This is from yesterday:

October 27th

Sunday we were in Samana again, where I just went off very briefly to get some free internet at a local restaurant. 

On Monday we went to Tortolla Island, which is one of the British Virgin Islands. Since it is a bigger and wealthier place were were able to dock right at a pier instead of having to take tender boats, which made it much less of a headache going ashore.

Compared to Samana, Tortolla quite a wealthy island, and it obviously gets a lot of tourism. It is situated in a beautiful cove of a small valley surrounded by mountains lush with greenery, and the water is a piercing shade of blue. Immediately outside the ship is a row of vendor stalls selling clothing, souvenirs, jewelery, sunglasses, hats, and various other accessories at inflated tourist prices.  As you kept walking in you approached a main street which is full principally of clothing stores. Tortolla is under Britain's jurisdiction but nonetheless it uses the american dollar for it's local currency. One of the principal clues that it is under British rule is that people drive on the left side of the street there, which is surprisingly disorienting. Tortolla, like most of the islands in the Carribean, has a history that is very much entwined with the slave trade, and as such a vast majority of the locals are descendants of African slaves, with an extremely small minority of white people who's principal role seems to be to run a few English style restaurants for tourist appeal. My overall opinion of Tortolla as a tourist was that it's greatest asset is it's natural beauty, cleanliness of the city and a some interesting looking buildings. However, it is quite a small town with pretty limited retail outlets, and I found it to be eerily empty of pedestrians relative to every other Caribbean port. A more positive way of looking at it is that it is less of a tourist trap and has other means of making money.

Next, on Tuesday, we were in Antigua. While not having quite the same degree of natural beauty as Tortolla, Antigua is a much bigger and denser town, filled with shops of very kind. The streets are narrow and bustling with pedestrians which I always find comforting in a place. I found it to be most reminiscent of Coracao as far as the layout of the city. It is clearly too intriguing a place to take in one short visit so after walking around for a little under an hour I settled down for a Pina Colada and some free wifi usage. It will be an interesting port to explore each week. My main criticism of Antigua is that it is surprisingly expensive, but I expect that if you know where to look you can find most things, and if you are patient and walk further in I wouldn't be surprised to find some much better prices.

Today (Wednesday), we were in Barbados. Barbados I believe is the most well developed country in the Caribbean, and one of the largest. We docked in Bridgetown which is it's capital, which is an extremely popular cruise ship destination. As such, the port is large and a little bit removed from the downtown core. Still, it is a pleasurable 20 minute waterfront walk into town and if you go just a little bit further there is a beautiful scenic beach overlooked by restaurant patios. I went to one, The Boat Yard, which is the local hangout area for crew, with a 5$ admission which includes a drink, access to their waterfront facilities, internet access, and a shuttle back to the ship afterwards. In the future I intend to do some biking around Barbados to so as to see further into the downtown area. 

After going into Barbados I came back and played a jazz set with the ship's comedian as well as our Tina Turner Tribute set. It was rock knight for the ship's cover band who were playing outside by the pool, so I checked that out for awhile before coming down to get some food and do some writing.

Tomorrow we are in St. Kitt, which is the final port of the nine day cruise, before we make our two day journey back into Miami. The showband will be supporting a guest singer tomorrow night for two shows in the Stardust Theatre, so that will be nice to look at some fresh material. 

Time for another update. 

After Roatan we went to Cozumel, Mexico, which is so far my favourite port of the Carribean. It has a lot of good gift shops and things to buy for cheap, a lot of great looking restaurants with nice patios, and best of all there's a hotel right next to the port with a waterfront restaurant called "No-name Bar" which is a bar designed for ship crew by ship crew, with wireless internet access, amazing waterfront access, good drinks and a picture-perfect patio atmosphere. I look forward to being able to return to Cozumel every second week.

We arrived in Miami on friday, which was a bit of a pain since we had a US cost guard inspection and boat drill, which left us with only 1 hour to get off the ship. I walked around the port area a little bit and found a wifi hotspot not far away, but it wasn't enough time to get into downtown Miami and properly explore it - I will hopefully get a chance to do so at the end of this cruise.

Today is our first sea day of our first nine-day cruise out of our new home port of Miami. The nine-day cruises look like they will be a pretty relaxing itinerary for the showband (not that the 7-day cruises weren't already), as we are essentially playing all of the same shows but spread out over the whole nine days. As such, today, which would have ordinarily been extremely busy (with a big band brunch, two production shows and a casino show) was pretty light with just the two production shows (band on the run). Today was my first day running the show without any sheet music to fall back on, which was a little intimidating and was not helped by the fact that the sound guys got a new mixing board which in short has completely changed the sound that the band hears on stage. All of this is just a convoluted excuse for why I came in early on my bass line for "YMCA". Luckily I fixed it pretty quick and everyone else on stage caught on and kept it smooth, and hopefully the audience didn't notice. At any rate, I will definitely not make that mistake again.

Afterwards I played in the Gatsby's Lounge with Ariel the piano player, and am currently hanging out in the 24-hour comfort-food place, which has become my favourite late-night hang spot and has somehow been the spot where I've had the best conversations on the ship.

