2 week cruise continued!

Day 9

Woke up bright and early to explore Quebec City. Quebec city is quite a strange place. The place where we dock is the pretty looking Quebec city. The tourist town where all the buildings are nice and the streets are very european thanks to the french influence. But as soon as I walked out of the compound, it just turned into an ordinary city with traffic and ordinary streets. I guess I'll stick to the touristy part of town in the future. 

Speaking of french influence, everything is in freaking french. Every single written thing is in french. Even the tourist information booth is in french. It's actually kind of annoying. 

While walking on the street today I got greeted to the sound of 'hey it's the famous drummer'. Yes I am gathering quite the following on this particular cruise. The old people love me. 

Day 10

Sea day again. Got to play some jazz tonight. So far in this cruise it's just been show after show in the theatre and it was a big release to play some jazz tonight. Not that playing shows is bad, in fact it's nice because it's mostly easy stuff, but playing jazz is my thing. It's my breath of fresh air. And coupled with the fact that I've not been getting practice time this week because of all the tech work late nights, it was especially good to play jazz tonight. 

Day 11

Had a ridiculous 8am rehearsal today for the new production show. 8AM! I've never played drums that early before.  Heck I've barely woken up at 8am before. It's been years since I've needed to do anything that early. And man did I feel it today. I could barely focus during rehearsal and I was reading the show for the first time. Ugh, hope we never have to do such an early rehearsal ever again.

Arrived in Charlottetown, in Prince Edward Island Canada. Got off the ship to explore but there wasn't much to do. It's not a particularly exciting port. It was actually rather boring. It's small, but not the quaint niceness of Portland. It's dull. There's nothing to do or see. 

Another singer show tonight. Back in the theater we go.

Day 12

Another early day. Sort of. Not as early as yesterday but still early. Rehearsing the new show again. At least now I know what's going on and I can focus properly. 

We docked in Sydney Nova Scotia today. And it was just as boring as Charlottetown. Man, the second half of this cruise has really been a let down. It started off really cool with cool places to be and go and it just ended up in these small boring places. I guess old people enjoy sitting in the small parks with not much action going on. But for me, I was bored. There's not any exceptional scenery to see, nor was there any special things to do. You can tell that a place is dull when you read the map and under the 'attractions' section all you see are churches. Not old majestic big crazy buildings with incredible unnecessary ornamental decorations churches, but just churches in general. Attractions, yeah right. 

There was supposed to be a ventriloquist tonight. We were supposed to have the night off. But his jamaican dummy did not make it on the ship and so we had to pull together a backup show with the singer from yesterday. It's funny hearing her rant about how unprofessional it was that she had to do a last minute show. Well if there's anything I've learned from ship life is that stuff never goes according to plan all the time.

Day 13

Last production show of the cruise. We're actually behind the curtain for the majority of the show. But even so, they made us wear costumes. We have ridiculously ugly shirts with colourful fish on them - it's an underwater themed show you see - and equally horrendous and ridiculous straw hats. Thankfully for me I'm a drummer and I bop around alot when I"m playing so that hat is not staying on. They tried to fix a strap on it but it wouldn't hold. Bad for them and their whole costume fixing, good for me and my pride. No straw hat for me.

The other bad thing about having to play to the show behind the curtain is that I can't see the show. It actually looks pretty interesting from all the costumes and sets but we see none of it. And I'm actually half blocked by one of the backdrops so half of the theater can't even see me and I can't see half the stage. 

Day 14

Final day of the cruise. 2 week routines feel extremely long on this boat. It felt like forever since I was last back in Bayonne. 

Thoughts from the week(s)? 

I think my roomie has questionable hygiene habits. I make sure to take my showers everyday and use some deodorant. Not sure he does either of that. And I make sure to change my shirts and have em cleaned often. Not sure he does that too. He does physically stink up the room every now and then. Wonder if buying an air freshener and putting it in the room might be a hint.

Welcome to CANANADANADA

MID CRUISE UPDATE! 

I know you couldn't wait 2 weeks so I found a spot in Quebec City and here we go!

Week 9

Day 1

Woke up today with the sound of the captain announcing that we would be maintaining 2 minutes of silence in remembrance of all the people who lost their lives in the 9/11 incident. No disrespect and anything, but if you had left me alone I would've maintained two hours of silence.

