Fly Today!

Last Friday I got a call from my agent asking if I could get on a ship this Sunday until January. I didn't have to think much to say yes and start getting ready. Needless to say the past week I've been very busy trying to get things in order, but have managed to get everything ready to go. 

I was meant to take a flight on Friday (exactly one week after the call) to Seoul South Korea, but then on Thursday my agent called again and explained a mistake had been made and they were sending me to the wrong ship! Luckily they caught the mistake and corrected the flight before I made my way to Asia. So in a few hours I'm getting on a plane to New York where I'll join the Celebrity Summit and sail down to the Caribbean. Keep checking back for updates!

Go Pro!

Here are a couple videos my friend G Brian made on the ship with his beloved Go Pro! One is of the hike In Skagway I mentioned in my last post and the other is of a trivia game Jim and John put together. For that I was a member of team Smarty Pants...donmt worry, we won the grand prize. 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=UOsvbxe4A4E

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=UOsvbxe4A4E

Half Way Done

So I've been on the ship for a month now and it feels like no time at all. I've been busy playing music, seeing the ports, and all of the social activities on board. Every sea day (or any day where most of us are on the ship) at 2pm most of the entertainment department goes to Mingles (our staff bar) and we have coffee. This is a great social hour or two. I've taken to bringing my computer to edit photos. Our trombone player Jim is a great photographer and has helped me learn a new program to edit and store my photos in. Alaska is an amazing place for a camera, so I have a lot of work cut out for me there. Jim is also really great at planning activities for us on the ship. We have game nights a lot playing cards and such. Then he, Robyn, and John have all gotten together and put on a few jeprody style trivia nights complete with "ship life" categories and prizes. These nights have been particularly fun. Other than that you can always find some people hanging out and doing something fun. 

One of the main differences between this contract and my last one is that I'm repeating the same ports the whole time. Since they're seven day cruises this gives us a bit of routine. The first day of the cruise is embarkation day in Seattle, Washington on Friday. After my first cruise the other new sign on's and I had to go through immigration in Seattle. Some people think it's ridiculous that the American crew members have to go through this. It makes sence to me because it's for the US Immigration office to have a list of everybody working on board and whatever other information they might need. So, It didn't bother me that I had to do it, or that we had to meet at 5 am to do it. It did bother me when I woke up at 4:45 am, went and waited inside with everybody for 45 minutes, then was led to the open deck outside and waited in the cold morning air and drizzling rain for one hour and fifteen minutes, and finally was told to come back at 10 am! Since then I haven't had any duties on embarkation day, so other than that one fluke I generally am off the ship by 10:30am in Seattle. It is also the best port we have to stock up on things. I got a good pair of hiking boots and a compact rain jacket there for all of the hiking I plan on doing through out this contract. I always make sure to have a few coffees there. 

The second day of the cruise is always a sea day. Depending on if I have any trainings or set to play, this tends to be a sleep in day for me...wether I want it to be or not. One of the hardest things about life on a ship is waking up, mostly because in my cabin it always feels like the middle of the night. So even when my alarms go off, it's hard to stay awake because there's no light. When I do finally get up I go to the crew mess...which is almost always horrible. As a musician I have the privilege to go to guest areas to eat so long as it's not too busy and not day time on a sea day. So on these days I have no choice. After I finish eating I'll go to mingles for our coffee break. I'll generally stay there until I have sound check for the show or a ballroom set depending on the schedule. The rest of the night I'll spend playing, going to the gym, and then to Mingles or do something else fun with my friends on board. 

The third day of the cruise is in Ketchikan, Alaska. It's a small town and I haven't done too much interesting stuff here yet because scheduling has never given me very much time ashore. I generally play a show in the theater these nights. The past few weeks has been the guest entertainer David Meyer. He plays the xylosynth which is an electronic xylophone. His show is a lot of fun to play, especially the drum part. 

The fourth day for the cruise we spend the morning cruising the Tracy Arm Fjord and the afternoon in Juneau, Alaska. The first week I missed out on both due to training and work. The second week we were there I slept through the Fjord because I had an amazing hike planned for that day in Juneau and needed ample rest. A group of us had signed up to hike with the naturalist on board, Brent Nixon, to the Mendenhall Glacier. Brent puts on shows about Alaska on the ship, and it's just amazing how much knowledge he has about Alaska. He knows everything about the wildlife, history, weather patterns, even the walmarts in the ports. We hopped in a couple cabs and went to the start of the hike. I felt lucky to be in his cab because on the way he told us all kinds of cool facts about Juneau. The other cab had his girlfriend, Mary Amanda, so I'm sure they got the same type of thing. 

