what we had to do to swim with the dolphins. That made it fairly obvious that we had no business being where we were, and after checking our wrists a half dozen times for wrist bands that weren’t going to be there, she told us to go back up and purchase one of their packages. So we left the place having nothing more to see and walked back toward the ship. We made a quick stop at the House of Diamonds, the jewelry store where you yell “Crazy Larry” and get a free drink. I walked in and yelled it, talked to Larry for a while, but never got my drink, so I’m mad. But larry’s a good guy and gave me a few more of his water proof, un-rip-able cards (which I think are amazing), and after talking for a bit we walked back to the ship. And that’s about it, seeya!
Sea Day/Jamaica
Just another sea day on the 6th with another shopping show in the morning and another couple shows that evening. We played Finis Henderson’s show again that night, something no one was really looking forward to, but that’s about it
Then for the 7th, my final visit to Jamaica, I went on a walk with Brandon. After getting off the ship following the boat drill that morning, we decided to walk up by that beach where I went the very first time we visited, but this time we walked past it till we got to a place called Dolphin Cove. This tourist attraction is almost like a small city, complete with it’s own series of shops, food, and attractions. Dolphin Cove is known primarily for one thing, letting people swim with the dolphins. They have a large enclosed area where they keep the dolphins, and with the right vacation package, you can go swimming. There are also sharks, stingrays, and water sports on the site that are all open to the guests with the right plan. Brandon and I somehow got everything messed up. It probably started when we walked in what later turned out to be the exit. We simply saw a path and took it, and in plain sight of the employees, but no one stopped us and we walked right into the establishment. As we walked around for a while just looking at stuff and checking out all the various activities that they offered, we decided to ask someone at the desk about what we had to do to swim with the dolphins. That made it fairly obvious that we had no business being where we were, and after checking our wrists a half dozen times for wrist bands that weren’t going to be there, she told us to go back up and purchase one of their packages. So we left the place having nothing more to see and walked back toward the ship. We made a quick stop at the House of Diamonds, the jewelry store where you yell “Crazy Larry” and get a free drink. I walked in and yelled it, talked to Larry for a while, but never got my drink, so I’m mad. But larry’s a good guy and gave me a few more of his water proof, un-rip-able cards (which I think are amazing), and after talking for a bit we walked back to the ship. And that’s about it, seeya!
Lauderdale
Jan 5th
Lauderdale
First of all, before I write any further, I need to write a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my brother Matt who’s 21 today, yay!!!
So today was the day I’d been planning to take a trip to the Aventura mall, just north of Miami to get some shopping done. The real reason I wanted to go was that they have a Zara store there, a clothing line I didn’t know about till I got to Europe, and I’ve really liked some of there styles. They had stores all over Europe, including one walking distance from the ship in South Hampton, and I was really excited to get home and find one where I didn’t have to shop using euros or pounds. Prior to getting to the mall though, there’s a story. I’d been planning this for a while, and as of yesterday, it was supposed to be me, Pieter, Dan, and Brandon all going together and splitting a cab. I had also recently asked the guitarist Greg to come along, who had been interested. The day before, however, brought news that Brandon was needed to be a test subject for an acupuncture seminar Justin’s girl friend Angela was giving, so he backed out to get stabbed with needles. Then, Greg was unable to make the trip due to some obligations that included shipping a package home, something that we wouldn’t be sure if he could do from the mall area or not, so he opted out. This left Pieter, Dan and I to pay the cab fare to the mall, and me, trying to save money, tried to fill the extra spot. So the night before I found a couple people who were interested, but those all fell through by morning time, leaving the three of us. But while I was out searching, I found Pieter up at the bar drinking with some people, something that lasted him till 5 or 6 am, despite knowing he had to be up to get off the ship at 9:30. I didn’t know he was planning this drinking fest of his with the Latin band, and by the time the 5th came around, he wasn’t doing so well. I heard him get up at 8:00 and start vomiting, which should have tipped me off that things weren’t going to be looking too good for him that day. I got up a short time later and went up for breakfast, hoping to come back downstairs to find him anything but dead. He did indeed wake up by the time I made it back, but he certainly wasn’t looking good. Him, Dan and I all made our way then for the line to get off the ship, where after waiting for some time, Pieter headed into the bathroom to again purge his system. Dan and I waited for him off the ship planning to talk him out of going with us to the mall, but as soon as we started, Pieter swore he’d be fine and was determined to make it. So we had no choice but to let him