October 13th

Today we have just arrived in Samana, Dominican Republic.

I last updated on saturday. Sunday was my last time in New York, and so I spent a lot of time trying to take in the city as much as I could one last time. I spent the first few hours just wandering the streets as different things caught my attention. I could never get bored doing that in New York, since there's always another street, another statue, another park, another major attraction. In addition there are some places that no matter how many times I see I will not get over, like Time Square. Of all the New England ports, there is none that will take your breath away the same way as New York. 

I topped of my New York expedition with a trip to the top of The Rockefeller Centre - The NBC studio building. 

The view from the top is spectacular. the building is situated just a few blocks from the souther end of Central Park, which is in the centre of Manhattan itself. You can see the entire city as well as into New Jersey and Brooklyn and elsewhere from the top, and just taking it in all at once is pretty amazing. I took a good many pictures from the top, and as usual they are going to be posted on facebook shortly. 

Afterwards I returned to the ship. There was a very energetic vibe on the ship as all of the new passengers had arrived and were excited about their upcoming cruise. It was also a significant moment for the ship itself, as this will be it's last time departing from New York - next year when the ship returns to the New England - Canada route, it will be departing out of Boston instead.

The new batch of passengers includes a larger proportion of younger people, who put a lot of energy into the shows which is great for all of the performers. This cruise is also quite busy as it's a one time repositioning cruise to Miami, after which we will do the same two cruise itineraries for many months.

Also on sunday our new drummer arrived as our old drummer departed. His name is Bartosz (Bart) from Poland, and he's a very solid drummer who's been on the ship before and so already knew a lot of the shows which made for a very smooth transition. He's a nice guy but I feel badly for him as he has really young kids back home who he is away from for four months, which is hard on him. 

Monday was our first sea day sailing down towards the Caribbean. I got a chance to check out the new Caribbean band, called Caribbean Wave, who are from Jamaica and have been on the ship before. They are a good band and create a great summer atmosphere at the pool deck, lively but not overbearing. 

. 

Monday night we accompanied the first guest performer, a Cuban pianist named Juan Pablo. It was a mixture of Latin American and Classical styles, and we played the show twice. It was a fun show and he's a very talented performer - we will accompany him one last time tomorrow (thursday) for a matinee show. 

Yesterday was our second sea day, and was the exact itinerary of what used to happen on mondays on the New England cruise: big band brunch 11-1, Band on the Run production shows at 7pm and 9pm, Viva Las Vegas show at 10:15. Except this time everything was even better attended and our audiences were especially receptive and made the atmosphere a lot more fun for everyone.

Here in Samana I am still on the ship and am going to disembark probably in a couple of hours. We have just arrived, and it is a port with no pier we can dock at, so instead a group of smaller boats will ferry us to and from the shore. Passengers of course get priority, so I expect I won't be able to get off until around 1:30. That is fine with me however as we are at this port until relatively late (8pm), so that should still allow ample time to get acquainted with the place.