February 6
Dunedin
Dunedin is another town that is preceded by a smaller port city, and being less mountainous around the port area, I decided to opt for a more normal itinerary and took a bus into the main city. The town of Dunedin has a good deal of shopping, and from what I was able to see while walking around with Terry, that’s about it. We didn’t venture all that far and much of our time there was spent in an internet café.
Probably the single most eventful part of that day was that while I was walking through the streets, some insect, probably a bee, came out of no where and stung me on my right hand pinky finger! Two things make me mad about this situation: 1) I didn’t even see the bee when it stung me, and it’s sort of depressing not actually being able to see your aggressor, and 2) how is it I can travel through fields and forests and trails where no one goes with out a scratch, but can’t walk through a metropolitan area without getting attacked by some bee flying in stealth mode? Anyways, it hurt as expected, but luckily I’m not allergic to bees and I just hoped that the New Zealand bees wouldn’t pull out some unforeseen allergy.
We eventually left the city, my pinky finger slightly swollen, and headed back to the port city where I went to a grocery store for laundry detergent and returned to the ship.
That night was meant to be a night off while the pianist in the band played a jazz set upstairs. This was all going to go to plan till the pianists roommate was feeling ill, went to the doctor, and consequently got the pianist pulled into the medical center for questioning about the possibility of quarantining the room (which would be standard procedure for certain illnesses as we can’t allow the entire ship to get sick). Well, during the interrogation, the pianist wasn’t going to be on time to his gig, and as you might have well guessed, I ran upstairs to play the gig myself with the trombone player playing his horn with me. It was nice to get on a piano again like that, and after the first tune, the trombonist relaxed in the knowledge that this sax player actually does know how to play piano, and we had a nice hour long set which was well received by the guests listening to it.
Anyways, that’s about it for today and for this cruise as we start the trip back to Australia tomorrow. Seeya!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
A now, a word from our sponsers....
Hey Everyone!
So I've been a little slow getting these posts online, but alas, here they are. I put up about half of them now, I'll put up the other half in a few days so I don't totally overwhelm everyone. But things have been great as you'll read in the blog and I've been doing just fine out here. As always, feel free to email me at anytime or leave a message on this site, I'll get those too. Be sure to keep checking for more entries as I will, as always, have a blog for everyday I've spent on a ships. Talk to you soon!
So I've been a little slow getting these posts online, but alas, here they are. I put up about half of them now, I'll put up the other half in a few days so I don't totally overwhelm everyone. But things have been great as you'll read in the blog and I've been doing just fine out here. As always, feel free to email me at anytime or leave a message on this site, I'll get those too. Be sure to keep checking for more entries as I will, as always, have a blog for everyday I've spent on a ships. Talk to you soon!
Christchurch
February 5
Christchurch
For my first visit to Christchurch I did the usual: find something big to climb and see how high I can get.
Technically I was in the port town that leads into Chirstchurch, named Lyttleton, and that’s where I did my climbing. I started out by making my way up to some small castle that had originally been used for navigation and signaling approaching ships. After a quick look around there, I continued walking through the neighborhood in any direction that headed up.
The road soon stopped and turned into an overgrown dirt road. It’s at this point that I start getting nervous because while I’m walking through the weeds and grasses, all I can think about are the possibilities for snakes and spiders I have absolutely no knowledge of. Meanwhile, the further I travel down the path, the more overgrown it gets till it diminishes to what is barely even a foot path through high grasses scattered with strange spider webs I’ve never seen, but I push on with growing trepidation. Soon I’m walking through a field surrounded by these strange webs knit around single reeds and trying to negotiate a trail that maybe gets used a few times per season. But I can see an out cropping of rocks at the top of the trail, something that usually means a gorgeous view, and that was all the encouragement I needed to risk my life for the sake of the hike.
Thankfully I was right and the outcropping was a ridge with unobstructed views, and breathtaking views at that. I walked for a ways along this ridge, always trying to get higher, still seeing a slight resemblance of the trail I originally pursued up there. I climbed higher, the views got better, and the trail eventually tapered off into nothing and I was left about as high as I was willing to travel. Not being too eager to climb through dense foliage or up rock faces alone, I turned around and made my decent. In the meantime, I’m enjoying myself taking pictures and videos, making a mockery of The Lord of the Ring (which was filmed in New Zealand) with ridiculous narrations and camera angles.
The decent down the rocks and through the fields was met with less anxiety simply because I had no other choice but to get off my mountain, and soon I was back on paved roads without a trace of spider bites. The next goal was to travel a similarly underappreciated trail that I had picked out from my previous vantage point. I was quickly running out of time though, and due to some port restrictions, I cut my next quest short to allow ample time to get back to the ship. Maybe next time I’ll get my chance, with the only thing standing in my way being an opportunity to skydive! But we’ll see what happens, thanks for reading!
