The End is Near

Well as some of you know from the phone calls you have recieved today, I am leaving ships. First of all this has nothing to do with ships or with the company I work for. I am very happy in my job currently, however I have been offered a much better paying job with Networks Tours, on "The Producers" as Head Electrician. So I will be leaving Florida and heading back to California for enough time to do some laundry, pet the cat, show Mom how to play a DVD in the machine! (Sorry Mom, had too) and Fly out again. Look out for the tour coming to a city near you.

Dry Dock Part 3

The following was not written by me, but it says so much I thought I would share it with everyone.

LOOK for THE PART(S) !!

To understand the title of this story keep reading ….

This small story is all about success………Success achieved through great teamwork, precise planning and above all a fantastic display of the “O” in the GOLD anchor standard, whereby each department was not only doing what their normal duties called for, but also went above and beyond in ‘willingly’ assisting co-departments and co-workers.

Recently the Jewel of the Seas skippered by Captain Tore was scheduled for a dry dock in Hamburg. She was there from the 9th - 28th Oct, in the Blohm and Voss yard in Hamburg. The main task to be carried out was the installation of the new Diesel engine along with some other refurbishments. Though more than 140 crew signed off for the dry dock period, we had welcomed three times that number in Contractors and Riding crew. To that add about a 100 dock yard employees carrying out various tasks also swelled our numbers. So how does one cater. I mean literally cater for such a diverse and big group of people? This is where our wonderful F&B team led by F&B Manager Diane Taggart came in. Executive Chef Joachim and his galley team always ensured that the food looked as great to the eyes as it was appealing to our taste buds. The menu was nothing short of “Amazing”. The Windjammer was the chosen dining area during the entire period and what a great atmosphere we had up there with everyone eating together, one big Jewel family.

The other obvious concern was how to maintain the Safety and hygiene standards onboard. We had the “Fire watch” team made up of volunteers from every department, to ensure that a random spark did not develop into a bigger flame! There were hand sanitizers installed in all the key F&B areas. But everything paid off with rich dividends; the fact is that we had “zero” accidents or illness throughout the entire dry-dock. Way to go Jewel!!

Another success story is that of the HR and crew office team, led by Amanda and Abhi. With all these extra people onboard (and the crew office team being driven out of their usual headquarters), a new location was needed to deliver the services. Again with the help of the Guest relations team, they set up their little shop at the Pursers desk. So now all the crewmembers AND the contractors had a “one point” contact to get their concerns sorted out. Even the Adventure Ocean staff and the Cruise staff assisted the HR team during these challenging times eg: Issuing and then getting back passports of all 900 plus people, signing on and off riding crew frequently during the dry dock. Oh did we tell you, the Dry dock was followed by about 250 people signing on and off the same day and followed by the 90-day all crew check right upon our arrival at Fort Lauderdale, and the ever eager anticipation of our friendly USPH inspectors..The rest, we leave it to your imagination!! (by the way the Jewel scored a whopping 99 points in USPH as I write this article).

On one hand as you have read through the great challenges we faced, you might be tempted to feel a bit sorry for us imagining that we indeed went through lot of hardships; ..yes indeed but something that is so unique to the Jewel psyche is that we don’t forget to have FUN while we earn! With the dry dock location (Hamburg) itself providing a treat to all your senses the Crew activities still added their own bit. We had a very successful event “Mr and Mrs Dry Dock” hosted by Brandon one of our cruise staff and our “voice of dry-dock”. Needless to say this event unearthed so many hidden celebrities. Our Engineering team (no words would be enough to applaud their contributions, since they were the ones who worked diligently, almost endlessly to see that the Jewel is up and running as per the schedule) along with the Bridge officers arranged crew Dry dock tours. Being under a 90 thousand plus ton vessel, otherwise a floating city, is a feeling that can’t be described. These are the few moments of truth when a man’s ability to surprise himself, gets bigger than his own achievements and he says “Did I really do this?”

We had organized a “Design a dry dock T-shirt competition” and you can spot the Jewel crew members now proudly sporting the winner’s artwork.

