Internet is very expensive on the ship and so I am only using it when absolutely necessary, but I thought I ought to let people know what's going on with me and so I decided to pay the few dollars to log on briefly, email, and upload my first couple blog posts. Read on....
September 17th
Today was my first day on the cruise ship, and I have to say that all of my expectations were exceeded. I know I had high hopes to begin with, and fantasized about how good it could be, but to be honest I didn't think it could live up. I have so far happily been proven wrong.
This morning I breakfasted at the Four Points Sheraton hotel where ncl put me up for the night, and was shuttled to the ship around nine.
In case it wasn't clear already, these ships are huge. this one has something like 14 decks, and can accommodate over 3000 people (that is, allow 3000 people to live full lives in luxury, not just ferry them). It unsurprisingly is taking a good long time to get full grasp of the ship but I am nonetheless impressed with how much of it I feel like I know already.
Upon arrival, I filled out some necessary paperwork, was given an id card that serves pretty much any function you could think of needing for a magnetic card. I dropped my stuff off in my cabin shortly after. Cruise ship crew cabins are complained about a great deal for their small size. To be sure, this room is perhaps better described as a glorified closet than cabin. That being said, it is a comfortable closet, which is cozy when it could have been claustrophobic. It has a mini fridge and cable tv too, which are nice little luxuries.
Soon after I met my musical director, a native of Montana who plays trumpet and is in charge of all of the music on the boat but spends most of his time being the leader of the showband for which I play. After giving me a brief tour of the ship he gave me the music for what we'd be playing for the night - a few tunes for a variety show, and a big band Frank Sinatra tribute set. There was no time to rehearse so it was definitely a sink or swim situation.
My roommate is a great Filipino guy named Santie. He seems to know just about everyone and kindly showed me around a lot. He is in charge of crew bikes (yes, there are bikes on board for the crew that we can borrow, which means I will not need to buy a bike here like I had originally planned for my shore excursions). He, like many people here, has been on ships for 10 or so years, which sounds crazy but is starting to seem understandable.
As a musician on a ship, you are allowed to go just about everywhere. You are allowed in almost all passengers areas (with the exception of the casino, the pool and spa for most of the time) of course deferring to passengers for spots at restaurants and such if there is a shortage of seats. You are also allowed in all of the crew areas. So, I can eat in the crew mess, the officer mess (reserved for only certain positions), and most of the passengers restaurants. In the passenger areas we have to wear nice-ish clothing (aka no jeans/shorts, no t-shirts), but since the only identification we're required to wear is a small silver name tag, most passengers mistake you for other passengers anyway and so don't bother you with anything and are generally quite friendly.
As for ways to kill time, there are a number of things. There is a good deal of sporting facilities including a basketball court, table tennis, a jogging track, two gyms (a passenger gym and a crew gym, of which I can use both) and more. In the officer mess there is a good collection of movies and tv series that you can borrow, as well as a fair selection of books. There are tvs scattered around all the crew mess areas which often have movies running. There is a crew bar which serves 1$ beers, a crew store for cheap staple products, and various other things that I can't remember or haven't yet discovered.The obvious activity is that most of the time we are in port and can go around exploring the different cities. I have to wait to get a certain visa that allows me to go on shore in the US, but we are heading to Canada on tuesday and so I will be allowed to go off there already and will have my visa together by the time we reach the US again.
I spent most of the day exploring, eating, running over music, sleeping, and meeting lots of other crew. The people here are super friendly and there is a great vibe around the crew. In addition to north americans and europeans, I think 70% of the crew are Filipino which is quite nice because they are great, talented, kind and funny people.
Down to the playing. The variety show was in the Stardust Theatre, which is an incredibly beautiful theatre that seats about 1000 people, with excellent sound, lights, etc. We just played three songs for the variety show, but I have to say those three songs were probably the most glamorous show I have ever been part of. The singer was on a raised platform, there was smoke, lights, and fantastic sound. After that we rushed to a beautiful atrium in the middle of the ship which three levels of passengers overlooking. The atrium itself however rises even further up to at least four or five levels before reaching the ceiling. A Filipino singer named Ariel was the Frank Sinatra impersonator, and I have to say I have never heard anyone do a better job than him (aside from Frank).
