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!

Half Way

So I realized today that as of yesterday, 10/12 I've been on this ship for two months, which is the half way point of my contract. It's funny to think back on when I was boarding and how foreign all of this was to me. Now I feel like I have a very good idea about what ship life is all about. Of course I still learn something everyday, but I've gotten used to being in a different country everyday loving on a ship. It's also strange to think back to those first few weeks in the Baltic Sea. Today I thought about Warnemünde, Germany and how much fun that port was, then looked around and saw that I was in Burgas, Bulgaria. I've covered a lot of land in these past two months and seen a lot of things. I'm really looking forward to the next two months. 

Since I've boarded I've been to:

Amsterdam, Holland

Warnemünde, Germany

Stockholm, Sweden

Tallinn, Estonia

Helsinki, Finland

Copenhagen, Denmark

La Rochelle, France

Bilbao, Spain

La Coruña, Spain

Lisbon, Portugal

Ibiza, Spain

Barcelona, Spain

Villefranche, France

Livorno, Italy

Pisa, Italy

Rome, Italy

Naples, Italy

Catania, Sicily, Italy

Pireaus, Greece

Kusadasi, Turkey 

Istanbul, Turkey

Mykonos, Greece

Odessa, Ukraine

Sevastopol, Ukraine

Yalta, Ukraine

Burgas, Bulgaria

We've also sailed through the Bosporus Strait which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea.  

Barcelona to Istanbul

The cruise right after the Atlantis Charter was a relocating cruise from Barcelona, Spain to Istanbul, Turkey. It was back to a normal for our work schedule, but once again we were going to a lot of new awesome places. 

VILLEFRANCHE, FRANCE

 Our first stop was Villefranche, France. This is the gateway town to go to Monaco, or Nice. There was no place for us to dock there, so we were anchored and used the tender boats to get onto land. As crew we had to wait and let the guests all get off first, so it took a while for us to be able to get off. I used that time to have breakfast upstairs in the buffet. I ate on the deck with a gorgeous view of the town. It was exactly how I pictured France before the cruise. The water was a beautiful shade of blue and completely clear, and the town rose up a hill from the water. 

Once we could get off I went with a friend and we were planning on going to Monaco. When we got on land we took a quick look around and ended up at the beach. It stretched out for a ways, and the water looked too inviting, so we abandoned our plans to go to Monaco and went to find a ship that I could buy a cheep swim suit. We found one pretty easily and my friend bought a football (a soccer ball to us Americans). On our way out of the shop we ran into a few other musicians from the ship, so we all went to the beach. We spent about an hour and a half there kicking the soccer ball around. I got in the amazing water a few times. I was very happy we chose to stay there. 

One of my "must do's" for this trip is to have a glass of red wine in France. So when we left we went searching for a place to do that. We walked up the hill into the town and found a street with a bunch of small shops and restaurants, sat down at one and drank a glass of red wine. After that we got a crepe from another restaurant and went back to the ship. 

View of Villefranche from the ship

Beach in Villefranche

Drinking a glass of French wine in Villefranche 

Walking around Villefranche 

PISA (LIVORNO), ITALY

The next day we were docked in Livorno, Italy. This is the gateway city to Pisa and Florence. I went out with some friends to go to Florence in the morning. We got to the train station and I realized that in order to be back in time for rehearsal I would only have 45 minutes to an hour in Florence. So I got a ticket to go to Pisa instead and said bye to my friends while I went in search for my train. They knew their platform number because there was a sign that had it listed. Pisa wasn't listed though so I had to ask the lady at the counter where it was. She said platform 6, so I followed the signs there. On my way a few people came running past me obviously going to platform 6, so I decided I should run too. I got there with probably 5 minutes to spare and was hoping it was the right train because there wasn't a sign. I asked another passenger and they said it was so I got settled in a seat. Just as I was sitting down one of my friends that I had just left came down the isle. As soon as I saw her I thought "I'm on the wrong train!" It turned out that Pisa is just the first stop then the train continues to Florence, but for a second I though I had stumbled into a spontaneous train riding adventure. 

I moved and joined my friends for a 20 minute train ride, then got off at the Pisa stop. I just walked straight out of the train station onto a street mall type thing. It was nice so I just kept going straight until I found a cafe that looked good. Another thing on my "must do list" is have good coffee in Italy. I went in and ordered a cappuccino (actually I stopped at one place before this one and ordered a latte to go....I didn't realize it was only milk until I was walking down the street again). I'm happy I found this cafe though because the cappuccino she brought me was delicious. As I was finishing it up a few friends of mine from the ship walked by, so I quickly paid and went off with them to do the one tourist thing there is to do in Pisa.....go to the leaning tower. 

Honestly, I had never really thought anything about the leaning tower. It never seemed to be very interesting to me. But it turned out to be much more impressive then I had imagined. Now I understand why it's such a landmark. We spent a while taking all of the stereotypical photos of us holding it up. I found it interesting to look away from the tower and see crowds of people standing in funny looking poses. After we got tired of taking those photos we walked around the courtyard that the tower is in a looked at the two other impressive buildings that nobody seems to know about. We asked an Italian women what they were and her first response was "you have to pay go inside." We asked again and she seemed to understand and said that one is a museum and the other is an opera house. Based on her English I'm not sure if that's accurate, I'll do some research when I have some reliable wifi. After seeing those we went and found a place for lunch, then I had to get back to the ship for iHollywood rehearsal. 