Christchurch
For my first visit to Christchurch I did the usual: find something big to climb and see how high I can get.
Technically I was in the port town that leads into Chirstchurch, named Lyttleton, and that’s where I did my climbing. I started out by making my way up to some small castle that had originally been used for navigation and signaling approaching ships. After a quick look around there, I continued walking through the neighborhood in any direction that headed up.
The road soon stopped and turned into an overgrown dirt road. It’s at this point that I start getting nervous because while I’m walking through the weeds and grasses, all I can think about are the possibilities for snakes and spiders I have absolutely no knowledge of. Meanwhile, the further I travel down the path, the more overgrown it gets till it diminishes to what is barely even a foot path through high grasses scattered with strange spider webs I’ve never seen, but I push on with growing trepidation. Soon I’m walking through a field surrounded by these strange webs knit around single reeds and trying to negotiate a trail that maybe gets used a few times per season. But I can see an out cropping of rocks at the top of the trail, something that usually means a gorgeous view, and that was all the encouragement I needed to risk my life for the sake of the hike.
Thankfully I was right and the outcropping was a ridge with unobstructed views, and breathtaking views at that. I walked for a ways along this ridge, always trying to get higher, still seeing a slight resemblance of the trail I originally pursued up there. I climbed higher, the views got better, and the trail eventually tapered off into nothing and I was left about as high as I was willing to travel. Not being too eager to climb through dense foliage or up rock faces alone, I turned around and made my decent. In the meantime, I’m enjoying myself taking pictures and videos, making a mockery of The Lord of the Ring (which was filmed in New Zealand) with ridiculous narrations and camera angles.
The decent down the rocks and through the fields was met with less anxiety simply because I had no other choice but to get off my mountain, and soon I was back on paved roads without a trace of spider bites. The next goal was to travel a similarly underappreciated trail that I had picked out from my previous vantage point. I was quickly running out of time though, and due to some port restrictions, I cut my next quest short to allow ample time to get back to the ship. Maybe next time I’ll get my chance, with the only thing standing in my way being an opportunity to skydive! But we’ll see what happens, thanks for reading!
Wellington
February 4
Wellington
I’ve actually been looking forward to Wellington for some time now simply because I have a friend, the trumpet player from my first ship, who lives there. He was busy during the first part of the day leaving me the early afternoon to do some exploring.
I had gotten a map in the terminal building and headed out with a few things in mind, but due to the cold weather and less than sunny skies, I kept my activities low key. I did a lot of wandering around really, and then mix in some unsuccessful attempts at finding Internet connections in New Zealand and you have the main part of my day.
After a lot of walking I met my friends at some pub my buddy from the ship picked. The bass player here actually knows my old friend, Lex, probably because they’re both from New Zealand, and we all met up with a few others and hung out for a while. After the left the Pub, Lex took a dancer (who also knows him) and I from the ship over to his house where we had tea and talked about what’s new. 40 minutes later he drove us back to the shuttle where we were almost late getting back on the ship, but no problems there. And that’s probably about all for Wellington. We’re hoping Lex has more time when we return so that we can do something a little more exciting than sitting at his place drinking tea, but hey, it’s always cool to see old friends!
Wellington
I’ve actually been looking forward to Wellington for some time now simply because I have a friend, the trumpet player from my first ship, who lives there. He was busy during the first part of the day leaving me the early afternoon to do some exploring.
I had gotten a map in the terminal building and headed out with a few things in mind, but due to the cold weather and less than sunny skies, I kept my activities low key. I did a lot of wandering around really, and then mix in some unsuccessful attempts at finding Internet connections in New Zealand and you have the main part of my day.
After a lot of walking I met my friends at some pub my buddy from the ship picked. The bass player here actually knows my old friend, Lex, probably because they’re both from New Zealand, and we all met up with a few others and hung out for a while. After the left the Pub, Lex took a dancer (who also knows him) and I from the ship over to his house where we had tea and talked about what’s new. 40 minutes later he drove us back to the shuttle where we were almost late getting back on the ship, but no problems there. And that’s probably about all for Wellington. We’re hoping Lex has more time when we return so that we can do something a little more exciting than sitting at his place drinking tea, but hey, it’s always cool to see old friends!
Napier
February 3
Napier
Today was another get out and explore day. Again, I got off the ship with Terry, along with a couple of other friends to walk through the city. We did some shopping, for what ever reason I’ve been looking around for a cool hat (fedora style) to wear in port, but I wasn’t able to find one today. When we got tired of walking through the city we made our way out to the beach and bought some ice cream. I, for absolutely no logical reason, bought maple syrup and hazelnut ice cream, or something to that extent. Needless to say, it tasted like pancakes, and though it was decent ice cream, the breakfast experience wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. But hey, I’m always up for trying something new – have you ever had pancake ice cream?
