Dwayne and I for our final "Summer Breeze" set.
Luna giving me a little kiss!
John and I during my last visit to Labadee!Hi all! Sorry I'm a bit behind with my updates. It's just been a crazy couple of weeks I guess! Dwayne signed off the ship Mar. 23 and we had our first show of the new cruise Mar. 25. Well, our dance captain was Dwayne's understudy for a couple of songs and ended up going down with an ankle injury in the middle of the first show! Then one of the other dancers, Gemma, hurt her leg in the Tango show from the previous cruise, but was still trying to dance on it despite the pain. Well, by the end of the shows that night her leg was black and blue from shin to toe. You could see that blood was filling her foot right below the ankle....SO we were without 2 dancers and a B1 this cruise! Rehearsals were intense...none of the dancers felt prepared because several of them were doing brand new lifts or songs in order to cover up the 2 empty spots....Andy was singing twice as much to take over all of Dwayne's parts since we couldn't afford to use a dancer in a singer position after losing 2 to injury....it's just been a roller coaster of emotions for everyone. By rehearsal today the tension was high, everyone was frustrated, and nothing seemed to go right! Then, after our tech run we knew there were several mistakes that needed to be worked on, so we stayed to fix things. During one of those new lifts a 3rd dancer went flying into the wing and when she hit the ground all we heard were screams! We all thought she'd broken her foot by the sounds she was making! You could see the tears and frustration in everyone's eyes...no one knew what we would do if a 3rd dancer was out for the show tonight. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as she thought and once she relaxed she realized she would be ok to dance on it. We left rehearsal feeling...well just feeling like we should give up and go home I think.
Emotions were still all over the place when we returned tonight for the first show. L.A. (one of the dancers) and myself decided that we needed to have a little "come to Jesus" minute back stage before the show could go on. We gathered everyone together and he gave a great pep talk. Then we said a prayer and you could feel the spirits in the room begin to lift up as soon as we said amen. Well, the Lord really watched over everyone tonight and gave us 2 amazing shows despite everything that has gone wrong! No one else was injured, all the changes to the show went really well, and everyone was extremely encouraging through out the whole night. I am so blessed to work with such a talented and uplifting group of people.
Continue to pray for us if you get the chance. Our battle has only just begun! We still have 2 dancers down with injuries and we have a new B1 signing on April 4th. All, I can say is I'm so thankful that I have family onboard right now! I know that God was looking out for me when he made sure that my mama was gonna be here for this drama-filled cruise. It's been so nice to be able to just run up to Mom's room or give her a call when I needed to vent.
Anyway, despite all of the rehearsals I've still managed to have time with my family in all of the ports. We went horseback riding yesterday and that was absolutely wonderful! The weather's been great, so we've gotten lots of sun and enjoyed the beaches as well. I'll be sad to see them leave, but I have lots to look forward to the next few cruises, so that'll keep my mind off of it hopefully. Obviously the most exciting thing for next cruise is getting our new singer, but I also get to see John again this Sunday! I can't wait for that! Then of course the next cruise Dad and his side of the family sign on!!!!! YES!!
Well, that's all of the updates I know for now. I'll keep everyone posted on the status of our cast during the healing process.
P.S. I watched "Sweet Home Alabama" last night and it REALLY made me miss everyone back home!! I just love that movie! I'll be home soon!