Holding the leaning tower up with my hands.... Pisa, Italy 

Hands were too easy....lets try one finger...Pisa, Italy 

In front of what we think is a museum in Pisa, Italy

ROME, ITALY

The next day we were docked about an hour and a half away from Rome, Italy. This is one of the ports I was most excited about for this contract. The HR and Shore Excursions departments offered a "Rome On Your Own" tour which was basically a bus ride to and from the Colosseum for $25 and you can go see Rome for a few hours. I figured that was worth it to not have to navigate the trains and worry about timing, so I went on that with a couple friends. As promised it dropped us off right at the Colosseum. That was an amazing sight and also one of the things I've always wanted to see. We spent a while taking picture and walking around that area. The line to get in was a couple hours wait at least, so we decided not to waste all of our time trying to get in. We got some really good pizza across the street and then headed off for the Trevi Fountain. 

Every few blocks we would ask someone what direction to go and they would point. The walk took us by ancient ruins of the old city. They were interesting to look at, I would have liked to have someone with us who could tell us what they were exactly. Eventually we passed a huge building that we're pretty sure is a palace. The few people we asked couldn't tell us. A couple blocks further we were pointed down a walkway with a bunch of street vendors and one very impressive spray paint artist who was painting them right in front of everyone. At the end of that was the Trevi Fountain. It was another impressive sight. My friend from the ship who does a seminar of the art in Rome told me that the superstition of the fountain is if you throw one coin into the fountain with your right hand over your left shoulder with your back facing the fountain then you will return to Rome safely; if you do the same with two coins you will find love in Rome; with three coins someone you know will get married or divorced. I threw one coin in. 

Once we were done there we quickly made our way to the Spanish Steps. We were starting to run short on time so we just saw the steps from the bottom then got a cab back to the shuttle back to the ship. 

At the Colosseum in Rome, Italy 

At the unknown to us palace in Rome, Italy 

At the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy 

NAPLES, ITALY

The next day I was in Naples, Italy. I'd been looking forward to this port because we were docked with the Celebrity Reflection, which my friend Bryan is working on right now. He's actually the guy to referred me to get this job. We made plans to meet up and when I walked off the gangway there he was. We went walking and explored Naples for a bit, then found a cafe near port for some coffee. After a while we met up with a few other musicians from his ship then went off for some pizza. Bryan knew a good place for pizza so we followed him. The pizza I got wasn't so good, but Bryan gave me a slice of his and it was delicious. I think I just ordered the wrong one. After eating pizza we wandered a bit more, then went back to the coffee place we were at earlier. It was a good day and good to see Bryan. We made plans to play music when we both get home to LA and he gave me some advice on what to do and where to go at my upcoming ports. That advise came in handy. 

Me and Bryan in Naples, Italy

CATANIA, SICILY, ITALY

The next day we were in Catania which is on Sicily, Italy. I went out with some buddies of mine and we wandered a little bit. We found a restaurant and went in for beers. The restaurant had wifi so when we ordered I was looking at emails and didn't hear what the other guys got, but I knew we were there for beers, so I just said I'll have the same. It took a bit longer for them to bring our drinks out then it should have, especially because we were the only people there. I understood why when they showed up with  a liter of beer for each of us. It was great. Of course we were there for a while and had a good time. When our beers were getting low the server came over and said something to one of the guys with us and he said ya. I assumed it was asking for the check and was surprised again when a shot of Grappa showed up for each of us. Grappa is an Italian liquor that is somewhat similar to vodka. So we each drank those and then got the check. 

We walked around the city kicking Jordan's soccer ball the he bought in Villefranche. That turned out to be a lot of fun, we even got a few local people to kick it back a forth. There wasn't much to do so we ended up sitting down at another cafe and getting cannoli's. Apparently cannoli's originated in Sicily, and these were delicious. After that it was time to get back to the ship. Right in front of the port we had enough time to find one GeoCashe, then we boarded.

From left: Mark, Adam, Jordan, Seb, and me with grappa shots in Sicily

The next day was a sea day, which all I did was play a few sets though out the day, work out a bit, and hang out with friends in staff bar. Sometimes it's nice to have a sea day, but generally it means more sets, but this one was pretty nice. 

PIREAUS, GREECE

The day after the sea day we were in Pireaus, Greece. It's the gateway to Athens. Unfortunately I had an early rehearsal time, so getting into Athens wasn't doable. So I stayed in Pireaus with a couple of friends. We went out and started walking with the goal of good Greek food....then we realized it was Sunday morning when we noticed that pretty much everything closed. We just kept walking hoping to find something good, and after 30-40 minutes we did. We stumbled across a local restaurant with outside seating and got some kabobs. They were delicious. We had a good time eating there, the. We started heading back towards the ship. We found a place with wifi, which if I haven't mentioned it before, places with wifi are constantly sought out by cruise ship employees. I stayed there until I had to go back to rehearsal. 