The group returned to the main part of the city and broke off, Terry and the other guy went to a café, myself and a youth staff girl (Tina) went on our own excursion. After walking along the beach for a while, we came to a botanical garden. The highlight of the garden seemed to be a large waterfall feeding a pond that ran through it, and after some pictures and close up examinations, I came across what looked like what could have been a trail. Well, that’s all the encouragement I need to climb up the side of another cliff as I escape from my botanical A.D.D.
Tina, luckily, was up for a climb and followed along as I pulled myself up onto the path using vines and tree roots to get above the first cliff. I was able to make the limb in my walking shoes, Tina did it in flip flops. We slowly made our way through the wooded incline following a thin strip of dirt I figured was a trail, putting our lives at the mercy of the vines we used as climbing rope (which I’m very carefully to test before putting my life on the line). Soon enough we were above the waterfall, which to my dismay, originated from nothing than a small concrete pool fed by pipes that must have been coming from the pond below – there goes the magic of New Zealand. Anyways, I got over it and we pushed forward to the top. The climb culminated at this thin dirt out cropping, which is probably one of the more dangerous places I’ve been on these hikes of mine. To my right was a huge vertical drop to the street, my left would have left me hanging in branches far below, all while I walked forward on a narrow curved ridge of dirt. Meanwhile, Tina is ahead of me in flip flops. At the end of the dirt ridge sat a house placed at the extreme end of the neighbor hood. Due to the thinness of the area we’d climbed ourselves into we had two options – a: climb back down (which wasn’t going to happen because we were lucky enough to climb up that ridge without fatal injuries, or b: jump a fence and walk through the house’s thin back porch area. Well, we did just that, jumped a fence and walked within feet of opened doors and who knows how many inhabitants, exited the gate on the other side, walked down the drive way and on to solid pavement with out any further awkwardness.
We made our way back through the community and hopped a shuttle back to the ship and everything was back to normal. I went up to the gym soon after and the rest of the day played out as usual – thanks!
Napier
Today was another get out and explore day. Again, I got off the ship with Terry, along with a couple of other friends to walk through the city. We did some shopping, for what ever reason I’ve been looking around for a cool hat (fedora style) to wear in port, but I wasn’t able to find one today. When we got tired of walking through the city we made our way out to the beach and bought some ice cream. I, for absolutely no logical reason, bought maple syrup and hazelnut ice cream, or something to that extent. Needless to say, it tasted like pancakes, and though it was decent ice cream, the breakfast experience wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. But hey, I’m always up for trying something new – have you ever had pancake ice cream?
The group returned to the main part of the city and broke off, Terry and the other guy went to a café, myself and a youth staff girl (Tina) went on our own excursion. After walking along the beach for a while, we came to a botanical garden. The highlight of the garden seemed to be a large waterfall feeding a pond that ran through it, and after some pictures and close up examinations, I came across what looked like what could have been a trail. Well, that’s all the encouragement I need to climb up the side of another cliff as I escape from my botanical A.D.D.
Tina, luckily, was up for a climb and followed along as I pulled myself up onto the path using vines and tree roots to get above the first cliff. I was able to make the limb in my walking shoes, Tina did it in flip flops. We slowly made our way through the wooded incline following a thin strip of dirt I figured was a trail, putting our lives at the mercy of the vines we used as climbing rope (which I’m very carefully to test before putting my life on the line). Soon enough we were above the waterfall, which to my dismay, originated from nothing than a small concrete pool fed by pipes that must have been coming from the pond below – there goes the magic of New Zealand. Anyways, I got over it and we pushed forward to the top. The climb culminated at this thin dirt out cropping, which is probably one of the more dangerous places I’ve been on these hikes of mine. To my right was a huge vertical drop to the street, my left would have left me hanging in branches far below, all while I walked forward on a narrow curved ridge of dirt. Meanwhile, Tina is ahead of me in flip flops. At the end of the dirt ridge sat a house placed at the extreme end of the neighbor hood. Due to the thinness of the area we’d climbed ourselves into we had two options – a: climb back down (which wasn’t going to happen because we were lucky enough to climb up that ridge without fatal injuries, or b: jump a fence and walk through the house’s thin back porch area. Well, we did just that, jumped a fence and walked within feet of opened doors and who knows how many inhabitants, exited the gate on the other side, walked down the drive way and on to solid pavement with out any further awkwardness.
We made our way back through the community and hopped a shuttle back to the ship and everything was back to normal. I went up to the gym soon after and the rest of the day played out as usual – thanks!
Tauranga
February 2
Tauranga
Technically, I was just outside of Tauranga at Mount maudu-something (I have no idea what it was called). Anyways, I got off the ship with my friend Terry (singer from the first contract) and climbed the mountain the town was named after. It was a decent climb and the mountain was large enough to make it worth it, and to make things easier, there was something we could use to climb it that I almost never use…a path. So we set out up this path and made it to the top some time later.
