Jewel of the Seas

Well I just found out that my next contract will be on the Jewel of the Seas. If you want to find out where the ship will be sailing, just click on the Title of this post.

Italian Team

Well on this special cruise we have had the pleasure of the Italian Olympic Skating Team. Lets just say they have been interesting to work with. Sorry the photo is blurry, it wasn't the best of conditions. Also note the girl on the left is one of our stagestaff.

Med at last

Well it feels good to be back in the med again. I wish we could have gone through the straights of Gibraltar during the day, but oh well. Our first stop was in the Azores, it was nice to walk around for a few hours after being at sea for five days. One more sea day then Lisbon, I have been their before, but I had to work too much so no time to get off. The cadiz the next day. I got off for a brief time, again I have been here once before. Took a few photos then back to the ship. Now we are back to sea again, but now we are in the Med. Today is the last sea day of the cruise so it feels really weird to know we still have one more day. France tomorrow, then Finally to our new home in Spain.

Europe for a little bit

Well I new I hadn't posed for a while, but it has been almost a month. Well I am going back to Studio B for about a month. I am taking over for the current tech while he takes care of some family matters at home. This puts me on the ship for Europe. It will be nice to be back for a few weeks any way. Things have been going good, I have enjoyed my time in the main theatre. At least I am still going to be on board to see a few project through to completion, or at least be able to hand them over.

5 weeks to go

Well I have been so busy that I have not had time to even remember that I had a blog let alone post too it. 5 weeks to go till vacation, well sort of. 5 weeks till I transfer for one week then vacation. At this time the most important thing is that their is only 2 weeks till I get to see my mother. She is going to come visit and sail with me for Easter. The weeks is going to go so fast. I can't wait to get home and get new glasses, and maybe even contacts. That will be a big change for me. I need to remember to take lots of photos around the ship before I leave so I can post them when I get home because I can't do it on board.

I have been on duty today and it really has been a day from hell. I might not have been so bad but on top of all the duty stuff, plus the duty crap that came up, I had to deal with one of our scenic contractors being on for the day.

And to top it all off, time change tonight!!!!Yuck!!!

St. Patrick's Day

Well sorry for not posting for a long time, but just a short post to say Happy St. Patricks day to everyone. Green bar shirt on, No Black alowed tonight, and Guiness in hand.

New Theatre, Same old Ship

Well my replacement finally showed up. So I have now moved into the main theatre. I have learned the spot cues for the shows, and everything is going great.

I spent the day getting some new par cans ready for the pool deck. Way more work then is should have been but its kind of my own fault. I changed the plugs on the new lights from Edison to 120v twist and then later realized that they needed to be 220v twist. Oh Well, now we just have to find some color and get them hung.

"As the ship Turns"

Well as someone close pointed out, ship life is like a soap opera. Not that I would know, I never liked the shows, but I knew what she meant. This past week, actually weeks have been crazy. My replacement has gone back and forth as too if he is coming. That issue is finally resolved, he is waiting for the ship to come into port tomorrow, so that is a good sign. We have had 3 tech's quit or get fired for various reasons. So staffing is going to be interesting for a while again.

I have started my handover to the main theatre. I can't wait to start designing shows again.

I have not posted for a while, and I have had so many things that I have wanted to post but just not the time. Now that I have made myself sit down and write for a while I can't think of anything.

Oh for all of you having bad weather, sorry. It was in the 80's today in Miami. And all the sailboats for the Miami Sailboat convention was a nice site.

Lights Aren't Perfect

Port: St. Thomas
Weather: Not too bad.

Well last night I got a couple of Studio Colors in the rink fixed. One blew up a control card, man did it smell bad.

Got off the ship today and had a nice lunch at the Shipwreck. Two of the musicians played pool to see who would be called Ben and who would be called by a nickname, both are named Ben.

Our Production Manager left today, she broke her foot after the superbowl. We all wish her a speedy recovery. No word on a replacement as of yet.

I also found out that my replacement might not be coming back. Anyone want to work in a ice rink and run moving lights??? Just kidding, our office will find someone.