Rehearsal was just me, the bassist from the orchestra, and the guest entertainer Naki Ataman. He is a piano player and his show is called "Around the World." The night before Brian, my music director, said that his music was on the desk and I should check it out because he's heard from other ships that it's a difficult show. What made it difficult was that it was 50 minutes of non stop music with lots of song changes and different grooves, etc. I did take a look at the music the night before so coming into rehearsal I had a good idea of what I was in for. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the theater was the band set up, which is always set by the theater tech crew by the time we get to rehearsal. The drums and piano were set at the front of the stage and so that our backs would be facing the audience. I must have given the stage manager a confused look because as she was passing me she said, "yeah, that's the set up." 

When I met Naki he said "I want you guys to play with me as if we're a band, not like you're accompanying me. So feel free to take artistic liberties and play out. And you'll see this show is more of a drum feature than a piano feature." I was happy to hear that. The rehearsal went pretty good and I was excited to play the show. 

The way the show worked was we were each introduced individually by the cruise director and when our name was called we walked onto stage and took a bow. Once we were all there we started playing. The first part of the show was the theme song from Around the World in 90 Days, then we would segue into different songs from a particular country. When we would change countries We would play a short version of the theme from Around the World in 90 Days. It was a pretty cool concept. The first show went pretty well. Between shows we had a sound check on the pool deck for the deck party tonight, so right after the show I went back on stage and was taking my cymbals down and a lot of the people from the audience came up to the stage and were telling me great job and their favorite part of the show was the drumming. Turns out Naki was exactly right with his drum feature prediction. 

The sound check for the party went fine but it was pretty windy. I thought there was a good chance that the party would be moved I side and there would be a DJ instead of us. As soon as we finished it I packed up again and went back to the theater and re set up for the second show. It went even better than the first and as I tore down again I got similar compliments from guests. Also, it turned out that Naki is from Istanbul. I made sure to ask him where to go to buy cymbals. He gave me directions to a street with a bunch of music stores. I will definitely go there while we're in Istanbul. After that I hurried upstairs for the party, set up and waited for it to start. It was starting to get really windy and right before we started playing my music stand almost blew over. This would have been scary enough we regular music on it, but for this show I was reading off my iPad (I tried reading off paper for the first show and it didn't work so well....ten pages in a breeze don't really stick around for long...). I immediately moved the iPad to the ground because it wasn't worth the risk. The hardest thing about that was when I had to turn pages I had to bend all the way down to tap the screen. That wasn't really the problem with the show though....the wind got really bad after we started, so anybody reading off paper was struggling and the people with iPads were trying to keep their music stands from falling. Then the wind really picked up and microphone stands that we're taped to the ground started coming up and stands were falling. We made it all the way through the show and ended together, but not without injury. My bandmaster cut his hand while trying to catch a flying music stand. Hopefully we don't have to play in wind like that again, but it did make for a funny memory. 

Stage set up for Naki Atamans show

KUSADASI, TURKEY

The next day we were in Kusadasi, Turkey. This is the gateway to Ephesus, Turkey, but we're here many times and I had been planning for a while to stay in Kusadasi. Bryan told me this was a great port and that I had to get a hair cut here. He actually said this back in LA before I left and that he knew the place to go, so I had been waiting to get a haircut until we were here. When I saw him in Naples, he gave me directions. 

The first thing I noticed about Kusadasi is that it's a gorgeous place. I saw it from the open deck eating breakfast. The water like all of the Medeterreanian was perfectly blue and clear. The town looked amazing along the coast. I couldn't wait to get off. Right as you get off you are in a street market type place. That's what the whole town seems to be. They have shirts, shoes, watches, anything you can think of. And you're supposed to haggle there. I was set on getting my hair cut so I didn't stop anywhere, just followed Bryan's directions as best I could and found it with no problem. It was the most interesting haircut of my life. You can read about it in my blog post from a few weeks ago when I got it. 

After the hair cut, I went right across the way to the restaurant Bryan told me about for good food and wifi. I wasn't hungry but I got some coffee there. I wrote the blog post about my haircut there and took a picture with my iPad to post. This normally wouldn't be so interesting news, but a few days later Bryan posted on my Facebook saying "I was sitting at my favorite restaurant in Kusadasi, when I realized that I forgot to send you directions to get to this place. Then I found your blog, and your most recent post which included a picture. Then I realized I'm sitting in the EXACT same spot as you were yesterday. Didn't move at all to take this picture." Below that he posted a picture of me, and a picture of him, and you can tell by the painting in the background that we're sitting in the same seat. It was a funny coincidence. 

After I finished with my wifi at the restaurant I decided to take a look around the town. I check out some shops, got some fresh squeezed orange juice (and by fresh squeezed, I mean he picked up two oranges, cut them in half, put them in the juicer and squeezed them into a cup which he then handed to me.....how much you ask, $0.50), and met up with a friend and had a delicious kabob. It was a good town. After the kabob we went back to the ship for all aboard time. 

Bryan's post on Facebook

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

The next day we were going to be in Istanbul, but weren't getting there until 2pm. Some of my friends are the art auction department onboard and for a little extra money I help with the auctions. So the first thing I did was go to help with the auction. It was the first time I helped out there so I had no idea what to expect. I ended up registering the guests for the auction, then when it started I worked the computer and kept track of who bided on what. On the computer I had to listen to Jordan, the auctioneer, and when he would call up a piece of art he would say a code. I typed the code into the computer and all of the information for the artwork popped up. It wasn't a very hard job once I figured out what to do. 