One little story as told to us by our Hotel Director Bjorn Erik Julseth (and the raison d’etre for this title) is when Steinar Holberg (Project Chief Engineer) and Rasmus Norling, Ship’s Superintendent, came up with a New Dry Dock Gold Anchor Standard when a few vital seals for the pod bearings went missing and they searched for them all over the ship – and eventually found them. However until they were found Steinar made a comment, It's not "looking the part” that’s important right now, but "looking for the Parts"....How true…considering the stress levels were rising when these gentlemen were looking for these VERY expensive and vital parts!

We are sure that each Jewel crew member has their own share of memories during the dry dock but finally our Lensman, our Photo manager captured the most memorable memory that can be put through a picture. This is when the ENTIRE Jewel crew assembled against the background of the Ship’s gigantic Azipods to take an all crew picture. As we were making our way down there for the picture we couldn’t help admiring our beautiful lady with her new look, our very own Lady “The Jewel of the Seas”.

-Ajit Shidhaye
T&D Manager
Jewel of the Seas.

Don't piss off the Normal People

So this week has been interesting. We have had a parcial ship charter of Alternitive lifestyle folks, aka Gays. Now I have no problem with this group, but a lot of the "normal" passanger did. Come on people get real. Although I do agree if you have little kids onboard, this isn't the best environemnt for them to learn about the birds and the bees, or should I say the birds and the birds, or the bees and the bees.

FIRE!!!!

Well last night, or early this morning depending on how you look at it, we had a fire on board. Yes the really do happen. At 2:30 am I was awoken with the PA announcement of BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO, DECK 0, FIRE ZONE 3, LAUNDRY! First thoughts are am I dreaming, then looking at my watch I think wait, crew drill was supposed to be at 1:15 pm why is it so late, and did I really sleep past noon. Then I turned on the light and got a better look at my watch, OH Crap it's two thirty in the morning, this isn't a drill. After many announcements the fire was out and it was back to sleep. I live very close to where I would have to have evacuated my room. Luckily I wasn't in the bar when it happened or I wouldn't have been allowed back till around four in the morning. The fire is under investigation at this time.

Never a dull movement on the Jewel.

Dry Dock Part II

Well first of let me say I'm sorry to everyone that has been waiting a long time for me to write this. I had many intention of writing this in my cabin a little bit at a time, but alas I have just been too tired. Cast change is now over, so that is good. I had been feeling a bit under the weather the past few days, but things are looking up now. So as I have a few moments, I will just share a bit of what I did during dry dock.

The main thing that I had to do during dry dock was to clean all of the lights in the theatre and get them all working again. The main problem was that my Mac 550 would not power on. Turns out that they had the originally power cards in them that Martin had discontinued because they didn't work very well. So once I received the big box of new parts, everything worked again.

Besides cleaning and fixing all of the lights in the theatre, we had to do the same for all the other area's around the ship. I think the most disgusting had to be the lights from the crew disco. I am so glad I don't smoke cigarettes, and yes I am going to publicly say this, Dad please stop smoking cigarettes. I have pictutes of the lights and trust me your lungs don't look any better.

Although I now have a lot of problems with the lights in the centrum, heat problems. The lights that are working are bright.

Again I do apologize, I had so hoped for this blog to be much longer, but if I put if off any longer, you might not have gotten this much.

Uncle David

Well I know you were all expecting Dry Dock part II, but this is not going to be it. I am howerver working on it at the moment, so stay tuned.

I awoke this morning to go to the doctor for some back pain I have been having, don't worry everything is fine.

Then it was off to check me email and start back in working on a color scroller problem I am having. First thing I noticed when I got to the booth was that my black zone scrollers (those are the ones the light the front of the stage in front of the Main curtain) were not in white as they should be. I tried to control them and nothing. So I went to check the rack where all of the power supplies are, and sure enough no power, the fuse had blown. I replaced the fuse and they are all good. Now if only my other scroller problem was so easy.

Now for the good news. I got an email from my sister this morning. She is now six weeks pregnent. I am so proud for them.

Keep a look out for dry dock part II, coming soon.

Dry Dock Part 1

Well I know a lot of you have been waiting a long time for me to tell you about Dry Dock. Now that we are starting the crossing cruise and cast change I have some time to tell you about dry dock.

I arrived back at the ship a few days before Dry dock. I met all the new stage staff when I arrived and was pleasantly surprised to learn that two of them were interested in lights. Wow that means I will have some help fixing things with people that actually want to learn what I am teaching.

