The Play"Bill"

Cruise # 4- As many of you know Hurricane Bill was looming along our path. We sailed WAY around it. We were actually late to San Juan. Due to the fact that we took a longer path to our destinations we were traveling at a much higher speed. Our speed at times this week was around 24 knots. Which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 28-30 miles an hour. We normally max out at 21 knots. In order for the ship to travel this fast the Captain had to bring the stabilizers in. Stabilizers help to keep the ship from rocking as much. So, Hurricane + No stabilizers + Higher Speed = Everyone does a funny walk. As the ship rocks back and forth everyone walking down the hallway stumbles from one side to the other. It's pretty funny to watch because everyone looks like they are drunk as they hit the walls on both sides of the corridor. All in all though, It was relatively painless.

Our first port this week was San Juan, Puerto Rico. Most of the showband and I went out all over the island. Mostly hung out in bars and cafe's. It was Sunday and therefore none of the attractions were open. We had dinner at a Puerto Rican bar. I had a burrito. It was quite tasty due to the fact that it was authentic. Also, they had fresh guacamole, which we munched on while we were waiting for the main course. Dave Blazer(trumpet player) has been to San Juan many times and he kind of led the way. He took us to several different places that most tourists wouldn't know about. Therefore, we hung out with the locals. After we got sick of jumping to place to place, we grabbed some beers and found a park over looking the ocean. Remember this at night so there was a nice breeze coming off the ocean as we hung out in the park. After that we found a place with some pool tables and played until we were supposed to be back on the ship(1:00am). While we were walking around we kept seeing that streets were blocked off and there lots of tech type people around. We asked one of the bar tenders what was going on and he said that there was a Johnny Depp movie being filmed but he didn't know what it was. If any anyone knows what movie it is please email me. I haven't been able to find it.

St. Thomas was beautiful as always but uneventful. Ben took me over to see the Victory which was docked beside us. We had to drop off some things to them and then we just walked around for a while. It is a different class of ship and it was cool so see how there stage was set up differently. They had a smaller band pit and more storage areas. They also do completely different shoes from us. Carnival keeps people in certain region supplied with new experiences by having different shows on different ships. Each ship keeps their shows for ten or more years and simply moves the ships around rather than changing the shows on the ship itself. After that we went to really good pizza place and "grabbed a slice".

In Grand Turk a few of us got of the ship early and hit the beach. Mostly because that is the only thing worth doing in Grand Turk. We threw the football and Frisbee. Yes, sometimes at the same time. Mostly we just frolicked and swam in the ocean. Jenn stepped on a sea urchin. That was pretty much the most exciting thing that happened. I would suggest never stepping on a sea urchin. Jenn still has pieces of it in her foot. You can't take out the spines because it will make it worse and more likely to get infected. She has to let it dissolve in her foot.

This week I ran all the shows by myself. There were a few mishaps but nothing major. I finally feel like I am contributing to the tech team. The stage is mine now and I have changed a few stage policies. For example, if any one left stuff on or around the stage Liz would try and find them and ask them what they wanted her to do with their stuff. I thought that was crazy. I made a box in the store room and if anything is left on my stage it will go in one of two places: the trash or the box. Whoever it belongs can come and get when they need it. Every week my job gets a little easier because I don't have to spend as much time preparing for the shows. Two of the shows were shortened this week do to rocky seas. We cut the parts that had complicated dance lifts or sections where performers are near the pit.

Our fly-ons this week were Lamar Williams(comedian), Marcus Monroe(The Rock Star of Jugglers) and Assad Mecci(hypnotist). Lamar was pretty funny. I only saw his family comedy though. I didn't have to be at his Midnight comedy so I took the night off. Some comedians have trouble censoring their shows so sometimes the midnight/ adults only shows are way better. I heard that was the case with Lamar. Marcus' act is constantly evolving. He had us try a pyro blast out of the top of a helmet(a bicycle helmet with a tube on the top) for his show. We couldn't get it to work though. We didn't have the proper firing mechanism and couldn't get it to work with flash paper. The effect he is going for is this: He would be on a seven foot unicycle while juggling three torches and he wants a pyro flare(like a giant eight foot sparkler) to shoot out the top of his head. It's going to be awesome if we can get it to work. Assad Mecci I heard was O.K. I didn't have to be there this week so I didn't go.

In New York, some of us went to The Modern Museum of Art(MoMA). When we got there we were convinced by one of the MoMA officials to buy a membership. We chipped in and bought one membership for $60. The perk of being a member is that you and any of your guests can get into the museum for $5 for up to a year. Since there were five of us it made since to get the membership and have the rest of us come in as guests. We saved a total of $20. Modern art is not generally my cup of tea but there was some interesting and famous art there. They had Van Gogh(Starry Night), Salvador Dali(The one with the melting clocks), Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Diego Rivera, Frida, Andrew Wyeth and a host of other famous artists. If I had to guess, I would say they had close to 30 Pablo Picasso paintings. We were only able to see about half of it because of time constraints but that's cool because we can get in cheap the next time. I want to come back and check out the photography level.

Speaking of photography, I bought a new camera this week. I bought the Stylus Tough 6000. It just got released and it was the one I have been looking at for several months now. All pictures on this post were taken by me. It has some ridiculous and sometimes unnecessary features. I can edit and crop pictures on the camera. It has a slide show playback feature WITH MUSIC! It has nearly thirty picture taking modes programed into it. One of them is cuisine so I can take a perfect picture of my meals, I guess. It takes pictures and video under water. I'm pumped. Let's take some pictures.

Picture #1- A painting of North America by Jasper Johns

Picture #2- A Salvador Dali sculpture

Picture #3- The Statue of Liberty off the starboard side during sail away. If you have been watching the Barclay Golf Tournament this week, it is literally right behind there. There were tons of boats on that side trying to get a look at the course this week.

Picture #4- Our escort with the Empire State Building in the background. This shot was edited on my camera.

Picture #5- My roommate and boss Ben. He just got the version of Flight Simulator. He also bought the pedals and steering wheel to go with it. I was making fun of him for being such a geek so I took this picture. At least I will know what kind of pilot he is before I fly in a real plane with him here in a couple of weeks.

I plan on sending out one post per cruise from now on, so look for new posts about every eight days.

Talk to you soon,

Chris