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.