Starting the brand new Canada run. And already I can tell this is going to be fantastic. There are absolutely NO children on board this ship. Very elderly crowd. 300 hundred elite members. Those are the people who come on celebrity ships time and time again.

The plus side is that only a small handful of them ever venture to the buffet. With the exception of my grandad, I'm guessing most elderly people can't eat that much. So they spend their time in the restaurants. Which means no queues for the buffet. Fantastic.

The weather is a beautiful thing. Cool delicious breeze. I spent the night out on the open deck listening to music.

Day 2

It is a sad day for drummers today. With the installation of the new cast and the new shows comes a whole bunch of people from the production company. And they redid soundchecks and stuff. 

Sadly, I was told to muffle my snare. My gorgeously tuned snare that rang as true as any drum could ever ring - they made me kill it. Riddled with tape, tuned away from it's delicious overtones - It is now a horrible drum. It's once gorgeous tone is replaced by a lifeless thud for the sake of corny music. It's bright Birch tones can no longer be heard. It's lovingly crafted body, with true value and quality, now sounds like a drum that was simply cobbled together by some ham fisted stone age caveman. 

Drumming people, mourn for the loss of this once majestic snare drum. And pray that it may be one day released from it's prison and allowed to ring true once more.

(Note, I'm not being overly dramatic. I really do hate it when people kill overtones. I live for delicious overtones and every time a non drummer tells me to kill it, I get rather pissed off. We're no longer in the eighties people. Time to move on and bring them drums to life.)

Day 3

Got off in Boston today. My my what a gorgeous city! I have to say I am loving the vibe in Boston. Well, the part that I was in anyway. Downtown/central boston? Whichever you call it. 

But yes it was absolutely delightful to be in Boston. I like the fact that the city is not ginormous and that you can actually get places on your feet. It was pretty fantastic. It's got a very cool vibe. Very high society as my colleague would describe it. 

The thing I liked a lot about it was the fact that people actually went outside to have lunch. Lot's of people have food on the go, but they're not eating on the move. There are mini parks all around and people just sit outdoors and relax. Very nice vibe. 

So I walked into downtown boston, which wasn't far from where the ship was. I visited a place called the Union Oyster Station which was like the oldest restaurant in town - it was like 185 years old or something. I had some New England Clam Chowder. It's particularly awesome when you're eating a dish from where it's actually from. I mean, come on, the name of the place is in the food. You can't get better than that. If you've never had real clam chowder, man is this a super treat. I've always liked clam chowder but I've never had real clam chowder. This thing is filled with beautiful large chunks of fresh clams. It's especially awesome when you can tell how fresh the clam is. It was probably caught fresh that very morning on that coast. I also had a fantastic plate of seafood. Delicious fried oysters, scallops, calamari. All on one plate. Must admit I really overshot myself there, but I wasn't expecting such a humongous plate of seafood. It was very well worth it though.

I wanted to go explore a little more or hit the legendary Harpoon Brewery or Samuel Adams brewery in town but then a stomach ache hit me. Darn it. Well, I'll be back in two weeks I guess.

Last Doug Cameron show today. It was a nice 4 week run. I'm actually gonna look forward to the next time he's on. Had drinks with him after the show. 

Day 4

Arrived this morning in Portland. Portland is really pretty. It's got a very nice small town vibe about it. It's not a particularly busy city. Not especially huge and city like. Certainly a harbour town if there ever was one. A couple of us got off the ship and found a craft brewery called Sebago brewing Co. Man they make some delicious beer. I had the sampler with 5 different beers and they were almost all absolutely brilliant. 

Then we walked around the place a little bit. It is quite the lovely port. Very pretty scenery.

Had another guest entertainer on today. Was a singer. It is quite an easy show. All he did was sing popular songs. To be honest if I was sitting in the crowd, I would've fallen asleep. I was almost sleeping already playing the show. Can't imagine what it would be like watching it. The plus side is that it was a total no brainer night. Easy peasy.

Day 5

Arrived in Bar Harbour today. We were tendering which means that we drop anchor out in the ocean and take smaller boats from the boat to the shore. 

But we had an early rehearsal that day. Rehearsing the brand new production show called iHollywood. To be honest it was a piece of cake. But we had to do it anyway. Before rehearsal though I went up on the open deck and boy is it getting cold as we head further up north.

