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!