Alright, so it's been about two months since I've posted. The blog was a pleasant distraction and a lifeline of sorts to home from the ship. After I got back to the States, I didn't care much about posting any more, but I'm regaining interest. So....the stories of my final cruise aboard the Pacific Star.
In a previous post, I mentioned that we had our travel details but there was more to the story. Here it is: Around noon or one on the day we'd ultimately get our travel orders, we were called into the cruise director's office. (keep in mind, this is CD Chris who was on our first week as a fill in and now our last week as a full timer) Turns out, L.A. didn't have anyone to replace us yet so they called Chris and told him to ask us to stay and extra week. He'd already told Jerry this, but Rich and I got a separate call. Rich was actually in the mess at the time I got the call so I just popped into the office to see what was up. To be honest, I had a hard time remaining professional when Chris asked me, but I told him I'd consider it and talk it over with Rich, without whom I would definitely not stay. Jerry however, had already told Chris yes.
Bear in mind, LA had already called a few weeks prior and cut my contract short by this same week, so I really wasn't all that inclined to stay when they'd had the foresight to send me home with the other two guys (who's contracts were a week shorter than mine....long story) but not to have somebody lined up to replace us first. In addition, I'd set up three appointments for various things during that week and told everyone back home I was coming. I caught up to Rich and told him the news and we just started laughing. He had every reason to go home as well. He needed to get off the ship and get healthy, he already had a new gig lined up, his wife had dinner reservations for the second night back. But most of all, we didn't want to put up with Jerry any longer or do a favor for a company that did us no favors. But wait, there's more.
Jerry comes in minutes later as we're laughing hysterically and relaying the story to DJ's Bass and Dets. Jerry's all excited about getting asked to stay, tells us the situation (like we didn't already know what was up) and says, "so we'll stay on and play another week." Containing laughter at this point was painful....for us and the DJ's. (Everybody on the ship knew what a jerk Jerry was, from the servers and stewards to the shoppies to the officers. It was almost funny.) We managed to explain our situations politely and tell Jerry that our decision would be a no. We went into Chris' office later and told him this. He gave us a minor guilt trip but we didn't care.
Then, at 4 when the crew office opened and we could pick up our travel orders (Adam had told us they'd come in earlier in the day, but the office wasn't open at the time) we were dancing around singing like a bunch of little kids. Everybody was laughing and smiling at us and all we could do was sing our song and shout "See ya!" Good times. Hopefully that makes the tone of the earlier post make a little more sense.
But that's just part of the story. More coming when next I need a break from writing Kalida's show.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Don't call it a comeback....
Well, I'm back in Ohio.
My travel day began at 5:30am in Brisbane on Saturday, March 10 and now I arrived home (which is my parent's place until I find a new job/apartment) at 9pm, Saturday, March 10th. Amazingly, I've pulled off a 30 hour travel day, all in the same day. My 13-hour pan-Pacific flight landed in LA 5 hours before it took off from Brisbane. Isn't the Dateline a wonderful thing.
For the moment, I'm enjoying unlimited internet that doesn't cost me a ton of money and the fact that I can stretch out without being in somebody's way. Not to mention, this place doesn't pitch or rock at all. Nice to be in a home that doesn't move. I have about a thousand thoughts and stories from my final cruise that I'd like to share, but I'm a little tired now (and I didn't sleep at all the night before my plane flights) and I'll save that for tomorrow when I'm better rested.
To the Star crew....love ya, miss ya, wish you were here.
peace
steve
ps. who turned off the heat around here?
My travel day began at 5:30am in Brisbane on Saturday, March 10 and now I arrived home (which is my parent's place until I find a new job/apartment) at 9pm, Saturday, March 10th. Amazingly, I've pulled off a 30 hour travel day, all in the same day. My 13-hour pan-Pacific flight landed in LA 5 hours before it took off from Brisbane. Isn't the Dateline a wonderful thing.
For the moment, I'm enjoying unlimited internet that doesn't cost me a ton of money and the fact that I can stretch out without being in somebody's way. Not to mention, this place doesn't pitch or rock at all. Nice to be in a home that doesn't move. I have about a thousand thoughts and stories from my final cruise that I'd like to share, but I'm a little tired now (and I didn't sleep at all the night before my plane flights) and I'll save that for tomorrow when I'm better rested.
To the Star crew....love ya, miss ya, wish you were here.
peace
steve
ps. who turned off the heat around here?
Monday, March 5, 2007
Free at last!
Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!
I will be leaving the beautiful white (old, weeping) lady, the Pacific Star, my home away from home in the early morning hours of March 10 in Brisbane.
