Holidays With Dolphins...

Another Thanksgiving on board. It was an interesting one. We were docked in Aruba. I did miss the land amenities of the US where I could wake up in the morning in my pajamas; Turn on the TV to see the start of the Macy’s Parade while brewing some coffee on a cold day; Have some breakfast while lounging about watching at least the first portion of the parade that contains the Broadway tid bits; and then preparing for the evening feast before taking the rest of the day as relaxation while everything simmers. Instead I woke up and had to clean up and spruce up right away in order to eat breakfast. I sat in the library (working) for a few hours since we were short staffed on cruise staff and I was stuck on board that day. I had a little snack and then went to the gym. I got my hair clipped and went for a new look. We’re getting ready to leave the ship so I washed some costumes to get them clean for the next cast. That night the feast consisted of Northwestern cuisine. We had reservations at the Pinnacle Grill (which is the specialty restaurant on board) where I had smoked duck and a dirty vodka martini to start; Chicken marsala with sides of risotto, mushrooms, and scalloped potatoes with a glass of Reisling for dinner; And a slice of pumpkin pie for dessert with some cappuccino. The pumpkin pie was the only reminder that it was Thanksgiving. Oh well. Afterward we headed up to the lido deck party where one of our kind waiters gave us unlimited pina coladas in a pineapple for free. Now that’s what I call a treat. Needless to say I was extremely full. So that was another reminder that it was Thanksgiving.

We all missed D-Day the next day (and I’m kind of glad about that one). I always hated crowds and to be in malls or even in NYC that day would have been horrific. Especially since there were mad sales and stores opening as early as 4:30am! Instead I had a lovely morning in Curacao kissing and petting dolphins. It was an amazing experience. They swam right up to us and we learned all about their behaviors and got to touch them right there in the pool.

We learned hand signals that made them do different things and watched a show right after where they jumped, twirled, and demonstrated their swimming abilities. After that early excursion, we headed to Mambo Beach where we had 4 hours of fun in the sun. I got a little too much, but hopefully that’ll turn into a nice tan. I crashed afterward since the day started at 6:30am for me. Oy!!

We’re in the home stretch. Only 4 more days to go. I'm going through tons of emotions. In a cast you have this family of people. In a land show there's that sense of family too, but multiply it by 10 or more for a cruise ship. A ship cast is like a land family at first when you're in rehearsals. Although still slightly different because you live with most of them, but still have that space. On a ship, it's all blown up out of proportion. You live, eat, party, and work with your cast. The quarters are so tight that this intense safety and family feeling just grow. It can go in 2 directions. The extremely bad or extremely good. There's really no in between. We've been together for so long now, it's going to be hard to let go. This cast went in the direction of the extremely good. Oy!! This business is tough seeing people come and go sometimes. No wonder actors all have such tough skins or at least appear to. So, it's mixed feelings here. The politics of ship life make me can't wait to get home and see everyone, but my heartstrings are getting tugged by the thought of leaving this great family. We already began to take in the loss when one of our singers left us a month ago, and one of our dancers months before that, but to say goodbye is STILL going to be difficult. The acting business is a small one, so I'm sure to see SOMEONE again someday. I hope to stay in touch and see where life takes them as well as myself. I already know that so far I'll be working with Chris again. It'll be fabulous. I may even get to work with more from our group. Who knows? I hope I can. Right now we say goodbye to each show with a heavy heart (well, except H2Oh!! Of course) and a glass of champagne. Now that’s the way to end a contract.

Home Stretch..

Well, let's see. It's been pretty eventful here on the ms Zaandam while we're in the home stretch before going home. We've been having a blast on the beaches, getting tanned, and seeing the sights. It's been fun, but lots of things are happening that live up to what I like to call the Zaandam curse.

