This post is from a couple days ago. Enjoy!

December 2nd

I can't believe that it's been 10 days since I last wrote anything, but the longer I am on this ship the faster the time seems to pass by.

Things have been pretty routine for the greater part of those 10 days, but the last few have had a few blog-worthy happenings.

Tuesday, we were in Grand Caymen. I went to a local bar for internet and some beer with the ship's guest DJ, and had a great time, but came back to the ship about an hour later than I was supposed to. For the most part it turned out okay except that it was payday and I did not get back in time to get my cheque at the alloted time, which really isn't a big deal in the scheme of things but I did get some minor grief for it. It was worth it though, and I had a long un-deserved but definitely appreciated nap upon returning.

The evening brought some new interesting turns of events. We had two sets, one jazz set to back up the ship's comedian, and also our regular Tina Turner set. However, our guitarist, after seeing the nurse, was diagnosed as possibly having G.I (Gastro-instestinal something), and since this ship doesn't take any chances on these things, he was promptly quarantined for 24 hours. To make matters worse, our piano player without warning had to leave the ship to go to hospital for eye surgery. I've been told that he's not coming back, so we are now down a piano player. As a result, we had Fabrizio, the piano-bar entertainer, sit in for our jazz set.  As for our Tina Turner set, we had no piano player, but we did have the guitarist from the ship's cover band, Next Stage, sit in for our guitarist. Despite not being able to read music, he pulled through amazingly after having listened to the recordings and gone over the music with our band, saving the day.

Wednesday we were in Cozumel, which was nice but a little rainy and overcast. I went out only briefly, before returning for a late lunch. I spent the afternoon by watching some tv, and going to the gym. I went to Bamboo Restaurant (the ship's sushi and asian fusion restaurant) for dinner with the now un-quarantined guitarist Andrew. It was excellent sushi except it had far too much rice proportionately on each roll, causing us both to overestimate how much we could eat. It was a good meal nonetheless, but at 15$ a cover charge seemed far too expensive, being accustomed to an overflow of good and cheap sushi in Vancouver. Afterwards we went for some cigars in the cigar lounge, where we chatted with our saxophonist. Later I went to watch the end of rock night, played by Next Stage, and then headed to bed.

The unfortunate result of stuffing myself with sushi, or really anything, right before going to bed, is that my body doesn't let me sleep until it has digested most food, which I apparently have yet to reach. It did however give me an excuse to write this post, which I would have otherwise continued to put off.

There is a huge change-over of crew coming up shortly on this ship. Between December 12th and sometime in early January, no crew finish or start any contracts due to the busy-ness of the Christmas season. As a result, December 12th will be an extremely hectic day of embarkation and disembarkation of not only of 2000+ passengers but hundreds of crew members as well.

Before that, however, on December 3rd, our cover band, Next Stage, leaves and a new one will embark. It will be sad to see them go as they are not only an amazing band are also amazing people who I will miss. However, my experience so far with every change-over of this nature has been positive, and I am sure that the next band, once adjusted to, will rise to the occasion and do a great job.

Something that I just found out recently and am excited about is that in January and February we will be having two chartered cruises. I don't know much about the January one, but the February charter is a Rock cruise, and it is being headlined by The Barenaked Ladies, who will be supported by a number of other bands, including Great Big Sea and The Odds. I am incredibly excited to see these great Canadian bands, and as it will be happening on my last week on the ship it will be a terrific send-off for me.

That is all for now!