We offloaded all of the passengers and a lot of the crew, and loaded on a lot of contractors in England and headed to Germany soon after they were all off the ship.

After a day and a half at Sea we arrived in Germany. Once we got close to the dry dock we had to lower all 4 of our tenders, and 1 life boat. Because the ship is still relatively new no maintenance was needed to be done on them, the ship just had to get them out of the way of other things that had to be done.

Into the dry dock we went, it was actually a fairly fast process only taking what seamed like a hour. Then they locked us in with a large metal gate or sorts. Then it was time to drain the water and put the ship high and dry for about three weeks.

We soon started all of the work that we had to do around the ship, but at the same time many other things were happening around the ship.

For all of DD everyone on board had to eat in the Windjammer Cafe. That is what the passengers use as the Alternative Casual Dining. We had to do this because the staff and crew mess were both completely torn apart to gain access to the slewing gears for the azzi pods. Even the crew bar had to be relocated to the pool deck. That certainly made for a few cold nights just to have a beer after a long day of work.

The major reason that the ship was going into DD was to add a diesel engine to the ship. This is purely due to fuel cost savings. Currently we are running two gas turbine engines, just like you would find on a DC10. The problem is these run 100%, 100% of the time. So when you are just siting in port, or don't need to go fast, you are still burning the same fuel as if we are going full speed. When we don't need to go fast or are sitting in port we will now only use the diesel, doing this will save about $900 per hour in fuel savings.

Stay tuned for more.

Vacation

When I give backstage tours on the ship, lots of people ask, what do you do on vacation. I always say the same thing. Sleep, and do lots of nothing.

I had a very unexpected bit of mail when I got home. I had Jury Duty. So I had to make my visit up to my Father's in Washington state short, so I could get back for the impending jury Duty.

I visited my God Parents new place in Montana over the labor day weekend. Although the forest fires had put a lot of smoke into the air, the fresh air was good, but seeing my god parents was great, I haven't seen them in a few years, and probably won't for a few more. If I could only get them to cruise with me, I just can't get them away from Princess. Yes they read this blog, and yes I am trying to embarrass them.

Well after getting home from my fathers and my trip to Montana, I waited till the day I had to call for jury duty. I did not have to report.

So now I am just doing a lot of nothing. Cooking, playing with the new computer I got.

I went to a greek festival, very small, but some nice food. Then I went to a wine and art festival. Wow that was a lot bigger then I thought it would be. Nice food, and lots of beer and wine.

Now as I am nearing the time to pack and head back The thoughts of all the work ahead are going thorugh my head.

I promise to post more frequently, but as soon as I get back to the ship, we go into dry dock, so it might be a while till things get up and running again.

Almost time to Go home again

Well my replacement has arrived, so in 11 days I will be heading back to America.

Thats all for now, I will post more later.

WARMEMUNDE

Well let me just start by saying this place is great. This was our one and only call at WARMEMUNDE Germany. Lots of little shops and stands to get food. Lots of places to get food. Yes we did see a McDonalds, and NO we didn't go in. We found every kind of sausage and hot dog you can imagine. Really good sourcrout, and beer. I didn't care for the beer too much, very bitter. After a lot of walking and lunch we all came back to the ship to pass out, then we went out and did it again.
The ship was in port all day, as most passangers went to Berlin on tour, wich is about 2.5 hours away by bus. We had a tech run so we couldn't go. Oh well, we had a great time in port anyway.
After a few hours sleep we all went out for dinner again, we didn't make it very far past the ship this time, when we found a large croud eating at a hot dog stand. Now let me start by saying, Americans have no clue what a big hot dog is, foot long these were not!!!! These were 1/2 meter. It's like eating 4 foot longs. And it was great. They cook them on rollers like we do, think baseball park, or seven eleven. But I think they have the heat way up, and us a good casing becuase they were crispy on the outside. Wow they were good.

I Got Nominated!

Well today I had a nice surprise, I meet with the crew office staff to go over the PowerPoint slides for today's Captain's Meeting. And what did I see, I got nominated for Employee of the Month. No I didn't win, but at least it shows that some people notice all my hard work.

Oh and if your wondering where I will be for the Fourth of July, I will be in Russia. Is it just me or is something wrong with that!!!!

