Monday, October 04, 2010

Once again the End is in Sight

Well the time is finally coming to an end. Less then three weeks remain till I head back to the states again. This contract has been very long, and vacation can't come soon enough.

I still have a quick trip to Florence this week. This is one of the last places on this run that I have not been too. Then next week I have my return trip to Rome with my Italian Masonic Brother.

Then a week handover and that will be then end.

I will be heading back to the Jewel at the end of January. A few months in the Carribean then a few months in the Baltic again.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Fantastic Day in Rome

Well I just got back from a fantastic day in Rome, so I am going to try and write this all down before I forget anything.

The day started off without being able to sleep much last night. This usually happens when all I can think about is having to get up early the next morning. So at 6 am I was wide awake, an hour before I wanted to be. It was nice to be able to be out on deck and watch us pull into port, I don't get to see that too often. We arrived about 15 minutes late.

As soon as I saw that the gangways were out, I grabbed my stuff and headed to the gangway, my friend Seth arrived at the same time to go with me.

We got off without any problems, it was boat drill day so we were both excused. The main reason for the trip was to try and get my computer fixed.

We headed out of the port on the shuttle and my masonic connection was waiting for us outside McDonald's. That is right next to the shuttle drop off point. We headed straight to Rome after a few introductions. The weather in Civi wasn't all that good and it looked like it was going to be a rainy day. It turned out not to be, the bad weather was just on the coast and Rome was bright and sunny.

It only took about an hour to get to Rome, were we went straight to the brand new Masonic Home. This is where my driver works, he is retired Italian Military and lives in Civi. He is also the Secretary for the district of Rome. The brand new part of an office building is where all of the Lodges (or Orients as they call them) meet in Rome. Its about 15-20 of them. They are still under construction, and will have their first meetings at the end of the month. I am going back to see it in October when it is finished. They have 7 Lodge rooms, most are very small, to me they looked like closets. Their large lodge room is about the size of the small lodges in Spokane.

Once I have my computer back I will send him some of my photos and he can see what some American Lodges are like.

So after the Masonic Home visit we headed to the Mall that has the Apple store. He wasn't very familiar with this side of Rome, he said it was like the Bronkes in NY. I guess he meant the slums. The Mall was very nice, and the Apple Store was just like in America, just in Italian and Euros. I checked in, my friend had called ahead and made my appointment. I was first in line, but still had to wait 40 minutes till they saw me. They were activating iPhone 4's all over the place. The place was packed. Did I mention this is one of only two Apple stores in all of Italy (I got lucky).

When they finally looked at my computer, they tried everything that I did to turn in on. Looked up my serial number to check my Apple Care. They told me the Logic board and left I/O board need replaced, it will take about a week, so it should be done on Monday. I love Apple Care, if you ever buy a Mac laptop, spend the extra money on the apple care, it will pay for itself someday (I have already got a new hard drive out of it).

So My friend will pick up my computer hopefully on Monday when it is done, and I will meet him again on Wednesday when the ship comes into Civi again.

After we left the Mall, we headed back toward downtown. We stopped at this little hole in the wall on the Appian Way. Its a set menu with only a few choices, lets say what ever Mama wants to cook that day, that's what your choice is. It was a great meal.

Seth hadn't been to Rome much before, so we drove around the Colosseum and St. Peters and a few other stops. Then he surprised me and drove to the Grand Orient of Italy (aka Grand Lodge for the Country). It just a small house with administrative offices and a huge library, but it was special. I was given a special Calender (I haven't opened it yet).

After this we drove back to Civi and stopped to see the Lodge in town. It is very small but nice.

Well that was my day in short form as we call it. I will update on my computer when I know more

Monday, September 06, 2010

Computer don't like ship power

Well my Mac died the other day. This is the second time it has died, the first time the hard drive needed to be replaced. I think it is the logic board this time. Thanks to a fellow Mason in Italy I have a ride to Rome on Wednesday to go to the closest Apple Store (only 2 in all of Italy). He has been great, and I haven't even meet him face to face yet. He called the Apple store for me and got me a Genius Appointment. They say it will be 14 days to fix it. I have so much to do on it before I leave the ship it will be good to get it fixed. The last thing I wanted to have to do was land in America and go straight to the store to get it fixed. Thank goodness I still have Applecare on it. I think it might be time to get a smaller laptop, so I can have one in my room, and leave my big one at work. Less ware and tare.

Sorry for not posting anything for the past 2 months. Things are very busy around here. The cast is past the halfway point, and we get a new ice cast in 2 weeks.

After many months of waiting for new lamps to arrive, I finally got them a few weeks ago, so my rig is looking very bright and clean. I have gotten many broken lights working. I have one more to try and get working before I leave, but if I don't its not that big a deal.

I have never started to count down to when I am leaving so eary. I started at 10 weeks. I guess it's because I have so many exciting things to do at home. I can't wait to see my niece, she is growing up so much. I will have not seen her in 7 months. She is talking and walking now. I have heard she loves to use the video camera. Future Tech I think.

Anyway I will let you know later in the week how my adventure to the Apple store in Rome goes.

Monday, June 14, 2010

5 years

Well I can't believe it's actually been five years with RCCL. I just found out I'm getting my five year service award. Not too much details yet, I will let you know if a few days.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Cast change over

Well it's been a while I know. We have been in Cast change for the past couple of weeks and it is finally over. Time to get back to normal where I have time to fix things. This ship is definaly showing more then it's age. The new cast are doing great, and install went very well. It has been nice having an extra sound tech around during this time. At the end of the week our Main room sound guy leaves, the studio B tech moves into the theater and the new guy takes over Studio B.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Crossing

Well the last cruise of the Caribbean Season is over. My handover has gone back to the Independence (he was only here as a vacation fill). During the last few weeks of the US season, we had our Traveling SR Head Sound and Light Tech onboard for a few things, so we did a lot of work.

Now we are crossing to Europe and as I write this we are in the middle of the Atlantic. So far the weather has been great, none of the high winds that were predicted. Although I haven't been outside today, I think it is starting to get windier.

Some were asking if the Icelandic Volcano affected us. Yes it did. We had about 300 people cancel the cruise because of the canceled flights. We sailed with about 90 or so staterooms empty. We had about 50 of the fill when we got to our first port of call, Nassau. Side note, we also had a medical debark via helicopter the day before Nassau when we were near Key West.

Our Traveling Production Manager was supposed to go home to England on Vacation but his flights got canceled, so we have him onboard as a "hitchhiker" of sorts. It's nice to seem him again, and we are getting a lot of things fixed.

Well Catholic Mass should be finishing soon, and I need Coffee.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Homecoming

Well it's been almost a week back onboard, and it has gone very fast. It's wird knowing where almost everything is onboard. It's almost like I was on here before, oh wait I was! So many new faces, and yet so many that I know. A few things have changed around the ship, but something never change. It is going to take a lot of work to get this ship back to 100%. So many lights to fix, so little time.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Back to the Grindstone

Well my long vacation is finally coming to an end. This has got to be the longest vacation I have ever had, I have been off of ships since last September.

Why so long you might ask, well if I had only taken my scheduled vacation I would have missed out on my nieces first Christmas, and I wasn't going to miss that. I also had some other plans that needed some time to complete.

I had a good time, spending most of my time in Spokane. I did a lot of Masonic things with my father, had a good Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Well now it's back to the grindstone, and this time I will be heading to the Voyager of the Seas.
I will do two cruises out of Texas (never done that before), then head to Spain, and the Med for the summer.

I have my flights, my medical was done today, now I just have to finish packing, yuck!