Sunday, April 8, 2007

Five Days and Counting on My Fingers!

Well, we just finished our last nine day cruise of this contract. We have five more days to go....well, really six if you count our sign-off day...but I don’t so, 5.

This last cruise set an NCL record for most passengers ever on an NCL ship. There were 2,900 passengers, 800 of which were kids. The ship was soooo crowded. We were all banned from restaurants and only allowed in the Garden Cafe at non peak times. That was okay because if you wanted to go to a restaurant you either had to go at 5pm or 9pm. So we spent the week eating quick meals in the Garden Cafe.

Our shows were well attended and overall the passengers were friendly and complimentary. We did a workshop for the 10-12 year olds at the Kid’s Club. The kids were pretty great and the Youth Counselors were grateful for the break. We divided the kids into three groups and taught each group an improv game that they performed for one another. The older girls were a bit frustrating as they were very concerned with putting their hair over their faces and allowing the boys to walk all over them. I was like, you need to listen to some Helen Reddy - Hear me Roar!

Larrance and I were both fighting off a cold this week so we didn’t do much in Dominica which was a shame but it was more important to rest.

In Barbados, we went to the Malibu distillery and toured the site and then hung out on the beach. Then we ate Bajan fish fritters with spicy mustard sauce! We also drank coke with Malibu rum- oh, it was delicious. The beach was lovely and the tour was extra fun because we got to wear hard hats!


All of us in Hard Hats


Andel!



Malibu beach


View of Pearl from Malibu


A Bird...trying to steal our lunch!

We went to Anse Chastanet again. It’d been raining for five days straight in St. Lucia so the water was a bit murkier than the last time. We saw several small jellyfish which we think were washed in from the rain. Still, the snorkeling was great..a little scary at times...you'd look up or down and there was a jellyfish floating by. They looked dreamy. I also saw an black and yellow striped fish that was the size of my pinky nail and it kept swimming towards me. Infact all the black and yellow striped fish kept swimming very close to us. We also saw these enormous blue on top, white/silver on the bottom Gar like fish. They stared and followed. I think they want to sample my goods!!!
We took an underwater camera and we’lll have those photos developed when we get off the ship. We had lunch there and tried, for the first time, Banana ketchup. It was delicious. If you’re ever on St. Lucia, try it.
We also tried Sorrel Shandys - try those too.


Martin in the van to Anse Chastanet


The view from my beach towel


Pitons


Sorrel Shandy cover shot by yours truly

Antigua was an easy day. We walked around and ate some pizza. We did discover that our debit cards have stopped working. Mine had expired in the middle of March but I’d called the bank and asked them to extend the expirationn date. They said that was no problem. Well, I went to use it and it wouldn’t work. So I called the bank and they said, “No, we can’t do that and we never could’ve done that and you’re totally screwed. Hah, ha, ha.” Okay, they didn’t say that, but very close. So we couldn’t buy any more hot sauce - we were planning to buy 4 more bottles. This turns out to be a good thing since half of one of our suitcases is hot sauce. No, I’m not kidding.

It was Good Friday when we were on Tortola so almost everything was closed. We went out to lunch and wandered around Tortola. We chatted with a gentleman who was about to leave on a week long trip on a small yacht. He was very friendly and we both hoped he would kidnap us but no such luck.

We returned to the ship for our last day and a half of sea time. I’ve never minded Sea Days but lately I’ve been so very antsy. I’m no longer charmed by hours and hours of free time. I’m ready to get off of this ship. Nothing really relieves this feeling - working out, seeing a show, reading, watching a movie - nothing. I’m lucky because I didn’t really feel this way until now. This has been a great experience for both of us. The other night we were having coffee and discussing all the things we want to do when we come back. Oh, that’s right, you might know....we’re going to be on the NCL Jewel in November.
We’ll sign-on around Nov. 8/9th and get off in March around the same date. I think it will be a great thing to do right after our season. Our itinerary will be similar to this one. We’ll go to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Tortola, Samana, St. Lucia, St. Thomas, and Barbados. Yay!

After we sign-off the ship, we’re going to Baltimore to visit Larrance’s family. Then we’ll stop and see Sinclair and Sue and then home! When we get home we’ll have five weeks before we open for season four. I’m almost finished with the schedule - I have one slot to fill, one to confirm, and one that’s almost confirmed. It’s taken a long time and been difficult to do from the ship. Next year we’ll be able to hold auditions in March so I won’t have to do any of this from the ship....

A while ago I’d promised a photo tour of the ship and I took the photos but uploading all of them would take a long time. So I’ll post that when we get to Balitmore and I have access to free and unlimited high speed internet. Look for that next week...

Well I’ll write again when we’re all done and off the ship....

~Jen

2 comments:

amaraken said...

We can't wait to see you, muckle onto you, and taste some HOT sauce...anything HOT, because it is still cold here!!! xoxoxMar&Ken

Uncle Ed said...

Hello J & L,

Hope you guys are doin fine, I am also great here and have been travelling all over visiting friends and family the last 3 weeks. Just returned home today and checked my mail box and there was a post card from you!!
Thanks for that it was nice to receive and I hope we will see each other on the Jewel, maybe even Andy will join us!!
Thats all for now, take care.
Love
Edward