After the auction we still weren't in Istanbul. When we did dock we had rehearsal so I couldn't go off until after the shows that night. I went with some other members of the orchestra around 10pm. We started walking in search of a beer. It seemed that nothing around the port was open so we eventually got a cab and asked him to take us to the Blue Mosque which we had heard there was a lot of cool stuff. The cab ride was crazy. He was zooming between cars, pulling into bus stops to pass people. He didn't speak English very well and we started half joking half seriously saying comments like "Are we in a race? I think we're loosing" and "if we're in a chase I think we've lost them." But we eventually made it, much quicker than we intended. He dropped us off near a bunch of restaurants and we went to one on a roof. The view was incredible. There were three or four big Mosques that were nicely lit up. I took a few pictures with my camera and set it down on the table while we were waiting for our food to come. When it did the waiter scooted it over a bit and my friend jokingly said "it's fine, you can just take it." The waiter had been joking with us all night so he caught on and very quickly picked the camera up, made like he was going to throw it off the ledge and he ACTUALLY LET GO!!!!! I was in shock. The camera (which isn't cheap) went flying put of his hand towards the ledge until it was stopped by the strap which he was still holding. It scared me to death, he thought it was pretty funny, and we all laughed. After he left we were still joking saying "what if that didn't work out so well. What if the strap was broken so it didn't work at all, what then....." Thank god it did work and I put it away in my bag the second I had it back in my hand. We had some good food at that restaurant and then wandered around that area for a bit. Around 1:30am I took a cab back with one of the other guys and went to sleep, because the next day is an early day. 

That next morning was disembarkation for this cruise, and I had the pleasure of waking up at 6am to go for wheelchair duty. Basically that was assisting passengers with wheel chairs to disembark. It was very disorganized and we were left to figure out where to go on our own. It worked out in the end. 

As soon as I was done with that duty I meet up with the guys from the orchestra and we set off for the music street that Naki had told me about. His directions turned out to be perfect. We left the port, turned left on the main road and walked for a while and then it ended at a big intersection and across the street was an entrance with a sign that said "Tunel." We went into that, it cost barely anything for a ticket and we rode a subway like thing that Naki had said was the oldest underground train in Europe. Once we got out of that we were on a street and you could see music shop after music shop down the road. We decided to split up and go do our own shopping. I went into every shop that had cymbals. Between a few I stopped at a juice stand and ordered the mixed juice. I watched them take all the different fruits and make my juice. It was delicious, and I think only cost $1. After I got that I walked into a shop and said I was looking for cymbals. One of the employees took me up some stairs and into a room that was full of cymbals. I described to him what I was looking for and he started putting cymbals on the stands and I started hitting them. There were a few that I liked, but didn't love. After a while I left the shop and kept going around. I went back to a few places I had already been, then decided I was going back to the place with the room full of cymbals. I ran into one of my buddies and told him where I would be. The same guy took me up to the room again and I started banging away again. Cymbal shopping is something that i could spend all day doing. Eventually one of my friends came up and saod they were ready to leave. I had been expecting that (the reason I told them where to find me)' so I told them to go ahead and I was staying to keep looking at cymbals. I was seriously considering buying one when I noticed one that we hadn't tried. We put it up and I loved it immediately. Now, the thing with buying cymbals is they don't always sound the same. They sound different depending what room you're in, what sticks you use, and even the way you hit them. So it's a good idea when buying a cymbal to try it in at least one other room, and play with it on a drum set. I asked him if I could test it out and he took me up more stairs to a studio. We set it up and I it still sounded great. It wasn't time to go yet though. We went back to the cymbal room and I started testing out hi hats. We found a pair that met my ear and headed back up to test those. They were a good match. He gave me a good price for the ride and the hi hats and threw in a cymbal bag too. That was nice, otherwise it would've been a rough walk back to the ship. 

After buying the cymbals I asked the guy if he knew any good places for music. We'll be doing a few more overnights in Istanbul and it would be fun to see some local artists. He recommended a jazz club that wasn't far called Nardis. He game me some directions so I walked that way to see if I could find it. I got to see some cool things while walking, including a really cool tower that I wasn't able to figure out the name of. I eventually found the club, which was closed during the day of course, but I might go back there at night some time. I ended up walking back to where we boarded the Tunel before, which wasn't very far. There was a kabab stand there, so I got one of those. There's another name for them that I need to find out, but these are basically wraps that the meat is grilled like a kabob for. It was pretty good. Once I finished that I went back to the ship and we started a new cruise. 

One of the mosques from the rooftop restaurant

Me with my new cymbal!

Atlantis Charter Pictures

Just got the pictures I took during the Atlantis Charter off my camera. Here are a few:

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Spain

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View of Lisbon, Portugal

Jake, Lily, Marouen, Stefan, Alex, and Cameron in Lisbon Portugal

A regular walking street in Lisbon, Portugal

Atlantis Charter

A few cruises ago we had something called the Atlantis Charter. A charter cruise is when a separate company from Celebrity basically buys the ship for a cruise, then they sell the tickets to their audience whomever that may be. Atlantis is a company that puts on gay cruises. We didn't know what to expect as far as our schedules were concerned because Atlantis was also going to bring their own entertainment. We ended up working quite a bit between rehearsals and shows with their guest entertainer. 