come, so we grabbed a cab and made our way for the mall. It wasn’t till we were just about at the mall where Pieter began vomiting again, this time out the window of the moving vehicle. He had been acting drunk the entire trip, so I guess the puking at the end was a nice climax, unfortunately, the cab driver didn’t seem so pleased. We all paid the driver and then made our way into the mall, the plan being to meet back at the food court at 12:30 for lunch, and then again at 2:30 to leave. After the first two hours, I came back to the food court with Dan, waited 15 minutes, but couldn’t find Pieter. At that point I went off again to do the shopping I’d came there to do. Supposedly, Dan did run into Pieter eventually, only to find the Pieter just couldn’t make it any longer and was at the point where he needed to take a cab ride home alone. I still can’t figure out why he decided drinking the night before was a good idea, or why he felt he could pull off the trip, but it obviously got the better of him.
Anyways, back to the shopping. The Zara store ended up being completely awful, the Southampton place was so much better. The clothes they had here in the US were just not hip at all like they were in Europe, not to mention way over priced. I ended buying absolutely nothing from the one place I actually wanted to visit. I did get some nice winter clothes though, and being so warm in Florida where no one has any use for sweaters, it was all really inexpensive, so I was really happy with what I came out with at the end of the day. Dan and I then grabbed a cab home and returned to the ship.
Back at the ship there was nothing really special to report back about. I made a few phone calls home, did the usual welcome aboard routine, and that was that. Today we start what will be my last cruise this contract to Jamaica and Grand Cayman, and I’m less than 10 days away from being off of this ship! Talk to you soon, thanks!
Lauderdale
First of all, before I write any further, I need to write a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my brother Matt who’s 21 today, yay!!!
So today was the day I’d been planning to take a trip to the Aventura mall, just north of Miami to get some shopping done. The real reason I wanted to go was that they have a Zara store there, a clothing line I didn’t know about till I got to Europe, and I’ve really liked some of there styles. They had stores all over Europe, including one walking distance from the ship in South Hampton, and I was really excited to get home and find one where I didn’t have to shop using euros or pounds. Prior to getting to the mall though, there’s a story. I’d been planning this for a while, and as of yesterday, it was supposed to be me, Pieter, Dan, and Brandon all going together and splitting a cab. I had also recently asked the guitarist Greg to come along, who had been interested. The day before, however, brought news that Brandon was needed to be a test subject for an acupuncture seminar Justin’s girl friend Angela was giving, so he backed out to get stabbed with needles. Then, Greg was unable to make the trip due to some obligations that included shipping a package home, something that we wouldn’t be sure if he could do from the mall area or not, so he opted out. This left Pieter, Dan and I to pay the cab fare to the mall, and me, trying to save money, tried to fill the extra spot. So the night before I found a couple people who were interested, but those all fell through by morning time, leaving the three of us. But while I was out searching, I found Pieter up at the bar drinking with some people, something that lasted him till 5 or 6 am, despite knowing he had to be up to get off the ship at 9:30. I didn’t know he was planning this drinking fest of his with the Latin band, and by the time the 5th came around, he wasn’t doing so well. I heard him get up at 8:00 and start vomiting, which should have tipped me off that things weren’t going to be looking too good for him that day. I got up a short time later and went up for breakfast, hoping to come back downstairs to find him anything but dead. He did indeed wake up by the time I made it back, but he certainly wasn’t looking good. Him, Dan and I all made our way then for the line to get off the ship, where after waiting for some time, Pieter headed into the bathroom to again purge his system. Dan and I waited for him off the ship planning to talk him out of going with us to the mall, but as soon as we started, Pieter swore he’d be fine and was determined to make it. So we had no choice but to let him come, so we grabbed a cab and made our way for the mall. It wasn’t till we were just about at the mall where Pieter began vomiting again, this time out the window of the moving vehicle. He had been acting drunk the entire trip, so I guess the puking at the end was a nice climax, unfortunately, the cab driver didn’t seem so pleased. We all paid the driver and then made our way into the mall, the plan being to meet back at the food court at 12:30 for lunch, and then again at 2:30 to leave. After the first two hours, I came back to the food court with Dan, waited 15 minutes, but couldn’t find Pieter. At that point I went off again to do the shopping I’d came there to do. Supposedly, Dan did run into Pieter eventually, only to find the Pieter just couldn’t make it any longer and was at the point where he needed to take a cab ride home alone. I still can’t figure out why he decided drinking the night before was a good idea, or why he felt he could pull off the trip, but it obviously got the better of him.