Crew BBQ

So yesterday we were in Eidfjord, Norway. Don't ask where in Norway that is, because I don't really know, but it was beautifull. The crew had a large BBQ on shore right next to the ship. Some crew went kyacking. The big thrill of the day was the life boat races. They lowered 4 of the boats to the water, and then you could only use the motor to get to the back of the ship, then the 4 teams had to race from the back of the ship to the front, using only the oars. The blue boys came in 1st again this year, defending the title.

Many updates!

Well I have many updates. Some are good, some are bad. Let's start with the good. I had a good time the last few days in the British Iles. In Cork I went and kissed the Blarny Stone. It was raining in cork and in Cobh where the ship docks, but Blarny was good weather. The next day was Dublin. Wow what a wet day. It rained non stop. We went to the Guinness Factory. I was hoping it was a brewery tour like I have taken in the States before, but it wasn't. It was more like a musume, and then tasting. But it was still very nice, and I got some gifts for people. Today we were in Scottland. I went on a tour with the passangers, up to Inveary Casttle, and Lock Lomand. It rained on and off.

When I got back to the ship this afternoon, I found out that our Production Manager had been fired this morning. He had a bit too much to drink, and he failed a breath test, so back home he goes.

The only other news that I have is about Harpo. If you have read my last blog you know that I was trying for a programming position with them. We I heard back from them, and turns out they are just looking for over hire people, not full time as the add indicated. Hence because I don't live in Chicago, it is kind of not an option for now, but still keeping my eyes open.

looking for new work

Well as some of you might know by now, I am trying to find land work. I am fed up with ships. I need to find something with better pay, and many other reasons. I have my resume out to the national theatre tour company's but I haven't heard back yet, and don't think I will for another few months, as they don't start the next years tours till the end of the summer. I also have a job in KY that i really would like, but they might fill that before I end my ship contract. The latest job that I really would like is a console programming job at Harpo Studio's. If you don't know who that is, it's the Company that does all of Oprah's work. It would mean that I have to move to Chicago, but that could be a good thing. I feel like I am in College again, having to go over my resume a million times. And this cover letter stuff, wow we never did much with them in college. But I have lots of people with me that are great at them, and everyone is lending a hand. It's just that cruise ship lighting is so hard to document. Everyshow is like a one off, and the ships just don't have the gear to be able to get good shots to put together of every show. wish me luck.

The End to the Multiple Drummers

So the cruise has finally come to a end. The drummer is out of hidding and finally was able to do the farewell show tonight. The band started off the show by playing Sing Sing Sing, at the end for the drum solo, all three drummers (minus the punk rocker) played the solo. It was a very long solo, but the crowd fianlly got to see OUR drummer.

On a different note, I checked YouTube today and my friend Mark Taylor finally posted the video his friend took of his show on the Jewel. Here are the links to the videos.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=29k108s-AFY

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GzPV1h84p-c

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VP4G152_g-A

Day 8

Well lets see it is now day 8 of a 12 day cruise, and this is the most interesting cruise I think I have ever worked on.

Ok first lets list everything, then I will go back and explain some things.
Drummer got chicken pox
Comic played CD play on
Punk rock drummer played the juggler
Brenda Cockrane show postponed
Dance band drummer played Brenda's show
New drummer arrived and played Tango show
Female singer got fired
Rigger got fired.

What next????? It's only day 8.


So the Drummer, as I mentioned in a previous post, he got chicken pox. So we couldn't do Brenda Cockrane's show, so we put the Comic on instead. The next night we had the Juggler go on a night early, and we got a new drummer from Bulgaria. He was a real punk rocker, long hair and all. Well he couldn't read music, but was a good drummer, so we had him play the Juggler. But now because everyone onboard new we were down a drummer we played a joke, by having the comic play the drums for the start of the show, very funny.

So we get Brenda to stay on a couple of days extra, and we have the drummer from the Dance Band play her show.

The next day we have Gary Lovinim, a violin player. The same drummer did his show, and now the punk drummer has gone home to tell all his friends what cruise ships are like. I bet that would be an interesting conversation to hear.

Well last night our Secondary Girl singer got a bit drunk, and did some things that I won't go into, but the long story short is that she got fired this morning.

This past cruise our Rigger has also had family sailing with him. I won't go into any details but the short story is that he is now fired as well.

