It's been awhile since I've posted anything about the happenings on the ship, so I thought I'd try and come up with a few details to let people know that I am still alive and doing things.

I am obviously very settled into ship life at this point, and feeling very at home, but no matter how long I am here I never cease to reflect on the whole experience and life on the ship, because it is still a very surreal and unique sort of experience. One thing about it is that the time goes by very very quickly because there are so many ship routines that are repeated every week that start to blend together. Our tribute and production shows, boat drills, other entertainment acts on the ship, the coming and going each set of passengers, weekly cabin inspections, episodes of Two and a Half Men and The Office, weekly entertainment meetings, the rush to get free internet at a lucrative port, drinking coffee and reading outside of Blue Lagoon Restaurant, going to the gym, hanging out in crew bar, and of course meals and sleep.

The one thing that doesn't feel routine yet, is the ports themselves. Between the actually cities we dock at, the surrounding areas, and the shore excursions, there is really quite a lot to explore and experience and there is always a new side to see of these islands.  I would very much like to go on some hikes through the mountains in Tortolla and St Kitts, both of which have port cities surrounded by very close-by mountains.

The biggest recent change is that two days ago our old guitarist, Glenn, finished his contract and has gone to England to play some jazz there for six months. Our new guitarist, Andrew, is now on board, and he is a fellow Canadian from Toronto, dismantling my status as the only Canadian musician onboard. He is also in his 20s and so I am no longer the youngest by 20 years, as I had been for the last few weeks since we got our new sax and piano players. While Glenn was predominantly a jazz player, Andrew is definitely a rocker. They are both good players with their own personality in their playing, and so more than anything it gives a different colour to the sound of the band, which will keep things interesting for the rest of us as we adjust to it.

The key cards that we are given to open our cabins and to buy things on the ship have the weakest magnetic strips you could imagine, and if they come in the faintest of contact with anything electronic they de-magnetize. I got to experience this all too annoyingly at 2:30am last night (the fifth time so far on this contract), when, after briefly leaving my cabin to get a drink of water at the nearby fountain, I discovered that my card wouldn't open up my door. I knocked and knocked on the door and went to a nearby phone to call my cabin, but my roommate was passed out stone cold. 

I went to find the security guard on duty, who told me that he wasn't authorized to open it and that I should go get my roommate. Having already tried to contact my roommate multiple times, I politely told him so, which he seemed to completely disregard and told me to contact my roommate. I humoured him and returned to my cabin with more knocking, and then more phone calls, and then more knocking, but to no avail. I returned to the man, who unhelpfully gave me the same frustratingly stupid and blatantly wrong answer as before, because as the security guard on duty it is in fact his job to let in people who get stuck out of their cabins.

At any rate, after posting at the top of my staircase waiting to see if anyone more helpful would walk by, I eventually spotted another security guard, who promptly called the first one and told him to come open my cabin. 

When the first one came and recognized me as the one who had asked him in the first place he was quite definitively pissed off, although for no reason that I can quite fathom. He made some vague threat about what he'd do if my roommate was in fact in the cabin, to which I responded for the umpteenth time that yes, he in fact was in the cabin, but was fast asleep and seemingly unwakeable. He didn't seem to know what to do with this brand new piece of information, mumbled something about the crew bar and after opening my room, searching it briefly and spotting the passed out form of my roommate, he left, angrily.

Needless to say I didn't dare leave my room for anything else, until the Personnel office opened in the morning and I went to get a new card. In the past whenever I've gone to get a new card I've tried to come up with some excuse as to how it got demagnitized so that I don't feel quite as foolish, but today I just handed it over, grunted and left without a word, still annoyed about last night's episode.

My fun episode of today immediately following, when I went on deck to wait for the sound of the emergency alarm, being under the impression that we had a boat drill at 10am. I waited a good 20 minutes (boat drills always start late) before realizing that no one else seemed to be waiting for it, at which point I went back downstairs, discovered that the boat drill wasn't until tomorrow, and that I was now 30 minutes late for a rehearsal with the rest of the band and the production cast in the theatre for tonight's shows.

