Ship life

Well I've been living on the ship for a little over a month now and it's great! 

Mondays we start the four day cruise in Miami. Most Miami days I spend going downtown or to bayside which is the nearest mall. My favorite place to go is Sedici cafe they have the best breakfasts, great wifi, and the owner is awesome he loves having the casts come visit. Then on every embarkation day the guest have an emergency drill. Everyone has different jobs on the ship during the drill, for me; I ended up being a muster station leader so I have a team of six and we basically line the guest up, make sure everyone is there, and tell them what to do in an emergency. So far during the drills majority of the people in my stations are fairly patient, but there are always a few that complain or don't listen. It's definitely a good experience for me to be the leader because I've learned how to deal with the people that aren't so patient. Plus it can be fun to interact with the guest. After the drill the cruise staff and dancers go up to the pool deck and surprise everyone with a mob dance! Later on in the evening there is a welcome aboard show in the theatre where Carlos our cruise director tells everyone about the different activities they can do, and then we perform Sign Sealed Delivered! 

On Tuesdays we're in Coco cay (Royal Caribbean's Private Island); unfortunately most of our coco days have been turning into sea days because of the weather. I didn't understand why at first but now we've gone twice and I realized there is no dock for us. Instead we anchor near the island and get off the ship to go directly onto a tender which then takes us to the island. There really isn't much there, it's mostly just a cute beach with some shopping huts and bars; it is quite beautiful though. At night on Tuesdays and Saturdays we do Dancing Under the Stars which is quite fun we wear all white and stand on the perimeter of the pool on a ledge and lead a whole bunch of line dances. It's basically just one big dance party, which is always my favorite. 

On Wednesdays we're in Nassau, Bahamas. Which I love it's so colorful and there are a ton of different restaurants and shops. One of my favorite places so far is the Graycliff hotel, there's a huge garden and pool and everything is so beautifully detailed. My other favorite spot is at Fat Tuesdays by the beach 

they  just have the perfect little lounge areas by the water and you can see the ships. Then of course señor frogs and a little club called bamboo are tons of fun too! 

Wednesdays nights we perform in the centrum a hip hop dance to open the flag parade which is when some of the crew comes out with the different flags from the countries we're all from. Carlos announces how many people we have from each country and some people dance. Surprisingly there are only about 20 Americans on the ship. 

On Thursdays we're in key west! I really love this port because every time I go there it feels new. There is so much to do there. Museums everywhere, the aquarium, shopping, restaurants. I think because I only go there once a week I tend to enjoy it more because there is just so much to do and see. Thursdays are the last night for the four day cruise. So the farewell show is Boogie Wonderland. Which is my favorite, it's always so much fun to do. 

Fridays we're back in Miami the guest leave and we get new people for the three day cruise. We do an emergency drill again and the mob dance by the pool then a welcome aboard show, but this time we just do the hip hop dance on stage. 

Saturday we're back at coco cay for a beach day then Dancing under the Stars at 11:30 

Sunday we're in Nassau again. We have tech run in the morning and Boogie at night! 

So overall, our schedule is pretty great, we go to great places, and have quite a bit of free time. I recently started a side job working at the shore excursions desk which is nice to make some more money and I get to interact with the guest more. 

We have to workout at least an hour everyday as well. 

The foods pretty good, probably not the best for us. The only thing I don't like about the food is there's certain times you have to eat and it's much different than what I prefer, but it's not too bad. 

My cabin is bigger than I thought it would be for sure! There's plenty of room for all of our things. The best part is that we have a porthole and we're on deck one so above the water. It's always pretty to look out! 

But that's about all I can think of for an update. 

I love my cast.

Mostly everyone on the ship is friendly. 

So far I've been loving this experience! 

The Chorus Line Theatre sits 1,070ish people 

In Nassau looking at Atlantis from the ship

Miami!

Her bum

Opening look for Sign sealed 

The cast 

Olympics party 

Opening night of Boogie!

Nappin with my besties 

View from the gym

Sign sealed 

Crew bar

Charles and I finally going to Coco cay!

Joseph, Charles, and Jarred 

Graycliff

Graycliff

View from Fat Tuesdays

Almost done with rehearsals!