My plane leaves Brisbane at 12:10pm and 13 hours later, I'll be landing in Los Angeles at 7am. After customs and what not, I board to plane to Detroit at 11am and land at 6:30pm. (all times local)
There is a long story to tell about this cruise and even just the last five hours prior to my posting this, but I'll save that for another post. I don't want to buy another internet card before I leave and have less the $3 left on this one which will be needed to check email for the remaing 3+ days.
I've been shown the way to go home! I'm comin' home Ohio....snow drifts and all.....and me with my 4 month tan. Ha! Love it!
Dinner in the steak house tonight to celebrate for Rich and I....Jerry may actually be staying an extra week so we won't have to see him in the airport at all. And Rich and I are on the same plane. weeeeeeee. We were jumping around dancing and singing earlier today. It's great. I need to shut up and sign off.
PEACE
I will be leaving the beautiful white (old, weeping) lady, the Pacific Star, my home away from home in the early morning hours of March 10 in Brisbane.
My plane leaves Brisbane at 12:10pm and 13 hours later, I'll be landing in Los Angeles at 7am. After customs and what not, I board to plane to Detroit at 11am and land at 6:30pm. (all times local)
There is a long story to tell about this cruise and even just the last five hours prior to my posting this, but I'll save that for another post. I don't want to buy another internet card before I leave and have less the $3 left on this one which will be needed to check email for the remaing 3+ days.
I've been shown the way to go home! I'm comin' home Ohio....snow drifts and all.....and me with my 4 month tan. Ha! Love it!
Dinner in the steak house tonight to celebrate for Rich and I....Jerry may actually be staying an extra week so we won't have to see him in the airport at all. And Rich and I are on the same plane. weeeeeeee. We were jumping around dancing and singing earlier today. It's great. I need to shut up and sign off.
PEACE
Friday, March 2, 2007
Show me the way to go home....
Well, there's a lot going on about the ship this week and I'm pretty sure, none of it means that much to me anymore. We've got a new cruise director on who is really shaking things up, hopefully for the better but I'll never know. 2/3 of the production is changing and the trio is going home too. That's right friends, I'm coming home. Don't have all the details yet, but I'll proabably post that in a blog later in the week. For now, let me just leave you with this. Rich pulled me out of the shower the other day as JAWS was playing on our TV to listen to this song. We laughed our asses off and have been singing it ever since. Enjoy.
Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I wanna go to bed
I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it went straight to my head
Where ever I may roam
Over land or sea or foam
You can always hear me singing this song
Show me the way to go home!
cheers
Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I wanna go to bed
I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it went straight to my head
Where ever I may roam
Over land or sea or foam
You can always hear me singing this song
Show me the way to go home!
cheers
Friday, February 23, 2007
A lot can happen in 3 days
The last 3 days have been a real adventure. But first, let me pick up where I left off.
The long day in Brisbane this week was a godsend. I found the cigars I was after, I putzed around a did a little shopping, hung out with a few people, and generally had a relaxing day. Toward the end of my time off, I met up with a few other crew members for a beer at a pub not far from the wharf. We discovered that this pub also made a pretty good steak dinner so we ordered. Fantastic! My medium rare New York Strip was a little more medium than rare, but the meal was still great. I pretty much devoured the whole thing and sampled about 5 or 6 Aussie beers I'd never had in the process. Not bad, but the honey wheat was a disappointment.
Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good by the time I got back to the ship, and since all the passengers had already boarded, I cruised right through the terminal without having to play dodgem with a thousand tourists. The passenger boat drill was a joke as most of the pax had been aboard and drinking since about 3. After that, the trio was supposed to play dance music in the nightclub. This is usually giant frustration for us and 3hours of it could have been a disaster, but I was playing really well and the cruise director pulled us off early to open the room as a night club with a DJ as the party in the other bar was overflowing. Fine by me, so Rich and I went out back and smoked the first of our cigars. Arturo Fuente's from the Dominican Republic. Great flavor, and a 2-hour smoke. We have 2 cruises left and have 2 each of the Fuentes remaing for each of those cruises. Should be pretty sweet. (the spacebar on this computer sucks. I'm not on my laptop, in case you hadn't guessed.) So by the end of the night when we finally headed down for bed, I realized that the only thing that could have made it any better was having someone to cuddle with. This was not to be, but oh well.