Dramatic as it sounds, everyone was good-humoured and amused as I discreetly walked onto stage in the middle of one of the numbers, although the deal in the band is that you buy a round of drinks for the others when you miss a rehearsal, which is perfectly justified and that I will honour when I get the chance.

All in all, nothing too bad, and at least I got some fresh material for my blog. 

I am currently sitting on a patio in Tortolla, just outside a "Best of British" shop, which exists in honour of the fact that Tortolla is one of the British Virgin Islands, and is well stocked with things like tea, british magazines, canned soup, and advent calendars (which look very out of place in this climate).

I intend to go walk around and explore Tortolla a bit more before heading back and probably napping/reading/watching tv series until our shows tonight. There is a crew/passenger deck party afterwards which should be a fun time.

That's all for now!

With all of my free time on this ship, I have slipped into the pleasant habit of reading quite a bit. I find that on a ship of thousands of people, finding somewhere quiet to read is one of the most restful and relaxing activities available to me, and happily there is not only a bookshelf from which to borrow books for crew in the staff mess, but we can also take books from the passenger library which has a much larger selection. Being a sucker for psychological self-help type books, I took out a book called "Play" a few weeks ago, and have just finished it, and decided to inflict my thoughts upon this blog.

Play, as defined by author Stuart Brown, is one of the most defining attributes of human beings, and is what likely has put us so far ahead of any other species on earth. Play and learning go hand in hand - hence infants and children who are learning at the quickest rate do so by playing and exploring to the greatest extent. As centuries go by, humans have started to extend this period of play and learning for longer and longer, and this has been a great asset to us, and has led to the varied achievements of technology, art, culture and more that we have attained. 

Brown talks about how most animals grow new nerve connections extensively only during their juvenile period. When their period of play stops, their brains effectively stop growing. 

The reason that animals stop playing is that eventually the benefits of learning and growing smarter are outweighed by the inherent dangers of play, such as its distraction from other critical activities like protecting the young, finding food and shelter, etc. Eventually they reach a point where they descend into narrower, more compulsive behaviour patterns. 

This is not as much the case with the most intelligent types of animals, such as dogs and dolphins. Both of these animals are extremely playful for most of their lives, and are thus always learning and reaching new levels of mental sophistication.

Brown makes a comparison between dogs and wolves. Wolf and dog pups are very similar when they are still young, but as they grow they start to become very distinct. Dogs, which have been bred to coexist with humans, have a much more fluid and flexible social structure, are more adaptable to strangers and new situations, and are obviously much more playful. Wolves on the other hand have a rigid hierarchal system, are generally hostile to strangers, and as they grow up lose most of their early playful nature. 

Of course, in the wild, this is to the benefit of wolves, and most domestic dogs would not last long in such conditions. But since dogs are given the luxury of a relatively safe environment to grow within, they are free to explore, play, and learn throughout their lives. 

Humans have stretched the juvenile period longer than any other species - to 15 years at least, and usually much longer For people who are well adjusted and who are safe, play can prompt continued neurogenesis throughout our entire lives.

So, on to Brown's description of play. As a general guideline, he says to look for the following characteristics in play: 

Apparently purposeless ( done for it's own sake), 

Voluntary

Inherent attraction

Freedom from time

 Diminished consciousness of self

Improvisational potential

and Continuation desire (we want to keep doing it).

The Benefits of play according to Brown are that it provides a safe environment within which we can explore and evolve social boundaries, and also puts us in a frame of mind where we are opening ourselves up to new possibilities, or thinking outside the box. In the words of animal play scholar Bob Fagen, "In a world continuously presenting unique challenges and ambiguity, play prepares [animals] for an evolving planet."

In a nutshell, the idea I found the most captivating of this book is that the activities that you are drawn to the most for their own pure pleasure to you are the activities that your mind already knows will stimulate the most brain growth and learning. There are some obvious limits to this, but to simplify, the notion of pursuing your passions and hoping for the best has been given a new degree of merit.