Oh my goodness! Time has been flyin by!
We finished our second show last week and this week we cleaned and ran "Boogie Wonderland" everyday. I love this show so much, it's so groovy and fun. It killed me the first couple of times we did it but my body is getting used to it more every day.
I got pretty lucky with timing because currently Royal Caribbean is packing up and moving locations so the studio has been packed with other casts. Which I love because we get to see other ships perform their office runs. So far I watched Allure of the seas do "Chicago" which was amazing! Allure is one of the bigger ships. A few days ago I watched Liberty of the seas do "Saturday Night Fever," that was awesome too. Today we watched Freedom of the seas perform "Marquee" which has parts of different musicals in it like 42nd street and cabaret, I loved that too! Tomorrow is our office run and we get to perform "Boogie Wonderland," I can't wait to have an audience especially an audience full of performers because I feel like everyone will love it and appreciate it.

I'm so excited! I keep saying that but it's just so true. These past five weeks have been filled with so much fun, memories, and hard work. It's crazy to think I move onto the ship on Monday already, I can't imagine all the fun and memories that it's going to bring.

Here's some pictures of what I've been doing since my last post!

My roomie Kacey Brown!

Terry and the decorations they put up for Ishmon's birthday! 

Mine and Jared's pumpkin! 

Cast pumpkins!

Early morning new hire training

Lush face masks with Jared!

At the studio

Terry, Charles, and I go to Kussifay for lunch most days. But Charles was at the doctors this day. They have the best rice and beans ever. Everything there is delicious! 

Allures office run

We were rugrats for Halloween! Love them! 

Brother for the night!

We had a BBQ by the pool with some other cast on our day off. It was so beautiful that day! 

Late night snuggles 

Relaxing in the hot tub after a long day of rehearsal 

Went to downtown Hollywood and had dinner at a Mediterranean restaurants at outside by the entertainment ... We each got to go up and dance with her. The food was delicious too!

Dreamworks casts surprised us during rehearsal puss in boots was so cute!

Waiting for today's show to start! Can't wait to perform for everyone here tomorrow! 

First Week!

So here I am, end of the first week! The cast is so great and talented. I can’t believe it’s already been a week, we’ve gotten so much done and the cast already feels so close. But basically I’ll tell you what it’s been like.

Sunday I arrived at around noon, and then got picked up by a driver for Royal Caribbean he brought me to the production studio where I picked up an envelope with my apartment info in it. He then took me to the apartments were I found myself surprised by how nice they were. Cast members kept trickling in. That evening majority of us were just hanging out in the apartment most of the new hires just sat and listened to stories everyone else had. But I knew that night this contract was going to be great.
Monday morning came and we walked to the rehearsal studio which takes about 25 minutes. Of course it started raining half way through so we arrived to meet all the directors wet. But since then the weather has been beautiful. We had orientation for a few hours then we started to learn a Hip hop number that we do on the ship before the quest which is a game the guest play. I was surprised though, we all thought it would be super cheesy but it was actually pretty good!
Lamar is one of our rehearsal instructors, he’s teaching one of our shows “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” and he’s great so sweet and patient but he’s teaching us quickly too and I love it. There are five sections in Sign, Sealed and we learned one on Tuesday which is four dances. Then Wednesday the girls came in a learned a chair dance and another one that’s exhausting but so fun to Proud Mary. Thursday we learned two more dances which completed another section. Friday the singers came in and we blocked both sections. Which was so fun, I love when we’re all together the energy is so good. Saturday we learned three more dances and finished up another section in the show. Now we only have two more left and we’ve learned our first show! I love it; it’s so soulful and fun! Can’t wait to start “Boogie Wonderland” our second show because it’s going to be so high energy and 70’s!
Most nights we’ve been getting together, but last night was extra fun we went over to the boy’s apartment and just hung out. 
Today was our first day off, I went to IHOP for brunch with some of the cast and hung out by the pool where all the Royal Caribbean casts were so that’s always a good time.So far Florida’s been great, my first day I was walking outside and was surprised to see little lizards in the bushes, so that will take some getting used to. Another thing I joke about is the air I tell everyone normally I’d go outside for some fresh air but it’s not so fresh here. Makes me appreciate the evergreen state even more. 

Here's some pictures from the week!

This is where I take 10 at

Where I spend majority of my time :)

One night after rehearsal

The creatures I see on my walks 

Charles!

Photoshoot at the pool lol

Walkin to IHOP!

Last night!