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!