The first day of every cruise there's always a mandatory drill for everyone on board, passengers and crew. For this drill I do the life jacket demonstration, which I found to be a fitting job since I come from a family of flight attendants. This drill was the most fun any of these drills have been because this crowd is much different than our normal crowd...they're young, energetic, and outspoken. I got a roaring applause during my demonstration whenever I would somehow manage to do an extremely difficult task like place the life vest around my neck, or click the strap together. That was nothing compared to the reaction when the intercoms announced that there was a whistle attached. They all started asking me to explain how to use a whistle and laughing, one of them yelled out "BLOW IT!!!" 

We really started the cruise off the first night with a drag show that ended up being one of the funnest shows I've done on the ship. The singer dressed as a bunch of different divas through out the show and sang songs that made seance with them....but they were more adult versions. The entire show was more adult and very funny. It was great for us because all of the regular shows have to be PG, so it was nice to have a break from that. One of the songs he sang was I Will Always Love the Crack Pipe, it was actually I Will Always Love You and I think he left the lyrics the same. Of course he was dressed as Whitney Huston for it. When he started singing he sounded terrible and started coughing and cut off the band. He made a gesture for us to take it down a step, so we took it down a step and started again. Again he sounded terrible and coughed and cut us off, made the same gesture and we took it down another step. This time when he started singing he sounded a little better...not much, but a little better and kept singing for a while. At the end of the verse he started coughing again and cut us off. At that point he too a crack pipe out of his pocket and took a hit out of it (obviously it was a prop, and it wasn't a real hit). Right after that he gave a cue for me to hit the drums and bring the band in on the chorus which was really big and he sounded great! The rest of the song he sang to the crack pipe "and I will always love you..." Etc. He had to take another hit to get the last note. It was hilarious. The rest of the songs all had something funny about them, and we finished with I Dreamed A Dream from Les Mis and him dressed as Susan Boyle. 

I had the next day off, which was a sea day, so I took it easy, worked on some music and stuff like that. The next day we were in La Rochelle, France which was a small town that people from cruises use as a gateway to Bordeaux. I met up with some friends and we went into La Rochelle. We started the day with GeoCashing. GeoCashing is pretty much a worldwide scavenger hunt. Basically, someone hides something in a container, then goes to GeoCashe.com and logs the coordinates for the "cashe" (whatever it is that they hid). Then someone (us that day) puts the coordinates in a GPS and try's to find the item. Inside the container is a paper that whoever finds it signs to say that they've been there. It's really fun and you can find these things all over the world. I found the first one that day hidden quite well in a branch of a tree. It was a smurfs sticker. We found a couple of these which took us around the town, then spent the rest of our day walking around the town. It wasn't anything too special, but it was a cute town. 

The next day we were in Bilbao, Spain. A couple friends and I went to the world famous Guggenheim museum. We found a GeoCashe right outside of it. It was a very cool museum and had a lot of modern art that I really liked. That was also the first time I've ever seen a Picasso in person. We didn't get around the town at all, but it was Sunday, so not much was open anyways. 

The next day we were in La Coruña, Spain, but we were in rehearsal all day pretty much. I won't say more about that other than it was a very easy show.... We did get enough of a break for me and a couple of the guys from the band to go out for tapas. One of the guys lived in Spain for a bit, so we let him do the talking and ordering. It was delicious food and the town looked like it was nice, to bad I didn't get to see more of it. There was nothing really special about the show that night. Just a female singer. 

The day after that we were in Lisbon, Portugal for an overnight. We had rehearsal in the morning for the production show that the cast does with us "iHollywood." It didn't take very long and we didn't arrive in Lisbon until 3:30. I went straight off the ship when we arrived. Some friends and I walked around the city. It was pretty amazing. There were a lot of narrow old cobblestone roads, statues and old buildings, and it was very hot. We walked up a huge hill that and got to an amazing view of the city. There was a castle that looked pretty cool on the other side. We started off in that direction, but I had to break off from them before we got there to go back to the ship. I had the show to play, plus the orchestra was on In Port Manning (IPM) duty that night. IPM means that we have to be on the ship from 8pm to 8am. International law says that a certain percent of crew from each department must be on board in case of any emergency that may happen. We were pretty disappointed about this because it meant we couldn't see Lisbon by night. But someone had to do it. I got back to the ship and played iHollywood. In the middle of the show my click track stopped, which is a red flag because the show goes along with a prerecorded track with strings etc. and the click track keeps us in sync with that. We kept playing and I looked up. My bandmaster looked confused, then I looked at the stage, all of the stage lights were out and the emergency lights in the audience were on, the two members of the cast who were on stage took and bow and walked off, then my bandmaster cut us off. Without missing a beat the cruise director was onstage with a working microphone and announced that there was a ship wide black out at the moment and the emergency generators were lighting the theater. He and the cruise director from Atlantis vamped for about 20 minutes before the power came back on and we could continue the show. One of their tactics was to bring the cast out to introduce them each individually, then they went down the line and had the audience applaud if they thought they were gay. It was a little strange but the audience loved it. We started the show where we left off and didn't have anymore issues. 