It’s hard to describe the view at the top, but it was certainly worth the climb, and after a few pictures and me climbing on various objects unnecessarily, we made our way down the other side. We followed a different path down, one that took us across the front of the mountain and lead us to the perfect beach below. After some more walking, we decided to head back into the city to stop at a bar and see how the Super Bowl was progressing.
We arrived at a bar that was showing the game and was packed with Americans from the ship. It was the fourth quarter and perfect timing to catch the most exciting part of the game, especially for someone like me who doesn’t quite follow football. I can honestly say I had no idea who was even playing the day before…I guess I should be ashamed, but I’m not. The game was interesting none the less, and being in a bar where some people were actually emotionally invested in one team or the other made it fun. But it was really neat being able to watch this classic American sport sitting in a ocean village in New Zealand having drinks and nachos – and immediately after an intense hike in perfect weather.
The game ended, the bar immediately cleared out, and Terry and I made our way back to the ship. I’m hoping I can spend the next Tauranga sky diving or white water rafting, and so long as I don’t have a rehearsal late morning like I did today, I should be all set for my next time in port. Thanks for reading!
Tauranga
Technically, I was just outside of Tauranga at Mount maudu-something (I have no idea what it was called). Anyways, I got off the ship with my friend Terry (singer from the first contract) and climbed the mountain the town was named after. It was a decent climb and the mountain was large enough to make it worth it, and to make things easier, there was something we could use to climb it that I almost never use…a path. So we set out up this path and made it to the top some time later.
It’s hard to describe the view at the top, but it was certainly worth the climb, and after a few pictures and me climbing on various objects unnecessarily, we made our way down the other side. We followed a different path down, one that took us across the front of the mountain and lead us to the perfect beach below. After some more walking, we decided to head back into the city to stop at a bar and see how the Super Bowl was progressing.
We arrived at a bar that was showing the game and was packed with Americans from the ship. It was the fourth quarter and perfect timing to catch the most exciting part of the game, especially for someone like me who doesn’t quite follow football. I can honestly say I had no idea who was even playing the day before…I guess I should be ashamed, but I’m not. The game was interesting none the less, and being in a bar where some people were actually emotionally invested in one team or the other made it fun. But it was really neat being able to watch this classic American sport sitting in a ocean village in New Zealand having drinks and nachos – and immediately after an intense hike in perfect weather.
The game ended, the bar immediately cleared out, and Terry and I made our way back to the ship. I’m hoping I can spend the next Tauranga sky diving or white water rafting, and so long as I don’t have a rehearsal late morning like I did today, I should be all set for my next time in port. Thanks for reading!
Auckland
February 1
Auckland
There’s probably not much to say about today in Auckland, aside from that I walked around sporting a brand new sun burn that I was doing my best to keep out of the sun. Also, this meant my first stop in Auckland was to a supermarket where I could pick up some essentials, like sunscreen, so that I can go back to enjoying New Zealand. I picked up what I needed and headed out to find the next most important item, an internet connection.
A god distance of walking later, I came across a decent café with internet, sat down, and made a Skype phone call home. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Skype, it is an internet calling service, wherein it’s free to join, you can call any phone number, and it costs about 2 cents a minute to call the states. In about 50 minutes of talking with the complete other side of the planet, I spent less than a dollar – nice. So that was my other big event.
From there on out, I just walked around looking at the city. There is a large space needle-ish building in Auckland that caught my attention. For a fee, you could either jump off of it, walk around a thin catwalk outside of it, or both. I figure I’d be very much into the both option. Except from talking to friends, I found out the jump isn’t bungee, but some controlled decent where you “fall” hanging from a wire. I don’t know that I’m as excited anymore, but we’ll see what I decide to do next time I’m in town.
I then returned to the ship and spent the rest of the day hanging out doing whatever. Thanks!
Auckland
There’s probably not much to say about today in Auckland, aside from that I walked around sporting a brand new sun burn that I was doing my best to keep out of the sun. Also, this meant my first stop in Auckland was to a supermarket where I could pick up some essentials, like sunscreen, so that I can go back to enjoying New Zealand. I picked up what I needed and headed out to find the next most important item, an internet connection.
A god distance of walking later, I came across a decent café with internet, sat down, and made a Skype phone call home. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Skype, it is an internet calling service, wherein it’s free to join, you can call any phone number, and it costs about 2 cents a minute to call the states. In about 50 minutes of talking with the complete other side of the planet, I spent less than a dollar – nice. So that was my other big event.
From there on out, I just walked around looking at the city. There is a large space needle-ish building in Auckland that caught my attention. For a fee, you could either jump off of it, walk around a thin catwalk outside of it, or both. I figure I’d be very much into the both option. Except from talking to friends, I found out the jump isn’t bungee, but some controlled decent where you “fall” hanging from a wire. I don’t know that I’m as excited anymore, but we’ll see what I decide to do next time I’m in town.
