Descriptions to come!

Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover

With all this time on my hands, I’ve already been able to read a few books. This is one
that is definitely hitting home. I have such an amazing opportunity to save up and I have
NOT been taking it. This book has so inspired me to get my act together and use this time
that God has blessed me with. The book has also inspired me to stop using my credit
cards for a few months. Ramsey says that according to studies, we tend to spend 12%
more when we use our credit cards versus cash. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Week Three: Regular Week…finally

Our third week brought us our first regular week, well almost. Saturday brought our
normal passengers to our ship (although we did have over 400 kids on board this week...
thank you spring break). We performed our bumper (just a short little show); the middle
section was taken out (the game show section) which resulted in me not performing in the
last section, so I was done a little early…happy, happy, joy, joy. The weather has been
absolutely beautiful this week, so I’ve been trying to spend more time outside. In Cabo
the cast had reservations to swim with dolphins, but unfortunately the crew was not
allowed off the ship. Cabo has no dock, so ships tender (take their own little ships to the
port) and because we docked with other ships that needed to use Cabo’s tenders and some
of our tenders were not working so we had to cancel the reservation…so maybe the next
visit. We all decided to spend the day laying out be the aft pool. No worries, I wore lots
of sunscreen. On Mazatlan me and our male dancers rented bikes from the ship and biked
around the city. It was a blast and cost only $2…this will hopefully become a weekly
occurrence. In Puerto Vallarta we walked to a local resort and spent the day laying out by
amazing pool with some fun music. Met some college students on spring break from
Mizzou…hmmmm. As I do my duty in the library on this beautiful sea day I realize that
God has handed me yet another amazing experience. I’m definitely blessed.

My Schedule

Here’s my schedule right now…all times are west coast


Saturdays San Diego 10am-4pm (this is the exciting port: I can use my cell
phone and the Target and grocery store are quite close and free internet…CALL ME!)

Sundays At Sea (we perform Rockin’ Road)

Mondays Cabo San Lucas

Tuesdays Mazatlan

Wednesdays Puerto Vallarta

Thursdays At Sea (we perform Escape)

Fridays At Sea (Master Chef)

Week Two: Charter Cruise = Vacation!

Our second week of the cruise was a charter cruise. Charter cruises are great because they usually bring their own entertainment, which pretty much means vacation for the cast. Our charter was the Rosie O’Donnell r Family Vacations cruise. They cater to LGB families…so we had lots of kids on board (a very odd thing to see on Holland America cruises). We also had TONS of Broadway talent and other talent on board to entertain. It was amazing to see Soshana Bean perform Defying Gravity! The comedians were also pretty funny!
I had IPM two of the three ports that week (in port manning, IPM, means you have to stay on the ship for safety reasons…in case of an emergency I’ve been trained to help). But I did get to enjoy Cabo San Lucas…just sat on the beach. Mexico’s been a little crazy because of spring breaks…I’ve seen a few too many high schoolers and college students. I also had library duty…not the greatest job in the world, but it doesn’t totally stink, gives me time to write blogs, emails, and read.
The only job the cast really had was Master Chef…ugh. This is where we do a little dance with the dining stewards in the large dining room on the last night of the cruise. An interesting concept that can’t really reach it’s potential for multiple reasons, the biggest one being that the design of the dining room hurts the performance instead of enhancing. I try to have fun and think of other things, but if you ever want to send a little prayer my way on Thursday evenings from 5-10pm west coast time, I’ll take it!

Week One: Hell Week

The first week on the ship is always the hardest. You board the ship bright and early Saturday morning, San Diego for us (which was brilliant because this allowed us to pack as much as we wanted cause we bussed it from LA). You go to all kinds of meetings (safety, orientation, etc.), have a random coast guard drill (lucky cast), have costume fittings, boat drill, staging rehearsal, tech rehearsal, dress rehearsal, dinner, performance, costume fitting for the next show, and some more staging, then you can sleep. Whew! The rest of the week doesn’t get much better. Our hours in the theatre are quite odd, because there are still activities and other shows being held in the theatre (sadly all does not stop for us). All in all we had a pretty easy hell week. I was able to get settled in my room pretty quickly. My roommate is Mary and since her fiancée has a room and bed that is twice the size of ours, I won’t see her until Rini leaves the ship. I gave the room a thorough cleaning (a whole tube of Clorox wipes) and a good straightening. The ladies before us left plenty of hangers and some plastic shelves, but sadly no fridge. But have no fear…one of the best things about my itineraries is that there is a Target and Walmart always close by.
Crazy week done…now vacation…

The Cast & LA

The people that surround you on a cruise ship make it good or bad. I really lucked out with my cast (the people I see quite a bit every day until Sept. 20). Rehearsals were full of fun. It’s been a while since I’ve learned new choreography (three years of Rockettes), so it was a challenge and lots of new stuff! The ms Oosterdam is a vista class ship for Holland America (which means it’s HUGE) and has 2 singers, 2 singer-dancers, and 10 dancers (last time my ship had 10 performers total). Of the six female dancers, 4 have never done ships before and their ages range from 19-23 (younguns). The other veteran is Mary…this is her sixth contract and her fiancée is an engineer on our ship (her and Rini are getting married on New Years Eve…awwww). Our M1 (male singer) David and three of our male dancers stayed on the ship from the cast before us. They’re great and it’s a small world. David’s done quite a few ships, Eric & Wil have danced with some of my friends in Vegas, and Mario agreed to stay three extra weeks while our real male dancer learned the shows (Nathan just finished a contract with a Phoenix dance company and could not start rehearsals until a few days before we left for our ship). Today (Sat.March 29) Mario is leaving us (sad) but Nathan is joining us (woohoo!). Our fourth male dance is Jesse, who was in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in Chicago/Des Moines with many of my friends. All of our dancers are quite talented and professional (thank goodness). Our F1 (female singer) and M2 (male singer-dancer) are engaged. Katie and Aaron met doing a ship and are getting married in November! (That’s 2 engaged couples so far). Last, but definitely not least is our F2 (female singer-dancer) Brenda. This is Brenda’s first ship, but she’s worked in other places with more of my friends. Brenda got engaged during rehearsals…that’s three! Her fiancée is performing in Universal Japan. So a lot of time is spent looking at bridal magazines and discussing weddings. (After discussing, planning, going to, and reading about so many weddings, I think I have a fair of idea of what I want….if I ever get married.)
Rehearsals were fun, challenging but not too crazy. After Rockettes, nothing seems quite so hard. One of the best parts was going to see Wicked. One of Pam’s best friends from high school is the universal swing and she was able to get us discounted tickets. If you ever have the opportunity to go see the show…DO IT! It is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. The music is brilliant and the writing amazing. Rehearsals were fun, but at the end of those three and a half weeks I was quite ready for the ship.

Coming soon.....

blogs about the cruise ship!