The Zaandam curse all began in rehearsal when one of our girls decided at the last minute not to come to her contract and we were sent a lovely replacement dancer. Little did we know that 4 weeks later that dancer would never make it to the ship. She sprained her ankle in rehearsal and so the curse began with a bang. She was sent home with a swollen ankle and a new contract to come back in December. Six months of rest. Another girl came in her place and she had a whirlwind of learning to do. Well, a week later, another dancer was complaining of stomach trouble pretty bad and we thought it was his appendix. After a few days of recovery he seemed fine (so we thought). A few days after his recovery yet ANOTHER dancer hurts her ankle and we had her on ice literally a day before we flew to the ship. We get to the ship and the ship's doctor deems her ineligible to perform her first 2 weeks. Luckily we had a girl from the previous cast on board who knew our first show and she stepped right in. After that first week we got slammed with 3 injuries. Our lead singer strips his toe nail off in a door, another boy dancer slips in the shower and cuts his nose open (doctor says he can't perform), and to top off that week the boy we thought recovered from a stomach ache actually had appendicitis and was flown off ship to get it operated on. I was sick with a chest cold and 2 replacements were flown to the ship to open our next show. Oy!! We had it smooth for a while. Our three injured dancers were in and doing well. Our lead singer was slowly healing and my cold went away. Not much happening. We had a lovely Cruise Director and staff and all was pleasant. We got a new Cruise Director in July and the curse began brewing again. Mismanagement started happening. A new Hotel Manager came on and was screwing with a good system. Next thing you know we lose our replacement dancer due to knee injuries. We had about a month of re-staging and finally ANOTHER replacement girl comes out as we reposition to the Caribbean. She went up fine and then we lost our second lead female singer. She was plucked from our cast to go off to a bigger and better ship. As soon as that happened the curse went full force. Hurricanes started messing up our itineraries, cruise staff dropping like flies, and still more problems. Yes, 2 cruise staff quit their jobs because of disagreements with our Cruise Director and left the ship short handed in Curacao. Their reasons totally sounded justified. It sent our cruise staff for a loop. Within her first week on board, the new second lead female singer (my partner) injured her ankle and was re-staged out of certain numbers up until now. What else could go wrong? Well, our lead female singer is now quarantined to her room with a stomach problem and has been for the past 2 days. Another cruise staffer failed his random alcohol test and was fired from the ship. He had to leave today without a flight paid to go home. Oy!! We may have a show cancelled tomorrow because our singer is down. It just keeps growing and we have one more cruise left. I hope this curse leaves with us and never returns to any one of us on another ship.

Despite all these events, it's been a wonderful cast of people. We all STILL have great times together. Yes, there are a few annoyances that happen amongst us from time to time, but that's perfectly normal. I do have mixed feelings about going home. One because I enjoy the camaraderie we have amongst our group. Second I enjoy the comforts of having a job I like and being pampered while seeing the world. Yet I'm anxious to see my friends and family and go back home for a while. Even though it'll be the heart of winter, it'll be nice to have the freedoms I don't have being on board.

Our next cruise is going to be a banger. It's our last one. We have parties going on. There's packing to do. More sights to see. I think parasailing in the Bahamas, swimming with the dolphins in Curacao, and white water rafting in Costa Rica. All that along with performing each show for the last time. Although some of us will see these shows again on another contract. More to come, but I say adieu for today.

Panama Adventures and the Zaandam Curse..

It’s been busy since our new singer/dancer came on board. News is abound and all I must say is that the Zaandam curse lives on. She came on board as sweet as can be on November 1. The opening show went off without too much of a hitch. She’s a really good dancer. I found this out when she ran through our first show of Southern Nights and she pretty much had everything ready to go. She’s different in theatricality so it adds new spice to playing on stage. She’s also a different partner in the way she dances as is always the case when you get a new partner after being with someone for so long. Now for the drama. During a rehearsal, she tripped on the set and rolled her ankle. It’s pretty swollen and the doctor has said she can only sing the show. This wouldn’t be a problem if she were a lead singer, but because she has to dance too, it makes the shows a bit difficult to reblock. So, we’re going to be going through that drama in the next couple of days until our last production show goes up for this cruise. I don’t know what we’re going to do for the next cruise and for the rest of this contract. Oy!! Chris is making a great company manager in Nicole’s absence. It’s his first week and he has computer troubles, but I’m helping him out with that. He has a lot to deal with now. Our Sr. Assistant Cruise Director and his fiancé from Club HAL quit their jobs in Curacao because of the dictatorship of our Cruise Director. They were unhappy with the way she was running things and it seems everyone on board is unhappy with the way she runs the entertainment department. Now we are filling their shoes again in the library until we get replacements. Ugh!! So, that’s where I sit today on this rainy Costa Rican day.

