Chris' Life at Sea

What a difference half a year makes!

2010-02-03T16:51:00.001-08:00

The Carnival Miracle has forever changed my life for the better. I now have a job that has a future. I just received six months of solid work in a high tech theatre. I have friends throughout the world and I have countless stories to go with the many places I have been to. This has been an amazing six months for me and I look forward to working with many of you in the future. For those that I don't see again, good luck and God bless. Here are some photos of my favorite people, places and events from this contract on the Miracle.

The Statue of Liberty in New York.

R to L: Dave Fulton, Dave Blazer, Jason Scott and Greg Marino in the front row at a Jeeves Lounge set.

Our pilot boat leaving New York Harbor.

A lighthouse in Nassau.

R to L: Me, Josh(cruise director), Jason Scott(alto sax), Dave Fulton(music director) and Jenn(light tech).

A dock in Grand Turk.

A quiet street in Manhattan.

Jay Laboy in the Gotham Lounge.

The Moon form deck 4 forward.

Peter Roselli in Sam's Piano Bar.

The end of the beach at Half Moon Cay.

The second gayest picture I've ever taken. (It's Greg)

Without a doubt, the gayest picture I've ever taken. (Greg, again)

A dock in Nassau.

John Rivero laughing after playing Achy Breaky Tiger during his set in the Jeeves Lounge.

Jenn's least favorite picture but one of my favorites.

Party time!

L to R: Greg, Jenn, Me, Peter, Jay, John and Lisa(half a face) at crew bar party.

Empire State Building from the harbor.

An office building in Nassau.

Home of the greatest drink on the planet, papaya juice.

John and Matt Burns ready to go up at the Empire State Building.

The pier in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Downtown in Old San Juan.

The Miracle in the harbor in St. Thomas.

L to R: Jay(guitar soloist), Matt(drummer), Me, Jenn(light tech) and Greg(tenor sax) at a pool party at Paradise Point in St. Thomas

Ben Hampton(sound tech) waiting for the Jazz bands during a particularly annoying cruise.

Jenn Joinson doing the same thing as Ben above.

Carnegie Hall in New York.

The Cricket Club in Nassau. Yeah, english bacon!

A church in New York.

R to L: Jenn, Greg, Robbie(trumpet) and I at our Halloween party.

I don't know why but this picture cracks me up every time I see it.

Meghan in the crew bar.

A view from the cab in St. Kitts.

Greg putting on a diaper in my room.

Greg and I before sky diving in Key West.

R to L: Greg, Me, Jenn and Ben after we had all went skydiving. Awesome! Gonna do it again, Fo Sho!

Jenn with a turtle in Cozumel, Mexico.

Robbie(trumpet) showing his patriotism in Cozumel, Mexico.

The view from my favorite restaurant in the Caribbean, The Wharf in St.Lucia.

The Samuel Jefferson Plantation in St. Kitts.

Not sure what this is but it's kinda cool. This was taken in St. Kitts.

Volcanic magma meets the ocean in St. Kitts.

A sunset from deck 4 forward.

Sailing on the Stars and Stripes in St. Maarten.

Mike Rabadan and Emma Woolston at an after party in their cabin.

Robbie Kershner before Singing with the Big Band.

Chantelle Mullin before Singing with the Big Band. Is that really HER foot?

Robbie and Jay at the disco.

Back:Greg and I; front: Nichola Ivey(dance captain) and Sam(pianist) playing "Blazer Tag".

Chip Snider(bari sax) ruining an otherwise beautiful shot at the St. Lucia Golf Club.

R to L: Fede Rios(drummer), Kim(crew training center), Me and Chip at Brimstone Hill Fortress in St. Kitts.

Greg ringing a bell at Brimstone Hill Fortress in St. Kitts.

Sunrise as the ship arrived in Fort Laudrdale.

R to L: Mike Rabadan(trumpet), Julianna Pieknik(dancer), Marcus Monroe(juggler) and Emma Shenton(dancer) on New Years in the disco.

Zip lining in Costa Rica. This one is over 1,000 feet long.

Shipwreck Beach in St. Kitts.

Julianna at our corridor party.

Jay and I after our corridor party.

The alter of the sun god at Altun Ha in Belize.

Kim Mendes and I on her last night.

One of many awesome views at the Royal St. Kitts Golf Club.

Talk to you in about a month,

Chris

Hole Again

2010-02-02T13:01:00.003-08:00

Cruise #24- This was my last cruise. The main focus for this cruise was having a good time. My handover, Atalargo, started taking over the shows. I watched him do the first show and then watched the second show from the house. This was especially nice because I haven't seen the show form the front since my first week on the ship. I went out virtually every night and had a ridiculous time. On nights when we didn't have production shows, I would go to the Gotham Lounge and watch Jay play. He played "Georgia On My Mind" every time I went up there. He also learned Billy Joel's "Piano Man" for me. I have been annoying him with that request for months. He hates that request because he plays guitar. He says people actually request it. When I found this out I would shout it out during his sets. His most common response to this was "I hate you". It was kind of sad though. I had to say goodbye to all my friends with the knowledge that I probably wouldn't see most of them again. It didn't hit me until the last night as people started going to bed and saying goodbye. There was lots of hugging. The Miracle turned out to be an appropriate name for my first ship. It's a miracle that I am where I am today. This time last year, I was jobless and struggling to pay the bills. I had no idea where I was going or what the future held for me. I took a shot in the dark and applied for a job that I thought was way out of my league. Turns out, they gave me a shot. I was right. I was way out of my league. Luckily, I was able to fake it until I learned what I was doing. This past six months have been the most exciting of my entire life. I owe it all to my job and all the amazing people I met on the Miracle. Thanks to you my life has changed for the better.

The fly-ons for this cruise were Carl Strong, Michael James, Jerome Dabney, Phil Hughes and Mike Panzeca. After the way Carl acted last time he was on, I didn't talk to him much. Michael James did his juggling thing. And by juggling thing, I mean, he was on a ladder for nearly thirty minutes. He climbs a ladder with no one holding it. It's kinda cool but very annoying if you have seen it several times. The whole time he is on the ladder he is "walking" it side to side. So, it makes a thud, thud...thud thud sound as he rocks it back and forth. Imagine that for thirty minutes. Jerome Dabney needs to take a break. He can barely sing at this point and usually ends up talking through most of his songs. Phil Hughes is a ventriloquist who hasn't been on in several months. His show is terrible. He moves his mouth when he talks and his dummy has the same voice as him. So, you can barely tell who is supposed to be talking. It's really just a guy playing with dolls. He is a really good guy, though. He hangs out in the crew bar at night and is always good for a story. It is fitting that Mike Panzeca is the last fly-on that I worked with because he is the one that has been on the most throughout my contract. He's a great guy and I will miss working with him.

In St. Maarten this week, a huge group went to the beach just off the pier. Emma(dancer), Mike(trumpet), Chip(bari sax), Laura(social host), Sam(pianist), Fede(drummer), Emma Shenton(dancer), Jason(production singer), Scott(golf pro), Dan(guitarist), Jay(guitar soloist) and Ailsa(nurse) were all there. We hung out in the water and enjoyed the view. Well, the guys enjoyed the view. The girls just made fun of us for gawking at all the beautiful women. I brought a football and wouldn't you know it a game broke out. We threw the ball for several hours. My arm was sore the next day. After we were done working on our tans we went and ate lunch at the Greenhouse. I had a jerk chicken wrap. I had to ask for more ranch dressing because it was so spicy. It was probably the coolest beach hang that I have had since I was on the ship. Everyone was in a good mood due to the fact that we didn't have a production show that night. Normally, we would have Singing with the Big Band that night but Christopher Alan Graves was on vacation this week.

In St. Lucia this week, Chip and I got off and went to the Wharf for lunch. If you have been reading my blogs you already know what I had to eat. I had chicken Roti. Delicious as always. We didn't have time for much else because we had a tech run of Ticket to Ride for Alana the new dancer. So, we headed back to the ship around 1:00pm.

In St. Kitts this week, the ship had an accident. We hit the pier on the way in to port. In every port we have a pilot from the port authority get on the ship and guide into port. They do this because they know the port better than our captain and therefore should be able to avoid any trouble. Apparently, as he was guiding the ship around the pier he clipped the front of the ship. It put fifteen foot hole in the pier. I was awake when it happened but didn't know it had happened until I got outside. When we are docking the thrusters(allow us to maneuver sideways) are very loud and we only just grazed the pier. There wasn't a sudden stop as there would be in a car crash. Everyone was very lucky. The hole didn't breach the walls of the cabins inside. In fact there was someone sleeping in one of the cabins and he didn't even wake up. We had to fly in 20 welders and several large pieces of steel to repair the ship. They worked over night to repair the hole. They had to rip out three crew cabins in order fix it. We left 12 hours late and this caused us to be late in Fort Lauderdale. It ended up being a blessing in disguise because I didn't have to wait at the airport all day like I would have.

Also, in St. Kitts, Chip and I went to the Royal St.Kitts Golf Club and played golf. Again, I didn't score very well but I don't think anyone could have the way this course was playing. It was incredibly windy and every hole should have had a higher par. On one of the par fives, I hit three really nice balls(straight and long). I was still 150 yards from the pin because we were hitting directly into the wind. I hit the ball well but my short game failed me, again. Despite the frustrations with our play, we both enjoyed it immensely. It is now number#1 on my list of courses I have played. It was beautiful. The last four holes are along the coast over looking crystal clear blue water and volcanoes in the background. It was breathtaking. The course was in great shape and at no time did I have to move my ball out of a divot or rough spot in the fairway. What way to spend my last port day.

On the day I left, I woke up around 9:00am and went through customs. It was a lot of waiting but I got myself and my luggage through around 12:30pm. I went to the airport and waited for several more hours. My flight was on time and we left at 6:45pm. I arrived in Atlanta around 8:45pm and met my parents at the baggage claim. It was good to see them. It had been a while. I look forward to seeing those of you near Atlanta in the coming month. I will here until March 14th. So, if you are interested in seeing me let me know and hopefully we can arrange a place and time.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1- Hole #16 at the Royal St. Kitts Golf Club in St. Kitts.

Picture #2- Par 3 at the St. Kitts Golf Club. It was about 175 yards. My ball was about 30 yards short of the green due to the wind.

Picture #3- Another Par 3 at the St. Kitts Golf Club. It was about 200 yards. The green is just on the other side of those houses. I aimed it wrong and hit the house closest to the fairway. While we were on the green, a lady came out and asked if we were just learning to play golf. We replied "No". She said, "you hit my house" and I retorted, "I know". We quickly putted out and left before she made us pay for the dent in her roof.

Picture #4- Some houses on a hillside at the St. Kitts Golf Club. You can look at the trees to see how windy it was that day.

Picture #5- The fifteen foot hole in the bow of the ship. My cabin was about twenty feet from there on the interior.

Picture #6- My favorite picture of the Miracle. It was taken on Half Moon Cay.

Here Come Tha Boys From The South

2010-02-02T13:01:00.001-08:00

Cruise #23- This cruise was pretty exciting. There was a lot going on. First of all, my handover, Atalargo arrived. He is from India and does things "by the book". I have been teaching him what to do and how to run the shows. He has gotten upset at times saying,"that is not my job". He freaks out about the smallest things. I'm out of here next cruise, so I am trying to take it in stride. The next thing is, Greg and Kim left this cruise and I went out a lot to hang out with them. Early in the cruise we had a corridor party. Kim lives next to Greg and I. We decided to invite everyone we knew for one last big party. Sam(showband pianist) and I both had beards and we decided to shave handle bars and crazy sideburns. We ended up looking like a couple of rednecks. Sam's girlfriend Laura got mad at him and he shaved off that night. I kept mine for about a week before shaving. Anyway, the party was great. There was a bunch of people in our rooms and corridor but not enough to have security stop it. We were up rather late and it was worth every second.

The fly-ons for this cruise were Mike Panzeca, Michael James, Carl Strong and Jerry Goodspeed. Mike was good as usual. Michael James was O.K. His act gets less interesting the more you see it. Carl strong is a diva. He went off the deep end this cruise. During his midnight he got mad that we didn't have the microphone effects that he wanted. He never asked for effects before the show. he just shouted at the lighting tech during the show. Without preparation these things can't be done. He was very unhappy with the techs after the show. That night, he called Scott(Senior Tech) at 4:00 in the morning to complain. Scott hung up on him. Jerry Goodspeed is a bad ventriloquist. I wasn't backstage on duty so I didn't have to work his show. Thank goodness.

In Colon, Panama this cruise Greg and I got off and had sushi at Oishi just off the pier. This was the first time I had been off in Panama. I was excited about trying to see some of the culture of the country. After we finished lunch, Greg and I walked toward the gates of the " tourist area" of the complex. We walked through the gates and looked around to see where we might want to go. I looked left and then to my right. I then looked at Greg and I knew what he wanted to do before I asked. We turned around and went back to the ship. Panama is scary. We knew if we strayed too far from the pier we were going to get mugged. Considering we both had our computers on us, There wasn't much of a choice.

In Limon, Costa Rica I didn't get off due to continued cast change stuff and lack of anywhere to go.