I intended to get some delicious lobster and blueberry pie in Bar Harbour. From what I've heard it is THE place to get atlantic lobster. But after rehearsal for the production show we had another rehearsal that afternoon. And the fact that tender boats take some time, I decided to not get off. So I missed Bar Harbour. Will be back in two weeks and I WILL GET MY LOBSTER.

The show tonight was a comedian. Sadly he uses the band so we didn't get the night off. It would've been nice. It's been show after show in the theatre so far. Will be nice to get out in one of the lounges and play something else.

Boy was that the sloppiest show ever. See when a comedian does musical comedy, it works only if the band knows his material really well, or if he just does it himself. Instead what you have is a super slap dash show. And it's not even musical comedy. It's just songs in the middle of the comedy show. It wasn't very good to be honest. The audience loved it - I guess they've never seen the musical genius of Bill Bailey or Rich Hall. But for the band it was a messy chaotic show. Either plan out your music comedy stuff or just don't do it. Stick to telling jokes sir.

And the man is quite the character. Not sure I take very well to his personality. He did buy us drinks at the end of the show, but I don't think he's the kind of guy that I would casually hang out with. 

Day 6

And so we cross the Canadian border! Arrived in Halifax Nova Scotia today. Bright and early. We got off and started exploring the town. The weather is starting to really get cold. It was cloudy at first, but then the sun came up and it was perfect.

First we went to the Public Gardens. Some movie was filming there or something. Some of my colleagues were intrigued, but me coming from Hollywood, I immediately got pissed. Thankfully they didn't shut the park down because of it. The park was gorgeous. It was refreshing to be in there.

Then we walked up to a place called the Citadel which is like some old war fort on top of a hill. It is actually a ridiculously gorgeous location with so much history. And the ariel view of the fort is a star on top a hill. Quite the thing.

The best part is that we unwittingly entered from the back entrance with no clue and didn't realise that tickets were required. Yep we were exploring the museum and the compound for free without even knowing it. We only realised it when we made our exit - through the entrance. Oops.

After that exploration we stopped by the local brewery. Yet another craft brewery. It wasn't as delicious as Sebago. It was called RockBottom brewery. Certainly not as good as our Portland delight. Not sure I'll be back there anytime soon. There was another place nearer to the ship and I'll probably check that out some other time.

Must say Halifax is yet another cool little place. I think Port towns are probably some of the prettiest in the world. They have a totally different vibe to them. Halifax was kind of chill and relax and very quaint. Yes quaint is the perfect word to use for these port towns. Small and cosy and quaint with it's small happy local places and food stores and souvenir shops. 

l

Had a double artist show tonight. Goodbye show for both the singer Claude Eric and Doug Cameron. And once again we went out for drinks. Man I haven't bought a drink all week and yet I've been having some tasty beers in the martini bar. Yay for being in the band with very kind guest entertainers.

Tomorrow is second rate pianist again though. No drinks there.

Day 7

Sea day. Getting to Quebec tomorrow. But a whole sea day today.

Had another iHollywood rehearsal. I think it's starting to annoy me that we have to do so many of these when the band is nailing it. If the cast ain't got their stuff together, get them to rehearse. We don't need to. It's not hard. Geez. Well then again it was a sea day with not much to do. 

Had second rate pianist rehearsal. He strung together an even longer show. Which meant more second rate piano songs to play. Not very fun to be honest. 

And man is it getting cold. Walking out on the open deck to the buffet was really cold. I guess Quebec city is gonna be cold. Northbound we go!

Day 8

Man a slow slow move into Quebec today. Didn't manage to get off in the afternoon. By the time they let us off it was time to rehearse with guitarist Ric Steel.

Man that man is such an inspiration. A true and true performer and a man who fell in love wit h the stage. Such a joy to be working with him. And such an easy show to play haha.

At the end of it he got us off the stage and out by the entrance with him to greet guests. Not something we normally do, but the attention is quite pleasant I can tell you that.

Did go explore a little of quebec at night but not much to see. Let's see a little more tomorrow, assuming there isn't some stupid rehearsal in the morning.

Thoughts from the week will come from Bayonne. Cheers.

The end of an era. I mean two months.

Week 8

Day 1

The very final week of Bermuda for now! Can't believe I've already spent seven weeks in Bermuda.

Got a fantastic bit of news today. Apparently we're going to arrive in Bermuda on Tuesday night instead of Wednesday morning. Means an extra night in Bermuda! Yay! An extra night to enjoy some locally brewed beer. Whoopee.

