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.