The important thing that he stresses throughout the book is that you don't want to look for anything productive in the play activity - the need to be productive is an unfortunate thing that our modern society has imposed upon us, driving us to feel guilty about the idea of doing something just for the sake of enjoyment. The fact is that in the most seemingly trivial and impractical of play activities your brain is being activated and making new neural connections, filling in gaps and preparing you for life's challenges in ways that we are only just beginning to understand. Enjoyment of play activities is not an arbitrary neurological phenomena, but is rather our brain's way of trying to steer us into activities that will stimulate it's own growth. 

A playful attitude also lends resilience to life's challenges, and a sense of irony and humour helps us to deal with failures and unexpected circumstances without taking ourselves too seriously.

One other thing to keep in mind is that anything at all can be a play activity, it just depends on the individual person's perception of it.

Anyways, that's all for now. Next up is "A Tale of Two Cities" - this will take me just a little bit longer.....

Well, this has been my longest break so far without writing a blog, but that's because I've had the distraction of entertaining my parents on board. It has been a very full but fun week spent with them, aided by the fact that they came on the nine-day cruise in which my work schedule tends to be quite sparse.

In our first port, Samana, we went on an excursion called "Discover Samana", which was a bus tour which took us all around the Samana peninsula, starting at the first Church of Samana ("El Churcho"), before going to a place that sold local crafts, jewelery, and cigars. We were then taken to an area with a beach, restaurant and a few other stores. The majority of the tour took place in the bus, in which our tour guide, Carlito, gave us a very detailed history of Samana, about it's education system, economy, and culture. Overall it gave me a much greater appreciation of the port that has been the butt of many jokes on the ship for it's seemingly lack of appeal to tourists. 

Just about every night we went to one of the fine dining restaurants, from The Venetian which is free but still probably the most elegant of the restaurants, with a spectacular menu with specials that change daily, to Salsa, the text-mex restaurant which overlooks the centre atrium of the ship, to Impressions, the local italian restaurant with an excellent selection of food and decorated by some amazing pieces of art. 

Usually after dinner and my shows for the evening we hung out in a lounge drinking either wine or whiskey and listening to a piano player, whether it be Ariel playing old jazz and pop standards, or Fabrizio, the ship's "Italian Stallion", spreading love and playing just about every popular tune you can think of.  

In Barbados, me and my parents went to visit the parents of some of our friends from church, the Goodriges. We had a great time with them, and it was a refreshing break for me because it was the first time I had eaten or really set food in a private residence in two months. 

One of the highlights for all of us this week was the excursion we went on in St Kitts. It was a Cattemaran ride which first took us to a spectacular snorkeling spot, and then to a remote beach resort on the nearby island called Nevis. The Rum-punch and beers were limitless, and lounging on the netting at the front of the boat with rum in hand under the Caribbean sun was definitely among the most perfect Caribbean experiences I've had. 

Another interesting element of the week for me has been being able to see the ship a little bit more from the passengers' perspective. This has been the result of spending time in my parents stateroom (which made me feel less bad about the small size of my own room), eating in formal restaurants each day rather than just getting a quick bite at one of the buffet's as I normally would do, going on several shore excursions, and generally mingling more with the passengers. I have also indulged in far more food this week than is my norm as I have been eating vacationing passenger portions rather than everyday life portions, which has been pleasant but is not really sustainable all year round.

I managed to get my parents VIP passenger status, which among other things let them (and by extension, me) eat every breakfast and lunch at the most upscale restaurant on the ship, Cagney's Steakhouse. Cagney's is an exceptional restaurant with amazing steak, egg dishes and other things, but probably best of all is the privacy it gives from the rest of the ship which is always bustling. 

Today is sunday and so my parents disembarked, and I hung out with them briefly in Miami before heading back to the ship, leaving them to make their way back home. It has been a great week and has been nice to have a reminder of home from hanging out with them for the week, and I feel like I've had my fill of home again and am happy to be on the ship still for a few more months. My schedule is looking promisingly different this week too which should keep things fun.