Anyways, back to the shopping. The Zara store ended up being completely awful, the Southampton place was so much better. The clothes they had here in the US were just not hip at all like they were in Europe, not to mention way over priced. I ended buying absolutely nothing from the one place I actually wanted to visit. I did get some nice winter clothes though, and being so warm in Florida where no one has any use for sweaters, it was all really inexpensive, so I was really happy with what I came out with at the end of the day. Dan and I then grabbed a cab home and returned to the ship.
Back at the ship there was nothing really special to report back about. I made a few phone calls home, did the usual welcome aboard routine, and that was that. Today we start what will be my last cruise this contract to Jamaica and Grand Cayman, and I’m less than 10 days away from being off of this ship! Talk to you soon, thanks!
Belize
Jan 3rd/4th
Belize/Sea day
The 3rd was to be my last time in Belize, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get off the ship. After having planned a similar outing in Belize to the free stuff day I did in Cozumel a week before, my plans were foiled by a combination of boat drill and rehearsal in the middle of the day. The rehearsal was for Finis Henderson, some singer who does impersonations, and though he does a good job and has a polished show, it’s probably the cheesiest thing I’ve ever seen…ever. People love it, but from a performers point of view, it’s just lame. Anyways, that day went to Finis, and that was about it.
As for the 4th, it was a sea day, so you can’t expect all that much. I think I slept in really late, so that blew off most of the day. We’ve been having some weather all cruise, and the rocking of the ship really can put you to sleep, and between that and not having any windows in the room, you have no idea what time it is till you actually get out of bed and check a clock. We had the farewell show that night as usual, and then the Jazz Jam late at night. Afterwards I headed up to the Dungeon to see what all was going on. I actually had some friends aboard for this cruise, a few dancers from the last cast, so I wanted to see them one last time before they got off the ship the next day. But Jesse was on, the previous “Boy 2” singer, and Jason and Bryant, both dancers with the last cast. After this cruise Jesse and Jason start training for the next cruise ship they’ll be working on, so this was kind of like a last hurrah before starting what I’m sure will be another long contract. Anyways, that was about it for the day, tomorrow is our turn around port and the start of my second to last cruise! Seeya
Belize/Sea day
The 3rd was to be my last time in Belize, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get off the ship. After having planned a similar outing in Belize to the free stuff day I did in Cozumel a week before, my plans were foiled by a combination of boat drill and rehearsal in the middle of the day. The rehearsal was for Finis Henderson, some singer who does impersonations, and though he does a good job and has a polished show, it’s probably the cheesiest thing I’ve ever seen…ever. People love it, but from a performers point of view, it’s just lame. Anyways, that day went to Finis, and that was about it.
