Hello all!!! I finally got off the ship!!! YAY!! After 7 very long sea days, yesterday I had the pleasure of disembarking on the Portugese island of Madeira. The name of the port was Funchal, and my friends and I left the gangway at noon and started my first European journey. The first thing we did was boarded a shuttle, which cost $5 US for passage to the city and back (a great deal, considering guests had to pay 10 euros for taxis). By the way, the current exchange rate for the US:Euro is 1.35:1....which isn't all that bad. The ten [View Full Entry]

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Put your finger on a map in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Go ahead, do it, I'll wait. K, did you find it? The farthest point from any piece of land that is around? Good. That's where I am right now. The middle of Nowhere. After three days at sea, I can safely say that I prefer land over water anyday. I look out the window and what do I see? Water. No coast. No other ships. No buildings. Nope. Just water. Because of this fact, I try to sleep as much as I can to help the hours click [View Full Entry]

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Hey all!!! While I only have been to a few countries in my life, I discovered my new favorite country a few days ago. Our port was in Guatemala, which didn't have any particularly high expectations attached to it, which might account for my appreciation for it. DJ Dan and I left the ship at around 12:30pm, and began walking through the many shops that are located just outside the gangway. There I bought some nice presents (you'll have to wait till I get back...I wanna see the looks on your faces myself :) ), and then Dan and I decided [View Full Entry]

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So..... About four days ago, I spent an hour (which is $6 US on my internet card) writing this LONG update, and then the server went out and I lost everything. I called Mom and complained, but I only just got over the incident today, so I thought I'd try again. If it gives out again, however, I'm quitting Travel Blogging forever. With that being said, a whole lot has happened since we last chatted. So let's recap, shall we? Day one, we left San Diego, in Code Red after having 140 or so people infected with the virus. Days two [View Full Entry]

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Just a quick update cuz I got lots to do: Tomorrow when I arrive in San Diego, I may not be allowed off the ship at all. Due to our Code Red status with the GI virus, I have to scrub down my entire rack and have it inspected by members of the CDC way early in the morning. Depending on when I'm cleared, I may only have a few hours off the ship, or it could work out that I'm not allowed off at all. If this is the case, I won't obviously be making my phone calls, so I [View Full Entry]

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Hey all!! Greetings from Mazatlan, Mexico. This week has had it's fair share of good news and bad news. Good news: Stiletto, the company that is responsible for maintaining all the equipment for the musicians on the ship, has sent a representative to cruise with us for 7 days. Ray is my new best friend because after we had a lunch meeting, he swapped out my sucky keyboard that has 8 broken keys with a new fully functioning keyboard that same day!!! Last night I actually got to play without having to lift up on the keys after I played them.....very [View Full Entry]

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Well, believe it or not I began writing a very long update about 3 days ago, and in the middle of it my internet card ran out and I lost the entire entry :( So, I'll try to get everyone up to speed. After my first week of cruising, we arrived in San Diego to get rid of the old guests and pick up the new ones. While I was on shore, I went shopping and got some new clothes that fit my strict dress-code requirements (pair of nice khakis and three polo shirts--aeropostal). I then spent the afternoon walking around, [View Full Entry]

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Hey all, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update, but the thing is.....I'm on a freakin' cruise ship!!!!! So, I'll try to get everyone back up to speed :) So, the first day we left San Diego, and then we spent the next two days at sea. During the sea days, I became friends with several members of the crew, like the Cruise Director (JT, who is only 24 and has a HUGE responsibility.....he does all the talks and announcements and all the introductions to big acts. It is very rare to have someone so young in that large [View Full Entry]

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Day 1: I awake at 5:50am and find myself in a Sheraton hotel room 40 feet above the ground. I hustle to the bathroom to shave and shower. After I quick breakfast, I hurry to the main lobby to catch a shuttle at 7:30am. The shuttle driver asks me if I'm an officer on the ms Oosterdam. I lie and say that I am, thus not paying for the trip. About halfway to our destination, he asks me for my ID number. I tell him I don't know it. He smiles. I arrive with three other REAL officers at the ship [View Full Entry]

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