The next morning we were still in Lisbon, but I couldn't get off at all because I was literally in rehearsal all day long. One rehearsal was for the headliner Deborah Cox, which was the next days show. That one was only a few hours which we got 2 songs done in.... Again, not hard songs. We had a lunch break and were able to go to the crew BBQ which was on the helipad on the bow of the ship. Right after that it was back into rehearsal for 3 hours. Not hard music again.... 

The next day the ship was in Cadiz, Spain. I had rehearsal all day again for Deborah Cox, so I didn't even see a view of Cadiz. Her show was fun to play though because it was a completely packed house for both shows. The sound of the applause was deafening. They were very into her music, which was pretty much all club music. 

The next day we were at sea for most of the day, but arrived in Ibiza, Spain at 10pm for an overnight. This was basically a party island. They're known for their clubs which don't really get going until about 3:30am. They are also very expensive to get into, so we didn't go to one. We did go out to get some very good food and hit some bars though. It was a fun night, and really nice to be off the ship at night. The weird thing about bar hoping there to me was walking from bar to bar over drawbridges and  castle walls etc. It's funny to me that modern life just goes around those things here. We got back to the ship just in time for the 5:45am curfew. The next day we took a cab to the beach. It was packed full of people, and every few minutes groups of girls all dressed in matching crazy gold swimsuits would walk by singing and holding signs advertising some club in Ibiza. We swam a bit, the water wasn't clear and was actually pretty dirty with seaweed floating around. We stayed there as long as we could before we took a cab back to the ship. 

The day after that the Atlantis Charter ended in Barcelona. I was able to get off there, but it was Sunday, so not much was open. I walked around the city a little bit and it seemed nice. I'll have to go back there someday when it's not all closed down. 

The next cruise was boarding and everything was going back to normal. This one we would be relocating to Istanbul, Turkey where I'm excited to go cymbal shopping! 

Turkish Haircut

It's been a while since I had a chance to write on here. I'll be doing a recap soon of the past few weeks. But today I'm in Kusadasi, Turkey and went to a local barber that my friend recommended. It was the most interesting haircut experience of my life. It began pretty normal, trimming the sides, cutting the top etc. They brought me a Turkish tea that I could drink in small breaks. The hair cut itself was pretty much how they do it in the states. Once he was done with that he used the trimmer to shape my beard a little, then went forward to do a straight razor shave on my neck. Again, something that's pretty common in the states. After that he asked if I wanted my eyebrows trimmed. In these situations while visiting other countries I've learned the answer is always yes. The eyebrow trim was pretty regular as well, until he asked if I wanted between them waxed. I said yes and he applied a thicker wax than I've ever seen in the sates between my eyebrows and down my nose all the way to pretty much touching my nostrils. He didn't put any paper or anything on the wax, but was just waiting for it to dry. While he was waiting he walked to the corner and got something out of a cupboard. He lit it up and I could see it was basically a big match. He let it burn for about 10 seconds then came over to me and started hitting my ear with it. I could feel a very quick burst of heat on my ear then it would go away quickly until he hit it again. He was hitting it pretty quick too so there wasn't much time between the burns. When he finished with my right ear he went over to my left and said "this is for the small yellow hairs." I hadn't actually gotten burnt...or burst into flames so I wasn't really concerned about him doing my left side. When he finished with that the wax was pretty dry, so he pried that off from the bottom of my nose and ripped it off slowly. Then he asked if I wanted my upper cheeks done (above the beard). Again the answer is always yes. He got some thread from his shelf and took a good bit of that, tightened it between his two hands and started forcefully scraping it against my upper cheeks. This was the more painful part of the whole haircut, and probably the most pain from a haircut I'll ever have. When he finished my right side I wanted to not have the left done, but I knew I could live through it. Then it was time to wash my hair. There was a sink right in front of my seat, he had me lean forward and put my head face down in it. It wasn't so much a hair wash as it was a full head wash. He put the shampoo everywhere, my hair, my beard, my ears, everywhere on my head, then used the sink to basically pore water over my head. When that was over he put on some after shave to basically my whole face and then proceeded with the roughest massage I've ever experienced, ending with him cracking my neck. I did feel relaxed after though, and got a great haircut/beard trim/eyebrow trim/head wash. 

I'm sure there will be more crazy Turkish experiences to come. For now I'm headed out to see the rest of Kusadasi, which has a ton of shops for very inexpensive, high quality things. More to come soon!

The Baltic

The Celebrity Constellation's time in the Baltic Sea has come to an end. I was only there for two cruises, which were each 12 days long. We embarked from Amsterdam, Holland, and went to Warnemünde, Germany; Stockholm, Sweden; Tallinn, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; and Copenhagen, Denmark (not always in that order). My favorite of these ports were Stockholm, and Amsterdam, but Warnemünde, Tallinn, and Copenhagen were pretty great too. 

I had actually been to Stockholm and Amsterdam last year, so it was really nice to revisit those places. I was able to get off in Amsterdam both times and walk around the city a bit. Embarkation days we generally have to be back earlier because we have to take part in the boat drill so it was only ever a few hours. 