That's all for now - I swear I will get some more pictures up one of these days...

St Kitts is a pretty cool place, and went way up in my books after I discovered the potentially endless free rum samples of many different kinds right near the ship.

 As a town, St Kitts seems decently well off, although some of the houses were pretty run-down. I did manage to find free internet which was a plus, but it is a relatively expensive area so I think I will leave most of my shopping for Miami and Cozumel, Mexico. 

The last two days of the nine-day cruise were relatively quiet and uneventful. Sunday we began our first five day-cruise, which heads down to Grand Caymen and then to Cozumel. That evening we had a passenger halloween party, which was pretty entertaining. Monday was a sea day, and was back to our usual monday routines of busyness - Big band brunch, two Band on the Run shows, and Viva Las Vegas. The difference this time however was that everything was quite poorly attended in comparison to normal. The passengers of the five day cruise are a different sort of clientele from those of the nine day cruise. Since it's cheaper it caters to younger crowds as well as a more diverse group ethnically, both of which are great things: however, the one advantage of having an old white audience, as in our 9-day, is that they are a very appreciative and attentive audience, and on the nine day cruise all of our shows had a much greater attendance. This cruise attendance has been slimmer although the people who do come bring a lot of energy.

Yesterday, Tuesday, we were in Grand Caymen, of the Caymen Islands. Grand Caymen is very wealthy, with the 12th highest household income in the world. It was also struck by a Hurricane six years ago that destroyed or damanged 95% of the buildings in the main town, and so it is a very new looking place. Again, it is not a place to go buy stuff, but it is a beautiful, modern town with a lot of good places to eat and explore. 

Tuesday evening, after playing a dance set and a Tina Turner tribute set, we had our crew Halloween party, which was great fun what with the free drinks and high spirits of everyone there. I attempted to go dressed as a hobbit but ended up looking like Sherlock Holmes and ended up introducing myself as him. It was a fun night and I had a really good conversation with Clayton, the drummer of the Jamaican calypso band, Caribbean Wave. We talked a lot about music, Reggae in particular, and also Jamaica and it's history and culture. 

Today we were in Cozumel, Mexico again, which is my second visit there. it is a great port with some excellent shopping for good prices. I did a little bit of christmas shopping for some things that I will turn over to my parents when they arrive on friday, and I also bought some cheap cigars for smoking in the Havana Lounge on the ship (which I am in fact doing right now as I write this). 

After hanging out in Cozumel I went back to the ship and relaxed for awhile and watched some tv, before eating dinner and playing our one show of the day, supporting the comedian as he switched between jazz standards and his stand-up routine.

I am doing my best to keep everything up to date on this blog. My entries are becoming less frequent not because less things are happening, but I don't want to bore those of you who keep up with this regularly with details on shows that I have already described before - I am trying to limit this mostly to new events and reflections. I still very much enjoy writing this, as it makes my adventure on this ship feel like it is serving a greater purpose, though what that might be I am not quite sure. At the very least I hope I am entertaining you and giving you a happy distraction from everyday life.

Tomorrow is a sea day on our way back to Miami, and I have the entire day off. I am very much looking forward to getting to Miami on friday since parents will finally be getting on for their nine-day cruise. At the same time it will be a sad day because one of my good friends on the ship, Anton, who is the piano player from the showband, is heading back home to the Ukraine. Another big change will be that we will be getting a new cruise director in Miami while our current director goes on a two month vacation with his girlfriend, who is the current saxophonist of the showband. On top of the arrival of parents, departing friends and a new cruise director, I am also starting a marathon of general safety training courses including things like basic first aid and firefighting, which will be a pain but is probably good stuff to know.

I hope that everything is going well with everyone who's reading, and I really appreciate all comments and feedback I have gotten from this blog. I would love to get emails (sent to M_J_W_87@hotmail.com) from you filling me in on anything new happening in your lives, and I promise I will respond to them. 

Also, just so you know, if you click the "follow" button on the right hand side of the blog, you can have the site inform you whenever I write something new.

That's all for now!