The hike wasn't that strenuous, but there were a few steep parts and some gravelie parts we had to be careful in. It started very green with trees and bushes but the closer we got to the glacier the less green and younger the plant life became until eventually we were on only rock. Brent explained that this was because not that long ago (only about 3-4 years ago) the glacier had actually been on the rocky parts. Even though it moves downhill, which was toward the start of the hike, it has been melting much faster than moving, so it has receded quite a bit in a short amount of time. At one point we got to the top of a rock and saw the glacier right in front of us. It was an amazing sight. I had been hiking in a t-shirt, but when we got to the top of that Rock Brent had told us to be ready to put on some kind of wind jacket. I could feel immediately the very cold breeze coming off the ice. At first it felt really nice, but I'm happy I took Brent's advice otherwise I would have gotten very cold very quickly. We made our way up to the glacier. Brent went ahead to see if there were any ice caves safe enough to peek into. We found one and took turns going in and taking pictures. I put my hands on the ice inside, it was incredibly cold and a gorgeous blue color. We even walked around on the ice a little bit, but had to be very carefull because the surface was really jagged and sharp. It would have been fun to stay longer and explore further, but time made us turn around and make our way back to the ship. 

At the beginning of the hike

From left to right: Cameron (me), unsure, Carl, Carl's daughter, Riley, Tiffany, Tommy, Matt (kneeling), Tommy, Mary Amanda, Brent (kneeling), Emma, Tori, Unsure, Ivan

View of the Mendenhall Galcier

Cameron (me)

View of Mendenhall Glacier

From left: Riley, Cameron, Tiffany, Emma, Tommy

At Mendenhall Glacier

Ice Cave

Ice Cave 

Cameron (me)

View of Mendenhall Glacier

From Left: Top-Ivan, Cameron, Riley, Tiffany, Unsure, Brent, Mary Amanda, Tommy

                 Bottom:Emma, Tori, Unsure, Matt, Carl, Carl's daughter

Waterfall on hike

End of hike

From Left:Tommy (kneeling), Ivan (back), Unsure, Matt (kneeling), Carl's daughter, Carl (back), Emma, Mary Amanda (kneeling, Riley (back, Brent (kneeling), Tiffany, Tori, Unsure, Cameron (me)

The next week I did wake up on Juneau day to see the Tracy Arm Fjord. A Fjord is a inlet of ocean created by a glacier. Because it is created by a glacier it has mountains and cliffs on both sides, but gets very deep very fast. I took my camera up to the open deck and had a blast taking photos of the amazing views of the Fjord. Brent was on the bridge and through out time time in the Fjord made announcements about all sorts of facts and information about what ever we passed. The further up we got the more loose pieces off ice we saw from the glacier at the top. Brent said that the captain and pilot (a person from the area who has very detailed knowledge about the waters in the area and boards the ship to drive it) would watch these ice burgs and make predictions to where they would be when we turn around and go back so that we don't find our ship blocked in. We weren't able to make it all the way to the glacier this time due to the ice, hopefully later in the season we can make it closer. 

Another time in Juneau I went with a group to the Alaskan Brewery and had a bunch of samples of their beers. I had a great time doing that of course. This last time we were there some friends and I took a cable car up the mountain by the port called Mt. Roberts. It took us to a great view point where there's a restaurant and coffee stand and such. We got to see a bald eagle there that they had rescued. They said it had been shot in the wild and lost it's beak. The beak has since grown back but due to it's other injuries it will never be released back to the wild. It was pretty amazing to see a bald eagle that close up. After we looked around that area for a while we went on a little hike that led off from there. It was an easy hike, but took us about an hour because every 10 steps was an amazing view of something. There was a mountain across the small valley with waterfalls that we could actually see the water moving. It was a nice rainy day with lost of clouds too that looked beautiful around the mountains. 