As for the 4th, it was a sea day, so you can’t expect all that much. I think I slept in really late, so that blew off most of the day. We’ve been having some weather all cruise, and the rocking of the ship really can put you to sleep, and between that and not having any windows in the room, you have no idea what time it is till you actually get out of bed and check a clock. We had the farewell show that night as usual, and then the Jazz Jam late at night. Afterwards I headed up to the Dungeon to see what all was going on. I actually had some friends aboard for this cruise, a few dancers from the last cast, so I wanted to see them one last time before they got off the ship the next day. But Jesse was on, the previous “Boy 2” singer, and Jason and Bryant, both dancers with the last cast. After this cruise Jesse and Jason start training for the next cruise ship they’ll be working on, so this was kind of like a last hurrah before starting what I’m sure will be another long contract. Anyways, that was about it for the day, tomorrow is our turn around port and the start of my second to last cruise! Seeya
Cozumel
Jan 2nd
Cozumel
Cozumel wasn’t anything too exciting today. The weather was somewhat lousy compared to what I’m used to, but I’ll still take it over anything going on in Illinois right now. It was also really windy out, meaning we were getting some nice waves. This made for some entertainment on the pier leading from the ship into the terminal. Due to the way the pier is shaped, it focuses the waves into a corner where they push up over the pier, right where all the guests need to walk to get onto the island. So it’d be really great to watch these people trying to time the waves, only to make a run for it at the worst possible moment and get completely soaked in the process. On the way back, there was some lady I saw standing there for two minutes trying to time these waves, and when she finally decided to make a run for it right after a huge wave passed, another wave followed it immediately, offering the woman no escape. She screamed as her sunglasses got knocked off her head, stopped in the middle of her run, turned around, and ran back completely drenched. I’m sure she wasn’t the only one. I, on the other hand, made it by free and clear both times, something I feel a right to be proud of. Anyways, Brandon, Pieter, and I walked into the city. Pieter stopped at a internet place and Brandon and I continued into the city looking for a sushi place Justin told me about. We found the restaurant, but after deciding it was more expensive than we’d hoped, we decided to walk a little further to the café we like to stop at, where we then both grabbed lattes. Then we walked back, stopped at the grocery store where I picked up a nice bottle of Argentinean wine, and walked back to the ship. We had a big band set that night, and that was about it for the day. Thanks for reading!
Cozumel
Cozumel wasn’t anything too exciting today. The weather was somewhat lousy compared to what I’m used to, but I’ll still take it over anything going on in Illinois right now. It was also really windy out, meaning we were getting some nice waves. This made for some entertainment on the pier leading from the ship into the terminal. Due to the way the pier is shaped, it focuses the waves into a corner where they push up over the pier, right where all the guests need to walk to get onto the island. So it’d be really great to watch these people trying to time the waves, only to make a run for it at the worst possible moment and get completely soaked in the process. On the way back, there was some lady I saw standing there for two minutes trying to time these waves, and when she finally decided to make a run for it right after a huge wave passed, another wave followed it immediately, offering the woman no escape. She screamed as her sunglasses got knocked off her head, stopped in the middle of her run, turned around, and ran back completely drenched. I’m sure she wasn’t the only one. I, on the other hand, made it by free and clear both times, something I feel a right to be proud of. Anyways, Brandon, Pieter, and I walked into the city. Pieter stopped at a internet place and Brandon and I continued into the city looking for a sushi place Justin told me about. We found the restaurant, but after deciding it was more expensive than we’d hoped, we decided to walk a little further to the café we like to stop at, where we then both grabbed lattes. Then we walked back, stopped at the grocery store where I picked up a nice bottle of Argentinean wine, and walked back to the ship. We had a big band set that night, and that was about it for the day. Thanks for reading!