The showband itself is also quite likely the tightest band I have played in. The drummer named Jay is one of Stan Kenton's past drummers (for those who don't know, Stan was one of the big band jazz leader greats) and is exceptional. The rest of the band is comprised of myself on electric bass, a pianist, guitarist, saxophone, trumpet and trombone. Every show in the theatre is recorded and aired immediately and recurringly on all of the cable tvs, and I was quite impressed with the sound and visuals of our performance.
Afterwards some of the band and myself went for food on deck 12 at a place called the Garden Cafe which features three different rooms of buffet food ranging from high end to low. All free for us of course. We then went to the Stardust theatre for a crew party featuring free beer and a very talented comedy troupe called Second City who performed a number of sketches based on the themes of cruise ship crew life.
All in all, it seems like I probably have the easiest and most pampered job that I knew could exist while at the same time I have an incredible opportunity to play a wide variety of at times challenging but very fun music. We will have to see if I still feel this positively about the experience four months from now, but based on my first day review, I understand why so many people here have made this job into their lives.
September 18th
I know that I just blogged yesterday, but I just wanted to mention a few more things.
I just saw a big cast show at the Stardust Theatre called "Bollywood" tonight, which was basically a combination of Moulin Rouge, Cirque De Soleil, the 80s, and of course bollywood. And I mean all of that in the best possible way. The dancers/singers/gymnasts were all astonishingly talented, and I am really looking forward to working with them when we play our two production shows: "Band on the Run", and "South Beach Rave". Apparently our ship is rated the best in the entire Norwegian fleet (that includes best showband) and iI feel extremely priviliged to be a part of it.
Today we were moored in the water outside of Newport, Rhode Island, which on paper sounds pretty dull (to me at least) but in fact had a fantastic view, with hundreds of sailboats surrounding us and moored outside the harbour. Because I am technically working on this ship, I am not allowed on the shores of the US until thursday when I get an I-95 visa, which is a shame because we arrive at New York early tomorrow morning. However, When we arrive in Halifax on tuesday I will be able to get off and I will then promptly find myself some cheap wi-fi and satiate my internet appetite.
I had the entire day off until 8pm today, and so I spent my time working on the two production shows, sleeping, and exploring the ship further. I chatted with the guitarist at a place called the Havana Room which is basically designed for people to smoke cigars and drink whisky, which I did not do just yet but no doubt will on more celebratory occasions. I don't think I will ever get tired of finding new lounges to lounge in on this ship.
Just after 8pm we opened up the crew talent show with two big band charts, and that was my work for the day. It was at that point that I went to see the bollywood show in the theatre, after which I checked out the ship's Filipino cover band. These guys were amazingly good and played good fun disco and rock. I was told before going on this ship that Filipino people are the best singers and I can now confirm it - they sing in these big voices that sound like anything from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson while not looking anything of the part - I love it. I then checked out the guy who sang at the Frank Sinatra set yesterday, who was playing piano in a lounge, backing up a comedian from New york who took breaks from comedy to sing jazz standards extremely well.
One of interesting quirks of being on a ship all the time which I want to mention before I stop noticing is the constant swaying. It's not overpowering, but is more of a gentle rock which at times makes you feel slightly innebriated but most of the time is very extremely calming.
Tomorrow will be my last really easy day for a little while, with my only obligations being some safety training for about an hour and then to play a few tunes for a Welcome Aboard show at night for the new passengers who embark in New York. Monday, our first complete day at sea, however, will be crazy: a two hour brunch set, a rehearsal for Band on the Run, then two runs of the show at 8 and 10 o'clock. Following that, we will play a show called Viva Las Vegas after 10 in the ship casino. Needless to say there will be cocktails to follow that. The rest of the week I am expecting to be full of various safety training courses, from which I was kindly spared for the first two days while we waited for the rest of the new crew to arrive from New York.
I will upload a few photos onto this blog but it takes forever to upload even one so I will put most of them on facebook itself as soon as possible, so check there for more. I apologize for the general lack of photos so far but I keep forgetting to take pictures, and when I do the lighting tends to be bad. I still don't have a good picture of the ship itself from offboard, but I will hopefully get a good one on tuesday.
I will probably not post anything else until at least tuesday, so that all until then!
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