In Belize this cruise, Julianna(dancer) and I went on the River Wallace and Altun Ha tour. The first part of the tour was the River Wallace. We traveled 29 miles on a boat down the river at a rather slow pace. We started in a bay where we saw Manatees coming up for air. As we traveled down the river, we saw all kinds of wildlife. This was especially cool for the two of us. I was a Forestry and Wildlife major in college and she was Bio-chemist in college. We saw Howler monkeys, crocodiles, bats, birds and iguanas. The iguanas are getting close to their mating season and all the males we saw were turning a bright orange color. They were in almost every tree. The more dominant males shared trees with several smaller females. I was five feet away from a crocodile at one point. There was a huge array of aquatic birds. We saw osprey, cranes, gulls and a bunch of other birds we couldn't identify. Even though they were far away, the howler monkeys were cool to see. When we reached the next dock we ate lunch and hopped on a bus to Altun Ha. This is an ancient Mayan ruin. The area that had been excavated was a religious site. It had monuments to all the gods. I learned that they typically didn't do human sacrifices. We didn't have much time there, unfortunately. It kinda felt rushed. I hope I get a chance to go back and see more. Once we got back to our pier, Julianna and I went back to the ship. We contemplated getting a drink on the pier to celebrate a good day but there wasn't enough time. Too bad. I didn't want it to end.

Not much to report in Fort Lauderdale. Chip(bari sax) and I went to eat and shop at Publix. After that, we headed back to the ship to get ready for boat drill.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-Sam and I lookin "Bubbaliscous" at our corridor party.

Picture#2-The mouth of the River Wallace in Belize.

Picture #3-Temple of the Sun God at Altun Ha in Belize.

Picture #4-Julianna and I on the Temple of the Sun God with the Temple of the Earth God in the background in Belize.

Picture #5-Greg and Kim on their last night. See you in June, Greg. Come to the Victory, Kim. I will miss you both.

Picture #6-Crocodile in the River Wallace in Belize.

Picture #7-Male Iguana in a tree in a Mahogany tree in Belize.

Picture #8-Howler Monkey(black dot) in a tree in Belize. There were several in this tree but they are so high up it is hard to get a good picture.

Picture #9-Insect bats on a tree in Belize.

Oh No, Not Again!

2010-02-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

Cruise #22- This cruise was all about getting ready for my last two cruises. Next cruise, Greg and Kim will be getting off and I know I will be going out more than usual. Also, my hand over will be getting on next cruise and I have been doing a lot of maintenance to have things in good condition before he gets on. My legacy will be to have the bus in pristine condition. The bus has gotten beaten up pretty bad over the course of my contract. I have been using bondo to patch the holes and now I have been painting it. This was Lisa's(nurse) last cruise. She has been here for my entire contract and is the one that came to get me when I stabbed my knee. We have become good friends and it was sad to see her leave. Hopefully I will get a chance to see her again.

The fly-ons for this cruise were JR McCollum, Michael James, Jerome Dabney and Mike Panzeca. JR McCollum is a nice guy who happens to do comedy. His act is O.K. He has a few good jokes but nothing to blow your socks off. He doesn't hang out after his shows so there isn't much to tell about him. Michael James is a good entertainer. His juggling is alright. His act has a Vegas strip feel to it. There is a lot of cheesy one liners and very family oriented. His ladder act is already less impressive the second time around. Jerome Dabney sings Motown stuff. He has a good act but it seems that his voice gets a little worse everytime he comes. It sounds like he just needs to take a break for a while. Mike Panzeca has been on many times. As always he was fun to hang out with in the crew bar.

This week in St. Maarten, Greg, Fede(showband drummer), Dan(showband guitarist) and Chip(bari sax) went to the french side of the island. We ate lunch at a french restaurant right on the beach near where our taxi dropped us off. I had the ham and cheese crepes. They were very O.K. I think they would have been pretty good if they were cooked correctly. They were a little burnt and that took away from the taste a little. When we finished Dan and Fede went for a swim. They swam to a nearby island. Greg, Chip and I walked down the beach. We decided to go right. This was a fatal mistake. The further we walked the more it became apparent that we were in the wrong area. We crossed over a rock barrier and BAM! We were surrounded by old naked people. It was the nude cruise all over again. We quickly turned around and walked the other way. We walked until the beach ended in a rock formation. The view on this side was much better. There were actually people our age on this side of the beach. We concluded our cab driver thought we were young tourists and decided we would want to see the nude beach. We actually just wanted to see some French culture. Oh well, maybe next time.

In St. Lucia this week, Greg and I went to the Wharf. We had lunch and watched the rain fight with the sun for "playing time". I had the chicken roti and a plate of jerk pork. Both were delicious. The Wharf has become my favorite restaurant in the Caribbean. The food is great and it is run by locals so the atmosphere is very laid back. Also, the view is really nice. It has a half moon bay and it is not overrun by tourists. The beach is gray because of the volcanoes in the area. After lunch, we headed back to the ship for a nap.

In St. Kitts this week, Greg and I had planned to climb the local volcano. We had heard that there was a trail you could access via taxi. After some further research, we realized that we didn't have enough time. It would have taken over six hours to walk the trail and climb the volcano and then get back to our taxi. So we decided to go with the old standby. We went to shipwreck beach. Upon our arrival, we decide we didn't want the same ole beach experience. We decided to walk down the beach. Everytime we had been there before we just hung out around the Tiki bar. We passed acouple of other Tiki huts and the beach came to a dead end. The end of the beach was rocky and we decided to climb the rocks to get some better pictures. It was worth the cuts on our feet. We discovered that there was a cave beyond the rocky beach. It was kind of cool looking. I wondered to myself if there might be pirate treasure in there, a laThe Goonies. When it was time to leave we discovered that our taxi had not come back to meet us. We talked to Dan and Fede and their cab hadn't showed up either. We walked to the road and just as we were about to freak out a cab drove by and we were able to convince him to take us back to the ship.

Nothing exciting happened in Fort Lauderdale this week. We went to the local Irish pub and ate some bangers and mash, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite meals. We did some shopping at Publix and headed back to the ship.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-The "safe" side of the beach on the French side of St. Maarten.

Picture #2-The "nude beach" side of the beach on the French side of St. Maarten.

Picture #3-Dan eating lunch in St. Maarten. He has pink finger nail polish on because the girl he likes pianted his nails the night before. It was our main topic of conversation that day at the beach.

Picture #4-Shipwreck beach from the dead end looking back toward our Tiki bar in St. Kitts.

Picture #5-The "treasure cave" at Shipwreck beach in St. Kitts.

Picture #6-Lisa the nurse. Sorry the picture is so bad but I usually didn't have my camara when she was around and this is the only picture I have of her.

My Ship Likes to Party All the Time

2010-01-08T09:00:00.001-08:00

Cruise # 21- Happy New Year, Everyone! This cruise was all about fun. Ridiculous and exhilarating fun. The first sea day was New Year's Eve. We were treated to the same dry turkey and rice as we had on Christmas Eve. Again, I was unable to participate in the free wine and beer due to Generations, which has pyro in it. Oh, well. We had early shows so we were off in time to actually enjoy bringing in the New Year. I was on deck 9 or Lido deck as we call it. The guests were gathered all around the pools and hot tub. There was a live band. I was on top of the hot tub. They put ply wood over the hot tub to create a sort of crew area. It was really cool. I was standing literally right next to the Captain when the ball dropped. There were several people from the entertainment department but mostly it was the big wigs on the ship. After the ball dropped, the Captain made a speech and I went to hang out with the band. The party then moved to the disco, which then moved to the Dog's Bollocks(a crew cabin that has been turned into a late night bar. Don't tell security. They don't know. I had nothing to do with the name either. It was made up by a couple English guys that live in that room), which then moved to deck 4 for the sunrise. It was quite a night. Everyone was in a great mood. I got up the next day and watched football all day. The week continued on as usual. However, there seemed to be a continued need by everyone to keep partying. I was dragged to the disco two more times after New Years.

The fly-ons for this cruise were Mike Panzeca, Marcus Monroe and Anthony Acosta. All of these guys you have me talk about before. Marcus went to all the parties with us on New Year's. It was cool to hang out with such a "huge celebrity". We found out after he left that he won't be back until we relocate to New York in May. If I would have known that, I would have made a better effort to let him know how much I have enjoyed working with him.

I elected not to get off in Colon, Panama or Belize.

In Limon, Costa Rica Greg and I went on an awesome shore excursion. We went zip lining in the Braulio Carrillo Rain Forest. We took an hour and a half bus ride to the site. Along the way, our tour guide told us about the history of Costa Rica. Literally translated it means "rich coast". We passed several banana and coffee plantation along the way. The most interesting thing I found out about Costa Rica is that its main export is computer parts. I would have never guessed that. When we arrived we waited in line to get our equipment. While we were waiting, we started talking to a couple from Charleston, SC. We found out they both worked on the T.V. show Army Wives. I think it is on the Lifetime network. They were dorks like us and really helped to pass the time. Once we were suited up, we walked up the trail and crossed an Indiana Jones style suspension bridge. It wasn't quite as long though. The first few lines were relatively short and were mostly for training purposes. The last few, however, were quite long. A couple of them over 1,000 feet. The views were amazing and the zip lining was quite fun. Seeing the rain forest in person is so much better than seeing on T.V. It's hard to get an idea of the beauty and thickness of the foliage. We saw several types of lizards and a flock of Tucans. They were colored different than Tucan Sam but were very pretty all the same. The day started out overcast but ended up sunny and nice. Due to the dampness of the air, the forest is actually kept quite cool. We traversed 9 lines in all. When we were done, we got back on the bus and headed back to the ship.

This week in Fort Lauderdale, I bought a computer. I bought a MacBook Pro. I am writing this blog post on it right now. No more Internet Cafe for me. I can sit on my bed and blog, now. Also, pictures download faster from here.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-It's 2010 on the Miracle!

Picture #2-The show band on stage just after the ball dropped.

Picture #3-Greg and I at the entrance to the suspension bridge.

Picture #4-Me at the Braulio Carrillo Rain Forest.

Picture #5-One of the zip lines we rode on. To the left you can see a river between the trees. We later zipped over it.

Pictures #6 & 7-Two different lizards I saw in the forest.

A "Fort"unate Christmas

2009-12-29T16:32:00.000-08:00

Cruise #20- This cruise was, of course, all about Christmas. We had the Christmas show, again. Boo! We ate a "special" Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve consisting of dry turkey and rice. There was also mystery dishes numbers 1 and 2. They had free wine and beer in the mess for everyone's merriment. I wasn't able to have any because we had Generations that night. There is a strict no drinking policy when pyro is involved. That night things got a lot more interesting. Greg and I stayed up late and made people macaroni pictures. We stuck them on their door for them to find in the morning. For example, we made the dance captain a macaroni dancing shoe. It was so unrecognizable that we actually to put on it "this is a shoe". I now have a lot of respect for professional macaroni artists. It is hard to be realistic when creating with macaroni. Despite being away from friends, family and all that delicious food, this is the first Christmas in a long time I have actually been able to embrace the spirit of the season. It is amazing what getting away from the main stream and corporate America will to for your spirit. My Christmas spirit grew each day as the day approached. I didn't have three months of Christmas courtesy of Wal-Mart like ya'll had. It was nice to actually feel Christmas again. I missed all of you and look forward to seeing most of you when I get back in January.

The fly-ons for this cruise were Mike Panzeca, Jerry Goodspeed and Carl Guerra. I think by now you know who Mike is. Jerry Goodspeed is more than a ventriloquist he is also a drunk. Before his first show I kept smelling alcohol. I thought for a while that it was a social host but they left right before the show started. I narrowed it down to Jerry just before he went on. For his second show, he showed up with his shirt untucked and his hair all messed up. Literally, he showed up five minutes before he was set to go on. When he did go on stage, he forgot some of his bits and generally struggled through his awful routine. He blamed the audience for having no energy. My thought was that it was the fifth of Vodka he drank before his show but I haven't been in this industry long, so, maybe I'm wrong. Carl Guerra was not amusing at all. He seemed to think that Mike Panzeca had a lot of the same jokes, so that is why he didn't do so well. This is not the case. Mike has funny jokes and Carl does not. That was the difference between the two.

Christmas day was in the port of St. Maarten. My plan was to spend most of the day on the beach but it rained all day. So, I ended up spending most of Christmas day lounging around watching T.V. or playing video games. Which is probably what I would have done if I would have been at home.

The next day we were in St. Lucia. Dave(musical director and huge Georgia fan), Chip(bari sax), Greg and I all went and played golf. We played at the St. Lucia Golf Club. We got a crew discount. It cost us $60 for 18 holes, clubs and a cart. Well worth it! On many holes there were ocean views. There were even a couple mountain views. The course was extremely challenging and none of us are any good. The greens were extremely fast and hilly. There were some professional style breaks, Which, of course, we missed.We all shot over 100. It took us nearly six hours to get the round in. We saw the entire golf course, if you know what I mean. It was great though we all got frustrated at our play but agreed that it was a fun day.

The last port this cruise was St. Kitts. Kim(crew training center), Fede'(drummer), Chip, Greg and I went to Brimstone Hill Fortress. It was a cheap cab ride away and only cost $8 to get in the park. It was a stronghold for the slave trade. It exchanged hands many times. The French and British kept taking it from each other. There cannons and quarters and everything else you would expect from a military establishment. It is located on the top of an inactive volcano. There are buildings all over. Also, the views from up there were spectacular. You could practically see the entire island from there. It was a must see if you go to St. Kitts.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-Ocean/sea view from one of the tee boxes at the St. Lucia Golf Club.

Picture #2-The approach on the 18th at the St. Lucia Golf Club.

Picture #3-Archway and cannons at Brimstone Hill fortress

Picture #4-The Fort from below

Picture #5-Fede', Kim, Me and Chip at Brimstone Hill Fortress

Picture #6-Fort Lauderdale at sunrise. Don't ask why I was up. I won't tell you.