Amsterdam, Holland

Warnemünde was a small coastal German town that cruise ships dock in so the passengers can hop on a train to Berlin. I never got to Berlin because I had a jazz set in the afternoon, but it turned out that Warnemünde is an awesome town, so we were all happy to stay there.  It was also a late sail out time so we had plenty of time to hang. The first time I was there I was in training most of the day, so I only got out for a couple hours in the evening. The second time however I was able to walk around the town and see all of the sights. There was a long beach that was packed with these strange box chairs that I couldn't figure out how they worked.  They all seemed to be facing away from the water... I climbed a tower that gave me a Birdseye view of the town.  It really is a pretty place, nice and quaint. Eventually I ran into some of the cast, we found some wifi then went to the "Choo Choo Bar." I had actually heard of this bar the first time we were in port, and as I expected that was not it's actual name. It was near the train station and in the shape of a train engine, so the crew had named it the Choo Choo Bar. Non of us knew how long that names been around, but I would get as long as the Constellation has been doing the Warnemünde stop, which would be years. After I played the jazz set I went back out and met up with them at another bar called "The White Bar" and again that was not it's actual name. It was easy to find though, it was all white beds with high posts on the beach. After a few drinks there it was time to go back aboard and sail away. 

Warnemünde, Germany- Beach

Warnemünde, Germany- Choo Choo Bar

Warnemünde, Germany

Stockholm, Sweden of course is one of my favorite places I've ever been. Due to training I was only able to get off one of the days we were there and only for about 3 hours. I was with a couple friends and we just walked around Gamla Stan (the old town) and down a few other roads. It was great to be back there, I wish I would've had more time. Sorry, no pictures. 

Tallinn, Estonia was a bit of a surprise. I had never really thought about Estonia, but it was gorgeous. We spent the whole time in the old town, which was very similar to the old town in Stockholm. It was all cobble stone streets with little shops and big towers from palaces and churches. We ended up at the Beer House both times and had their honey beer, which I'd never had before bit it was quite good. If you're going to the Baltic, Tallinn is a destination to add to your list. 

Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn, Estonia- a friend rented a segue, they're kind of hard to ride...

I actually didn't ever get off the ship in St. Petersburg. I had heard from the other crew that it was hard to get around after you had paid for the shuttle to take you in, and there wasn't much to see unless you were on a tour. So I used that day to rest and go to the specialty restaurant on board called Tuscan Grille. It was an amazing meal!

I was able to get off in Helsinki for a small amount of time both times we visited, but had to get back to the ship early for training, so I didn't really get out of the downtown mall area which was too bad. 

Copenhagen I did get to walk around for a while. Two other musicians from the ship just wandered for a few hours and then took a really nice walk through a few parks back to the ship. I didn't find anything too special about it, though I would still like to go back there and spend some more time in the city. 

Copenhagen, Denmark

So now we're done with all of that and the Atlantis Charter in under way. We're making our way down to the Medeterreanian. More to come on what the Atlantis Charter is and where I'll be in the next few weeks!

Life On a Ship

So I've been living and working on the Celebrity Constellation for for 3 weeks now and am starting to get used to life on a ship. As you would guess it's much different from life on land. So this post is a run down of what life on a ship has been like for me so far.

As an orchestra musician I share a cabin with one of the other musicians. The cabins are pretty small with bunk beds to save space. That leaves us an area to stand, a small desk with a tv on it and a fridge under it, four 1'x1' cubbies (two per person), two small wardrobes with 3 drawers under them (1 per person), a chair, and a bathroom. The beds have curtains you can draw for privacy and to keep your light from waking the other person up. I have some friends who were fortunate enough to get portholes, I was not so lucky. That's one thing to get used to on a ship, it always feels like the middle of the night in your cabin unless there's a light on. This makes it hard to wake up in the morning. 

For food there are a few crew mess halls, one healthy one and the others with different options. As a musician though, I'm allowed a majority of the time to eat upstairs in the guest areas, so I generally do that. There are a few restaurants with an additional charge that we can go to as well, priced from $5 to around $20, by far the best meals I'll ever have for those prices. The general rule to eat in these areas is if it's not too busy. This subject of course leads to the gym, which has the same rule for us to use it. 

Being a musician in "The Orchestra" really means you are in the production show band. We have Trumpet, Saxophone (woodwinds), Trombone, Guitar, Piano, Electric Bass, and Drums (me). I find it funny that we're called an orchestra when we actually have no orchestral string instruments. We play several different types of shows on the ship. So far a general cruise (of the 2 cruises I've done) we play the welcome aboard show in the theater, the "iHollywood" production show in the theater with the "Stars of the Constellation" (the cast of singers and dancers), any guest entertainers show who needs a backing band (most of them) in the theater, big band and jazz sets around the ship, and maybe a party here and there around the ship. The day I boarded the ship I was thrown right into the mix of playing the shows with little to no rehearsal time. The welcome aboard show is like a production show that showcases the orchestra at one point, what ever guest entertainers are on board at that moment, and a selection with the cast. For this there's generally a rehearsal where we just run the show down, then 2 shows. It's the same process for production shows like iHollywood which is a fully choreographed show on Celebrity Ships. These types of shows are on a click track which keeps the orchestra in line with the cast and the recorded instruments that are playing along with us in the house. The guest entertainer shows are the wild card. Celebrity rotates guest entertainer between their ships and they can be singers to jugglers to comedians to magicians....or at least that's what I've seen so far. Most of them require a band there, so we'll generally have a rehearsal the night of, which is the first time we'll have seen the music, then 2 shows that night. Depending on the guest entertainer these can be to a click track also, but generally aren't. The big band sets and jazz sets that we play around the ship are nights when we're not required in the theater. The music for the big band sets is chosen by our music director (trombone player), and we generally sight read for the show. Once you've done a few cruises you know most of the book. The jazz sets we just call tunes on the band stand, most tunes I already know, so I don't have to read them. Then every now and then we play a party which con be accompanying vocalists, playing a choreographed piece with the cast, or just playing tunes. We play pretty much every night, but sometimes get a night off. 

