Sea Day/Bergen

June 11th and 12th
Sea day/Bergen

Back to the usual sea day again, consisting of little more than a lot of free time and a couple shows at night. Today was no different - there was an afternoon rehearsal and two shows that night with a violinist, nothing special. So, let me take this time to tell you about the ship.
The ship I’m on right now is Cunard’s Queen Victoria, the newest in their fleet. The ship was launched just last December, so it’s kind of cool being around the “new ship smell”, figuratively. It’s a gorgeous ship and certainly lives up to Cunard’s reputation for luxury. The theater is especially impressive, though slightly smaller than my first ship’s theater, it just looks royal (you can find pics with a google search if you’re really curious). The band seems cool though, so that’s nice. It’s a much younger age group, and even though I got along really well with my older friends, it’s a welcome change. I still think I’m the youngest, but not by much. The music director is the oldest member of the band, named Fred, he’s from Australia, has gray hair cut to shoulder length, and says “mate” every third word. I think he’s new to the music director position, but he has good energy, a friendly disposition and seems to get along with everyone. The Cunard ships have two bands instead of one like on my last ship, I’m in the show band that does the job I’ve always done, back up the shows. Then, there’s the Queen’s Room Band, which plays 3-5 dance sets every night in the Queen’s Room. Apparently, I have the better job, the dance sets are notorious for getting tedious and burning out musicians, not to mention my band sounds better.
My roommate for this contract is actually the director of the second band, named Gordon. He the only other Australian musician on the ship, and though he doesn’t say mate nearly as frequently, he’s part of some super elite Australian military force, somewhat of a body builder, and his hobby’s include self defense and bush-whacking. Though I’m still made slightly nervous by his presence, he’s probably one of the nicest guys on the ship. He’s extremely respectful and considerate with the room policy, and when he asks me to keep things clean you can bet I’ll listen. But best of all, he spends most nights on the ship with his girlfriend who’s some higher up officer, meaning I have the cabin to myself…sweet! Also, I got a corner cabin this time, meaning about another 5 sq feet, making it the envy of the hallway.
The rest of the band is good though, and I’m sure some of those stories will emerge eventually through these posts, but at least now you have the important details.
The 12th was our first port and my first time of the ship, definitely needed. We were in Bergen Norway today, a lovely sea side town, surely once a fishing village and sea port, but all together very charming. It’s nice to be back in adventure mode taking pictures, kind of reminds me why I’m here in the first place. Highlights of my time in port consist of my time in a fish market where I tried an interesting caviar squeezed from something with a striking resemblance to a toothpaste tube (though that doesn’t explain the slightly smoked flavor), a piece of what I can only assume was moose sausage by the pictures at the booth, and then something someone else offered me with a long knife that she described as “whale”. The adventure was cut short by a training thing I had a couple hours after we docked, just an unfortunate side effect of being a new hire, which was then followed by a rehearsal for the show that night. The production shows on this ship are by far the most difficult I’ve seen. I’m actually quite shocked at the difficulty of the flute and clarinet parts I have to play, I never expected to see parts like this. I’m glad though because it means I have a challenge and music that will actually keep me on my toes, unlike the usual set lists I’ve been playing on ships. The show went well tonight, especially considering the one day I had to try to get these flute lines together, and the show is actually very well written with good tracks playing in the background.
Tomorrow is a sea day as we continue up the Norwegian coast. Thanks for reading!