Yesterday was a LONG day. Some of us in the cast helped out with shore excursions in the early morning. Stephanie and I, who’ve been helping since the crossing, decided we wanted to go on tour yesterday and we wanted to do the aerial tram through the rain forest of Panama. We were up at 7am and helping out until we left around 9:30am. It was neat to get off the ship that early in Gatun Lake of the Panama Canal. We took a tender boat shore side from the ship. It was raining pretty hard. After all it is a rain forest. It’s also a huge staple for the Panama Canal. Rain that is. It’s what they depend on to keep the lakes full for the canal’s operation. We got on a bus and took a 2 hour trip to Gamboa which is about halfway down the canal. We had to detour since big bad Bush was in Panama City so it took a little longer than normal. The tram was situated at a hotel in the middle of the rain forest. We got on an open air cable car and went over the canopy. It was breathtaking. I had the pleasure of seeing so many different species of plants, butterflies, and animals. I saw a rodent like creature (of which I can’t remember the name of) that was part of the raccoon family. It met our little bus to the aerial tram and came right up to us. It was cute. Also in the distance while on the tram I saw a toucan. I was too far away to get a picture though. Once we got to the top, there was a tower where we used a ramp to go higher above the canopy for a wonderful sight. I saw the canal in operation from land. It was amazing. We headed back down and back to the ship in Colon, Panama. It’s not a pretty town by any means, but I think they just use the town as a means of picking up passengers from these tours rather than a port of call. We’re only docked for 3 hours anyway. I was exhausted from the day and only getting 3 hours of sleep the night before from poker night. It was nap time for me and much needed to catch up on the lost sleep from the previous night.

The Day After

Fetch Awards
Originally uploaded by cscottredding.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween. We had a blast here on board. A late night last night and a busy and groggy day today. Phone calls to make, e-mail to send, rehearsals for the new girl and a new atmosphere to deal with. Change. Before change, let us go back to last night. The costumes were pretty much all inside jokes amongst the cast, so I won’t go into that. All I can say is that I dressed in my knee high striped Alaska socks with brown shoes, cargo shorts hiked to my chest with a short-sleeved collared shirt tucked in. My hair was slicked down from the middle with an alfalfa cowlick sticking up in the back and freckles on my face. I was donned with goggles, a backpack, pocket protector with pens, pencils, and calculations. I had my ruler, calculator, and notebook in my lab coat which was pinned with a “Hello my name is:” sticker. On the sticker I wrote “Science Camp.” It’s a long story, but nonetheless everyone got a kick out of it and I didn’t have to get anything extra for it. Just what was already on board. The pocket protector was handmade of course since I’ve never owned one in my life. We had 3 cross-dressers, 2 super heroes, a cow, army gal, cowgirl, some fruit, and a character from Gilligan’s Island. Our super heroes put together a gala called the “Fetch Awards” (reference to the movie Mean Girls) where we were all handed funny awards encompassing personalities and traits in the contract. We reminisced about the funny moments and had a sappy ending since one of our singers was leaving. Our party shifted to the crew bar where we made the party happen and then petered out to bed around 3am.

Today is a different story. It began at 7am with a mandatory immigration inspection of all crew. Yuck! So we had breakfast and said our goodbyes. Tears were shed. The atmosphere is already different. We welcomed our new singer to the cast. She seems lovely. We’re nearing the end of the contract. Last night was a fabulous run down memory lane. Now we have a hectic week or two of rehearsals to familiarize her with the shows before we can cruise out the rest of the contract heading toward December. There’s no shore leave today. Hurricane Wilma has messed things up a bit here in Ft. Lauderdale and left them without power the past 7 days. They’re now at 77% capacity and limited fuel. Another change and creepy feeling. I don’t know what’s going to happen to our itinerary since Hurricane Beta ripped through Nicaragua and parts of Costa Rica. It may mean a change to Jamaica or Key West. Who knows? Change brings adventure, sadness, pain, excitement, and closure. It’s not a bad thing. If we didn’t have change, life would be boring. These next 3 cruises bring lots of change. People coming. People leaving. A family dispersing. We still have shows to do, ports to see, and fun to have. Some of us are hoping to be together again in March. We’ll see what the future has in store.