Broken Hearted

2009-12-29T16:27:00.000-08:00

Cruise #19-This cruise was full of adjustments. With Ben and Jenn gone I have had to get used to the new styles of the new techs. They are both named Scott. The lighting Scott is the Senior Tech and has a much different way of doing things from Ben. He wants to do things at the strangest times. For example, this cruise he decided to organize the stage left locker after our weekly meeting on Embark day. This is a problem because it is one of our busiest days of the cruise. There is very little time for dinner and he wanted to organize the locker during our dinner time. I didn't eat dinner until midnight mess. which is basically pizza and sandwiches. I was on port manning this cruise. I switched with Sasa the back lounge tech. It was good timing though because with cast change over I have been able to do some much needed maintenance. I bondoed and painted a hole that my stage hands had made several weeks ago. because of cast change there hasn't been enough time for the paint to dry. Also, it is good because now I won't be on port manning during Christmas. In addition to all that, this was my last port manning. I am now free to do what I want from here until the end of my contract.

The fly-ons for this cruise were Anthony Acosta, Karen Grainger and Paul Lyons. Marcus Monroe was scheduled to be here but due to the blizzards in the northeast he wasn't able to fly out of New York. Anthony Acosta has been on many times and I have heard his routine so many times I could almost repeat back to him. This was Karen's last cruise with us for a while. She is booked elsewhere until April. She has been absolutely lovely to work with. It has been a pleasure knowing her both on and off the stage. Her last night she hung out in the crew bar with us. She bought rounds for the musicians and the techs. We were even able to convince her to come to the disco that night. Paul Lyons was a really bad comedian. I mean really bad. Since Marcus was unable to come for his show the band played a set with the two production singers.

We started Christmas show this week. We had a rehearsal and matinee show on Generations night. It was a train wreck. It is worse than some shows I did in high school. It starts with a medley of not so Christmas songs while the dancers perform the simple choreography. It involves the song "Cool Jerk" to give you an idea. After this we bring children up on stage. They do the "running man" to another Christmas song that you have never heard of. After this, our genius of a cruise director reads a Christmas story that he made up involving all the dancers names. It loosely parallels "Twas the night before Christmas". Finally, after you have suffered through that Santa Clause comes and the show is over. We then, wait around while all the kids take their pictures with Santa. Just to entertain myself, I was trying to make the dancers laugh while they were sitting on stage during the kids and story portion. I pretended to cry while the kids were on stage. At one point, I stormed off as my emotions got to be too much for me. I came back with a box of Kleenex and offered it to the dancers as I continued to fake cry. I had a couple of them biting their cheeks.

I didn't get off in any ports due to my port manningness.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-Karen and I after her last show on the Miracle.

Picture #2-Karen as Barbara Streisand.

Picture #3-Karen as Cher.

Picture #4-Karen as Shenade O'Connor.

Picture #5-We have just recently recieved Laser Tag as an activity for the guests. We decided to test it out as a crew activity. After work one night we set it out and played for several hours. Greg had the genius idea to play Blazer Tag. So, we grabbed our best sport coats and got in the ring. This picture is before we played. From L to R: Me, Nichola(dance captain), Sam(keyboard player) and Greg(sax).

End of an Era

2009-12-29T16:19:00.000-08:00

Cruise #18- This cruise was fun but sad for all of us that are staying on the ship. It concluded a three week span where all the cast, most of the band and half the techs were leaving and being replaced. Most of the people I have grown to know over the course of my contract left at the end of this cruise. My room mate Ben, my good friends Jenn, Robbie and Yetro all left this cruise. Anyway, such is ship life. The new dance cast have now taken over for all the shows. This has been the most intense week of cast change and I have worked several sixteen hour days. Cast change finally ended this week though. We switched Singing with the Big Band with Ticket to Ride. Since Ticket to Ride is the last show of the cruise and the last show the dancers were taking over for, we finished cast change three days early. After Ticket to Ride, Ian(dance supervisor) and Nichaela(dance captain from the old cast) threw everyone involved with cast change a champagne reception in the blue room behind the theatre. The party continued on from there and lets just say it lasted all night. I saw the sunrise on deck four that night.

Another piece of good news is I have arranged another contract. Several cruises ago I sent an e-mail to the home office and requested another contract. They wrote me back this cruise and offered me three different ships. They were the Destiny, Freedom and Victory. It was an easy choice to make. The Destiny is known fleet wide as the Death Star due to its bad condition. The Freedom has three and four day runs. The ports are alright but I didn't want to do boat drill twice a week. I chose the Victory because it has seven day runs.I will be on a normal weekly schedule. Right now, with the eight day runs I rarely know what day of the week it is. Also, Ben is set get on the Victory about the same time I am. There will be several dancers from the old cast there. It will be a lot less intimidating than it was getting on the Miracle. I will already know some people. The Victory is based out of San Juan and goes to St.Thomas, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Kitts and several other islands that I haven't been to. It has seven ports in seven days. No sea days, Yea! I will start the contract on March 14th and go for another six months.

The fly-ons for this cruise were Thomas Brown, Karen Grainger, Jerry Goodspeed and Mike Panzeca. Thomas Brown is a comedian. He did our Intro show this week which means I didn't listen to him. While the comedian is on, I am striking the set from Intro show. Also, he didn't hang out after. Karen was lovely as always. She only has one more cruise with us before she is gone forever. Jerry Goodspeed is a ventriloquist. His show is uninteresting and he rarely does what he says he is going to do on stage. I have to hand him a puppet through the curtain when he gives me the prediscuused cue. He never says the line that he is supposed to and usually complains after the show that I didn't do it correctly. Mike Panzeca is a comedian. I practically could do his show by now. I have heard many, many times.

I didn't get off in St. Maarten or St. Lucia due to cast change.

In St. Kitts Ben and I got off early and visited the Victory which coincidentally we were docked next to. I had just found out the day before that I would be working there. I met the guy that will give me my hand over. We walked around the theatre and then went back to the ship. I got off later the with Dave(Musical Director) and Jenn. We went to an Indian restaurant and has some very spicy food. I would tell you what I had but I couldn't even pronounce it in the restaurant. I opted for the pointing it out method of ordering. It was good but I went through at least four cokes in the process. After that we met Ben and some of the dancers at Shipwreck Beach. We had a couple of drinks and found our way back to the ship.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-A view from the cab ride to Shipwreck Beach in St. Kitts.

Picture #2-Robbie and I in the disco on Ticket to Ride night.

Picture #3-Chip(Bari sax), Jenn and Ben after Karen's show.

Picture #4-The Caribbean Lounge on the Victory. This is where I will be working in a couple of months.

Picture #5-Ian giving a toast to everyone at the champagne reception. Nichaela is to his left in possibly the hottest dress I have ever seen. It is practically backless. What a vixen!

Picture #6-Yetro(guitarist) before a set in the Jeeves Lounge.

Movin' On

2009-12-29T16:17:00.001-08:00

Cruise # 17- This cruise cast change kicked into new gear. I was working so much that I wasn't able to get off the ship. They had several tech runs and I was on call all day everyday. I showed up in the theatre at least once an hour to get props or move set pieces for the new cast. This week they took over Generations and Singing with the Big Band. They were able to do the shows, although some of them seemed unsure at times what the choreography was. It was a little strange seeing new people in some of these costumes. There was several times during the show where I said the wrong name over com. This is the last cruise for the old cast. They are hanging out more now and are all excited to be going home. I wish they would have hung out more throughout their contract. I feel like I could have better friends with some of them if they had. I will miss them anyway though. They were really good at what they do. I know I won't see some of these people again because some are retiring. This brings an end to exciting chapter in my contract.

The fly-ons for this cruise were Carl Faulkenberry, Karen Grainger, Darren Sanders and Marcus Monroe. Carl Faulkenberry is a comedian. Have you ever been to a party and met someone who think they are hilarious but everyone just wishes he would shut up? That's Carl. He looks like an accountant and is just as funny. Karen is the love of my life! Darren is a comedian. I was doing other work backstage during his show and didn't pay a lot of attention to him. He seemed like a nice guy but didn't hang out after the show so I can't say much about him. Marcus is a juggler that is finally starting to be a regular again. Thank goodness because his shows are not at all work. His shows are improved and you never know what he will do next. This keeps his show fresh and interesting to do every time he is on board.

Since I didn't get off this cruise there isn't much new to report. I will take this time to tell you about my stage hands that help with Generations and Ticket to Ride. I have been assigned six guys to help with moving props and erecting sets. I did not choose them. They were picked by the staff captain. Most of them do not speak good English. I have two from India, two from Mexico, one from Honduras and one from Indonesia. There is usually a change or two before every show. This is usually do to a reblock of the choreography. I have to let them know what changes have been made so that we can have the proper movement of things backstage. Usually, I will tell them what is going on and the couple guys that speak good English will then relay the message to the others. After the second, non-English meeting I will see the others faces light up as they learn what is going on. Then, I usually get a nod or a thumbs up from them. This is problematic sometimes because it is like the game you play in elementary school where you pass the secret around the circle. It almost always is a different message by the time it gets back to you. There have been several times where I have told them to do something and they have done exactly the opposite. This is one of the many things that keep my job interesting.

They are quite funny at times. I have had this same group of guys for several months now and they know what they are doing. They even know the shows and sometimes I will look back and they are doing the choreography or singing to each other. On my side I have Melvin. He like the ring leader of the shenanigans. He jokes with everyone including the dancers. During the world tour section in Ticket to Ride the stage revolves revealing one new set after another. Once the set is finished backstage the dancers come on and get into their starting positions. Melvin always gets in their starting positions just off the revolve. The will see him and laugh just before they start dancing. Also, on my side is Warren. He looks like he is twelve. He gets really excited when he completes a task and usually runs up to me and says' "I did it boss" while he gives me a thumbs up. Melvin is like Warrens dad. Melvin is always correcting him or telling him which way he is supposed to go. They keep things fun backstage.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1- Finale of Generations, This just after the first pyro blast in Break Down, Shake Down

Picture#2-70's section in Generations. Here you can see three of our five lifts are up. The lifts move independently from each other to create any look we want.

Picture #3-First pit lift during Minnie the Mooch in Singing with the Big Band. I set the stage during the opening number down in the pit.

Picture #4-Finale in Singing with the Big Band. Christopher Alan Graves is in the foreground. He came up with the concept for the show and is he star performer.

Picture #5-Half way through the revolve in Ticket to Ride. The stage revolves 360 degrees to any position we want. Later in the show the bus splits in two. It is pushed by my stage hands and I.

Picture #6-The Hard Days Night section in Ticket to Ride.

All photos in this blog courtesy of Nathan Gosseling's(dancer) mom.

Team America

2009-12-29T16:12:00.000-08:00

Cruise #16- Cast change continues. The new cast has now taken over all of our easier shows. This includes Intro show and Legends. Next Cruise they will take over Generations. This is our show that spans several decades of music with era appropriate costumes and sets. Everyday the rehearsals get more intense. This means they need more form the techs. They are starting to use more sets, backdrops and props. I am working more hours everyday due to this. In addition to cast change I still have to do my duties at night. This means I don't sleep much. Ben's parents and sister were on this cruise. It was a nice change of pace to hang out in guest areas. I saw the inside of a guest cabin for the first time. It was quite nice and spacious compared to the cabins we are in. At night Ben's sister and her friend would come down to the crew bar and hang out with all of us. I now know what Ben would look like in a dress. She looks exactly like him.

The fly-ons for this cruise were Anthony Acosta, Karen Grainger, Jerome Dabney and Mike Panzeca. Anthony is a comedian who is fun to hang out with. I have seen his show so many times a hardly pay attention anymore. It's a good show but mostly geared toward a younger crowd. Karen Grainger is just awesome in every way. Jerome Dabney is a Motown singer. He was on a good bit early in my contract but hasn't been on in a while. He has a pretty good show if you like that kind of music. Mike Panzeca is a comedian. Similarly to Anthony Acosta, he has been on many times and I barely pay attention to his show anymore.

In St. Maarten this week Jenn and I did a shore excursion. We got a really awesome discount on the Americas Cup Regatta. This tour allows you to race actual Americas Cup sail boats. This is NOT a sit back relax kind of thing. Everyone on board has a job to do and aids in sailing the boat. I was a primary grinder. Which means I was bent over a grinder cranking as hard as I could. We were on the boat named Stars and Stripes. Obviously, an American ship. We raced against Canada. There was a Captain who would yell out orders and you were supposed do what he said. He would yell out, "primary grinders 1" or primary grinders 2". The numbers let you know which way crank. We learned about the sails and racing on a sail boat. When we were sailing with the wind it was easy. When we were against the wind we had "tack". This means to zig zag back and forth to get the next bouey. It was hard work but really fun. We ended up losing to the Canada. After we got back to the pier, the Captain said that they didn't have enough people for the next session. He wanted to know if anyone wanted to stay on for another race. When he said it was free, it didn't take long for Jenn and I to say yes. We stayed on the same boat and some new people got on. We did the same race again. The result was quite different this time. We crushed the puny Canada boat. By this time Jenn and I had been on the boat for nearly four hours. Jenn had to go to the bathroom. She was hurting so bad that the Captain said she could get off before we tied off the boat. The boat that took us to the pier was a ferry. So, about fifty people knew she had to go to the bathroom. When we got close to the pier Jenn leaped out of her seat and ran and jumped toward the pier. Her foot hit the edge and she feel directly on to the dock. After realizing she was O.K. I fell out of my chair laughing. It was probably one of the funniest things I have seen in a while. Anyway, after we had some celebratory free punch we met Ben and his family at the Greenhouse for lunch. When that was over it was time head back to the ship.

In St. Lucia this week Jenn, Robbie, Greg, Mark(bassist), Emily(dancer) and I went to a really nice restaurant. It was similar to our supper club here on board. I had pumpkin soup and the pork chops. The best part of it wasn't the food. It was the view. Our table was literally ten feet from the water. It was over looking the bay there close to our ship. It was a really nice outdoor dining experience. After that we walked around the shops on the pier and headed back to the ship.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-"The Stars and Stripes" as we approached from the pier.

Picture #2-"Canada" tacking in front of us during the first race.

Picture #3-Some apartments in the bay where we were racing.