Hike on Mt. Roberts in Juneau, Alaska

From Left: Cameron (me), Charlyn

The fifth day of a cruise we are in Skagway, Alaska. Skagway seems to be one of the smallest towns we go to, but filled with fun things to do and little shops. One of the times we went I went on a hike with Jim (trombone player), G Brian and Charlyn (both glass blowers). Jim had done the hike before but hadn't made it to the upper lake at the top. He warned us that it was very strenuous, steep, and far. He wasn't kidding, it was steep and got our heart rates up right away. We set a turn around time for 3pm no matter where we were in the hike to make it back to the ship by 5 pm. Jim was keeping up the pace, he was set on getting to the top. Eventually he and G Brian got a bit ahead of Charlyn and me. We still kept a good pace, but didn't want to go too fas because it was pretty rough. It was a pretty rainy and overcast day and had quite a long downpour. Again I had started with a t shirt but eventually got the rain jacket on. Not too far into the hike we were all literally steaming. Charlyn said we looked like we had just gotten out of a hot tub in winter. She and I started to feel like we were very close to the top and at 2:45 passed a guy on his way down, he said we were maybe 15 minutes from the top. We started to pick up the pace because that meant we would get there right when we had to turn around and would really be cutting it close to get back to the ship. We walked maybe two minutes before we found G Brian. He said they talked to the same guy a few minutes up and he said the same thing. Jim went for it, but G Brian thought it would be too much time. So then we decided to start heading down. Jim caught up with us eventually and told us he had made it to the top, but basically had to run down to catch us. It was a great hike that all of us were feeling for days to come. Don't worry, we made it back to the ship on time. 

River on the hike

This past time in Skagway I did a crew tour which put a bunch of us on a train that goes through the Yukon all the way into Canada. I was with a lot of friends on. The train, so it was a lot of fun and we saw some beautiful scenery. We were allowed to go outside on the ends of the car for photos, but was pretty hard to get any good ones with the train moving and so many people on the platform. 

The sixth day of the cruise is another Sea day, so my schedule is pretty much the same as the first one. 

And the seventh and last day if the cruise we go to Victoria, but don't arrive until 6pm. So, we generally have a sound check for the farewell show at around 12 noon, then perform the show around 4pm and I can get off once crew is cleared to go. Victoria is one of my favorite places so I look forward to it every week. One time I took a crew tour with a bunch if my friends to Buchart Gardens one time. I had been there a few times before, but it's always gorgeous. This past week I took a group to one of my favorite burger places I've ever been to called the Pink Bicycle. Then we always seem to end up at the Irish Bar called Irish Times. The ship leaves at midnight, so we have until 11:30 to hang in the city. 

So that's what these runs in Alaska are like for me. I'm half way done with this short contract now, but I'm sure to have some more amazing experiences here. This next Skagway I'm going zip lining with a group that Brent Nixon put together and there will be more hikes, glaciers, and photos to come!

So Far....

I have been on the ship for 5 days now, and it has been pretty busy. The first cruise of the contract is always the craziest because of training and adapting to all of the new policies etc. On sign on day we took a shuttle to the ship and had to go through security to join. Then they took us up the gangway and onto the ship. When I stepped foot on the dock I saw Owen, the security officer I knew from the Constellation. I hadn't known that he would be here. We said hey then I followed the other sign on's to a venue where we took care of our contracts and other formalities for signing on. That took maybe an hour and then we met our managers. 

I signed on with the Miami DJ duo (Hector and Mac), which is a DJ and percussionist band. We got along so we hung out until Ramiro, our Band Master came to get us. He is the piano player in the orchestra. I knew that I liked him from the moment I met him. He is very laid back and easy to get along with. He showed us around the ship. This is a bigger ship than my last one, so the layout is pretty different other than 5 things: there's a bow, aft, port, starboard, and an I-95 which is the main hallway in the crew area. I was pretty turned around through the whole tour because I still didn't have my sence of port and starboard, but I did get to see that this ship has some pretty amazing places to go. Right after the tour I was able to get my bags, take them to my room, then go have lunch with Hector and Mac. Then I had plenty of time to get unpacked before I had to go to my next training. 

My room is very small, but is my own! It is a little longer than 6 feet and maybe 5 feet wide. When you walk in on your right is the tv and a desk that goes for the length of the room. Above that is the bed that folds up onto the wall during the day and down at night to sleep. There are some drawers under free desk for clothes and a cabinet with a mini fridge in it. On the left is the door for the bathroom, a sink, then the closet. I had heard stories about these cabins that you can do all things at once in the bathroom...this is very true. That bathroom is just big enough to shower in. It connects to the room next door, so that's the only part I share. 

