Off to Japan, Sort of!

Well the start to our only cruise to Japan isn’t off to a very good start. Come to find out we didn’t leave China till 5am, we should have left about midnight. Not sure why yet, but I bet it has something to do with the tides again. That being said we aren’t going to arrive in Japan until around noon, when we should have gotten in at 6am. Also from what I am hearing the port only has 3 shuttles to take people the 1.5 miles out of the port, and too boot the passengers all have to go through a lot of immigration and have to be fingerprinted (so I have heard). Also we have a boat drill scheduled, and due to a DNV inspection we are having, they won’t change it. So once we are done with drill hopefully most of the passengers will be off and we can have a few hours to see Japan. Wish me luck.
Also due to the weather we are rocking too much, so we canceled the show tonight.

Amway is over!!!

Well once the road cases were finally off the ship today, I finally felt like the charters were finally over. We got in a bit late today, but not for any delays, it was just when the tides were right. It really wasn’t that bad, not like last time when we arrived at 6pm, this was only 11am.
Because of the offload and the fact that we had rehearsal at 5:30 I wasn’t able to get off. It’s all good though because it rained all day, and it would have been a crappy day anyway.
It felt a bit weird doing a welcome show and still being in port, but the show was well attended. It’s also a bit strange to be seeing kids again, we haven’t had any for the past 6 weeks.
So I guess things are getting back to normal.

As the Tide Turns

Well although a bit late we have started our final Amway Charter cruise. You might be a bit puzzled by how a cruise could start late, well let me see if I can explain. The weather on the last day of last cruise wasn’t the best, we had a lot of fog. When the ship goes though Fog it can’t go as fast as normal for safety. I am not sure of the particulars, but the speed of the ship and the timing to get into port is very important in Shanghai.
If you are unfamiliar with the geography of Shanghai, China, the port is actually up a river. I don’t know of the name of this river, but I will look it up on Google Earth when I remember. To get up the river to the terminal that we dock at we have to go under a few bridges, and if the tides are not correct we will not fit. I have also heard that the river was closed to traffic because of the fog, about this I know very little. So needless to say due to speed we did not make it to the river in time for the correct tide. We should have arrived around 7am but instead we docked around 5pm. I think the new passengers were allowed on by around 7:30pm. We were still able to leave port on time at around midnight to make the tide again, but it was a frantic few hours for many departments. I certainly glad I don’t have passenger boat drill, as it took place at 11pm.
On a different subject, my niece has a very nice first Easter from what my sister tells me. I will add the photos to facebook soon. She was so cute in her 1st Easter outfit (it actually said Baby’s First Easter), she had bunny ears on her feet, and was able to hold a big pink plastic egg. They went to the in-laws house for dinner, and she sent me great photos of her with her grandparents. It looks like her grandpa really like to give her, her bottle. I look forward to seeing photos of Izze with my Father and Step mother. They live about 2 hours away, so it is harder for them to see her as often. I know my mother will be visiting soon, so that is good. I really can’t wait to see her for her first Thanksgiving and Christmas. I don’t know what my job plans are for that time but fingers are crossed.

One more to go

Well as my loyal readers know, for the past month of so I have been doing the never ending Amway charters. Well starting tomorrow the end will finally be in sight, the last of the six cruises will be at last. The rest of the contract should go a lot faster one would hope. After the last Amway cruise we will finally be able to go to Japan for the first time. We will be doing a 5 day cruise from Shanghai to South Korea and Japan. After that we will start our cruises that will bring us to Europe. We have a two week cruise from Shanghai to Singapore, then the repositioning cruises start. The first is from Singapore to Dubai, then Dubai to Rome. We aren’t going to all of the places that we went when we went from Rome to Singapore, but most of the stops are the same. I think the only places that we are not going this time is Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, and Aquba, Jordan. We are heading straight from Safagga to the Canal then to Alexandria. Fingers are crossed that I get to see my friend in Mumbai this time. We had to skip the port the last time due to security risks. Also this time with the planned overnight in Dubai I hope to be able to get off and go to Ski Dubai. I went to the mall where it is at last time, but was alone and didn’t have time, but it shouldn’t be a problem this time.

Tug of War

Well yesterday I got a lot of maintenaince work done, cleaning lens tubes and scrollers. But in the middle of the day I went to the inter department tug of war. I was a great time and a lot more people showed up then I would have thought. The cruise division came in 2nd. We lost to the deck dept. We knew we had no chance so on the second try in the finals, we let go of the rope. The officers all fell on their butts, it was very funny.

Sorry for the Delays

Sorry everybody if you are reading my posts and you thin we are just finishing two Amway charters. I have been really busy, and we are starting our last of two more charters tomorrow. Let me see if I can sum up some of the things that have been happening lately, in no particular order.
If this isn’t on the top of the list my Sister will have my head. I am pleased to announce the birth of my Niece, Izabelle Louise Glaze. I am so proud of my sister and her family; she is a perfect little angel. I have photos on my facebook.
Our Adagio Act took all the techs out for Korean BBQ the other day, it was a fabulous dinner.
The Techs for the Amway Charter thanked us all, and we had a group photo taken (by them, not us) and we were all thanked with very nice gifts.

Two down more to go.

Well we have now finished two Amway charters, and still have four more to go. I am so board I can’t even tell you. I know some people onboard would kill to have two days off a week, but let me tell you, when your not used to it, it is very boring. Now granted I do get a lot of time off, but I need to work a few hours a day to feel productive. I would be getting lots of maintenance work done, but I have everything working and in good shape. I think I am going to get some real deep cleaning done, work I would normally do during a dry dock, like taking all of the conventional lights apart onstage and cleaning all of the lenses. They get covered in hazer fluid, and you loose a lot of the output of the light from this. When I did it on the Jewel, the overall brightness of the stage increased about 30%.
As I sit here in my light booth waiting for another Amway Talent show to start, I am dreading what the acts will be like. I wasn’t needed for rehearsal, so I went to lunch. What I did see well lets just say it’s a Talentless show. The main problem with the Talent shows that these people do every week, isn’t the fact that most of them are bad, or that they are very disorganized, it is the fact that there are so many acts. The show is usually 2.5 to 3 hours long. I don’t even understand a word of it, but trust me a bad singer in any language is a bad singer. Oh geese, there they go again taking photos of themselves, they don’t listen!

Well after trying to stay awake enough to do the talent show, two and a half hours and twenty five + acts, it is finally over. I think I will forgo the coffee next time, and just find a couple of red bulls. I think all the hot milk is what put me to sleep.