Sea Day
Jan 1st, 2008
Sea Day
Happy New Year, Yay!!!! Historically, I’ve never been a new years kind of person. I remember last new years quite clearly. I was at my house sitting upstairs watching the ball fall on TV, I believe I was either by myself or with my brother. Year’s past haven’t been much more exciting than that, more or less because I was out of town with my parents and the opportunity was never really there. But this time was different. I was originally upset that I had a show to play on the Promenade (the area that looks like a big street) from 11 pm to 12:15 am…I didn’t want to be working on my first new year on my own. But I put on my tux, got my music together, and went up stairs to play the gig. As we started playing, more and more people started to fill into the Promenade, and before I knew it, the street was absolutely packed from wall to wall. The band was in a great mood from some drinks that had been had before heading upstairs, so between that and the energy of the packed room, I really started to have a good time. It turned out being way more like a rock concert than a ship gig, it was so much fun. Then we saw the ball drop on a projection they had playing up against the wall, did the standard Auld Lang Syne, played a few more tunes and got out of there to continue the party on our own. I hung out around Justin’s room for a while after that, he had bought a lot of beer and a couple bottles of good Champaign, and headed up to the Dungeon for a bit right after that. The Dungeon wasn’t really happening as I’d hoped it would be, so after hanging there for maybe 15 minutes, I moved to the back deck to check the party there, which was equally disappointing. I headed back to my room to hang with my friends a bit more and then called it a night. So I guess all in all, even though the post New Years stuff wasn’t much to brag about, the actual party when it counted was really great and I had a fantastic time.
The sea day that followed was fairly standard. I did the shopping show in the morning (pushed back a couple hours for all the hung over guests), and the rest of the day was fairly open. I hope you all had a great new years and I hope you’re having a marvelous start to 2008!
Sea Day
Happy New Year, Yay!!!! Historically, I’ve never been a new years kind of person. I remember last new years quite clearly. I was at my house sitting upstairs watching the ball fall on TV, I believe I was either by myself or with my brother. Year’s past haven’t been much more exciting than that, more or less because I was out of town with my parents and the opportunity was never really there. But this time was different. I was originally upset that I had a show to play on the Promenade (the area that looks like a big street) from 11 pm to 12:15 am…I didn’t want to be working on my first new year on my own. But I put on my tux, got my music together, and went up stairs to play the gig. As we started playing, more and more people started to fill into the Promenade, and before I knew it, the street was absolutely packed from wall to wall. The band was in a great mood from some drinks that had been had before heading upstairs, so between that and the energy of the packed room, I really started to have a good time. It turned out being way more like a rock concert than a ship gig, it was so much fun. Then we saw the ball drop on a projection they had playing up against the wall, did the standard Auld Lang Syne, played a few more tunes and got out of there to continue the party on our own. I hung out around Justin’s room for a while after that, he had bought a lot of beer and a couple bottles of good Champaign, and headed up to the Dungeon for a bit right after that. The Dungeon wasn’t really happening as I’d hoped it would be, so after hanging there for maybe 15 minutes, I moved to the back deck to check the party there, which was equally disappointing. I headed back to my room to hang with my friends a bit more and then called it a night. So I guess all in all, even though the post New Years stuff wasn’t much to brag about, the actual party when it counted was really great and I had a fantastic time.
The sea day that followed was fairly standard. I did the shopping show in the morning (pushed back a couple hours for all the hung over guests), and the rest of the day was fairly open. I hope you all had a great new years and I hope you’re having a marvelous start to 2008!
Sea Day/Lauderdale
Dec 30th/31st
Sea day/Lauderdale
Anything big and special happen today? Nah, not really. I’m writing this a week later, but I’m almost positive there’s nothing really great to report. I’ll cover New Years in the next post since most of the fun happens afterwards anyways, right?
Sea day/Lauderdale
Anything big and special happen today? Nah, not really. I’m writing this a week later, but I’m almost positive there’s nothing really great to report. I’ll cover New Years in the next post since most of the fun happens afterwards anyways, right?