And also some bad news. The production cast of the main shows are leaving after this week and so they've got the new cast on and there are gonna be 2 new shows on next week onwards. This means that the tech team are working long hours building the new sets on stage and the new cast is rehearsing a lot in the theatre. This means I get NO PRACTICE TIME. Dagnabbit.

Day 2

After last week's 6 day cruise I kept thinking that today was tomorrow. Nothing much to do on a sea day.

Day 3

So apparently we arrived in Bermuda early today. The wind was quite intense and we were playing up in the lounge on the top deck for a special captain's club party with a view of the outside. And the view of the outside was going up down sideways. It was probably the rockiest docking we've had and it was certainly a very interesting experience feeling that motion while playing on stage. 

And we got to Bermuda in the afternoon. FREE ONE DAY IN BERMUDA! WHEE!

Day 4

Third Doug Cameron week. It's been an absolute joy playing for this man. And of course, being a more challenging show and featuring the band that much more, we in the orchestra get a lot more credit and recognition from the cruisers. And the fact that I have the most recognizable hat in the world means that my face is recognized all around the ship.

Day 5

Brand new show today. Another guest entertainer on board. He's a Los Vegas guy who does vocal impressions. He's actually incredibly hilarious. What a great show to play. And what a nice guy as well.

A man spoke to me today and thanked me for using Zildjian cymbals. I was totally stunned by that comment. Not knowing what I should've done I just said thanks. Didn't have the heart to let him know that firstly they weren't Zildjians and secondly that I don't really like Zildjians. That was very odd.

Day 6

Had a brief scare this morning. I lost my crew ID. And that piece of magical plastic is what allows me to get off the ship. I had plans of getting some Bermuda breakfast. But that was sadly destroyed when I woke up to find that my pass had disappeared.

So I went to the office and informed the admin guy and I think he was rather pissed at me for asking questions on what to do and what not. I guess it was also due to the fact that he had a ton of work to do today because a whole big bunch of people were signing off. 

Thankfully though, a miracle happened and I revisited the place in the ship where I thought I had lost it and I ran into one of the housekeeping staff. She had found my pass and I just happened to run into her. If I ever see her in the bar ever, it'll be drinks of me. She's a lifesaver.

So I did finally get off the ship with my rediscovered magical plastic. I didn't make breakfast, but instead I decided to visit the National Museum of Bermuda. Must say that it was pretty damn awesome. There was this part in the building called the hall of history and it's a painted mural on the walls depicting the history of the Island. It was so amazing I had to buy a poster of the mural.

And that's goodbye Bermuda. It was certainly a joy to have visited that place. Gorgeous beach, beautiful weather, delicious alcoholic soup. Bermuda shorts. 

ENDLESS facebook posts about the Bermuda Triangle (seriously guys...)

Cheers Bermuda.

Day 7

Things finally revert back to normal after a weird 2 weeks. This week wasn't as bad, but the fact that we got to Bermuda early still makes it a strange week. Weird that we revert back to normal scheduling on the very last day of the run. Now we get brand new routines. It will be interesting.

Thoughts from the week?

TWO MONTHS IN BABY! Loving it so far.

Not sure how the next updates are going to work since it's going to be 2 week cruises. Not sure if I'll have the chance to update midweek or week 1 of 2, or if I'll only update from Bayonne again. We'll see.

Booyah.

NOT THE WEEKLY UPDATE

This special update comes to you from Bermuda on the 9th of september. This is the last day of my current run in the Island and it has been a fantastic 8 weeks exploring the wonderful Bermuda.

Next week begins yet another new chapter in my adventure. New places to go, new things to see, new food to eat, new people to meet, new music to play, new 14 day cruises to experience.

IT'S ALL BRAND NEW!

Look forward to the new episode...

EPISODE 3 - THE NEW CRUISE.

Gah that was a horrible title. Use your imagination and do better.

Cheers.

The perfect week number 7? Hardly.

Week 7

Day 1

First day of the new and improved 6 day cruise for only one week! Apparently we reach Bermuda on wednesday anyway which means less one sea day. I actually think that's a good idea since second sea days are totally boring on the ship for the rhythm section. We don't work much second sea day and there's nothing to do on the ship aside from the gym and the tv. Both of which are not very interesting.