View from the door

View from inside

I've been settling in pretty well so far. The social atmosphere on this ship is really great. On the second day a few of the guys in the orchestra told me that on sea days they get together in the staff bar for coffee, so at 2 I went to join them. It turned out that it's a big thing with the whole entertainment department and anybody who can come does. It's been very easy to make friends here. It's not a large circle amoung ship employees so most of us have mutual friends too. I had known before that the jazz quartet from my last ship is on board, but I've been surprised to see several familiar faces. I mentioned Owen above, there was another security crew member from the Constellation who I had never gotten to know, then while I was doing some new sign on stuff Mary (an AV) came out of nowhere, I also saw my friend Kunal from the photo department, and the cruise director we have here now is Alejandro. The other night I was talking to the Sound Engineer and we realized that we met one day in Rhodes while he was on another Celebrity ship. 

I started working on day one on the ship. So far we've played the welcome aboard show, a ballroom dance set, our guest Entertainer (Doug Cameron, a violinist), and one production show. I had heard of Doug Cameron before, but never played his show. Everyone that told me about it apsaid that it's a hard show especially for drummers and that he's very hard on drummers. So, I asked for the music on the first day so I could check it out before we played his show. I'm very happy I did because it lived up to it's reputation. There were a lot of very specific things that the drums had to get right. I ran into Doug the day before his show and we started talking. It turns out he's from LA, and used to live about a mile away from where I live now. We got along talking about places around there and of course he used to be a regular customer at Good Neighbor Resturant, which is the restaurant I work at while I'm in town. He said to say hi to Betty and Rick for him. 

The next day we had his rehearsal. We did one run through with just the rhythm section and him, then the horns came and we did another. I was happy that I checked out the music, and everybody else including Doug said I did a good job. His shows went great and were very fun to play. 

Today was the first day I was able to get off the ship. We were in Skagway, Alaska. I didn't do much, but it was nice to be on land for a few hours. Once this cruise is done I'll have more time to go on some adventures, so check back for more posts!

Boarding Tomorrow!

Today I woke up at 6am in Denver, got ready and set out for the airport. I checked my bags, didn't get charged and overweight fee (!!!), got a breakfast burrito, and boarded my flight to Seattle. I was lucky to get an aisle seat for the (full) flight, which made it very easy and uneventful. As I was picking up my bags at baggage claim I noticed a guy across the room holding a Celebrity sign. I was surprised to see him because when I landed in Amsterdam last time I couldn't find anyone and had to figure out how to get to my hotel myself, so I was prepared to do the same this time. I waved at him so he knew that I saw him and he came over to me right as my bags came out. I was surprised again to find out I was the only person he was looking for at the moment even though there will be about 60 crew joining the ship tomorrow. He helped me with my bags and led me to where the hotel van was going to meet me, then headed back to accept the next flight with crew on it. 

I only waited about 7 minutes for the van, threw my things in and we were off. At the next terminal we were waved down by some more people and ended up filling the van. The hotel wasn't far from the airport. I was very happy to see that our rooms were ready when we got there, unlike when I arrived in Amsterdam for the last contract. I got my key and headed up to my room. My roommate (only for tonight) was already there. He works in the food and beverage department and is from Indonisia. Unfortunately I forgot his name almost immediately. He's a. Cool guy though and has done a few contracts, all on the Solstice. I didn't stay in the room for long. I got my stuff situated, changed into cooler clothes neap cause it was very hot out, and set out to go into Seattle. 

To get to town I walked across the street to the light rail station and took it to the last stop. It took about 40 minutes and dropped me off a few blocks from Pike Place. I spent a few hours wandering around there, got some good coffee and a great chicken sandwich and when I got board of that area I started wandering some other streets. I ended up walking up to the Space Needle and by then was pretty tired, so I jumped on the monorail, got back on the light rail and in 40 minutes was back at the hotel. 

I'm excited to join the ship tomorrow, but it should be a long day so I'm taking it easy the rest of the night. It will be a few days before I have internet again, but I'll post back here as soon as I can!

