Momo on a Boat

Monday, March 2, 2015

Sky Diving!

Sky diving has always been something on my bucket list. At the beginning on this contract a couple of us were talking about all the fun adventures we wanted to do while we're here and skydiving came up. Time hasn't always been on our side, we've been busy doing extra rehearsals or there were injuries, just so many things getting in the way. We planned to go two weeks ago in Key West, we woke up that morning to an announcement from the captain saying we couldn't port that day do to the weather. So we pushed it back another week. We didn't talk much about it the night before, but that morning I woke up looked out the window and it was beautiful outside. The five of us that were jumping that day left the ship super excited, got a taxi that took us to what seemed to be the middle of no where with just a little shack and a few planes in the middle of a field. I was a little concerned at how legit this place was going to be, but the guys ended up being awesome.

The plane was so tiny only five people could fit snug in there; the pilot, you and a friend and the two tandem guys. The ride up was 20 minutes long and they took you 12,000 feet high. Jessa and and Ish were the first to go, the rest of us waited with one guy that worked there and when it was time for them to land we drove to the field and watch them scream and smile, they loved it!

Up next was me and Jose. I was surprised because I thought I would have felt more nervous or scared, but when I was in the plane it was such a beautiful view I was just enjoying the ride. It wasn't until they opened the door and the wind was blowing in did it really hit me that I was about to jump out the plane. Jose went first and I followed right after. Swinging my legs over the edge was the scariest part. Then before I knew it we fell forward and I was looking up at the plane free falling for about 45 seconds, which felt so quick and slow at the same time it was crazy! The parachute opened and it was beautiful just flying around looking at the Keys.

It was such a high, after I landed I was surprisingly calm and at ease. I had no worries in the world.
It's definitely something I would recommend doing, I would do it again anytime. Later that night we had a show, and it was definitely one of the best "Signed Sealed's" I had done in awhile. Everything was coming so easily, I didn't feel tired.. normally during my quick changes i'm exhausted and out of breath, but I was so calm and everything felt good. The whole experience kind of feels like a dream still, at least until I look at the pictures.

I don't know what my next adventure will be, but I'm looking forward to quite a few more before I head home.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Dry dock and re blocks

It's been awhile since I last wrote but I figured now would be a good time.

Since I last wrote this cast has gone through so much.

It's funny because I remember being at rehearsals and hearing stories of other casts and the dramas that occurred. We all thought nothing would happen to our cast. But man have we been through it all.

I don't know how many re-blocks we've done at this point.

It started out with one of our singers going home for a bit, so then our dance captain filled in as a singer and we did the shows with three girl dancers.

Then Liz our dance captain got sick and was rushed to the hospital for a week, which was really shocking so then I had to fill in as a singer.

Then Liz came back and did bits of the show. Then our singer came back and we were all together again but still not doing a normal show cause Liz wasn't all the way better yet.

We then had dry dock for ten days in free port, Bahamas. Which is the craziest thing, we were in a shipyard where they lift the ship out of the water and there are a ton of contractors doing maintenance on the ship.

Since we weren't doing any shows or anything like that our duty was firewatch! Which was such a joke but we waited too long to say no about doing it so we had to suck it up and hang out in the spectrum for nine hours a day basically doing nothing. When we were called to work I was sent somewhere were people were welding and I watched with a spray bottle of water and a fire extinguisher... It was so much fun! Ha but no I really liked everything else about dry dock port Lacaya was awesome. The whole cast was hanging out off the ship and it was just what we needed. Also another Royal ship "Freedom" was having dry dock as well so we hung out with their cast which was really fun too!

During dry dock I was at the beach one day and got back on the ship right before I had to start fire watch when I found out one of our boy dancers was going home! It was terrible I ran into his room and everyone was there saying bye to him, I couldn't believe it. Thirty minutes later and he was gone. So now we're down a boy and re blocked another show. Performed the first day back from dry dock and near the end of the show I was walking to an end pose and heard and felt a snap in the back of my ankle. I went to the doctor after the show and he said I had a partial tear in my Achilles' tendon. Wrapped it, gave me some medicine, and told me to rest and ice it. So I did for about three days and it still hurt so he put me in a splint so I couldn't move it and told me to give it another three days and it should be good.

While I couldn't dance the cast had to re-block the shows again without me in them.

Finally on Sunday he took the splint off and it felt fine didn't hurt just kind of felt bruised.

I'm in the show tonight so hopefully there's no problems with it again.

But yeah we basically haven't done the original shows since November.

Our cruise director Carlos is on vacation for two months so we got a new cruise director from Italy. So things are constantly changing for us.

Last night we had movie night in the theatre and watched Interstellar... Well I only got half way through cause it's a long movie!

This upcoming month I plan on going skydiving... So stay tuned!

Coco cay!

Coco cay with pals

Crew party

Christmas!

Dining room party!

New Year's Eve!

New Year's Day at the butterfly museum

Paradise beach

Coco cay in the morning

Dancing under the stars when we all jumped in the pool!

Cheeky breakfast in key west before dry dock

Bye Miami see ya in ten days!

My terrible pano of the shipyard

First fire watch duty

Freedom and baby majesty

Dry dock

In port Lacaya

Lacaya beach

Night shift fire watch

Sharkees night out

Watching them kill it while I was out

Breakfast before the beach!

Fire watch ready!

Sharkees

Monday, December 15, 2014

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!