Picture #4-The restaurant we ate at in St. Lucia. If you look to the left there is an awning just before yo get to the boats. That is where our table was.

It's a Different World

2009-11-29T10:11:00.001-08:00

Cruise #15- Things have been busy this cruise with cast change. Also, I was on port manning again. The new cast has really refreshed the ship. There is a new vibe in the crew bar because of all the new dancers. They all in all younger than the previous cast and therefore have more energy. Also, more of them are single compared to the old cast. This contributes to them hanging out more. It's been fun but busy. This week they took over Intro show. In the coming weeks, they will start taking over the other shows one at a time until they have completely replaced the previous cast. I still don't know whether I passed SCC training or not. Once the results are in we will have a ceremony on the bridge. I know I passed but I really just want to see the bridge. For those of you that don't know, the bridge is where all the ships navigation is done. It is off limits to us and this is a once in lifetime thing for me to see the bridge.

The fly-ons for this cruise were Mike Panzeca, Karen Grainger, Puck and Marcus Monroe. Mike is pretty funny and very cool to hang out with. We had him on a lot in New York and have only recently started having him on again. It makes since because he from Fort Lauderdale. Karen Grainger, How much I love thee? Let me count the ways. Puck was on last cruise and did a hypnotist show. This week he had two shows. First, he did an O.K. magic show. Blah, blah blah. For his adult only midnight "comedy" he performed his hypnotist act. About 50 people showed up to watch it after his magic show. He needs 14 people to do his hypnotist show. You do the math. He pulled people on stage begging and pleading. We sat through thirty minutes of "your falling deeper and deeper asleep". He was right. I was falling asleep but not because he hypnotizing me. Anyway, when we brought the lights back up, he realized that he had hypnotized none of the people on stage. He said "sorry folks sometimes it doesn't work" and walked off stage. He proceeds to rant and rave back stage about he can't do this anymore and how the cruise lines never have big enough audiences for him. I said "sorry dude and left" Why does almost every act that shows up think that they are the most original and entertaining act around? Marcus is awesome. I'm sure you remember me talking about him when we were in New York. He brought us all T-shirts with the knortch on them. They are very cool and it was good to be remembered by a fly-on.

Being on port manning there isn't much to say about this cruise. Write me some emails about what you want to hear about next time I am on port manning. That way I can make these more interesting when I can't get off the ship.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-The pier in Limon, Costa Rica.

Picture#2-The pier in Colon, Panama

Picture #3-This picture is from when we went to Shipwreck Beach a few weeks ago in St. Kitts. Apparently, this is a vacation hot spot for terrorists(Dancers David and Anna).

Picture #4-I took a picture at the Wharf last week in St. Lucia. I thought of you from Georgia could appreciate this.

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

2009-11-29T09:52:00.000-08:00

Cruise #14- This cruise was a much needed breath of fresh air after all the nudity from the previous cruise. This cruise I finished SCC training. Yea! After three weeks of getting up early and getting in trouble in class for simply being an American I am finally done. The Italians who teach the class find any way possible to make us look stupid. For example, Greg answered a question during the final week of training and got it exactly right according to what they have been teaching us for the past two weeks. The teacher said that he was wrong and made up some new answer that we have never heard before. This was during a review so there shouldn't have been any new information. Our two instructors are named Mario and Luigi. No, I'm not kidding. So I'm done but I still have to wake up early though. This cruise we started cast change. All the dancers and production singers are leaving. Over the next four weeks they will be teaching the new cast all the choreography for the show. They will be using the lounge for rehearsals. So, that means that when there are no activities or shows going on they are in the theatre rehearsing. They need props, drops, sets, etc. So that requires us to go in at any time during the day. Essentially, we are like doctors, always on call.

The fly-ons this week were JR McCollum, Karen Grainger and Puck. JR McCollum is a comedian. I don't know much about his show or him. During his show we are striking the Intro Show set and I can't pay much attention to it. Also, he doesn't hang out after the show. Karen is one of my favorite fly-ons. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met. She is different from most of the fly-ons because she is down to earth and more to talk about than herself. Puck is not the guy from the Real World. He is a hypnotist. His show very uninteresting. The first half hour is spent in the dark while he hypnotizes people. The second half hour is spent making the people on stage do rather boring things. The most interesting thing he does is tell someone that the number nine is no longer in their vocabulary. Then, he makes them count their fingers and of course the person counts to eleven, skipping nine. They generally look baffled and it is moderately funny.

The first port this week was St. Maarten. Greg, Robbie and I got off the ship and went to the beach just off the pier. While we walking there, a guy renting jet skis called me a computer nerd. These people are everywhere. They stand on the pier and harass people as they walk around. We told him we weren't interested and kept walking. As a parting shot, he called me a dork and told me I looked like someone who worked on computers. I complimented him on his salesmanship and continued on. We swam for a while. We ran into to some guys that were working on a cargo ship. They were from Sweden. Their accents were awesome. They sounded like the Swedish chef form the Muppets. It was hard not to laugh. Just imagine him talking about life on a ship. After we left the Swedes, we went to a local pub with good Internet and grabbed some lunch. Then, I did some watch shopping. There, is a watch there that I really want but I can't get the price low enough to make it worth buying. I have been trying to find a similar one that is less expensive. No luck yet though. I'll just have to keep looking. After I was done shopping, I headed back to the ship.

In St. Lucia, it was a rainy day. I elected to hang the ship for a while and let the rain die down. Dave, Mark, Emily, Matt, Greg, Robbie and I went to restaurant called the Wharf. We started sitting outside so we could enjoy the view but it started raining again and we went inside. It had local foods as well as burgers, etc. I got the chicken Roti. It is potatoes and chicken with a curry sauce. It is all wrapped in a very thin tortilla. It was delicious. Anthony, you would love it. The curry sauce gave it flavor without making it too hot. I will definitely have that again before I leave. Since it was raining, we all went back to the ship to enjoy an exciting afternoon of Wii golf.

The final port this cruise was St. Kitts. Greg, Robbie and I paid a taxi driver $20 a piece to give us a tour of the island. It was money well spent. The tour provided full look at the island. So, we saw local culture and all the tourist destinations. It was mostly a long cab ride with narration but we several stops along the way. Some were scheduled, some were not. The first stop was at the plantation of Samuel Jefferson. He was the grandfather of Thomas Jefferson. The island was once used as a major port for the slave trade and sugar cane. Samuel had a sugar cane plantation. There were lots of really old walls and remnants of buildings. It was very beautiful. The next stop was at the point where the Caribbean sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. It was neat to see the currents coming together. There were a lot of waves. After that, our guide took us to a place where magma hits the surface near the ocean. There was lot of steam and very interesting volcanic rock formations. Along the way, he would tell us about where his friends worked and lived. As we were driving, he made a sudden stop and quickly got out of the car. He grabbed some rocks and started hurling them at dogs. When he got back, he explained that there are wild dogs on the island and they kill the goats. Goats are about as common as cows in the south. He told us that if he sees such things happening he will try and stop it because his goats have been eaten by wild dogs as well. He also, told us that monkeys are the biggest pest on the island. They steal everything. There are four monkeys for every human on the island. Monkeys get shot on site. After, the tour it was time to get back on board.

In Fort Lauderdale, I didn't get off because I am on port manning next cruise.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-Taken from our pier in St. Maarten, it is Skull Island. This is where King Kong was filmed. This is where he is found in the movie.

Picture #2-A view from the Wharf in St. Lucia.

Picture #3-An old bell tower at the Samuel Jefferson Plantation

Picture #4-A view from one of the walls at the Samuel Jefferson Plantation

Picture #5-Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean coming together.

Picture #6-Magma meets the Ocean in St. Kitts.

The Naked Truth

2009-11-09T16:18:00.000-08:00

Cruise #13-Well, this one was interesting. This cruise was a charter cruise. Which means a group of people essentially rent the boat for a cruise. This group was called Bare Necessities. Yes, you guessed it, they were nudists or naturists as they like to be called. Not only were they naked they were old. The average age was 55. That is a fact not a guess. It was awful and I spent the majority of the cruise in crew areas. The thing that struck me as the strangest was the fact that they were not completely nude most of the time. My favorite outfit was when they would wear collared shirt and shoes with no pants or underwear. They said it wasn't about sex but I wasn't born yesterday. Every time one of them would come on stage to talk they would make some reference to sex. The good thing about the cruise is that we got to see new ports. I'll tell you about those in a minute. Here is an interesting story from this cruise. One night I we showed two movies (Slumdog Millionaire and Twilight) in the Phantom Lounge. I was the one appointed to make sure everything was running correctly. About fifteen minutes into the movie, an elderly gentleman in an open bathrobe taps me on the shoulder. He said he couldn't read the sub titles. I told him this was the best quality we had. Our lounge shows movies via DVD. We do not have movie theatre projectors. I kept trying to describe to him why we couldn't get better quality and he kept getting more and more annoyed. I ended up calling our Audio/Visual Manager to come talk to him. Of course he told him the exact thing I just told him. Finally, the guy got the hint and went back to his seat unsatisfied. It took all I had not to laugh. I mean really, I was talking to an enraged naked guy. It was very surreal.

The fly-ons for this cruise were Percy Crews II and Karen Grainger. There weren't as many this cruise due to the fact that we had two days off in Key West. Percy is one of the veterans of the company and had no problem with all the nakedness. What he did have a problem with was me calling him Happy. He was walking with his back to me down the gangway and I yelled out "Happy". He turned around and said, "you just called me Happy, man". I quickly realized my mistake and told him I was sorry. When he came for the show later that night I greeted him with "hey Percy". He replied with, "oh, so I'm not Happy anymore". It was good in the end because he had a few laughs at my expense. The reason I called him Happy was because I was told that Happy not Percy was supposed to do our Intro Show. Anyway, Karen was lovely as always. I love doing her shows. They are very light and she is a tremendous singer. She ends her show by singing Somewhere over the Rainbow, which has always held a special place in my heart. It has always been connected with theatre for me. One my first musicals I did in high school was the Wizard of Oz. That was a good time in my life. Also, Wicked got me thinking about theatre again and in a lot of ways led me to the job I have now.

The first port was Nassau. I decided not get off so that I could catch up on my sleep. The SCC training that I am doing requires me to wake up early and my job requires me stay up late. Put the two together and you get zombie Chris.

The next port we went to was Half Moon Cay. Carnival owns the island and therefore ship rules apply to the island as well. So, they were allowed to be naked on the beach. So guess what I did. That's right, I took off my clothes and........ got in the shower. Then I played NCAA football 2009 in my cabin for the rest of the day. I don't even want to know the discustingness that I missed.

The third port was Key West, Florida. We stayed over night. I didn't get off the first day because I was port manning for that day. We split up the cruise for port manning and it was my turn. The next day we got off early and headed into the city. Very cool place by the way. Ben, Jenn, Greg and I had booked an excursion for the afternoon and we took a cab in order to get where we were going. It was about a forty five minute ride and cost us an arm and a leg. Once we got where we were going we did the required training for what we were going to do. When it was about time for us to go we learned that the plane had a flat tire and it was going to take about an hour and a half to fix it. We had the owner drive us to a restaurant down the street. By this time the Georgia vs. Florida game was about to start. So, needless to say I didn't mind the delay. After a while the owner came back and got us. Good timing too because I was about to start throwing stuff at the TV. Man, are we bad or what? Anyway, Greg and I boarded the plane and we took off. After flying over the keys for a little while the owner attached himself to me and pushed us both out of the plane. That's right friends and family I jumped out of a "perfectly good" airplane. Actually, it was flying rust box. We did a few flips and then he pulled the parachute. He then asked me how my stomach was and I said it was fine. Next, asked me if I wanted to spin and I said lets do it. So, we did a few spins in the parachute and coasted slowly to the ground. It was AWESOME. I said before I went I would only do it once but I would love to do it again.

The rest of Key West was fun, too. That night there was a giant party in the streets. It was called Fantasy Fest. This is what the Naturists had been gearing up for the whole cruise. They weren't supposed to be naked in Key West but let me tell you they were. There are things that I saw while I was there that I can't describe in this blog. We met up with Kyle and Robbie for some food. Robbie is a big Phillies fan so we watched the World Series and then watched the parade. I had a BBQ sandwich. It was soooo good to have BBQ again. All in all it was a good day there were a lot of firsts.

The final port Cozumel, Mexico. First, Jenn, Robbie and I went to a crew hang out called No Name Bar. It is a pool side bar that crew members from all the ships come to to hang out. We had some Margaritas and chatted with people we had worked with before. At this place there is a rock wall next to the water. It is about thirty feet above the water. Greg, Robbie, Matt and I jumped off the wall into the ocean. It was quite exhilarating. After we got tired of doing this, we met Kyle(golf pro) and Ben for some mini golf. The thing that was unique about this place was that they give you a walkie talkie when you get your club and ball. You call them and they will drinks and snacks to your hole while you are playing. By the way, I won. I beat the golf pro on the final hole. It was quite satisfying because Kyle is a Florida fan and still hadn't shut up about the game the day before. Me beating him gave me some ammunition to shut him up. After the smack talk was over, Greg, Robbie, Matt and I went to Casa Denis for some authentic Mexican food. I got a combo platter with several different things on it. It was awesome but a little spicier than going to a Mexican restaurant in the States. After dinner we walked around for a bit and headed back to the ship.

I didn't get off in Fort Lauderdale because I was supposed to be on port manning this week. Sasa(back lounge tech) switched with me the next day and I will be on port manning next cruise.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-The pier we were docked at in Key West.

Picture #2-My approach after sky diving. Thanks Jenn for taking the picture.

Picture #3-From L to R: Greg, Me, Jenn and Ben after sky diving.

Picture #4-No Name Bar in Cozumel.

