Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

Cruise #14- This cruise was a much needed breath of fresh air after all the nudity from the previous cruise. This cruise I finished SCC training. Yea! After three weeks of getting up early and getting in trouble in class for simply being an American I am finally done. The Italians who teach the class find any way possible to make us look stupid. For example, Greg answered a question during the final week of training and got it exactly right according to what they have been teaching us for the past two weeks. The teacher said that he was wrong and made up some new answer that we have never heard before. This was during a review so there shouldn't have been any new information. Our two instructors are named Mario and Luigi. No, I'm not kidding. So I'm done but I still have to wake up early though. This cruise we started cast change. All the dancers and production singers are leaving. Over the next four weeks they will be teaching the new cast all the choreography for the show. They will be using the lounge for rehearsals. So, that means that when there are no activities or shows going on they are in the theatre rehearsing. They need props, drops, sets, etc. So that requires us to go in at any time during the day. Essentially, we are like doctors, always on call.

The fly-ons this week were JR McCollum, Karen Grainger and Puck. JR McCollum is a comedian. I don't know much about his show or him. During his show we are striking the Intro Show set and I can't pay much attention to it. Also, he doesn't hang out after the show. Karen is one of my favorite fly-ons. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met. She is different from most of the fly-ons because she is down to earth and more to talk about than herself. Puck is not the guy from the Real World. He is a hypnotist. His show very uninteresting. The first half hour is spent in the dark while he hypnotizes people. The second half hour is spent making the people on stage do rather boring things. The most interesting thing he does is tell someone that the number nine is no longer in their vocabulary. Then, he makes them count their fingers and of course the person counts to eleven, skipping nine. They generally look baffled and it is moderately funny.

The first port this week was St. Maarten. Greg, Robbie and I got off the ship and went to the beach just off the pier. While we walking there, a guy renting jet skis called me a computer nerd. These people are everywhere. They stand on the pier and harass people as they walk around. We told him we weren't interested and kept walking. As a parting shot, he called me a dork and told me I looked like someone who worked on computers. I complimented him on his salesmanship and continued on. We swam for a while. We ran into to some guys that were working on a cargo ship. They were from Sweden. Their accents were awesome. They sounded like the Swedish chef form the Muppets. It was hard not to laugh. Just imagine him talking about life on a ship. After we left the Swedes, we went to a local pub with good Internet and grabbed some lunch. Then, I did some watch shopping. There, is a watch there that I really want but I can't get the price low enough to make it worth buying. I have been trying to find a similar one that is less expensive. No luck yet though. I'll just have to keep looking. After I was done shopping, I headed back to the ship.

In St. Lucia, it was a rainy day. I elected to hang the ship for a while and let the rain die down. Dave, Mark, Emily, Matt, Greg, Robbie and I went to restaurant called the Wharf. We started sitting outside so we could enjoy the view but it started raining again and we went inside. It had local foods as well as burgers, etc. I got the chicken Roti. It is potatoes and chicken with a curry sauce. It is all wrapped in a very thin tortilla. It was delicious. Anthony, you would love it. The curry sauce gave it flavor without making it too hot. I will definitely have that again before I leave. Since it was raining, we all went back to the ship to enjoy an exciting afternoon of Wii golf.

The final port this cruise was St. Kitts. Greg, Robbie and I paid a taxi driver $20 a piece to give us a tour of the island. It was money well spent. The tour provided full look at the island. So, we saw local culture and all the tourist destinations. It was mostly a long cab ride with narration but we several stops along the way. Some were scheduled, some were not. The first stop was at the plantation of Samuel Jefferson. He was the grandfather of Thomas Jefferson. The island was once used as a major port for the slave trade and sugar cane. Samuel had a sugar cane plantation. There were lots of really old walls and remnants of buildings. It was very beautiful. The next stop was at the point where the Caribbean sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. It was neat to see the currents coming together. There were a lot of waves. After that, our guide took us to a place where magma hits the surface near the ocean. There was lot of steam and very interesting volcanic rock formations. Along the way, he would tell us about where his friends worked and lived. As we were driving, he made a sudden stop and quickly got out of the car. He grabbed some rocks and started hurling them at dogs. When he got back, he explained that there are wild dogs on the island and they kill the goats. Goats are about as common as cows in the south. He told us that if he sees such things happening he will try and stop it because his goats have been eaten by wild dogs as well. He also, told us that monkeys are the biggest pest on the island. They steal everything. There are four monkeys for every human on the island. Monkeys get shot on site. After, the tour it was time to get back on board.

In Fort Lauderdale, I didn't get off because I am on port manning next cruise.

Talk to you soon,

Chris

Picture #1-Taken from our pier in St. Maarten, it is Skull Island. This is where King Kong was filmed. This is where he is found in the movie.

Picture #2-A view from the Wharf in St. Lucia.

Picture #3-An old bell tower at the Samuel Jefferson Plantation

Picture #4-A view from one of the walls at the Samuel Jefferson Plantation

Picture #5-Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean coming together.

Picture #6-Magma meets the Ocean in St. Kitts.