Round 2

11:09am MSD/3:09am EDT

Wow… I’ve been up for a little less than 3 hours and it’s only 3am back home. That’s so weird.

Well, we’re back in St. Petersburg. And I have all day duty, which kind of sucks. Apparently it’s freezing outside though. I think it’s mostly the wind because I went out on deck 12 where the pool is and it felt fine… And then the wind blew haha

Had another boat drill yesterday. Which basically means wake up at 10 and go stand on deck 7 while people who are trained to respond to emergencies practice their duties. I am what you would call a Supernumerary – my orders are “await further instruction.” Learned today that they cross train the supernumeraries… We have a job, we just may not be called upon to do it, depending on the situation. So, in my first of two trainings today, I learned that my job is Pier Preparation. Which means that, in the unlikely event that there was an emergency while docked and we had to offload the passengers to the dock, I would be called upon to assist getting the passengers ashore and figuring out where to put them, etc. Thrilling.

Country Gold again last night. Easy strike and we didn’t have anything to set up for today… So overall, last night went quick.

Heh, today I was supposed to set up sound in the sports court but a.) it’s real cold, b.) the sound system isn’t up there, and c.) I know where the sound system is but not how to get it back to the court. I walked every route I know of that doesn’t involve stairs (it’s in a big rack case) and I couldn’t find how to get it up there. We had a Cruise Programs meeting this morning, and then a Production meeting after that – which I had to skip out on for my supernumerary cross training… But I came late, since the training was really short. Anyway, I meant to ask Shawn about getting the system up there but forgot. At this point, I don’t know if it’s worth it to mess with.

Shawn’s girlfriend – I can’t, for the life of me, remember her name (I know she’s from India and her parents were on the last cruise but…) – invited me out to dinner with them tonight. We’re going to Teppanyaki, which is the Japanese hibachi restaurant onboard… I’m pretty excited but also kind of nervous… I don’t know what I should wear (I mean like nice dress or a t-shirt?) – though I assume it’d be better to err on the side of overdressed than under… She (Shawn’s girlfriend) seems very determined to get me out and sociable… Which is nice even though it’s kind of outside my comfort zone and I feel rather awkward at times. Oh well, it’s still a good thing for me – I somehow seem to find those people… Or maybe they find me…

Anywho, crew party again tonight. Last time was pretty crazy, and I’m kind of excited to go again, even if I mostly sit by myself in the corner laughing. There’s a crew barbeque going on right now but it’s at the Great Outdoors and I think the wind is probably too much to persuade me to go out. It annoys me enough when I go to breakfast there and my “eggs” (aka liquid heated to a fluff to resemble scrambled eggs) and sausage (aka turkey sausage…) get cold from the wind. And that’s on a regular day. Naw, I’ll just stick to the regular staff mess.

I’ve been actually doing stuff at the shows now, which is nice. I mean, I feel useful and not just like some guy hanging around… I haven’t even been here 3 weeks yet, so I guess I’m still the new guy and that’s to be expected. When you live and work here and are here every day and blah blah blah, feeling useless is kind of magnified… But, it’s getting a lot better. I mean, I’m still not doing much in the shows… In Country Gold, I get the wireless mics ready before show – check the batteries in the body packs and get them matched up with the corresponding microphone for that person – and then hold the curtain open at one point. Other than that, I kinda just hang out and laugh at the performers doing silly versions of the dances backstage, or the guys singing hilarious renditions of the songs over the com. We had a magic show the other day, and I had a few jobs for that but again… not much. I had to help put the assistant in a box before the show, catch the guy’s coat when he threw it off stage, move some props off stage behind the curtain, and set and strike a chair. So far the most strenuous thing I’ve had to do during a show was Cirque Bijoux – and really the hardest part about that was climbing in and out of the catwalk… And putting the harness on. I hate wearing those things… I don’t recall if I talked about that or not. I’ll have to try to remember to check next time I’m online – and if not, I will! We’ve got that show coming up again in a few days anyway.

And ADD takes over… I’m sure there was something else I was going to talk about but I got distracted by Valient Thorr. And also I’m hungry. Also I can’t stop yawning. Also…

“Don’t need no coffee, don’t need no coal, this motherfucker runs on rock ‘n’ roll!” – Valient Himself









Fooooooood.