I will say this though, this post hurricane weather is terrific. 

But then I realised something. Summer is ending and I can feel it. The cool air up on the pool deck this afternoon and the chill air tonight as I wander on the open deck - I can definitely tell it's autumn.

I think season changes are sudden. You wake up one day and suddenly it feels a lot colder. There's like this one magical threshold that you cross as the temperature dips before your body registers it. I think as the temperature goes down gradually your body adjusts to it and you don't notice the small changes until it's probably like 5 degrees lesser and then suddenly you feel it. And suddenly you know it's the next season. It's a magical thing. But today definitely felt like one of those seasonal shifts. Bermuda is going to be extra nice this week if this weather holds up.

Day 2

Because of the shortened cruise, we're having to do the same amount of work in less amount of time. This means no more relaxing two days of one set a day. Had to do the afternoon set and then a production show on the same day. Man I hate this stupid 6 day cruise already.

Day 3

BERMUDA!!!

May the world frown on me for this. Something happened today that I witnessed and I could ot stop myself laughing. While walking into Dockyard today I witnessed one of those automated wheelchair/scooter things tip over ever so slowly and crash into the pavement. And it was raining as well. I was too far to run to aid so all I did was chuckle to myself. Poor old man. I really wanted to bust a seam laughing but I was afraid of getting brutally beaten up by Americans.

On another note I always find it funny when the captain says 'we expect beautiful weather for you in Bermuda' and then I stroll into the Island and it's raining. I think the captain either has no real weather forecast or he says the same thing regardless. Crew always joke when that announcement is made. Everyone sniggers and says 'he's lying.' Funny stuff.

Decided to spend slightly more money today with a meal in Bermuda. Bermuda is really expensive by the way. Had the local delight of fish chowder. But this is no ordinary chowder. It is served with black rum and sherry peppers. Yeap, alcoholic soup. Absolutely amazing. The local black rum is ridiculously strong. I may have met my match. Not drinking that for sure.

Day 4

So it's second week of Doug Cameron show. After this show I feel like I have finally conquered the cruise gig. I feel like I can now play anything they throw at me. I feel invincible.

The show went without a hitch, as did the rehearsal. And Doug has a reputation for rather long rehearsals, so getting ours done in an hour and fifteen was very uplifting.

Day 5

So we get news that a second hurricane is coming next week and we may not even go to Bermuda because that's where it'll hit. That's rather annoying. So I guess things may not be returning to normal after all. This might be my very last day in Bermuda for now. 

Had to play emergency jazz sets today. Half of me is bummed that I'm being handed extra work for no extra pay but the good thing is that I get to play with the lounge group's pianist and he is a kickass player. 

Day 6

Final day. 6 day cruise feels weird.

So apparently some old lady died last wednesday on the cruise. I really don't know what to make of that. I'm guessing its a nice way to go? On a luxury cruise no less. Or she may be furious that she didn't get her full moneys worth. I wonder what they do with her. Do they fly her home? Bury her in Bermuda? Keep her in the freezer till we get back to Jersey? Weird.

On a buffet related note, it sometimes is annoying that most of the servers at the buffet assume that I, like the guests, eat a motley of foods at the buffet everyday and give me small portions because they assume I'd want something else. This is especially annoying when they have fried rice for lunch. I've attempted several different methods to get a full plate of nothing but fried rice to no avail. It always takes 3 'more rice please's before I'm satisfied. I've also tried 'a full plate of rice' and 'just rice' and 'load it up with rice'. None of those work. Another reason why sometimes I just eat in the staff mess. Self service see.

Thoughts from the week?

There are two joys that I get on this ship. 

First is when a guest approaches me specifically to tell me that my drumming was great or that I was the best they had ever seen. Not just going up to say that we, 'the band', were great, but me specifically. I've gotten that several times now but it never fails to bring a smile to my face and heart.

The second joy that I get is when I get to watch old couples dance when we play. I don't know what it is but the look of joy on their faces as they dance to their favourite swing tunes makes me even happier. I guess it's a dream of mine that one day I'll be just as happy as they are, dancing to my favourite music with someone. 

Extra thought. There are days at sea where I can look out the window and all I see is the vast expanse of the ocean and sometimes, just sometimes, I feel like I can almost see the curvature of the earth. Or maybe my mind is just playing tricks on me. Whichever it is, it's pretty damn awesome.