Tomorrow we are back in Samana, where if I am organized and motivated enough in the morning I might sneak onto a shore excursion, but if not I will go into town for some free internet and whatever else I can find.

Today we are in Roatan, Honduras, which is a very poor place, not unlike Samana. 

Yesterday we backed up a Celine Dion tribute singer, which surprisingly to me turned out to be a fantastic show with great energy. It turns out that Celine Dion's songs actually are pretty fun to play on stage, and everyone appreciated the humour of playing "My Heart Will Go On" on a cruise ship in the atlantic.

The last three days of this repo cruise are extremely relaxed for the showband with very few shows and a lot of free time, which is nice although also means having to find ways to entertain myself. 

I've been noticing a lot lately how important it is to find time to be away from crowds of people, which can be difficult on these ships. I really love being around all of the people here, but being an introvert at heart, I really need to have quite a few hours in a day to myself to just relax and recharge. 

That's enough musing for now. I have posted a number of Caribbean photos and will continue to post more as I accumulate worthwhile amounts.

Here is another post from two days ago:

October 17th

Today was a sea day. This morning we had a soundcheck at 12:30 for our Neil Diamond tribute shows tonight. I spent the day doing laundry, playing ping-pong, sleeping, watching tv, eating and reading - very relaxing.

 One of the guest performers on the ship during our repositioning cruise is a hypnotist named Brenda Kaye, and she put on three shows tonight - two passenger shows, and then a special crew show at 11:30. I checked out part of one of the passenger shows before going to play my two Neil Diamond tribute shows. 

The passenger show was pretty funny, but the crew show was absolutely hysterical. Brenda had a group of volunteers (for someone to be hypnotized they have to be completely willing and wanting) come on stage and slowly put them into a trance, which was ultimately effective on all but two out of about eight people. She had them playing imaginary pianos and guitars to start, and then got progressively more ridiculous as the night went on. She had one person shouting "man overboard" whenever the acronym "NCL" was said (Norwegian Cruise Line), which in turn would trigger two other people to feel that someone had pinched their butts. 

One girl was convinced that her belly button had disappeared, while two others were given imaginary m & m s which would pleasure them. One guy was made into the laughter police and he started to get quite upset with the audience whenever they would laugh. Another guy was speaking in his perception of a martian dialect while another girl was told she could translate it, which she did. She had them believing a number of other hilarious things, before snapping them out of it, with a parting shot to one guy of having him convinced that he was stuck to his chair until the cruise director came up and shook his hand, which he did. Another was told that she couldn't leave the stage before doing three jumping jacks, which she performed, and finally another girl was told to bark three times whenever she went through a doorway on her way back to her cabin, which I found out later that she did.

I've never seen anything like it - I spoke to several of the hypnotees about it afterwards and they said they felt extremely relaxed, and most of them remembered everything and felt conscious during but also said that they felt compulsed to do what the hypnotist asked or said. It was fascinating and really good-natured fun for everyone involved, and they all enjoyed themselves immensely. I spoke to the hypnotist about it later and she said that people who are hypnotized will not do anything they feel completely uncomfortable or unethical doing, and that they still ultimately can prevent themselves from doing things if they are very much against them. She also spoke of how it can be used to help people quit smoking, help with weight loss, and a number of other things. She is doing  a few seminars on it this week which I will try to check out if I get the chance. 

Afterwards I went out on deck to check out a a thunderstorm. Lightning looks amazing from the deck of a ship in the middle of the night, since you are surrounded by complete darkness, and when a sheet of lightning darts across the sky the entire world around you is illuminated in an awesome bright light and you see everything up to the horizon for many miles. It is a spectacular sight. 

October 16th

You can't leave Samana without a feeling of ambivalence. On the one hand, it is a beautiful Caribbean island with many kodak opportunities, lots of nice shops to check out, beautiful beaches and some good cheap food and beer.

At the same time, just past the fancy tourist spots is a poverty-stricken town, where you will be approached by small kids no more than 8 years old trying to sell you sea shells. Still, the local people seemed happy enough, and the very fact of being on my first Caribbean island made the experience enchanting. I walked around the town, and then settled in a restaurant where I ordered a 4$ beer which turned out to be a full litre, as I took advantage of the free wifi. After Samana, me and the rest of the showband got to eat at the Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant, in which the chefs cook your food in front of you while doing tricks with their knives and telling jokes. It was an entertaining and satiating experience. I had the seafood diablo, which is Lobster, Scallops and Calamari. The food was spectacular but a little bit overwhelming as just one of six courses.

Thursday was a sea day, and on that day we accompanied our guest pianist, Juan Pablo, once again, playing a mixture of classical and latin tunes. That evening we played a big band set which went over very well.

Yesterday (Friday), we were the city of Willemstad in Coracao, which is a colony of the Netherlands. It is an amazing place in that it is an island with Dutch architecture right in the middle of the Caribbean, which seems bizarre yet somehow looks perfectly natural when you get there. The local languages were English, Dutch, and Spanish, but most of the signs of restaurants and stores were in English to accommodate the majority American tourists who visit. It is a very picturesque place, and unfortunately we will not be returning there in our Caribbean itinerary.