Picture #5-Me after my glorious victory over Tebow(Kyle).

Picture #6-Matt and Robbie doing thier best to look cool at Casa Denis in Cozumel.

Picture #7- A city square over looking the water at dusk in Cozumel. See if you can find the kid in the picture.

The Saint's Come Sailing In

2009-10-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

Cruise #12- Our first run out of Fort Lauderdale absolutely blew my mind. The port we are sailing out of is actually called Port Everglades and is a stones throw from Miami. All the ports this week were better than any one port I have been to thus far. They are beautiful and have plenty to do. I am looking forward to exploring these places further in the coming months. Shows continue to be good and I am becoming a pretty decent floor manager. Still have lots to learn though.

Speaking of learning, I started a new training this week. It is called the Survival Craftsman Course(SCC). It is a three week course that will teach me how to launch, use and survive on lifeboats and life rafts. It should be pretty cool to learn all this. However, it is two hours a day and starts at 8:30 in the morning. This may not sound that early but when your job requires you to stay up past midnight most nights, it isn't very fun. The training will end with a test and a certification exam. The good thing about this is that I am getting it done early. Once I have done it I won't be required to do it ever again. I have Jay and Greg in there with me so I have people to talk to make it more interesting. Our instructor is an officer from Italy named Mario. He speaks in monotone broken Italian English. So he is really interesting to listen to. So if you ever wanted to know how big a dork I am, let me tell you a story. Greg and I got in trouble on the first day for laughing in class. The teacher stopped class and asked what we were laughing at. We didn't want to tell him that we were wondering if the Death Star had escape pod training like we were going through with the ship. Did they have Storm Troopers in a room explaining how to survive in an escape pod? In fairness, he had started teaching without letting anyone know after our break. We couldn't hear him start back over our laughing as we kept adding to the scene we were painting.

The Fly-ons this week were Mike Panzeca, Karen Grainger, Jerry Goodspeed and Will Malfori. Mike is a really interesting guy. He is always fun to hang out with. Karen Grainger is a singer who does vocal impersonations. She is awesome. Too bad she is married because she is very cute. Jerry Goodspeed is a ventriloquist. Will Malfori is very funny. He has cerebral palsey and most of his jokes derive from his disease. He is very cool to hang with and loves football. Last Sunday, he watched football for twelve hours straight. When I saw him that night he was upset that all his fantasy football players were horrible this week.

The first port was St. Maarten. It is the best port of the three we went to this week. It has everything, including beautiful beaches, good food and shopping. We were in port on the dutch side of the island. I think next time we might go to the French side. I hear the food is better over there. Jenn, Ben, Robbie, Greg, Scott, Dave, Jay and myself left the ship and took the water taxi to town. Scott goes on vacation here and claimed to know all the good places to go. We were all hungry so we decided to go for some Chinese. He led us all over town, back and forth until we realized the place we were looking for was no longer there. We ended up eating at some other Chinese restaurant that we all agreed was O.K. The island also has the most inexpensive shopping I have found to date. I saw a watch that I liked for $575. The merchant said he would sell it to me for $350. Scott said I could come back and talk him down to at least $300. I'll have to think about it for a while. That is a lot of money to spend on a watch that I would only wear on formal occasions. It is pretty pimp though. Anyway, we ended up going to a bar and watching soccer with Jenn. After it was over we walked back to the ship and ended the day.

The next port was St Lucia. We caught a cab to Rex Resorts. This apparently where the European big shots go on vacation. It was a secluded beach with hotels all around. We ate lunch in the cabana at one of the hotels. Our cab driver got us in. The beach was surrounded by mountains and there lots of sail boats in the harbor. After lunch we decided to go swimming in the ocean at the resort. Before we got finished putting our sun tan lotion on we were offered some Yayo(cocaine) and Gange(Marijuana). So of course you can see where this is going. We quickly declined and got in the ocean. We swam until we were tired and then caught our cab back to the ship.

The final port this week was St. Kitts. It was the most beautiful of the ports this week. Jenn, Ben, Greg and I took a cab to Shipwreck Beach. This is a place that is not known to tourists and we had the place pretty much to our selves. It is very secluded and only had a shack for food and beverages. Several of the dancers met us there and we hung out on the most of the day. The place was crawling with Monkeys and Mongoose. They didn't bother us but they were all over the mountain we were near. When we were swimming it was hard to believe that I was swimming in place like this. Looking back towards shore you could see the beach, mountains and a volcano. Except for the volcano it felt like I was swimming in the Alps. It had a very Sound of Music kind of feel to it. On the way back we passed several mountains that looked exactly like Boone. For a moment I felt like I was going to an App St. game. Then, I realized that it was 90 degrees outside.

That day was Jenn's birthday. Jenn, Ben, Beth, Greg, Robbie, Malcom and I went to Nick and Nora's Supper Club. This our upscale dining area. The meal comes in courses. I orders es cargo and the lobster bisque as my two appetizers. My main course was the lamb chops. I finished the meal with the apple tart for dessert. To drink, Malcom and I split a $173 bottle of Sartori Amarone. It was a red wine that our waitress suggested. It went with everything I ate including the apple tart. I told Malcom I could spend $20 on a bottle of wine and he said O.K. and then ordered this bottle. When I told him I couldn't afford to split it with him he said don't worry about it and put it on the company card. I guess you can do this when you are the Cruise Director. Everything was delicious. It was really hard to work after a meal like that.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-Entrance into town in St. Maarten. The plaque on the ground is a map of the island.

Picture#2-Cabana overlooking the inlet at Rex Resorts in St. Lucia.

Picture #3-Picture taken form the cab on the way to Shipwreck Beach in St. Kitts.

Picture #4-Shipwreck Beach, the mountain with the clouds covering the peak is a live volcano. Notice the dark sand on the beach. It is from volcanic eruptions.

Picture #5-Green Vervet monkeys at Shipwreck Beach.

Picture #6-Lamb Chops at Nick and Nora's Supper Club.

Picture#7-From L to R: Malcom, Ben, Jenn, Beth and me at Supper Club.

Picture #8-Greg at the Star Wars store in St. Maarten. The guy who owns this place is the same person who did the puppetry for Yoda in the original Star Wars.

A Slice of Heaven

2009-10-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

Cruise # 11- Before leaving New York we went on one last cruise. It was a two day cruise to nowhere. Some people would call it a "Booze Cruise". People got on and we sailed down the coast a bit and then turned around and came back. This was a fun one let me tell you. (pause for rolling of the eyes) We were supposed to do two production shows on back to back nights. This is something that we don't normally do because of the massive load ins that we have. In other words, it takes time to get set up for the shows. It was cold and rainy. The seas were very rocky. We had to cancel Ticket to Ride. Our cruise director in his infinite wisdom decided that we should do Ticket to Ride and Generations on the same day. The second and last sea day we did a show at 4:30pm. Then loaded in another show and did it at 10:30pm. It was a lot of work. After much frustration with dancer rehearsals, load ins and cruise director inadequacies we finished the day exhausted.

The next day we were back in port in New York. We weren't allowed to get off the ship because we were only there long enough to unload the guests and start our trip to Fort Lauderdale. We got two days off while we transferred to the south. It was like having a free two day cruise. We had full access to the guest areas on the ship. Mostly, we sat around in Frankie and Johnny's and watched football. The first night of the relocation cruise we had a Halloween party. I went as a caution cone. Now, let me give you some background on my costume. All the employees call guests cones. This is because they are always in the way and you have to weave around them to get where you need to go. Four of us dressed as different types of cones. Jen dressed as a traffic cone. Greg dressed as an ice cream cone. Robbie dressed as a dog cone. We had a great time dancing and carrying on until the sun came up. The whole cruise was a much needed break from working nearly everyday. It finally felt like I wasn't at work and I could just cut loose.

When we arrived in Fort Lauderdale we got off and caught a cab. We told the taxi to take us to Sawgrass Mall but they took us to a place called the Galleria. John, Jenn, Yetro, Greg, Robbie, Matt and myself ate some lunch and then walked around the mall. It was John's last day so we said goodbye to him and headed back to the ship. We'll miss you John but don't worry the darkness will continue.

Since there isn't much to write about in this post, I will take this opportunity to tell you about our three production shows. The first show we do is Generations. It is a show that take you on a musical journey through time. It covers the 30's all the way up to the 80's. It is my favorite show to run because it keeps me busy throughout the show. Also, it has pyro blasts during the 80's section. Next, we do Singing with the Big Band. This is a show featuring Christopher Alan Graves(CAG). The show is a tribute to Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Junior. I spend the majority of the show underneath the stage. The pit lift comes up and down throughout the show and I load the sets when it comes down. It is by far my easiest show. My favorite part of this show is when CAG sings Mr. Bojangles. There is a clip of Sammy Davis Junior playing in the background and CAG does the exact dance that is playing on the screen. It is a very cool effect. The last show we do is Ticket to Ride. It is a show dedicated to the Beatles. It is the hardest show I do. I am literally running around for nearly an hour. It is probably our best production show. It usually gets the best response of the cruise.

I didn't take many pictures during the relocation so I threw in some pictures I haven't show you yet.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-From R to L: Jenn, Greg, Robbie and I in our costumes.

Picture #2-A safety announcement at the Ministry of Health in Nassau.

Picture #3-A helpful reminder when driving in Nassau.

Picture #4-John Rivero at his finest.

Picture #5-Greg in the worst Jacket ever created. It is a Darth Vader Jacket we found in Macy's in New York.

Goodbye NYC

2009-10-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

Cruise # 10-This cruise was our last out of New York. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary happened this week. Just another ho hum 8 days at sea. It is good though, I needed a week like this with all the stuff that has been going on with previous cruises. Things are going well with the shows and I still love my job and life at sea.

The fly-ons this week were JC McCollum, Karen Grainger, Phil Hughs, Thien Fu and Happy Cole. JC showed up literally five minutes before he went on and I didn't see him after the show. I didn't even listen to his show because I was doing things backstage. So needless to say I don't much about him. Karen is the loveliest woman to work with. As Jenn put it, "She is the right kind of crazy". She's fun on and off stage. She is very appreciative of what we do as a technical crew. She bought us all a beer in the crew bar after the show. Phil is a ventriloquist who is fun to hang out with. We play darts til the wee hours of the morning every time he is on. I'll tell you about Thien Fu in another paragraph. Happy Cole is pretty funny. He is one of Carnival's veterans and has been in the business for a long time. He looks kind of scary because he is ripped and smiles very seldom.

Thien Fu, Thien Fu, Thien Fu! This is the most obnoxious person I have worked with to date. I'll label him the "Juggler from Hell". Last time he was here I was an audience plant for him. I was able to this because it was during my hand over and there was an extra technician on board. As I mentioned before, I switch off with the automation tech for these smaller shows. So it was my night off. I didn't go to his rehearsal. The automation tech hurt her back on the beach and was signed off of work for several days. I had to fill in. I got to the show and set things up. He shows up five minutes before he is supposed to go on and asks if I was going to be his audience plant for the show. I told him no. Upon hearing this he goes ballistic and starts cussing me out for the next fifteen minutes. He was mad because I wasn't at his rehearsal and because I told him no. He was threatening to not do the show and at one point he picked up one of his juggling knives and made a motion towards me. At which point I walked away. He then started yelling at the Assistant Cruise Director. He said he couldn't do the show because act was soooo dangerous. It took all I had to hold in a laugh. Every urge in my body wanted tell him about Marcus Monroe juggling flaming knortches on a unicycle. His big juggling bit is juggling a knife and a torch and a hatchet for about 3 seconds. When he finally calmed he did his little amateur show. I left as soon as it was over. Normally, I would stick around and clean up and talk to the performer after the show but I wanted nothing to do with him.

The first port of call was Grand Turk. I slept in that day. When I woke up and found out no one was going ashore I decided to stay on as well. Oh well, no big deal. There isn't much to see there anyway.

The second port was Half Moon Cay. Jenn and I got off on the early tender and swam in the ocean before the guests arrived. When they started to pollute the beach we went and got some lunch in the crew area and then headed back to the ship.

Our last port was Nassau. Scott(Sea Miles salesman), Jenn(light tech), Greg(sax), Jay(guitar soloist), Robbie(trumpet) and I went to the Cricket Club. It was just the street from the park we went to a couple of weeks ago. It is owned by a British guy and serves authentic English food and beverages. We all ate a proper English breakfast. I had English bacon for the first time. We sat out on the porch and watched a live Cricket match. Jenn who is from England explained what was going on and I think I actually understand it now. The teams stopped in the middle of the game to eat lunch. This something you will never see in American sports. They literally just stop at a certain time and eat. We left at their break. Jay, Robbie and I walked around downtown some and then headed back to the ship.

New York was rainy. Greg, Yetro(guitar) and I got off and rode the subway to ground zero. There isn't much to see there but I felt like as an American I had to go see it. It is essentially a big construction site. It was raining and we decided to go back up town and do our shopping. We had to find paint for our Halloween costumes. We bought some from Home Depot(sorry Mike). After that we went to Murray's and got a bagel. Greg's friend met us there and we went directly to the original Ray's Pizza and got some Pizza. This is the Ray's that is mentioned in Seinfeld. We went back to the ship as soon as we could because of the rain and cold.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-The only church in Half Moon Cay

Picture #2-Cricket at the Cricket Club

Picture #3-The courthouse in Nassau. To the left is offices for the government officials and to the right is the assembly. If you have seen the John Travolta stuff in the Bahamas this is where they have been coming.

Picture #4-The library in Nassau with Robbie and Jay. I have no idea what they were doing.

