You're not gonna believe this...

Things have been going so well. I love having my own space, my own room, time for me.  It's great.  The cast is wonderful, and we get along great. The shows are beautiful - I like them better than most of the ones from my last ship (except of course, the country show). 

Of course now, disaster strikes!  ha Well, that may be a bit dramatic. It's not disastrous...but very disappointing, that's for sure.  

We were getting ready to do our tech run for the tango show when our dance captain makes the announcement that Dwayne, the B1, has something to share.  For some reason I knew before he even started talking that he was ready to resign...but I hoped I was wrong.  Then comes the spill..."I've been miserable for a while being back with Royal...don't get me wrong, it's a great job, but I miss promoting my album and singing what I want when I want...blah blah blah...I've thought long and hard and I feel like I need to resign. It's not fair to you guys for me to be this miserable and bringing the rest of you down too...blah blah blah".  

SO - the end result is that Dwayne has given his 2 week notice and will be signing off the ship as of Mar. 23.  What does this mean for us? Well, 1 of 2 things - they'll either find a replacement by then and we'll be in rehearsals to get this person worked into the shows...or we'll be re-blocking the shows and putting a dancer into the things that Andy, B2, can't cover himself. I'm SO DISAPPOINTED!  I really enjoy working with Dwayne. Yes, he sometimes keeps to himself a little too much, but as far as performing...he's great, and we work really well together! Plus, I've just gotten these shows into my body - I'm comfortable with the way Dwayne sings, and I follow his lead well... Now I'm going to have to figure all that out over again with someone completely different.  This person could be equally as talented or...if it's anything like my last contract...he could "leave something to be desired"...to put it nicely. 

The end result? Just pray that we have a smooth transition into our next cast mate.  I guess it's all part of the job, so we just have to take the good with the bad and know that there's a reason for everything.  It's like I was told yesterday: this next guy could be talented as well as having an amazing personality and we could get along like peanut butter and jelly so...we'll see!  It's really worse for the rest of the cast honestly.  They've been re-blocking since they got on the ship! First a girl dancer went down, then the G1 and now B1.  SO, hopefully we'll get a quick learner and rehearsals will run smooth and quick.  That's all we can really pray for.

In other news...I see John this Sunday! AND we have our show Sat. night so that means that I'll have all day on Labadee with him!  YAY!!!  There's nothing else that's really happening right now.  I just wanted to share the latest news.  I hope everything's still going well at home! I miss everyone! 

More soon... Blessings~*

PS - if you tried to open the facebook album in my last blog and couldn't figure out how to see other pictures...you should be able to click on the link...when it opens to 1 picture simply click on the 'previous' or 'next' button which should be at the top right of the picture.  Hope that helps!  

Cartagena Today

I had the best day and just wanted to share a few photos.  We went to a monastery up on a hill that over-looked the entire city as well as the ship. It was absolutely gorgeous!  I was so intrigued by everything I saw...Bibles & song books that were centuries old...statues of different saints and of course Mary. They also had notes (money) from all the different countries that had come through the monastery over the years.  It was amazing to see it all.  Oh, AND I GOT TO HOLD A SLOTH!!!  So neat!  He was really sweet...well I mean, I guess he was...he didn't try to claw me or anything.  He had very course fur and really did move unbelievably slow.  

Ok, I'm done. Just had a good day and wanted to share!!  

Here's the whole album if you want to see all the pictures I took.  You should be able to click on this link and go right to it:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31272375&l=12861&id=156800509

Costume Malfunction Madness! HAHA

Marty Allen, Karen Kate, Tait (dancer) and myself after their amazing show.



Marty as "the wine taster".
Horseback Riding in Costa Rica.
Some of the cast as well as some cruise staff getting ready to ride horses!

Well the past week or so has been wonderful.  I had the best day in Costa Rica last cruise because we got to go horseback riding.  It was absolutely beautiful and we were actually able to get the horses up to a nice gallop! I wouldn't consider myself an experienced rider, but it was definitely great to feel the wind in my hair and have the chance to really play with the horse a bit. To top it all off, it was CHEAP! Sweet!! haha Like $35 for 3 hours and transportation.  Can't beat that with a stick! 

Then, we had a "Mac Party"...about 4 of us from the cast got together and shared info and programs to help us with our Macs (computers).  This was especially helpful for someone like me, who has always been a PC person until Christmas of this year.  So, I learned shortcut commands, how to use some of the basic programs I wasn't 100% sure about, and was also able to re-format my external hard drive to be Mac friendly.  (This may not mean much to some of you, but I know my Dad is right there with me on all of it! So, you can skip a bit if this doesn't interest you...hahahaha) Now I have like...150+ gigs of storage space between my computer and my external drive.  YAY!

Does anyone remember Marty Allen the comedian?  He's been on Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson etc etc...knows all the big performers from back in the day. Well, he and his wife were guest entertainers on our ship this past cruise.  The show was fantastic!  He's 87 and still performing! Can you believe that??? And his wife, Karen Kate, is a singer/pianist who is very talented and a great performer as well.   I took a few pictures because I recognized him from some re-run of an old talk show...I can't even remember which one...but I was just amazed that he's still alive and doing what he loves.

Oh - then the costume malfunction!  This is great.  SO - we did West End to Broadway Wed. night.  The first show I had a few word glitches so I wasn't happy with my performance, but the second show was going great! I felt much more relaxed and focused, the audience was a little more attentive...everything was good.  Well, I have this 40 sec. quick change on side stage into a purple corset top, skirt, gloves, necklace and wig.  It's not impossible, but it is rather fast I must say...then I jump onto one of the set pieces and I'm wheeled onto the stage where I come out of a door for the next number...so usually I'm able to do last minute adjustments from there if need be.  This time just seemed to take longer so I jumped onto the cart with approximately 1 sec. to spare and was still fixing my gloves and wig as fast as possible.  Got it ready and walked out just in time to start singing...sang the first line and all of the sudden I felt the zipper in my top pop wide open!!  Thank GOOODNESS for hooks!! I had a hook in the top of my dress that managed to stay together through the entire song. I pranced around on stage praying that it would hold as I felt it flapping in the wind behind me.  I had to change choreography and blocking so that I never turned my back to the audience. I still have to wonder if people on the far sides saw my flapping dress and panicked right along with me! It was HILARIOUS! Well, at the time I was going crazy in my head!!! BUT looking back now, it's hilarious. :)

Soooo those are my latest stories. Not much has changed. I'm starting to get a little more comfortable with everything as time goes on.  I really love all the shows and the more intimate sets that we get to do in the Centrum and Safari Club.  I can't wait to have family on board to share things with! You are all going to have the time of your lives!!! It'll be here before we know it!  I'm off to bed~  Going to see a monastery in Cartagena tomorrow.  

More soon!  Blessings~*