Quickie from Miami (the LAST Miami!)

Haven't written in a while-- but that's because I've been busy. SUPER busy.  Haven't been off the ship on my own time for more than 45 minutes in weeks... haven't been off in Miami in well over a month.  This job is a lot, and I'm learning there's a lot of sacrifice involved...like time, and sanity.

The past two weeks we did what's called a "cast changeover" on the Eclipse, meaning that a new cast of singers and dancers (who have been rehearsing for weeks on land) come on board to shadow the old cast for a week and have tons of rehearsals.  And then the old cast leaves and the new cast takes over 100% and does all of the shows, but since they're still "new" there's still tons of rehearsals. And let me tell you, just finding the brainpower to deal with all of that is exhausting.  And it's not just rehearsals, it's costumes, it's ship life, it's everything.   There have been a LOT of changes lately, which is part of why I have been so busy/so stressed!  Not only did we get a new cast, but we also got a new Cruise Director (my boss-- in charge of all "fun" stuff on the ship), a new AV Manager (like the TD, sort of... I supervise him, he supervises the AV/Tech crew), and we got a handful of new Tech guys. Fun fun.

Today when we leave Miami we head EAST to Europe.  We'll be at sea for 6 days, then have several European ports until we arrive at Southampton, England (our new "home base" for the European season).   I'm scheduled to leave June 9th... in theory, by the time I leave I will have seen Norway, Sweden, Russia, Italy, etc etc etc.  Pretty darn cool.  It's exciting to have some new ports to look forward to instead of the same 4 Caribbean tourist traps every week.  I think we even have an "overnight" in St. Petersburg, Russia.  What?!?!  Photos will be taken.  Haven't taken any recently because there's nothing of interest to photograph, but that will change soon.

There's much much more to expound on here, but I don't have time and my last day in Miami is drawing to a close... just be confident in knowing that after 4 months cruising the Caribbean I am neither tan, nor blond.  Still white, still pasty, still dark blond.  Oh well.  That was never a realistic goal anyway.

I've met some pretty incredible people from all over the world over the last 4 months... definitely will be tough to say goodbye in June, but there's still some time left... ! I never imagined (never ever ever ever ever imagined) that my best friends on this ship would be a group of 30/40-something male Filipino tech guys.  Not that it matters where they're from, but still, not what I pictured for myself. At all. I love it when my own life surprises me in good ways like that.

Hope that you faithful blog checker-uppers are doing well.  I'm barely on facebook these days, but once things calm down a little in the European season (longer cruises=more free time) I might find myself with more time for online social life.  We'll see.

Happy trails to you!
D

(P.S. If I learn Greek and Tagalog I will be set for life on ships... with these languages you can do anything....Greek officers, Filipino crew!)