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......