Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Happy 2012!!!!

Well, clearly things got busy on the ship for me to neglect this blog for so long; oops! My last post was around Thanksgiving, so I’ll just have to sum up my entire holiday experience onboard the ship.
Thanksgiving was nice; we had a legit thanksgiving feast served to the crew, which was really nice. The tables were covered with white linen and there were free bottles of wine =) They even had turkey and pumpkin pie!! So I was able to enjoy a “true” thanksgiving meal while away from home. I was also able to call of my family that day =)

Hmm, as December came and went (can’t believe it’s already done and over with) things got really busy. Every time I was in Florida, I had a billion things to do, whether it was shopping for Christmas gifts, groceries, or going to the post office to mail home Christmas gifts. It was almost stressful, but I survived! I was able to get everything mailed home in two trips, but only once did I have to go through customs (which is REALLY a pain; I had to wait until 10am to leave the ship, then wait an hour in line to get everything checked, Not fun!) But regardless, I did get everything accomplished that I needed to when I was in Florida.

As for the Caribbean experience, I haven’t done too much. I’ve gone on a few tours here and there, and actually have spent more of my time staying on the ship. I think I’ve just felt so busy with getting things accomplished for the holidays that it was nice to just be lazy in my cabin. Plus, I’m here until May… I have PLENTY of time to get acquainted with the Caribbean islands. There was one instance in Curacao where I dressed up as an elf with three other cast members and we did a dance to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” for the orphans that came onboard the ship. They were served lunch, then we did a little performance, and then we handed them all gifts onstage afterwards; it was such a blessing.

Christmas Eve was a fairly busy day: we had tech rehearsal in the morning for our show, which was Ballroom Blitz. Our show times in the evening had been changed to 7 and 9pm instead of 8 and 10pm because we had to immediately get ready after the shows to sing in the Christmas Choir Concert. 3 choirs: International, Indonesian, and Pilipino and all we did was sing a bunch of Christmas Carols onstage. That happened at 11pm and then the crew was invited to the Pinnacle bar afterwards for free appetizers and drinks. I attended that and then went back to my cabin for the evening, where Sarah and I decided to keep our family traditions going: we did gag gifts and opened one real present for Christmas Eve. However, we proceeded to stay up until 5am opening the rest of our gifts because we felt like it (and in retrospect, it was a good choice because Christmas day turned out a little crazy…) So we had a good time in our cabin with our little tree and plethora of presents and took our time dragging out the Christmas spirit. We even made fake snow!! I got a Victoria’s Secret hoodie, a cardigan from Express, and a coffee mug full of pictures of us from our excursions in Europe.

As for Christmas day… well, it started off great. We had to get up at 8:30am to meet in the officers bar because all of us as a cast had been doing Secret Santa throughout December so that morning we decided to do the big reveal by the Christmas tree in the officers bar. I had Jacob, and coincidentally Jacob had me! Haha I gave him two seasons of one of favorite TV shows, and he got me a really cute pair of heels; yay shoes! Overall, the exchange was fun but some drama started to stir up and that’s what started the day off on a not-so-good note. When we were done, Sarah and I tried to nap before our next call of duty, which was dressing up as elves to take pictures with the kids and Santa on board, but then the time got changed and we were rushed to get changed and go take pictures, and that’s when there was full blown-out drama. The details don’t matter, and it didn’t involve me directly, but it was just unfortunate that everything had been going really great between everyone and then it got a little crazy on Christmas day. And then to top it off, we were supposed to be in Grand Turk, but it was too windy to dock so it ended up being a sea day. So after taking pictures, I slept for a couple of hours and then got to skype with my dad and the family again (I skyped with him on Christmas eve during the day and we opened our presents together J I got new running shoes and a heart rate monitor, yay!) I also got to talk to my mom and my sister. So overall, not being home for the holidays didn’t turn out as horrible as I thought it would, and I ended up enjoying myself for the most part. I still miss being around everyone at home, and crazy as it is I miss seeing snow, but I think that my experience on here was a good one to be had.

New Year’s wasn’t bad either. I didn’t have any shows scheduled, which was great, but we had to help decorate the ship, which consisted of blowing up balloons and hanging them in different bars around the ship… woo! Lol That was really all I remember doing during the day on New Years; in the evening I got ready and we went to dinner and then a bunch of us girls went to the Pinnacle bar for pre-drinks, and then ventured to the Vista Lounge for the big event. I had a glass of free champagne and mingled until the countdown and drop of balloons at midnight, and then I danced until about 1:30am. I went to go to the Northern Lights afterwards (the onboard “club”) but it was WAY too hot, crowded and smoky for my liking, so I just went back to my cabin to relax. I was able to get online and say Happy New Years to a few people and was even able to skype with Sarah in Alaska! (weird though, it was 2am my time and only 9pm her time). The next morning I didn’t do much, I think I might have worked an art auction and then was lazy the rest of the day because that’s what I usually do the day before I get back to Fort Lauderdale J

In addition to all of the holiday experienes, there were also a lot of birthdays happening! My birthday was epic; my roommate threw me a surprised themed party in the OB, which ended up being Moulin Rouge and she made e an Eiffel tower costume… amazing! I even had my own bottle of moscato to drink for the night (since I don’t buy drinks from the bars onboard hardly ever) and Ron was able to get me a birthday cake. It was a good time! Charlotte’s birthday was the next cruise and we did a ship bar hopping party. She went to the piano bar with Levi and Josh first, met Sarah and I in the Crow’s Nest, then we all met more people at the Sports bar, and then finally ended up in the Ocean bar with everyone. After that, we went to the OB where it was decorated with balloons, and there was a cake and I had made her a pair of “Victoria’s Secret Angel Wings” haha (because she loves VS). I didn’t stay out too late because I remember being super tired that day, but I can’t remember why haha. More recently, Ali’s birthday was yesterday, she turned 30! We had our Vegas show, but afterwards we all dressed in our formals to hang out at the Northern Lights and had a few shots for her birthday. Her fiancé had a cake made for her (awww how cute) and it was delivered to her during rehearsal J He also prepaid for four meals and two bottles of wine at the Pinnacle Grill because Ali had told him that Sarah, Charlotte, Ali and I were going to all go together to celebrate our birthdays… so we all get to basically go for free! He’s such a sweet guy, Ali’s lucky J And then to wrap up the birthday extravaganzas, Sarah’s is next cruise and I think I’m all set for her party plans. I’ve got everything I need and I hoping to surprise her just as much as she surprised me.

And that’s pretty much the gist of it now. I officially now have less than four months to go and have many ideas on what I am going to do after this. I have a couple of things brewing, but I won’t talk about it yet because I want to have more finalized thoughts on something before I mention all of the options I have churning in my head. I’m anxious for the next couple of months to fly by. I’m going to be working on my vocal skills, and teaching Sarah how to tap so we can prepare ourselves for the Rockette audition in May (yes, I WILL be doing that one again J) And that’s really it… if anything more happens between now and the next time I write, I’ll be sure to mention it ;)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful new year so far, may it bring many happy blessings!!!!

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