Now we get to today, Our new fill in Drummer arrived. We were still able to perform the show without the singer, and the rigger, but with the PM now having to run the rigging computer. It leaves us with only 3 people backstage, we normally have 4 and the PM has been filling in where needed. Luckily this show can be done this way. We shall have to see how our other shows work out till we get back to normal.

And now the Crew Bar is out of Beer!

Chicken Pox

First of all calm down, it isn't me. Last night our drummer from the theatre came down with the chicken pox. Now that is a first. Now we are scrambling to get a drummer as ours is confined for a week, and we have to change shows left right and center.

The End of Short cruises

Well I think the end is in site for these short cruises. Goodbye Copenhagen, see you on a longer cruise. Our days visiting the port of Copenhagen every other day it seemed like are over. I think all of the crew are broke from all of the overnights. We are now heading toward Germany. I am a bit exited just because it isn't that often I get to go to a new country these days. We will do one 4 day cruise from Germany up to Oslo, then two cruises from Germany to Amsterdam, then we will finally start our normal season of 12 day cruises.

Copenhagen is a great place to visit, once or twice, but as a tourist is is a very expensive place. The locals love hot dogs, and ice cream. We went to Tivoli Gardens, it is a small amusement park. I heard it is one of the oldest in the world. I got a few good photos.

Belgium

Well a couple of days ago we were in Belgium. We only go here on the repositioning cruise, so we were all eager to get to see what it was like. Once the ship was cleared for crew to get off, we all headed toward the crew shuttles, not knowing what to expect. The shuttle took us to the next town, and we were told that the train would be leaving in a couple of minutes if we wanted to go to the next town over, Brugge. Well we missed the train by minutes, but the next one was only an hour wait, so we got our tickets, only 5 euro.

Since we had an hour to kill, and it was lunch time, we walked around and found some nice food stands. We had some great Belgium Fries, the invented them you know, and then found some waffle stands. They were great. The waffles were the opposite of the states, at home the waffle is pain, and the whipped cream is sweet, here they were the opposite.

Well after a few pictures it was time to get on the train. A short train ride later, eleven minutes, we were in Brugge. We weren't able to get to Brussels, as it was too far away, but this city was great. We all found some more waffles, took lots of pictures, and found some chocolate shops. All in all it was a good day.

Land!!!

Well we have finally hit land. Today we were in France, so I have to back up a few days.

Our first port of call was Cork in Ireland. We were in technical reheresals for the new cast most of the day. We had a few hours off between runs and some poeple got off and went to the local pub for a quick drink, but none of us had time to get into Cork, its about a 30 min. shuttle ride. I didn't bother to get off the ship, I was really tired and needed a few hours of rest. Besides, it was raining most of the day, and raining sideways to boot.

The next day we were on Falmouth (Cornwall), England. We had a tech run in the morning, then had to be back on board for backstage tour. The ship does not have a place to dock here, so we had to tender. And what a long tender ride it is, we are about a 20 minute ride away from shore. We finished the tech run at about 12:30 and desided that we had enough time to get off and find a place for fish and chips. Now all aboard for us was 3:00pm and the passengers at 3:30, and the ship sails at 4. Well we arrived at the pier to get the tender at 2:30. What else should happen to show up at the same time, but all of the passengers that had gone on tour that day. So something like 1000 people were all in line, and we were in the middle. We finally got onto a tender at 4:25pm. We got back to the ship at 4:50. Luckely we didn't have too many people at the backstage tour, so they were very undersanding and so was the production manager. We did have fun doing part of the tour on the tender boat, the passengers got a kick out of it, and I got a lot of complements about the lighting on the cruise.

Now to today.
Today we are in Northern France, LaHavre. This is the port city that us use to get to Paris. Paris is about 150 miles away, so if you don't have the entire day off you can't go to Paris. We had to be back for a Technical rehersal so we couldn't go. But we did manager to have a few hours to walk around LaHavre. We walked around a few parks, and tried to find a coffee shop, but didn't have much luck. We finally found some friends of ours, and ate with them. I had a nice ham and cheese omlette. Don't ask me how to say it in French, but it was good. My friend Sean was still hungry so we walked around till we finally found the mall, and McDonalds. He had a milkshake. I was still a bit hungry, but come on McDonalds I told him. Lets get something at the pastry stand we passed. I got a cossante, and a baguet. Very nice. I looked for a cheese shop, sorry a fromage shop, to have with my baguet, but didn't have any luck. My Uncle would have been proud of me. He has always told me the best lunch in France is to just get some nice bread, and cheese and have a sit in the park. Well I got to do most of those things. I shall have to find a cheese shop when I hopefully get to Paris in a month or two. We don't come back to paris for a while.