The next day, we played for Jackie Love's cabaret. Jackie is somewhat famous in Australia and a true professional. Easily the best Guest E we've played for in many many respects. Once again, it was Richard and I holding it together and Jerry screwing things up, but that's nothing new and a badge of honor for Rich and I as other crew members can see and hear what's happening so Jerry isn't fooling anyone. Even passengers pick up on it. We celebrated with a beer, a pizza, and a smaller, cheaper Fuente that was surprisingly quite good. Another good day.
The next day would bring a surprise. Richard woke early with a migraine and was vomitting all day because of it. He wasn't able to play our noon pool set, so Jerry and I played a duet. It went OK. Time was a little wide but we held it together and were more than civil toward each other, so that's good. Come dinner time, we were scheduled to play the steak house, but Richard was quarantined just beforehand, so we had to punt. Jerry decided to play the gig himself on the grand piano so I got the night off. I watched a movie, worked on Kalida's show a bit, then headed up to watch the second sitting of the production show. Now the fun begins.
The house lights above one of the aisles were flickering and I called the production manager over to check it out. He said, "Oh no, those are the emergency lights!" Sure enough, two seconds later, complete power loss to the entire ship. So the passengers are laughing, and most of them drunk as this really was just a booze cruise. (you wouldn't believe all the extra security we brought on for 3 friggin days) Finally the cruise director comes into the showroom and as he does, I'm standing at the edge of the crew stair entrance and hear the GES. ***For those unfamiliar with ships, the GES is the General Emergency Signal which summons all passengers to their lifeboat muster stations. Usually, this signal is proceeded by a crew alert signal to get the crew in place to deal with the passengers before the pax actually are called to action. But not tonight. I said to the Cruise Director that the GES was going off, and he said now it's not. But it turns out, I was right, though it had only sounded in the crew areas. Since the CD is one of the 3 officers on the muster control party, he has to swing into even more action now as crew are scrambling up from the dark with lifejackets and muster hats in hand.
Thankfully, this was a false alarm, triggered by the power loss. Richard, meanwhile, was down in the depths of deck 2 forward in the isolation cabin (vomitting and diaherria are serious threats to the health of the ship, its crew and pax) even though he was not contagious. He had to crawl up from the depths to our room, in the dark as the emergency evacuation lights did not come on, and get his life jacket and what not. I'm sure that was fun.
Meanwhile, they managed to restart the show, which they had to do 2 more times as the captian's announcements killed all the PA equipment on all decks. The cast perservered though. Points for recovery.
Glen, the production manager, is about to have a coronary though, as his phone starts ringing off the hook and he got about 10 pages in these few minutes. You see, the power reset the systems in the night club and the pool deck and no one could get them up and running again. But Glen can't leave the show lounge til the show ends. So that was a bit of a mess.
Then, I walk up and deck and remember that Captain Rivera has returned to take over tomorrow for Captain Paoletti. Sure enough, there sits Rivera, eating a pizza on the open deck while all hell is breaking loose elsewhere. Welcome back!
The rest of the evening passed fairly uneventfully. Just swapping stories of where were you when.....? I found out that several of the dancers were heading to an open audition for Tokyo Disney in the morning and they were also auditioning male musicians/percussionists. Unfortunately, the muso auditions are in the afternoon after we are set to sail, but I sent a resume down with one of the dancers who had worked there before and knew one of the production directors. He said he'd put in a good word for me and see if he couldn't get them to take a look at me. I'm waiting for a phone call regarding that. Not expecting much, but Japan could be fun. My phone is actually on right now....for the first time in over 3 months. It's on Roaming and I don't want to know what a call will cost, but it does actually work.
And that is about it. Amazing what can happen in 3 days. At any rate, just two 7-day cruises remaining and I head home, with considerably less debt and plenty to keep me busy through the end of April. Thinking about a Meditteranean contract starting in early May and ending late July. Just a though for now though.
Man.....long post. Have fun reading that one. See you all soon.
cheers
The long day in Brisbane this week was a godsend. I found the cigars I was after, I putzed around a did a little shopping, hung out with a few people, and generally had a relaxing day. Toward the end of my time off, I met up with a few other crew members for a beer at a pub not far from the wharf. We discovered that this pub also made a pretty good steak dinner so we ordered. Fantastic! My medium rare New York Strip was a little more medium than rare, but the meal was still great. I pretty much devoured the whole thing and sampled about 5 or 6 Aussie beers I'd never had in the process. Not bad, but the honey wheat was a disappointment.
Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good by the time I got back to the ship, and since all the passengers had already boarded, I cruised right through the terminal without having to play dodgem with a thousand tourists. The passenger boat drill was a joke as most of the pax had been aboard and drinking since about 3. After that, the trio was supposed to play dance music in the nightclub. This is usually giant frustration for us and 3hours of it could have been a disaster, but I was playing really well and the cruise director pulled us off early to open the room as a night club with a DJ as the party in the other bar was overflowing. Fine by me, so Rich and I went out back and smoked the first of our cigars. Arturo Fuente's from the Dominican Republic. Great flavor, and a 2-hour smoke. We have 2 cruises left and have 2 each of the Fuentes remaing for each of those cruises. Should be pretty sweet. (the spacebar on this computer sucks. I'm not on my laptop, in case you hadn't guessed.) So by the end of the night when we finally headed down for bed, I realized that the only thing that could have made it any better was having someone to cuddle with. This was not to be, but oh well.
The next day, we played for Jackie Love's cabaret. Jackie is somewhat famous in Australia and a true professional. Easily the best Guest E we've played for in many many respects. Once again, it was Richard and I holding it together and Jerry screwing things up, but that's nothing new and a badge of honor for Rich and I as other crew members can see and hear what's happening so Jerry isn't fooling anyone. Even passengers pick up on it. We celebrated with a beer, a pizza, and a smaller, cheaper Fuente that was surprisingly quite good. Another good day.
The next day would bring a surprise. Richard woke early with a migraine and was vomitting all day because of it. He wasn't able to play our noon pool set, so Jerry and I played a duet. It went OK. Time was a little wide but we held it together and were more than civil toward each other, so that's good. Come dinner time, we were scheduled to play the steak house, but Richard was quarantined just beforehand, so we had to punt. Jerry decided to play the gig himself on the grand piano so I got the night off. I watched a movie, worked on Kalida's show a bit, then headed up to watch the second sitting of the production show. Now the fun begins.
The house lights above one of the aisles were flickering and I called the production manager over to check it out. He said, "Oh no, those are the emergency lights!" Sure enough, two seconds later, complete power loss to the entire ship. So the passengers are laughing, and most of them drunk as this really was just a booze cruise. (you wouldn't believe all the extra security we brought on for 3 friggin days) Finally the cruise director comes into the showroom and as he does, I'm standing at the edge of the crew stair entrance and hear the GES. ***For those unfamiliar with ships, the GES is the General Emergency Signal which summons all passengers to their lifeboat muster stations. Usually, this signal is proceeded by a crew alert signal to get the crew in place to deal with the passengers before the pax actually are called to action. But not tonight. I said to the Cruise Director that the GES was going off, and he said now it's not. But it turns out, I was right, though it had only sounded in the crew areas. Since the CD is one of the 3 officers on the muster control party, he has to swing into even more action now as crew are scrambling up from the dark with lifejackets and muster hats in hand.
Thankfully, this was a false alarm, triggered by the power loss. Richard, meanwhile, was down in the depths of deck 2 forward in the isolation cabin (vomitting and diaherria are serious threats to the health of the ship, its crew and pax) even though he was not contagious. He had to crawl up from the depths to our room, in the dark as the emergency evacuation lights did not come on, and get his life jacket and what not. I'm sure that was fun.
Meanwhile, they managed to restart the show, which they had to do 2 more times as the captian's announcements killed all the PA equipment on all decks. The cast perservered though. Points for recovery.
Glen, the production manager, is about to have a coronary though, as his phone starts ringing off the hook and he got about 10 pages in these few minutes. You see, the power reset the systems in the night club and the pool deck and no one could get them up and running again. But Glen can't leave the show lounge til the show ends. So that was a bit of a mess.
Then, I walk up and deck and remember that Captain Rivera has returned to take over tomorrow for Captain Paoletti. Sure enough, there sits Rivera, eating a pizza on the open deck while all hell is breaking loose elsewhere. Welcome back!
The rest of the evening passed fairly uneventfully. Just swapping stories of where were you when.....? I found out that several of the dancers were heading to an open audition for Tokyo Disney in the morning and they were also auditioning male musicians/percussionists. Unfortunately, the muso auditions are in the afternoon after we are set to sail, but I sent a resume down with one of the dancers who had worked there before and knew one of the production directors. He said he'd put in a good word for me and see if he couldn't get them to take a look at me. I'm waiting for a phone call regarding that. Not expecting much, but Japan could be fun. My phone is actually on right now....for the first time in over 3 months. It's on Roaming and I don't want to know what a call will cost, but it does actually work.
And that is about it. Amazing what can happen in 3 days. At any rate, just two 7-day cruises remaining and I head home, with considerably less debt and plenty to keep me busy through the end of April. Thinking about a Meditteranean contract starting in early May and ending late July. Just a though for now though.