Since most of my work is at night, I generally can get off the ship at the ports. There is a crew all aboard time that I need to make sure to be back by, or back earlier if I have to work. The only other duties I have are to participate in crew safety drills which take place 3 times a cruise. I have been designated the job of demonstrating how to put on a life jacket to the guests on embarkation day during the drill that the passengers take part of. For night life we have a couple of crew bars that we can go to, with rules for intoxication of course. 

That's a pretty general description of life here. Of course it's a very interesting life style to be in a different country everyday, and one that I'm enjoying so far. I'll post on here as often as possible about my times in port. Today we left Copenhagen and are headed back to Amsterdam after a sea day. After that we're leaving the Baltic and headed to the Mediterranean. Keep checking back for posts!

Stockholm

Just finished walking around Stockholm. This is one of my favorite places I've been so far. There was a drill this morning so we only had about 2 hours to walk around. This is one of those places that I'll continue to come back to as much as I can. If you've never been you have to come see it, and make sure to see the Vasa Museum. I've got to get back on the ship in about 30 minutes, so I'm just catching up on real life with the wifi at port. 

Tonight there's a magician on board, so hopefully I can catch his show before I start my big band set with the orchestra. Then Tomorrow we'll be in Helsinki. Not sure what my schedule is yet, but I'm hoping to see more of it this time around. Last time I had enough time to make it to H&M to buy a couple more shirts for guest areas. Keep checking back for more posts! 

First Cruise Almost Finished

So it's down to the last two days of the first cruise through my contract. The day after tomorrow all of these guests will get off, new People we get on and we'll be off to do it all again. Right now I'm in Copenhagen, Denmark sitting at a cafe in the cruise port for some free wifi, and yet again won't be able to go see the city due to training. This past cruise I've been busy pretty much the whole time with training and performing. I'm really hoping the training will be done soon. I was able to get off and see Tallinn, Estonia though, which was a really nice place. I'm excited to go back and see more of it. 

The shows have been a lot of fun so far, and never the same. I've played a jugglers show to a jazz quartet set, and all sorts in between. The juggler, Pete Matthews, was incredible, and probably the hardest one I've played just because I've never done anything like it. He had me hitting things with him, imitating what ever it was he was juggling, and all kinds of other crazy stuff. I felt good about it by the end and really enjoyed his show. 

That's all I have for now. Keep checking back for posts, there will be more when all of this training it finished!

   

Quick post

Just got off the ship for the first time in Warnemünde, Germany. I found some wifi in a restaurant here. So far my days have been packed with training and playing. I'll have more detailed posts soon. Right now, I'm headed outntonchecknout this small German town!

Boarding today

So I arrived in Amsterdam yesterday and checked into my hotel, but had to wait for the room to be ready for 5 hours. I didn't get much sleep on the flight, but I fought through the day. I met two musicians who will be playing a lounge show for the next month on board. Once we got our rooms we headed out to check out our area. Didn't find much because the hotel is by the airport and all there really is by us is a outlet mall in a little town called Hoofddorp. We came back, to the hotel, had a drink then ate at the hotel buffet that the cruise line gave us vouchers for, it was ok food. I'm hoping the buffets on board will be better. Once I finished dinner, I got my stuff together and finally went to sleep. 

Now I'm waiting in the lobby for our bus to the ship to board today! 

On the Plane!

I'm on the plane! No turning back now. In 10 and a half hours I'll be in Amsterdam. For now it's time to kick back, read a bit and try to change my internal clock to 9 hours ahead!

Destinations...

So I'm still in LA working on getting packed and ready to leave. Here's a list of places I'm planning on seeing on this trip:

Amsterdam

Berlin, Germany

Stockholm, Sweden

Tallinn, Estonia

St. Petersburg, Russia

Helsinki, Finland

Copenhagen, Denmark

Bordeaux, France

Bilbao, Spain

La Coruna, Spain

Lisbon, Portugal

Seville, Spain

Ibiza, Spain

Barcelona, Spain

Nice, France

Florence, Italy

Rome, Italy

Naples, Italy

Sicily, Italy

Athens, Greece

Ephesus, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey

Mykonos, Greece

Yalta, Ukraine

Sevastopol, Ukraine

Odessa, Ukraine

Burgas, Bulgaria

Bodrum, Turkey

Maramaris, Turkey

Rhodes, Greece

Santorini, Greece

Crete, Greece

Cartagena, Spain

Malaga, Spain

Casablanca, Morocco

Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Ft Lauderdale, Florida

Welcome!

Hey! Welcome to my new blog! I leave for Amsterdam this Saturday Aug. 10th. I'm getting really excited and getting all packed and ready to go. Check back here for updates and pictures of my trip!