Cozumel
Dec 29th
Cozumel
I had big plans for today in Cozumel! Brandon and I, after working the shopping show the day before, ended up with a couple of the books we were selling because they won’t be used after this cruise. These books we sell are just big coupon books, and if you go to Cozumel to buy some jewelry, they could really save you some money. Brandon and I weren’t interested in jewelry though, we were interested in all the free – no purchase necessary coupons. We decided to make the morning all about getting our free gifts, so after getting a cab to the far side of the city, we stopped at all the participating shops as we walked back towards the ship. Our travels took us to countless jewelry stores and other random souvenir shops, resulting in a bag filled with various free gifts, most all of which being completely worthless. But it wasn’t ever about the gifts, it was about the act of actually going around picking up these things, and the more I did it, the more I felt like it was Halloween and I was trick-or-treating, walking around from store to store with an open bag, asking for my free gift. I thought it was hilarious and really had a lot of fun collecting my pieces of garbage. I came out with a lot of cheap jewelry, including a few earrings, a couple cheap printouts, a water-proof wallet, and a tote bag that is actually really nice. One of the jewelry store gave me a gemstone, a lone rock packaged up in a folded piece of paper. It was the smallest, dumbest thing I think I got all day, and as they asked if I wanted to pay $15 for them to set it for me, I had no problem turning them down, taking my rock and leaving. The other thing that made it fun was how Brandon and I had to avoid the two shopping guides that work on the ship. We sell the books for them, and considering we weren’t exactly given the books as gifts, we weren’t sure if they’d be mad about finding out that we took them. The first time we ran into them it was early in the trip, I hid my book in a plastic bag and greeted them as I always would, trying to not raise suspicion. But then the next time they ran into us in a jewelry store getting our free shot of Tequila that the coupon was good for. Talk about being caught red handed, we’re standing there drinking free Tequila and they walk right by telling us to drink up. They didn’t seem mad, and who knows, maybe they didn’t even figure it out, but I’ll find out later if I get in trouble for it. After we were done with the coupon adventure we went to No Name bar, a crew bar where the ship was throwing a Christmas party for the crew. It’s a really great hang, and they had a bbq going which really tasted good after our morning of coupon exploitation. I hung out there with my friends for a while, swimming and eating, and just enjoying the day. I got a nice little surprise though right as I was about to leave though. After drying off and getting dressed to head back to the ship, I walked around the area saying goodbye to some of my friends that were still there. I was talking to someone on the big pier that sits off the water when the big Russian ice skater I know picked me up, threw me over his shoulder, and jumped in the water with me…fully clothed. Luckily, I had left my wallet and camera in my bag, so I wasn’t worried about those getting ruined, but that doesn’t change the fact I ended up in the water with my shirt, shoes, and socks on. I was kind of mad that he did that, but it wasn’t worth getting upset over, so I laughed it off, climbed out of the water, and left he bar completely soaked. I left with Dan, the new Piano Bar guy who’s a friend of Pieter’s and a really cool guy. We walked to the grocery store and then caught a cab back to the ship. The rest of the day I had off and kept pretty relaxed. I’m still sick, so no use pushing it. I went over to Brandon’s room and played a game of chess with his roommate George and just hung out till I went to bed, and that was about it for that Cozumel day. Seeya!