Show is open

Well the new show is finally open. Everything went very smoothly, the audience loved it. Not much else to say.

Today has been a funny day. Although I was up half of the night programming lights for the new ice act, I got a good nights sleep. It was good to be back in my old room, it kind of like coming home. Not much was going on this morning. We are only in Nassau till early afternoon, so no reason to really get off the ship. Now we are in the middle of the superbowl. The place is very busy. Should be an easy night.

New Show

Well its Quest night again, and once again a very empty house. Quest is an adult gameshow, very funny. But some crowds of passengers just don't come. When we do have a full house it is quite the event.

Anyway back to the new show. The cast have been working very hard blocking and doing costume fittings. Today we had two costume runs, I think they went very well. I like most of the show. Even though we open tomorrow, I like to think of it more as a preview, it still has a lot of work to be done.

Usually the carpenters and lighting designers work all night long, then they do tech's all day. Somehow they manage to fit in shows every night.

The other light tech and myself have been putting in a lot of hours, We finally have most all of the lights working. We have had a few brief moments of everything working.

I will definalty try and find sometime to post tomorrow after the new show opens, if we aren't partying too hard.

Cast Change and New Show

Well I must be very busy, it has been a little over a week since I have had some time to breath and even think about posting.

The new cast is doing good. They opened the first show at the end of last week, so now we are concentrating on the brand new show. We loaded scenery on the ship for the past three times in Miami. This show is big, but at least most of the scenery all flys.

The lighting designer are now on, so we are working with them a lot. I am on duty this week, so sleep, what's that. I have to get up at about 8am and check the music in all of the lounges, it only takes about 15 minutes. Then I do my normal schedule for most of the day, popping my head into the main theatre to see what's going on, and help out when I can. Then when the main theatre is done with shows for the night, the carpenters and lighting designers come in and start working. I am usually with them doing lighting notes till around 3am.

Next week is going to be busy also. Its superbowl, so that changes things a little bit. We have a new ice act coming and also at the same time some of the music for the ice show is changing. So we have to run the new changes with the cast, and also design and tech the new ice act into the show, all this with the superbowl taking up the normal tech time for the week. After superbowl, things should calm down.

Life Goes On

Weather: Don't know but the sea conditions are rough
Port: Nassau this morning, at sea now heading to St. Thomas

Well Saturday was a long day, well let me back up a little bit. Last week we dropped the cybers in the main theatre, turned out to be really easy. So late Friday night I got to fixing them. Its something I like doing, being by myself one with the light. Taking it apart finding out what's wrong, putting it back together. Anyway, the first one tested great, nothing wrong. The second one on the other hand needed a new lamp base, new power cord, the list goes on. By around 1 am I said that's enough, and headed for the disco. If you haven't figured out yet, I don't tend to go to the disco all that often. Just not my scene. Well because the review cast was signing off and they were all out for a few drinks I figured I should show myself. But as usual after a couple and I do mean two, I did my disappearing act and hit the sack.

I was planning on getting up really early the next day to finish the cybers, but alas a few extra hours of sleep felt good, my back wasn't hurting much. I guess all that being bent over in the catwalks helped it. So around 9 I was back in the grid. I got the last light that we had dropped fixed, easy, just a few color motors. I wanted to test the last light, the one we hadn't dropped but with all the people waiting to get off the ship I figured I would wait.

At this point it was time to help off-load the old show, the one that wasn't going in the dumpster, so that it could go to another ship. That really didn't take long, so we all scattered. I had a few hours at this point so I meet some friends for lunch in Miami.

After coming back to the ship early to help load the scenery on for the new show, it wasn't ready to come on, so I went and tested the last light. Everything worked just like I had hoped.

Eventually the new scenery came on, lots of it. I can't wait to see what it looks like.

So along with the new scenery we also got a new cast. Lots of young cast members. I have briefly meet a couple of them, very nice.

Well time for bed, early day tomorrow.

All Better Now

Port: Cozumel - Still tendering
Weather: very overcast
Got off: Yes

Well our system is finally fixed, not exactly sure what went wrong or how we fixed it. But lets just say I wouldn't want to see the phone bills. We almost had to have someone come out and fix it for us, but alas we are getting ready to do show 4 for the week, so all is good.