Well that was a lot of info. I will update after our short cruises in about a month, if not before.

Day 7 - Still At Sea

Well still at sea. The time changes aren't effecting me too much, but the amount of time at sea is nuts. I don't know how the explorers did it. Crossing that took about a month, yuck. This is the longest crossing I have ever done. Ususally you stop in Bermuda or someplace, but this time nothing. Only one more sea day till we get to Ireland. I think some of the crew is going to kiss the ground when they get off the ship.

The weather has gotten drimatilcally better. I haven't been outside much do to all the technical rehersals we are doing, but I hear it has been sunny the last few days.

We all got sweatshirst from the ship the other day. They are nice and lightweight, with the Jewel logo on them and they say Jewel Crew Europe 2007 on them. So something to remember the crossing with.

tonight we have a double magic act. the office sent us a magic act even though we already had one, so we put them on the same night, so the pax wouldn't say, I already say a magic act, I don't need to see another one. Should be a good show. One does comedy magic, and the other one "Slide" of Hand magic. It's actually Slight of hand, but the Cruise Compass spelled it wrong.

Day 3 - At Sea

Well I am now between shows for the night. Early shows tonight, because we loose another hour of sleep tonight.

Most of the day was taken up with Tango Rehearsals. We finished running thru the show with the cast. It was very interesting with all the ship movement. The stage staff had to do a lot of extra work to keep things from moving around on stage, or from falling in the pit.

Fixed a lot of light cues. Lot of changes with the new tango dancers from the last cast.

Well we weren't exactly sure if we were going to do the production show from the other night, but we set up the set anyway. We have done the first show, with minimal problems, and now have one more to go. The old cast is very exited. This is the last show they have on the Jewel. I have about 2 hours of programming to do after the show, to be ready for the tech in the morning, but shouldn't be too bad.

tomorrow we add the spots and costumes to the show. Should be interesting.

The captain changed direction and headed towards Bermuda, and it had defanitly calmed down. Interesting to hear that the port of Bermuda was closed due to wind, so the Navigator is stuck at sea also. Guess we would have been at sea even if we were scheduled to have an overnight in Bermuda.

Day 2 At Sea

Well we are now on Day 2 so 1st day at sea. Last night we had to tie everything down as we are heading into a storm. If you have heard about all the wind on the East coast, well we are getting it. As I write this, if I am not careful my chair will fly across the room. We have already canceled our first production show, or rather postponed till a later date. The weather is expected to last like this through tomorrow night.


Part 2

Well the night is finally over. Lets see, we indeed did not do our production show, we will try again tomorrow night, but I don't think so. The act that we did plays the piano so we had it center stage. The locking wheels are great to a point, and today we found out that point. We had to put a rope on each side of the piano and rope it off into the wings. Looked like someone was playing tug-o-war with the piano. A keyboard fell of it's stand and broke in the back lounge. I heard that the shops had to close because the liquor all fell to the floor two times. We had a passenger run into the wall when he got up out of his seat after the first show, and the ship listed and he went running. We are all beat, and now it's time to get some sleep and start things all over again in the morning.

Heading North???

yes you heard me correctly, we are heading North to Europe. Well actually we are heading north toward Canada, then turning Right and heading to Ireland. I expect that the weather while heading north shouldn't be too bad, but the crossing of the North Atlantic at this time of the year, could be unpredictable.

Our fill in cruise director left today, and trust me everyone is happy about that. he wasn't the nicest person to work with in the end. We are all so glad that we don't have to do his silly game show any more. We can all finally sit down after the show tonight and have a nice dinner. We usually like to go to the stakehouse, but they are closed tonight and the italian resturant is open. We haven't been able to go in so many weeks, that we don't care. Good food and wine, is all we ask for tonight.

