Update Time

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! 

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~*

The best day!!!

This is Labadee - where John lives/works!
The view of the island from the 500 ft tall zip-line.

Riding up to the zip-line...

Ok, I just had the best day I've had in a looong time!! I got to spend about 4 1/2 hours with John today on Labadee!! I can't believe it worked out so perfectly.  Security agreed to let me off the ship on the very first tender at 7:30 (we're not supposed to get off until open tendering, which is usually around 9:30ish) so I was on the island by 7:45 am! Then, John's buddy Tony offered to take his 8 am zip-line tour so that John and I could spend the morning together! I had rehearsal at 10:30, so we were together until then, and I was straight back off the ship by 12 pm to spend the afternoon with him. :)  He did end up having to do a tour at 2:30, but that actually worked out well because there were only 3 people on it so I was able to go too!  I ZIP-LINED from 500 ft up!!!  That's right - ME - who's scared of heights!! It was actually AMAZING. I loved it! I zip-lined the longest line that goes over water in the WORLD! - and it was 500 ft up! Geeeeeez ~  Anyway, it was soooo good to spend some time with John again. Just reminded me of why we care so much about each other.~  

Other than that, the shows went really well tonight.  Tomorrow night is my "summer breeze" set, so once that's out of the way the pressure will die down a little bit!  Finally - it'll be about polishing everything I've learned, and no more learning anything new!  

Let's see, OH - Mrs. S, the Jewel goes to: Miami, Florida; Oranjestad, Aruba; Cartagena, Colombia; Panama Canal (Cruising Canal); Cristobal Pier, Panama; Puerto Limon, Costa Rica; and George Town, Grand Cayman until May.  Then we transition and go to : Kings Wharf, Bermuda; Lisbon, Portugal; Vigo, Spain; Cherbourg, France; Harwich, England, Copenhagen, Denmark; Stockholm, Sweden; Helsinki, Finland; St. Petersburg, Russia; Tallinn, Estonia; and Oslo, Norway.  Isn't that amazing?? It's gonna be GREAT that last month!! I mean, it's great now because it's warm, but I can't wait to see some of those places.  

Well, that's all I know for now.  I'll keep you posted!  More to come of course~