I then returned to the ship and spent the rest of the day hanging out doing whatever. Thanks!
Bay of Islands, New Zealand
Jan 31st
Bay of Island, New Zealand
Day one in New Zealand and my first time off the ship since signing on four days ago! I stepped off the ship into a gorgeous looking port, 90+ degree weather, a beautiful blue sky, and an imminent sunburn.
I left the ship with a few friends who were planning to find lunch off the ship somewhere, and seeing as I had no idea what to expect in the port, I decided to tag along. After a decent walk along the water, we came to the downtown area of the city and found a restaurant where we sat outside and ordered Fish and Chips and a local brew. And let me say, sitting outside eating lunch like that, after leaving the ice cube known as Chicago, was a much-appreciated change of scenery. We finished lunch, the group set off to walk around a bit more, and I eventually broke off with two friends to walk further down along the waterfront.
This point on there isn’t that much more exciting about the day ashore. The highlights of my day after lunch consisted of seeing the largest pine tree I’ve ever witnessed, a beach entitled “taiputuputu puhi beach” (or something like that), and being able to walk back to the ship with my shirt off looking at gorgeous beaches, clear water, and perfect scenery (just because I need to really drive the point home that New Zealand is way nicer than Chicago in Jan and I take pleasure in telling you all about it).
But, all my enjoyment did take its toll. Upon returning to my cabin, I found my arms and neck to be significantly burned. I was surprised because I don’t burn easily and wasn’t expecting any issues being outside for the few hours I spent in the city…then I remembered how people have told me there’s no ozone over this part of the world. Now I’m reminded of the ozone thing every time I put a shirt on. The first thing I plan on doing at my next port is buying sunscreen, this burning stuff isn’t going to happen any more during this cruise.
I had the rest of the night off though, of which was split between drinks with some Bulgarian engineer named Nikolai who is obsessed with rock music, and going to a back deck party to play happy birthday for Nikolai’s friend on my sax. Seriously, I must meet the strangest people around and there’s no logical explanation as to why they always have some sort of affinity toward me. I’m still trying to figure out whether this is a gift I should be proud or weary of, but I guess we’ll find out.
That’s about it for the 31st though - so long January and hello to the next three months of southern hemisphere excursions. Thanks for reading!
Bay of Island, New Zealand
Day one in New Zealand and my first time off the ship since signing on four days ago! I stepped off the ship into a gorgeous looking port, 90+ degree weather, a beautiful blue sky, and an imminent sunburn.
I left the ship with a few friends who were planning to find lunch off the ship somewhere, and seeing as I had no idea what to expect in the port, I decided to tag along. After a decent walk along the water, we came to the downtown area of the city and found a restaurant where we sat outside and ordered Fish and Chips and a local brew. And let me say, sitting outside eating lunch like that, after leaving the ice cube known as Chicago, was a much-appreciated change of scenery. We finished lunch, the group set off to walk around a bit more, and I eventually broke off with two friends to walk further down along the waterfront.
This point on there isn’t that much more exciting about the day ashore. The highlights of my day after lunch consisted of seeing the largest pine tree I’ve ever witnessed, a beach entitled “taiputuputu puhi beach” (or something like that), and being able to walk back to the ship with my shirt off looking at gorgeous beaches, clear water, and perfect scenery (just because I need to really drive the point home that New Zealand is way nicer than Chicago in Jan and I take pleasure in telling you all about it).
But, all my enjoyment did take its toll. Upon returning to my cabin, I found my arms and neck to be significantly burned. I was surprised because I don’t burn easily and wasn’t expecting any issues being outside for the few hours I spent in the city…then I remembered how people have told me there’s no ozone over this part of the world. Now I’m reminded of the ozone thing every time I put a shirt on. The first thing I plan on doing at my next port is buying sunscreen, this burning stuff isn’t going to happen any more during this cruise.
I had the rest of the night off though, of which was split between drinks with some Bulgarian engineer named Nikolai who is obsessed with rock music, and going to a back deck party to play happy birthday for Nikolai’s friend on my sax. Seriously, I must meet the strangest people around and there’s no logical explanation as to why they always have some sort of affinity toward me. I’m still trying to figure out whether this is a gift I should be proud or weary of, but I guess we’ll find out.
That’s about it for the 31st though - so long January and hello to the next three months of southern hemisphere excursions. Thanks for reading!
Sydney/Sea Days
Jan 27-30
Sydney/Sea days
Well, already I’ve managed to procrastinate with writing these posts and am a week delinquent. Not like the first few days on a ship are important or anything….