NEW SHIP-NEW PLACES-NEW CONTRACT

I'm getting ready to head out again on a new contract with Celebrity Cruises that will be taking me from Seattle up to Alaska! This time around I will be on the Celebrity Solstice which is the first of Celebrity's biggest class of ships. That means I will have my own room! The ship will take me to:

Seattle, Washington
Ketchikan, Alaska
Juneau, Alaska
Skagway, Alaska
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

And each cruise will pass through the Tracy Arm Fjord.

I fly to Seattle, Washington on May 15th and join the ship there on May 16th. This (short) contract is only two months. I'll be the drummer in the orchestra again which means I'll be playing all of the shows in the theater with the cast and the guest entertainers and playing several jazz and big band sets around the ship.

I'm looking forward to joining the ship and seeing what it's like the second time around. I was able to do a lot of the training online this time as a returning crew member, which will make my first couple weeks on the ship much easier. I'm sure there will be some new things I learn on the bigger ship, but for the most part I'm expecting to just fall right back into the swing of things. A couple weeks ago I found out through facebook that the jazz quartet from my last ship (who actually signed off on the same day as me) has already boarded the Solstice and will still be there when I arrive. It will be really nice to have some friends already there when I join. I'm excited to see them again, but for now I'm just working on getting ready for the contract. I decided to spend some time in Colorado before I went out so I did all of my packing last week in LA.

The hardest parts of packing for a ship contract are deciding what is essential to bring, and how to make it possible to carry everything while navigating crowded airports and small hallways on the ship for sign on and sign off days. The other major things to consider are if everything will fit in the room (especially the luggage you are using, collapsable duffel bags are best), how much "guest area appropriate" clothing you bring, and ensuring that you have everything you need to perform you job on board. On my last contract I used a duffel bag with no wheels which was extremely difficult when traveling, so this time I got a large duffel with wheels, but still making sure that it collapses and will fit under my bed in my cabin.

I mentioned "Guest Area Appropriate" clothing above. What that means is clothing that meets the "smart casual" dress code for off duty time during the day. This would include nice shirts with a collar, slacks or dockers (no jeans), and no tennis shoes/runners etc. Since I'm going to Alaska during the summer I made sure to pack for all kinds of weather conditions, it will be very unpredictable.

GENERAL PACKING

UNIFORM CLOTHES (except the leather jacket...)

MISC

EVERYTHING

So hopefully I have everything I need. I'm excited to get going. I'll keep this blog updated as much as possible so make sure to check back to see what kind of things I get into in the great northwest!

GREAT PORTS, GREAT SHOWS

Right now we're doing a Medetterranean cruise, which is taking us to some of my favorite ports. So far we have been to Istanbul, Kusadasi, Bodrum, and Maramaris, Turkey. I've definitely come to find that Turkey is one of my favorite countries I've ever been to. The weather had been incredible, the places we've gone have had lively environments, great views, increadible food, and interesting things to do. We had an incredible overnight in Istanbul this last time. I've been buying cymbals from one guy who we went to go see playing in a club to end that night (at 3am). Kusadasi has shops all over the place where you can get all kinds of things. This last time we were there a few friends and I got Turkish baths which came highly recommended from everyone who has had them before. I'll write another post about those. Bodrum and Maramaris have been great beach days. 

Now all of that is a pretty normal few days "ship life." What's made them even better so far is we've had what I think is the best line up of entertainers. On night one (Istanbul) we did our regular variety show which had a band feature, then we played with one of the great guitarists on board, John Winters, and also with the incredible duo, TNT, then with the cast. That is always a pretty good show. The next night we played with Paul Baker, an amazing singer from London who we've had the pleasure of working with on several cruises. His show is great, plus we've gotten to know him a bit so it's always good to see him. The next night was "iHollywood" which is the production show with the cast. It features songs from movies and is always a blast to play. Then last night we played with Neil Lockwood for the first time. He does an Elton John show where he impersonates Elton....very well...he sounds exactly like him. This was an incredibly fun show for us to play, it was all Elton tunes of course, Rocket Man, Crocodile Rock, Benny and the Jets, etc. Then tonight was a mixed show of Paul Baker, and Neil Lockwood being himself. They ended the show singing an Elton John song and Hey amuse together. Just another amazing show we got to play so far this cruise. It's been the best line up we've had. In a few days we'll play with Pete Matthews, who was the first guest entertainer I ever played with. He's a juggler comedian and his show is also one of the best. It's a very hard show for drums, but I can't wait. This has and will be a great cruise!