Picture #5-A church in New York

Picture #6-A church near Jefferson Square in New York

All Jazzed Up

2009-10-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

Cruise # 9-As you already know I was on port manning this cruise. I couldn't get off the ship and had to do extra duties like run the midnight show by myself. I got kinda lucky with this cruise because there was a group from Harlem on board that required extra assistance. It was a Jazz cruise. There were four different bands that played throughout the week. They were Jazmyn, The Nathan Lucas Quartet, The Seleno Clarke Quintet and The Danny Mixon Quartet. I had to sit next to the 85 year old director, Johnny and give light and sound cues to Jenn and Ben. They were a real pain to work with. The first day I met with them, I was calling everyone "sir". Johnny said to me, "call me sir one more time and see what happens". A little later, a guy named Ben walked into our conversation and stood one foot away from me and said, "Do you want to say something, You got something to say?". It did get better as the week went on though. They realized that we knew what we were doing and backed off a bit. By the end of the week we were hanging out with some of them outside of work. We met Matt the drummer from the Nathan Lucus Quintet for a drink on the last sea day. Also, Nathan Lucas himself said he was going to come hang out with us when we go Key West here in a couple of weeks. We have a charter cruise coming up that will have an overnight in Key West and a port day in Cozumel. More to come on that in future posts. We have some awesome things planned for that cruise that I can't tell you about now.

I got paid extra to do it. We were supposed to get paid $50 an hour to do it but some genius who negotiated with the group only got us $300 dollars which works out to around $18 dollars an hour. Some of us would have made over a grand if we had been paid correctly. Also, they didn't tip. Oh well, it gave me extra money and something to do in port.

The fly-ons for this cruise were Percy Crews II, Karen Grainger, Phil Hughs and Anthony Acosta. Percy Crews a comedian with southern humor. He talks a lot about church and how people should raise their children. He warms up like Rocky before he goes on. He runs around and punches the air before he starts his show. Karen does some of the most amazing vocal impersonations I have ever seen. Some of the singers she does are spot on. She is a lovely woman, very easy to talk to and very appreciative of what we do as a technical team. Phil is a ventriloquist. He is really cool. We had an epic battle of darts in the crew bar both nights he was here. He is also very popular with the ladies. I saw him with several attractive women last week. Anthony is hilarious both on stage and in the crew areas. He is working on a new song for his show but I may not get to here it because we are going to Fort Lauderdale soon and he doesn't think he will be working down there.

This New York was more about getting some things done rather than seeing new things. When I cut my knee open I was wearing the only pair of black pants that I own. I had to throw them out. I went and bought two pair of black pants and some socks. I left with 6 pairs of black socks and now I only have three socks left due to the sock gnomes that keep stealing my socks. Also, I bought a sweater that I have wanted for several years now. For those of you in the know, it is the green sweater with an argyle pattern on it. It looks freakin' great on me. I haven't been able to find it anywhere else but there it was at Macy's in New York. We ate lunch at Fat Sal's Pizza. I had the sausage and onion pizza and it was delicious. It was New York style, of course. It was a pretty windy day and I almost dropped the pizza on the way back.

Danny mentioned a few weeks ago that he wanted to know more about the ship and where I live. Think of a small town only with much less space. The rooms are probably around 8' X 15'. The showers are maybe 4' X 4'. We have three mess halls. One for the officers, one for staff and one for crew. We have an Internet cafe and a crew bar. Also, like a small town rumors fly at warp speed. The first week I was on board Liz(my handover) and I played a prank on Ben. The infirmary hands out free condoms. We grabbed two handfuls each and then placed them in Ben's drawers and shoes, etc. The afternoon after we did this Jenn came to us and said that she heard we were sleeping together. Someone saw us walking together with condoms and it had already gotten back around to us. There is very little privacy and the only time I am not around someone is when I am in the room without Ben. Which is rare because we always work at the same time.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

P.S. My knee is fine I got the stitches out last Sunday.

Picture #1-The Nathan Lucas Quartet, The guy sitting down is 99 years old and he is the father of Nathan Lucas who is playing the organ.

Picture #2-Jazmyn, These guys play in Vegas a lot but I have no idea where because they are a musical train wreck. I think an eighth grader could have played the trumpet parts.

Picture #3-The Seleno Clarke Quintet, This was by far the best band. They were all really talented and were fun to watch because they all seemed like they were excited to be there. Jenn fell in love with the Australian sax player who "clapped like an accountant".

Picture #4-The Danny Mixon Quartet, These guys were annoying, mostly because of the leader on the keyboard who threw in an uuuuhhhhh every other note. At one point they were playing a tropical tune and he added Ca Caw Ca Caw. We made fun of him all week. He is the guy on the far left in the really cool yellow jacket and captain's hat.

Picture #5-We walked past Carnegie Hall while we were shopping and I stopped to take a picture.

Picture #6-My room. We have bunk beds(L) and footlockers(R) and a desk(behind the door). I took the picture while standing in the hall. Where's Chris?

Picture #7-My Bathroom. (L to R)sink, toilet and shower. It is located just behind the chair in picture #6.

They had me in Stitches

2009-10-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

Cruise #8- This cruise was filled with curve balls. Seemed like every time I would plan to do something other things would prevent me from doing it. I will go into detail later in this post. Things here continue to be great. I am loving my job and meet new people everyday. The shows we are doing have slowed down quite a bit as I have learned to do them without notes. This has proved beneficial because now I can focus on what is going happening on the stage and not my notes. The days are flying by. I can't believe I left two months ago. I'm nearly half way through my contract.

The fly-ons for this cruise were Percy Crews, Marcus Monroe, Karen Grainger and Carl Strong. This is probably the most energetic group we have had since I have been on. All of their performances are extremely high energy with lots of dancing and moving around on stage. Percy Crews is a comedian who lives in Duluth, Georgia. He is very down to earth and cool to hang out with. His comedy is in your face and very funny. Marcus has added a little something to his act. He has two men from the audience help him get on his seven foot unicycle. He does a few things while they are up there and then sends one of them off. He has the one that is left throw him clubs while he is on the unicycle and then he juggles. At the end of this he shakes the gentleman's hand and holds on for WAY too long and then sends him off. When the guy turns to go back to his seat he holds up a watch and says, "thanks for your time". It pretty funny and has been getting a good response. Karen Grainger is a vocal impersonator. Her voice is amazing. She does impersonations with costumes. She does Alanis Morreset, Macy Gray, Aaron Nevil, Willie Nelson and Britney Spears. Sorry if I misspelled some of those but I am not waisting my Internet card to find out if I spelled Alanis correctly. Anyway, the most impressive thing she did was a duet by herself. I wasn' t familiar with the song but it was done by Poverati and Celine Dion. She did both voices accurately. Carl Strong is funny and uses the show band for his show. He sings but mostly he is a comedian. He has the most random segues I have ever heard. He went from talking about buffets to talking about drunk driving in one sentence. Then, he went straight into a bit about MoTown.

Our first port this week was San Juan, Puerto Rico. We were planing on going to El Castillo de Cristobal. Which means Fort Christopher. It is a Spanish fort built around 1535. Karen's rehearsal ran longer than expected and it was too late to go there by the time we got off the ship. I met up with Jenn(lighting tech), John(piano soloist), Lisa(nurse), Ben(roommate), Jay(guitar soloist), Yetro(show band guitarist), Greg(sax) and Robby(trumpet) for dinner. We ate at the Chicago Burger Company. It was quite good. I had the Cuban burger made from pork. It was basically a gigantic Cuban sandwich. After dinner, we didn't have much time left so Ben and I went to a local pub and watched the first half of the South Carolina vs. Ole Miss game. We split a pitcher of local ale and then came back to the ship.

The next day we sailed into St. Thomas. Ben, Jenn and I planned to flying over St. Thomas and the surrounding islands. Ben has his pilots licence a so we could have gone anywhere we wanted. All the planes at the airport were booked so we were unable to do this. Our cruise director Malcom arranged for us to go to Paradise Point for free. He had arranged for us to hang out at the owner's pool for our last St. Thomas. It was awesome. Easily the coolest hang we have had at port. His pool overlooked the bay that the ship was in. He had stocked his fridge full of beer and cokes and other refreshments. We swam for several hours and mostly just goofed around in the pool. We spent a good portion of this time using noodles as water cannons. The view was spectacular and the company was better. It was the perfect alternative to flying.

Our next port was Grand Turk. I was planning on doing some maintenance to the dance floor and then going on a walk around the island. My only task I wanted to get done was replacing some bad patches of Marley(dance floor material). I had one large(4" x 30") and one small(3"x
7") that I wanted to replace. It took me nearly two hours to remove and replace the big patch. I then got to work on the second patch it was easier this time because I had learned some valuable lessons on the first patch. I glued it down and only had one last thing to do before I went to the beach. I only needed to edge the extra off and then I could clean up and go. WARNING:STOP READING IF YOU ARE EASILY GROSSED OUT. The exacto knife I was using slipped and went directly into the muscle above my knee. Without thinking I pulled it out immediately. I then turned in the direction of Ben and Jenn and said very calmly, "Hey guys I think I'm going to need a towel. Ben started to walk slowly toward me and I said, "No, I need one quickly." He realized then that there was blood streaming out of my pants. By the time he got back with the towel I was standing in a pool of blood. He then got me chair and Jenn got me a wet towel to put on the back of my neck. While all this was going on the nurse was on the way. She arrived and immediately told me I would need stitches. Two of them it turns out. I'm fine now but needless to say I didn't go the beach. Grand Turk will we ever meet again?

This New York I slept in because I am on port manning this cruise. Each department has to have a representative on the ship at all times. It is mandatory that I stay on the ship. So I slept and got some laundry done.

If any one has any questions for me shoot me an email and I'll try to answer them. Sometimes I feel like I am writing the same things every week.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-Sunset from deck three starboard side on the second sea day.

Picture#2-El Castillo de Christobal from deck four.

Picture #3-Some office buildings in Old San Juan.

Picture #4-The Carnival Miracle and harbour from Paradise Point.

Picture #5-View from balcony of harbor and pool in St, Thomas.

Picture # 6-Jay, Matt(drummer), Me, Jenn and Greg at the pool party.

Comfort Level

2009-09-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

Cruise #7- First of all, congratulations to Mike and Courtney. I wish I could have been there. I hope everything went according to plan. I'm sure it was a good party and it would have been nice to see everyone all spruced up. This week I stayed on the ship again in Grand Turk and got some things done. People have been asking if I am still enjoying life on a ship. When I say people, I mean, Mom. I think this is the coolest job I have ever had. I am so busy all the time that I don't have time to think about my lack of privacy. Every week new people get on the ship. So the conversations never seem to get stale. There is always something new to talk about. If it weren't for the fact that I can't come home on a regular basis, I would sign a longer contract next time. Ship life is one that suits me. Plus, on top of everything I am gaining experience in a professional theatre. I said before I left that I would have taken this job if it was on land. I still feel the same way. Especially, now that I have learned the shows and can sit back and enjoy them.

Our fly-ons for this cruise were Marcus Monroe, Leighann Lord, Jerome Dabney and Anthony Acosta. Marcus as usual was awesome. I like doing his shows because it isn't like doing real work. It feels more like hanging out. Leighann is a comedian. She gets a pretty good response though her comedy style is not what I generally find funny. Mostly, female perspective jokes. Jerome is a Motown singer. His act involves a lot of dancing similar to the Temptations. In fact, at the end of his show he brings four guys on stage to do a synchronized dance with him. Anthony Acosta has started reading my blog so I have only nice things to say. He's cool. Really, you have to believe me. Just ask him.

Half Moon Cay this week was full of mosquitoes. There apparently had been a storm there several days before we arrived. As most of you know, puddles are good for creating new mosquitoes. I got back to the ship with many bites. I took the first tender out again and enjoyed an early morning swim. Then, once the guests arrived I got out and walked around the island. My goal for the day was find the lagoon that I have been hearing about. I followed the nature walk to the back side of the island. It was less than impressive. It reminded of lake Oconee. Not to knock our home Lake but compared to the beauty of the front side of the island it was rather lame. I had to fight through thick brush to get to the shore. From there, I continued along the trail back to until I got back around. I saw several types of lizards and birds. This how I got eaten up by the mosquitoes. I stopped to take pictures here and there. Every time that I did this I would get at least three mosquitoes on me. After such an early morning I left around noon to go back to the ship.

In Nassau, I got off the ship with Jenn(lighting tech), Jay(guitar soloist), Greg(sax), John(piano soloist) and Matt(drummer). I had seen a park on one of my walks a couple of weeks ago and wanted to go but didn't have time. I organized a trip to get some food and carry it to the park for a picnic. Bad Idea. We bought some gyros in town and walked to the Clifford Park. It was pretty much an overgrown soccer field with an old building next to it. From where I was standing a couple of weeks ago it looked pretty cool. The old building was the Advanced Guardhouse and Artillery Barracks for Fort Charlotte. It was interesting but hard to get a good photo of because of the soccer field and giant parking lot and " useless crap" vendors in the back. Oh, I also got bit by some kind of horse fly while I was there. I had a welt the size of a quarter on my ankle. After that disaster I walked around town and found a monument for the Bahamians who fought in the Great War. Also, took pictures of some pretty cool buildings while I was there.

I got off as soon as we could this week in New York. Greg was meeting a friend up town and I tagged along. We went to Gray's Papaya. They are supposed to have the best hot dogs in the City. They have been featured in movies and such. The hot dogs were good but I was surprised to find out that the best thing there was their papaya drink Quite possibly the best thing I have ever put in my mouth. After parting ways with Greg I met up with John and Matt. We went to The Empire State Building. It had spectacular views of New York and New Jersey(not so spectacular). It was cool but not much to do there. We looked around for about an hour and came back to the ship.

Picture #1- Jerome Dabney's show. If you look on the right side of the streak you can see his outline. It is hard to get quick shots in low light because of the slow shutter speed. The Miracle Orchestra is behind him.

