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!