Today, we were in Oranjestad, Aruba, which is another colony of the Netherlands. I signed up for a crew excursion to a remote resort island, De Palm island. The resort featured unlimited food and drinks, a water park, snorkerling, a banana shaped-boat that you can ride on as you are toed by a motor boat driver who will try and knock you off, volleyball equipment, and more. Snorkeling was very cool as it was my first swim in Caribbean water which is very pleasantly warm, and it was amazing to see all of the different coloured fish from so close. I went on a banana boat ride, ate food, played volleyball and basked in the sun, and with all that somehow managed to not get burned. After the resort, we went back to the downtown area in which our ship was docked, and I had a Marguerita on a nice patio. I then went to a dunkin' donuts for a coffee and some free internet to skype and upload photos.

When I got back to the ship we had a South Beach Rave production show, and after that there was a crew and passenger party up on the deck by the swimming pool, with the cover band playing, free alcohol for the crew, and a barbecue. It was a cool party, and the timing was superb since it started just before we left Aruba so we got to watch the city lights as we sailed away.

I then went down to our local fast-food restaurant, Blue Lagoon, and proceeded to gorge myself on two orders of fish and chips, while chatting with Anton the showband pianist as well as several passengers. I just finished talking to one fellow who is from Vancouver and works for Air Canada, and am getting ready to go to bed.

We are at see for the next two days and then we arrive in Honduras and then Mexico for two quick stops before our last voyage to Miami where this cruise ends. I am continuing to enjoy life on board, and I can't believe that it's only been three weeks that I've been gone. In two more weeks my parents will come on board which I very much look forward to. 

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. 

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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. 

I am in Newport today, and I have 20 minutes to kill as I upload photos, so thought I would write a brief update.

Yesterday was our last visit to Boston and I had a lot of ground to cover by bike. I left at nine in the morning, and started by heading straight to Harvard, in Cambridge.

Harvard is a really cool little area of Cambridge with some amazing buildings, and a sprawling campus reminiscent of UBC but with older architecture. I visited Harvard Yard and found the dorm where my dad stayed in his first year at Harvard (Hollis), and just took pictures of whatever looked significant.

After Harvard, I biked back into Boston to the south-western area, to check out Berkley School of Music. It was a pretty cool area, with obviously much more money than Capilano University, and taking a quick glance inside it looked like they had some really good quality computer facilities for music production and scoring. I then biked to Fenway Park which is just near there, and then biked through downtown and back to the ship.

We played our two variety show sets and our Frank Sinatra tribute, and then I headed to the spa. I did two cycles of heating up in the sauna/steam room then plunging myself into the very cold plunge bath, and topped it off with the jacuzzi. All of my biking aches vanished.

Today is the last day of our New England - Canada itinerary, so to celebrate we went into Newport and ate some lobster on a restaurant patio in the harbour. I am now a in starbucks uploading a number of photos from Boston, and having just skyped for a half-hour am going to head back to the ship.

 Final stop in New York is tomorrow, and I am thinking of going to the top of the empire states building, but we'll see what happens. Tomorrow evening we start our 12 day trip south to Miami.

One other thing - here is a website that has my ship's full itinerary so you can keep track of where I will be when:

http://cruisett.com/ships.php?ShipID=1&date=26

As of yesterday (wednesday), I will not be in Canada until February 11th. Today we were in Bar Harbour, and we now slowly make our way back down to New York for Sunday, before beginning our 12 day repositioning cruise down to Miami.

I spent the day yesterday in St John mostly just trying to take it whatever ounce of Canadiana I could from the city, before before leaving Canadian soil until next year. The rest of the day was predictable for a Wednesday, with two South Beach Rave production shows and a Tina Turner tribute which went very well. That was followed by hanging out late night at the ship's 24 hour Americana comfort-food semi-fast-food restaurant with a passenger from New York who is accompanying the ship's cover band for the two weeks that he is onboard. 

Today I didn't have any time to get off the ship because of a badly timed sound check, as well as a training session on crowd control, which sounds a lot more horrendous than it actually was. The safety instructor who trained us was an intense but hilarious English guy who actually made some sense of why we're required to do all of this training, with the perfectly valid point that since we're crew we would be required to take on certain leadership duties in the events of an emergency, which was given more credibility by a couple videos from the last couple decades of ship based disasters which could have been averted with the proper crew training.

With all of my free time on the ship, i've decided to start giving the gym a serious go for probably the first time ever, and as a musician I am allowed to use the high-end passenger gym. I went on tuesday, hopping on the treadmill for a bit (fully equipped with it's own personal tv) before hitting the weights, with the help of one one of the ship's personal trainers. I went again this afternoon doing the same things, and after that I played some ping-pong in the crew gym with Anton, the showband's Ukrainian piano player. I now feel like I've had a pretty productive day and have since eaten and showered and am basically killing time until our two Neil Diamond tribute shows tonight. 

Last time in Boston tomorrow, so I will hopefully be able to hit harvard square and berklee school of music.