Picture #2-A Curly Tailed Lizard on Half Moon Cay

Picture #3-Some kind of Iguana on Half Moon Cay. I saw several that were at least twice his size. The bigger ones run away when you approach so I couldn't get a shot of them.

Picture #4-Advanced Guardhouse and Artillery Barracks for Fort Charlotte at Clifford Park.

Picture #5-Monument to those who served in "The Great War".

Picture #6-Office Building in Nassau.

Picture #7-Wall Street from the Empire State Building.

Picture #8-Me with buildings coming out of my arm pit(not on purpose) at The Empire State Building.

Live Music

2009-09-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

Cruise # 6- This week was rather calm. I have been trying to run the shows without my notes. I still have to look at them from time to time during shows. This week I have been trying to focus on things other than shows. For example, maintenance and work orders. I didn't get off in Grand Turk so that I could fix some props and set pieces. It was a good time to do it because we go to Grand Turk every week and there isn't much to see there. I fixed the wobbly chairs so we wouldn't have another chair related accident. Also, I painted some set pieces and replaced a brake on a piano. It ended up being quite nice. No one was in my way and I was able to get some much needed alone time. It was nice to not have to talk to anyone for a while. I think I will probably do the same thing next week as I still have a lot to do.

One thing that I just discovered this week is musician sets on decks three and four. There is almost always live music being played somewhere on the ship. I knew there were various artists playing around the ship but I never found the time to go see them. Now that I don't have to study so much, I have time to explore new things on the ship. The sets can be quite relaxing. They have soloist piano and guitar players. This week John(piano) and Jay(guitar) got together and played a set. It was really cool. They played mostly rock tunes. I'm glad that I discovered this because I was quickly getting bored watching TV in my room.

Also, this week we had a crew party. It had a 70's and 80's theme. I didn't know until it was too late. Otherwise I would have dressed up. It was held in the crew bar. The place was packed and everyone was dancing and singing to the horrible selection of music. It was so bad it made it fun. Due to the extremely slow shutter speed I had my camera on, I took zero pictures that were in focus. The one's I have included in this post really give you a good idea of how the party was. Tons of people having tons of fun. Hands down it was the best crew party we have had. It was cool to see everyone let their guard down for a night and just have a good time.

This week we had Carl Strong, Marcus Monroe, Bob Brizendine and Jerry Goodspeed. Carl Strong is the most energetic entertainer we have had. He kind of reminds me of a cross between Cedric the Entertainer and James Brown. He danced a lot and did mostly white people jokes. He was a good guy though. He talked my ear off at the bar. Marcus as always was fun. We ran out of Coleman fuel for his knorches and he wasn't able to do his final juggling bit. We did however get his pyro helmet to work. He juggled three torches while on a seven foot unicycle and then he kit the pyro on fire so sparks were coming out of his head while he was doing all this. We only have ten second blasts so it is a little anti-climatic. We are working on getting pyro that will fire for longer. Bob is a magician. Just picture John Goodman with dark hair. He's funny because he makes fun of the audience. His best trick is pulling a bra out of a woman's shirt. It's not hers of course but last week we had a lady run off stage covering herself up. He has the woman put two scarfs down her shirt with the ends sticking out and then he pulls both ends and a bra is attached to them. Jerry Goodspeed is a ventriloquist.

This week I got off the first tender at Half Moon Cay. First, I help set up for the Calypso band. Then we enjoyed an early morning swim. It's worth getting up early to do this because you have the entire beach to yourself for an hour before they start letting guests on the island. After that, Greg(sax) and I walked down to the end of the island. I learned that there are actual waves on this end. Most of the time Half Moon Cay feels like you are swimming in a really nice lake. You know lots of wake but no real waves. Next, we walked the horse trail. We were able to get some really nice pictures because of the higher elevation. Note to everyone: DO NOT WALK THE TRAIL WITHOUT SHOES. It had a lot of dung along the trail. After that we found Matt(drummer) and got lunch before heading back to the ship.

The Pride was docked next to us in Nassau. Ben and I went over there and looked at their theatre. It is a sister ship and therefore has the same layout of our ship. It is just decorated differently. Their theatre has a Taj Mahal theme whereas ours is Phantom of the Opera.We met up with some their entertainment staff for lunch. It was interesting to see some people that I worked with at the beginning of my contract. I thought I would never see some of these people again. We pretty much took over the Double Dragon Chinese restaurant. Ben, Dave(trombone) and I went to Atlantis to place some bets on college and NFL football. I lost but was close on both my parlays.

New York this week had beautiful weather. Mid 70's with very light cloud cover. Everyone this week was doing their own thing so I slept in until about 11:00am and got off the ship. I needed that because this last cruise had a lot of extra curriculars. In other words I didn't sleep much last week. I met up with Mark, who was a saxophone player when I first got on board. He lives in Philadelphia and came to visit Jenn(lighting tech). A bunch of us met for lunch and watched football.

No comment on Georgia or App St.

Talk to ya next week,

Chris

Picture # 1-Jay the guitar soloist in the Phantom Lounge

Picture # 2-Peter the piano player in Sam's Piano bar. The piano he is sitting at rotates 360 degrees while he is playing.

Picture # 3-John the piano player in the Jeeves lounge.

Picture # 4-From L to R: Yetro, Greg, Matt and Mark. All members of the Showband who play our shows in the Phantom Lounge. They get together and play jazz sets from time to time.

Picture # 5-The Carnival Miracle from the horse trail on Half Moon Cay.

Picture # 6-Houses in Nassau. These house remind me of rainbow row in Charleston.

Picture # 7-A dock near our pier. I took this picture from deck 4 forward.

Picture # 8-The George Washington Bridge in New York. This is when we backed out from the pier. Normally, this would be behind us as we sail to sea down the Hudson River.

Picture # 9-I am still playing with my camera and took this on the Second Sea Day.

Picture # 10-Me at the party. some random girl put these glasses on me.

Picture # 11-The party at the the crew bar. Everyone dancin' and such.

A Long Season

2009-09-07T13:15:00.000-07:00

Cruise # 5- This week was another interesting one. A chair broke on stage while a dancer was on it. The entire front leg broke off it causing the dancer to fall and sprain her wrist. She is now on a two week work break. Also, this week we had a couple of crew members moving a pallet with an unsecured appliance on the top. They hit a snag and the pallet tipped over onto one of them. The appliance came off and landed on his head. We had to meet the Coast Guard outside of Virginia so they could fly him to the hospital. The last I heard he had bleeding between his ear and brain. We brought the stabilizers in and booked it to the coast when the accident happened. Things were quite rocky. I hope that we have a cruise that is accident free soon because this is getting ridiculous. Even the veterans say they haven't seen this many accidents this close together.

Our first port this week was Nassau. We changed our route this week due to Danny and Ericka. I got off with Dave Fulton(band director and trombone), Dave Blazer(trumpet) and Jason Scott(sax). We went to a place and ate delicious wings. After flirting with the extremely waitress for a while we went to Fulton's favorite sushi place. I don't normally like it but the California rolls were awesome. They taught me how to mix the soy sauce with wasabi to make it spicy. We all had different errands to run so we parted ways after our two meals. I did a little shopping for Dr. Pepper and then walked around by myself. Mostly, I just looked around for photo opportunities.

From there we went to Half Moon Cay. I didn't spend much time there this week because I had some work to get done. I spent most of the morning getting that done. I got off for a little bit to help break down the Calypso band set. I was only there for a couple of hours before we had to get back to the ship. We ate lunch in the crew area and waited for the band to finish.

Lastly, we went to Grand Turk. A bunch of us got together for Josh's party. Our Cruise Director was on his last cruise and we hung out in one of the Tiki bars. We had some food and played some volleyball. It was fun but not all that interesting to talk about.

This cruise we had Anthony Acosta(comedian), Marcus Monroe(juggler), Bob Brizendine(magician) and Jerry Goodspeed(ventriloquist). Anthony is fun to hang out with. His show is easy to do as it only requires a mic and stand. This week the stand got set too high. He is a fairly short guy, maybe 5'6" tall. While he was on stage he couldn't get the stand to lower and he made a comment about me not doing my job correctly. He got a laugh out of it and brought it to me off stage saying into the microphone "adjust this to my height". I grabbed it from him and adjusted the stand to its lowest height(about 3'6") and brought it back on stage. It got a laugh from the audience and they thought it was part of the show. This is the kind of stuff that makes me love live theatre. Anyway, Marcus had me dress up for his show this week. I came on stage as the official Guinness Book of World Records guy. He is "attempting" to set the world record for fitting his entire body through a tennis racket. Of course, he fails miserably and people laugh at him. Bob's show was funny but it got mixed reviews. I guess, either you get him or you don't. He was fun hang out with though. After the show he commented that we were the most sober people he has worked with. He then got up and bought all the techs shots of Beam. The funny thing is all he drank all night was Diet Coke. Jerry Goodspeed is a ventriloquist.

In New York this week I only had one thing on my mind and that was FOOTBALL. Greg(sax) and I got off early and ran a couple of errands. He is from New York and was craving his favorite Mexican restaurant. We walked all the way to 103rd and Broadway. It was cool though because we did most of the walking through Central Park. I never knew the park was as big as it is. In movies it always seems like a small park in a big city but it is quite large. It has baseball fields walking trails and other park activities in it. I want to go back again and take some pictures. I was on the phone most of the time I was walking through it. We finally made it to the restaurant and sat down after meeting up with Ben(roommate). I ordered a burrito. It was easily the biggest one I have ever had. It had everything you could want on it, including strips of steak. Out of this World. That's all have to say about that. Unfortunately, that's when the day began to take a turn. While we were sitting there we witnessed a dead man being loaded into an ambulance. After shrugging that off, we went back towards the ship to find a sports bar. Along the way, we saw a fire. Flames were shooting out of the apartment building and people were coming out of windows and onto the fire escapes. One man was carrying his retriever on his shoulders as he climbed down. Pretty scary. The sports bar that we went to was called Mercury bar. It had several large screen T.V.'s with different games on. We split a couple pitchers and went back to the ship.

We were in boat drill during the first quarter of the Georgia game. I got to see the first drive and could barely restrain my smile during the drill. I got to see from middle of the second quarter on after that. It is going to be a long season if we don't get better play from our quarterback. I don't know how it looked from your end but it looks like we have the same team from last year. Bobo is on crack with his play calling, our special teams are terrible and we shoot ourselves in the foot every time we have a chance to do something. It's like deja vu. Anyway, I was wondering if some of you could do me a favor. Can y'all send me game reports on Georgia and App St. after the games. Just tell me what happened and your thought on each game. It is hard to follow here because all we get is the international ESPN. Which means there is lots of soccer. Not mandatory but would be appreciated.

Talk to you next week.

Chris

Picture #1-Our ship docked with the Disney Wonder. Atlantis in the background.

Picture #2-A church in Nassau. I've been playing around with settings on my camera and I edited this one to black and white on the camera.

Picture #3-A lighthouse near our pier in Nassau.

Picture #4-The Carnival Miracle at Half Moon Cay. The picture was taken from the tiki bar while waiting for the Calypso band to finish.

Picture #5-A church in New York.

Picture #6-Another church in New York. I don't know what it was this week but I happened upon several interesting churches this cruise.

Picture #7-The burrito that I ate. Dollar for size comparison. This picture was taken in cuisine mode on my camera.

The Play"Bill"

2009-08-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

Cruise # 4- As many of you know Hurricane Bill was looming along our path. We sailed WAY around it. We were actually late to San Juan. Due to the fact that we took a longer path to our destinations we were traveling at a much higher speed. Our speed at times this week was around 24 knots. Which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 28-30 miles an hour. We normally max out at 21 knots. In order for the ship to travel this fast the Captain had to bring the stabilizers in. Stabilizers help to keep the ship from rocking as much. So, Hurricane + No stabilizers + Higher Speed = Everyone does a funny walk. As the ship rocks back and forth everyone walking down the hallway stumbles from one side to the other. It's pretty funny to watch because everyone looks like they are drunk as they hit the walls on both sides of the corridor. All in all though, It was relatively painless.

Our first port this week was San Juan, Puerto Rico. Most of the showband and I went out all over the island. Mostly hung out in bars and cafe's. It was Sunday and therefore none of the attractions were open. We had dinner at a Puerto Rican bar. I had a burrito. It was quite tasty due to the fact that it was authentic. Also, they had fresh guacamole, which we munched on while we were waiting for the main course. Dave Blazer(trumpet player) has been to San Juan many times and he kind of led the way. He took us to several different places that most tourists wouldn't know about. Therefore, we hung out with the locals. After we got sick of jumping to place to place, we grabbed some beers and found a park over looking the ocean. Remember this at night so there was a nice breeze coming off the ocean as we hung out in the park. After that we found a place with some pool tables and played until we were supposed to be back on the ship(1:00am). While we were walking around we kept seeing that streets were blocked off and there lots of tech type people around. We asked one of the bar tenders what was going on and he said that there was a Johnny Depp movie being filmed but he didn't know what it was. If any anyone knows what movie it is please email me. I haven't been able to find it.

St. Thomas was beautiful as always but uneventful. Ben took me over to see the Victory which was docked beside us. We had to drop off some things to them and then we just walked around for a while. It is a different class of ship and it was cool so see how there stage was set up differently. They had a smaller band pit and more storage areas. They also do completely different shoes from us. Carnival keeps people in certain region supplied with new experiences by having different shows on different ships. Each ship keeps their shows for ten or more years and simply moves the ships around rather than changing the shows on the ship itself. After that we went to really good pizza place and "grabbed a slice".

In Grand Turk a few of us got of the ship early and hit the beach. Mostly because that is the only thing worth doing in Grand Turk. We threw the football and Frisbee. Yes, sometimes at the same time. Mostly we just frolicked and swam in the ocean. Jenn stepped on a sea urchin. That was pretty much the most exciting thing that happened. I would suggest never stepping on a sea urchin. Jenn still has pieces of it in her foot. You can't take out the spines because it will make it worse and more likely to get infected. She has to let it dissolve in her foot.