Anyways, The bus took me to the ship with the 100+ other sign-ons, way more than the crew office was equipped to handle. This meant standing outside for an hour, going through really long lines, and watching the sign on process being executed in the least efficient means possible. Anyways, I made it on the ship, saw many of my old friends in the process, and started to get settled.
I’m rooming with a guy from Sydney, he’s 18 years old and the trombone player. At this point in time, I hadn’t met him and wouldn’t meet him for another day – seeing as we were in Sydney for an overnight, he got off the ship to spend time with his family. This gave me a little more room to get the cabin set up and made things a little easier.
I had the rest of the night off, and seeing as all my friends were off the ship exploring Sydney and I was stuck on due to being a new hire, I was able to just cool down.
I still didn’t receive my seapass card on the 28th, meaning I still couldn’t get off the ship or get online. I really felt as if I was grounded, not allowed to do anything. But hey, it’s more mandatory cool down time, so I did some reading and some other work and kept myself occupied. I had a quick training before we sailed and then two welcome aboard shows at night.
The band is good and I think I’ll do fine here. The horn players are all solid, and I think I’ll be OK with the music director. The MD is a polish guy who plays the alto sax chair. The band seems to dislike him for the most part, it seems to be mostly because he’s hard on them during rehearsal, but after the horrors of my MD on the Queen Victoria, I think this guy will be just fine. I’d rather have a demanding MD anyways, it really does a lot to make the band sound good. But now the job has started back up again, and as always, it almost feels as if I’ve never left. It is nice though coming back to a ship I’ve already had experience on – it means I save myself a week of getting utterly lost in every possible corridor.
The 29th and 30th were both sea days, so nothing big to write about there. I finally got my sea pass card on the 29th and was able to go online and see all the emails I’ve been unable to respond to. But now that I have my card and account all set up I’m about as settled in as I can hope to be.
Otherwise, the 29th was a guest entertainer’s show and the 30th was a big band set. The MD seems really happy with how I’m playing, which considering I’m playing tenor sax for the first time on a ship gig, makes me feel better about playing that horn. I am working hard though to listen and blend, trying to fit into the section as seamlessly as possible and I think he’s noticing that. And if anything, it means I’m winning over points with him, which considering the band doesn’t seem to get along with him all the time, a few brownie points could come in handy sometime.
So that’s all for the first few days, tomorrow will be my first stop in New Zealand, can’t wait to tell you about it!
Sydney/Sea days
Well, already I’ve managed to procrastinate with writing these posts and am a week delinquent. Not like the first few days on a ship are important or anything….
Anyways, The bus took me to the ship with the 100+ other sign-ons, way more than the crew office was equipped to handle. This meant standing outside for an hour, going through really long lines, and watching the sign on process being executed in the least efficient means possible. Anyways, I made it on the ship, saw many of my old friends in the process, and started to get settled.
I’m rooming with a guy from Sydney, he’s 18 years old and the trombone player. At this point in time, I hadn’t met him and wouldn’t meet him for another day – seeing as we were in Sydney for an overnight, he got off the ship to spend time with his family. This gave me a little more room to get the cabin set up and made things a little easier.
I had the rest of the night off, and seeing as all my friends were off the ship exploring Sydney and I was stuck on due to being a new hire, I was able to just cool down.
I still didn’t receive my seapass card on the 28th, meaning I still couldn’t get off the ship or get online. I really felt as if I was grounded, not allowed to do anything. But hey, it’s more mandatory cool down time, so I did some reading and some other work and kept myself occupied. I had a quick training before we sailed and then two welcome aboard shows at night.
The band is good and I think I’ll do fine here. The horn players are all solid, and I think I’ll be OK with the music director. The MD is a polish guy who plays the alto sax chair. The band seems to dislike him for the most part, it seems to be mostly because he’s hard on them during rehearsal, but after the horrors of my MD on the Queen Victoria, I think this guy will be just fine. I’d rather have a demanding MD anyways, it really does a lot to make the band sound good. But now the job has started back up again, and as always, it almost feels as if I’ve never left. It is nice though coming back to a ship I’ve already had experience on – it means I save myself a week of getting utterly lost in every possible corridor.
The 29th and 30th were both sea days, so nothing big to write about there. I finally got my sea pass card on the 29th and was able to go online and see all the emails I’ve been unable to respond to. But now that I have my card and account all set up I’m about as settled in as I can hope to be.
Otherwise, the 29th was a guest entertainer’s show and the 30th was a big band set. The MD seems really happy with how I’m playing, which considering I’m playing tenor sax for the first time on a ship gig, makes me feel better about playing that horn. I am working hard though to listen and blend, trying to fit into the section as seamlessly as possible and I think he’s noticing that. And if anything, it means I’m winning over points with him, which considering the band doesn’t seem to get along with him all the time, a few brownie points could come in handy sometime.