Also today the new cast arrived. Didn't get much of a look at them yet, but I think I know one of them. Should be a very busy couple of weeks with all the cast change rehersals. Mario and Daniel are on board to do the install of tango and also thier own guest show. I can't wait till Tango opens. I got Mario, Daniel, and myself some very nice cigars to celebrate the opening. They like to do that sort of thing after celebrating. Daniel made an interesting comment to me today when we were talking. He said, "so are you ready to go to Vegas." Not too sure what he meant by that. Could be nothing, but I hope maybe it means something. I shall have to find out more. Stay tuned......

Cell Phones On ships

Warning to everyone that goes on a cruise. No matter what they tell you, don't use your cell phone on a ship. Unless you don't care how much your bill is. Yes almost all ships these days are equipped with cell towers, but, they cost you a fortune. Even if you don't answer a call you still get charged. When you get to the ship, turn it OFF!

I just have to laugh every time I see teenagers talking on their cell phones like they are at home. I would pay money to see the look on their parents face when they see the cell bills after vacation.

A new one, today I saw some kids talking with each other on their cell phones from across the theatre. If they only new that it was costing something like $5.00 a minute to talk to someone on the other side of the room. Good god, I think a 900 number might be cheaper.

Just some words of advice!

Now let me just also say this, it is a great thing to have when you really need it. Trust me I have made a few calls home on my phone. But short and too the point is teh name of the game. Turn it on make a call, and turn it off.

They shouldn't call it "Cellular at sea" they should call it, well you can make up your own name!!!!

Just a few weeks left

Well only a few weeks left in the Caribbean. On April 15th we will be heading off for Europe, We go straight to sea, and don't hit land till we get to Cork, Ireland.

If you want to follow along where I am you can alwaya look up the Jewel on www.cruisecal.com

We were in Cozumel again today. Seems like a trend to do posts on this day. I was glad to have a problem free tech run today of one of our production shows.

I recently upgraded the hog to the newest version of software, and the shows have been having lots of problems ever since. Now that I have most of these under control, now my hazers don't want to work. I had to pull one of the hazers out of the disco. Although it does a very nice job, it uses about 1000 times more fluid. With the MDG hazers I go through about a gallon every 3 months. I used about half a pint just tonight, with the Martin hazer.

With Europe coming, it means we will start doing 3 production shows. I guess I need to find some time to check all the cues for the Tango show. I want to be prepared.

Well that's about all for now. I did get some photo's of the Jeweel and Freedom together today, and will post them later.

Docking in Cozumel

Well work continues at a surprizingly fast past in cozumel. For the first time today two ships were able to be docked side by side at the international pier. Surpizingly we didn't look as small next to the Freedom of the Seas as we all thought. But man she is a big girl. You can defenitly tell that the locals don't want to have to rebuild the piers ever again.

Work continues as always. Replacing burn out, scrols are starting to ware out, so I have slowyly begun replacing them all. I hope my order arrives before we leave for Europe.

Speaking of Europe, we are all starting to get ancy to leave. April 15th can't come fast enough. Although that also means cast change time.

Welcome Home/Back

Well I arrived back on the Jewel today. It was nice to hear everyone say welcome home or welcome back to me. Makes you feel like your part of a big family when everyone remembers you after two months. Well I am in the middle of welcome aboard show, so I should make this breaf. More later.

Gearing to go back to sea

Well things are finally gearing up to go back to sea. I finally got my new flight details today. I will be flying back to the Jewel on Feb. 9th to Miami. Then joining the ship on the 10th in Ft. Lauderdale.

I am looking foward to spending sometime at my friend Brandon's for the Superbowl. Don't care too much about the game, but getting to see a good friend for a few days will be nice.

Then the last thing to do before leaving is the High End open house in San Fransisco. I am looking foward to seeing the DL2 for the first time.

I thing about sitting around doing nothing this vacation was finally discovering facebook and myspace. I have been able to reconnect with so many people. If you are on either of those web sites and I haven't found you yet. Just search for me or find me by looking in the cruise ship techs group.

New Year

Well the new year has come at last. I have been home for a number of weeks now. I had a great visit with my Dad, and a few days with my sister. It was so nice to have a white Christmas this year. I feel so bad for the people in Colorado, they are getting dumped on again, I don't think they want to see snow any time in the near future. No word from work on any training dates as of yet, but I still have a few weeks, and also no word yet on Liberty. I will be going back to work a week later then planed due to the Superbowl being in Miami. So I will be back to work on the 10th of February.