This week I ran all the shows by myself. There were a few mishaps but nothing major. I finally feel like I am contributing to the tech team. The stage is mine now and I have changed a few stage policies. For example, if any one left stuff on or around the stage Liz would try and find them and ask them what they wanted her to do with their stuff. I thought that was crazy. I made a box in the store room and if anything is left on my stage it will go in one of two places: the trash or the box. Whoever it belongs can come and get when they need it. Every week my job gets a little easier because I don't have to spend as much time preparing for the shows. Two of the shows were shortened this week do to rocky seas. We cut the parts that had complicated dance lifts or sections where performers are near the pit.

Our fly-ons this week were Lamar Williams(comedian), Marcus Monroe(The Rock Star of Jugglers) and Assad Mecci(hypnotist). Lamar was pretty funny. I only saw his family comedy though. I didn't have to be at his Midnight comedy so I took the night off. Some comedians have trouble censoring their shows so sometimes the midnight/ adults only shows are way better. I heard that was the case with Lamar. Marcus' act is constantly evolving. He had us try a pyro blast out of the top of a helmet(a bicycle helmet with a tube on the top) for his show. We couldn't get it to work though. We didn't have the proper firing mechanism and couldn't get it to work with flash paper. The effect he is going for is this: He would be on a seven foot unicycle while juggling three torches and he wants a pyro flare(like a giant eight foot sparkler) to shoot out the top of his head. It's going to be awesome if we can get it to work. Assad Mecci I heard was O.K. I didn't have to be there this week so I didn't go.

In New York, some of us went to The Modern Museum of Art(MoMA). When we got there we were convinced by one of the MoMA officials to buy a membership. We chipped in and bought one membership for $60. The perk of being a member is that you and any of your guests can get into the museum for $5 for up to a year. Since there were five of us it made since to get the membership and have the rest of us come in as guests. We saved a total of $20. Modern art is not generally my cup of tea but there was some interesting and famous art there. They had Van Gogh(Starry Night), Salvador Dali(The one with the melting clocks), Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Diego Rivera, Frida, Andrew Wyeth and a host of other famous artists. If I had to guess, I would say they had close to 30 Pablo Picasso paintings. We were only able to see about half of it because of time constraints but that's cool because we can get in cheap the next time. I want to come back and check out the photography level.

Speaking of photography, I bought a new camera this week. I bought the Stylus Tough 6000. It just got released and it was the one I have been looking at for several months now. All pictures on this post were taken by me. It has some ridiculous and sometimes unnecessary features. I can edit and crop pictures on the camera. It has a slide show playback feature WITH MUSIC! It has nearly thirty picture taking modes programed into it. One of them is cuisine so I can take a perfect picture of my meals, I guess. It takes pictures and video under water. I'm pumped. Let's take some pictures.

Picture #1- A painting of North America by Jasper Johns

Picture #2- A Salvador Dali sculpture

Picture #3- The Statue of Liberty off the starboard side during sail away. If you have been watching the Barclay Golf Tournament this week, it is literally right behind there. There were tons of boats on that side trying to get a look at the course this week.

Picture #4- Our escort with the Empire State Building in the background. This shot was edited on my camera.

Picture #5- My roommate and boss Ben. He just got the version of Flight Simulator. He also bought the pedals and steering wheel to go with it. I was making fun of him for being such a geek so I took this picture. At least I will know what kind of pilot he is before I fly in a real plane with him here in a couple of weeks.

I plan on sending out one post per cruise from now on, so look for new posts about every eight days.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Long Week on the Ship

2009-08-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

Cruise # 3- For this cruise I had port manning, which means that I couldn't get off the ship for a week. Someone from each department has to stay aboard the ship at all times in case of an emergency. At first I thought it would be awful but it gave me time to study for the shows. Also, I had it on a good week because we had several inspections and training drills that prevented everyone from getting off the ship as early as they normally do. I really didn't miss much at the ports because of the lack of time and it rained in San Juan and St. Thomas.

We had a fun crew activity though. We had a prom in the ballroom. Several of us went out in New York to a thrift store and bought the most hideous clothes we could find. Most of us ended up looking like teachers. This post has pictures of prom. The photo lab took photos as well so I have some of the classic prom pose(guy has hands on girl's hips and turned slightly) with a stairway in the background. I have copies of those but I don't have them in digital form so I'll have to show those to ya'll when I get home.

This week I started running the shows by myself. Liz(english teacher in purple dress) followed me around and made sure I didn't hurt any dancers. We had Marcus Monroe( juggler), Jerome Dabney(Motown singer) and Jerry Goodspeed(ventriloquist). Marcus improvs his entire show and is quite awesome. He is the inventor of the Knortch. It is a lit torch and a knife taped together. He said that he was on Wikipedia under Knortch. Jerome was really good. He sang Temptations, Marvin Gay and other things like that. Jerry Goodspeed was a ventriloquist and that is all you need know about his performance. Another exciting thing that I did this week was I passed my pyro test. I can now blow stuff up without supervision.

So ya'll voted to hear about life on a ship. Life on a ship can easily be described as there is no privacy whatsoever. I live in a closet with one other person. We sleep on bunk beds and I have two lockers. One for hanging clothes and the other has shelves in it. The "bathroom" is tiny. I can touch the mirror on the opposite wall while taking a shower. One good thing is that we have a stewards who cleans our rooms everyday at a cost $1/day. It's similar to living in a dorm. Except for the fact that you can't get away. Everyone sees everyone everyday.

The food on ship is O.K. Some days it can be quite tasty and some days are hamburger days. If you don't see anything you like you can order Hamburgers or Hot dogs. You have specify with buns or you will just get a piece if meat. The crew that serve us are in training. Once they learn English well enough they get promoted to the guest areas. Every once in a while they will serve smelt. This the worst smelling thing I have ever seen. It is basically fried minnows. We don't eat anything fried on those days because it will taste like fish. We are allowed to eat in guest areas during down times so sometimes I will go up Lido Deck and have a sandwich for a late lunch. It's nice because the food is better and you can sit in the sun and eat. Also, we have midnight mess consisting of pizza and sandwiches.

The people on the ship come form all backgrounds. I have met people all over the world. People tend to hang out with the people they work with. Therefore, I usually hang with techs, musicians and fly-ons. The dancers mostly keep to them selves. They are a little snobby but most seem nice enough. We generally hang out in the crew bar and play Wii. The cool thing about the people is that every week there are people getting on and off. So there is almost always someone new and interesting to talk to. When it is someones last week we go to the disco on the 3rd sea day and party til the early morning.

This week is Liz's last so we made arrangements to go to Nick and Nora's Supper Club. It costs $40 but it was well worth it. It is a 5 course meal. This is the kind of place that puts the napkin your lap for you. At the beginning of the meal, the chef brought out a tuna sorbet. It was weird but good. The rest of the meal you could choose. I had crab cakes, escargot, New York strip steak and cheese cake. Also, I ate some of Jenn's(The lighting tech) lobster. We also shared an $85 bottle of wine. I learned that there is huge difference between cheap and expensive wine. It was probably the best meal I have ever eaten.

Picture #1-L to R, Back: Me, Liz(my handover)and John(lounge pianist) Front: Melanie(trumpet player)

Picture #2- Me and John

Picture #3- L to R: Me, Beth(automation Tech), Liz(my handover), Jenn(lighting tech), Ben(sound tech and boss)

Under Pressure

2009-08-22T12:45:00.000-07:00

Cruise # 2- We went to Half Moon Cay, Nassau and Grand Turk this cruise. Half Moon Cay is the nicest beach I have ever been to. It is just one giant beach. I was told that it has good snorkeling so I plan to do that on an upcoming cruise. Nassau was pretty cool as well. We went to a place called Atlantis. All the pictures on this blog are from there. It is the place where Casino Royale was filmed. It is huge. It is part hotel, part casino, part mall, part aquarium. We used our employee discount and got into the aquarium for $15($35 normally). The place had really upscale shops. Ben(my boss) and I found a watch for $22,000. The aquarium was a rip off even at $15. They had one "large tank" and the rest were not much bigger than my 50 gallon at home. The resort was beautiful as you will see from some of the pictures.

This cruise we had Mike Panzeca(comedian), Leighanne Lord(comedian), Thien Fu(Juggler) and Jennifer Fair(Opera Singer) performing. Leighanne Lord was O.K.. Mostly lame female perspective jokes. Mike Panzeca is one of the most interestingn people I have met. He used to be a psyco-therapist. He is incredibly fun to hang out with. I had to be an audience again this week. I hope he doesn't come back for a while because he is hard to work with and his act is striaght out of a 101 jokes for jugglers book. Jennifer Fair is absolutely beautiful and a tremendous singer. We have been trying to hook Jennifer up with Mike. We made him some gaff tape roses to take to her when he introduced himself.

I followed Liz(my handover) again this week. I started doing some things here and there on my own. I am slowly but surely getting to know the shows. It is hard to learn because we have so many different shows. As soon as one show ends I have to immediately start studying for the next show. By the time the next week rolls around I have forgotten most of what I did the week before.

On the last show of the last day of this cruise, we had a major accident. Literally two seconds before we were to start the show a lady walked on stage and fell 15 feet into the orchestra pit and fell on two musicians. The Lighting Tech(Ben) had his finger on the GO button. Both guys she fell on were set to leave and go home the next day. Mark's Bari Sax was crushed. He had a gig in Philadelphia three days after he went home. The lady was taken to a hospital in New York. She separated her shoulder and crushed the ball of her arm socket. She has already had three surgeries with more to come. This lady was well over two hundred pounds and could have hurt the muscians way worse than she did. She said that she thought there was a glass ceiling on the pit. What a freakin idiot. The muscians had minor injuries and were hanging out after the show.

We had a very long "meeting" where we discussed what happened and procedure moving forward. The fleet wide safety guy was on board as part of routine boat checks. It was a good thing he was here and saw the beginning of the show because now we have a witness that policy was followed on this. We took lots of pictures form various angles. I am in some of them for scale and positioning purposesThere will be lots of changes due to this and it will add to the pressure that I already feel form taking over the shows.

The picture on the right is of Ben, John(Piano player) and myself at Atlantis.

Miss you all

Chris

Big Adjustment

2009-08-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

I made to the ship in one piece. There were several complications along the way. First of all, I had problems at the airport. I went through security. I had about 45 minutes to get to my terminal. So I decided to walk. It was a terrible idea. I ended up in a hallway with only an up escalator. I was at the top of that escalator. I finally ran into a security guard who told me to go through some doors that put me behind the security checkpoint. I had to go through again. I arrived at my terminal via train just in time to see them back the gate off the plane. I had to fly standby for the next flight. Luckily I was forth in line so I got on.

The second complication was when I got to LaGuardia. I missed my ride to the ship because I had missed my flight. I had to call the car service and they sent someone "right away". The car arrived 45 minutes later and we departed. It took an hour to get to the ship. It was alright though because we rode really slowly down Broadway and past Central Park.

The third headache was figuring out where I was supposed to go. One guy sent me one way and another guy sent me back. I walked back and forth several times. This doesn't seem like a big deal but it is when you are carrying two gigantic bags with no wheels. I finally was granted passage onto the ship. I was told to report directly to the Mad Haters Lounge. I received some very broken english instructions on how to get there. I found it some 15 minutes later on the opposite side of the ship. I'm still carrying my bags by the way. I walk in and all the new hires are watching a video. During the video, My boss came in and introduced himself. We proceeded directly from there to boat drill, without my bags this time. I realized yesterday when we had boat drill again that I retained nothing from that first two hours on the ship.

The last thing I had to endure was learning of my new position. I was hired to do rigging and automation. When I started talking to my boss, I realized that they just hired a new automation tech three weeks ago. I was informed that I will be taking over as Back Stage Manager. It's not my favorite position in the theatre but it will be fun. I will be working directly with the dancers and performers.

The people I am working are super cool. I have assimilated into their family quickly. People tend to hang out with others in their same work areas. So mostly I hang out with other techs, musicians and performers. I have had a chance to work with several accomplished artists. They include Anthony Acosta(comedian), Mike Panzeca(comedian), Christopher Alan Graves(singer) and Thien Fu(juggler). They all have there quirks but all of them are easy to work with, especially the comedians. They actually hang out with us in the crew bar. After shows we generally hang out there because they have a Wii and the drinks are cheaper than guest areas. It is $1.25 for a beer there.

The living quarters are small but I'm rarely there. It seems like I am constantly going from one thing to the next. This week I had orientation and a test. My boss, Ben told me I would pass because I speak english. I did it was very simple. Example: What color is a fire sign? Red, Green or Blue. My boss is my roommate so it easy to keep up with what I have to do next. He's a cool guy and he's really into football. He has a Denver Champ Bailey jersey. He went Colorado. We have already been talking about going to the Colorado/ Georgia game in 2010.

I went to three different ports this past week. We sailed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, St Thomas and Grand Turk. San Juan was nice. Ben took me to the mall then we ate at this authentic Puerto Rican restaurant called Chili's(there's probably one in a neighborhood near you). St. Thomas was beautiful. It's basically one large mountain with buildings on the side of it. Due to orientation I missed the group of people going out on the island. So, I got off and walked around by myself. Grand Turk is quite simply a beach with a couple restaurants near it. We swam in the ocean and laid in the sun for a few hours. It was nice to relax.

Sorry this is so long and without pictures. I felt like there was a lot that people would want to know about my first cruise. I will be buying a camera with my first pay check. I'll try and post again next week and maybe I can get some pictures from others on the ship. Good Luck with your land jobs.

Love,
Chris