So that’s all for the first few days, tomorrow will be my first stop in New Zealand, can’t wait to tell you about it!
Chicago to Sydney
Jan 24-26
Chicago to Sydney
I’m thinking I never actually completed my last cruise blog, so I’ll do so now…
I was on the Nav, I got on a plane, I flew home. Can’t wait for my next ship.
So here I am, writing to you from Sydney Australia sitting in my cabin preparing for my next 3 months at sea. I flew out on Saturday (24th) to begin my two part trip. The first leg was on United to San Francisco, and was nothing special. The second leg was also United and took me from California to Sydney in around 14 hours. For whatever reason, I was unable to pick my own seat for the flight, and after my Chicago flight got in a little late, I was stuck with whatever seat they gave me for the 14 hour flight, not exactly a preferable situation. The plane ended up being packed and I got put in row A, a window seat. It wouldn’t be my first choice for a seat simply because I like to move once in a while every 14 hours, but the novelty of having a window almost makes it worth it. Somehow, I managed the entire flight without getting out of my seat (aside from using the bathroom 30 minutes before landing), a feat that for whatever reason I’m proud enough of to share with the online community. But we landed in Sydney at 8 am on the morning of the 26th and I began my journey.
After customs, I went in search of a ride to my hotel. The Royal Caribbean rep didn’t have any information for me and suggested I take a cab, which is not the greeting I was hoping for after 20 hours traveling time. I took her advice, exchanged some money, and got a cab to take me the couple miles necessary to my hotel. The hotel was average, I got my room and jumped in the shower to clean off the feeling 20 hours of inactivity leaves you with. During the shower I heard someone come into my room, catching me a little off guard. I was expecting to be put with a roommate, but hoped for at least a couple hours rest before I had to deal with it. Anyway, the guy was a chef from Jamaica and soon left the room to hang out with his friends.
After a short break, I decided to call up my own friend who lives in Sydney and is a friend from my first contract, Belinda. After four 30-second phone calls (apparently all you get for 50 cents), we figured out I was to meet her down town at the Queen Victoria Building (I figured that’d be easy enough seeing as I was just on the Queen Victoria Cruise Ship). I figured out the train was the best option into the city, hopped on, and made the 15 minute trip. Belinda and I found each other soon after I arrived and we started our tour.
Turns out, this Monday that I happen to come into the city is “Australia Day,” meaning Sydney gets packed with people, outdoor food stands, the pubs fill up, and people run around with Australian flags draped around their bodies, with or without clothing. I told Belinda to take me through the city showing me things about Australian Culture that I should know about. This meant eating a really nice meat pie, vegemite toast, calling ketchup “sauce”, and trying a couple different beers – VB and pure blonde. That aside, we simply walked through the city fighting the crowds, trying to get an idea of what Sydney is all about. One of my highlights for the day was that right at the Queen Victoria Building, someone had put a piano. This was entitled the “green piano,” had been painted green, and was there for anyone to play. It was actually interesting to see how many people would actually go up and play something (which for people that seemed to have studied piano, always ended up being ragtime, who knows why). Obviously, me being the ham that I am and the fact that I had a female tour guide, I sat down and played a few things. The piano sounded like garbage, many of the keys were sticking at this point, and the fact that it had started to rain at this point made the whole experience that much more ridiculous. Yeah, the piano is sitting outside of the building with nothing to keep it dry. Actually, someone had put a potted plant on top of it, maybe for no other fact than it could watered by any precipitation having a piano in the open encourages. A bunch of crazy Australians came over and talked with me or clapped when I finished, so I guess I got what I was after.
Speaking of Australians talking, I think it’s absolutely hilarious hearing all these people speaking with an Australian accent. More so than the English, Irish, or any other country with a strong accent, hearing people talk down under just makes me laugh. That and I swear I saw the Thornberries in the airport (Cartoon show).
But back to my day, following the green piano incident, Belinda helped me get the right train ticket back to my hotel and we left figuring we’d hit the beaches next time I’m in port.
I went back to the hotel and slept for the later half of the day till I woke up with my alarm around 9:30 PM for dinner. I took my $25 allowance from the ship and spent it at the bar on a really nice burger (a wagyu burger…I think). While I was talking to the bar tender about working on ships, a couple behind me heard me say I was a musician and called me over. The husband ended up being a country music singer in town for some festival, where as his wife used to be married to the guy wrote “Tainted Love”, if I remember correctly. They were waiting for a cab to pick them up, so I sat with them for the next 20 minutes talking about ships and places where the husband plays country music. They now live in Wyoming, and his accent certainly supported it, but he’d been playing a lot of music in Key West, which gave us something to talk about.
The cab eventually came, they left, and I went up to my room to collapse and hopefully get a good night of sleep to reset my internal clock. Tomorrow I’ll get picked up in the morning to head out to the ship, but so far we’re off to an interesting start of another Mike Potts cruise ship adventure!
