Back To Treasure Island . . .

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After a long and late night of DJing for the teen dance, hitting up the crew bar, dancing in the disco and staying up late down in crew cabins, Michelle and I managed to drag ourselves out of bed this morning and tendered to shore in Georgetown, Grand Cayman. I was on a mission to buy my personal Grand Cayman souvenir - a carved wooden stingray I'd seen weeks earlier when I wandered around Georgetown with Brooks. We went to the market area, disappointingly didn't succeed and spent some time in a few shops until I get everything sorted. I don't want to spend any time my last cruise shopping, just enjoying the ports, so between last week and today, I should be in pretty good shape.

The two of us then headed to Treasure Island, the lovely quiet and relaxing hotel I'd gone to the week before. Emma, Emma Lou (both dancers) and Marvin (showband pianist) met up with us at the hotel.

Us Canadians on the ship, and a few Americans who live close to the Canadian border, have really been missing good old Canadian treats like poutine. And we were delighted to find last week that Billy Bob's (the restaurant/bar at Treasure Island) has poutine. It's not even close to the real thing, but it's the closest we can get. So Marvin, Michelle and I indulged in poutine while using the free internet.

The rest of the day was just spent hanging out in the pool, swimming some, sunning some, mostly just chatting and laughing with one another. We girls spent a lot of time in the water. It was so simple, but so lovely. What wonderful girls they are.

With the end of my contract quickly approaching, I'm continually being asked by people what my next ship is. With Carnival, you don't just do a contract and then discuss signing another the way other contract jobs I've done do. When you finish your contract, you are "on vacation" and it's assumed you'll be coming back. Certainly makes it easy to get into the ship cycle! I keep telling everyone that it's unlikely I'll do another contract. I did this one for the experience. I wanted to travel, be paid while doing it and I wanted to experience life on a ship. I've gotten more out of this than I could possibly have imagined. I have been spoiled with the ports I've seen - 14 in one contract! And my first contract! That's pracitically unheard of! And life on the ship has been wild and intense and too often dramatic, but really really phenomenal and wonderful. I've loved this - and still am. But my job is not challenging or especially fulfilling and I can't rationalize coming back to do it "for the experience" when I've alreayd been given such an incredible one. For me to come back to a ship, I would need to have a professional challenge and for me that would mean a performance job. So unless I get a performance job, I likely will not return to ships. I was talking to Marvin about this and specifically said I'd look at either production show work or lounge performance such as supper club duo (a pianist and vocalist who perform in the formal dining restaurant). In our discussion, Marvin said that he would consider doing a supper club duo with me, switching from showband to do something different. We're talking about putting together an audition tape and sending it in, just to see what happens. He lives in New York state and Niagara Falls is about equal distance for both of us, so we could definitely see each other and rehearse before going to a ship. So, we'll see, we might just put something together sometime in my last 10 days out here! Perhaps the ship adventures could continue one day . . .

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Photos

Meet Chub Chub
This fella strolled on over to meet us. Michelle decided his name would be Chub Chub.

Emma Lou and Chub Chub
Emma Lou tried her best to woo him with a flower.

Chub Chub and the Flower
He liked Emma Lou's flower so much he ate it.

Comments

[swills82]

Sounds amazing. Man oh man. To be performing again. I definitely miss it and will definitely be itching. Thinking of auditioning for local shows at home this fall. Can't wait to see ya Netter.