Back is still giving me some troubles but at least it is keeping me from sleeping all day. It only hurts when I lay down. I have tried to stretch it out, but it doesn't seem to help. Once I get moving for the day it is good.

Starting to think of what changes to make to the disco. Many lights have issues, and lots just need to be replaced. The upper management wants it to be kick ass for Europe, and he says he has the money, so lets spend some!!! Martin get ready for a big order, at least big for a ship disco. It really isn't going to be that big, but for us it is.

Next week the main theatre gets a new cast. They have been taking out the two old shows all this week in preparation for the new show. What a mess!!! They say it is the largest show ever installed while the ship was still sailing, ie not in drydock.

Well more details to come on the new show latter.

Sometimes it hits the fan

Well yesterday started off great, but just went downhill fast. Got off the ship early and went to Best buy with friends. Picked up a few little things, some for me, some for the ship. Then we took the train back to Bayside, and had a great lunch at Chili's.

Well when work finally started, I went to start the obession II, no dice. Well it hasn't been fun, we are still in the process of fixing. I will update you later.

A New Member of the Family

I got great news today that my Cousin Heather just had a baby boy a few weeks ago. What a Surprise. His name is Carter Lance Kenndy. I tried to add an image to this post, but alas the ship computer would not let this be possible. If you know me personaly and have not see his photo yet, email me and I will send it too you.

Another day, another show

I feel like it has been forever since I have posted. None the less, I can't wait till I move to the main lounge. I am getting really board with doing the same show over and over, and did I mention over again. We weren't going to have an ice show today, but we had to do the show for the people that we canceled on earlier in the week, due to bad weather. The weather wasn't really that bad, but for the skaters it was. It wasn't a steady back and forth rocking, we can Handel that, but this was just rough and unpredictable, and that is dangerous.

I started off the day around noontime trying to get things ready for the show, when I discovered that the electricians had borrowed the genie lift. Wasn't too happy about that. So I reset the scroller from the ladder.

I finally got all of my cyber light parts moved out of the pit to the candy store. That's what we call where we store all of the spare light and sound parts. Lots of parts but nothing you ever really need at the time.

No I have a break for a few hours till it is time to set up the parade and do the quest. So all of my lights have been put a way for a few days, the floor is coming on, and it is time to ketch some news for a while. Maybe I will go check out the new CD someone made at my friends Brandon.

Sea Day tomorrow, so not much to do.

Shipwreck

Well St. Thomas today. Just sitting here between shows, thinking about what new lights I want to try and order for the Disco. The Hotel Director wants it too look really good, but I don't think he has any idea how much that could cost.

Well by the time I got off the ship it was straight to the bank, ok the post office to send monies home. Then to radio shack to by a cable for the PM's computer. He got really used to my usb extender, and when I took it back he didn't know what to do.

Then off to the Shipwreak. This is a very nice bar, actually it is now very very nice. It was the first time I had been in a few years and had not seen the renovation. They did a lot of changes, but didn't change the food. The burgers are what this place is known for. They are huge.

Well after a good nap, its showtime. Two shows tonight, then DUTS. That's Dancing under the Stars. I have to set up a few lights on the pool deck. It isn't really that hard, but the lights are very awkward to carry. Then I have to show back up at one am to strike them. That's the part that really sucks.

Anyway Boat drill tomorrow. This will be the first time I will get to tell you what that is like.

Discover Boardum

Well for the first time in weeks the Shopping Show is back in the ice rink. Although I program the lights to turn on by themselves. It is still a good reason to get out of bed. Man this show is boring, but the place is packed and that is a good thing.

Working on ships is all about contacts and knowing people. I tried to get reservations to our specialty resturant, and got told that they were booked. Then I saw the manager in the bar last night, and he said not to worry, call him in the morning. Called him, not a problem.

not much today

Well today was very uneventful. Not much going on. My new room is nice, it is nice to have storage space. I think I might try and do some work in the disco tomorrow, but I have to look and see if they are doing piano lessons or not.