Cozumel
I had big plans for today in Cozumel! Brandon and I, after working the shopping show the day before, ended up with a couple of the books we were selling because they won’t be used after this cruise. These books we sell are just big coupon books, and if you go to Cozumel to buy some jewelry, they could really save you some money. Brandon and I weren’t interested in jewelry though, we were interested in all the free – no purchase necessary coupons. We decided to make the morning all about getting our free gifts, so after getting a cab to the far side of the city, we stopped at all the participating shops as we walked back towards the ship. Our travels took us to countless jewelry stores and other random souvenir shops, resulting in a bag filled with various free gifts, most all of which being completely worthless. But it wasn’t ever about the gifts, it was about the act of actually going around picking up these things, and the more I did it, the more I felt like it was Halloween and I was trick-or-treating, walking around from store to store with an open bag, asking for my free gift. I thought it was hilarious and really had a lot of fun collecting my pieces of garbage. I came out with a lot of cheap jewelry, including a few earrings, a couple cheap printouts, a water-proof wallet, and a tote bag that is actually really nice. One of the jewelry store gave me a gemstone, a lone rock packaged up in a folded piece of paper. It was the smallest, dumbest thing I think I got all day, and as they asked if I wanted to pay $15 for them to set it for me, I had no problem turning them down, taking my rock and leaving. The other thing that made it fun was how Brandon and I had to avoid the two shopping guides that work on the ship. We sell the books for them, and considering we weren’t exactly given the books as gifts, we weren’t sure if they’d be mad about finding out that we took them. The first time we ran into them it was early in the trip, I hid my book in a plastic bag and greeted them as I always would, trying to not raise suspicion. But then the next time they ran into us in a jewelry store getting our free shot of Tequila that the coupon was good for. Talk about being caught red handed, we’re standing there drinking free Tequila and they walk right by telling us to drink up. They didn’t seem mad, and who knows, maybe they didn’t even figure it out, but I’ll find out later if I get in trouble for it. After we were done with the coupon adventure we went to No Name bar, a crew bar where the ship was throwing a Christmas party for the crew. It’s a really great hang, and they had a bbq going which really tasted good after our morning of coupon exploitation. I hung out there with my friends for a while, swimming and eating, and just enjoying the day. I got a nice little surprise though right as I was about to leave though. After drying off and getting dressed to head back to the ship, I walked around the area saying goodbye to some of my friends that were still there. I was talking to someone on the big pier that sits off the water when the big Russian ice skater I know picked me up, threw me over his shoulder, and jumped in the water with me…fully clothed. Luckily, I had left my wallet and camera in my bag, so I wasn’t worried about those getting ruined, but that doesn’t change the fact I ended up in the water with my shirt, shoes, and socks on. I was kind of mad that he did that, but it wasn’t worth getting upset over, so I laughed it off, climbed out of the water, and left he bar completely soaked. I left with Dan, the new Piano Bar guy who’s a friend of Pieter’s and a really cool guy. We walked to the grocery store and then caught a cab back to the ship. The rest of the day I had off and kept pretty relaxed. I’m still sick, so no use pushing it. I went over to Brandon’s room and played a game of chess with his roommate George and just hung out till I went to bed, and that was about it for that Cozumel day. Seeya!
Sea day/Lauderdale/Sea day
Dec 26th/27th/28th
At Sea/Lauderdale/At Sea
The 26th was just our sea day back to Lauderdale. I’m still sick, but I guess it’s getting better, at least now I’m back into a functioning mode. There was nothing too spectacular for the 26th, just the usual farewell sequence of events. I skipped the jazz jam that we do at the end of each cruise, something I haven’t missed once in the 5 months I’ve been here, but I really didn’t want to force myself to play when I didn’t need to.
The 27th was Lauderdale again, and I decided not to get off the ship this time. I slept in a bit, got lunch, made some phone calls, and worked in my room till we departed and the welcome aboard gigs started. That aside, there wasn’t much more to that Thursday.
And then the 28th…similar to the last two days. I’m still sick and am just generally stuffed up along with a slight pain in my right ear. It’s not so bad that I can’t play the shows, but it’s just annoying to have to deal with. We played the All Access production show that night, and that was about it for the day. I’ve been trying to keep everything low key hoping it’ll help me fight this cold, but so far, it’s hanging with me.
At Sea/Lauderdale/At Sea
The 26th was just our sea day back to Lauderdale. I’m still sick, but I guess it’s getting better, at least now I’m back into a functioning mode. There was nothing too spectacular for the 26th, just the usual farewell sequence of events. I skipped the jazz jam that we do at the end of each cruise, something I haven’t missed once in the 5 months I’ve been here, but I really didn’t want to force myself to play when I didn’t need to.
The 27th was Lauderdale again, and I decided not to get off the ship this time. I slept in a bit, got lunch, made some phone calls, and worked in my room till we departed and the welcome aboard gigs started. That aside, there wasn’t much more to that Thursday.