Chicago to Sydney
I’m thinking I never actually completed my last cruise blog, so I’ll do so now…
I was on the Nav, I got on a plane, I flew home. Can’t wait for my next ship.
So here I am, writing to you from Sydney Australia sitting in my cabin preparing for my next 3 months at sea. I flew out on Saturday (24th) to begin my two part trip. The first leg was on United to San Francisco, and was nothing special. The second leg was also United and took me from California to Sydney in around 14 hours. For whatever reason, I was unable to pick my own seat for the flight, and after my Chicago flight got in a little late, I was stuck with whatever seat they gave me for the 14 hour flight, not exactly a preferable situation. The plane ended up being packed and I got put in row A, a window seat. It wouldn’t be my first choice for a seat simply because I like to move once in a while every 14 hours, but the novelty of having a window almost makes it worth it. Somehow, I managed the entire flight without getting out of my seat (aside from using the bathroom 30 minutes before landing), a feat that for whatever reason I’m proud enough of to share with the online community. But we landed in Sydney at 8 am on the morning of the 26th and I began my journey.
After customs, I went in search of a ride to my hotel. The Royal Caribbean rep didn’t have any information for me and suggested I take a cab, which is not the greeting I was hoping for after 20 hours traveling time. I took her advice, exchanged some money, and got a cab to take me the couple miles necessary to my hotel. The hotel was average, I got my room and jumped in the shower to clean off the feeling 20 hours of inactivity leaves you with. During the shower I heard someone come into my room, catching me a little off guard. I was expecting to be put with a roommate, but hoped for at least a couple hours rest before I had to deal with it. Anyway, the guy was a chef from Jamaica and soon left the room to hang out with his friends.
After a short break, I decided to call up my own friend who lives in Sydney and is a friend from my first contract, Belinda. After four 30-second phone calls (apparently all you get for 50 cents), we figured out I was to meet her down town at the Queen Victoria Building (I figured that’d be easy enough seeing as I was just on the Queen Victoria Cruise Ship). I figured out the train was the best option into the city, hopped on, and made the 15 minute trip. Belinda and I found each other soon after I arrived and we started our tour.
Turns out, this Monday that I happen to come into the city is “Australia Day,” meaning Sydney gets packed with people, outdoor food stands, the pubs fill up, and people run around with Australian flags draped around their bodies, with or without clothing. I told Belinda to take me through the city showing me things about Australian Culture that I should know about. This meant eating a really nice meat pie, vegemite toast, calling ketchup “sauce”, and trying a couple different beers – VB and pure blonde. That aside, we simply walked through the city fighting the crowds, trying to get an idea of what Sydney is all about. One of my highlights for the day was that right at the Queen Victoria Building, someone had put a piano. This was entitled the “green piano,” had been painted green, and was there for anyone to play. It was actually interesting to see how many people would actually go up and play something (which for people that seemed to have studied piano, always ended up being ragtime, who knows why). Obviously, me being the ham that I am and the fact that I had a female tour guide, I sat down and played a few things. The piano sounded like garbage, many of the keys were sticking at this point, and the fact that it had started to rain at this point made the whole experience that much more ridiculous. Yeah, the piano is sitting outside of the building with nothing to keep it dry. Actually, someone had put a potted plant on top of it, maybe for no other fact than it could watered by any precipitation having a piano in the open encourages. A bunch of crazy Australians came over and talked with me or clapped when I finished, so I guess I got what I was after.
Speaking of Australians talking, I think it’s absolutely hilarious hearing all these people speaking with an Australian accent. More so than the English, Irish, or any other country with a strong accent, hearing people talk down under just makes me laugh. That and I swear I saw the Thornberries in the airport (Cartoon show).
But back to my day, following the green piano incident, Belinda helped me get the right train ticket back to my hotel and we left figuring we’d hit the beaches next time I’m in port.
I went back to the hotel and slept for the later half of the day till I woke up with my alarm around 9:30 PM for dinner. I took my $25 allowance from the ship and spent it at the bar on a really nice burger (a wagyu burger…I think). While I was talking to the bar tender about working on ships, a couple behind me heard me say I was a musician and called me over. The husband ended up being a country music singer in town for some festival, where as his wife used to be married to the guy wrote “Tainted Love”, if I remember correctly. They were waiting for a cab to pick them up, so I sat with them for the next 20 minutes talking about ships and places where the husband plays country music. They now live in Wyoming, and his accent certainly supported it, but he’d been playing a lot of music in Key West, which gave us something to talk about.
The cab eventually came, they left, and I went up to my room to collapse and hopefully get a good night of sleep to reset my internal clock. Tomorrow I’ll get picked up in the morning to head out to the ship, but so far we’re off to an interesting start of another Mike Potts cruise ship adventure!
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