Man.....long post. Have fun reading that one. See you all soon.
cheers
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
I'm getting paid for this
It's a couple days later now, but the other day I hopped off the ship in Champagne Bay. Amazing. We took a little ride up into the hills a little bit and entered the Blue Lagoon. I'm told there was a movie by the same name filmed here but who knows. What I do know, is that it was really amazing. After we paddled around in the lagoon for a while, we headed back to the beach.....the ride in the back of the truck just about did in my kidneys, but that's another story....and swam in the crystal clear waters and sunbathed on the pristine, white sand.
I spent most of that day with Dave and Kiwi Stef from the new cast and we all still can't get over the fact that we were being paid to be there. Beats working for a living.
I'm back in Brisbane for the moment. We're about to embark on a 3-night cruise that will be mainly full of industry people and people just looking for a booze cruise. We don't go anywhere, just out and around and back in with no ports to call. It's pretty silly but we've got 6 extra hours in Brisbane today as we won't sail until 8pm instead of the usual 2pm, so that's nice.
In the meantime, I just sent a box full of unnecessary clothes home in the hopes of getting the weight of my suitcase back under the limit for the return home. Going shopping for a box of cigars for Rich and I to split these last few weeks a little later on.
Finally got the materials to start writing Kalida's show. My brain is mush at the moment, but I need to find a way to buckle down and get at least a lead sheet sketch done before I go home. I'll also be writing Bellefountaine's show, so I'm excited to meet with them when I return home in a few weeks. Anybody else need an arranger?
I think I'll sign off for now. Too many IM windows open. I can't IM from the ship so it's nice to chat when I have some time....especiallly since I'm not rushed today.
peace
steve-o
I spent most of that day with Dave and Kiwi Stef from the new cast and we all still can't get over the fact that we were being paid to be there. Beats working for a living.
I'm back in Brisbane for the moment. We're about to embark on a 3-night cruise that will be mainly full of industry people and people just looking for a booze cruise. We don't go anywhere, just out and around and back in with no ports to call. It's pretty silly but we've got 6 extra hours in Brisbane today as we won't sail until 8pm instead of the usual 2pm, so that's nice.
In the meantime, I just sent a box full of unnecessary clothes home in the hopes of getting the weight of my suitcase back under the limit for the return home. Going shopping for a box of cigars for Rich and I to split these last few weeks a little later on.
Finally got the materials to start writing Kalida's show. My brain is mush at the moment, but I need to find a way to buckle down and get at least a lead sheet sketch done before I go home. I'll also be writing Bellefountaine's show, so I'm excited to meet with them when I return home in a few weeks. Anybody else need an arranger?
I think I'll sign off for now. Too many IM windows open. I can't IM from the ship so it's nice to chat when I have some time....especiallly since I'm not rushed today.
peace
steve-o
Friday, February 16, 2007
I'm comin' home!
My pardon has been granted! I'm coming home, boys and girls!
And I'm not coming home on March 17. I'm coming home on the 10th. Only 3 weeks to go and the current Pacific Star Trio will be gone forever.
I found out just this morning that my contract was shortened one week, without any warning by the powers that be in LA. I suspect that, as the other two guys in the trio were already set to leave on the 10th, that it makes more sense and may ultimately be easier to bring on a complete trio rather than piecing one together on the ship. Considering the fact that we spend better than 90% of our working time as a trio and not as the show band we thought we were hired to be, this makes a lot of sense.
Ironically, I was about to volunteer to extend one week to help smooth the transition with the two new guys that would have just come on for my last week. It also happens that the added week would have been a Cairns cruise and a nice way to end my contract, but we'll not mention that.
Oh well!
I'M COMIN' HOME!
See you all in 3 weeks.
And I'm not coming home on March 17. I'm coming home on the 10th. Only 3 weeks to go and the current Pacific Star Trio will be gone forever.
I found out just this morning that my contract was shortened one week, without any warning by the powers that be in LA. I suspect that, as the other two guys in the trio were already set to leave on the 10th, that it makes more sense and may ultimately be easier to bring on a complete trio rather than piecing one together on the ship. Considering the fact that we spend better than 90% of our working time as a trio and not as the show band we thought we were hired to be, this makes a lot of sense.
Ironically, I was about to volunteer to extend one week to help smooth the transition with the two new guys that would have just come on for my last week. It also happens that the added week would have been a Cairns cruise and a nice way to end my contract, but we'll not mention that.
Oh well!
I'M COMIN' HOME!
See you all in 3 weeks.
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