And then the 28th…similar to the last two days. I’m still sick and am just generally stuffed up along with a slight pain in my right ear. It’s not so bad that I can’t play the shows, but it’s just annoying to have to deal with. We played the All Access production show that night, and that was about it for the day. I’ve been trying to keep everything low key hoping it’ll help me fight this cold, but so far, it’s hanging with me.
Dec 25th
Dec 25th
Cozumel
Christmas Day!! Too bad Santa couldn’t quite find me down in Cozumel, but I hear I do have a couple things waiting for me back at home. I’m still sick, but determined to not let it get the better of me, so after sleeping in a bit that day, I eventually got off the ship with Brandon to rent some scooters and go for an island adventure. We left around 1:00 and found a scooter we could rent till 5:00 for just under $40. We took the scooters then and went along the same route we took on the bikes a month ago, and unsurprisingly, it was a much more enjoyable ride when we didn’t have to work to complete the 65 km course. The scooters were actually quite nice and I was having a great time going down the road at 85 kmph (I did at least have a helmet on). Our first stop was at the beaches on the other side, and we took a break at the first beach that didn’t have all the tourists at it. Brandon was on a mission to build a sandcastle for someone back home, so I spent that time swimming and enjoying the Mexican climate. Following our beach stop, we got back on the scooters and rode to the end of the seafront rode where we took some pictures before crossing through the center of the island. When we got back into the city on the other side, we drove through the rural areas for a while, got intimidated by a dog, almost ran into a couple cars, and eventually made it to the grocery store we always stop at. When we rented the bikes, we opted to not pay the $5 refueling fee per bike and do it ourselves, something I thought would be way cheaper because I know how little fuel mopeds use. So we stopped at the gas station near the rental place, filled up both bikes on about $4, and dropped off the bikes at the rental station. I made a quick Christmas phone call home, and then got back onto the ship to finish out the day with a production show that night. All in all it was a nice Christmas just because of the moped excursion, but really, I’d have much rather spent it at home with my family like I’ve done every other Christmas. It’s nice to be here in the warm Caribbean, but there are certainly prices to pay and Christmas is a clear reminder of that. But Merry Christmas to all, I hope everyone had a wonderful day, and thanks for reading!
Cozumel
Christmas Day!! Too bad Santa couldn’t quite find me down in Cozumel, but I hear I do have a couple things waiting for me back at home. I’m still sick, but determined to not let it get the better of me, so after sleeping in a bit that day, I eventually got off the ship with Brandon to rent some scooters and go for an island adventure. We left around 1:00 and found a scooter we could rent till 5:00 for just under $40. We took the scooters then and went along the same route we took on the bikes a month ago, and unsurprisingly, it was a much more enjoyable ride when we didn’t have to work to complete the 65 km course. The scooters were actually quite nice and I was having a great time going down the road at 85 kmph (I did at least have a helmet on). Our first stop was at the beaches on the other side, and we took a break at the first beach that didn’t have all the tourists at it. Brandon was on a mission to build a sandcastle for someone back home, so I spent that time swimming and enjoying the Mexican climate. Following our beach stop, we got back on the scooters and rode to the end of the seafront rode where we took some pictures before crossing through the center of the island. When we got back into the city on the other side, we drove through the rural areas for a while, got intimidated by a dog, almost ran into a couple cars, and eventually made it to the grocery store we always stop at. When we rented the bikes, we opted to not pay the $5 refueling fee per bike and do it ourselves, something I thought would be way cheaper because I know how little fuel mopeds use. So we stopped at the gas station near the rental place, filled up both bikes on about $4, and dropped off the bikes at the rental station. I made a quick Christmas phone call home, and then got back onto the ship to finish out the day with a production show that night. All in all it was a nice Christmas just because of the moped excursion, but really, I’d have much rather spent it at home with my family like I’ve done every other Christmas. It’s nice to be here in the warm Caribbean, but there are certainly prices to pay and Christmas is a clear reminder of that. But Merry Christmas to all, I hope everyone had a wonderful day, and thanks for reading!
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